Big D Builds A Fighter With A Big Nose Pt III

   As you can probably tell, this project gets fitted in around stuff like work, eating and sleeping which is why it's taking so long.

   Last time I had finally managed to get the cockpit together and was feeling mildly pleased with myself. That was not going to last long. 

   One oddity of this design was that it had two engines. And for reasons that seemed justified at the time, the designers opted for a tandem layout with one engine in the nose, exhausting just in front of the landing gear. and one engine in the more usual position in the tail. 

  The kit had rather generously given me a whole engine to put together for the nose position with a ...complicated ... framework to hold it together.

I could not get the bloody frame to go together!        

  A definite problem with this kit was that it had none of the handy pegs and holes you get in an Airfix kit so it wasn't always clear how some bits fit together. Is part A supposed to slot on Part B or be glued to the edge?      The instructions did not clarify this. Then I couldn't help noticing tht some bits didn't quite match up to how they looked on the instructions anyway.

 

   Frankly I was getting a headache and  an ever-increasing urge to do something violently destructive. 

Then a revalation came to me.  

"All this is inside the model and nobody is ever going to see it. Why are you doing this, exactly? 

Just like that the clouds opened and sunlight shone upon my face. 

My path was clear and it did not involve the sodding engine fiddly bits. 

 Again, this feeling of satisfaction did not last.  

Trying to fit the cockpit into the fuselage and glue the shells togther was a traumatic 

experience and I had to hack some bits off the cockpit to make it go in. 

That's why the co-pilot's seat is leaning drunkenly to one side and the fuselage has several very large gaps in it. 

 

  Oh Lord, why did you make me so crap at everything? 

It doesn't get better on the underside.

Much as I'd like to blame the kit, we know what the real problem is, don't we?

Ah well. 

 Now just for a change I remembered to put some weight in the nose so my LA200 won't fall back on its tail.

A bolt and three nuts jammed into some blu-tack and job's a good'un.

 Then I broke out the putty and set about some of the gaps. As usual I managed a complete lack of finesse. 

 Obviously it needs some sanding. Then some more sanding. 

Fuck it, slap enough paint on it and nobody will notice.

Join me again for more misadventures in modelmaking and more damage to my sanity.

That's All Folks. 

Big D Builds A Fighter With A Big Nose pt II

   A bit of a small update for this project. I've not exactly been hurrying with this kit; more like wandering over when I feel energetic and tinkering a wee bit. 

   I finally managed to get the cockpit section completed and i ahve to dmit that it loks like an utter dog's breakfast.

  Somehow other people manage to fit all these tiny bits together and make it look neat and realistic. I made it look like the whole thing was put together by drunken orangutans.

  I also managed to lose not one but three tiny parts. Two dropped on the floor and vanished, the third pinged off when I tried cutting it off the sprue and could be anywhere in Hampshire. 

  Oh, yes, I snapped both control columns in half.  That's why they're so short the pilots have to steer with their knees. 

  My hopes of this being soemthing I can post on /r/modelmakers are already fading...

  More updates to follow. Or I might just give up and jump on and down on the bloody thing. Could go either way. 

 

Big D Builds A Fighter With A Big Nose.

   That's right folks; it's time for one of my awkward forays into the world of scale-modelling. A hobby that requires patience, good eyesight, nimble fingers and painstaking attention to detail. 

   I have none of these things. I also lack the ability to not drop tiny parts on the bastard floor.

                                            I do wonder about my choices sometimes. 

  Anyway the latest kit to get my hamfisted attentions is something special. I was passing by the Crys charity shop on Southsea's Osborne Road when my attention was immediately snagged by a window display of plastic model kits. And right away this one caught my eye. 

 

A&A Models Lavochkin LA-200B. Cost me £15.

  You have to agree that it's an unusual design.  Correction, it's a normal-looking 1950s jet fighter from the tailpipe up to about 18 inches forward of the cockpit when things get a bit weird. 

   After I got it home I did a bit of research because I was wondering if this was a real machine or something that never got past the  drawing board. 

   The Blog "Soviet Hammer" has a nice little article on this oddity.

 https://soviethammer.blogspot.com/2015/03/lavochkin-aircraft-200b.html

 To paraphrase slightly the Soviet Air Force wanted an all-weather fighter so the Lavochkin  bureau took their existing LA-200 design and fitted a massive radar into the nose. This meant redesigning the intakes which is why the LA200 went from this:

 Source: https://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/323878-la-200/

 ... to this.

 

Source; https://www.reddit.com/r/WeirdWings/comments/7rbzrb/lavochkin_la200b/

    After some testing the Lavochkin design was abandoned in favour of something a little less peculiar-looking but clearly somebody liked the LA200B enough to do a model kit of it.

  So after doing my homework, it was time to open the box. It's fair to say I got a bit of a surprise. 

    Look at all those tiny, tiny parts. 

Then I read the instructions and discovered that just the pilots' seats have 5 pieces each.

 Have I mentioned that I'm neither dextrous, sharp-eyed or patient?

So at this point I carefully put everthing back in the box and went away to have a bit of a whimper.

 I may have bitten off more than I can chew here.  

Oh dear.

Been reading: Kevin J. Anderson & Sarah A. Hoyt - Uncharted

  In 1759 the destruction of Halleys Comet caused magic to return and forever cut the New World off from Europe.   

 In 1805 the great American wizard Benjamin Franklin commissions an expedition to journey across the entire continent of North American and find a way to the Pacific. Lewis and Clark set off into the wilderness and quickly discover that wild animals and hostile tribes are not their biggest problem.  Something evil is growing across the heart of America and it has raised monsters and the living dead to wipe the expedition out.  Then a young woman named Sacagawea stumbles into their camp. Maybe she can help Lewis and Clark  survive the troubles ahead. 

    I was desperately short of reading material and recently paid so a quick trip up to Forbidden Planet Southampton was inevitable.  as it turned out, I actually bought more books on the way to Southampton and then back from Southampton than I did was up there.  In fact, I bought just the one book and it's the one shown up at the top of this page.

  The premise looked interesting plus the cover had a half-naked woman squaring up a sea-serpent and yes, I really am that shallow.  So was it worth the trip?

  Well, some books make me immediately want to go back and buy every other book in the series and honestly "Uncharted" isn't really one of those.  But I did enjoy this while I was reading it and if there's ever a sequel, I would be interested in picking that up too.

 It's an entertaining read with decent characters, enough action to keep things moving along some some ideas that work rather well.  A definite bonus is that "Uncharted" gets the whole story done in one medium sized volume.  In an era where most writers thing a trilogy is the absolute minimum, having a tale that can be devoured in one sitting is a joy.

To ask the question again: Was it worth the trip? I'd say yes.