Gary, I know what you mean, I think we all go through all that at some point.

Back to the Vega, the bottom wings were carefully trimmed to fit to the wing root and to match the tips.

The canopy? windscreen? was masked off and faired in. The tail was added and the seam filled and loads of shaping to fit.

The first primer coat revealed a few things to be corrected. Sanded it back tfill and repeat. Managed to knoch one tail fin off, and crack the cowling seam, so nothing unusual.

You can see the struts that need to be built up with milliput, that's the next to do.

Wedge, love it, a great looking kit you have there!

I'll get you on the roster soon, life is getting in the way of modelling right now...

Wedge

Hi all

Would like to join in with Meng's British R-R Armored Car in 1920 RAF livery.

 

 

Hope it's okay by Piers- that's really cool! 

Lostagain>  Nice work on the Vega and Arado!

PFJN> That a nice looking HP-42 despite the hiccups.

As for me, I haven't touched a kit since September.  Just lost drive since having problems with the last two models.  I'll try to get started again next year.  Promise.  Really.

Gary

Hi all

Would like to join in with Meng's British R-R Armored Car in 1920 RAF livery.

That's coming along very nicely Piers! 

Back to the Arado,getting the engine together. It is a tricky three part cowling which does not naturaly hold the right shape. So plenty of locating tabs and a spreader inside. And you can see the amount of filler required and the interesting set up of the undercarriage which guarantees alignment.

ANd now assembled - you can see the gaps around the nose - there are three different nose variants possible in this model.

And undersides showing all the filling required.

Hi Pat it is looking great there. I know what you mean about decals like the C and G folding and flipping at the worst moments. And I can imagine you needing loads of solvent to get the decals to conform over the corrogations.

I'm back and Piers and Pat you're both doing fantastic work guys!!! 

Hope to get back to mine sometime early next year. 

Looks great Pat, very nice work.

Dodgy

Hi,

Sorry that I haven't been too active on my build lately.  The real world interfered.

But tonight I was able to get most of the decals on, so that the only two main things left are painting the framing of the windscreen adding the exhausts and then some clean up and a gloss coat.

The decals in my kit are very good, but they also were very delicate, with the carrier film being very close to the edges of the shapes.  As such it was very easy to accidentally distort some of the decals when applying them (especially the "G" and "C" decals).  In the end I got most of them on OK, except for one of the smaller "C"s on the right side and one of the small "Imperial Airways" decals (also on the right hand side).

An issue that I had when applying the decals was that I often was able to get them close to looking right, but when I tried to apply some Micro Sol, the decal would shift slightly and then tend to get mostly stuck in place.

Anyway, I am happy how it loks for now.

Pat

Great idea about the laminated wing spar!

Thanks Ferg, they are a bit of work, I really want to go for a shake and bake kit for my next project...

So back to the Vega, I mocked up the canopy and wing together to make sure they were fitting together well.

Next the canopy was glued in place, a couple of millimetres ahead of where the model had it, so that the wing was correctly positioned. Then put in place some laminated card to give a stub spar as good gluing surface for the wing, and to hold level too. And you can see the centre line drawn on the wing to help alignment.

Then the top wing is glued on

Looks like you really had your work cut out for you there Piers. Looking good now though.

Dodgy

Finally back to the bench. Mostly on the Arado.

I have painted the interior RLM02 and got the IP decal in place. I also added a minimal bit of detail on the sidewalls. You can also see that I needed to put tabs on to make up for the lack of locating pins in the model.

And gluing it all together was a pain - it had to be done bit by bit, working my way around the plane from tail to nose.

And in the nose I had to stick a piece of plastic to properly shape the fuselage so that the nose will fit on with reduced filling.

Piers: Looks great! Good to see so much progress. 

Dodgy: Heck yeah, I really, really, really need to cut back... 

Gamera

Thanks guys!

It was Meng brand paint Piers. First time I've used it. It's an acrylic which I really prefer. I'd been using a set of Gunze Sangyo laquer based paints designed for Japanese armour but I'm find it a PITA to use. So I was happy to switch to the Meng acrylic.  

I sprayed in the basement/cellar as I usually do- 24C and with a fan running to circulate the air. It could have been a little warmer but that's the normal tempature and other paint dries just fine. 

Going on holiday myself next week and then going to be trying to finish up stuff for the end of the year. Will be back to work on the Type 89 first of the year next year. Am going to try to start fewer

 GBs and get more stuff finished!!!  

 

I know what you're saying Gam, I'm doing the same. My only new commitments are to the figure GB and the SSGB.

Dodgy

Looking like a real challenge at the moment Piers, but I have no doubt you'll get there and do it in style!!

Dodgy

Done a bit more on the Vega, taking it apart a bit to get it better.

The Vega was together and I needed to take the cowling off so the cowling/fuselage join would look half decent. So I carefully cut off the cowlng and managed not to make a complete hash of it.

Then I got the cowling off and have been cleaning it up. The bits of plastic sticking out the front are guides that I stuck on before gluing the halves together, so there would be supports to hold the cowling in position.

Next to put the canopy in place - it should go well forward of where the model seems to have it.

Thanks guys!

It was Meng brand paint Piers. First time I've used it. It's an acrylic which I really prefer. I'd been using a set of Gunze Sangyo laquer based paints designed for Japanese armour but I'm find it a PITA to use. So I was happy to switch to the Meng acrylic.  

I sprayed in the basement/cellar as I usually do- 24C and with a fan running to circulate the air. It could have been a little warmer but that's the normal tempature and other paint dries just fine. 

Going on holiday myself next week and then going to be trying to finish up stuff for the end of the year. Will be back to work on the Type 89 first of the year next year. Am going to try to start fewer GBs and get more stuff finished!!!  

Cliff, great painting there, super result. It does look hilarious under the silly putty!

What was the paint brand that caused you the issue?

I am back from holidays, I will get some progress on mine up soon.

That's looking great mate!

Dodgy

I got the Type 89 almost painted. Not crazy at all about how the paint came out, first time I've used this brand and it didn't want to dry and built up way too thick. So I'm going to have to clean up a bunch of little places. If this thing wasn't so much work to paint I'd strip her and start over. Got a lot of stuff I want to finish before the end of the year so I'm probably not get much done until next year. 

Her in the Silly Putty- I'VE BEEN SLIMED!!!

Thanks Piers and Gam!

Dodgy

Yeah, the interior detail there looks fantastic! 

Really good work there Ferg, that is great interior detailing!

Thanks Pat. I'm more of a builder than a painter, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

Dodgy.

Wow, that looks great.  Can't wait to see how it turns out. 

Pat 

Hi folks. I have not posted for a while, but that doesn't mean I have been idle. I have finished including an interior for the HP42. I have included the main passenger seats, cockpit detail, radio operators compartment and bulkheads, {still to be trimmed}. Please note - these are not to scale and are not detailed. Their job is simply to give an impression that there is something behind the windows. Smoke and mirrors. Painting starts next.

Dodgy

68GT: I've never built a MPM kit but I've seen them before. I figured it was a limited run kit and would be a bit rough. 

Piers: The Vega is coming along great! And the Arado is interesting. She looks like she's going to be a rough ride too. Looking forward to seeing how you bring her up to speed.