Biggles87 Posted September 28 Share Posted September 28 Wow! I’m with Michael on the lower engine/bulkhead detail, I take it you won’t be adding the central wheel well cover. John Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted September 28 Share Posted September 28 That looks great, John! Kev Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted September 28 Author Share Posted September 28 Thanks guys! I'm not completely happy with the engine compartment but I don't have enough skillz/knowledge to do much more and I want to move forward so on we go! Oh, I forgot to mention... One of the modifications that I made to the Folgore kit that I didn't mention was removing the corrugated pipe that was molded onto the triangular spar part and creating a new piece of corrugated pipe by wrapping copper wire around a piece of thicker lead wire. The molded pipe wasn't very convincing and I also get added flexibility in getting the pipe parts connected. Previously, I drilled two holes in the bottom of the oil tank and added two brass tube sleeves to accept future plumbing. They are now difficult to access but I was able to get to one and routed a section of lead wire capped with brass tubing to the hole in the leading edge of the port wing root. I also routed some wires from the AiP cylindrical oil tank. With the wing bottom and fuselage parts in place, we can see the possible view we'll have into the engine compartment. I don't think I've come close to the density and clutter of the real thing but the added stuff is at least filling up what would be empty space. The Breda guns have been painted and temporarily mounted. No other enhancements were made here since you won't be able to see much from the wheel wells. I've lost the filler tube from the oil tank and have not installed the breather tube from the oil vapor tank. Neither are visible from the bottom and may potentially interfere with the fit of the cowlings so I'm not planning on putting these small parts on. The gun assembley adds, while not readily visible DOES contribute to the visual clutter of the engine compartment, which is one of the goals. You can see the one of the brass tubes sticking out of the bottom of the oil tank. Zola25, Landrotten Highlander, LSP_Kevin and 25 others 28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 That’s going to look excellent through the wheel well. I’m a firm believer in “ if it won’t be seen don’t fit it”. John Thunnus and dennismcc 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Eagle Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 You are a glutton for punishment. But, I really enjoy what you have done with that engine compartment work. Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted September 29 Share Posted September 29 Beautiful engine detailing. You've really lifted the kit to new heights. Looking forward to what happens next Matt Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted September 30 Author Share Posted September 30 Thanks guys! Appreciate the comments as always! Now that the engine area is mostly complete, I can move on to other parts of the build. Taking a look at the Aircraft in Pixels replacement for the tropical filter, I was stumped on how to remove the outer filter element from this extremely tight casting block. AiP includes absolutely ZERO documentation or instructions so the modeler is left to figure things out on his own. Not wanting to damage the delicate part, I went back to their website and found the answer... "the filter cover now ships clipped from supports on its own protective shoe". Ahhh... it simply slips off. This small set of four parts is not cheap ($21.50 US plus $10 shipping) so I find the lack of instructions especially appalling. The kit filter is no slouch either with three separate parts. The main difference is that the ribbed filter section on the AiP version has physical slits that you can actually see through. But the slits are so small and the effect so subtle that I'd expect the vast majority of people would never notice the difference. The rear fairing for the air filter highlights a very bad sprue attachment design. C'mon Italeri! Moving on to the cockpit, I reviewed the Eduard PE set for any wortwhile cockpit additions. The frame for the hand lever beside the seat is cleverly folded with additional detail so I considered it a worthwhile upgrade. But this truss on the cockpit floor requires a lot of work without any benefit of added detail so I'm leaving this one off. I enlarged the existing holes with a micro drill bit. I've decided to replace the bottle-style oxygen regulator with the later German style, which is included in the kit. An oxygen hose was fabricated with copper wire and I fashioned a small panel to house the oxygen level and pressure gauges. The instrument bezels are from Airscale. Dpgsbody55, TAG, LSP_Kevin and 19 others 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted October 1 Share Posted October 1 Nice work on the cockpit, so far. I'm sure it's going to look great once done. Regarding the air filter, I used the AiP part and painted the filter in pieces off the model with the area under the gills painted flat black. Once assembled, you can see the difference clearly and you just have to keep the airbrush away from this to maintain it. Cheers, Michael Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted October 1 Author Share Posted October 1 Thanks Michael! Your insights are always very timely and helpful! I was thinking about painting the filter interior part black as well to maximize the contrast. Due to the wings entering the construction process relatively early, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the Eduard brass flaps that came with the Big Ed set that I purchased for this build. Italeri includes flaps with internal details molded in which don't look too bad, with the exception of some pesky ejector pin depressions that would need to be filled. However, Italeri includes no detail for the flap bays so leaving the flaps down would offer a very incomplete representation. Eduard includes both the flap bays and the flaps themselves. It looks pretty fiddly but in my experience, they usually fold up without an issue provided that you have some basic tools including a photoetch folding tool. I started with the flap bays and you can see the difference that these would make compared to the blank space they occupy. Thin CA glue is used to secure all of the spars in place and CA debonder is used to clean up any excess CA. The small inboard flap bays are separate and are assembled next. The flap bays are complete. Next I'll do the flaps themselves and investigate what kind of surgery is required to accommodate these brass parts. JayW, SwissFighters, Dpgsbody55 and 19 others 22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 Wow, those flaps look awesome, a huge improvement over the kit offerings. Would you mind explaining how you clean away excess super glue using the debonder in such a tight space? Matt Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 Top notch work on both the scratchbuilding and the photo-etch John! The engine looks great as well! Ernest Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted October 2 Author Share Posted October 2 15 hours ago, scvrobeson said: Wow, those flaps look awesome, a huge improvement over the kit offerings. Would you mind explaining how you clean away excess super glue using the debonder in such a tight space? Matt Thank you Matt! Brass flaps always look super-impressive unpainted! My trick to using debonder in tight spaces is a long-bristled paint brush dampened with debonder. Repetitive sweeps of the brush takes care of any excess CA glue nicely. Make sure the brush isn't soaked with debonder... you don't want it to pool around the joints and possibly disrupt the connection. 8 hours ago, Greif8 said: Top notch work on both the scratchbuilding and the photo-etch John! The engine looks great as well! Ernest Thank you Ernest! Rocat, TAG and scvrobeson 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayW Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 Beautiful photo-etch work John! Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted October 3 Share Posted October 3 Thanks for the tips. I'll have to give that a try on a future build Matt Thunnus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunnus Posted October 3 Author Share Posted October 3 Appreciate the feedback guys! The PE flaps have been completed. Eduard makes some pretty cool stuff and I've always enjoyed putting their flaps together because they look so dang good. After the fun folding is done, you have to face the adjustment of the kit parts to make the brass fit. And this is one of my least favorite tasks... thinning large areas. It's tedious, somewhat vague and very time-consuming. I have David Union lateral pen sander, which automates the process somewhat. But it's still very time consuming and plastic dust gets everywhere. I got tired of it after getting about halfway done on one upper wing. To take a break from the tedious sanding, I decided to add a little more detail to the instrument panel. Don't worry... I'll get the thinning work done eventually. Just need to be in the right frame of mind. JayW, MikeMaben, TankBuster and 14 others 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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