I seem to have drifted into the doldrums again in the last week. After getting the paintwork done, I was really looking forward to getting started on all the interior detail. But as it happened, I found it very difficult to muster any motivation. And when I did fight past the lethargy and get down to work, it seemed to go slowly and badly. Still, I think I'm over the worst now; not only out of the doldrums but proceeding under all plain sail, is how I'd put it.
So, I made a start on the Vickers guns. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had a pair of Mini World Vickers guns I was going to use. So I started work adapting them to fit. The first thing that had to go was the right-hand feed block - the ammunition feeds I had already made go right up to the breech, so there was no room for the feed block. But this was where I found out that my brass-working skills are very limited and I found it impossible to file the feed block flush. So I ended up with a very uneven right-hand breech that would be quite noticeable in the Dolphin's very open design of cockpit. And I kept bending the guns and loading handle.
In the end, I gave it up as a bad job and started looking for replacements. I eventually found an unbuilt Toko 1 1/2 Strutter with not one but two Vickers guns. And they were pretty good mouldings as well. But I decided I would have to redo some of the breech detail, especially the loading handles. So that's what I've been doing all today.
They look OK I think. I've just done a satin black undercoat; then tomorrow I can do a coat of Humbrol 27004. Then I'll be able to actually install them and feel that I'm making real progress. Hooray.
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