Fleet Air Arm Group Build

Keep going, Khalee.  These limited run kits are a lot of work but it's fun to watch the shapes come out of the plastic.  The wing things are the inner landing gear doors, the Barracuda had a difficult and complex landing gear because of the mid wing.

Here is where I am at with this kit. After trimming 3000 pounds of plastic and resin It's now together the tail is not glued at this time..

Now this little wing thing on the bottom is to big for the opening where it sits, so what I did is deepend the place it sits on about half a mm then trimmed both ends till it sat flush.

I used squadron putty and nail polish remover to close and smooth out the seams on the bottom

Wings I just scraped a little at a time and test fitted till I got them as flush as I could and attached them with Testors glue in the black triangle bottle, so all I need to do is carefully scrape with my hobby knife to get rid of the seam.

Here is a small update on this plane.

I think they should cut about 10 buck off this thing as there is no side wall detail.

Once you close up the sides you can't see much of anything as there is no way to pose the canopy open which kinda defeats the point of having that resin detail in there to begin with.

No locating pins so you got to be careful in lining things up

No bomb or torpedo rack   no bombs or torpedo included either.

PE parts are only the seat belts and the intake covers and radar antennas.  they could have included  torpedo and bomb rack details  in place of the damn seat belts.

 But on these pictures the only thing glued in, is the cockpit nothing else as Im still trying to get a hacksaw to remove the ten pounds of extra resin from the seats and you have to trim everything quite a bit to get the sides to fit without having  big gaps. there are still gaps but nothing that can't be fixed with putty at this point.

Thanks, Spike.

Very nice Admiral, looks good to me

Cheers...

That would be filed under "Things I don't want to know at this point".

I don't have gladiator specific markings references and went with Roden's color call outs but not their camouflage drawings for the fuselage, which can not be done because the drawings are inconsistent.

My best reference is an old Harleyford book and it is pretty limited.  More research is needed.  But there is a bottle of dark sea grey on the bench.

Typically on FAA bipes during the interwar period, the upper wing was dark slate grey and extra dark sea grey, the lower wing was slate grey and dark sea grey.

But that may have been changed by 1940.

Fade effect?  Whazzat?

Man, that's a bird chopper! looks really good. The FAA apparently didn't do the fade effect on the lower wing.

Time to get the Sea Hornet up.

Things are never slow on the FAA GB. Maybe it's time to get the bottom scraped.

I was down south for ten days, didn't get to model but did read a really good book- Robert Massie's "Castles of Steel" about the naval history, at least between Germany, Austria, Britain, Italy and Turkey of the Great War.

Khalee, the Barracuda would be a great entry for this group build,  I'm just the Admiral, but I'd say go for it.  Things have been a mite slow lately but I'm sure it will pick up and you can help.

I have got this one ready for the display case.  It could use some more weathering, but it's at that point where there are just too many things to break off.  Here are some pictures.  I used E Z Line for all the rigging, and made it silver with a silver marker pen.  I replaced the plastic antenna masts with steel.  I would have rather gotten a bit flatter finish but it's not bad.  A real modeler would mess with it a bit more but I'm happy with it.  The kit decals are hit and miss, I had to make the fin flashes and the R's with the ALPS because the kit markings broke into little bits, but the rest of the markings worked fine with big doses of Micro Sol.  If I do another Roden Gladiator I would fit the firewall to the fuselage, glue it temporarily with white glue and trim it to conform to the shape of the fuselage, then remove it to get all the engine/cowl/exhaust pipe alignments done.

jeaton01

Neighbors and dogs, you say Stik?  Well beware, them nefarious cats will not be far behind!!

Yes, as a matter of fact they are already here... we brought ours with us and the neighbor cats came visiting (scouting) first thing the next morning... 

Well If I can I will enter this for the build

Special Hobby 1/48 Fairey Barracuda

Looking great John!!! Mummy? Nahhh, as long as it's bagged and not tagged it will be right in the end

 I try to take pictures that show relevant parts of the building process, but some areas don't relate to that too well.  The instrument panel seems to be an area that people have been having trouble with, doing things like sanding it down or changing the ribs in the fuselage it fits against.  I had some trouble test fitting but found that the panel has to fit just right over the guns, if the lower edges are both placed just in front of the main square section of the guns it will fit with no trimming.  I will try to get a photo of how it fits from the front, as I have left the engine and firewall off until last.  The cockpit floor/seat assembly is another thing that takes some care.  I removed the forward right pin as it was going to foul on something, I forget what.  I super glued the three pins on the right side and then while both the panel and floor assembly were still a little movable (and the radio box) I put the fuselage sides together and clamped them with tape while the interior parts cured.  I let all that cure for a while, then I glued the fuselage haves together, starting with the top front.  Once the fuselage was glued, I went in from the front and glued the instrument panel to the right side.  I just left the radio panel and seat assembly free on the right side.

