Fvdm

Hi to all
I present my new MWP (metal work panels) project based on the Italeri Mirage IIIc 1/32 scale model kit:
 

I chose the version (optional) ECT02 / 02 Côte D'or Dijon-Longvic 1970 (NMF finished)
 
Aftermarkets:
Eduard BigEd: part 1 & 2
Eduard Brassin: Wheels resin parts
Scale Aircraft Conversions: landing gears
Master (Air): Pitot tube & adapter for Italeri kit
Berna Decals: for version ECT02 / 02
 
In this first session of work:
I assembled, detailed and modified the cockpit:
 

 

 

 
Test to fit on the mock up (1) :
 

 
test :ok - please note the light wash (mix oil & resin) over the aircraft surface: preliminary step of the MWP procedure for reveal all the informations on the panels.
MWP: the  self-adhesive metal tape (aluminum) belowe the model:
 

 

 

 
The instrument panels:
 

 

 

 
Final test to fit (2):
 

 
I tested the Chameleon colors on the SNECMA Atar 9c  which I then placed on its support :
note the variation of the colors ( different combustion temperature)
 

 

 

 

 

 
Final assembling SNECMA  Atar 9c & support:
 

 

 

 

 
That is all for the moment.
more pics & info: http://www.adventurephotomodels.com
Thanks for the attention
George

His is the only IM company to step into the 1920s with 1/32 plane kits. Since WNW has become the benchmark for 1/32, I can think of many aircraft I'd like to see by them.
 The Wright Flyer would be at the top, along with the Spirit of St. Louis.

primer is on
 

 
still needs some filler and sanding on some places so i know what to do
 
Mark

Now the intakes present a much bigger problem, because they don’t exist at all and so far, there are no after-market ones available.  Phase Hanger Resin is making some, but after at least 10 attempts to contact them and get a real date for delivery, I gave up and for the first time, tried to make some of my own.  With small engine intakes and a fairly straight forward trajectory, I found some 5/8” OD/1/2” ID PVC pipe and gave it a whirl.  Let’s call these “Econo-Intakes”, because they are nowhere near as good as resin ones, but they are better than nothing- and waiting for some to show up one day (or not).
 
 
I started with a few tools to shape and bend the plastic pipe.  The pliers on the right give an intake opening similar to the kit plastic and the awl-like gizmo on the left (it’s really a wine stopper) should spread the pipe enough to get it around the engines.
 
 

 
 
After a lot of trial and error using a heat gun, I found that the pipe will become very flexible when heated and you can shape it.  The pipe also has a bit of shape memory, so by re-heating the pipe, you can get it to go back close to where it started before heating.  So here is Proto-type Econo-Intake #7, which worked out quite well.  In order to get the intake to fit over the gear well, you need to sand down both the bottom and top so that it will clear.  This was done using a sanding wheel on a Dremel tool, which made quick work of the plastic.  Other parts were heated and shaped accordingly, but you have to be careful to let the pipe cool before it touches the kit plastic.  While the outside of the pipe is quite rough, the inside remains very smooth.
 
 

 
 
The fronts are a bit rough right now and everything is still only dry fit.  After the top fuselage has been cemented to the bottom, I will sand and shape them super thin so that they are one smooth unit with no gaps.
 
 

 
 
When the front portion of the intake is installed, it will be tough to see this join anyway.  This front piece has lots of issues to deal with anyway, so I plan on making everything smooth as one unit and, well, seamless!
 
 

 
 
From the front you can see the intake fan, which is really hard to photograph.  I’m leaving these intakes white, so no need to paint them.
 
 

 
 
That’s it for now boys.  Next up will be clean-up of the “Econo-Intakes”.
 
 
Cheers,
Chuck

+1

More progress.
I went ahead and completed most of the woodgraining. my method for this is to airbrush a coat of MRP clear doped linen over the parts to recieve the treatment, any tan colour will do but  the shade chosen will effect the final result, I was going for a light ply effect so chose the CDL.
Next stage is to slap on a coat of raw umber oil paint, lay it on and make sure all of the underlying colour is covered.
Now take your significat others large make up brush and stroking with the intended direction of the grain remove most of the oil paint.
allow to dry thoroughly!
Here is the result.

Here are the radio room and front section floors, the front floor was scribed to reflect the wood panels and demarcation between the wood and aluminium areas.

The cockpit with eduard enhancements and Master control columns

Cockpit side walls, The OD sections were coated with Mr Surfacer to represent the padding used in this area, I uset kabuki tape to represent the straps around the oxygen bottles rather than the Eduard items as this method was far easier and the area will be difficult to see once the fusalage is buttoned up

Seats with HGW cushions and belts, these are worthwile as they can be easily seen and make a huge difference to the kit supplied items.

