Dave Burgess My next subject is a Vickers Wellington Mk.III. But a particular Wellington: call sign QB-F (s.n. BJ714), on January 26, 1943. My best man, and high-school buddy's father was the navigator on this particular machine, and on his first mission, was shot down over France and spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp. Sadly, three of his five crewmen died in the crash. Fortunately for his (unborn) son, and our friendship, he survived the war and lived to the ripe old age of 95.

I'm using the Trumpeter 1:72 Wellington, and it's a VERY nice and detailed kit. Unfortunately, a great number of parts go into building the very detailed interior, which won't get seen after the model is zipped up. For that reason, I've taken a shit-load of pictures while I still can. Interior is now finished, and I've started putting together the two turrets. When they're complete, I'll take some more pics before cementing the fuselage halves together.

Dave Burgess Lockheed X-27 Lancer now complete. I chose to do it in a fictitious 'Tiger Meet 1980' scheme. The X-27 Lancer lost out to the F-5E Tiger II, and YF-17/F-18 Hornet for the Lightweight Fighter competition which was designed for the U.S. Export market. Had the X-27 been successful, Canada would likely have purchased some of these, since we were already using the F-104 Starfighter.

Maciej Bellos Striking beautiful camo! Well done!

Dave Burgess First of 3 Mirage's. Not a normal subject for me (usually Canadian, U.S. Fighters, VTOL, X-Planes, & Formula 1). I got the decal sheets by Syhart Decals as part of a bulk purchase from a local hobby shop that was closing. I just couldn't resist the colourful paint schemes!

Cuajete Very nice paint scheme. Congrats!
Why is the windshield covered? Is not finished yet?

Treehugger I don't normally like such flashy paint jobs, but I like the stripey thing going on here.

Dave Burgess Cuajete, obviously you haven't looked at all of the pictures. Take another look.

Dave Burgess Treehugger - I LOVE flashy paint jobs. The main reason I did this one and the other two. Mirages aren't normally a subject I cover (The Royal Canadian Air Force doesn't use them). I always find fancy paint jobs a challenge to pain and decal. That, and they can be real conversation starters!

Dave Burgess Had to re-shoot the photo set after some kind person on Facebook (Plastic Modelers Group), pointed out to me that I hadn't removed the paint mask on the front windscreen. I did so, and found that some red paint I was touching up the canopy with, seeped under the canopy and left a big red blotch on the anti-glare panel rhs. No way to remove the canopy without messing up the external paint job, so I'm going to leave it be. Just pretend the pilot pulled to many G's and his head exploded!

Cuajete Dave, That's what I was trying to tell you (hadn't removed the paint mask on the front windscreen). Sorry for my bad English.

Very nice schemes for that Trio. Congrats again

Dave Burgess Sorry Cuajete, my mistake, not your English; I originally posted the pics on Facebook. The next day, I posted here. I thought that your comment was referring to the previously posted production pics. It took me a day to remove the mask and re-shoot the pic. By then I'd forgotten your message here, or I probably would have made the connection.

Mirko Römer Wonderful delta collection! Congrats Dave!

Cuajete No problem, Dave

Dave Burgess Calling this one finished. Of the three Mirages, I found this one the most rewarding to do. Not as colourful as the 20th Ann. bird, or as striking as the Tiger Meet 2005. But, it had a reasonably challenging paint scheme, and a very challenging decal application with all those yellow stripes. So I like all three, but for different reasons: the colour scheme on bird #1; the striking Tiger Meet scheme on bird #2, and the challenge of painting/decalling bird #3.

Lochsa_River very, very cool...this must have been fun!

Lochsa_River show image 26 as the teaser!

Dietmar Kollmann Interesting. I did the same with the Italeri kit two years ago.

Dave Burgess Not a subject I usually do; I mainly stick to Canadian aircraft, but I got the Syhart decal sheets as part of a bulk purchase from a local hobby shop that was selling up. I LOVE fancy paint schemes, so I had to do all three.

Dietmar Kollmann Good luck !

Dave Burgess Thanks. I'm having lots of fun with it. The Mirage 2000 is such an elegant bird!

Dietmar Kollmann I have been interested, if the hull of the Heller kit is longer than the Italeri.

Maciej Bellos Cool!

Ben M "not suitable for children under 14 years" - I love it.

Martin Oostrom One of the best looking bombers, ever!

Jan Marciniak Those PE nozzles looks impresive. Your doiong great so far

Dave Burgess One of the advantages of not finishing a project TOO quickly. I started it in 1995, but didn't see the P.E. until 2012, Glad I waited!

