EBergerud

Might be able to get back to the Sunderland pretty soon. Anyone know what color of primer was used on Brit planes? Eric

 

Good question Eric and i have no idea. I have just tried doing a search and any sites that might help, such as Brit modeller, are blocked while i am at work. I'll have a look tonight, unless some one elkse can help in the meantime.

Really progressing well now Nick, can't wait to see this finished.

Eric as far as I can tell it’s that raf light green with black flight deck but that’s my appinion 

Coming on nicely LA, and thanks for the heads up. Seems Airfix still have a way to go before they reach tamiya level of fit.

LA what Paint scheme on that lighting?

Bish I’m leaning toward a hawker hunter in 1/48 for the Commonwealth GB

Eric: Sorry no idea. Other than RAF cockpit green and aluminium I don't know any other interior colours. 

Nick: Looks good, you're making great progress. 

LA: Wow, is this one of Airfix's new kits or one of the older ones? I was hoping after all the issues you had with the Cobra this one would be a nice easy build for you. 

Gamera

Eric: Sorry no idea. Other than RAF cockpit green and aluminium I don't know any other interior colours. 

Black was used in cockpits from shortly after WWII thru the 60’s or so, when a medium gray came into use.

Well, I did get a little work done on the Vampire in the past coup,e of days. Of the few rimes that’s I have used Eduard detail sets, this is the first time that I actually have made the IP. These are a new experience for me. Very nice but a bit of a quandary a short to how to get the instrument film onto the back of the PE panel. I ended up using Micro liquid tape on the back to get it to stick. And that was after I added some white paper onto the back of the Instrument Dials film. Overall I really like the look

and I did detail painting and wash in the cockpit tub

I just need to do some dry brushing in there now, add the seat harness, and I can get it all installed.

Nick, I like how she appears just clean, so look forward to the weathering ...

Lost, looking quite good despite the downfalls of the kit.

Stik, good work on interior details.  One way I've attached clear film behind an  IP is with future clear, and once dry just run some superglue gel around edges and wipe off any excess.

Eric, off hand, I wouldn't know exactly the colour of primer(s) for RAF.  I've googled the subject with Britmodeller in the search parameters, but find various topics - not sure if it depends on the aircraft type, manufacture or time frame.  I 've seen grey, grey green, and silver/aluminum paint mentioned.  There was also an entry by the late Edgar Brooks with the statement that with aluminum surfaces, aircraft were also camouflage painted directly without any primer to save on weight.

  Some interesting notes about weathering on the Sunderland here:
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235030223-italeri-short-sunderland-mk-iii-advices/

regards,
Jack

Nice work on that pit Stik.

Jack and Bish, thank you sirs.

Dry brushing completed...

Thanks SP, I didn't even think about post-Second World War aircraft. I think the cockpits of night fighters and bombers were painted black or dark grey too. 

Nice work on the Vampy, you're making real progress there! 

Sorry, not so much progress here, one of the stencils wasn't straight so I removed it with decal setting solution, then scratched the paint with my hobby knife, went back and repainted the area, and now the second decal silvered... 

I laid some Future over it, that should seep down behind it and seal it stopping the silvering- or that's the plan anyhow. 

Lostagain, Lightning looking good. Nice work dealing with the imperfections.

Stik, PE cocpit looks great. Your first one, eh? I'd never guess. The dry-brushing really sets everything off. I'm going to buy some enamels for drybrushing and washing I think.

Gammy, sometimes if it isn't one thing it's another, eh.

Greg, I’ve used PE in cockpits before, just never the IP like this. I do like the stuff.

stikpusher

Greg, I’ve used PE in cockpits before, just never the IP like this. I do like the stuff.

 

Got that. Yep, the panels can look pretty cool as you've demonstrated.

This afternoon I finished up weathering (I think) and applied a final flat coat (I think again ), so it was time to pop the sacrificial canopy and take a deep breath and remove masks.

I am pretty happy with the landing light masks, though I really cannot understand the strip right down the middle...

And look, I missed a seam between the gun barrels. The wonders of closeups, and no, I'm not going to fix it!

As mentioned before, I am unhappy with the ocean grey because it is too dark and almost no contrast between it and the green. So I decided this is the model to try grunging up those decals and other stuff but good....

And one more view. I always hate beyond hate masking cockpits. This was my first sacrificial canopy and it leaves me wishing every kit came with an extra. It was pure joy popping the painted over one off.

After my usual Flory wash, the decals were still to crisp so I tried some pastel powders. Haven't done that since on an HO caboose 30 yrs back, I like the results, hope you do to.

Now on to the fiddly bits. I'm afraid the canopy is going to look too pristine on this pretty well-used airframe, but so be it.

Greg, nice update, I like how it's coming together.   Noticed the paint down the center of the lens too, maybe you had two sections of tape over that area?

regards,

Jack

Greg, i like the look of that, really nice work. I think the camo has come out just right and despite the line down the front of the lense, that light loks really nice. I wouldn't not fix that seem either. Can't wait to see this finished.

Greg I agree the plane looks real good I would like to see the finished build.

