John F Smith Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 Thanks, Shawn I've got that kit waiting in the wings, too. It will be interesting to see the differences between the Jasmine and ICMTH products. By the way, if you want to do a side-by-side display of your HO-229 pe model with a regular model, Revell Germany makes a really nice 1/72 kit of the aircraft for very cheap dollars. I'll be doing that when I build mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn M Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 oo thats a nice idea, I was going to paint the pe to refelect the airframe colors. Picked up a Vac canopy for it as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 John Like Kev, my heart sank when I read about the Zero falling to the hardwood floor. I can just imagine how you felt and what was running through your mind. Thank you for the information and tips on CCA and Accelerators shelf life and I ever would have even thought that. Also, using accelerator does weaken the CCA joint/weld and I try not to use the accelerator in critical areas. Of course, with the Zero project, that's nearly impossible. Acetone ... now that's another fantastic tip for sure. But back to the Zero. Congrats on a skillful rebuild ... just speaks so highly of your determinations and abilities. Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loic Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 (edited) I am confident that you will fix it, this build dicerve it Edited June 21, 2014 by Loic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John F Smith Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 We're on the home stretch now!!Repairs to the fuselage section are complete, everything is installed, and, except for top wing skins, the subassemblies are all complete.The rebuild process after the breakage was tedious, but not too difficult. The really difficult parts of this build are mounting the seats on those odd struts that Zeros use because it's very difficult to see what you are doing. Same was true for stuff in the equipment bay aft of the cockpit.Here are some photos of the rebuild process: And, after installing the seat, the cockpit floor, and the equipment in the spaces aft of the cockpit, this section of the fuselage is complete. I did some minor weathering on it just to give it a "used" look, but nothing too heavy.Painting the outside of the cockpit equipment on the walls of the fuselage frame, i.e. the part that shows through to the outside was a bit of a dilemma. I considered masking and airbrushing, but there were too many open spaces that wouldn't fill well, and at this point, I didn't want to have overspray all over this effort. Hand painting scared me because I was afraid my hands weren't steady enough to avoid slopping paint all over the frames.The, inspiration came. I didn't have to worry about getting a little paint on the fuselage frames because CA debonder does an excellent job of removing paint from metal. So, a little debonder on a micro brush and all of those paint errors were fixed. Some light weathering and this section of the fuselage was complete. Here are some photos: Also note that the machine gun barrels which were treated with Blacken-It are now installed. Next up for assembly was the propeller assembly. This part was actually better detailed than the Tamiya kit prop, although you will never see things like the speed governors, forever hidden under the spinner.I also chose to polish the prop blades and spinner to help make it a focal point of the model. The sequence was pretty easy. Sand with 220 grit; sand with 600 grit; and use a polishing stick to bring out that high shine. Very easy and very fast.Here is the prop under construction: And, here, all of that beautiful detail is covered up with the spinner installed and the prop complete: And, now, all of the subassemblies are complete. All that remains is to install the wing top skins and pitot tube. After that, we can put all of these assemblies together and make an aircraft!!Here is a view of all the work done to date: The next update will have the final assembly and then the final reveal. (I'll be working hard on this all weekend to make this GB deadline!)Thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying this. airscale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 Lovely work John! Good to see that you were able to - literally! - pick up the pieces and recover with this one. (I'll be working hard on this all weekend to make this GB deadline!) You'll be happy to know that I'll be announcing a small extension to the GB in the next couple of days! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Lund Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 I'm so glad you managed to get back on track again. It's looking good and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 John OUTSTANDING work as always. I am continually mazed at your abilities and craftsmanship ... beautifully. Prop and hub look simply gorgeous! Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John F Smith Posted June 28, 2014 Author Share Posted June 28, 2014 Thank you Kevin, Thomas, and Peter I'm glad to know you are enjoying the build and your kind words help keep me motivated. I appreciate it very much. Work is going well today (Saturday) and I might actually make that 1 July deadline. Uh-oh.....saying something like that may jinx the completion of the project!! Oh well. Best Regards, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Work is going well today (Saturday) and I might actually make that 1 July deadline. Uh-oh.....saying something like that may jinx the completion of the project!! Oh well. John, I've just extended the deadline by another month - so no need to rush! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 this build is an astonishing achievement.. such finesse and fine excecution bravo.. I can't wait to see the grand finale Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John F Smith Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 Thank you very much, Peter And, thank you for the extension, Kevin. I'm pretty sure I will end up at least a few days past the original one, but it will be so great to see all of the folks who need the month get their builds completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John F Smith Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 Time for final assembly---First up was to mount the cockpit section of the fuselage to the wings. Like the Mustang kit, this consisted of 4 tabs (this time on the fuselage) into 4 slots on the wing spars. Here is where the time and care spent on assembling these sections really pays off. I heaved a deep sigh of relief as mine settled right into it's slots, no problem.At this point, it's also time to put the wing "skins" on top of the wings. Remember way back when we assembled the spars to the lower "skin" at the beginning of the build? Well, this is a similar process for the top of the wing. It was pretty fiddly work getting everything lined up but turned out very well in the end.Here's a photo of the assembly with the fuselage section and the wing skin in place: Now for a couple of detail shots of the wing. In this photo, note the Landing Gear Indicator blade in red (it's pretty small!) And in this photo the lights on top of the wings are visible. (I'm not sure what to call them; their colors match the navigation lights on the wing tips, so Navigation lights (?), formation lights (?). Anyway, it was nice to see them included. However they unbelievably small and difficult to handle. My wife had to help me locate one on the floor when it got a life of it's own and "flipped" out from between my tweezers tips!: Next up, I mounted the tail assembly to the fuselage section. This turns out to be another perfect fit (Take your time on alignment pieces, especially, when you build these assemblies!), however, it's easy to get a perfect fit and a slight misalignment, as I discovered. About 1 mm out of place at the fuselage join means a very noticeable horizontal stabilizer that is NOT horizontal. Having learned my lesson, once again, I debonded the tail assembly, and did it again, this time correctly. Here are a couple of photos of it. The join is immediately aft of the antenna mast: Next up was the installation of the engine assembly to the firewall. Thank God white metal is soft enough to bend, because this did take some work to get the large, thick tabs to line up with the rectangular mounting holes in the firewall. When mounting a large, heavy white metal assembly like this, I really strongly urge you to use gel CA. It will give a much stronger join, and the location for the glue is on the back side of the firewall where it will never be seen anyway. Here's a few photos of the engine in place, since we haven't seen it for quite a while now: And, finally, I put the prop in place. I know, I could have waited until the remaining items were complete, but this has been a long road and I was ready for it to look like an airplane: What we have remaining to do is the Vac-Form canopy (I hate these things; you would think that for the price of this kit, you would get an injection molded or even a clear resin canopy), the pitot tube, and the antenna wire.So the next thing you see here will be a final reveal.Thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying it. __________________ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Terrific progress John! Looks amazing, and a real testament to your skill and patience. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reconspit Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 A M A Z I N G ! ! I'm totally impressed..., aweeesome model... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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