Hasegawa Avia S-92

[LSP_Kevin]

Well, finally some modelling action. I've been tinkering away in the background on this one for the last few days, but I suspect progress will be slow. At some stage in the process I taped all the major components together to get a feel for the general fit of things:

 

 

Apologies for the blurry photo (it looked fine on the camera's LCD screen!). Despite that, you should still be able to discern a marked upwards warp on the port wing. There's one on the starboard wing too, but it's not so severe. Here's a shot from front on:

 

 

Considering my options on this one. In the meantime, check out the fit of Trumpeter's cockpit tub in the Hasegawa fuselage:

 

 

Pretty good, really, and with a bit of finessing it should be just about perfect. I've begun the process of detailing the inside of the fuselage, much of which can be seen through the landing gear cut-outs:

 

 

And a bit of work on the forward bulkhead:

 

 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm using Brian Cauchi's builds as both source material and inspiration for this one. I felt a bit sheepish at copying another model, rather than using original reference material (in reality I'm doing both). However, in pulling out my copy of the Trumpeter kit, it dawned on me that Brian hisself used that kit to copy most of his detail parts from! Now I don't feel so bad, and am pretty much doing likewise. While I'm not suggesting that Trumpeter's details are perfectly accurate, they were good enough for Brian, and that's good enough for me.

 

More soon.

 

Kev

[Allok]

Yay!

There you go, off to a great start.

 

So what's going into the Trump kit if you are using the cockpit on this one?

[LSP_Kevin]

So what's going into the Trump kit if you are using the cockpit on this one?

 

The Trumpy cockpit (etc) parts are actually leftovers that James H sent me, as he used lots of resin (etc) on his build. So, I still have a complete Trumpy kit myself, and I'm using the instructions from my kit to help work out how all their bits go together. The Trumpeter kit is really useful as a template for detailing the old Hasegawa bird. Given that I've still got another Hasegawa kit in the stash, plus two Revell 2-seaters, I suspect I'll be building the Trumpeter kit last!

 

Kev

[Out2gtcha]

Nice.............. Good to see this one back in action

 

Hows the fit of the front gun covers?

 

Brian

[LSP_Kevin]

Hows the fit of the front gun covers?

 

Haven't tried them yet Brian, but I'm not expecting much.

 

Kev

[spacewolf]

Way to go Kev and don't worry about 'copying' from any one source ... we are all really copying the original product, right ?... just some take it to more extreme levels than others. Do what you can, detail it to the level you are trying for and no one is gonna rain on your parade.

 

As for the wings... you could always leave 'em like that, have her banked over in a high speed turn, wings flexing.....

 

 

Cheers

 

Vaughn

[Kahunaminor]

Good to see you've started Kev. You were a lucky man to get the Trumpy 'pit. Isn't everegreen the best? It certainly fills in the void that is the Hasegawa wheel bay!!!

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks for the feedback fellas. I've had a pretty productive weekend at the bench, so I thought it was time for an update. I've been working on recreating the rear landing gear compartment bulkhead. Once again I took my cues from Brian's build and Trumpeter's parts, and came up with this:

 

 

The grey plastic part projecting from the middle is from the Trumpeter kit, modified slightly to fit my scratch-built part. There's still quite a bit of detailing to do on this bulkhead before it's done, but I've been concentrating on getting the geometry right before worrying about that. Here it is test-fitted inside the fuselage:

 

 

As you can see, it doesn't quite touch the sides properly, but that's because I had initially miscalculated where it should go. My original position, and the one the shape of the part is based on, is where the black line is, some 2mm further forward than the correct position. A bit of strip styrene will help hide that. I'm more concerned about getting everything to line up correctly once the glue comes out!

 

Here's a shot from another angle, though you can't see that much due to flash glare on the white plastic:

 

 

I guess I should really thin those wheel well openings, huh?

 

Kev

[spacewolf]

Hey Kev, great to see you getting this going... great work on the bulkhead detail. Yes, thinning those edges just might be a good idea

 

Cheers

 

Vaughn

[Azgaron]

åNice start! Looking good so far Kevin!

Beautiful Wildcat btw!

Cheers,

Håkan

[PhilB]

Lovely scratchbuilding there Kev!

This is going to be one to watch for me!

 

Phil

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks for the comments fellas, much appreciated. I've since glued the fuselage halves together after refining some of the interior detail. I should be able to go on and add whatever detail I need to through the cavernous opening for the wings.

 

nice work Kevin weird part is my kit has the same problem with the port wing?

 

I should check my other kit and see if it exhibits the same problem. I'm assuming it does, as I suspect the warp is a product of the way the wings are arranged on the sprues - ie, not flat and straight, but with one end raised. IIRC, Brian had issues with warped wings on his builds too. I haven't figured out how to straighten them yet.

 

Kev

[Allok]

One of the first LSPs I ever did was a rebuild of an old Hasegawa 262. I'm confident it was purchased and built in New Zealand long before I ever got hold of it and the wings on that thing were curled up like goats horns.

I suspect the warp is universal and has exsited from the begining of time.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

One of the first LSPs I ever did was a rebuild of an old Hasegawa 262. I'm confident it was purchased and built in New Zealand long before I ever got hold of it and the wings on that thing were curled up like goats horns.

I suspect the warp is universal and has exsited from the begining of time.

 

 

Nice build Keith! How did you straighten the wings on it? I dug out my other boxing of this kit, and it does indeed exhibit the same warped wings, in exactly the same places:

 

 

 

It's definitely 'built in' to the kit, based on the way the wing tips are held elevated compared to the root ends. I was also interested in the difference in the colour of the plastic between my two boxings of the kit:

 

 

Interestingly, the darker grey is the newer boxing (2000), and the cleaner, more modern-looking light grey plastic is the older boxing (1987). The light grey plastic is in fact very close to the colour used in Trumpeter's kit.

 

You'll all have to forgive my somewhat bizarre fascination with the colour of kit plastic!

 

Kev

[PhilB]

Kev,

I just spent the morning bending the prop blades on my 109 using hot water then a hairdryer.

I think hot water is a no no as there is to much scope for flexing in other axis along the wing.

How about fixing down the bendy part of the wing on a flat surface with packing underneath to get the right dihedral.

I would then get a hair dryer (the hot air guns for stripping paint will melt your plastic) on its highest seting and heat up the wing evenly.

once completely cool release it and see if it has helped.

Only other alternative is to put stiff bracing inside the lower wing so its completely rigid and set at the correct dihedral and use it to bend the upper wing into shape on attachment

which is what I think Brian did on his Stang.

 

There's my two P's worth.

 

Phil