80 Years of Airfix GB

Nick, got your Fury added, looking forward to seeing that.

Theuns

Bish please put me down for a 1/48 Hawker Fury aswell,hope to start it soon.

Theuns

 

Done.

Mark, wow, that is some amazing work, you are really doing a stunning job on that.

Mark, nice looking woodgrain on the steering wheel. 

Ta Bish

Theuns

Bish

Mark, wow, that is some amazing work, you are really doing a stunning job on that.

Thanks Bish. 

modelcrazy

Mark, nice looking woodgrain on the steering wheel. 

Thank you MC.

Cheers,
Mark

That bus is looking super Nick. The radiator looks just right too.

Here is the latest on my Matador & gun and Panther.

Cheers

Tony

Hi,

I finally had a chance to start my Humber last nite.  I'm kind of surpried by the model in that, while several pieces (like the bottom/chassis) are fairly heavily molded, some like the steering wheel, exhausts, and parts of the steering are very thin and delicate. 

In addition, I'm not sure if it is because my kit is fairly old, or if it is just the plastic that was used, but I have also found many of the parts to be kind of brittle.  The exhaust was already broken in the box, and I broke it in another place last nite while trying to clean it up, and part of one of the steering arms is missing (you can see the unpainted part in front of the chassis in the picture below).

I guess I will try and see if I can scratch build something here .

Other than that I want to try and add a little detail, like maybe painting the leaf springs a medium/dark gray (instead of black) and maybe make the gas tank and exhaust a lighter gray (right now the gas tank is unpainted).  I'm not sure what color to paint the bottom of the engine and transmission though yet.

Pat

Pat, i seem to recall that the kit that came in that style of box were more brittle. I think that was the period that Airfix kits were made in France and i guess it must have been due to the materials they used.

taxtp  -  Tony, nice work on those small scale builds.  Both looking great.

PFJN  -  Hey Pat, glad to see the Humber is under way.  Welcome to the "guess I'll have to scratch build something" club with these old kits.

Cheers,
Mark

Bish & Mr Stecks,

Thanks for the feedback.  Here is an in process picture below.  On the seats you can may be kind of see some of the texturing, whioch I suspect is similar to what Mr. Stecks mentioned was present on his omnibus model.

On the center seat I have tried to sand it down a little, and I will try and paint it to see how it looks.

Regards

Pat

[Clcik for bigger image]

Yep, the seats definitely show some of the same  issues I've seen on the Omnibus.  I like the paint you put on the crankcase, exhaust, and the leaf springs.

Cheers,
Mark

Tales of the Omnibus - Chapter 3

Started working on the upper deck of the Omnibus.  As you may have seen in one of my earlier posts, the floor of the upper deck is done and painted.  I worked ahead on that piece, knowing it would be easier to get the painting done without having all the walls and seats to deal with.

So on to the bench seats.  Here are a couple of the seats, that have various kinds of molding problems (such as the misshapen corner of the lower one), and the usual flash and burring typical of this kit.  All of the seats look about like this.

For some reason, Airfix decided to mold the part numbers into the backs of the seats.  Well, actually...  four of the seats have the part numbers molded into the underside of the seats.  Why, Airfix?  Why didn't you put them ALL under the seats, so I wouldn't have to deal with them?  The seat backs also have a nasty bit of plastic at the top that I think is supposed to be some sort of crash pad?

All the seats cleaned up as much as possible.

All the ejector pin marks and part number moldings removed from the seat backs, and filler applied.  Sanding to follow.

All the bench supports have the ubiquitous ejector pin marks, but the other sides are flat so I'll just flip them around and they should be hidden.

The side walls needed some work to remove (you guessed it) heavy ejector pin marks.  I decided to add in some styrene rails so the seats would have a better glueing point at the walls.  I saw some video of a restored Omnibus that showed rails like that so I think it will work fine.

Finally for tonight's update, I had a bit of a dramatic setback.  While moving an open container of lacquer thinner from one side of my bench to the other, a drop flew out and landed smack on top of the engine cover!  I saw the drop fly out of the bottle but didn't see where it landed at first.  When I did see it I quickly grabbed a paper towl and tried to wipe it off, but it had already eaten into the paint, and the primer, right down to the plastic.  Sigh.