When it comes time to paint you will become frustrated with Roden's painting guide.  The top and side views are inconsistent.  No problem for the wings but there is nothing much useful for the fuselage.  Roden also put the separation line between the Light Sea Grey (or Sky) too low on the fuselage, it should be about 1/8 higher, generally at the bottom of the cockpit door.  You are on your own as to where you put the topside colors.  Copy mine, I more or less copied Tom Cleaver with better style [smiley=evil.gif]

Today I found that the rear interplane struts have the wrong angle on the lower end so they don't conform to the wing's airfoil shape.  I used them in and filled under the back edge, tomorrow I will carve them to shape.  I made cabane struts out of Contrail strut stock because the kit parts are not like what is on the airplane.  They should be the same cross section as the interplane struts but Roden supplied small round (and very fragile) struts.

I made an assembly jig with mixing sticks using the painting diagram as a guide for the angles, I'll post a drawing of the angles later.  It worked very well to get the correct gap and stagger for the wings and kept the wing panels aligned in planform.  I put the interplane struts in an let all that cure, then I disassembled the jig and made the cabane struts and installed them.  Everything looks well aligned.

Neighbors and dogs, you say Stik?  Well beware, them nefarious cats will not be far behind!!

More pictures.  Four colors on the outside so far, thing is starting to look like the Mummy, (No, I don't mean Guy's mother) with all the layers of masking tape.

All the holes are drilled for the rigging, except for the ones I don't know about yet.  The instructions don't show any, but I am putting wires under the stabilizers as they should be there. 

Thats great stik. I still have a corner of the kitchen table, get flak from the landlady and lose stuff when the cleaning lady comes every week.

John, yes dope. I agree, grey/sky is a better looking scheme and I don't have one of those in the collection.

I'm glad to see this GB breathe life again.Frank, do you have a build in mind? Darren, are you back at the bench?

Not very secret... all the neighbors who go walking by every day get a look at it...  and their dogs do too!

All set.  The secret workshop in Southern California!

Well here is the newly established work area at the new residence. Fully operational now.

This site will help you never get a Sea Hornet done, Bill.  Information overload.

http://www.dhhornet50.net/index.php?f=data_home&a=0

Since they were wood you would be meaning aluminum dope?  But I would go for the grey/shy.  Sharp looking.

I have a Frog Hornet in 1/72 and a Classic Airframes kit in 1/48.  Yup, I like Hornets and Sea Hornets!

I'll be the footman to this.

This came in the UPS today:

Dark Sea Grey over Sky, or NMF?

BTW can we agree to "take care o' dat ting?".

Thank you very much your Admiraltiness!!!! Might I have a few tots with ye? I mean if ur cleanin out the rum locker it will get done much faster and efficiently if there are more than one mouth... er I mean hand to help.

Thanks, Richie, and congrats on the award!

I hereby announce rum call and plan to clean out the locker meself!!.

Admiral sir she's lookin' to be a beauty for sure!!!

A bit of news for last weekend, I managed to place Third in the OOB small scale jet/rocket powered category with my Me-262 i did for franks Reich defender GB!!!!! YIPPEEEE!! First ever award!! Pic posted on GB thread.

Is everyone laying about the rum locker steeped in yer vomit?  On shore leave and locked up?

Well, let me tell you there ain't no scum on the bottom of the Admiral's feet, not a bit, laddies.  Working away on the Sea Gladiator, and on account the rest of ye be too sodded to know the difference and a few FAA lads were involved, I will be doing this one as N5519, variously know as Charity, or Faith, but little likelyhood every either been inscribed upon.  Two days into the engine and cowl, lots of itty bittys installed and the mouth looking only slightly crooked.  And the instrument panel, which is a clear part with reversed decals installed on the back, all kit parts.  There will be no extras on this one and not really needed.

Yeah, F,H and P would be fun.  I have heard that the names were a later myth and the airplanes themselves were without names.  Who knows.  Sometimes a good myth is better than a hit.  But for me to use those markings I'll need a special dispensation, not even an Admiral gets everything his way.  Wouldn't want to jeopardize the flow of booze or wenches!  Speakin' O that, what to hell, Quartermaster?  Did I sleep through the rum call?

I have painted the wheels and assembled the cowling.  This ain't going to be like whipping through the Tamiya Spitfire Mk. I I'm nearly done with.  But it's gonna look gooood!

Faith, Hope and Charity.

Oh, I like that!

But they were FAA aircraft, weren't they? And the pilots must have been.

I'm looking forward to this one.

I finally figured what  to build next, a Roden 1/48 Sea Gladiator.  Should look nice in Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate grey.  The kit has markings for several FAA schemes and also for the Defense of Malta airplanes, but I'm not sure I can use the latter without extra dispensation because I think the Malta airplanes were transferred to the RAF then. 

What group build? I go away to educate a kid, and there's modeling?

Hmmm what to build? Is there a deadline?

EDIT: I just ordered a 1/72 Special Hobby Sea Hornet.

Take that, XO!

Buddy she looks great mate!!! I see what you mean about the fit of the canopy as mentioned on the other thread! All in all a great job!!