MikroMir 1/48 Percival Provost

[RadBaron]

G'day everyone, @mozart asked if I'd post some pics of this build, so here are the pics I have! 

 

I'm on a bit of a trainer kick at the moment so when I saw this for a good price on internet auction site, I decided to add it to the collection.

Typical short run kit, plastic is very carvable, with fine recessed panel detail oh, a small sheet of photo etched, injection molded clear canopies with pre-cut masks and a nice selection of paint schemes.

 

The kit makes you work with lots of carving and cleaning up of parts, gaps to fill and lots of interesting fit issues to solve but overall a nice model of a rarely kitted aircraft.

 

 

I'm not entirely sure how either plastic instrument panel, or the photo etched instrument panel are supposed to fit to the instrument panel coaming.

 

I ended up chopping up the photo etched panel and modifying the plastic panel to suit the coaming.

 

Denzil

Edited September 9, 2019 by RadBaron

[RadBaron]

The photo etched sheet is nice, however I opted to make my own seat belts using masking tape. Also there was only one set of photo etched Rudder pedals. Not sure if this is a mistake or not.

 

 

The engine cowl is molded with each fuselage half which means there will be an awkward seam to fill with the engine trapped inside. I elected to close-up the fuselage halfs clean up the seam and remove the front nose ol to allow a room to install the engine.

 

 

I think the engine may be slightly undersized. Here it is alongside a 1/48 Wright 1820 as used in the T28 Trojan.

[RadBaron]

The carb air/oil cooler intake wants a bit of fettling to look more like the real thing.

 

The canopy too wants some massaging, being a bit wide at the base. 

 

 

And heres the stage I'm at right now.

 

As is the norm with short run kits, every part needed cleaning and convincing to fit, but overall construction was fairly straightforward and absolutely worth the effort being able to add a Provost to my trainer collection.

 

MikroMir are aware of the shortcomings with the canopy and have tooled up a new part to fit. Their customer service has been fantastic in regards to replacing the canopy. Read about my experience here:

 

When the replacement canopy arrives she'll get a coat of silver and Dayglo red. I think the decals will be perfectly usable, so that will make life easier. After that a few little details and she will be finished!

 

Denzil

Edited September 10, 2019 by RadBaron

[Out2gtcha]

Very cool Denzil!    Not something you see every day

[mozart]

Thanks Denzil, gives us a feel of what to expect. You’re making a good job of a challenging kit!

[RadBaron]

Thanks guys!

 

The kit isnt terrible, if the builder takes the time to finesse the joints, I'm sure itll go together very nicely.

I'm more of a "melt the thing together and then carve the shapes out", hence all the coarse sandpaper scratches over my build. Nothing a bit of primer and fine sandpaper cant fix 

[RadBaron]

The replacement canopies came in and I made some room on the bench to get this little bird finished!

 

The re-tooled canopy is a much better fit than the original, and I used my new-favorite canopy glue (UV activated Superglue) to affix it.

 

 

Denzil

[Kagemusha]

Looks great, can't believe I missed it. 

[Out2gtcha]

Lovely!!

[RadBaron]

1 hour ago, Kagemusha said:

Looks great, can't believe I missed it. 

Its been a sporadic build, but im determined to see her through to the end!

 

1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said:

Lovely!!

Thanks mate! I'm making the most of having modelling mojo again 

[Stevepd]

I’ll be honest I wanted to build this. Did some research and purchased the kit. I just couldn’t get on with it, as you’re aware nothing fits etc. All I wanted was a simple build and not modelling, so perhaps I was in the wrong frame of mind, I waved the white flag. One of the few kits I’ve actually put in the recycle bin.

[RadBaron]

1 hour ago, Stevepd said:

 One of the few kits I’ve actually put in the recycle bin.

 

Thats a shame to hear! 

Its definitely not a shake and bake, and somedays the want for something that falls together certainly outweighs the desire to have to beat a kit into submission

[RadBaron]

Preping for some paint. 

 

The kit supplies vinyl canopy masks, but they weren't a particularly good fit. Good ol' masking tape does the job. 

 

 

 

Up next is paint. 

I've decided that I'm not happy with the colour of the roundels and fin-flash, so I'll be cutting some masks to paint those on. 

Wish me luck 

 

Denzil

[RadBaron]

Pushing through with the build. 

 

Paintinf florescent colours are always fun, lots and lots of thin layers. 

 

 

 

Next up, black base and then some high-speed silver

[RadBaron]

Masking

 

Silvering

 

Unmasking

 

I used a home made mix of Mr hobby flourescent red and insignia red, and alclad High speed silver. 

 

Its been difficult to find pictures of this particular scheme on the piston provost, so determining the actual layout and also the colour of the flourescent areas has been a bit of a guessing game. 

These are the only pics I have of this scheme on the aircraft in service

 

 

 

And heres one of the same scheme on a JP

 

 

I think the result looks close enough for 1/48th scale