1/72 Broplan ATR 72 500 to ATR 42 300 vac. kit

[chrish]

Thanks!

Ya...that flash!...I'll watch my complaining next time I'm working on a mainstream injected kit with a bit of flash here or there.

I've started adding the kit supplied photo-etch...hahahahahaha yaaaa right! The photo-etch I'm adding to the model here is left over from Kitty Hawks 1/32 OV 10 Bronco,  more grilles will be added above the ones shown on the top of the sponson (I think for the A/C turbine??) I've also begun fitting the main L/G legs and will add a bit more detailing inside the gear well later...maybe.

After laying on my back on the hangar floor for about fifteen minutes trying to determine what color the gear bay is I settled on white with an overcoat of clear yellow and a dirty brown wash. The brown wash is my interpretation of the anti-corrosive? spray all over the place in there. As well, the rear wall of the bay has a black rubbery coating on it (gravel guard?) anyway, here's where I'm at tonight.

The sponson before opening it up to add the bottom vents, which if I'm going to be honest about, I was going to put in place before adding the sponson but forgot...or I got in too big of a rush.

 

Lower vents in place and one leg being fitted

Thanks for looking!

[chrish]

I fit the upper vents tonight and glued in the gear legs, everything seems to line up not too badly (oddly enough) 

beside a model wearing the colour scheme this one will (eventually) be wearing, if I ever get it done.

I have to extend the tail cone, make it round in section (it was ovalish) and add a clear dome 

 

Edited July 11, 2019 by chrish
double post

[The Madhatter]

I've always liked the looks of the ATR - it's such a sleek looking machine. Great job on what looks to be quite a challenging kit. Are you going to sell your engines as AM parts? You'd get a few takers I reckon

[tomprobert]

Wow - I’d somehow missed this. Knowing BroPlan kits and what you started with, this is an impressive display of modelling talent!

 

Tom

[chrish]

Thanks Tom

I was inspired to get back to work on this almost 2 year old stalled project by seeing your B-52 build to be honest.

I doubt I'll be making the engines commercially available, I cant see a market for them other than the 2 of us building this kit...well me and another fellow has ordered one at this time, I agreed to send him engines and flap actuators but He's probably the only other one who'll use them. I made molds so I could build a couple of these models and make life slightly easier for myself by not having to build 4-6 vacuformed engines...

I added a new tail from Milliput, a simple thing that took more than just a couple of hours to fair in and refine and add the tail light (a nose from a 1/48 missile) 

Milliput in place

sanded to shape and filled imperfections

finally sanded smooth and tail light added. It's only on with crystal clear in case I need to remove it for painting or some other silly reason.

[chrish]

another hurdle I was dreading...

 

nav. lights are done

[Anthony in NZ]

I have been following along with this build, I really quite like the ATR-72 and your conversion is very inspiring.  Love your casting and clean tidy work.  Is the kit still available...or any other kit in 72nd .

 

Keep up the great work!

[chrish]

Thank you Anthony

Yes the kit(s) are available through Aviation Megastore I was really holding out for the Scratchaeronautics kit as it was looking like it would be a nice kit (in resin) but having shut the doors and folded, it left me with the model (s) I have here in my stash, I have another one of these 72-500 kits...That reminds me, I bought 2 kits because I knew I'd bugger something up never having built a vacuform kit before and wanted spares. Finding myself thinking I'm "over the hump" I am looking at components I built earlier wanting to fix or refine things. Case in point the landing gear sponson. In my build it looks symmetrical through the long axis where it attaches to the fuselage (it looks clunky to me) It should narrow and taper towards the front and rear and have a airfoil shape viewed from the side. I knew this when I built it and thought I could live with it, in fact I was quite happy with it until the rest of the model started coming together so nicely. My boggle is, how do I fix it? I'm not against removing it (very likely destroying it in the process) to refine the shape...just not sure how to do it with all those compound curves.

Here's a picture of what I'm talking about.

The real aircraft:

my boggle...

I may have to live with it and attempt building my own on the next attempt

[chrish]

I've decided I've got nothing to lose by trying, using the"spare" ATR kit to base the work around, I've begun building my own landing gear sponson. I took a couple of pictures of where it sits as of today (a double rye in a short glass is helping) It's not perfect but looking better than the one I built from the kit with the more aerodynamic shape

(I may have done something wrong with the kit part to have the sides look so much like a canoe)

I'll build this piece up with epoxy and sand it smooth (scribe and detail etc etc) but I'm thinking I like this version better than the kit one...now to finish it and see if I have the nerve to break the existing one off my build or just chalk it up as a learning experience and do a better job on the next one... 

Yes, I'll make resin copies if I get it perfect

[mustang1989]

Progress is looking really good so far!! 

[chrish]

Suffering an ATR Mojo failure and needing a break, I've started cutting plastic on the 1:24 Hellcat. It'll be OOB in gloss dark blue with kit markings, although those markings will be painted on. It's a big bugger!

[Out2gtcha]

Very cool!   Looking forward to that one Chris

[chrish]

I hope this doesn't bore you guys...

Back from the shelf of despair (for now) and on the bench...The Vac. Broplan ATR from.....the bad place.

Not liking the shape of the landing gear sponson and not having the energy to fix it the ATR sat on the shelf collecting dust since sometime last year. I decided I should at least try to remedy the issue before quitting all together. The sides of the sponson have a wrongly shaped flat top (in side view) so I pried them loose from the fuselage after drawing the correct profile on the plastic, then began shaping them with a hobby knife and file, I got one side almost perfect (not perfectly shaped but, shaped to the pencil line) I did the same to the other side and was almost at the "stop here" point when the sponson split in half between the wheel openings...which on closer inspection (during the autopsy) were asymmetrical anyway.  So plan B (to be followed by plan C "stomp on it") was implemented. Make my own sponson. Here is the result of all that.

Resin sponson (sides) cast and stuck on

re-using the previously made gear bay "details"

centre section, no kit parts left here.

Tamiya putty making me look like I did a great job fitting my parts. (Grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain't)

Thanks for looking- Be gentle, remember...I strive for mediocrity

[The Madhatter]

Great too see this back on the bench again. Fantastic job in casting those sponsons! 

[chrish]

Thank you Madatter.

More work completed. The fairing in coarse work is finished...I think. I'm smoothing things out now. some blemishes and dents have been corrected and I have sanded and polished the corrective work. Much happier with the look, it's still not perfect or correct but much closer to looking right;