Classic Aviation GB 1903-1938 (Feb 5-Oct 31, 2010)

Ouch! Now that just hurts. Good luck with v2.0.

Cheers

Dave

This is as far as the 109 got before disaster...

Simpilot,

Thank you.  I've been eyeballing the decals with some trepidation. The upper wing crosses are the largest I will have ever worked with.  To top it off they are going over corrugation.  This should prove to be interesting.  Well, so far the kit hasn't thrown me any screwballs.  I'm hoping the decals are the same. 

I did a dry fit with the upper outer wing panels (sorry no pics) and, all I could do was to start giggling.  It's a freaking beast! 

Cheers

Dave

WOW that IS getting BIG very quickly!!!!!!! Excellent work mate!!!

B17Pilot & Simpilot,

Thank you for the kind words and following of this thread.  I'm hoping to see more of others builds.

Jmart,

Thank you for the compliment.  The detail on their kits IS awesome!

WW2psycho,

Bummer about your 109. Yup, lacquer thinner is "HOT".  Did you paint with enamel or acrylic? Keep the kit to try out new techniques on, that way if it goes sideways on you it won't eat a new kit. Looking forward to 109 v2.0

Well, I got the wings on today and I have to say this beast got big fast.  It'll be about a 20" wing span and, once the wheels are painted and on it'll sit about 4.5" tall.    The outer panels for the lower wing are just pushed on.  No glue incase I wish to do the decals off plane.  The struts weren't too bad to assemble.  Just make sure you keep them straight as they are very location specific.  I place a small piece of tape on each with the part number and, left it on right up until I was ready to use it.  I won't be putting the outer panels on the upper wing until the glue has set over night.  This is no rush as I still have to get a few more parts painted. Prop, scarf ring and gun, wheels , some fiddley little PE parts that go over the elevator hinges.

Cheers

Dave

Cheers

Well I learned a lesson today in my first few years of model building. The 109 will have to be bought again and redone... I tried taking some paint off of the spinner with laquer thinner. BAD IDEA! it melted and warped everything. this wasent the first screw up. the canopy isnt sitting on it strait, the anteana kept breaking off, and the canopy masking didnt go well. So I'm pretty sure I will be redoing this build. I have until the end of October so better to screw up now than a week from the ending!

Everyones builds are looking great! keep up the good work everyone!

Aaron – very nice couple builds. Look forward to the finished product(s)

Dave – amazing pit/fuselage work, truly inspirational stuff. The grain/wood effect is just fantastic.The kit also seems awesome in detail.

B-17 – Great start to your J-3!

B17Pilot

Dave, all I can say is WOW!  Excellent detail and work! 

Looking forward to seeing it finished.

Awesome work!!!

Dave, all I can say is WOW!  Excellent detail and work! 

Looking forward to seeing it finished.

The engine is now done.  There was a bit of a hiccup, in that the ignition harness/loom v1.0 didn't fit.  Esthetically, it looked better.  Functionally, it bombed.  It made the width of the upper half of the engine too wide.  This was discovered when I mocked up the engine hatches and realized, painfully, that it was not going to work.  Yes, I will be displaying it with the hatches open but, all one had to do was eyeball down the sides from the front and see that there was no way the hatches were going to close. Grrrrrrr  The new harnesses v2.0 were scratched from .020" flat stock, while the wires were done with .010" lead wire.  The harnesses were painted with Vallejo Light Rubber and, the wires were painted with Dark Rubber.  The wire tips had Vallejo Brass applied with a toothpick.

The exhaust stack was base coated with Tamiya NATO Black.  I then painted it with Vallejo Dark Rust. The shaded portions were done up with Vallejo German Black Brown darkened with a couple of drops of Black.  I finished it of with a light dusting of MIG Standard Rust.

Cheers

Dave

Nicely done Dave.  One small note.  The Junkers J.I  sprayed 2 tone camouflage was applied at the factory level,  and tended to vary in pattern.

Dave I am loving that!!!!!!! Beautiful camo and detail work!!!!! Sometimes I wish I had the room to keep 1/32 just for the potential for detail!!!! I am more than occupied with my 1/72s however lol!!! Excellent work mate!!!

Brother Dave.  I love the Camo and your attention to detail is outstanding.  Love everything about it so far.  On another note I have sent several e-mails with no reply  Is all OK.

