The Airfix Farewell GB from now until 1st Jan 2007

Congrats to Jeaton01, Jeff and Duke for some really nice progress on your builds. They seem to be gathering momentum and are all looking great. Good work guy's.

Steve

Brews:

Primarily Tamiya putty, that looks silver, and a little gap filling super glue.  I like the Tamiya putty the best because it is very fine grained and dries faily rapidly.

John

John

Just to show I'm working on it, and to use my new camera, an HP M627 7 megapixel 3X optical zoom so far I like it special.

Wow Jeff, yours is far better than mine looks! I know what you mean about breaking off so many parts. I also have about 9 parts, including one engine nacelle that I need to re-glue back into place. I agree, this is a hard plane to handle. I'm hoping to finally get my rotordome on soon.

Razordws, nice job on the Meteor. Keep up the great progress! 

Meanwhile, despite the loss of the tailwheel, I went on and painted the basic coloring on my Airfix 1/72 scale O-1 E/F Bird Dog. I still need to touch it up a bit and find a replacement for the tailwheel and then this one will be ready for Future and decals.

Not much more to report. I'll post more when I get more done.

Razordws, Meteor is coming along great.  Looking forward to seeing it done.

I haven't had much time for my build lately, but I grab a few minutes here and there when able to work on it.  I'm hoping for some time off in the holidays to finish it.  Got the wings and engines on, and just glued the rotodome pylons on yesterday.  Check out the trailing edges of the wings to get an idea of the warpage, especially the right wing (left one looking at the picture) between the inner engine and fuselage.

I decided to paint and leave the horizontal stabilizers off until last, so I can use the mounting hole to push a stick though to hang the model for painting.  Still have to fix the forward tip at the base of vertical stabilizer, since it broke off long ago.  Also, I've managed to break off the forward gear strut, two HF antennas, and the vertical stabilizer while trying to fix its warpage.  I've never seen a model made of such brittle plastic.  Its size also makes it hard to handle, almost dropped it twice yesterday.  Give the state of the plastic, I'm afraid it would shatter into a thousand pieces if it hit the ground hard  As I've said before, though, fit and engineering have been pretty good.  I think most of this kits problems (warpage, brittle plastic) come from improper storage.

Hope to start painting soon.

Cheers!

Dave, great progress on the meat box.

Looking forward to seeing it complete.

Karl 

Hey Razordws, that plenty of progress when you are ready to go to the paint shop. Looking good.

Steve

Hmmm... How did this thread manage to slide all the way to page two?

Anyway, doesn't look like much progress over the last pic but she's already for paint so I hope to post some more pics on Monday.  I tried using super glue as a seam filler this time instead of squadron putty and I must say I like it.  Ready to sand in a couple of minutes and you're done.  We'll see how well it worked after the primer coat.

So far the Whirlwind is not a bad build, but I wish I would quit with the breaking off of the prop blades!  The spinners drag on the nacelle fronts, but if I made the fit looser, then the propellers would drop down and not fair with the nacelles.  The way it is made you can't fit the props on after assembly of the nacelles to the wing.  I quite like the little bugger, actually.

KJ200 wrote:

Jon, congrats again on the Spit. Duke, great job on the Bird dog. Jeaton, you're a brave man building a mint kit that is that old. Still, it is what they were made for. Karl

My MiG-15 is finally finished!  It's been an interesting exercise.  I've learnt a lot about sanding and finishing - there was a huge step in the fuselage, but, even though it's BMF, you can see it.  I've learnt a lot about BMF - took several coats to get it to sit right.  I've learnt about masking -  need to improve!  I've learnt about decals - cover them before masking over them!  As for Future/Klear, well, that needs to be applied gently and lightly.

The major problem I've had is with the main undercarriage, and now it looks quite awful, but it's taken an hour of using I think all adhesives known to man to make them hold the model up.  Finally, a mixture of Z-Poxy and CA has worked, sort of.  Of yes, and it's a tailsitter...

I will try and post pictures, but I'm also packing for my move soon.  In the next few days the model will be displayed at my local club, then sent to a friend's 6 year old for playing with.  Probably that undercarriage will be the only bit that stays attached in the end!!!

Anyway, it's done!  Phew

Jon, congrats again on the Spit.

Duke, great job on the Bird dog.

Jeaton, you're a brave man building a mint kit that is that old. Still, it is what they were made for.

Karl 

Jeaton01, your build is coming along ncely.  Those ejector marks look humungus!!!

Duke,  nice work.  ope you get the tail whell sorted out.

Thanks guys! I do appreciate it. As for the resin copy, I'll take it, but only if it is in 1/72 scale. That would be great!

Thanks Osher! It's great to be building with you again. 

Haven't gotten much more done yet, I've been very busy lately. I should have some more time in a day or so.  

Oh!  I leave the forum alone for a few days (sorting stuff out for the big move soon, etc), and wow, things have really progressed!  Wow!  The exhausts on that Spit IX look great Jon.  Fantastic work, as good as anything in resin, but done by hand.

