It Floats and Flies

Sorry to all as my contribution for this GB will be late in being presented.

Merry Christmas to all and may ya'll have a blessed New Year.

Cheers ,

Eric

Fortunately we do have power where I work.

Oh well, here's where things stand with the Bv 238 (no pictures - maybe later once we get power back on - could be as late as this coming weekend - Puget Sound Energy just sucks at giving you repair estimates).

1. The wings and empennage are complete except for a couple of minor details. Once those details are made and attached, the wings and empennage will get primed.

2. I have formed an epoxy putty master for either vac forming or smash casting a new canopy structure (the one provided was just way, way wrong in terms of shape and window placement). I still have to do some finish sanding to form the window flats on the master, and then I'll have to experiment since I haven't done this type of forming before. No idea how well it will work out.

3. I've started scratchbuilding the interior flight deck structures. I've worked out a really nice way to make consoles with levers. I've also tried making instruments but I'm not too happy with that - I have some more ideas on how to make that better - the instruments are hard to make a uniform square shape in 1/72, so I think I need to make some jigs to help with that.

Bruce

Nice stuff there.  What colors did you use on the engine?

Bruce

Hi all, finally getting around to posting some pics.

Ive closed and painted everything just wait to put on decals

Update in the Bv.238 progress.  I finally got the German-languge reference book - it has a lot more photos than I was able to find online.  This is good and bad - now I can tell all the areas of the kit that are inaccurate - I was blissfully ignorant before. It's been helpful in making progress on some details.

What I've gotten done:

Fixed the window locations and shapes - based on the photos I had to fill in some previously cut out windows.

Started reworking the nose shape - it's all wrong.  Filled the interior of the nose with epoxy putty and then sanded the plastic (and into the epoxy) to a better approximate shape.  Still more sanding and shaping to be done.

The float shape is wrong - the kit part is angled funny and has a pretty narrow taper at the bottom.  I think the structure is fairly complicated but I can't tell for sure from the photos so all I did was correct the gross shape errors with epoxy putty.  Wish I had before and after photos, but I forgot to take the before photos.

The engine shape is way off - too thin and wrong shape.  I can fix the thinness (sort of) but can't fix overall shape without a complete scratchbuild so I'll do what I can with the kit parts.  I've cast some details for the engines, and assembled one of them.  I used MicroMark's starter kit for mold material and resin.  This was my first time casting something, and it worked out much better than I expected.

I made master parts for casting.  The prop spinner is basswood carved to rough shape and then chucked in my dremel and sanded to final shape. The exhausts are kit parts from a Hasegawa Bf109G kit:

Here's the mold:

I made 6 castings.  One set is already on the assembled engine:

The assmbled engine (right) next to the original kit parts (left) for comparison:

Next up - making prop blades and finishing all six engines.  The first one needs some rescribing, an access window cut out, and final filling with Mr. Surfacer.  After that, I'll probably start on scratchbuilding the cockpit.  I have Revell's Bv.222 kit, so I think I'll use that as a starting point for the Bv.238 cockpit since I can't find any really useful reference photos.

Thanks,

Bruce

Well Gents,

It is with certainly mixed emotions that I need to back out of this build.  Disapponting...but also exciting.  I have been asked to build my subject matter as a "commission".  I am not getting paid so I will keep my most certainly deserved amatuer status...

Hi everyone,

Good news, the previous owner has found the instruction sheet for the emily and mailed in to me.  Hopefully today's shopping expedition, that includes an icm mig-31, bf-109e trop, hasegawa spitfire mk9, airfix spitfire mk5b and itaeri a-4 skyhawk with rnzaf low vis, wont distract me!

Hi buddy,

Thanks for the effort, how could you lose a kit that big?  Mind you I bought an airfix blenheim and only realised later I already had one!  I hope someone else has got one out there.

Another Japanese flying boat I like is the Shinmiwa (I think i spelled that right) it has nice clean lines to it. Sort of reminds me of the post WWII Martin flying boats

dontsellourskyhawks wrote:

Has anyone built the emily and got pics.  I cant really believe how big it is,  I think a couple were shot down by RNZAF P-40's Im not surprised! Rik

Here's a build report that might be useful:

http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/axis/j/spahremily.htm

Bruce

Aurora-7 wrote:

Bruce, Looks like you've got your work cut out for you. It'll look magnificent when it's done, though. What kind of adhesive are you using?

Yup - lots of work but it'll be fun.  For adhesive, the reinforcement strips are glued with testor's tube glue, and the main joints and reinforcement buttresses are testor's thin cement.  I'll probably run a line of superglue on the back side of the wing and fuselage half joints next for further reinforcement - I'm super paranoid about these joints since the plastic is so thin ( I don't like superglue as a main glue for vac kits since it's brittle and can break if the joint flexes).  Epoxy should do for the spar attachment through the fuselage and to the wings, but that'll be a ways off.

Made a little further progress - I had to cut out insert points for horizontal stabilizers in the vertical stabilizer, and after a test fit decided I needed a spar for the horizontal stabilizers as well.  Made that by trimming a square chopstick - it fits perfectly.

I'm inspired by Mike's elevator work on the H-4 so I'm going to cut out the rudder and elevators - I think it'll wind up looking much better.  I think I'll still be able to use the kit parts, so I won't have to do as much work as he did for his.

Bruce

dontsellourskyhawks wrote:

Thanks for that.  Much appreciated. Has anyone built the emily and got pics.  I cant really believe how big it is,  I think a couple were shot down by RNZAF P-40's Im not surprised! Rik

Thanks for that.  Much appreciated.

Has anyone built the emily and got pics.  I cant really believe how big it is,  I think a couple were shot down by RNZAF P-40's Im not surprised!

Rik

Hi from New Zealand,

Im wondering if anyone has the Hasegawa 1/72 Kawanishi Emily?  Ive just got one second hand and there is no instruction sheets, I would appreciate it if someone could email me a copy.

Many thanks

Rik

lerxst1031 - love the pictures of the Beavers.  I live in Seattle, and we get them flying around a lot - there are several companies that run regular service to the islands in Puget Sound.

Update on the Bv238:

I found a book on the Bv238 (in German) a couple of weeks ago - I've ordered a copy and am waiting on working on the engines and float bays until I get that since the reference pictures I've found online aren't very good.  I'm also hoping it'll have pictures of the cockpit.

I've attached the wing tip pieces to the main wing, put the fuselage half halfs (quarters?) together, punched out all the windows, reinforced all of the flimsy parts,  and started the long journey of puttying.

The wings (one wing has its float bay cut out):

The interior of the wing with reinforcing strips made from leftovers when cutting out the parts:

The fuselage halfs.  I'm well on my way to using a gallon of putty - I was in a hurry when I put these together - I screwed up a bit when I made one of the attachments.  You can see the putty required to correct that error.  Must learn to be more patient.

The interior of one fuselage half, with reinforcing strips and flying buttresses to try to fix the sag in the fuselage roof:

And finally, the wing spar cut from balsa.  The picture doesn't show it very well (it's a bit out of focus), but I made a photocopy of the three-view, glued it to a large piece of balsa, and then cut out a spar - the three-view is still attached to the cutout piece.  First time I had tried that, and it worked out pretty well.

Next up until the book arrives is working on the elevators and rudder, and maybe just for the fun of it I'll put on some more putty.

Bruce