gmctaggart
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Thanks Guys. Lots of great information. Torben, Thanks for the insight about the engine. It sounds like for the most part the external visual look of the engine is similar with small deviations that few people would be able to recognize. Let me know if that is fair to say. Michael, great photos, they really help to illustrate the engine. It got me starting to look for dimensioned drawings of the engine to see how close the Trumpeter version is and what parts need to be modified. I think I need to walk a fine line between accuracy and how much gets modified as the more I modify the greater chances of misalignment of parts. I am also approaching this more from a point of view that if you can see it then it should be done well, but if its concealed and not visible then I am not as concerned about the details. All that said, I started cleaning up the interior of the engine compartment and adding the internal structure. The edges of the aircraft panels have been thinned down to feel more in scale. The channel at the nose of the aircraft has been cut back to the panel line and also been cleaned up and made to look a bit more accurate. Also the first bulkhead behind the prop was also created. So a small update but still moving. Thanks again everyone for your insight. Gord
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Torben, Thanks for the helpful info. While I will not be 100% accurate with the build I am hoping to make sure it at least is close. I don't have a lot of reference for the internal structures and what I do have is mostly modern in nature. Without a lot of detailed photos, I find it challenging to be able to vet the images for what is truly accurate. Case and point is the fuel tank. I have examples of this in red and green and so I was 50/50 on what colour to go with. The images I have of the plane during the war are in b/w and so that doesn't help since red and green show up about the same tonally. Thats why this forum is so helpful as I can adjust the colour if this was standard for wartime MKIID's. Again I appreciate the insight. I will also continue to look into getting the Airfix Merlin. Do you know if there are big differences between the Packard and the Rolls royce engines in reality? Gord
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Thanks Chrish. A quick update, I applied some weathering to the fire wall as I expect during war time there's not a lot of time to make these areas look nice and clean. As for the engine I reached out Airfix to see if they have spare sprues and it sounds like they have some of the parts but not all of them. I also see that they will be rereleasing the kit this year so I am debating whether I wait and pick up the full kit and build from there. At a minimum I think I will build up the Trumpeter version and try and get something respectable if possible. If that doesn't work then at least I have an expensive back up plan lined up. Thanks for reading. Gord
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Thanks Michael, Its quite discouraging as you go through the various parts and you see the inaccuracies, especially when there are so many great examples that Trumpeter could reference. Case and point are the interestingly shaped propeller blades. I am no expert but in looking at what is in the kit and photos of the real thing you are left scratching your head. At any rate I have thrown some paint at the fuel tank... Firewall and the bulkhead. I have also added some of the piping for the coolant reservoir and first pass at the aluminum colour. Progress but still a ways to go. Thanks for reading and the feedback. Gord
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Alain, I am hoping it will be interesting in a good way and not the car accident you see happening from a mile away . So a bit more work. I focused some effort on the fire wall; drilling out the various holes for the pipes and wires that pass through. On the opposite side I also added the flange that secures the emergency gas tank to the wall. In addition I ran a thin piece of plastic around the perimeter the fire wall to show the flange that supports the body panels. I will be adding some texture in a bit as I assume this is likely asbestos or some other other fire proof material. I also applied the same flange to the bulkhead opposite the fuel tank. Feeling brave I also started working on the engine support structure, adding in the missing braces and wires. Still bunch to go on this but a reasonable start. Finally I started to look at the fantasy version of the Merlin XX that Trumpeter has in the kit. I am hoping this is something I can save but currently not confident in that. That will be a battle for another day. Would appreciate any of those that can tell the differences between a Packard Merlin which I assume the picture below shows and an XX. Should I be using my reference photos to bring reality to this engine? Appreciate the thoughts. If it looks weird, let me know. Gord
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Thanks a lot everyone. Happy new year. Gord
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Great job. Very nicely executed. Gord
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Taffyman, really enjoyed your build. Very nice job. As for my build it is more likely than not that I will be a little A.D.D. at the beginning as I will work on various parts and not in the order of the instructions. I started with assembling the gas tank behind the engine. Easy enough and I applied a slight texture to it to represent the cans outer material. I also continued to clean up the airframe, removing the locating pin on the starboard side. It likely won't be visible but I figured its better to be safe than sorry. I also started onto the firewall. Removing the locating tabs and reinstating the surface. Some large ejector pin marks need to be dealt with. Thats it so far. I also have the privilege of living 25 minutes from a MK.XII that has recently been restored. I went there the other day to take a billion photos. While not the same plane as the MK.IID, its good to see the finer details on the real thing to understand how they might apply to my build. The also had an Rolls Royce Engine on display which also received the paparazzi treatment. Thanks again for reading. Gord
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Ok. Its done. Not my finest work but I definitely learned a lot from this that I will apply to my other builds. I may look at building up a F-4D in the future such as the SWS kit. But for now, I am happy to see this finished. Thanks everyone for support and the advice. I hope everyone has great new year. Sincerely, Gord
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Thanks everyone. Neo, Your probably right, I had washed the model before building nut perhaps needed to do a more thorough job. It has made the process very frustrating. So a quick update. After being sick for a couple of weeks and other holiday commitments it has put me against the wall. I have been able to address the paint rips and started using the dry transfer. I was really looking forward to using these but after applying a few markings realized this was not going to work. The larger graphics seemed to work the best and I was able to apply these without issue. However the smaller ones created the problem. Parts of them would not transfer over and so I would continue to apply more pressure and keeping rubbing them to no avail. They would then pucker the paint underneath or the paint would adhere to the transfer sheet and rip. Realizing that this wasn't going to work, I changed horses and went back to building up the kit with the Tamiya decals. So far this has been fine however some of these have cracked or ripped on me. Needless to say, with 5 days before the end, I am on a knife edge between completing the kit and disaster should something not work out. I am hoping to have the decals finished up in the next day so I can do a clear coat, final assembly.and weathering. Fingeres crossed. Thanks again for everyones support. Gord
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Finally, major painting is done. Tape is off and I can see what the results are. Some paint touch ups for ripped paint and over spray as well as picking out the finer details is next. My next worry is whether the paint will hold up to the application of the dry transfer. Some initial work in this regard has not been promising. Perhaps after a few coats of clear over everything it will harden up the paint surface allow me to apply the markings. Time to tread lightly but until then here are some pics of the results so far. Thanks everyone for reading and your words of encouragement. Gord
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Thanks Taffyman. I had read that the engine is nonsensical and to replace from the Airfix kit. I haven't looked at the Trumpeter engine yet to see if anything can be salvaged but what I am not sure about is whether the Airfix Merlin depicted looks the same as a Merlin XX. It would be great to understand the visual differences. Would love to hear from others. Thanks Gord
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Stripped Tail. Ohh and so stripped it took off the paint. NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS VALLEJO PRIMER. Thanks for checking this out. Gord
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Dirty Tail. Gord
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Fantastic job. I would not have thought about using pantyhose to get a cool affect like that. Gord
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