AIRCRAFT - Battle of Britain Group Build (Jan 1st 2005 - May 31st 2005)

Waaaaaahhhhhh!!! My heart is torn!!!!!!! And so is my acrylic paint job! When I took up the masking some areas of the acrylic paint base coat pulled up. I know this isn't unusual, but it still sucks!!!!! I'm respraying tomorrow, with tape that's spent the night to my forehead, to reduce tack... This is very frustrating.

Karl, you're Hurricane looks great, what brand of paint are you going to use on it? Sorry but I'm just curious to see what stuff others use.
Question, how come you added styrene fillets to the ailerons, weren't they the right length?
Also, the shot of the cockpit is a tad blurry, try taking the shot a little further away and then zoom and crop the shot either on the camera or from a software package like Photoshop Elements.

Cheers
Darren

Looks like great progress on the Hurricane. Keep up the good work !

Regards, Rick

Razor The C looks fine from here. Bear in mind markings were often changed in the field leading to some extremely rough looking code letters, far rougher looking than yours, which looks pretty good to my eye.

Tanky Get that camera back.

Rick the pit looks great. And I know what you mean about the rear wing to fuselage joint. Why didn't Hasegawa just extend it back to the panel line just aft?

As for me, I've been busy turning Hasegawa's silk purse into a sow's ear in my own inimitable fashion. The fuselage halves are together, I made a complete hash of this, not quite sure how, as I taped everything together first and ensured that it was all lined up, before applying Plastic Weld from the inside. Go figure.

I then tried to attach the upper portions of each wing, my usual method as this avoids wing root filling, only to realise that the Plastic Weld had leaked under the tape, and I had forgotten to remove the ailerons. like I was supposed too.

All of this was yesterday after work. I really should have left well alone, seeing as I felt knackered. Anyway, today has been a little more productive, and here are the photos to prove it, albeit not very good ones, only got a little Kodak digi cam.

Cockpit including Ultracast seat and armour, not a patch on Rick's.



Replacement Ultracast ailerons, complete with styrene fillet to bring them up to the correct length and brass locator pins.



Fuselage just dry fitted to the wing, along with the replacement resin rudder and waiting horizontal stabiliser and elevator.



I've managed to make good some of the damage wrought by my ham fisted efforts yesterday, and with a bit of luck the airframe should be together tomorrow ready for a primer coat next week.

Karl

Tom, it's just a bad habit I've gotten into. It's no fault of the airbrush. Having no tsnad for the model, I usually leave it lying on the bottom of my cardboard box, and tilt the airbrush to spray. I know it's bad... But lately I've gotten into the habit of holding the model by some wingtip, which helped the problem somewhat. I need to get one fo those modular spray booth thingies from micromark.

EDIT- Great minds think alike!!! I was also thinking that glad press and seal would be a great way to fix this.

Sorry Tom, I've pretty much covered Midway with past builds. Will sure jump in on the North Africa GB when it gets going .

Regards, Rick

agreed Rick... this has been really enjoyable... now if all of you dance over to the Midway build we can have the same fun there!

Yes, 1500 Posts is pretty incredible. This has been the most interactive GB I've participated in & have enjoyed it much. Seems like we got the right mix on this one.

Regards, Rick

Darren, yes... I am going to try to get some shots... finally picked up suitable antenna material...

Well ... it pays to visit the LHS from time to time [:s] ... Called in and lo and behold, my order had come in, but they had not checked the order book So there it was - sitting on the shelf for me!!

It will be a couple of weeks before i get started, but at least I have it in my hot little hands. There will be a lot of planning going into it, but it looks impressive

Hello all...

I haven’t posted in awhile—been very busy lately. As I look back on some old posts, there some pretty spectacular builds. Just looking at some of them makes me want to start my 109 now! Lol. After I finish my current build I can start on this build.


Wow, 1500 posts already. Just shows you how popular this build is.

WOW I can't believe it guys, over 1500 posts in this GB!! Who would have believed that back in October last year when I kicked this off. The participation from everyone involved in this build has been absolutely fantastic, thanks heaps everybody for making this build as fun as it has been. Oh and we've still got a long while to yet, so hang around everybody.

My Spitfire is coming along well, with most of the camo done using Cutting Edge's camo masks. They work great BTW, but it should tell you not to attach the tail planes until after the camo is painted. I had to perform major surgery on one of the masks and finish it off using the old Blu Tack standby. I'll try and post some pics tonight.

Tom, quick question for you, are you going to post us any more shots of the Martlet? I think I remember reading a post where you said you were going to send another batch through.

Razor, you're paint job and decals look just fine from where I'm sitting. If you didn't tell me the "C" was home made I would never have known.

Joe, ditto Rick, there is a stack of time (three months) left for the build.

Jay, I have to admit that both my wife and I are both survivor nuts, we've watched every series so far and the new one starts on Tuesday

Cheers
Darren

Joe, you've got till the end of May to build the kit. Hang in there Buddy.

Regards, Rick

i am getting shakey here all. not sure if the kit will arrive in time to finish in time.

i hope so but i am thinking i may pull my name out. not sure what to do.


joe

sure! one: turn the color cup all the way tight to the airbrush body... I learned early with the 155 it's the safest way to go...

two: maybe you are overfilling and need to use the bottle...

three: if you insist on using the color cup at that angle and amount of paint, then next time you go to the grocery store get some Glad "Press and Seal" ... tear a small piece off, cover you cup and press down on the edges.. WALLAA!! a watertight seal... but unfortunately airtight as well... so??? poke a few holes in the top with a paper clip or large needle... a lot less spill! if any at all!

