Landrotten Highlander

Surfacing work continues.  Nothing is coming easy, but that's OK.  I am tackling what I believe to be the most complex surfaces first.  What I have so far on the radiator scoop: 
 

 
I'm excited about that.  A test part is coming soon.  Stay tuned.
 
Meanwhile, the Malcolm hood was talking at me, loudly.  So I spent a few days on it.  This too fought me every step of the way.  But in the end, I got a hood that I think is pretty close.  A good bit of guesswork, because as you may have surmised - there is no dimensional data available.  Just pictures.  Here:
 

 

 

 

 
The hard parts were - well just about everything.  But the stiffening beads on the fore and aft edges fought me.  The transition from a circular (or elliptical) fishbowl shape to the straight bottom rails was a challenge as well. 
 
For those really interested in my Malcolm hood development, feel free to go back to the hoard of pictures TAG gave us, and compare.  Tell me what you think - good and bad.  BTW - I will do a test part for the hood, probably grey resin first, and then I will gird my loins and try a clear one.  Really - I will be surprised if I get a good clear part.  More likely, I will have to make a mold so that it can be vac-formed. 
 
More surfacing.....    

Cockpit built so halves can go together. That allowed for today’s “ta da” moment. Filling and sanding ahead for sure, but I’m very happy  
 

Isn't that a personal question, like?

the propeller: at the top the kit‘s spinner with spare blades from an ages old Spitfire kit. These were longer than the ridiculously short blades from the kit but had definitely the wrong shape. At the bottom my vacuformed spinner with Waroff‘s 3D printed blades that he sent me so generously. They only received some strokes with fine sand paper and looked perfectly well; no printing lines or what soever.
I think I went a little too far with weathering on the propeller als the Dewoitines of 1940 never had so many service hours. But well… I love weathered aircraft 
  

The port side hatch removal is complete after a primer coat.

 
 
Here is a look at the Quinta instrument panel.  I masked each dial with tape and shot the panel with some clear flat.  All of the pre-painted stuff, whether it is Eduard photoetch or 3D decals, looks better with a flat coat.

 

After a brief hiatus, I am trying to ease my way back into the modeling workshop. Mathieu at Laminar Flow Design graciously sent me a set of fishtail exhausts based on my subject aircraft.  His XIVe low-back conversion set includes only the round exhausts and was surprised to see the photo of EB-V with the fishtails clearly visible.


 
 
More modifications to the XVIe fuselage... the port hatch behind behind the cockpit needs to be removed. Interestingly, Claes Sundin's profile of EB-V shows this hatch in place but I think it is in error.

 
 
No hatch that I can see in the the photo.

 
 
There is a bit of raised detail around the hatch that needs to be removed before filling including the hinge on the top and fasteners on the bottom.

 
 
The hatch and rivets are filled in with black CA glue.  I'll clean this up and shoot with a coat of primer when it is finished.



 
 
Next, I'm going to open the retractable tail wheel bay.  LFD conveniently provides scribing/cutting templates.  I am choosing to trace the cut lines in pencil and remove the template prior to cutting.





 
 
Dry-fitting the tail components.  The horizontal stabilizers need to be adjusted for the extra width of the XIVe tail so surgery here is not quite finished.



 
 
EB-V was fighter version so the camera ports will not be used in this build.  But I need to add a hatch on the starboard side.  LFD provides the hatch as a separate part but I thought it'd be neater/easier to just scribe the hatch instead of cutting an opening and gluing the resin hatch into place. Again, LFD provides the hatch template, which is positively located using the interior fuselage ribs... no guessing.  The template is secured into place with tape.

 
 
Using a sewing needle chucked into a pin vise, the hatch is scribed.

 
 
The rivets are filled in with black CA glue and new rivets and fasteners are applied.

 
 
A shot of primer to check our work.

 
 
I think most of the fuselage modifications are done so I can start looking at the cockpit next.  I've picked up the Quinta 3D decal set for this build.

 
 
But the kit instrument panel has some nice 3D relief, which gives me a moment of pause. Although the 3D decals have some raised details, the molded details here are better.  I'm going to look at the kit IP a little more closely before committing to the Quinta set.