Dave Burgess Last pic I posted - two Mirage 2000Cs and one Mirage 2000N resting on the 'back' of the XB-70. Gives you a real idea of its size!

2 coats of Alclad primer (it took half a 4 oz bottle to cover this monster!); Ready for the gloss white. Pity - I checked with the hobby shop; they don't sell gloss white by the gallon!

Dave Flitton Watching!!

Bernd Korte This is impressive!

Dave Burgess Gloss white lacquer applied to underside - took a whole bottle, and JUST covered it. Will do topside tomorrow. A bit of a challenge, as I can only fit half of this bird in my (15"x30") spray booth at one time!...

Dave Burgess Just about done. Uploaded a couple of snaps. The aircraft is essentially complete; I just have to make a stand for it. I was originally going to just use the landing gear wells, but I didn't like the look. Instead, I've drilled a 7/16" hole through the model's CoG and glued a 7/16" styrene tube (3/8" I.D.)in place. I'm getting a 3/8" solid acrylic rod which I'm going to mount on a spare piece of solid oak from a floor installation a few years back, and mount the nice gold plaque (that comes with the limited edition kit) on the oak base. Then I'll take the final set of pics, and put this 25-year old project to rest!

Cuajete Wow... It looks stunning next to the other models.

Dave Burgess Got my acrylic rod yesterday, so finished up a replacement base. Took the *official* photos; now I'll put it back in the display case and take one final photo. Then I'm on to its companion: the North American XF-108 Rapier. Those two'll look good side-by-side in the display case!

Bernd Korte Very impressive! The white paintjob looks spotless!

Dave Burgess Started work on the North American F-108 Rapier - the companion escort fighter to the XB-70. The F-108 project was cancelled in 1959 when it became apparent that the main nuclear threat was the new ICBM's not the Soviet bomber threat. The F-108 and XB-70 were both designed for high speed (Mach 3+), high altitude (70,000+ ft) and were going to utilize the new zip fuels being developed at the time. With the cancellation of the F-108, the whole cost of the zip fuel program had to be borne by the XB-70 project. Later in 1959 , the zip fuel program was itself cancelled.

Dave Burgess Finished the cockpit; dolled it up with some Mike Grant instrument decals and some seat belts fashioned from tape; Basic model is now assembled. There are issues with warping. I was able to get some out (vert. stab, compression lift strakes) with boiling water and a couple of flat boards. There's also a slight warping of the forward fuselage to the left. Not TOO noticeable, but I couldn't remove that one, so I guess I'll have to live with it...

Dave Burgess Posted some pics of the finished cockpit and the assembled model. I'll have to learn not to zoom in too close for cockpit shots - it tends to exaggerate the flaws! From a foot or more, it actually looks pretty good. I took a couple of shots of the assembled model: one by itself (you can see the slight bend of the forward fuselage), and one alongside a completed F-15E, just for a size comparison. This baby was a monster! It's very reminiscent of the Avro Arrow - same mission profile (Mach 3+ high speed interception), design (delta wing, single vert. stab), similar size, and similar weapons load (internal storage). The Arrow at least made it into (very limited) production before it was cancelled in early 1959.

Laurent "HELLER-forever" great , i like...

Maciej Bellos I am in!

Donald Dickson II I have this and have definite plans for it. LOL And the surviving plane is actually at the USAF Museum at Right Patterson AFB, Dayton OH. I went with my son back in March. Seeing this baby in person up close is worth the trip alone. Never mind the B-58, the B-36, Memphis Belle, etc etc.

Dave Burgess Built first exhaust can from the Armoury photo-etch set. Uploaded pikkie. 'Cobra' attached to 'Orange Crate';

Cuajete Looking good!

Ben M Watching!

Dave Burgess Just a little background on the cunstruction of my XB-70 model:

I actually started the XB-70 in the late eighties. Tired of waiting for a good 1:72 injection model of my favourite aircraft, I bought the Contrail vacuform kit (for some outrageous price!). Probably not a good idea at the time because I'd only built a couple of vacuform kits at the time, all quite small.

In classic fashion, I'd just got all of the parts sanded from the sheets and was in the process of putting it together, when AMT released their 1:72 kit. Damn! So I put the vacuform job aside, and started building the AMT kit, with the idea of building one wheels down, and the other wheels up, wing tips down (my favourite configuration), and NO idea where I would put them when I was done.