Eduards panel, Eduards colour panels look much nicer if you spray a coat of flat clear over them then pick out the dials with clear, this removes the pixalation sometimes evident in these sets.

The other side, enhanced by Eduard.

All together


I am moving house next week so next post might be a while, see yuo then, thanks for following!

Last 2 weeks i spent time building but forgot to take pictures. I rigged the wings, made the landing gear and the the tail wheel.
The landing gear got some PE.
 

 
The wheels are from Mastercasters and i think they look real nice.
 

 
The tail wheel however is not so nice. The axel looks crooked.
 

 
This was not acceptable so i drilled a hole through the wheel and the bracket.
 
Then I took some 0.6mm brass tube and made an axel
 

 
When assembled itlooks much better. ( For such a small part)
 

 
Then I sprayed everything in mr surfacer grey. I'm looking forward to spray some color.
 
Some small parts

 
 
Some bigger parts

 
And a dryfit

 

 
I will try to make some more in progress pics
 
Thanks for looking
 
Ferry
 

This looks promissing. 

Last 2 weeks i spent time building but forgot to take pictures. I rigged the wings, made the landing gear and the the tail wheel.
The landing gear got some PE.
 

 
The wheels are from Mastercasters and i think they look real nice.
 

 
The tail wheel however is not so nice. The axel looks crooked.
 

 
This was not acceptable so i drilled a hole through the wheel and the bracket.
 
Then I took some 0.6mm brass tube and made an axel
 

 
When assembled itlooks much better. ( For such a small part)
 

 
Then I sprayed everything in mr surfacer grey. I'm looking forward to spray some color.
 
Some small parts

 
 
Some bigger parts

 
And a dryfit

 

 
I will try to make some more in progress pics
 
Thanks for looking
 
Ferry
 

So the canopy work continues.    Very time consuming and given my inherent laziness, still not close to completion.    Based on the pics above, I've done my best to replicate that very complex locking system on the interior bow.  Unfortunately, I've had to simplify things quite a bit due to the geometry of the Tamiya canopy when the mirrors are installed and just the very small size of the hardware involved.    All in all, at this stage, I've added a total of approx 18 parts so far and still have a ways to go.   The pulleys were very short bits of .020 rod, glued to styrene bases.   Hard to really tell what color they were from those pics, I opted for a light grey with black centers.  Although the pics show two parallel runs of cable from each pulley, I just couldn't do it.   I hang my head in shame, please don't judge me harshly for this transgression. 
 
The cables were simply very fine lengths of stretched sprue, glued in place using very fine needle nose tweezers and a drop of white glue on either end. I won't using anything except white glue for this type of work.  CA can leave soot and if I screw up, I'll never get it off the clear plastic.    
 
I also added some scratches to the canopy release lever and locking handles.   To complete this, I still have to add some bits to the base of the canopy and then final runs of cable.   As noted, these bits are simplified and the geometry is off but I think it's still better than nothing.   Anyway, here are some pics.
 
I''ll fix that silvering on the fuel tank cover decals before this is all over.  Trust me!
 
 
 
A few other pics to show the canopy and some additional weathering.  I used pastels to replicate the scuffing on the inner wings and added a few more scratches using that silver artists pencil (this thing is great for this type of work, well worth the $5.00 I paid for it at Michael's). 
 
 
In the pic above, you will note that notch cut out of the rear of the canopy frame.   Previously, pilots would notice that the radio would sometimes short out when the canopy was open.   Come to find out, the rear edge of the canopy frame was coming in contact with the antenna wire that entered the fuselage right beneath it (this hasn't been added to my model yet).   Rather than spend money and time moving the wire entry point or insulating the canopy,  Vought just simply took some tin snips and cut away a small portion of the canopy frame.   Easy-peezy!  
 
Anyway, that's it for now.  Thanks for looking.  

Last 2 weeks i spent time building but forgot to take pictures. I rigged the wings, made the landing gear and the the tail wheel.
The landing gear got some PE.
 

 
The wheels are from Mastercasters and i think they look real nice.
 

 
The tail wheel however is not so nice. The axel looks crooked.
 

 
This was not acceptable so i drilled a hole through the wheel and the bracket.
 
Then I took some 0.6mm brass tube and made an axel
 

 
When assembled itlooks much better. ( For such a small part)
 

 
Then I sprayed everything in mr surfacer grey. I'm looking forward to spray some color.
 
