Airfix Group Build 2011-2012

Ya'll give up on me? Sorry it's been awhile. Life stuff making it hard to stay at the bench as much as I would like.

Anyway, I was a little worried at the quality of this big kit at first as there was a lot of flash and loose parts etc. but the kit is building fairly well. Fit is pretty good but nose/engine cowlings look like jigsaw puzzle and a good fit will be a challenge. Here are some pics of the cockpit going together. Not super detailed by any means... Just basic modeling as I'm still getting my feet wet after a 20 year absence. Feels good to be back into it for sure. More pics to come.

Looking good chopper. I know how life gets in the way. Had that problem recently. 

You wingy-thing guys just amaze me with all the detail you put into a cockpit.

Great work all around, guys.  I have yet to start on my Stuka.  A change of shifts at work and a bathroom renovation project have put my modeling efforts on the back burner for now.....Thanks for letting me lurk and live vicariously through your efforts!!  Cheers!! 

Chopper great work on the cockpit the huge stuka comes out good at all

Some work done on the front wheel

and the inside of the airbrake

Slow work but it's starting to come together

Cheers

First Sidewinder. This almost took 3 hours of work to assemble! I think I'll only do 2 of these are fit the external fuel tanks as well.

Cheers

Hi all.

I decided to add a quick little Spit Mk2a to my build "duties"

It's a new toll kit, nice detail for such an inexpensive and simple kit :-)

The canopy will be closed so I didn't go mad with the detailing (to lazy I guess)

Airfix supplies a flat canopy and 2 blade prop for the Mk1 aswell as a bubble top with 3 blade for the Mk2a.

Theuns

nice detailed kit Theuns, cockpit seems more detailed than the zero i just finished . Waiting for updates

I'm doing the camo on the scout, soon pictures.

Edit:

The pictures

Bsyamato: Nice paint scheme.

Theuns: Ill put your down for a spitfire. Your still down for a BF-110 (I think you asked to scrap that one, but i left it just in case) And the photo of your cesna has dropped, its now a hudson i think. Can you refresh the link for me?

I cleaned up my photobucket acc and might have deleted the Cessna, doesn't matter- it was crummy anyway!

The Hudson has to go, it is Italeri! LOL

Theuns

Chopper and Casper, nice work on the big kits.  Bsyamato, nice save on the Scout, it's looking good with the paint on it.  Theuns, color me jealous.  Now that I've done the original, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one the new tool Mk.I / II's.  Scorpio, if you could remove the Shuttle and the Saturn Ib, and replace it with the Spitfire Mk. IX.  Picked up the Spit PR XIX, the new tool Sabre, and the BAE Systems Hawk on the last trip to the LHS.  They nearly had me with the new Skylab version of the Saturn V, and the new Valiant is still on the shelf.  The Mk. IX is in primer will post some pics when the color goes on.

I wonder if this Spit Mk1/2a is a totally new tool or a rework of an old mould. The fuselarge halves and the trailing edge of the wingroot fairing was warped and didn't fitt to well. I had to "convince" it into place.

The fuse and wings are joined now and all seems OK visually. The horizontal stab doesn't butt join to the rear fuse like most kits, it has an insert that fits into a slot in the correct location, interesting idea.

Theuns

~bump!~

99% done on my Henschel, so I cracked open the box on the Airfix He-177 last night, dressed up the kit seats with belts, added a seat for the mid-upper gunner & painted the interior colours. Not much more than that will be done because it will be mostly "shapes & colours" behind the Airfix canopy glazing . Although I need to check some reference pics, I think there may be a radio operator's station in the nose as well, meaning 1 more seat & a bank of electronics.

The turrets are ready to be sandwiched in to place as well, so I should be mating the fuselage halves this weekend if things go as planned.

Vance this could help about the radio, even if i suppose the grey i used wrong

bsyamato

Vance this could help about the radio, even if i suppose the grey i used wrong

 

Thanks bsyamato - that will help with the position. I just want something there, even if not much will be seen.

You may try an heatforming of the fron canopy if the kit piec is so tragic Without use the original canopy you can culpt of an hemisphere , just heat the plastic and force onto the mould. Frames can be shaped with tape stripes . A clear tiny canopy could increase the final result of the greif

So the stage that I have been putting off for as long as I can is the canopy. As nice as the Flight path set is, the instructions leave a lot to be desired!

The front canopy section has a raised section just where it meets the front of the fuselage. The Flight Path set contains nice sill details with riveting. It however does not mention how to apply the new sill to the clear plastic part.

