Airspeed Ambassador 1/72 W.I.P

[hrtpaul]

What a cool collection of projects mate. Is the Chippy the 1/72 Airfix kit? Keep up the great work and enjoy ya trip to Melbourne

[VH-WAL]

Hiya Paul, yeah it's an Airfix chippy

After a weeks hiatus whilst I performed some filial duties down at Anglesea, I came back to the bench to tend to "Betty". The Tamiya rattle can silver had a good week to harden and casting all caution to the wind I thought I'd risk trying Ericg's silver buffing technique that he used on his F-80. Using the soft polishing disc on my dremel I knocked off the uniform finish to something more random, then hit a few different panel areas with mottled shades of alclad. Hmm different...but good I think, after some light weathering fading I think it will have a subtle variegated metal finish. The downside to this process was the silver dust residue marked the white primer top which covered with future was going to be my white coat. So I had to mask her off, give another shot of white primer then Tamiya pure white out of the can. Tomorrow I will mask off and paint the cockpit windows.

[VH-WAL]

MIcrosol is settling the nose decal down, then it will be trimmed, along with a few other cosmetic adjustments / trims to other bits of the decalage. Then the part I hate most (after building, masking, painting and decalling) doing the dangly bits.

[tor lives]

Geez...she is coming up a treat Wal. I never really appreciated what an elegant and pretty aircraft the Ambassador was until looking at your model.
TOR

[Knotty]

Bloody beautiful Wally , that's looking really nice . You have done a great job on it .

[Adam the Akrodude]

Great work so far Wally! Now having actually seen one in the flesh, I can say that it is one pretty good looking bird.

Cheers

Adam

[hrtpaul]

That is deadset awesome mate. Like TOR said it's actually quite a pretty plane. Another masterpiece almost finished

[F-27pax]

Talk about all the modelling skills being on display. I've been following this threat with fascination as you worked through all the stages. The epic of the engine nacels was particularlly gripping and it's not something that I have the skill or experience to undertake. Now that you've got the decals on the model is starting to look as impressive as it should. Where will we be able to see it in the flesh, so to speak?

I bought the Welsh Models 1/144 kit some time back in the hope that I would be able to make it up in BAT colours. Any hope that your decal work might be able to be made in 1/144 one of these days?

Leigh

[VH-WAL]

Hi Gang, Thanks for the kind comments... yes I agree it was a pretty aeroplane. Looking at my model compared to photos of the real thing with a critical eye I believe the model is a little portly, you know like an ambassador that has eaten too many canapes at fancy parties. The photos of the model exaggerate the portliness because of the wide angle used to get the plane in frame at arms length. So on the shelf it actually looks a fair representation.

Leigh with regard to the resin work believe me I started with zero knowledge and zero skill, but I wanted a Riley converted Heron and that was the only way I could get one. The result was a very pleasing (to me) "special model" So now I had half a clue and lots of left over material, hmm let's build a Baron I said, again a nice result. The more you do the better it gets. Then there was a 1/48 JU52 Gibbes Sepik Airways conversion that I did and after that I lost track. It is a good skill set to have up your sleeve, you can copy wheels / engines propellers all good things to build those odd ball models.. give it a go.

ps I forgot to say, the decal art work is Peter Mahoney of Hawkeye Models I am sure he could scale them down for you

[RayS]

Looks good dressed up Wally, I am sure it will be a beaut when finished.