Some small parts

 
 
Some bigger parts

 
And a dryfit

 

 
I will try to make some more in progress pics
 
Thanks for looking
 
Ferry
 

Lovely progress on a tricky build, Ferry!
 
Kev

I decided not to cut out the ailerons so I went on with the wings. I cut away the brackets at the rigging because these were more then 0.5mm thick which is way overscaled. I will replace these with 0.25mm styreen. Also the holes were filled en I will make smaller holes because Trumpeter made a mistake with the rigging. In the picture below you will see that Trumpeter wants you to place PE1, PE2 and PE3. In all my references I can't find these and Thomas Lund also warned me about this.
 

 

 
I decided to glue the rightwings and leftwings but I'll glue these to the fuselage when everything is sprayed in color
 
The handle for folding the wings is replaced with PE
 

 
When you glue everything together (without the rigging that is) it looks like this
 

 
A litlle putty is still needed.
Upper center wing with some PE
 

 
The fuselage after priming. The oilcooler is till dryfit. This wil also be glued after spraying.
 

 
At last a dryfit because i want to place the rigging with everything in place. Just to prefent some misallignment.
 

 
I also had a little setback. I wanted to make the torpedo but when I wanted to take the sprue out of the box I noticed there wasn't any sprue P. I looked very carefully, I searched my hole room but I couldn't find it. Bummer. I went to the LHS and told the problem. They will contact the importer to see if they can get a replacement sprue. I also contacted the customerservice of Trumpeter. I don't have high hopes but you never know. So, if you own this kit please check if sprue P is present before you are going to build it. 
I will check the net for measurements and will try to make a torpedo from scratch because i really want a torpedo under the plane.
 
Thanks for watching 
 

Thank you all for the nice comments.
 
@Wegener, I first drilled a hole 0,3mm (I have a dozen or so off these drillbits because they break real fast) but I wasn't pleased with how it looked. So I took a 0,4mm drillbit. Scaleways maybe not the best solution but it looks good. Thanks for the tip.
 
I forgot to post 1 pic in the previous post. Here it is
 

 
 

Last week I spent my time spraying, painting and wheatering and I think the cockpit is ready. Wel, almost then because I now see that the pilots seatbelts needs to be wheatered .
 
Here are the pics whitout further explanation.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
All critics and tips are welcome. 
 
Happy Hollidays and til the next update

ahoy shipmates
 
wow, what a response, thank you all very much - I am humbled...
 
 
Thanks Antonio - I think if I had known this before I painted them then yes, likely I would have, but it's too late now - I am just hoping either painted or unpainted is right
 
 
 
Ah - I am now lost as despite their success, I have never seen a Harry Potter film! I do however have your exquisite 1/18 P51 exhausts which will be fitted at some point so thanks for doing those
 
 
 
 
Many thanks Troy, I appreciate that you appreciate my doing a build log - that said, it is no chore for me - I love sharing things I learn and getting feedback on what I am doing right or wrong
 
had a bit of time this weekend, so lets press on...
 
..first up some landing gear torque assembly fittings - seen here, it's the green bracket & bellcranks and a torque tube.. these seem to sit the deepest under the fuel selector so had to be done next..
 

 
..first I made the housings from plastic card...
 

 
..then made up all the belcranks and any bits that go in either bay - primed white as I have run out of mr surfacer...
 
..
 
..then all these were painted..
 

 
..and assembled, including tiny banjo fittings where small rods come off the cranks to various bits...
 

 
..and added to the airframe - the lower roof height in the model is making placing & spacing some of this stuff challenging...
 

 
..next this bit - the fuel shut-off valve - it's quite a distinctive and complicated little assembly...
 

 
..no build pics for this bit, but here it is completed...
 

 
..also added the hydraulic accumulator....
 

 
and then spent many hours plumbing the fuel selector valve - there is still one pipe to go between it and the fuel shut off valve, but there are some gubbins I need to add before doing that...
 

 

 

 

 

 
..still lots of bits to do, but feel like its a bit of progress to get that done..
 
TTFN
 
Peter
 

Very inspirational work. I'm not a fan of german planes but this looks real nice.

Quick Sunday evening update - Sqn markings on - remember - this is a tribute to a specific early Mk.IX operated by 133 Sqn - it is not a replica of the original!!
 

 

 

 

 
Cowl fit not the best - but should be able to tweak a little on final assembly.
 

 
Some silvering on the Tamiya decals to get rid of (these really weren't very good) - then some very light panel line 'weathering'.
 
Iain

Last 2 weeks i spent time building but forgot to take pictures. I rigged the wings, made the landing gear and the the tail wheel.
The landing gear got some PE.
 

