1/48 Monogram Kingfisher X2, FINALLY DONE !!!!!

I would think the decaling and painting of the struts area would be easier if the floats assemblies where off the wings.

You may be able to remove the wing floats with out damage. Try softening the glue at the strut / wing atachment with some more Tamiya extra thin.   Lightly pull the strut from the attachment hole at the wing underside as you apply the glue. Wierd that you can remove glue with more glue but it has worked for me and to ease your pain, it's worth a shot.

Nice to see the k fisher again. 

I've been working on the Kingfisher alot lately trying to get the first one done. I finally settled on a scheme and then it dawned on me that I have to lay a star decal inside of the support struts for the outer floats. OOOOFFF !!! That is gonna be really hard as the decal is larger than the area the struts take up. I thought the paint work was gonna be a pain on this due to the floats but those underwing decals are gonna test me for sure.

BK

I very much like the skill and work you've put into this kit so far. The payoff is not far down the line. Looking forward to the painting, etc.

Very nice. Inspirational even!

Well, the second job just didn't allow for time to do life things, any things at all. So, I dropped it and I must say it's great getting time to work on my kits again. 

I have managed to make quite a bit of progess lately and it is starting to look more and more like a Kingfisher. At this point I only have a few things to address and then it will be off to primer. I hope to have this in paint this weekend.

BK

I really appreciate that you're giving us the information on how you are approaching and building this kit. Your work is inspiring.

Don't kill yourself with too much work!! Money is not worth poor health.

Looking good!  Your dedication to these builds is amazing.

 I did make some time the last few weekends to get a bit of work done on the Kingfisher.

Aside from all the sanding and filling around the float attachment points I also completed the engine and it is now ready to be placed in the cowling. I also took some time to open up the exhaust outlets which the kit does nothing for and I made some piping to replicate the exhaust exits. '

I did this by bending some tubing and them filing off the end at an angle to match how they look in the photos. Once I had this done I also drilled out he openings and enlarged them with my Dremel and a round file. Now with the engine sitting in the cowling and the exhaust tubes sitting in place the cowling is beginning to look the part.

I am nearly done with the float attachment work which has taken many hours of work. I will then attach the cowling followed by the engine and outer ring. I will then be in a place where I can attach the wings and I should move quickly from there. This has really taken quite a bit of work to get this far and I can see why you don't see many of these pimped out. 

Well, that's all for now.

BK

Amazing ingenuity to make things fit.  Great job.

Your friend, Toshi

Great work so far!  I'm sure all your hard work will pay off in the end!

A good mate gifted me that Kingfisher (with PE....THANKS Rik!!)....and I picked up the Cutting Edge resin cockpit - just lovely.  But I was too dumb (and too slow) at the time to grab the Cutting Edge floats and cowl.  Duh.
Lonestar has a pretty good resin float replacement - SOOOO much better than the kit float (estimates calculate 25% too small in volume....what were they thinking!?)- and the dude that runs Lonestar was great - even though his website said "OOP"....oops....one arrived very quickly!  THANKS LONESTAR!!!!  You rock.
I can't wait to see your finished work.  I love that plane.  And I can't wait to get stuck into mine.
Evidently, the Kingfisher was a joy to fly - and was pretty darned stable on rough water that would kill a lesser floatplane.
Thanks for posting your pics, mate - looks great so far!

Yes my friend, your valuable info helps a great deal and many thanks for helping me be a better modeler.

Jay Jay

Very clever how you managed to get the AM pit to fit.

Thanks. Once all the bits are added you cannot see down in there and the wing connections are hidden. I also glued the tubing on before I cut them up so the wings maintained alignment. I hope this helps, it worked well for me.

BK

Very clever how you managed to get the AM pit to fit. TY for posting and I'm taking notes Mate

Thanks Steve. I would like to spend more time on it now that the new year is here. These big thrashes tend to take quite a bit of work and time to get them to look decent. I'll keep plugging away at it.

BK

Absolutely amazing work Brandon! Thanks for posting the WIP. Heck, I haven’t even gotten to my PBY build yet. I’ll save it for the next Boats and Floats GB.

Steve

Alright folks, sorry for the huge delay on the wing work, but I've been working two jobs and one takes 50+hrs a week so I have very little time to model at the moment.

As promised I will show how I managed to get the wings to work with the resin pit installation.

As you can see by the photos I had to cut the wings in half but before I did this I glued on two pieces of tubing to provide correct alignment once I put them back together. I also inserted tubing inside those to act as pins. Once this was done I actually cut the wings in half. I then removed a large portion at the front and rear of the wings to allow for fit around the new pits, front and rear. This is a trial and error effort and I just kept wacking away until the wings fit how I wanted them to. I have not attached them to the plane yet but preliminary dry fitting shows they will no longer pose any clearance issues.

 I am nearly done with the resin engine and when I am I will also install the cowling and engine for the final time and them I will be putting the wings on for the final time as well. I am moving quite slowly due to lack of time to work on it but if anyone has questions I can usually reply by the next day.

