ANZAC GB Sept 2012 to Sept 2013

LOL Mikey..  No Problems. lol  It might still be fun to do though.  Think about it.  

I am still ill, but I have my laptop so I can do stuff while confined to bed at least.  Now if I can figure out how to work on a kit from bed, I'll be all set.

Rich

OOohhh get a dinner tray and set up on that. Youknow those ones with the bean bag on the bottom?

Scorpiomikey

Emergency Guppies? Sucks about exams. Good luck though.

Here is what I have done so far. The cockpit walls have been painted in Humbrol interior green and then given a dry brush with Khaki and given the lines a wash as well as picking out some of the side consoles in black. I'm probably going to give those a drybrush in grey. 

The cockpit floor is done too.

This is some of the photo etched fret painted. I'll dry brush the dials in white before attaching it to the control panel which I have forgotten to photograph. 

I've chosen to hand brush the interior because I prefer the look of it over an air brushed interior. I find hand brushing gives it a more worn look rather than the ultra smooth finish airbrushing. 

I hear you on the hand brushing Blitz. Mind you i hand brush or rattle can everything lol.

Shes looking good so far.

This is definitely not a kit that fall together and the resin cockpit definitely adds a degree of difficulty to the kit as well. The fit of the kit generally goes fairly well but I was really surprised by the fit of this part however. 

I've attached the resin cockpit sidewalls to the fuselage and the instrument panel has been completed. The lack of any real attachment points makes alignment tricky but here is where the problem starts. 

I'm no sure if you can see it but the legs to the rudder pedals extend beyond the bottom of the sidewalls. I am thinking of folding the legs up a bit to shorten them but a bit worried about how it will look. Any other ideas?

This is the other problem I am beginning to think about. All the panels are supposed to be flush but for some reason in a kit full of scribed panel lines, Trumpeter has decided to raise these two doors. The simple answer is to sand and rescribe, however I have absolutely no faith in my current ability to rescribe those doors espicially the curved corners given my inability to even scribe a straight line. 

Thats really odd. Its like an access hatch on a ship lol.

Does anyone have some advice on how to fix this? Ive never done any serious rescribing so i wouldnt know.

Is it going to be that noticeable after painting?  I've just been re-scribing panel lines to make an F4F-4 Wildcat into an F4F-3, and it isn't easy; impossible (for me, at least) to do without some kind of guide to hold the scribing tool against.  

Those corners would defy my efforts--unless I could find something curved to use at that point.  Did you check references to see if they really are rounded?  

If you come up with a solution, I'd be glad to hear it.

Let's try this again, first the pics...

You can try another way, but you have to go all in, like committing all your chips in a poker game.

Thin the plastic from the back side, and cut out the radio access panel.   You could use a sharp blade point, but because of those curved corners, it might be better using a sharp pin or other sharp tool, and repeatedly score around the panel until you break through the plastic.

Once this is done, clean up both the opening and panel edges with some sanding.  Then re-attach to the desired depth.  There also appears to be a hinge running across the top.  To simulate this take an appropriate length of stretched sprue and after it is attached, brush some liquid cement across it and make vertical notches.

regards

Jack

p.s. forgot to mention while looking for some pics, ran across a review of the kit and it did state the cockpit was too shallow.  So that would explain why the rudder pedals look too long.

Thanks for that Jack. Im sure Blitz will be most gratefull, i know i am. When i get round to building something again i might use that method if i need it.

From the photos, it almost looks like the hatch is sunken.  Is that so, or is it a photo-optical illusion?

Most likley optical illusion. After look at the modern restoration and what few other photos i could find of it in a quick  minute search, its not even visible during flight. So as flush as possible.

Make your own conclusion i guess.

It's said the camera never lies--but maybe it's not complete honest either.  Thanks for the pics, Scorp.

Thanks for the help guys and interesting suggestion Jack, although I gotta agree it is an all in bet if I do try your method. I'll give it some thought and see how I can approach it.