 OK, will update the front page shortly.

The MiG is finished, sort of.  Just need to glue in the undercarriage, ariel, and guns (all painted already).  Pictures as soon as I can, but having a few hassles.  Working now on an old 40mm Bofors gun and tractor kit, but without the gun and trailer, so, just the tractor, a Morris CD/SW 30cwt, 6x4.  No pictures yet...

Build going nicely.  A bit fiddly, but just the right level.  Enough to challenge, but light enough to be finished reasonably.  Kit seems to be from the 60's.  A chap at the modelling club gave it to me, as he needed the gun, but not the tractor.  Fit so far is lovely, although one part can fit several ways, and guess what, the diagram was from the opposing side of the chassis, so impossible to tell which way round!  Still, it's tiny, and inconsequential.  Not going for a camo finish, or a sand, both of which are correct, but an overall dark green.  Well...I have an open tin, and don't want to open any others just before I go off for 2 years!  Anyway, it may well have been OD at some point, knowing the British army. 

Nice to see the Duke in action, even if a wheel has gone missing...  Still, losing, and then hunting out, parts, is all part of the fun, er, maybe?

I like the Bird Dog!  Sorry about the tail wheel.  Paste one on from your spares box, no one will check for the Scott dataplatre in 1/72 scale!  Darn Rug Monster(s)!  I have a wood and concrete floors where I build.  Still manage to lose parts occaisionally.

So far I have found everything I have dropped on the Whirlwind.

jeaton01 wrote:

...but building them is where it is really at for me.

That about sums it up, don't it! All the fun (well, most) is building. (So why do I have such a need to add to stash?!)

Looking good on the Whirlwind!

Whirlwind is looking good Jeaton! I know what you mean about the sinkmarks in the tail surfaces. My O-1 E/F Bird Dog has it too. I finally got the thing assembled, and as I was sanding it, I lost the dang tail wheel! I'm ALWAYS losing something vital that way! I HATE this not being able to finish a model because some crucial piece just DISAPPEARS!!

Anyway, here it is before I cleaned it up and started painting it and before it lost it's wheel!





I even painted the pilot as best I could. Here's a shot of him through the windscreen:

I hope you like it and comments are welcome. I'll have more pics later once I get more done. 

Some Whirlwind photos:

The worst moldings so far are the horizontal stabs which have very large ejector pin marks on both sides.  They can be attached so that both marks are on the bottom, at least.  I filled them with super glue and sanded them down, then rescribed a panel line that went away.  The propellers took a lot of cleanup, and I feel pretty good cause I only broke off one prop blade in the process.  The canopy is just sitting there.  It took some work to get it to settle into place too, on the front.  There are no locating pins on this kit.

jwb:

I'll probably file away the instructions/header card for the Whirlwind, but I have built models from the late 60's around still, and have more fun building than keeping track of too many unbuilt kits.  It's all in the memories, really.  There are some kits in my collection that I just like to take out and look at in the box, but building them is where it is really at for me.  I really can't explain why I have so many unbuilt kits.  Short attention span, or is it too many grandchildren? 

And to Brews:

It's too late, mate, the fuselage and wings are assembled, and I'm about to join the wings to the fuselage.  The Whirlwind was a pusher, right?  Seriously, this kit is a fun build.  I have just one question, though.  This kit has no rivets, like some of the Airlines kits I have.  Is that because it was done by Airfix before the rivets were common?  The kit is going together quite well, but I think I am about to hit the first "snag".  The wing to fuselage fit is approximate, and the instructioons are not too helpful as to dihedral, so it's off to the references for incidence and dihedral.

Thanks Pruz! I was pretty pleased with the colors myself. I used Pollyscale.

Thanks Jeff! I'd never drilled out the exhausts before. It was pretty easy, and it looks so good, I'm going to do that from now on.

jeaton01- I know what Brews means- do you build it or do you save it. I've got a couple of vintage Lindberg P-47's. I built a reproduction of them, but I still look at the vintage ones and think "It was meant to be built..." I know I'll never sell them. Either way- have fun! That's the main thing! It would be neat to see such a collectable realized.

Oh, don't dissuade me!  I need to build about 100 kits a year for the next 25 years to get out from under the present stash, and I'm nearing 60!

I know I'm real late, and we all expect Airfix to come back big and strong, but this looks like a lot of fun and I see no one is doing a Westland Whirlwind, so here goes...

Fantastic job!

The colours came out spot on - looks brilliant. Certainly is a lovely aircraft and that's a pretty decent build.

Al. 

sidure- Thanks! I figured since the fuselage roundels had the border, why not the wing ones?

razordws- Thanks! I was really pleased with how the exhausts turned out- kinda sets it off a bit, I think. I'll definetly be doing it from now on. 

Way to go Lon, very nice finished Spit. I actually like the new decals. They really stand out and bring the whole kit together well. Great job.

Steve.