Thanks for looking.

BK

Toshi

Nice work, will you be doing a WIP for the Kitty Hawk Kingfisher?

Your friend, Toshi

 

I may or may not. I'm working on getting a new job that will take 70+ hours a week with odd days off and non together except every 5 weeks. So my build time is gonna take a major hit if I get it, but the income is worth it. Fingers crossed.

BK

Jay Jay

"I have the wings completed and ready for install. It was the first thing I did after the cockpit, and they needed significant mods to make it work"

I sure would like to see how you did the wings if you wouldn't mind,  I'm building the same kit and AM stuff and kinda gave up when I saw how the wing to Fsg. joins up. kudos to you for figuring it all out.

 

BK

Nice work, will you be doing a WIP for the Kitty Hawk Kingfisher?

Your friend, Toshi

"I have the wings completed and ready for install. It was the first thing I did after the cockpit, and they needed significant mods to make it work"

I sure would like to see how you did the wings if you wouldn't mind,  I'm building the same kit and AM stuff and kinda gave up when I saw how the wing to Fsg. joins up. kudos to you for figuring it all out.

Jay Jay

It's going to be interesting to see how you make the wings fit thru the fuselage with the LSM interior in the way.

LOL, that part is already done. I have the wings completed and ready for install. It was the first thing I did after the cockpit, and they needed significant mods to make it work. I haven't installed them yet as I want the extra room to finish up all the extra work on the nose and float. I am close to putting them on. 

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen.

BK

Phew, lotsa work so far but it looks like you're up to it. Good job. It's going to be interesting to see how you make the wings fit thru the fuselage with the LSM interior in the way.

My hat's off to you pushing your limits in the modelling skills dept. Looks like you're succeeding admirably. This'll be a thread to which I will subscribe.

Gosh BK you are breahing life into this old Monogram kit And it's looking incredible. 

Can't wait to see more!

I've been so busy this year that I haven't had much time to work on these, but I am making slow progress. So, here is where I am at so far.

I have cut off the cowling in order to open the flaps and make way for a Vector R-985 resin engine. This is gonna take a great deal of work to make it fit but so far it looks promissing. 

I also plan on adding in some exhaust tips to the cowling as well. I also closed up the firewall area so I could shape it to the flaps and fit the cowl back on in the same place it came off, only open now. 

This is the final result of the shaping of the firewall and rounding it in for the flaps to fit over correctly.

I left the flaps attached to the cowling and simply cut them into seperate pieces. I then sanded the tips down to make them appear as thin as possible and I took a pair of PE plyers and bent them all outward which cracked the plastic on the inside. So, I simply put Tamiya thin cement on the cracks and it actually forced the flaps to stay open. This is the result.

I then turned my attention to the kit engine and cut it away with a small saw. I then used a knife to remove the left over bits and followed that up with some sanding and shaping for the correct fit to the cowl. It came out perfect.

I also began work on the Vector R-985 kit. Once I had this assembled, minus the details, I can begin work on the cowling opening and the cylinder heads to make it all fit together. The cowling is thick and I used a Dremel to thin it down as thin as I dare and I will need to remove the tips of each cylinder to make it fit. The engine will need to be set in from the front as the cowl is oblong toward the rear and the engine will never fit in from there. I plan to get it to fit, detail it out, set it in and then close the front of the cowl. This will complicate the paint, but there is no real alternative. 

In this shot you can see I've thinned the cowl quite a bit and it still needs a tad more room, so the cylinder heads will get it next. They won't be seen anyway.

I have been working on the float as well. The kit part is grossly misplaced and the kit resin float will look tons better. I will get to that in the next few days and post up some more pics. More to come on this journey. Thanks for looking.

BK

Well, as promised here is the latest update on the first Kingfisher. The LSM cockpit kit is a massive improvement over the kit parts. It is loaded with tons of detail far beyond my ability to scratch build. The kit I recieved was not the level of quality one would expect from Cutting Edge, but when it's only done by one guy on his own, I think it's fine.

The kit does take a great deal of work to make it fit the fuselage as the pours are rough and there is a great amount of overpour and clean up involved. Again, even with its problems it is a huge improvement.

The part I had the most trouble with is the textured surface of the resin made painting it very very difficult and I had a really hard time making it look presentable. I am not overly happy with the result with regard to my painting, but given the surface I was working with it will have to do. The Cutting Edge kit will work far better, but those are getting rare and very expensive. LSM is really the only game in town for these pits.

I have seveal pieces that still need to be added in to the rear pit but those will wait until I have the seam work done so they are not in the way while I work on that. This kit is similar to the Monogram P-40 in that it will take a great deal of work to make it really nice. At this point I am rethinking making the engine on this one exposed. I may simply swap it out for the kit part and move on. I need to think it over more.

Thanks for looking.

BK

I'm anxious too see how the LSM pit came out and what you did with it to make it fit right.