Revell 1/144 Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye Part 1

  

I picked this kit of the Revell 1/144 Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye up last year sometime as a quick and easy "summer project", it didn't turn out that way.  Read on and I will explain why.  I'm not going to post pictures of the spures or the decals, you can get that information elsewhere and the model usually doesn't last that long before I start on it for me to get the camera.  I might start with future models, but do not hold your breath.  Anyhow, building starts with the cockpit (shown below) as usual with *most* models.  As I dry fitted the cockpit to the fuselage bits I thought that you wouldn't see a single thing through the cockpit windows.  So I decided to use a black rattle can on the chairs and such.  Which typically ran out half way though the spray. I so need to get an airbrush for future stuffs.

   Thats with the instrument panel decals added and brushpainted, I must stress at this point that all my models are brush painted.  So if they look crap theres your main reason.  Right, got the cockpit done and I then spent a while looking for something to weigh the nose down to make sure it wasn't a tail sitter.  Believe me, with that huge rotordome on top, it will become a tail sitter. Well could I find anything to fit it? Could I crap, I tried the local fishing shop, apparently it's the biggest in the country, admitted it's a big bugger but it had no decent weights in there.  I got some shots and bombs from them, typically the bombs where too big.  A week later while throwing a paddy at the garage door (it's a bugger to open) I noticed a bolt on floor.  I tried that and it was the right weight... HE SHOOTS HE SCORES! So I PVA'd it to the fusleage parts (shown below)

Oh yeah, this picture is of all the main parts before I put the bolt in it's new home.  Notice the rudders being held in place by blu-tack.  I swear this stuff is the tool of the Gods, I use it for so much in my modelling (for the time being).  Need to acquire some more me thinks.

While I was sorting this out and my Airfix 1/72 Me-110C, we heard a weird propeller noise.  Now I have learned to recognise an engine noise on most planes that fly in my area (yeah I am geeky), I can even know when the usual Chinook HC.2 is flying past when I am in work.  When we saw this little bugger struggling with the headwind.

This is my first Goodyear Blimp, I have never seen one before, this one was heading East for a while then it turned to South-West and shot off like a bat out of hell.  I guess that head-now-turned-tailwind was helping it a huge lot.  It was gone before I had a chance to get a proper camera for it.  Cool little thing tho. :)

  More to come soon...

  PEACE!

  Dazz