 

Good morning gents,
A bit of progress on the lady...
I closed the fuselage and managed to get a perfect fit of the cowling covers!
They are very thin and i read somewhere that some modellers did not manage to get a nice fit when they chose to present them closed.
I made a lot of dry fits and used even thin strips of plastic to get it as best as i could!!

 





those photoes are on a later state of the build as i forgot to take pictures 
Next stage the painting and upgrade of the wheel wells!! A lot of pin marks to deal with but at the end nothing too difficullt to accomplish!!
Regarding the painting pattern, I followed the suggestion of my friend Christian (which happened to be in line with the Eduard's one if you see the pics on their brassin p-51d wheel wells page set.)
 





 







 
And sarted to dress her up....here you see the final stages...
 


 


 

 

 
After that i placed them on their position and glued the wings together. I also glued the machine guns parts and puttied them, you see no panels lines there also!!!
I have also started to deal with the rivets and panel lines where they should be covered. I am following John Terrell's schematics for th job!! I have some more work ahead...
 







 
And i finally glued the fuselage with thw wings...started to look as a P-51...love the shape!!!!!!
 











 
I also dealt with the gear legs...regarding the leg sissors i followed the Chuckw's way, i took the metal ones that tamiya provided and glued some small strips of plastic on the inner side. Think the filan outcome is more than acceptable!! Thanks Chuck!!!
 





 







 
Finnaly I painted the external wing tanks, i wanted to test the new metallic line from Mig Ammo, Astand paints, identical to Alclads and specifically a new color, but more on that later, i have some more tests to do...but as a first comment i really like it!!!
 



 
Thats all for now, hope you like it
 
John
 
 

Thanks guys, appreciated the comments and feedback! 
 
 
I use SMS Lacquers for pretty much everything. I agree I find the tones pretty bang on but they also mix very well, which is what I love about them so much. I agree the SMS RLM76 is very good and when shot with a little sky or grey green for tonal difference, I thought it really popped. With low pressure, a 0.2mm needle in my H&S infinity & thinning the SMS paint down a touch I found a freehand mottle came out pretty good & and you said, a much better result in 1/24 than with stencils.
 
Not a massive amout of progress over the weekend as I was busy with the family, being the final weekend of school holidays. Most of the work centered around opening up vents & intakes, removing the starboard side exhaust stubs and cleaning flash from around the engine bay.
 
I also had a go and creating the panel directly in front of the canopy and over the guns. Reports from other builds found the panel to be short one one side near the wing root but I didn't find this to be a problem on my kit. I taped it together before taping/clamping it into place on the aircraft so I could then apply glue while it was in situ
 
 
The result was a pretty good fit on both sides. The top seam has been filled with CA, sanded smooth and top panel line rescribed
 
 
 
As mentioned above I was able to open the vents. I am happy with the round, cone intake behind the starter hole but thinking of anther idea for the rectangle ones as I am just not happy with them. I still have to thin the overall panel down too.
 
 
 
Finally, here is a pic with the engine sat in place to test the supercharger intake extension. Still some refining to do but looks much better then it just stopping short of the body panel. There is definitely a twist in the forward fuselage of the kit, which which is pushing the engine off centre & I haven't worked out how to fix yet but I am sure I will work something out.
 
 
Next step is to start throwing some paint around before adding more parts to the powerplant. I cant really paint until the weekend so it might be time to move onto the cockpit and start the prep there.
 

And a little more.
 

 

 
Second wing is printing.
 
Dan
 
 

Ok folks, I am finally getting set up after my move. New work shed has electricity. Time to get back to work.
 
Chad Summers has sent me some new files! P-67 Moonbat. Even though I am basically a jet guy, I have always wanted a Moonbat.
 
So my resin printer is still down which means that I have been using my FDM printer. No real problem. Yes the surface is not as smooth as resin but the resulting parts are stronger and less likely to break.
 
Here are some of the parts. 
 
Tail surfaces.
 

 
Main gear bays. Note the round sockets on either side. These will accept some support rods for overall strength.
 

 
Nose and other parts. Nose was the last resin part before my machine crapped out.
 

 
Front section of nacelle. Lots of lead weights to prevent a tail sitter.
 