Yes, the panel should be flush with the rest of the fuselage.  Could be just the lighting in those photos I had posted, but it is of a crashed P-40 ... maybe that set the panel door askew?

regards,

Jack

This whole panel dilemma really has me in a pickle so progress has been slow but I've done a bit more construction work. Trumpeter has moulded the exhaust in two pieces so you get hollowed out ends which is a nice idea but in practice it is a bit harder to achieve. 

While it looks pretty bad up close, in reality that gap isn't even 1mm wide so hopefully a bit of super glue and sanding will solve that problem. 

Here are some pics of the lower wing. I've snipped off the gun barrels and will paint and insert those later on. These bits won't be visible so I've just glued them in. I'm don't know what the name of that piece is and I'm not sure why Trumpeter has decided to do it in metal either but it works so no complaints there. 

I'm hoping to get some more done this week with a raft of afternoon shifts so I'll get some modellng time in the mornings. 

Blitz, those exhaust look nasty.  If you are sticking with those, should note that each individual pipe has a weld bead.   Both Ultracast and Quickboost make resin versions (the latter specifically for the Trumpeter kit).  

Another way to tackle that panel is to scribe around it, using it's edge as a guide.  Then tape around the area for some protection while you sand it down.

regards,

Jack

Damn blitz, even if its not much of a gap id be going for the quickboost. Those are some nasty exhausts.

Those Quickboost exhausts are tempting but I'm thinking I'm going to give the exhausts a try, especially since Jack has mentioned that each pipe has a weld bead so I'm going to try a bit of stretched sprue over the seam and see what I can do with it.

And that's another great idea for the panel Jack, and this one seems much less daunting and risky than the first suggestion. Thanks heaps for that.

I'm lagging behind in this GB, but will get to it shortly. Would you mind changing one of my entries from the Academy 1/72 P-40M/N to the Red Roo Models 1/144 McDonnell Douglas DC-9. I'll do it in Ansett Airlines markings.

Cheers

Tony

I think Owl can accommodate. Shes been a bit absent latley, i think shes sitting exams?

After a bit of work I managed to get the bits of sprue onto the exhausts and here are the results. 

They're not as perfect as the Quickboost ones but I think they're alright so I'll see how they come up after some paint. They'll be attached after I've painted the exterior of the plane anyway so the Quickboost is still an option if the originals don't work out. 

Here is the shot of the cockpit that is slowly coming together.

Lastly, is there a secret to scribing? I decided to take out the scriber and try Jack's suggestion of using the panel as a guilde and scribing around it, but I'm still having a tremendous amount of trouble keeping it straight. 

Try going slowly and lightly with the scriber, at least at first.  They tend to want to jump around if you press down too hard.  Good luck with it.

Very attractive cockpit, by the way.

Scorpiomikey

I think Owl can accommodate. Shes been a bit absent latley, i think shes sitting exams?

yup, been busy with school (18 credit hours! WHOO!)   Im graduating this coming spring so a lot of my time has been spent on my studies.

taxtp: go ahead and check the first page, I had you down for a couple of different entries and I want to know what is correct. :)

*chirp chirp* little quiet in here, sure i saw some tumble weed fly through a minute ago.

Hi Owl,

What you have on the first page was correct for me, but given that I have so many promises and so little time to deliver, I would also like to drop the HPM Mirage IIIO.

That leaves it like this:

taxtp: 1/48 ICM  Spitfire VII,  1/48 Eduard Sopwith Pup,  Red Roo Models 1/144 McDonnell Douglas DC-9

BTW, I'm commencing the DC-9 today.

Cheers

Tony

...duly started.

This is the Red Roo Models 1/144 DC-9-31. It's a repackaged Sky models kit with Ansett Australia decals.

Wings removed from sprue and uppers glued to lowers. Fuselage removed from sprue and tidied up.

Eventually it should look something like this.

Cheers

Tony

I've been busy at work lately so I haven't gotten much done but I have Thursday off so I'm looking forward to getting some work done again.

checkmateking02: Thanks for the comment about the cockpit. I'm glad I did try out the resin cockpit and am very happy with it.

Taxtp: Ansett...... Now there's a blast from the past. Although I've never seen them with red in their schemes before.

Ansett was red up until....mid 80's? mid 70's?

Taken in the 70's.