Next time you get a chance, fire off a letter or phone call to your sister and tell her how many people you have waiting for pics!!! I think you need to ask for your own camera next yr for Xmas or your birthday!!!

---edit---

Rick, didnt see your message until I posted mine... the 155 is siphon fed, the metal color cup is like a faux gravity feed... doesnt have a cap.. (I think it would work GREAT if it did) which is why I recommended the Press and Seal.. its not like saran, it is more adhesive (am thinking of trying it on my next martlet as a mask as it has no real glue) but WAY less adhesive than the masking... thighter seal though.. will let yall know how it works...

---edit 2 ---

Tanky... how are you spraying your model? you should be moving it more than your brush... maybe work on a airbrush stand like the legos we saw in the thread? (I think it was Bob) or a piece of styrofoam from walmart with pieces of sprue holding the body up... then you can rotate it to fit your spraying without touching it... just thinking I have never had to spray at that acute of an angle...

Tanky, 1: don't fill the color cup to the brim, 2: spray at a shallower angle, 3: use the cap on the color cup.

Regards, Rick

Well, unless my sister comes back soon with the digi camera, it's a 1000 words you'll be getting!! lol. I really like the 155 though. This was my first time vaguely attempting anything even close to free handing, and it actually came out ppretty good. Mind you it's splinter camo, so I have to mask the whole thing and spray it with rlm 71 anyway. But i have one BIG problem with the 155. I usually paint at rather steep angles, and the paint keeps spilling out of the color cup!!! It's a disaster waiting to happen!! Any siggestions for fixing?

Thanks guys for the comments, sometimes you get all wrapped up in a project and its nice just to have a second opinion. I have to wait a day or two anyway before I can put a top coat on so I will see if I can live with it the way it is.

Thad: I cut a slit in the decal to get it around the pushrod which worked fine except I poked and proded the second one too much trying to get it to match the first one and ended up ripping it. Sometimes I just don't know when to leave it alone!!!

Quick update on my Hurricane build. Got the pit installed, the fuselage halves together, wing assembled with all of the fiddly pieces provided by Hasegawa. Dry fitting of the wing to fuselage shows some very careful filling will be needed on the underside join between the wing rear & fuselage. Right in the middle of the fabric skin detail . Hope to have all the seams cleaned up tomorrow & into the paint shop for a primer coat. I'll post more pics when there is something to see .

Regards, Rick

Razor, looks good to me. Unless you have a bunch of serious modelers with magnifying glasses and reference handbooks hanging around pointing out all the inaccurate details, I say don't worry about it. Keep up th egood work.

Tanky (dito for ricks comment!)

Dave, the "C" isn't perfect, but doesn't look that bad in the pic.

Tanky, one pic is worth a 1,000 words. Lets see some progress pics.

Regards, Rick

Thanks for the info on the 109 paints everyone. Sounds like I'll have to do some research. Can anyone recommend a good site or book to look at?

razordws That looks very nice. The camo looks great. Thanks for sharing.

Looking forward to seeing some progress pics Tanky!

I have roughly free handed the rlm 70 areas onto the do-17. it's pretty cool, free handing with the 155 turns out pretty good even at 16 psi and I wasn't even trying very hard!!! tomorrow I'll mask and spray the toher top color- rlm 70.

Dave, Where were you three days ago. I just installed my rudder push arms (lol). I guess I will learn your pain.

Thad

personally I think that looks fine. excellent looking build.

Rick: nice pit! How come my 1/72 scale pits don't look like that? LOL

Jay: Know what you mean, my wife is hooked on CSI.

Now... more questions? I apologize for asking for so much advice but I am in unchartered territory these days and its all your guys' fault anyway so now you have to answer my questions (did that make sense?)

Anyway, finished putting the decals on but I want your honest advice on the home made ones. In particular the red C. I'm very happy with the homade H and I'm okay with the Group badge but I'm not sure about that red C. I really don't have anything to compare it to for color correctness. What do you guys think? I put the the homade red C over the white C that came with the kit decals. I was trying to get a white outline around it but as you can see it doesn't quite line up. I'm thinking of tossing it and leaving the white C and replacing the N with M for a hypothetical marking (not sure what staffels were in I/KG 26)

Honest opinions please!




One other note: for those of you planning on doing this build, be sure to leave off the rudder push arms until AFTER the swaztikas are on!!!!!!!! What a pain!!!

I hope to get the top coclor Ab'd on my d0-17 today. I hope I can. No school for the next week anyway, so i should make good progress.

Jules, Jay, thanks for the comments on the Hurricane pit.

Daniel, during the time frame of the BOB, 109 interiors were RLM 02. Rlm 66 became standard in early 1941. Airframe camo was either RLM 70/71/65 or RLM 02/71/65. The RLM 74/75/76 scheme was adopted also in 1941, after the BOB time period. When the RAF realized the RLM 74/75/76 scheme was superior camo at the ever increasing altitudes where combat was engaged, Fighter command also switched from the Dark Earth/Dark Green/ Sky & adopted the Grey scheme seen throughout the rest of the War.

Regards, Rick

QUOTE: Originally posted by tweety1 So any idea when the Nth African GB starts??????????

Wedding anniversary coming up in March-something for the wife to buy for me-another model!-Acc. Min. F6F Mustang. (I think).

Start time on the Nth Africian GB is not the problem-it's the end date that could be an issue!. However, I'm very flexible.