Out2gtcha Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Looks great so far Michael! Dpgsbody55 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted January 7, 2020 Author Share Posted January 7, 2020 A little more progress in the last few days, after a busy weekend with non-modelling stuff. Here's another shot of the cockpit, all finished up now and glued onto the top wing. Next, I spent some time cleaning up the fuselage prior to attaching it to the wing/cockpit assembly. I have also been spending some time dry fitting each fuselage half to the top wing and making some adjustments, before gluing them together. This has paid dividends with a fuselage/wing join which is pretty good. Dihedral was also checked after gluing each fuselage half together, and before the cockpit was permanently attached. However, a lot of pressure is needed when clamping to ensure dihedral remains correct. The first aid box was also filed down a little to help get it past the fuselage frames when gluing it all together. After this, I added the tail plane, then the elevators when the tail had dried. Again, I paid a lot of attention to dihedral settings throughout as this is one kit that is very easy to build askew. Here's some shots of the model as it presently is after filling and filing of joints. The rudder will be attached after painting, depending on what markings I apply. If I go with Normandie Niemen, the striped rudder will be easier to paint off the model. The black spots, btw, are the kit supplied masking for the fuel guages. The apparently large amount of filler on the rear fuselage isn't as bad as it looks as it's not much more than a skim. After gluing the fuselage halves together, I noticed that the bottom surface was slightly convex. The filler is correcting that issue. My next steps are to finish off the cockpit area, with instrument panel coaming, gunsight and frames, plus the upper side consoles to be attached. I intend to make the canopy slide and will be doing this with 1.5mm right angle stock. My first bit of work here involves making a 1mm groove in the top of the side consoles and letting in the stock. Here's the progress so far. Next up will be to make corresponding adjustments to the sliding canopy, glue the consoles into place and see how it all works when dried. I've enlarged the canopy rails that are let into the fuselage halves, so it should work. Maybe. If it goes wrong, at least SH supplied 2 sets of clear parts in my kit. Cheers, Michael BradG, Gazzas, Dany Boy and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted January 7, 2020 Share Posted January 7, 2020 Nice progress, Michael! It reminds me that I must get back to my stalled build of the Aeropoxy kit. Kev Dpgsbody55 and dennismcc 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted January 8, 2020 Share Posted January 8, 2020 Very nice work so far! Håkan Dpgsbody55 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted January 10, 2020 Author Share Posted January 10, 2020 (edited) Thank you, Kevin and Hakan, for the encouragement. It's appreciated and at times needed. This kit is frustrating at times, as the last picture below will illustrate. I've made a little more progress and have finished off the cockpit entirely, as well as the canopy, sliding and all. The upper consoles have gone in, and these were glued in very carefully to allow a gap between the canopy rails I added and the fuselage. The gap needs to be about 0.5mm and consistent. I managed that with a piece of 0.5mm wire. I let this dry overnight, then tested with my modified canopy. Then the pilots head armour was glued in and the rear screen after that. While that was drying, I put the gunsight, red/brown crash pad and curved framing together. The gunsight has a tiny ring and bead sight on the left side, which was a part of the "Hi-Tech" offerings in the kit, and it's a good enhancement. This assembly was glued into place, then the cover over the top of the instrument panel was added. The instructions say to glue the IP cover to the curved framing then glue the lot into the cockpit, but I felt it better to glue in the framing first, then the cover to get the position of each part correct. I think the ends of this curved piece are supposed to sit on the notch in each of the top consoles. However, the curved framing is not wide enough or, therefore, long enough, so I glued it in as best I could. Frustrating. The pic shows this poorly, (it was early in the AM when I took it!!) but you get the idea. As you can also see, the sliding canopy is in place and moves well. I made the canopy rails again with 1.5mm right angle stock, then sanded off 0.5mm off the bottom of the canopy sitself so that it doesn't sit too high. Then a 1.0mm high groove was filed into the canopy sides to bring the right angle stock in and make it less obvious. I then filed off 0.5mm off the rail so that it sat in place better. You can also see a small gap between the fuselage and the IP cover. It's possible that I may have glued the cockpit assemble onto the wing 1mm too far back, but the position of the first aid box, which is in it's correct location according to the molding of the right fuselage half, would suggest I got it right, as it's position relative to the pilot's seat and rear cockpit tubing is correct. Alas the location of the cockpit on the top wing was not what you'd call "positive", so I'll continue with what I've got. Frustrating, again. Once this was dry, I painted the glue marks out and added the front windscreen, the positioning of which was determined largely by the sliding hood as again the position is not "positive". Once dry, the gaps were small enough to cover with a little extra glue, then a little clean up and painting of the canopy frames. I've also drilled out the rear fuselage jacking point and added a custom pitot