I go the 'Cobra' built and attached to the upper wing panel - a TERRIBLE fit! It left a 1/16" gap along the spine that had to be filled. I'd made the mistake of using Squadron Green on the vacuform kit, only to find that it cures as hard as a rock and takes forever to sand, so I tried using Squadron White. Big mistake - it's just as bad! I put that kit aside as well (alongside the XB-35), and all 3 kits languished, collecting dust, for almost 25 years. Fortunately for the XB-70 kit, it proved fortuitous, as the Armoury exhaust nozzle P.E. came out, so I got a set.

With the current COVID situation, and LOTs of model building time, I really didn' have any excuses left. In 2019, I built 3 LARGE display cases (48"Wx16"Dx72"H), so I have the display case. I picked up a really nice spray gun from Iwata (the G6), and new compressor (also from Iwata) which can handle the paint flow required to paint this monster. So I decided to go back to it.

The first thing I had to do, was scrape off all that Squadron White, and re-attach the 'Cobra' to the wing. This time I used Tamiya putty, which is WAY easier to sand. I'm now tackling the biggest problem with the kit - attaching the top and bottom wing halves - they just DON'T fit together. I had to do a whole lot of grinding, sanding, and scraping to remove enough plastic from the top of the bottom wing, and edges of the top wing, but it think it's FINALLY going to fit, with a judiciously applied clamps.

Once the XB-70 is done (another week or so, that will be 36 models I've completed since Jan 1st. That's usually my production for a whole YEAR, and we're not even through May yet! I started the year with 46 WiPs; I only have thirteen works in process left now. It'll be nice to finally complete them and open a new kit without feeling guilty about not finshing the ones I've already started.

Cuajete Wow... 36 models completed since 1st January.... Congrats!

The expectations and suffering with the XB-70 for so long, will finally come to an end. It will be a pleasure to see it finished

Dave Burgess Just about done. Uploaded a couple of snaps. The aircraft is essentially complete; I just have to make a stand for it. I was originally going to just use the landing gear wells, but I didn't like the look. Instead, I've drilled a 7/16" hole through the model's CoG and glued a 7/16" styrene tube (3/8" I.D.)in place. I'm getting a 3/8" solid acrylic rod which I'm going to mount on a spare piece of solid oak from a floor installation a few years back, and mount the nice gold plaque (that comes with the limited edition kit) on the oak base. Then I'll take the final set of pics, and put this 25-year old project to rest!

Ben M oh cool!

Dave Burgess I decided to scratch build my own solar panels; the kit supplied ones looked jst a bit too clunky for me.

Dave Burgess I also covered the top half in tin foil to simulate the thrmal blanket around the real thing.

Dave Burgess Lots of good photos on the internet to help with the build.

JOHN THOMAS Very Cool

Ben M Yeah the foil covering is much better looking than painting. Look forward to seeing the solar panels mounted.

Dave Burgess Thought it was kind of ironic while I was doing it. Most times when foil covering an aircraft, you want the foil as smooth as possible - wrinkles are your enemy! Here, I was crumpling up the foil, and trying hard not to flatten out the wrinkles too much while I was attaching the foil to the model - a complete reversal!

Dave Burgess Scrapped version 1 of the scratch-built solar panels; I didn't like the way they turned out. I went with scratch-built solar panels v.2 - they turned out MUCH better.

Zach Wilson Great work!!

Mirko Römer Sweet model, well executed! Thumps up!

Dave Burgess My smallest model, with the exception of the X-36. Given that, it turned out remarkably well. When the model is this small, the photos will amplify even the slightest blemish. I was VERY pleased with how well the decals went down on this model.

Dave Burgess Tip: I managed to get the effect I wanted, by misting an overall light aluminum coat over the entire aircraft AFTER the panelling was laid down. I felt there was too MUCH contrast between the panels, The overall coat toned it down without eliminating the panelling. I also finished it off with a matt coat, because aluminum oxidizes pretty rapidly. A shiny metal finish just didn't look right to me.

Bill Mathews Nice work . I built the same kit a few months ago . Great looking bird - just a pig to build . Worth it in the end

Antoine Meylan Joli modèle!! très belle peinture métallisée!

Dave Burgess Bill, I'm working on an even BIGGER pig to build - the AMT XB-70! I started both of these models back when they first came out, around 1995/96. I got both of them half built, then put them asdie, for different reasons.

With the XB-35, I was originally going to try to motorize the (counter-rotating) engines. I couldn't find motors with enough torque to power a counter rotating mechanism, small enough to fit inside the body, so I gave up on that idea. By then I'd already closed up the L.G doors, so I decided, against my normal policy, to build it wheels up (glad I did!). I painted it gloss black, then started buffing it up to take the metal finish. I put it aside part way through, and then lost interest. It sat there for ~25 years collecting dust.

