For the last week I’ve been working on the Dagger that is going to Argentina. The instrument panel is complete, and you can see it on the Work In Progress page.

I’ve added more photos of the Wessex, and moved it from the Work In Progress page to it’s own page in the Completed Models section. Have a look!

Here’s a quick shot of the finished Wessex HAS.3 ‘Humphrey’. You can read about why this aircraft is so famous if you google for it in relation to South Georgia and Fortuna Glacier. (I know the cargo door handle is not painted, before anyone starts! It will be sorted soon.)

My next project is extremely exciting. Over the last few weeks I’ve been following the @WarDiaryF82 on Twitter as they tweet the events of the Falklands War in real time. (If you don’t know, this has been a major source of interest for me since I was 12 years old, following the events day by day in 1982.) Through this account I gained several new followers, and followed back. One of them posted a picture of the real Dagger (C-407) that you can see in the Finished Models section. I tweeted a picture of my model to compare with the real thing.

A day later Daniel tweeted back to say that he had shown the pictures to an Argentinian pilot who had flown C-407 on a mission against the British on 1st May, a few days before it was destroyed by a Sea Harrier. The pilot is named Cesar Roman, and was impressed by the model, and asked where he could get one. After explaining I’d built it, he asked if I could make another, and now I have what is effectively my first commission! (It won’t be paid work, I’ll send it to Cesar as gift.) So exciting to think that one of my models will soon be in the home of one of the very people who took part in events I’ve spent decades researching. (I do have to solve the problem of getting it safely to the other side of the South Atlantic though!) I’ll be starting in the coming days, so if you are interested give the blog a follow to keep up to date.

There’s an update to the WIP page with some work I’ve done with some tiny photo etch brass parts on the Wessex. Painstaking, but it adds so much detail to the model.

….but anyway. This should be the second week of our holiday, but of course the C-19 pandemic has put that out of the question. Instead we’ve given back some of our leave for last week, and this week are having a proper ‘staycation’. Sarah is doing a lot of jewellery making, and I have Humphrey to finish after lunch. Not too bad an alternative.

Today I’ve painted the Wessex HAS.3, see some photos on the WIP page.

The WIP page has been updated with some PE work and detail in the cockpit and cabin.

Please see the Work In Progress page for a new build. After running out of steam on the JP inspiration struck and I’ve cleared the bench.

A little interruption to modelling activities for a short holiday in Beddgelert this week. But, as someone very clever once said “You can take the boy out of the shed, but you can’t take the shed out of the boy.”

The Matchbox ’50:50′ Mustang is complete, and moved to the Completed Models page.