Matchbox Sea Venom

[LSP_Kevin]

Wow Kevin!, That's a cool link. The more I check this aircraft out, the more it fascinates and intrigues me. I'm really liking that Aussie naval version, those markings and paint-scheme just look so gnarly! So, Australia had a carrier they operated these off of? Did they operate A-4's also?

After seeing that review and build of this kit, I'm super interested in how this will go together the 'Kev way'. Glad to see you taking your time and enjoying this as a hobby, not as a job that has to be completed. Looks good on ya dude! Cockpit looks great, and it's nice to see ya dabbling in a little scratching there. Sweet that you've got an example to go look at if you get a hankering to see it up close. What's the name of the museum? I'd like to do a search and see what else they have there. Looks interesting. Later, Russ

 

Hey Russ, thanks for the feedback buddy. Now, lessee about those questions.

 

Firstly, the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) had an aircraft carrier called HMAS Melbourne. It was bought partially completed from the British in 1947. We don't have it anymore, as we swapped her to the Chinese in the mid-eighties for a PEZ dispenser and a transistor radio. Of course, they never told us which one was which...

 

A4s, yes, certainly. We actually sold them all to the Kiwis (New Zealanders), who used them for sheep mustering.

 

The Museum in question is the Australian National Aviation Musuem, otherwise known as the Moorabbin Air Museum. It's about 40 minutes' drive from where I live, and has some cool stuff. Beaufigher, Mirage, the aforementioned Sea Venom, Meteor, Gannet, Avon Sabre, a few old civil birds (including a de Havilland Heron I need to photograph for my build of the Airfix kit) ... can't remember what else. It's not a big place, but they keep their grass trim and won't poke you with anything sharp unless you ask them to.

 

Like you Russ I need to kick start my build for the Box Stock Derby GB, so after a couple of days away with the family I'll be doing less here and more there.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

OK, last update for a little while (could be a long while if I get stuck into the Zeros).

 

Cockpit painted, detailed with gloss black and silver, washed with straight black oils and dry brushed with white:

 

 

Man, it's so hard to make an all-black cockpit look interesting! Hard to photograph too. I'm hoping the instrument panel with the MDC decals will lift the whole thing and provide a focal point. Also, I haven't done any work on the seats yet, so once they're detailed, painted and installed, it should improve things a bit. I'm hoping they'll be a drop-in fit once the fuselage is assembled.

 

The control column received much the same treatment:

 

 

The wheel well side walls were extended with strip styrene, to help fill the yawning gap between them and the upper wing:

 

 

The wheel wells are provided as insert panels to accommodate the two types (Venom vs Sea Venom), and the fit is only average, leaving typical Matchbox panel line trenches around them. Problem is, there are no panel lines in this area, so plenty of filling and sanding fun there. I inadvertently fill the rear join on one wing, failing to realise at the time that it is the flap hinge line.

 

I hollowed out the air intake, attached it to the engine cover, and faired it in with Mr Surfacer and the no-sand technique:

 

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Kev

[Azgaron]

Very nice work Kevin! Looking good!

 

Cheers,

 

Azgaron

[LSP_Kevin]

A quick update to show where the instrument panel is at. I've finished added all the scratched bits, and it's kinda looking OK. The MDC instrument decals arrived today, so my next job is to paint it all up and get it ready for them.

 

 

It's not especially accurate, but will hopefully look suitably busy when it's done.

 

More soon!

 

Kev

[EPinniger]

Great work with the scratchbuilt cockpit detail! I also have this kit (also an ancient Matchbox example, not a Revell reissue) and will keep a note of your build for when I start mine.

 

Man, it's so hard to make an all-black cockpit look interesting! Hard to photograph too.

 

Some light metallic chipping/scuffing would add a lot to the appearance. The black paint on RAF cockpits of this era (particularly on the seats + floor) tended to get worn + battered after a while; most museum examples have very worn cockpit paint, although for an aircraft which has only been in service a few years you'd need to tone down the effect a bit!

[LSP_Kevin]

Thanks for the kind words EP. I'll try to add a bit of subtle chipping to it and see how it goes. In the meantime, I've finished the instrument panel. It probably didn't come out quite as well as I'd hoped, but a lot better than if I'd simply painted up the kit part. It tried the floor polish method with the decals for the first time, but only had mixed success.

 

 

It looks a little untidy in that extreme close up, but should be adequate once buttoned up in the fuselage and viewed with the naked eye (in the dark, from 40 feet away, by a blind person looking in the other direction...). I think I probably should have made it 'busier' too, as the real thing doesn't have a lot of blank space on it. Apologies once again to purists, rivet counters and Sea Venom fans!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Looking good Kev. A touch of detail painting and you will be good to go. Looks much better than the kit part and you had fun doing it right? That's all that matters.

 

I'm interested in why you're not happy with the floor polish look.

 

How did you go with cutting out the individual instruments? Any tips on how to get them to sit nicely centered inside the bezels because yours look spot on and I always make a hash of it. Those decals are just so tiny. I end up loosing heaps of them trying to get them to stick anywhere let alone inside the bezels.