made from two pieces of 1mm and 0.5mm brass tube. The kit part looks too heavy. More frustration was uncovered when I removed the sliding canopy and found paint has bled under the mask. I used the mask supplied in the kit and now I'm wishing I'd made my own, as I usually do. I'll continue on and try to deal with it when I remove the mask, though I'm not sure how. That aside, I think the next step is painting, and on that, I'm now awaiting the decals I ordered as I've decided to paint this in the markings of a Russian pilot, rather than the Normandie Niemen markings supplied. So the next update may be a few weeks off as the markings are coming from England. Cheers, Michael Edited January 10, 2020 by Dpgsbody55 Trak-Tor, Alain Gadbois, LSP_Kevin and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Wow tough going there Michael. Seems maybe a later tool kit like this should fit better, but mixed media and all. In the end it appears your getting there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landrotten Highlander Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 How about using a blunt bamboo skewer to try and scrape off the paint from the inside of the canopy? should be easy enough without scratching the clear panels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gazzas Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Looking good, despite the paint bleed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Very nice work on the sliding canopy! It looks quite to scale. Alain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Progressing nicely! Håkan Dpgsbody55 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dodgem37 Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Good stuff. Sincerely, Mark Dpgsbody55 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted January 11, 2020 Author Share Posted January 11, 2020 21 hours ago, Out2gtcha said: Wow tough going there Michael. Seems maybe a later tool kit like this should fit better, but mixed media and all. In the end it appears your getting there! I'll definitely finish it, but it's a frustrating kit as the issues are silly, for the most part. Parts fit, parts not being numbered on the sprues and no locating pins, especially on the major parts, are all basic issues. It would have been easy to fix those issues during the design phase. 21 hours ago, Landrotten Highlander said: How about using a blunt bamboo skewer to try and scrape off the paint from the inside of the canopy? should be easy enough without scratching the clear panels. Good suggestion. I'll give it a try for sure. Thanks. 19 hours ago, Gazzas said: Looking good, despite the paint bleed. Thanks, Gazzas. The paint bleed on a clear part is a big issue for me as it has the ability to ruin the model. I'll try the suggestion above, but I may have to get back to S-H to get a replacement. Hope not as it will delay the finishing of this kit and I'm already thinking about the next one. 13 hours ago, Alain Gadbois said: Very nice work on the sliding canopy! It looks quite to scale. Alain Thanks, Alain. On the real plane, you can see the canopy rails stick up slightly from the fuselage side, which is not depicted on this model. You can see it on the picture below. Doing this sort of thing also satisfies my desire to add to each build rather than just assemble a kit. Cheers, Michael Gazzas, Dany Boy, Alain Gadbois and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Gadbois Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 Hi Michael, Good of you to add that detail, because it is often overlooked in models, even if it is usually quite visible! It is one of those things that bug me, especially when sometimes the kit is full of aftermarket and tons of additional details elsewhere. Alain Dpgsbody55 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted January 12, 2020 Author Share Posted January 12, 2020 Too true, Alain. It would have been so easy for SH to add this and make the canopy slide. Just add a little more plastic to the side consoles, deepen the slide rails on the fuselage halves and add small tabs to the canopy itself. It's doubly perplexing as the rest of the cockpit detail provided is very good. This is definitely a model worth building and SH could have made this so much better for very little extra thought. I have their Tempest MkV in my stash, and want their upcoming Whirlwind, so I hope the latter at least is an improvement. Cheers, Michael Alain Gadbois 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dpgsbody55 Posted January 18, 2020 Author Share Posted January 18, 2020 Not a lot of progress over the last week, as I've been filling and smoothing joints, priming and repeating. I've also been waiting for a set of decals to arrive from England. Here's the model today, after final priming. I've also been doing a little bit of work on the undercarriage legs, which caused a little more consternation. The main legs in steps 29 and 30 have two small parts (D7 and D35) to attach which will attach to the upper main u/c doors. Be careful with these for two reasons. Firstly the pins on them need to align with more parts (D8) in steps 31 and 32. The second issue is that part D10 in both steps 29 and 30 need to be attached the same way up on both legs. Check the drawings in the instructions carefully with these two parts as you can mount them upside down. Lastly, the markings I was after arrived yesterday and they look magnificent. They're from Begemot, a Russian company, and your choice of markings is vast as you have 25 choices. Here are some. There are eight more schemes on the back of the first page. And the decals themselves: Decisions, decisions...... Cheers, Michael Cheetah11, Dany Boy, LSP_Kevin and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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