French a/c group build 2012-13

For 1939 this aircraft was quite advanced.

Very cool! I am not familiar with it at all.

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OK, cockpit assembly, well, assembled & placed inside fuselage halves. Scratched instrument panel is in there as well although it'll be hard to see much of it anyway. Decided against dropping the flaps as the plasic above that area is super-thin.


Holy wingroot gap, Batman!! I'll need some putty work done topside.


And had to shim in a couple of places. Leading edge of the wingroots had to be thickened up after attaching the outer wings. Also a good little gap at the forward wing-to-fuselage join.

(And if I'd been smart, I could have used a piece of styrene rod as a spacer inside the fuselage to take care of that gap.... except my cockpit assembly is attached to both sides already...

VanceCrozier

OK, cockpit assembly, well, assembled & placed inside fuselage halves. Scratched instrument panel is in there as well although it'll be hard to see much of it anyway. Decided against dropping the flaps as the plasic above that area is super-thin.


Holy wingroot gap, Batman!! I'll need some putty work done topside.


And had to shim in a couple of places. Leading edge of the wingroots had to be thickened up after attaching the outer wings. Also a good little gap at the forward wing-to-fuselage join.

(And if I'd been smart, I could have used a piece of styrene rod as a spacer inside the fuselage to take care of that gap.... except my cockpit assembly is attached to both sides already...

Looking good so far.

I see you are quite accomplished with that Wing to Fuselage bondage procedure.

As for second thoughts about filling that gap:

" c'est la vie " 

I make it a priority to learn something every build. This one amounts to aittle more pre-planning. BUT I saw a few minutes of bench time & rushed it...

Vance, I am afraid I am gonna have to drop out of this one. Some personal life complications popped up and once the current projects that I have going are done in the next few weeks I will not have time to start and complete my Rafale before the time is up on this GB.

No problem stik - life happens!!!  Feel free to drop in & keep an eye on us though.

Hmmm - I've got a new secret code name for the MS.406... the putty princess!
Hard to see from the pics, BUT, the repair needed at the wingroot in this case isn't so much side-to-side, which is only about 1mm or so. The bigger issue is more of a ste-up, but of course this doesn't run a straight line, it's a big wide arc. May take several applications of putty and likely the replacement (even if just drawn in) of some features before painting. Very thin plastic in that area is slowing things down as well. Ahhhh - c'est la vie!

Annnnd just because I love contrasts... a look at the two kits I was working on last night...

When the end date for this build?  I have a mirage IIIC I'd love to start.

John

Hey John, trying to get wrapped up by Feb 28 2013, would love to have your Mirage in the mix.

I guess I'll start cutting sprue.  Any idea what ejection seat a mirage IIIc uses?  I thought there was a link for that somewhere.

John

Martin-Baker Mk.4 according to aftermarket detail set from Wolfpack...

LOL great work on the morane Vance!! actually the name seems tamiya putty TP-406 :)

thanks bsyamato - yes, this Morane may finish off my supply of putty!

Ok, several rounds of puttying + sanding now. Will take a good look at it under daylight conditions before I go ahead I start priming...

Vance, I like the Morane and have several decal options for it, but you've convinced me to never build the Heller one.

If it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger !

I'll be getting back to my Corsair now, having completed the 1/48 Panther tank that was consuming my time.

Cheers

Tony

lol, well the fit issues at the wing join aren't horrible, I've just used a fair amount of putty to make sure i get a gradual profile. To be honest, if it wasn't SO SMALL, it would have been easier to deal with it using some shims or stretched sprue.

Getting set up for some work on it tonight actually, while the ball game is on.

A black-plastic Mirage?? Which kit is that??

Lots of little pieces of masking tape cut last night...

A very old ESCII/Ertl kit

falconmod

A very old ESCII/Ertl kit

Man, good luck with it. I had black plastic in an older Airfix kit, it was hard, almost like PVC plumbing pipe, hard to get a smooth finish if you had to sand, and it took a lot longer for glue to set (at least Tamiya cements) It wasn't unbuildable or anything, just took awhile longer.

Thanks, it hasn't been too bad yet, but trying to get the two fuselage halves lined up to glue them is a pain.  I figured I'd use this old one from the stash rather than by a new/expensive one.

ESCI - ERTL, may have been different plastic anyway.

Not sure why Esci did what they did but I had to ad strips of styrene inside the wing halves so the top portion of the wing would have something to actually glue too.  otherwise the joint would just bouce up and down. much better now. almost ready to mate the wings to the fuselage.

Hmmm - odd. And a good reminder to dry-fit EVERYTHING! Especially on an older kit. Looking forward to seeing this one take shape, I've been reading up on the Mirage III / V series lately.

Ohh, after the Halloween running around last night, settled in at home around 10pm, exhausted. Had to do SOMETHING useful though, so I replaced the inner wing ribs on the MS406. Even with the thinnest sheet styrene, they sit too proud, so next step is masking tape on either side of the styrene & slowly sand them down some.

BUMP!