 
Nacelle assembled.
 

 
Gluing large components.
 

 
This should be a rather quick build. The only areas that will suck up a little time will be the cockpit and the wheel wells.
 
Dan
 
 

A few moments ago I purchased some rivet sets and I want to thank Woody and the current Archer Fine Transfer team for keeping the product line going. 
 
I'm very happy to have access to products that had become scarce, just when I wanted them for my 1/24 Bf 109E.
 
Many thanks,
 
Greg 

Got going on this last week. So far so good, no problems. I'm adding some detail in the form of cables in the cockpit, the radiator air intake and exhaust have details not on the model. Chopped the "Radio" off the back deck, narrowed it, and trying to get it to look like the fuel tank. 
 

 

 
Finished one Zero, the A6M5c flown by Saburo Sakai. I'd give it a 7 out of 10. 
 

 
Please excuse the abysmal photos. I have contractors ripping all the balconies off of the building, so no access to my normal photo spot out there. It's dark in here, and the lighting sucks. I'm working on a backdrop similar to those German hangers you can buy, floor and two walls. The other Zero, the  A6M3 conversion is done but for the push molded canopy. Still trying to get that done, so far with limited success. Soon as I get the backdrop done and some decent photography lights I'll put out a bunch of it, the M5c, and the Bf-109. 
 

Update with fuselage complete, flaps glued closed and rivet engraving almost complete, except for the engine cowl.
This will be done once all 11 (!!!) pieces (that make up the engine cowl) are glued together.
It's still going to be a lot of fun, I can tell...
So far, the assembly isn't as complicated as I'd feared, but I'm taking it really slowly.
I'm even thinking of gluing all these engine cowl parts together with white wood glue, so as to be able to adjust the assembly for the better, and eventually leave myself the possibility of moving them in relation to each other to get a "fluid", aerodynamic final look...
And when everything's in the right place, I give it a quick brush with Tamiya glue.
 
The openings in the wings for the 20mm guns and the camera didn't match up very well, as I glued the underwing to the fuselage, then the 2 upperwings to the fuselage (to get the best possible assembly look) and finally the 2 upperwings with the underwing.
The result is a very good fuselage/upperwing/underwing look, but at the expense of those 3 openings which were a bit out of alignment.
So I glued plastic inserts for the 2 barrels and a metal tube (cut syringe needle) to get a perfect final result.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a small update. I am still awaiting parts from Ukraine so in the mean time I deal with some of the smaller stuff.
 
The tanks came together well. With incremental gluing I was able to match the opposite seams quite well and minimal sanding and filling was needed. I will replace the raised rivets with Archer ones, and maybe add a few, I still need to study pictures of the tanks.
 

 
I am not so sure about the Sparrows. I will see how they look all painted up. They'll be hardly visible sitting in the recesses under the fuselage anyway. They too fit quite well with minimal work. I still need to fill the seams at the fin bases and re-scribe a few panel lines.
 
Is this rear-end representative of all/most Sparrows? Is this a remove-before-flight thing?
 

 
Or should the motor-end me opened like below when flight-ready?
 

 
The kit ones (AIM-7Es). The first pic is a different mark altogether and the one above is an -F.
 

 
The nose gear well look quite busy OOB, I may add a few lines and a cable-loom, but not much. I glued the forward bulkhead of the well to the well itself instead of the fuselage as directed in the instructions, it fits better that way, plus it will give me more wiggle-room when it's time to fuse this part to the forward fuselage. I test fitted this and I am positive that with incremental glueing I can get it to fit very well with minimal seams and no steps. Pity I forgot to fill the ejector pin holes. I might try to correct this with punched disks.
 

 
Currently I am finishing the access ladder. It will be yellow and add an interesting colorful note to the finished model. I use evergreen for the rungs of the ladder. The original ladder parts all had pesky mold-seams on them which were tricky to remove. Using evergreen for the rungs saves me some work. When it's all assembled I'll give it a swipe with nail polish remover (diluted acetone) to smoothen the surface before paint. The black anti-slip layer on the rungs will be done with black decal. The top rung looks crooked, but it's mounted angled compared to the lower ones, as on the real thing.
 

 
Cheers!
 
