Cap'n Wannabe

Has it really been 6 months?  Gawd, how time flies!
Anyhow, I popped the windscreen off the model, and placed it on my bench.  It sat there, and sat there, and sat there, while I worked up the courage to have a crack at the new canopy bow.  Eventually, I dry fit it again, and realised I didn't need to make the new bow.  So I stripped the Future off it and started over.  This time, I only glued the base of the windscreen, then the next day glued half of the existing bow to the back, and finally the next day did the other side.  It still needs to be glued in the middle, so maybe over the weekend....once I figure out how to align the two halves properly.
 
Here, you can clearly see the gap at the top of the windscreen where I sanded off what I thought was flash.

 
And a few other shots..
 

 

 

Finally photobucket's back up..
I spent a little bit of time today figuring out how to glue the top of the cabin, which wouldn't align naturally.  It had a bit of a gap at the seam, and the right side was slightly higher than the left side.  I tried taping it all together and clamping it, none of which worked.  In the end, I aligned them by hand and judiciously super-glued them together before reinforcing the join with liquid cement.  The canopy bow is a bit different given it's so small.  I'm thinking I'll have to glue in the windscreen and carefully glue the bow to the back of the screen.  *sigh*
Anyhow, on to the photos..
 
In this one, you can see the amount of nose weight I've added.  Each side has 20 small sinkers and a huge wad of Blutac.

 
Here, you can see the large gap and misalignment of the top of the cabin..

 
All glued together now...I still have to add the front of the cowl, and the battery hatch underneath.

 
Looking forward to the IP.  The tape's really come up well simulating carpet!

 
Looking back into the cabin..

Finally photobucket's back up..
I spent a little bit of time today figuring out how to glue the top of the cabin, which wouldn't align naturally.  It had a bit of a gap at the seam, and the right side was slightly higher than the left side.  I tried taping it all together and clamping it, none of which worked.  In the end, I aligned them by hand and judiciously super-glued them together before reinforcing the join with liquid cement.  The canopy bow is a bit different given it's so small.  I'm thinking I'll have to glue in the windscreen and carefully glue the bow to the back of the screen.  *sigh*
Anyhow, on to the photos..
 
In this one, you can see the amount of nose weight I've added.  Each side has 20 small sinkers and a huge wad of Blutac.

 
Here, you can see the large gap and misalignment of the top of the cabin..

 
All glued together now...I still have to add the front of the cowl, and the battery hatch underneath.

 
Looking forward to the IP.  The tape's really come up well simulating carpet!

 
Looking back into the cabin..

You do realise that you made me buy two of these kits!

A little more work this morning - rebuilding the exhausts.  The kit part has two exhaust pipes, both of which are solid plastic rod.  Their ends are cut such that it's very difficult to hollow them out....and I have a knack of drilling very crooked into them.  So it's easier to remove and replace them.
Original on the right, new part on the left..

And a side view.  Notice that I've changed the end slightly on mine..

Finally photobucket's back up..
I spent a little bit of time today figuring out how to glue the top of the cabin, which wouldn't align naturally.  It had a bit of a gap at the seam, and the right side was slightly higher than the left side.  I tried taping it all together and clamping it, none of which worked.  In the end, I aligned them by hand and judiciously super-glued them together before reinforcing the join with liquid cement.  The canopy bow is a bit different given it's so small.  I'm thinking I'll have to glue in the windscreen and carefully glue the bow to the back of the screen.  *sigh*
Anyhow, on to the photos..
 
In this one, you can see the amount of nose weight I've added.  Each side has 20 small sinkers and a huge wad of Blutac.

 
Here, you can see the large gap and misalignment of the top of the cabin..

 
All glued together now...I still have to add the front of the cowl, and the battery hatch underneath.

 
Looking forward to the IP.  The tape's really come up well simulating carpet!

 
Looking back into the cabin..

That looks bloody awesome!

That'd be the Arii kit, wouldn't it?  It's the only kit I don't have - got 'em in 1/20, 1/36 and 1/48.  I'm seriously tempted to do either a Cessna 172 or Aero Subaru in 1/20 next..

Here ya go Kev!
It looks a lot better....smaller!

Here ya go Kev!
It looks a lot better....smaller!

Here ya go Kev!
It looks a lot better....smaller!

Apart from some minor touch-ups, she's ready for a coat of semi-gloss.  I went with the two-tone blue when I repainted, because it looks a little more subdued than the blue/white.  I also very slightly dry-brushed the carpet with the light blue, which I reckon makes it pop

Hi Peter...I'm unfamiliar with Rhino - Inventor user here - but couldn you draw a construction line perpendicular to the axis of the spinner, and apply a tangent constraint between the construction line and the spline representing the edge of the spinner?

Ahhh, Little Nellie....here's one I prepared earlier..

 
A fun, if not fiddly, build!

Ahhh, Little Nellie....here's one I prepared earlier..

 
A fun, if not fiddly, build!

Ahhh, Little Nellie....here's one I prepared earlier..

 
A fun, if not fiddly, build!

Ahhh, Little Nellie....here's one I prepared earlier..

 
A fun, if not fiddly, build!

Well i came home from Sutton Coldfield model show with litttle and large:

 
Ive been after a littl nellie for a while bit i refuse to pay the crazy Ebay prices and i spotted this one under the table at a good price.

Picked these up for....well....let's just say they were *really* cheap..



 
And finally, this...
I'm not sure what the history of this kit is, other than it was made in Mexico.  There's no year on the kit, but it looks *maybe* 80's or 90's....If anyone can tell me anything more about it, I'd be happy to hear..Oh yeah...it's got a card model of a hangar, and some runway as well..