I actually started the XB-70 in the late eighties. Tired of waiting for a good 1:72 injection model of my favourite aircraft, I bought the Contrail vacuform kit (for some outrageous price!). Probably not a good idea at the time because I'd only built a couple of vacuform kits at the time, all quite small.

In classic fashion, I'd just got all of the parts sanded from the sheets and was in the process of putting it together, when AMT released their 1:72 kit. Damn! So I put the vacuform job aside, and started building the AMT kit, with the idea of building one wheels down, and the other wheels up, wing tips down (my favourite configuration), and NO idea where I would put them when I was done.

I go the 'Cobra' built and attached to the upper wing panel - a TERRIBLE fit! It left a 1/16" gap along the spine that had to be filled. I'd made the mistake of using Squadron Green on the vacuform kit, only to find that it cures as hard as a rock and takes forever to sand, so I tried using Squadron White. Big mistake - it's just as bad! I put that kit aside as well (alongside the XB-35), and all 3 kits languished, collecting dust, for almost 25 years. Fortunately for the XB-70 kit, it proved fortuitous, as the Armoury exhaust nozzle P.E. came out, so I got a set.

With the current COVID situation, and LOTs of model building time, I really didn' have any excuses left. In 2019, I built 3 LARGE display cases (48"Wx16"Dx72"H), so I have the display case. I picked up a really nice spray gun from Iwata (the G6), and new compressor (also from Iwata) which can handle the paint flow required to paint this monster. So I decided to go back to it.

The first thing I had to do, was scrape off all that Squadron White, and re-attach the 'Cobra' to the wing. This time I used Tamiya putty, which is WAY easier to sand. I'm now tackling the biggest problem with the kit - attaching the top and bottom wing halves - they just DON'T fit together. I had to do a whole lot of grinding, sanding, and scraping to remove enough plastic from the top of the bottom wing, and edges of the top wing, but it think it's FINALLY going to fit, with a judiciously applied clamps.

Once the XB-70 is done (another week or so, that will be 36 models I've completed since Jan 1st. That's usually my production for a whole YEAR, and we're not even through May yet! I started the year with 46 WiPs; I only have thirteen works in process left now. It'll be nice to finally complete them and open a new kit without feeling guilty about not finshing the ones I've already started.

Bill Mathews That's a big workload for the year Dave . I have the XB-70 sitting in the stash as well . Not going to worry about the pe engines though . It will be a top shelf model anyway so will be hard to see ... along with the 1/72 b-36 and the b-52 , the b-1b , the e-3 awacs all sitting in the stash . One day the big birds will be done ...

Dave Burgess The REALLY big bird is still to come - I've got out the 1:128 Seaview from V.T.T.B.O.T.S coming up after I've finished the XB-70, which should be within a week or so.

Diego DH WOW, that's a great job on a quite large model.

Bill Mathews Speaking of subs Dave - I just ordered the Disney 20000 leagues nautilus from masterpiece models - only the "little" 16 inch version though ....

Lochsa_River Beautiful and clean...white gloss and metal finish combination...it looks great and must have been tough to get right.

Dave Burgess Quite honestly, I can't remember. I built it back in the early nineties...

Chris Greathouse Very nice plane!

Dave Burgess Did this one back in 2016

Ben M What a great subject! Very colorful, love the weathering. Very realistic!

Ekki Looking very good. Any more pics?

Dave Burgess Hobby room is being re-built. I'll be taking more pics when everything's back to normal.

Ekki Nae borra. I am a very patient person.

Łukasz Gliński Following

Erik De Smet Following too

Gordon Sørensen Looking good, Dave! Saw the Dynavert at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum many years ago. Impressive machine for its time.

Dave Burgess I think, of all of the VTOL designs coming out ot the '60s, the CL-84 demonstrated the most potential. When many were struggling with just getting off the ground under control, the CL-84 was demonstrating SAR, carrier operations, gun platfrom uses among many. It was well designed, kept simple and intuitive for pilots to fly, and demonstrated many of the features we didn't see until the V-22. Unfortunately, we couldn't get anybody to buy it, INCLUDING the Canadian government! It's a real shame, even more than the Avro Arrow, because unlike the Arrow, the basic requirement for an aircraft like this didn't disappear.

Dave Burgess CL-84 WiP complete. pics posted.

Ekki Again: more pics please!

Juergen Klinglhuber cool livery!

