A milestone birthday this year as I turned 60 last Tuesday. It didn't feel any different from any other day, but it will take some time to wrap my head around being 60.
It was an intentionally quiet day, spent at home with the kids. We went out for dinner at The Keg to celebrate before coming back home for cake. Lots of Apple products as presents, with an Apple Watch, Apple Pencil and AirTags as presents from Marie and the kids. My parents gave me the cufflinks my Mom gave my Dad on their wedding day. My friend Dave gave me a very nice 1/72 kit of a UH-34 Choctaw helicopter that will look very sharp in RCAF red and blue.
We had two full weeks with the kids at home, though it seemed to go much faster. After a very cold start, the weather become unseasonably mild. The boys and I went skiing on Monday, and we binge watched the Knives Out movies, all nine Star Wars movies, and Big Bang Theory. Of course, we also watched all the Team Canada hockey games.
But all good things must come to an end. We said goodbye to Daniel on Wednesday. Thursday was his first day back at school. Poor Ember doesn't understand the kids leaving and whined at the door for several minutes after Daniel left, clearly upset that he was gone.
We said goodbye to Nicholas the next day. He was headed to Toronto, through Edmonton, to visit his girlfriend for a few days before returning to school this Monday. After all the airline challenges before Christmas, we were a little nervous about his flight back. It didn't start well when his flight to Calgary was delayed the day before he left, but that was his only challenge getting to Toronto. Weirdly, he discovered he was on standby when he tried to check into his Toronto to Ottawa flight, but everything turned out okay. He got a seat on the plane and made it to Ottawa without issue. Ember made the trip out to the airport with Christine and I, and was a big hit with the Air Canada agents. Ember whined for several minutes after we got back to the car when she realized Nicholas wasn't with us, pointedly looking in the back seat for him.
We are lucky that Christine sticks around another week before she heads back to school on the 11th. Less lucky, she is on the 6 am flight out to Calgary, before catching a Calgary to Ottawa flight. That means she will need to be at the airport by 4:30 am. That's so early that I can drive her out, watch her check in and pass thru security, drive home, and still go back to bed!
The unusually warm weather allowed us to take Ember on her first real walk. Christine wanted to see how she would do, so on a nice, sunny day, we put her in her harness and took her out. Surprisinly, she did the full "big dog" route, and still had energy left over. Other than a tendency to pull, she did pretty good. We did have to stop her from eating brown slush and grass clods where the snowplow had dug into the grass.
Marie lost a crown while flossing at the start of the week, and it went downhill from there. The crown couldn't be replaced, and the tooth had to be extracted. A prior root canal made it a difficult extraction, requiring three stitches. She had an uncomfortable night, bleeding until almost the next morning. Her recovery has been going very slowly, and four days later, she is still very sore.
Photo 1 - Walking Ember
Photo 2 - Family photo
Photos 3&4 - Saying goodbye to Nicholas at the aiport
Photo 5 - Nicholas on his way.
Lancaster
One of the nice things about having the kids around was it meant more people to entertain Ember. The kids enjoyed playing with the puppy, and I got some extra time to play models.
I continue to have problems with priming. This time, the grey Alclad primer splattered, even though it was well shook, with added thinner. The culprit turned out to be a slightly bent airbrush needle. Sanding down the splattered primer, cleaning the airbrush, and reshaping the needle made a big difference, and the primer then laid down smoothly.
Static has been a problem this winter, and it is difficult to keep models clean. No matter how carefully I clean the model, and the painting area, I end up with fuzzies in the paint. This seems especially true of the primer, perhaps because a heavier paint layer is applied. A once over with a worn out sanding paint is needed to remove the embedded fuzzies and smooth out the primer.
I have previously airbrushed paint in a single, potentially too heavy, application. Recently I have been experimenting with my thinner to paint ratios, increasing the amount of thinner and then spraying at lower pressure and using multiple light coats. The goal is to get better coverage but overall use less paint. It takes some care to avoid creating puddles, splatters and spiders, but it seems to work. This time the Model Master RAF Dark Brown enamel was built up in three layers applied over three sessions. After the second paint session, a lightened brown was sprayed thru a "splatter" template to produce some variation. The template is held about a half inch above the model to avoid creating hard edges, with the goal to create random patches of lighter coloured paint. A third and last layer of brown was then used to blend the mottling and even out the colour. Again, a light sanding is needed to remove any bits of fuzz and smooth the paint. I was happy with how it turned out and will try something similar when the green colour is applied.
Photo 1 - Primer lightly sanded and marked up with pencil for painting.
Photo 2 - First brown layer applied
Photo 3 - Brown paint complete with a light mottle applied
Anson
The Lancaster has been taking up most of my attention but the Anson finally got some bench time. A coat of gloss clear was first applied to seal the interior green paint and provide a protective barrier for weathering.
Weathering started with some dry brushing of various edges and sharp surfaces using a light grey. Once dry, a bit of sponge was used to create some chipping on the floor areas. A light grey was used first to represent scuffed paint. Then silver was used to represent areas where the paint was scratched or worn down to bare metal. The amount of scratching was kept to a minimum as the goal was to represent a plane with some use but still early in its service career.
A dark grey acrylic wash was then applied to highlight surface details, and add depth to the nooks and crannies.
Light grey and brown oil paint washes were then used to weather the leather seat surfaces and the floor areas. I wasn't happy with the result as it felt like it had bleached out the colours rather than weathered the surfaces. A clean Q-Tip was scrubbed over the floor areas, effectively removing most of the wash. This helped restore some of the original colour but it still looked bleached. I decided the floor areas needed something to represent the mud and dirt carried in my the crew's boots. Brown pastel chaulk was used, scrapped with a knife edge to create a powder, then scrubbed into the floor areas to represent dirt from boots in the high traffic areas. Unfortunately, the initial application was inadvertently made using a brush that was still damp with filler, creating a permanent blob of brown colour. Light sanding reduced the impact but it can still be clearly seen in the second and third pictures below, to the left of the rear seat. It actually looks much worse in the picture than in person, so I added a little more brown chaulk dust to blend it in.
The leftover 1/72 Lancaster 3D seat belts were used to add belts to all the seats. Strangely, they look perfectly fine on this 1/48 model. I could not find any decent pictures of Anson seatbelts, so went with what looked right. A full harness was added to the pilot's seat, as one picture, showing the pilot from the rear, seems to suggest straps over the pilot's shoulders.
The instrument panel uses a decal to represent the gauges. Careful positioning and decal solvent result in a passable instrument panel.
Photo 1 - Weathering in progress.
Photos 2&3 - Seatbelts and first instrument decals added
And that's it for another week. Stay safe everyone!
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