seiran01 Posted August 12, 2018 Author Share Posted August 12, 2018 Probably should have but no Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seiran01 Posted August 13, 2018 Author Share Posted August 13, 2018 Current status of the trainer! Center wing is finally attached, I have a bit of filling and contouring to do on seams and gaps forward of the wing leading edge. Cowl is just tacked on in the photo to see how it looked. The folded wing is just sitting in place right now and will be glued after everything is painted. I painted one stabilizer in MM fluoro red without any primer to see how it'd look. I think it'll definitely need a white base coat to look right as there is no fluorescence to the part at all, just looks plain orange. On the wingfolds, I'll be making canvas covers from foil; the rib outboard of the cannon is a great design feature as this means the covers can be made without handling the model at the same time and glued in easier. This is also why you're not seeing any weathering in the wingfolds right now, barely anything will be seen in the cannon recess once the covers are in place. The resin belly insert was a bit tricky and needed all of my clamps to hold it in place with the fuselage sides pinched together while the epoxy set. This part does leave a step at the rear as well as a 1/8" gap at the back end due to shrinking. After gluing this one on, I experimented with the insert on the Guppy and have found the best approach will be to thin the inside of the fuselage walls at the bottom and this will make it much easier to get a join that will require less sanding / puttying after the fact. This will be especially true at the tail end and it seems like the thinning I did in 30 seconds will be more than sufficient to minimize or even eliminate the issues I had with the belly insert on the trainer AD-5. NukerDan, Anthony in NZ, Kagemusha and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scotsman Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 Mike - those look beautiful builds, I finished my USAF A-1E earlier this summer , and I'm patiently waiting until my Guppy wings its way across the pond, looks like I'm in for a treat , I also used Tamiya Clear blue on my E, all I did was wash the clear section with some mily Acrylic brush cleaner/Thinner , and like mike a few light coats , and it looked really ver impressive As to cost , yup superficially the donor kits and conversion look expensive , but as Mike said shop around on E-bay and you can get some bargains, my AD-1 donor kit come in at around £65 delivered , which is a substantial saving as regards RRP here in the UK , and yup the conversion looks a lot , BUT as usual in the this life you get what you pay for , its expensive because its a great piece of work Apart from the Radar operators cabin, I think the hardest job on the Guppy will be filling all those pylon holes! ColinR. paul fisher 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seiran01 Posted August 14, 2018 Author Share Posted August 14, 2018 Well, Model Master Fluoro red over a base of white nails it! the fluorescence won't show in the photo no matter what I do to adjust settings (anyone have tips to get this to look right on an iphone?). Think I have the demarcation line too far forward on the wingtip and and may need to repaint to get it right, but so far as I'm concerned these colors look spot on when compared to the few photos of these birds that I can find LSP_Kevin, Kagemusha and Daniel460 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ray Posted August 14, 2018 Share Posted August 14, 2018 Nice work, Mike! That orange looks pretty darn good in the photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Maxim Posted August 14, 2018 Share Posted August 14, 2018 You did a great job on the blue tint then. Really looks the part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul fisher Posted August 14, 2018 Share Posted August 14, 2018 On 8/11/2018 at 2:03 PM, karimb said: Maybe some sort of submarine sonar buoy or the sort. I have no clue so just sayin! SUPERB progress on the kits Mike! Karim It's a large life raft slung in the front end cut off of a 300 gallon drop tank.I am told by a former guppy pilot that by the early 1960's the 3350 engines were prone to quitting at the worst times so they had these rafts made up just in case.A drop tank was almost always hung on the right pylon to help with the torque of the engine, very often nothing on the left hand pylon, or one of these ship made rafts. Anthony in NZ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seiran01 Posted August 15, 2018 Author Share Posted August 15, 2018 Oh cool, thanks Paul! Are you making this part or shall I plan on cutting up a drop tank? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul fisher Posted August 15, 2018 Share Posted August 15, 2018 I hadn't planned on it, but I could certainly work up a master and make some parts up.It would be kinda cool..... Paul Kagemusha 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seiran01 Posted August 15, 2018 Author Share Posted August 15, 2018 Let me know if you decide to please Would they be appropriate on the GSB guppies as well? Have not seen any photos on blue birds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul fisher Posted August 15, 2018 Share Posted August 15, 2018 The GSB ships were in service earlier, the engines were much newer then , I've not seen any pics of the raft on a blue ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Posted August 16, 2018 Share Posted August 16, 2018 I would be in for one of the life rafts also - would also like to see is a detailed cowl so we could open the engine up for detailing. Jerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Ron Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Nice stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted August 17, 2018 Share Posted August 17, 2018 Delightful. You're making me want to do one of these in some pretty GSB Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seiran01 Posted August 19, 2018 Author Share Posted August 19, 2018 Powering through this weekend!I AD-5 Trainer: Primed most of the fuselage and attacked a lot of gaps and seams with CA. Still a lot more to go on this but it's really looking good to my eyes. The windscreen is glued on this one now. Turns out I glued the instrument coaming too high despite my figuring there was ample room for the gun sight. Not so, had to reduce the height of the sight quite a bit and even with that, the reflector glass is butting up to the windscreen. Lesson learned! Second lesson learned is just how much I hate this MM fluoro red - won't go into details but I never want to use it again... Guppy: Center wing completed and attached, belly plate attached with thick CA - one side first using tape, rubber bands and accelerator to get a fit as good and clean as can be, then later-rinse-repeat on the other side. Much less cleanup and contouring to do on this one compared to the trainer. Outer wings are drying as I type this. Not great fit, there are noticeable steps in a few places. Some of these I can attack when I fill the gun access panels but we'll have to see how much I can live with. Radome is not glued on but makes a good bade for wings drying. This'll be the last build update for about a week and a half, my main trade show of the year is this week so I'll be doing my 30,000 steps daily inside the Colorado Convention Center. Looking forward to getting back to these before labor day weekend! Kagemusha and KiwiZac 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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