The Battle of Britain diorama is coming along nicely: ground crew figures are being assembled (that man on the Spitfire’s wing will be refueling it); the Hurricane upper side camo is finished; working on the landing gear for the Hurricane; and I got a nice effect for the underside of the fueslage’s amber identification light.  I drilled a hemispehrical depression in the center of the backside of the clear lens, then filled it with a couple of drops of something that approximated amber (mostly gloss yellow with a couple drops of dark earth and copper metallic).  It looks close enough to a clear lens with an amber lamp behind it.

https://pin.it/uqhqenoxzxe3bi

https://pin.it/utw36fp65r2mew

https://pin.it/x4hyxrq3howwlq

https://pin.it/m2hndrveuhkdpc

Also, for anyone who intends on building this model, the Airfix 1/48 scale Hurricane Mk. I, I should point out an error in Airfix’s instructions.  There are two landing gear parts, D57 and D58, which are attached to the main landing gear struts and the forward bulkhead of the landing gear bay.  In the instructions (see illustration) it shows that each of these parts has to be threaded through a roughly triangular shaped hole in the wing structural member.  THIS IS INCORRECT - the part will absolutely NOT fit this way!  Instead, if you look at the wing structural member (and you can also see it in the illustration), just forward of that hole (toward the nose) is another, smaller, semicircular hole.  Thread the part through THIS hole instead; it’s a perfect fit!

https://pin.it/yier2sbfsifgpr

Armor_Aficionado, very good work, and thank you for the heads up on the Hurricane's landing gear construction.  My only constructive crit would be that the hard edge camou looks more accurate than the freehand you have applied to the Spit - but in the end the dio should still end up being a treat.

regards,

Jack

Jack, Bish, Nick....

Thank you all for commenting, I appreciate it.

That strip down the middle of the landing light lens is apparently supposed to be there. It is both molded into the plastic and also the Eduard masks come in two little pcs to fit it. It was finicky to mask and unmasked extremely cleanly which is why I mentioned it. I wasn't very clear! Nothing new about that.

Bish, I figure if anyone knows British camo, it's you so if you say it's ok then I'm pretty happy.

It's nice to have you fellows following along.

bloody 'ell has this thread gotten away from me!  3000 posts?!  WOW! 

I have checked in, not nearly as frequently as I should have, apparently...

After taking some time off for the holidays, and building a pinewood derby car for entry into the adult class in our cub scout pack, I forced myself to put the finishing touches on the Dambusters build. 

Here she is, over the Moehne Dam in the Rohr Valley!

 Lancaster Bomber Dam busters build by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Lancaster Bomber Dam busters build by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Lancaster Bomber Dam busters build by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Justin, very cool dio of an unique event.  The splash effects of the dropped 'package' is quite well done. 

regards,

Jack

Some more work done on this. The big challenges will be to fit 6 vertical struts on wings along with four struts on the top of the engine into their respective holes all at the same time. Yay. The other one will be to stretch sprue and fix it somehow to form the wireing. The cross bars on the top right on the engine is my first atempt at stretching sprue, but because these are quite short pieces even with my trembling hands it wasn't too hard.

Justin, that dam buster looks super cool

Chuffed to see this one done Justin, and really well done. Love how you have puled off the splash and with the bomb just lifting back up from the water. Great build and a really well done dio.

Going to use the second image if thats ok.

3000 and counting and still 3 weeks to go.

castel, i like the scheme there, its coming along nicley. Those cross bars have come out well, i am sure you will do a grand job on the rigging.

Bish

Chuffed to see this one done Justin, and really well done. Love how you have puled off the splash and with the bomb just lifting back up from the water. Great build and a really well done dio.

Going to use the second image if thats ok.

3000 and counting and still 3 weeks to go.

 

Not entirely sure what "chuffed" means, but I take it as a compliment!   Lol!

Thank you, Bish!  I wanted to get this one finished so I can put some focus on the bomberolling group build and get started on that Gotha....

Second image is fine to use, in fact I probably would have picked that one too!

 

Thank you all for the kind words!

Bish, I had fun on this one!

 

Justin, bad as my memory is, I recall quite vividly the early stages of your dam buster project, and some of the early "how will I do this" stuff.

It is nice to see it having all come together so well. You really did a knock-out job on it.

BTW, IMO those PE "moving" props looks fantastic in this application. I can almost feel the pulling-up forces.

Castel, you are a braver man than I tackling that bipe. It's looking really good and I think it's going to be a beaut.

Walrus is looking very good. We need more pics. When done let us know what you thought of the kit itself too.

The Sunderland needs some rigging and they recommend sprue. I've got rigging line with flex that I'll probably use. However one of the uber-gurus at ModelWarship is a Brit named Jim Baumann whose models are beyond good. He'll spend weeks rigging a ship with very fine sprue.

Baumann has some very nice instruction pics for making sprue. His technique is much easier than the standard one. You have to be a little careful, but the same is true heating the center of a piece of sprue and stretching it.

Here's how its done. Get a piece of sprue maybe 3" long - whatever is comfortable. Get a piece of cardboard or even a postcard and fix it to your desk. Light one end of the sprue and bring it down toward the card. It only needs to burn for a second - blow it out and stick it in the card immediately. Then pull back on the sprue. Once you get the hang of it, you can mass produce sprue of almost any thickness.

One advantage of sprue is that you can carefully heat it after it's on and it will tighten. The same is true with monofilament line. One or even two lb test would work well for rigging a plane.

Eric