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Spirit of St Louis FINISHED!


ericg

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He has built a snap together kit so far, but he prefers murdering zombies on the PlayStation at this stage in his life.

 

Eric

 

 

 

Hopefully he can get stuck into the hobby. My dad started me on Snap-Tite kits around 4 or 5 when he was building, and got me interested into the hobby at that age.

 

 

 

 

Matt  :frantic:

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Thanks for reminding me Nillus, with a Cyclic between Christmas and New years one cant afford to become to festive!

 

Some more work.

 

I decided to make a small amendment to the kit instrument panel and used Airscale decals, which I reckon have made a big improvement on what is supplied with the kit. I had to work hard to get it looking close to my reference though as there is instruments from quite a few of the Airscale sheets here; 1/48th scale, Soviet dials, Jet dials, upside down dials.... anyway, I reckon I got it pretty close. 

 

IMG_8308_zpseifffjug.jpg

 

Here is the finished panel. I thought for a while about whether to depict the white marks that Charles used to count off how many  hours he used in each tank in the top right hand corner of the panel. I guess it brings a human element to the project regardless of how hard they will be to see. It gives the aircraft a lived in/Historical feel. Apart from the Airscale decals, everything else is `from the box'. I also had to scratchbuild the magneto switch as the kit one pinged off into the distance, courtesy of some fine tipped tweezers. I used some scrap white metal from the kit to carve a new one.

 

IMG_8332_zpspdwlk4ab.jpg

 

Here is the painted fuel management system. I painted the small silver shape on the rectangular part for reasons which will become clear soon.

 

IMG_8335_zpsygaital9.jpg

 

The built up instrument panel and fuel tank/system. The silver paint was to depict the mirror in the periscope.

 

IMG_8336_zpsricystsa.jpg

 

The cockpit side walls have been sprayed Tamiya rattle can bare metal silver, with the kit cockpit frame laid over the top. There is not much detail here, but with some careful painting some can be added. I am struggling to find references which confirm how the side walls were painted, so if you have some please feel free to add!

 

IMG_8325_zpshekqjldx.jpg

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Sometimes when you are confronted with a challenge during a model, you need to draw inspiration from the subject itself. My thoughts were turning towards a solution to the bare metal cowls, which are a unique and very eye catching feature of this particular aircraft. The kit does include decals which are reasonably nice, but in my heart, I knew they just wouldn't cut it and I wouldn't be satisfied with them. I wanted the cowls to be as real as possible and I thought of various ways in which I would be able to achieve them. The process by which the real aircraft has the texture applied to the cowling is `engine turning' so after some research, and a good deal of thought as to how I would accomplish it I set up to do some real engine turning. Each part takes a while to do but I thought that if Lindbergh could spend 33 hours flying across an ocean with no sleep then a few hours spent here would be no big deal.

 

I recently purchased a Proxxon micro drill press with a compound table which is entirely suitable for the task in which I set it. By mounting some thin aluminium (the stuff that forms the membrane on a Milo tin) on a piece of MDF I was was able to clamp it to the bed of the compound table, giving me a very flat surface to work on. I chose a small length of brass rod at an appropriate diameter (3.2mm) and punched out disks of 240 grit wet and dry sandpaper which I then glued onto its end. Each full wind of the X and Y axis wheel gives me 1mm of movement in either direction and everything in between. I worked out that I would wind 2 mm in one direction for each circle, then overlap its adjacent line by moving the part 1.5mm across and then do another line. I took rough templates of each part from the kit decals which are not quite the same shape as the scribed lines, So i adjusted each template to suit and then transferred it to the work piece. Once I got the hang of it, the process is quite easy. I used the lowest RPM possible on the drill and used very light pressure to make each circle. 

 

IMG_8339_zps103wndjg.jpg

 

IMG_8343_zpsrzaru15x.jpg

 

Here is a panel in progress. I found that I achieved better results by leaving the Aluminium dust where it was rather than blow it away. Notice how precise each circle is.

 

IMG_8348_zpshgyfnqqp.jpg

 

A panel with the engine turning completed. It was at this point that I thought F%^# YES!

 

IMG_8350_zpso8myoatf.jpg

 

Dry fitted for final adjustment.

 

IMG_8347_zpsxdogpaw4.jpg

 

I used a toothpick to push the vents in, then filed them from the back. I will cut them neater once I have glued each panel on.

 

IMG_8353_zpseukklqnn.jpg

 

A comparison between the kit decals and the new metal panels.

 

IMG_8352_zpsnxpuv8it.jpg

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:bow: :bow:

 

This is exactly how I imagined to do it, Eric ! :goodjob: Have you tried finer grit sand-paper to see whether there was a difference ? Or even a softer material (ultimately cork as per the original MO) ?

 

Seeing your work and and the pics have made me review my first OOB appreciation. I'm certainly going to move this one up my "next-to-do"list ...

 

Hubert

 

PS: still no hope to see the IM 1/32 (Pegasus ? IIRC) model be released one day and the molds freed by the Korean molding company that cut them ?

 

PS2 edit : now you have to turn the prop spinner out of an alu block to complete the appearence ...

Edited by MostlyRacers
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:bow:  :bow:

 

This is exactly how I imagined to do it, Eric ! :goodjob:  Have you tried finer grit sand-paper to see whether there was a difference ? Or even a softer material (ultimately corkn as per the orginal MO) ?

 

Seeing your work and and the pics have made me review my first OOB appreciation. I'm certainly going to move this one up my "next-to-do"list ...

 

Hubert

 

PS: still no hope to see the IM 1/32 (Pegasus ? IIRC) model be released one day and the molds freed by the Korean molding company that cut them ?

 

PS2 edit : now you have to turn the prop spinner out of an alu block to complete the appearence ...

 

 

Thanks for the input Hubert. I tried a number of different combinations before I settled on the one that you see here. Finer sandpaper was clogging too quickly and I also tried a plastic rod instead of the brass. The panels look a bit stark under the macro lens and the light in which the pics were taken but in real life, they look exactly spot on to references. 

 

Good to see that I have inspired you to get into it mate.

 

I reckon the Injection molded one will come out the moment that I finish this one, although in the end, this one will turn out just fine.

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