 
 
 

Polish dark khaki painted, thinned Surfacer 1500 used as a base, because I didn't want to fill out wing details.



 

FINAL TWEAKS… removal of cockpit ventilation intake and armoured glass.

 
Armoured glass ready for removal…


Extra glass was removed with files and sanding sticks. Remaining windscreen is polished


Finished…
Instead of aiming for a seamless joint with the surrounding camouflage, I purposely painted the altered panel with a slightly different tone like if it was a replacement for some extra realism. 

 
Next step: shading and tuning up.
Cheers,
Quang

That's very true Tim - modelers have different needs than the restoration community, and it's really fun to help on both sides! Plus there are hundreds of thousands more model builders than there are people who restore and fly the actual aircraft! For this reason I'm planning on having a booth at IPMS in 2024 - excited to meet some of you in person!
 
Ester

Yes.  I solved the problem by lying a paper towel on my model and saturating the paper towel with windex.  The ammonia in windex softens the clear acrylic, the acrylic is absorbed into the paper towel, the paper towel dries, and when removed, so is the clear acrylic.
 
I posted pictures and a description of this process but cannot find them.  Maybe someone else can.
Good luck.
Sincerely,
Mark

Been slappin' some subs together. Not much paint yet. The sub-assemblies should start coming together soon.
I'll explain more about what's there and what's not, as I proceed , tho most of it is self explanatory.
 

 

Thanks for the peek.

Well, that ain't funny at all.
 
Kev

I second Quang's query! POI? Pissed Off Inquisitor? Personal Objectification Issue? Power Operated Incubator? Potential Olfactory Illusion? Putrid Orange Ink?
 
If it ain't one of those, then I'm stumped!
 
Kev

Is it DeeCal, or Deckle? Is it tire or tyre? Potato or po-tah-to? 
 
Here’s what I do know…I’m in stencil hell.
 
Got ahead of myself and shot some paint. One thing led to another and here we are…
 

 
There’s some admitted rough spots near the windscreen  that I’ll have to try and fix, didn’t notice till taking these pics.
Have a plan to go back and paint the canopy tracks/rails as well, but pretty pleased she’s made it this far.

 
And here’s a view of the wing and the aforementioned stencil hell. Two issues frankly. The wing looks a little rough in this pic - there was a slight orange peel that I hit with a 4k sanding pad. Should disappear under the next gloss coat. The real issue is the decals themselves, and my experiment. The stencils are an off-white, almost gray and impossible to see on the sheet. I don’t remember who showed the sharpie behind instrument panel stencils, but this sheet reacted poorly. Mostly in that the sheet backing is almost waterproof after using the sharpie?! I’m literally cutting out bits and letting them soak and pealing apart the paper to let it soak again… It’s made applying stencils even more of a trying task. Top it off with the fact that the instructions show a number, but not the actual stencil. The numbers don’t really correspond to anything on the sheet, so I’ve had to go back and look at about five hundred reference pics to find the invisible decals on the sheet… fun times  


So that’s where I’m at. Figure a few more days fighting decals, then I’ll get some markings on her. Still working through construction steps in my ol’ noggin. Need to get the gunner situated, as well as the canopies. But the gun is fragile as are the dive brakes and the bomb bay doors. I’m sure I’ll snap ‘em all multiple times before all is said and done…
 
Hopefully more soon!
-Peter

A major leap forward with this project today, with the basic paint scheme now in place.
 

 
Lots of touch-ups required, but I'm basically happy with the result.
 

 

 

 
I discovered while demasking that the other side of the fin didn't get enough black paint, and is noticeably thin in spots. So I've left those masks on, and will give it another coat. Once all the black is tidied up, I'll attend to the white areas, and then I can mask and spray those sections that need to be silver.
 
So, we're not done yet!
 
Kev

Thanks, Loic.
 
Yup, it just makes it a little inconvenient to get a saw into the corners with the top half in the way. Fortunately, I realized it before I had the trailing edge glued, so I could make some separation That half is ready to insert the PE. On to the other side.
 

New clothing! The excellent kit decals are applied.




Just checked the Marseille pic posted previously. The cockpit ventilation intake (red) and the armoured windscreen (blue) need to be removed.