After some discussions, I've pretty much decided to go with the decal option, so I needed to strip the IP and start over....doing that a lot, lately..
Anyhow, I did my usual trick of spraing BBQ cleaner over the paint, then scrubbing it with a toothbrush.  Ordinarily, it'd get rid of all the paint very quickly, but for whatever reason, this paint was stubborn.  And this is the result:

 
Now I dunno about you fellas, but I reckon that looks pretty good as a well-worn IP.  All it needs now is some decals for the instrument faces and I'm away!

Looks like you've kidnapped R2-D2, Kev!

Looks like you've kidnapped R2-D2, Kev!

G'day Folks...My name's Damien.  Or Damo.  Or Hey You!  Whatever....as long as you have a drink in your hand when you call..
I'm into civil GA aircraft, and military aircraft wearing civil schemes.
I've been modelling on and off (mostly off) since I was a young lad, so I'm not a master modeller by any stretch....in fact, I've started far more kits than I've finished, mainly through frustration at making a balls-up.  Nonetheless, I keep at it..
After having a couple of chats with LSP_Kevin (it's *your* fault!!) at Melbourne Model Expo, I've decided to work through the balls-ups instead of consigning yet another partially built kit to the dark recesses of its box again..
To this end, I completed what for me was a lightning 3 week build - Lindberg's 1/32 Laird Turner Meteor racer.  I deliberately didn't bother filling any gaps....just threw the thing together and painted it.  Apart from stuffing up and re-printing a couple of decals, it was a fairly simple and frustration-free build....and it felt *good* to finish something.




So with the "OMG I finished a bloody kit" feeling still running through my body, what better time to tackle something *slightly* more advanced!
 
While I don't know the history of this particular kit chapter and verse, I do know that Marui produced an Aero Subaru, Piper Cherokee 140, and Cessna 172 floatplane and land plane in 1/36 scale.  To me, this scale, while odd, is far better for civil GA types than the more popular 1/48...of course, 1/32 would be far better!  I have the Aero Subaru x 2, the Piper Cherokee x 2, and a single Cessna 172 land plane.  They're about the size of a 1/48 P-51, so they don't need a whole lot of real estate.
The Aero Subaru - indeed, all the kits I have from this series - are designed to have an electric motor spinning the prop, which means two things:
1. They're lacking in the engine department, having an engine face rather than a full engine, and
2. They have a hatch under the rear fuselage to accommodate an AA battery.
I'm not going to wire up the battery, so I'll have to figure out a way to make the hatch look more "real", but I imagine that will be fairly simple.
The cockpit is pretty bare for a kit this size - basically an instrument panel and 4 seats.  There's no side-wall detail, and I'm not going to put any in on this kit...perhaps on my second one.  The instrument panel is inaccurate, and there are no decals for the instrument faces.  Again, in this example, I'm not going to bother too much with that area.
There are heaps of raised rivets all over the kit - I'm undecided whether to remove them or not..
Anyhow, on to the photos..
Box art:

 
Various parts i've been working on:

They're *bloody* hard to find....it took me about 4 years to get mine..

G'day Folks...My name's Damien.  Or Damo.  Or Hey You!  Whatever....as long as you have a drink in your hand when you call..
I'm into civil GA aircraft, and military aircraft wearing civil schemes.
I've been modelling on and off (mostly off) since I was a young lad, so I'm not a master modeller by any stretch....in fact, I've started far more kits than I've finished, mainly through frustration at making a balls-up.  Nonetheless, I keep at it..
After having a couple of chats with LSP_Kevin (it's *your* fault!!) at Melbourne Model Expo, I've decided to work through the balls-ups instead of consigning yet another partially built kit to the dark recesses of its box again..
To this end, I completed what for me was a lightning 3 week build - Lindberg's 1/32 Laird Turner Meteor racer.  I deliberately didn't bother filling any gaps....just threw the thing together and painted it.  Apart from stuffing up and re-printing a couple of decals, it was a fairly simple and frustration-free build....and it felt *good* to finish something.




So with the "OMG I finished a bloody kit" feeling still running through my body, what better time to tackle something *slightly* more advanced!
 
While I don't know the history of this particular kit chapter and verse, I do know that Marui produced an Aero Subaru, Piper Cherokee 140, and Cessna 172 floatplane and land plane in 1/36 scale.  To me, this scale, while odd, is far better for civil GA types than the more popular 1/48...of course, 1/32 would be far better!  I have the Aero Subaru x 2, the Piper Cherokee x 2, and a single Cessna 172 land plane.  They're about the size of a 1/48 P-51, so they don't need a whole lot of real estate.
The Aero Subaru - indeed, all the kits I have from this series - are designed to have an electric motor spinning the prop, which means two things:
1. They're lacking in the engine department, having an engine face rather than a full engine, and
2. They have a hatch under the rear fuselage to accommodate an AA battery.
I'm not going to wire up the battery, so I'll have to figure out a way to make the hatch look more "real", but I imagine that will be fairly simple.
The cockpit is pretty bare for a kit this size - basically an instrument panel and 4 seats.  There's no side-wall detail, and I'm not going to put any in on this kit...perhaps on my second one.  The instrument panel is inaccurate, and there are no decals for the instrument faces.  Again, in this example, I'm not going to bother too much with that area.
There are heaps of raised rivets all over the kit - I'm undecided whether to remove them or not..
Anyhow, on to the photos..
Box art:

 
Various parts i've been working on: