Madmax

Thanks Kev, John, Paolo, and Nick! Finally got some riveting done on the wings - well one of the wings anyway. I've been looking forward to this, since it really does pose some challenges, not least of which is finding an accurate drawing to refer to. I still haven't found one, but in my search I stumbled across the Scale Aviation Modeller (SAM) 3-view and I believe it to be the closest to the photographic references I have - it certainly helped. Here you can see the pattern taking shape, section by section. There is too much going on to do it in one go. Luckily the Hasegawa panels are accurate, and I only had to scribe one more panel line ahead of the flap cutout. Once again, I was keen to give the surface some character. I believe the trick is not to bulge every block of aluminium, but rather to see which ones are prominent on the actual aircraft. I don't have the technical specs, but I suspect that the thickness of the aluminium may differ from section to section, or that as the space between ribs and stringers increases, so too does the chance of bulging (pillowing, tin-canning etc). Here is an interesting thing: it looks to me as if the skin sags (rather than bulges) between the structural components of the ammunition bay door. I'm sure there are engineers out there who can chime in on this, but possibly because the rectangular structure is stressed differently to the wing itself? Note how the leading edge bulges outward between the ribs. Same here, just less pronounced. Whatever the reasons, I chose to incorporate some of what I saw on the wing. I may have overdone the ammo bay a little bit. Same as everyone else, I lowered the engine mount by a millimetre or two. It helps to build the kit years after the pioneers have discovered the problem areas! The wires sticking out of the nose are oil-cooler hoses that are just visible through the open cooling louvres on the back of the cowling. Fitting the resin engine is a bit of a shot in the dark, so I thought it might be good to keep at least one thing constant - the rear mount from the kit engine. This was trimmed on a trial and error basis till it looks like it might fit. Probably still needs some adjusting once the cowling is assembled. Here is the fake exhaust painted up in bas-relief. In place, it actually looks quite convincing. Back to the rivet wheel... Sean

Hey Craig, been away for a while, but still watching your epic build! It does take a lot of time to achieve less, and that's the key. On that note - 101 pages of B-17 - you are getting things just right...

Been a while. Had to get a back-actor to dig up the thread! Let's see, where was I? Oh yes... the fin fillet, that didn't go so well. Should you be planning on doing a -40, you might want to sand very carefully when thinning it out. I had to resort to filling it with two part epoxy putty. Then I took a careful look at how my modified tail wheel looked in its opening. A bit lost would be an understatement. It actually has quite a contraption above the steering shaft, that I assume is some hydraulic steering piston. I made a crude replica of it just to fill the void... Then it was time to rivet and landscape the fuselage skin. I have accentuated a lovely photograph from the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force (by Ty Greenlees), so that you can see the bulged portions of the skin around the sides of the cockpit leading up to the firewall. This is a heavily riveted area, and takes a lot of careful riveting to replicate. No wonder the Jug was so tough! The flaps are finally done too. And the next challenge awaits - the wings. I have added all the clear portions: nav lights and underwing lights, as well as the gun-port fairing. Then I scraped the raised portions around a well known sink mark on top of the wing, and sanded the surroundings flat. It is now ready for riveting. As you can see, this may take a while! Cheers, Sean

Lovely example of creative problem solving Nick - it sure looks looks Desert Stormy to me! Pity the Elite decals didn't live up to your elite stencils. Would have been nice to see what the nose art looks like... I assume it's a girl in an unusually conservative one-piece swimming costume, riding a bomb, 'Dr Strangelove' style?

This really is a work of art Tom! I hardly ever get to this section of LSP, but a recent discussion with my preferred printer (Andreas - a wonderfully talented German chap) had me scouring the internet for information about U-510. That's how I stumbled upon your build. The interesting part is that Andreas's father was a submariner... on this very U-boot! He survived the war, which is an incredible feat when one considers the loss rate of the U-boot fleet. I think they were an exceptional, or at least exceptionally lucky crew. Running out of fuel just days before the war ended (and subsequent capture by the Americans) probably helped. Andreas remembers a saying his dad must have taught him: 'Bedenkt und verlasst euch darauf U-510 taucht immer wieder auf!' which loosely translates to - Reflect and rely on this, the U-510 keeps on popping up (surfacing)! Cheers, Sean

Yup! Only some parts of it though John. In this photo you can see where it is most noticeable. There are some other facets that I'll point out when I get there... Thanks Nick! I will be needing some masks for this, so ignore what I said in John1's F-4 build. Thanks Craig, I can imagine that B-17 rivet pattern inaccuracies are worthy of a book in itself! Hey Thomaz, kind of you to check in on the progress. I enjoyed watching the technique on that P-51 build - probably a quicker way of doing it. I was particularly impressed with the modeller's (Josef Choreñ's) confidence when working the plastic. Good hands!

Gotta love this forum! Timmy's subsequent post is equally fantastic... Excuse the interruption John, I know how distracting it can be when Nick points out detail stuff.

Maru, jou kommentaar is baie aanmoedigend - dankie! Cheers Kev! Thanks Craig! You may recall that when I was busy with the flaps I mentioned giving their surface some treatment - well, I've gone and worked on the horizontal stabs first. I enjoy adding some visual interest to the skin of an aircraft that is typically seen with variations caused by stresses in the aluminium between rivets. In WWII subjects, it mostly bulges slightly outwards between rivet rows, although I must add that the thin skinned Japanese aircraft showed any number of effects. Here is a freshly skinned horizontal stab during one of the big P-47 restorations. My technique relies on the rivet line to create the effect, so it is important to get that right first. It is difficult to find accurate rivet patterns, and I found these otherwise lovely drawings to be a bit lacking in accuracy. It probably wouldn't be far off, but OCD me wanted a bit more. If you compare the drawing to the real thing you'll see what I mean. The drawing is too uniformly spaced between ribs - so I worked off the walk-around photo's. This is how I interpreted the rib spacing etc. After running the RB rivet wheel down the pencil lines (as close as possible by eyeball ), I then slightly deepen the rivets where the work will occur. This plastic is pretty soft, so I only use folded sandpaper to sand along the rivet line. Not too deep now, the effect is best kept subtle! Then the important bit: I sand lightly between the rivet lines to create a gentle bulge. This is refined with sanding sponges (1000 and 2000 grit) and eventually polished with micromesh cloth of varying grades. There is a lot of cleaning of the rivet holes while the work happens, otherwise the effect is lost. It is the rivets that cause the 'pillowing' after all! Go on, try it... Cheers, Sean

This is a valid point Quang. For those who don't know about this issue, here is how the cowling fits if the engine mount isn't moved down. It doesn't look too bad in this view, but in the next photo the problematic fit is a bit easier to see. Maybe Hasegawa based the fit on this restoration? But I believe the bottom of the cowl should actually be in line with the bottom of the fuselage. Like this: The problem may also have something to do with the shape of the fuselage where it joins the cowling. I believe it is too 'square' and should be more rounded - leaving a bigger gap around the cowl-flaps when viewed from behind. I have tried to sand the nose rounder, but beware, the plastic thins out pretty fast. Here is another shape that seems to be wrong - the rounded portion just ahead of the big louvres. I sanded it off and went with a scribed panel that looks more like this one's belly. There is a panel line that runs along the join seam on top of the forward fuselage. This caused some headaches as I'm sure many of you have experienced with the spine of a Bf-109. I used super-thin cement to glue the fuselage, and the melted join is tricky to scribe. I think it might have been better to use superglue on this portion. The dark splotches ahead of the panel are where I sanded right through the plastic. Thick cyano to the rescue. The fin fillet for the -40 is luckily included in the kit, but looks too chunky if used OOB. Some more high risk sanding to thin it out as you can see by how the light shines through the plastic! I'm sure you noticed that the rudder got chopped off. It needs some work to get it into shape, like this beautifully rebuilt one. It also takes a bit of fettling to place the fittings for the rudder bellcrank and the elevator joining-tube thingy, but it looks way better than the one-piece control surfaces. The riveting wheel is about to make a couple of revolutions... Cheers, Sean

Awesome - this is the model that just keeps on giving!

You are quite right Quang - double tweezers did the trick! Only snag is, I can't seem to get the HGW belts to drape nicely. You'll see what I resorted to shortly... Thanks Nick! Do we get to see your Corsair at a stage? I don't have the knack of making the micro-fabric belts look realistic on the seat. They seem to levitate in places where I want them to hang. Lead foil to the rescue! I was able to salvage the buckles; which is the key. I can't imagine cutting them by hand (like Derek B does). Now the belts sit more like gravity would have them do. Only snag of course, is painting them. Maybe someone can tell me the trick with fabric belts? These photo's were taken in natural light, and you get a better idea of how the Dull Dark Green looks. Maybe a bit too light, but otherwise the detail in the cockpit just disappears. Painting the belts is a bit messy around the buckles - I'll try and neaten it up a bit. The Yahu IP really is incredible! It does feel like cheating to use one... And look, I added a magneto selector: the red 'lever' on the bottom left of the panel. That'll take the curse off it! Just before closing the fuselage, the vents have to be installed. I gave them a little ducting so they look a bit more functional when viewed from the outside. The intercooler doors are also in need of some ducting if one elects to have them open. Here are the real ducts: These are my cheapo reproductions. Time to close her up. Glue please nurse... Sean

One of the coolest ejection seats I've seen in miniature. Well done Derek!

Looking fantastic Quang - I'm really enjoying the weathering!

Thank you Kev! I'd love to see the size of the cupboard where you stash your popcorn Mike... Very kind of you Tom! Ja-nee Gerhard, you have more of a local flavour to your Afrikaans. - thanks for checking in! I don't have much of a story to tell this time, just some pictures of the bits I've managed to paint so far. The Dull Dark Green looks a bit lighter than it actually is, probably because the camera was compensating for the dark background. The decals are from the fantastic HGW P-47D Stencils and Placards set. This is a first for me - a Yahu IP! I wanted to save some time, and I really like the precise printing. It does lack some depth however; so you'll notice the switch covers I added on the lower central panel. I might still add the magneto selector that goes in the bottom left corner... The QB engine paints up very nicely - the fine resin details are hard to beat in plastic. The time spent on the ignition harness is well worth it too. Some oil leaks added: Now to get those HGW seat belts threaded through the tiny buckles. Cheers, Sean

That engine is a thing of beauty! Your supplemental metal work is inspirational John: just the right combination of straight or curved. One can tell immediately which is plumbing, wiring or pushrod. Brilliant.