Dave Burgess Canada 150 project scrapped. The decals from Fishbone completely splintered as soon as I removed them from the backing paper and tried to move them into position. That, and the size of the central maple leaf was completely wrong. I could not get it to line up with the other decals on the wing without large sections at the front being to far forward for the wing. Re-painted the a/c FS35237 grey, and I will turn this into the 1992 Tiger Meet Hornet. Sorry, folks!

Sergej I Good luck with the tiger!

Łukasz Gliński Pity the decals were so bad, now I should be happy I haven't ordered them yet (should I? )
Looking forward to see the Tiger, built similar one some time ago

Dave Burgess Lukasz, my recommendation would be NO, even if you don't encounter the splintering problem. As I see it, the central maple leaf on the topside of the fuselage appears to be too big. You need to start decalling with the yellow maple leaf outlines on the outer wing panels, because they continue onto the main maple leaf, which means they have to be aligned. If you do that, and align the main maple leaf with the yellow outlined leafs, then the main leaf has to be moved forward to the point where almost half an inch of the central maple leaf's left and right upper points fall off the leading edge of the wing. Something is obviously wrong with the whole decal sheet.

Dave Burgess Decalling the Tiger Meet 1992 Hornet is a job and a half! Leading Edge gives you 2 complete pages of decals! I've just completed day 2 of decalling, and I've only finished the tiger stripe camo. I still have all of the national insignia and stencilling to do - that's at least one more day's work! Oh well, it looks really nice so far, so it's some compensation for not being able to do the Canada 150 scheme; It also used up a decal set from my stash. Once the decalling is complete, the bird will go together quickly; I've already painted, decalled, and assembled (where relevant) all of the gear, gear doors, canopy etc, so it's just a matter of attaching the bits after decalling is done. Then a quick touch-up of paint where necessary, and I can add t to the collection.

Erik De Smet Impressive collection Dave as well as your x Planes.

Łukasz Gliński Wow, very nice bunch of bugs

JOHN THOMAS Nice start

Ekki Following.

Dave Burgess This is a REAL challenge to paint! There are SEVEN different colours to paint, each of them requires a separate mask. First, FS36375 underside and vert stab, bottom outside; then FS35237 topside; then FS36118 trianglular shape on upper & lower wings & stabs; then red, topside, forward fuselage (I could rely on the red decals for this, but I never like to take the chance); then black, topside forward, scallops round the nose & vert. stabs inside, and outside, top; then orange on the bum, top & bottom; and finally, the yellow highlights! Thats basically 6 diiferent masks. Almost all of them have to be painted with reference to the decals on the decal sheet, so I've had to photocopy the decal sheet several times, and use them to create painting masks for each of the colours. Will look great when I'm done - but WHAT A BITCH!.

So far, I've done 3 colours: FS36375, FS35237, and FS36118, so I'm half way there. Took 5 hours today to mask off the dark grey triangles on the wings & stabs (4.5 hours of masking, 20 min to set up & tear down/clean the airbrush, and 10 min to actually airbrush the colour). I've uploaded pics so you can fast scroll through the progress.

Jens Thanks Dave for the detailed FS color specifications I have the leading edge decals in 1:48 but I'm always shy of the colors because every manufacturer has his ideas about the mix and of course your model is admirably successful (Y )

Chris Parsons Coming along nicely though, I did this one in 1/32, mostly painted the markings as well.....it is a bit of a beotch now matter how you look at it

Dave Burgess Yeah, but what a rewarding finish, for all that work!

Chris Parsons True fact, very colorful

Dave Burgess Well, I left the best for last - this is my most favourite and colourful RCAF Hornet paint scheme so far: the RCAF 20th anniversary Hornet. I had some issued with splintering of the red and black, but unlike the Canada 150 disaster, this one I was able to recover from. It DID require 2 or 3 applications of microwaved Solvaset (25 sec.), to get the decals to lay down; they were very stiff and resisted both Microsol and room temperature Solvaset. Thank goodness I was able to finally get them to lie down. I would have been REALLY pissed if a SECOND Hornet scheme screwed up on me!

Ekki Following.

Sergej I In

Maciej Bellos Niiiiiiice!

Gordon Sørensen Looks great, Dave!

Dave Burgess Nearly finished. All that's left to do is paint and attach the canopy. Same goes for the RCAF 75th ann. Hornet.

Mirko Römer Amazing work, Dave!

Dave Burgess Project complete. Now on to the Hornet 20th ann. and Tiger Meet 1992 birds.

Kerry COX That's some serious detail. Love the trim button mate. !!!