I took that picture after having sanded the area down a bit and smoothed it out.  I am thinking about cutting the engine cover off the chassis because it's going to be so awkward to mask as it is.  I have to explore the bond and see if that's possible.
Wish me luck on this fix.

Cheers,
Mark

P.S.  Always put the cap on your lacquer thinner when moving it around!

Pat, can deffinetly see the issue with those seats, but they will look nice once sanded and painted. Nice paint work on the underside there.

Mark, your not the first and you won't be the last, i spilt some plastic weld onto the painted wing of an aircraft a few years back. But from what i have seen, you will have no problems fixing that.

Finished the ME 262...

Overall a pretty nice kit. The fit is very tight on most of the kit, almost too tight! But there were very few gaps or seams, so that was nice.

I had a problem with the decal that goes around the tail. The aircraft I was building has a blue and white checker pattern. I could not get that thing to line up and wound up ruining the decal in the attempt. Instead, I used the red and blue band from the other build option. So, it's an aircraft that really didn't exist but it works for me! 

Joe

For a plane that didn't exist, it sure looks good Joe. 
Great paint job.  Too bad the checkered decal wouldn't go on, but the replacement decal looks great.

Cheers,
Mark

Nice job on the 262 Joe. I always struggle with those tail decals and usually paint them. But the checkered RD bands would be tricky.

Got the front page updated, what scale is that as i still had you down as i didn't have your build added to thge roster.

Thanks for the compliments on the ME 262!

Bish- It's a 1/72

Tales of the Omnibus - Chapter 3 (cont.)

The Fix:
I was able to cut the engine cover assembly off the chassis to make the repairs.  Yay!  It worked out well, and now it is back in place.  Lesson learned... until the next time it happens. 

Now back to the upper deck.  Before and after of the seat parts cleaned up and ready for primer.

Looking ahead, I am impressed by the stairwell wall.  Less than the usual amount of flash and burring, and actually has some nice rivet detail.  It's a good looking part.

Oops... never should have turned it over!  hahaha.  Unfortunately the stairs won't cover any of that, so back to the sanding and filling.

Also started cleaning up the small lights that go into the underside of the upper deck, technically the ceiling of the lower deck.  These clear parts are extrememly brittle, and had tons of flash around their bases, so it was a long and fiddly job to clean them up.  They're a bit rough around the bases, but a coat of paint, and their obscure position in the vehicle, will help hide some of that.

Cheers,
Mark

UnwaryPaladin

Thanks for the compliments on the ME 262!

 

Bish- It's a 1/72

 

Thanks Joe.

Blimey Mark, you did a great job on that engine cover, looks perfect.

Some more nice progress there. If it helps any i have just started on a new Takom kit that has some lethal pour stubs in very exposed positions, so its not just the old kits that have that issue.

Joe, your Messy came out very nice.

Mark, good save!

Bish

Pat, i seem to recall that the kit that came in that style of box were more brittle. I think that was the period that Airfix kits were made in France and i guess it must have been due to the materials they used.

 

Hi,

I managed to get a fair bit of work done this weekend on my Humber, but the brittle plastic has been giving me fits, especially since I'm a bit clumsy.  So far, at least four pieces were broken in the kit when I got it (a bumper, a steering lnk, a window frame, and the exhaust pipe), and I managed to break three more trying to get them off the sprue (two seat front seat brackets and the gear shift lever).  In addition, while building the kit, through my own clumsiness, I managed to break another window frame, the two seat brackets (again), the connection points for both front wheels, and the other steering link. 

Fortunately though, they all are hopefully fixable, and I actually am very happy with the kit.  It appears to be surprisingly well engineered for its age, and many of the parts are very finely cast, and thin. 