Bob

Simpilot,

It is quite a kit!  A BIG kit.  Still not sure where this beastie is going to reside when I'm done.  To be reconciled later.  

While the forums were down I got a fair amount of color on the BIG beastie.  There will be some touch up needed in places but, with the mauve camo I did not go for a complete coverage in assuming (yes, artistic license) it was field applied.  

I got the middle section of the lower wing on but, did not get the struts on until today.  That delay bit me in the behind today. . I failed to plan ahead by getting the struts painted and ready to install right after the wing was installed.  Where the struts anchor to the right side of the fuselage weren't too bad, the left side is another story as evidenced by the picture.  Looks like the clear coat for decals is going to be a bit delayed kids. 

I've gotten the engine mostly assembled.  I used the cylinders that are shown as not used.  These cylinders allow you to scratch your own push rods.  I used .019" stainless steel wire.

THis was as close as I could get to show that yes I did paint the spark plugs.  Yes, they actually do have a hex pattern.

Here is the ignition wire harness.  There is one for left and right sides. I used quarter round stock that was filed down towards the fore end.  The wire is .010" lead wire I purchased at a local fly fishing store.

Cheers

Dave

WOW what a kit!!!!!!! They thought of everything looks like!!!! Great work!!!!

Simpilot,

Thank you very much for the compliments!  The bungees on the gear are molded separately.  The bungees kind of reminded me of a Mobius strip, only without the twist.  The more I do with this kit the more I am impressed by the folks who engineered this beast.  Amazing detail with a minimal amount of parts to achieve the effect.  I am discovering detail as I move along with this build.  On the picture of the leading edged you will notice diagonal lines where the corrugation meets up with the leading edge.  This was not noticeable until I shot some color onto the wing.  I ended up having to go back and fill some spots that I had not caught before and, that's when I noticed the diagonal lines.  At first I thought I had done them sanding the leading edge and, then I realized that the kit designers had "stressed" the leading edge.  I can't wait to build more of their stuff.  They've got a DH2 in the works.  

Here's what I got done in the last 24 hours.  First a couple of shots of the underside.  The instructions called for Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue and XF-2 White in a ratio of 1:1.  I thinned it with 70% isopropyl alcohol and shot it through my Badger 150 with a paint jar.   I was going to use the Iwata but I needed more paint than the cup would hold.  That was a first for me.  

This shot really give a good view on how big the horizontal stabilizer is with the elevator.  It's about a 6.5" span.

Here is the best shot I was able to get to show the ripples in the "stressed" leading edge.

I ended up having to scratch part of the gun mount. As I was getting rid of a slight seam line on the kit part,  it shot off to the back of beyond.  .  I reminded myself, "Dave, this is why you have a cache of styrene stock." Doh!  Not a big part and, certainly not complex. Just very necessary.

Cheers

Dave

Dave that is looking awesome!!! Love the detail on the gear!!! the bungees are welldefined and crisp!!! BEAUTIFUL KIT!!!

Aaron,

There will be quite a bit visible.  The detail that you can see now will still be visible. I got the upper portion of the fuselage over the cockpit and gunner's office and, everything is still fairly visible.  Yes, you have to get a bit closer to view the same details but, it is not obscured.  The rear panel that has the radio (at least I think thats what it is) has no detail on the back side.  The only portion that is visible from the cockpit is the upper area and that I painted to represent wood, just because grey styrene would have looked rather silly.

Bob,

Brother, thank you so much for the compliment and following along on this one. I've had to do some filling in some areas.  Nothing horrendous but, in some areas that had some very delicate detail that was very visible.  The details were the kind that I in no way wanted to recreate should I sand them off.  

Here she is with the cockpit properly fitted.  

This kind of gives an idea of just how much detail is still visible.

The grab handles were exquisitely molded.  With my armor builds I've had to resort to using brass wire to get handles this clean.

This will give one an idea of some of the detail that had to be protected while sanding.  The rearmost area has yet to be sanded

A mock up of the engine.  Still a lot of painting yet to be done.

A couple detail shot of the right side of the landing gear.

Cheers

Dave

Aaron,

There will be quite a bit visible.  The detail that you can see now will still be visible. I got the upper portion of the fuselage over the cockpit and gunner's office and, everything is still fairly visible.  Yes, you have to get a bit closer to view the same details but, it is not obscured.  The rear panel that has the radio (at least I think thats what it is) has no detail on the back side.  The only portion that is visible from the cockpit is the upper area and that I painted to represent wood, just because grey styrene would have looked rather silly.

Bob,

Brother, thank you so much for the compliment and following along on this one. I've had to do some filling in some areas.  Nothing horrendous but, in some areas that had some very delicate detail that was very visible.  The details were the kind that I in no way wanted to recreate should I sand them off.  

Here she is with the cockpit properly fitted.  

This kind of gives an idea of just how much detail is still visible.

The grab handles were exquisitely molded.  With my armor builds I've had to resort to using brass wire to get handles this clean.

This will give one an idea of some of the detail that had to be protected while sanding.  The rearmost area has yet to be sanded

A mock up of the engine.  Still a lot of painting yet to be done.

A couple detail shot of the right side of the landing gear.

Cheers

Dave

Aaronw

The J-3 is interesting, I guess having a clear fuselage you have to use the interior color as your exterior primer.

That's what's nice about the civil J-3, everything is yellow!  Interior color=Exterior color=Yellow.

The bad thing about the J-3 is everything is in fact yellow.  I hate painting things yellow.

Dave, Im sold, the kit is truly stunning and your work is stunning as well brother.

Bob

I'm still ploding along, I've been out of town the past 2 weeks, so no progress to report.

The J-3 is interesting, I guess having a clear fuselage you have to use the interior color as your exterior primer.

The Junkers continues to impress, amazing how much they pack into that kit. Do you have a feeling yet for how much of your work will actually be visible when done?

B17 that lil J-3 is going to look great I can tell!!! Looking forward to more pics!!!!

Dave, looks like your scratched wiring loom is about the only thing you'll need to do to it!!! Really looking good mate!!!

Bob,

I hope this works for you.

The engine hatches were the only parts with this many EP marks and they were also rather prominent.  Nothing some careful masking, Mr Putty, and VERY careful sanding couldn't take care of.  You'll notice some blobs around some of the areas filled and sanded.  There were a few holes still so I applied some disolved putty. Let it set up overnight and sand it tomorrow.

A shot of the left side of the engine.  It just has the raw base coat on.  It's a looooong way from being done.

These rocker arm assemblies are fantastic!  The penny will give you a good idea how small these buggers are.  They will glue into the square depressions on top of the cylinders (in the picture after this one)

The protrusions below the intake holes are spark plugs.  This assembly only has the base coat (Tamiya NATO black) and clear coat for the black oil wash.  The spark plugs will be painted after that.  I will be scratch building the wiring loom.

The fuselage halves finally got glued today!  Wooo Hooo!  Not much filling to be done. After I shot these pics of the fuselage I ran a bead of putty along the glue line due to a couple of fiddley spots (most likely my doing)

This is a detail shot of the stitching on the right rear upper fuselage.  There are several areas like this on this beastie.  

Cheers

Dave

Brother Dave looking forward to more of the Wingnutz kit, looking sweet so far bro

Bob

Simpilot,

Thank you very much for the compliment. I'll get some pics posted tomorrow.  I spent awhile on the engine hatches. There were some EP marks that took a while to sand without killing the rivet detail.

B17Pilot,

A J-3, excellent! Our family had a couple of friends that had this type when I was a kid.  Very fond memories of them.  I'm looking forward to the progress of this one.

Cheers

Dave

Got started on my J-3. This is one simple kit.   Keeping it OOB, there really is no interior or instrument panel.  If a piece on top hadn't have broken off I would have the wings on, but now I have to sand down the milliput to replace the broken off piece.

Well here is where it stands.

As you can see in the second photo the left edge broke off, and needs to be replaced.

I'm likin' that ALOT Dave!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaron,

1/72!!!!! You did rigging in 1/72?!?!  Very well done indeed!

I was impressed with Wingnut kits before I started building them.  Now, that I am finally into one, I am VERY impressed.  At this scale, is really is a collection of small kits that make up one BIG one.  You should check out Wingnuts site and see the Project Gallery, especially the D.V they just built.  Its a 1:1 flight worthy Albatros.  Oooooh, it's pretty!

Cheers

Dave