So I had a think about this and there is a secondary brass part that fits on top of the front of the sill. I thought that this simulates the 'bulge' in this section so I decide to saw off the front part of the canopy.

A disaster! A poor sawing job, the blade kept bouncing and making a new cut and finally the glass snapped in a very conspicuous place.

Lucky there are 2 front canopy parts in this kit. The second part seems to be a bit messier in its molding but Future should help with that. So I carefully scribed the cut outline first and made very slowly but slightly firmer strokes. A much better result.

PHEWW!!! A botched canopy can ruin a model. A test fit with the brass sill confirms that this will work just fine.

Also got the first external fuel tank done. Note the brass sway braces, they really help with the detail.

Cheers

Casper t C

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Good recovery on the canopy.

Those brass parts look fantastic. 

DUSTER

Casper t C

 

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Good recovery on the canopy.

Those brass parts look fantastic. 

wrong way on the scout, i used a mix of green and humbrol new clear bottle and he don't mix well

removed and mixed with old type gloss clear 

Nice recovery on the helicopter, bsyamato.

Are you hauling it someplace on that truck?

me not, is the truck that want to be finished (99% complete) and try to remove something from workbench to be noticed

but for the scout ,never second green clear was rong, so the 3rd was the good also the camo green seems not again perfect dry and in some zone get removed. After the correction i'll leave the scout cure for at least a week!!

Don't give up bsyamato; 

I'm sure all your problems are caused by....uh, sunspots!  yeah, thats it! ... sunspots

OK, I dry-fitted the cockpit assembly into the nose area, popped the cockpit glass into place and...... quickly decided that I am done "detailing" the seats - upper straps is all they are getting!! The turret bases, rudder and cockpit area are trapped between the fuselage halves. Everything sealed up very nicely (surprised!!) except right around the glass areas on the underside, will need a touch of putty there. Pics for proof:

She's a beast!!

The wings are just dry-fitted here - seriously considering brass rod to strengthen the area but haven't done it before... drill matching hole from wings through fuselage to the other wing, somewhere near the inside of the upper wing so the rod takes some weight?....

VanceCrozier

 

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She's a beast!!

yes she is  !! good work Vance in few time you surpassed my grief progress LOL 

bsyamato

 

VanceCrozier:

 

 

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She's a beast!!

 

 

yes she is  !! good work Vance in few time you surpassed my grief progress LOL 

Maybe I have made more progress, but I haven't added the details I know you have on yours. I am pretty much seeing how cleanly I can build this one oob.

So the two humbrol paint lines don't mix well at all?? Glad to see you have recovered & replaced it already.

VanceCrozier

 

bsyamato:

 

 

VanceCrozier:

 

 

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She's a beast!!

 

 

 

yes she is  !! good work Vance in few time you surpassed my grief progress LOL 

 

 

Maybe I have made more progress, but I haven't added the details I know you have on yours. I am pretty much seeing how cleanly I can build this one oob.

So the two humbrol paint lines don't mix well at all?? Glad to see you have recovered & replaced it already.

Yes i added some too extra piece and for the same reason the fuselage (withouth wings) is actually a dust keeper i hope to back it on the bench less than two year ... LOL

For the humbrol mistake, i'm used to mix the glossy that came in the same paint jar (35) but lately received the new big gloss bottle... with this one, the normal enamels don't mix!! after i leave it cures the green being to disgregate from the clear and formed lots of tiny green points on last mix i used the old 35 and works correctly!

Nice to ear the airfix 177 fitting was good

The fit has actually been much better than I expected considering how old the kit is. A little toy-like in places though: all of the control surfaces are positionable (which makes some large gaps!), the upper turrets are meant to turn as well, though they have a better fit.

DUSTER

Don't give up bsyamato; 

I'm sure all your problems are caused by....uh, sunspots!  yeah, thats it! ... sunspots

 

I domn't give up LOL too much work did on this little helo

More than sun i think was the 99,9 % humidity

VanceCrozier

The fit has actually been much better than I expected considering how old the kit is. A little toy-like in places though: all of the control surfaces are positionable (which makes some large gaps!), the upper turrets are meant to turn as well, though they have a better fit.

The toy-like control surfaces was a bad airfix attitude finally he stopped to do, out of my "doun't touch the sm-79 airfix box" i see similar things on the sunderland and stirling, unfortunately these last two are the "only" kits avaible for it

In mind to fix these gaps?