With regards to the kit assembly it appears that Airfix made a fair amount of effort in casting some parts separate (where they could have likely just as easily made them all part of a single larger part).  Specifically the bottom of the car includes the frame, floorboards and a few other items, but the gas tank, engine bottom, gearbox bottom, and two other pieces that I think may be the starter and a fuel filter (or something similar) are all separate, which can allow you to paint them first before gluing them into place.  Similarly the tires are also assembled in steps, which allow you to paint the rims, prior to adding the tires.  Unfortunately I only discovered this part way through my build (after I had glued the engine and gearbox to the lower assembly, which is how I discovered how much of a pain it is to try and mask them off.

In the end, this is definitely one of those kits where I am almost tempted to go out and buy another one, so that I can start fresh, and apply all the lessons that I learned in my first attempt.  Unfortunately though I know that I would likely just encounter new issues if I did that.

Anyway, here are a couple images of the model as it currently sits.  It still needs a bit of sanding and a second coat, and you can also see some of the tape currently holding one of the front tires in place. Sorry about the poor lighting.  

Pat

keavdog

Only goofy thing so far was positioning the ailerons.  Wasn't exactly sure how they should sit but I wanted them at a bit of an angle.

 

John, except for early airplanes, ailerons usually move up about twice as far as they move down, that helps reduce adverse yaw.  Modern jet fighters are a whole different thing, of course.

I learned what adverse yaw was when I maidened my RC cub.  When that tail dropped I panicked.  That's when I learned to use both thumbs.

With the defiant, its mor.about attachment points when the ailerons are deflected.  Just didnt look right. 

keavdog - Nice work on the Defiant.  I always like to see control surfaces moved a bit away from neutral, gives a nice look.  So many of the kit's I've built have them molded-in, and I'm too lazy (and anxious about screwing up) to cut them out.  

PFJN - Hey Pat, really like how the Humber is coming along.  I've had the same feeling about buying a second Omnibus, because there's so much different I would do if I made another one.  The urge usually passes each time I draw blood with my x-acto trying to get rid of ejection pin marks.
Wow... I was just about to ask what the big blue part was for when I realized it was your sander.  I'm so dumb, sometimes.  hahahaha...

Cheers,
Mark

John, I have a 1/6 scale Cub that has scale hingeing, and even with the same differential as the real thing it still needs a lot of rudder.  I'm lazy so I use a radio mix.  I've flown all the Cubs but the early J-2 made the J-3 and later seem like Cadillacs in comparison, as the ailerons were not friese type and adverse yaw was remarkable.  Add to that there was no pulley on the aileron cable that ran up the strut where it left the fuselage so control forces were terrible because of the drag there.

Tales of the Omnibus - Chapter 3 (cont.)

Finally got the upper deck walls attached and painted.  The glueing process was a bit difficult, partly due to the design of the kit and partly due to my fumbling hands.  hahaha.
At one point I had to clamp the deck to my bench to keep it from moving around while glueing up the walls.  That actually helped a lot.

I like how it's looking.  Still a lot of finishing work to do.  Such as the hand rails that need to be glued together at the corners.  I think some sprue goo will work well there, then I can carefully sand the corners smooth... hopefully.  Haven't decided yet what color to do the rails.  I've seen both brown and brass versions.
Also need to paint the button/box and wire on the rear wall (for calling for the bus to stop) and the wire and bell located on the other side of that wall.

I finished building, painting and weathering the benches.  Each bench only has a leg on the aisle-side, and is supported on the wall-side by those strips of stryrene I added.  The wood effect was done with a base coat of Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan, and two shades of brown water color pencil drawn over the Deck Tan.  A black oil wash was then applied and wiped off.The metal parts of the bench are the same Tamiya X9 Brown as the floor and walls.

I couldn't resist setting up all the benches where they will go.  They aren't glued, just sitting precariously.  I think I set them up five times, and knocked them all down trying to adjust the scene for a picture.  lol.

I might have to scratch build some sort of newspaper to place on one of the benches.  I've never been on a bus that didn't have a newspaper left on one of the seats.  Surely that was the case back then too? 

Update on the figures... have started on the face of one of them.  I'll have some pics in the next post.

Cheers,
Mark