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North American BC-1 Trainer (Harvard Mk1) 1/48 Vacform - Sierra Scale


SirBlueHenry

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The stabs are no longer red - i sprayed blue grey to counter the strong red plastic. Last thing I need is red shining through my yellow in the end.

Taped off so that I have minimal mess anywhere. so its slowly getting there.

35134957763_54b7be032b_b.jpg

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The u/c mounts themselves are very strong - but you will notice that the amount of material around the mounting hole is pretty thin, but for the kind of forces expected - it should be more than ok. The u/c was, of course, in place when i glued them in - one at a time - tweaking the position to get the closest to a correct location and angle as I could. The epoxy dried hardened within 3 minutes or so was a good choice. My original plan that the black undercarriage braces would be glued in with styrene glue - required that they actually touch either upper or lower wing surface with some reasonable amount of surface area, but as I realised this just wasnt going to be the case - the best position was closer to free floating within the space available, and so epoxy had to fill the space. Very happy with the result. In fact its shown that I can in fact put in some wheel well detail if I wanted. I guess I should try and do something, however meagre in the wells.

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A bit of a setback due to a dumb mistake

I sprayed directly onto plastic with an acrylic - which itself is not a crime but the adhesion was ridiculously low in this case and the paint scraped off with mild handling, so had to try and get it off - the downside is its also on all the horizontal stabs - which im not taking off. Humbrols almost never let me down. Sigh. 

 

I looked at the filling of the horizontals stabs and was hoping for a bit of a better finish. Its not bad but I was trying to get away with less sanding. As it turns out I will still need to sand a fair bit.

 

I drilled landing light reflectors into the plastic, but lenses will be a lot of work

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Guest Jessie_C

Do you mean lenses or leading edge covers?

 

Lenses can be made very simply by burnishing the end of a paintbrush onto a small square of tinfoil held on your fingertip. Cut it off the paintbrush with a razor knife and drop a drop of Krystal Clear into it to finish the lamp.

 

Leading edge covers can be done by the "heat and smash" method. You need to make a leading edge profile smaller than where the cutouts are to account for the thickness of the plastic you're going to heat and smash over it. Heat some clear plastic over a tealight or other heat source until it's nice and soft, smash it down over your leading edge and hold it until it hardens.

 

Alternatively, save the shrink wrap from a new kit. Cut out a square of the shrink wrap, paint some clear gloss over the edges of the landing light cutout and drape the shrink wrap over the leading edge, Draw it tight to pull out any wrinkles and then tape it down around the edges until the clear gloss dries. Trim off the excess and Robert's your Father's brother.

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I meant LE covers and yes I might just use that method. I was going to go for solid pieces from clear sprue. Still not sure. The slightly irritating thing with vacform is that everything has a slight rounding to it - rather than crisp detail - so the landing light cutouts end with a sort of curve inwards to where the LE cover must go - and since I want my LE cover to be in line with the rest of the wing - it sorts of gives the cover nothing to actually attach to on the sides - if you follow, but lets see what I can do

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been a bit slow on this lately - just been getting a few other models bits and pieces painted and glued.

I have noticed how many logs and threads all over the internet are now broken because of the photobucket saga - from models to full size logs etc. Shows you how fragile the whole process is. You feel you have logged it and its there but recent events have proven otherwise.

I now have something like 10 models on the go  - a few helicopters, a ship or two and more and more. Now its time to tackle some canopies. Masking canopies - me least favourite task.

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I now have so many aircraft standing around waiting for canopy masking - its just not funny. I have tried the non masking method where you just clean up afterwards with a toothpick but I don't like that method much. I have done the painted cellotape method which is actually pretty good but has limited lifespan (and of course is not elegant) but is very effective. The Harvard of course has a lot of masking , but its almost all nice straight lines, not like the Dornier 217, Blenheim, etc, and then I also have the Fairey Battle, and many many more. The Dornier 217 is hands down my favourite German bomber. Oh - I have an interesting little project where im going to build a set of 'better' wings for the Short Stirling, Something that would (in my mind) make the Stirling a far more successful aircraft, not with its stubby fat Sunderland wings - should be interesting.

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Painted clear decal film works well for aircraft like Harvards which have greenhouse canopies.

 

Interested!  Questions:

 

1.  Does the decal actually stick to the clear plastic, or do I need to coat it with Future or another clear, first?

 

2.  Does the paint flake off the decal film?  Or is there a preferred paint to do this with to avoid chipping?

 

Thanks,

 

Gaz

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Guest Jessie_C

I've stuck decal film to bare clear plastic. But I often seal it down with Future afterwards. The paint may flake, especially if the strips are bent over sharp curves. Using hot water helps make the paint flexible. Here's an article I wrote about it on another forum.

 

If it makes you feel better, it's hardly any effort to Future the canopy first :)

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