 

Can't wait to see how you go with the seat and the rest of the cockpit.

 

Dan

 

Thanks for the feedback Dan. I guess what I meant about the floor polish is that I used it as a substitute for setting and solvent solutions, but it didn't really suck them down like I keep hearing it does. In fact, one of the larger ones just curled up on itself after a few minutes. And as you note, it's a bugger to get the damn tiny things in place, so I managed to smear my pools of floor polish all over the place as I struggled to get them in place (It's the still-evident smearing that I'm not happy with). In the end, some quick action with a toothpick to push them around seemed to be the most effective placement technique.

 

As for cutting them out, I used a 3-size punch set that I bought at K-mart. I think it's meant for leather, but the smallest size was almost an exact match for the smallest dials on the sheet, with one of the others being near enough for the larger ones. I got lucky too, in that the smallest dials matched almost exactly the size of the most common holes I drilled, so they kinda self-centred. The MDC sheets seem to have continuous carrier film, so using the punch was the easiest and simplest way to go. I'm sure a proper set (Waldron et al) would do a much better job of it.

 

More soon (though I gotta make a start on that Zero soon too).

 

Kev

[Loic]

Hi Kev,

 

I think you have done a good job on that IP.

At least, it is good enough to my eyes that you convienced me to try this method on my scrtch built IP rather than my old usual paint/scribbe technique which gives so and so results.

Where did you say you ordered those decals from again?

Thanks,

 

Loic

[LSP_Kevin]

Hi Kev,

 

I think you have done a good job on that IP.

At least, it is good enough to my eyes that you convienced me to try this method on my scrtch built IP rather than my old usual paint/scribbe technique which gives so and so results.

Where did you say you ordered those decals from again?

Thanks,

 

Loic

 

I got the decals from MDC Loic. They have a set for IJA/IJN birds too, and they're reasonably priced. Can't go wrong!

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Some significant progress in recent days. I've got the fuselage together and the inner wing sections attached. First job though was to extend the cockpit floor to blank off the wide open space forward of the cockpit:

 

 

I decided next to use a little bit of artistic license and make the gun barrels visible through the gun ports (I don't think they actually were visible on the real aircraft). I cut the barrels from brass tube (finally getting the rolling-under-a-knife-blade technique to work!), and secured them with Blu Tac:

 

 

Here's what it looks like from the outside:

 

 

Here's the cockpit in place:

 

 

I'll leave the control column out until the end, and I have yet to touch the seats.

 

The next task was to attach the wings. One side fit like a glove, the other, well, perhaps a picture will better explain it:

 

 

 

The gap at the root doesn't bother me as much as the really poor fit and alignment of the intake part on that side. I'll get a shot of that for the next update, but suffice it to say that it looks appalling, and I'll probably have to snap it out and refit it. I haven't seen anyone complain about this in other builds of this kit, so I'll put it down to my usual fists of ham.

 

Initialise putty sequence and prepare to launch...

 

Kev

[LSP_Mike]

Kevin wrote:

Initialise putty sequence and prepare to launch

Kev, My first thought is to use plastic to shim the seam, or try the classic "Glue the upper wing, and then fit the lower wing thing"

I see you're using the tulip, for your piccies.

[LSP_Kevin]

Kevin wrote:

Kev, My first thought is to use plastic to shim the seam, or try the classic "Glue the upper wing, and then fit the lower wing thing"

I see you're using the tulip, for your piccies.

 

Yeah Mike, tulip all the way. My camera actually has a super tulip mode, but it's usually not necessary.

 

I'll definitely be shimming the wing root gap. Unfortunately the previous owner had already glued the wing halves together, so I didn't have any choice there. I may go that route with the outer panels though. Still considering my options for the dodgy intake, but will probably attempt to pry it off. I think I'll have to shim the wing first to maximise the strength of the join, otherwise I risk pulling the whole wing off.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Here's a shot of the errant intake I was talking about:

 

 

I'm currently trying to prise it off, but I don't really like my chances. I've shimmed the wing root gap too:

 

 

Shimming gaps with styrene is my preferred method of dealing with them, as it makes the join stronger, and fills like with like. You usually still have to smooth things out with a bit of putty (or Mr Surfacer) afterwards, but the photo above should say all that's necessary about how effective this method can be.

 

Kev

[LSP_Kevin]

Sheesh. Methinks I unleashed a monster with the whole 'tulip' thing...

 

You're making really nice progress Mate! You'll sort those ill-fitting bits I'm sure.

 

Thanks Dave. I did manage to get the intake off, and have re-glued it so that it's flush with the fuselage and matches the wing profile. Of course, now I've got huge gaps on the lower wing-to-intake join, but they'll be fine after some shimming.

 

More soon!

 

Kev

[Spads57]

Kevin,

The Sea Venom is coming along nicely.The cockpit looks really good.Man I love seeing new life brought to these old kits. As for this tulip thing,I think that's got to be one of the best tips I've gotten from the guys here at LSP,

Regards,

Gregory Jouette