 
The wheels are from Mastercasters and i think they look real nice.
 

 
The tail wheel however is not so nice. The axel looks crooked.
 

 
This was not acceptable so i drilled a hole through the wheel and the bracket.
 
Then I took some 0.6mm brass tube and made an axel
 

 
When assembled itlooks much better. ( For such a small part)
 

 
Then I sprayed everything in mr surfacer grey. I'm looking forward to spray some color.
 
Some small parts

 
 
Some bigger parts

 
And a dryfit

 

 
I will try to make some more in progress pics
 
Thanks for looking
 
Ferry
 

There is a lot to see. Nice!

Last 2 weeks i spent time building but forgot to take pictures. I rigged the wings, made the landing gear and the the tail wheel.
The landing gear got some PE.
 

 
The wheels are from Mastercasters and i think they look real nice.
 

 
The tail wheel however is not so nice. The axel looks crooked.
 

 
This was not acceptable so i drilled a hole through the wheel and the bracket.
 
Then I took some 0.6mm brass tube and made an axel
 

 
When assembled itlooks much better. ( For such a small part)
 

 
Then I sprayed everything in mr surfacer grey. I'm looking forward to spray some color.
 
Some small parts

 
 
Some bigger parts

 
And a dryfit

 

 
I will try to make some more in progress pics
 
Thanks for looking
 
Ferry
 

Last 2 weeks i spent time building but forgot to take pictures. I rigged the wings, made the landing gear and the the tail wheel.
The landing gear got some PE.
 

 
The wheels are from Mastercasters and i think they look real nice.
 

 
The tail wheel however is not so nice. The axel looks crooked.
 

 
This was not acceptable so i drilled a hole through the wheel and the bracket.
 
Then I took some 0.6mm brass tube and made an axel
 

 
When assembled itlooks much better. ( For such a small part)
 

 
Then I sprayed everything in mr surfacer grey. I'm looking forward to spray some color.
 
Some small parts

 
 
Some bigger parts

 
And a dryfit

 

 
I will try to make some more in progress pics
 
Thanks for looking
 
Ferry
 

Last 2 weeks i spent time building but forgot to take pictures. I rigged the wings, made the landing gear and the the tail wheel.
The landing gear got some PE.
 

 
The wheels are from Mastercasters and i think they look real nice.
 

 
The tail wheel however is not so nice. The axel looks crooked.
 

 
This was not acceptable so i drilled a hole through the wheel and the bracket.
 
Then I took some 0.6mm brass tube and made an axel
 

 
When assembled itlooks much better. ( For such a small part)
 

 
Then I sprayed everything in mr surfacer grey. I'm looking forward to spray some color.
 
Some small parts

 
 
Some bigger parts

 
And a dryfit

 

 
I will try to make some more in progress pics
 
Thanks for looking
 
Ferry
 

I decided not to cut out the ailerons so I went on with the wings. I cut away the brackets at the rigging because these were more then 0.5mm thick which is way overscaled. I will replace these with 0.25mm styreen. Also the holes were filled en I will make smaller holes because Trumpeter made a mistake with the rigging. In the picture below you will see that Trumpeter wants you to place PE1, PE2 and PE3. In all my references I can't find these and Thomas Lund also warned me about this.
 

 

 
I decided to glue the rightwings and leftwings but I'll glue these to the fuselage when everything is sprayed in color
 
The handle for folding the wings is replaced with PE
 

 
When you glue everything together (without the rigging that is) it looks like this
 

 
A litlle putty is still needed.
Upper center wing with some PE
 

 
The fuselage after priming. The oilcooler is till dryfit. This wil also be glued after spraying.
 

 
At last a dryfit because i want to place the rigging with everything in place. Just to prefent some misallignment.
 

 
I also had a little setback. I wanted to make the torpedo but when I wanted to take the sprue out of the box I noticed there wasn't any sprue P. I looked very carefully, I searched my hole room but I couldn't find it. Bummer. I went to the LHS and told the problem. They will contact the importer to see if they can get a replacement sprue. I also contacted the customerservice of Trumpeter. I don't have high hopes but you never know. So, if you own this kit please check if sprue P is present before you are going to build it. 
I will check the net for measurements and will try to make a torpedo from scratch because i really want a torpedo under the plane.
 
Thanks for watching 
 

Next up were the prop blades and spinners. The hubs are made up of a number of parts which are somewhat visible upon completion.
 

 
With a coat of paint on everything:
 

 
Once I paint the tips of the spinners white, I'll complete their assembly. 
 
I generally prefer to use masks for most large markings when available so I did so here.