Airfix Short Stirling Tug completed WIP.
Hi Guys,
Thanks to Steve, a fellow modeler from UK who kindly sent me the kit, I'm able to build a tug for the Horsa glider I built earlier.
The packet arrived and was pleasantly surprised that the kit came in grey.
Took a day or two off during Chinese New Year and tackled the kit with some simple add ons and scratch builds to bring the kit up to present standard of current kits.
Areas of build were the cockpit, rear turret, deleting the top turret, re-scribing panel lines, sanding down of the rivets, adding interior for the rear entrance, refining the cowling flaps.
For those who don't know what a Stirling Bomber looks like, below is an example.
I'm attempting to convert the Mk3 to a Mk4 and probably the one that is not the full glazing and only replacing the front turret with plexiglass.
The kit that I'm using and is the only one of it's kind that I know off is an Aifix kit in 1/72nd scale.
The alignment of its panels and rivets all match when put together, surprizingly for a kit that's nearly as old as me. There are some gaps here and there that can easily be fixed with putty and plastic strip.
The only grouse I have is the lack of interior detail which I will tackle.
Scribing was done using the Dymo strip as a guide and a pin locked in a pin vice.
Then I sanded the rivets and any raised lines left over from the scribing...washed the parts with a tooth brush to get all the muck that had built up in the grooves.
The rudimentary cockpit was put together. Detailing will be done at a later stage.
I added some ribbing to the super structure.
Dry fitted to see how it looks.
I scratch built some scaffolding for the rear as I wanted to pose the rear door open. This was done with plastic strip and textured Evergreen strip.
Notice some of the tiny windows...they're peppered all over the planes body. Thought of using crystal clear for this but instead I'll use the kits clear parts as it looked good the last time I used them on my previous stolen kit.
Look at them windows...man so many to mask later.
There were some unsightly sink marks on the wings that I had to fill.
I used the tape to mask off so the surrounding details will not be sanded off.
Tamiya putty was added.
Sprayed the interior with interior green(should be more pale) and gave it a wash with a mixture of black and brown poster color.
Then I cut away the top turret opening.
Added plastic strip.
The plastic strip was supported by plastic beams glued across the bottom.
I did the same painting to the cockpit area with the same wash.
Added seat belts and a paper map just to spruce things up abit to make the rather dull cockpit lively.
Another angle...I've only dry fitted the halves together with tape.
Thanks for looking. C & C welcomed. There's more to come for instance the nose modification and the tail turret plus the rear door detailing.
Cheers,
Richard