Grunticus Posted December 7, 2020 Author Share Posted December 7, 2020 (edited) Today I made a bit of progress on the fuselage. The seatbelts are in, they will be weathered with mascara powder, as will de fuselage inside itself, and of course some wash here and there. The Eduard rear gun is almost finished, I still need to attach the sight-ring, but that will wait until the very end so I don’t send it flying off at some point. I am not completely satisfied with the look of the gun color-wise....any suggestions to make it look better would be appreciated. In the flesh it looks lighter than in this photo. Next I am going to figure out a way to strengthen the three float attachment points with brass rod. The inside position of the aft point of the three will be visible through the back office, the other two will be obscured from view. I suppose strengthening 2 out of 3 would suffice. Edited December 7, 2020 by Grunticus chukw, LSP_Kevin, Landrotten Highlander and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Landrotten Highlander Posted December 7, 2020 Share Posted December 7, 2020 5 minutes ago, Grunticus said: I am not completely satisfied with the look of the gun color-wise....any suggestions to make it look better would be appreciated. I have found that an application of some metallic powder by a cotton bud (similar to dry-brushing with a paint brush) can greatly enhance the look of any metallic part. There are many metallic colours available, but I would go with either a dark steel or a mild steel version. Grunticus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunticus Posted December 8, 2020 Author Share Posted December 8, 2020 It seems that reference photos of Royal Navy Kingfishers are rarer than hen’s teeth. Can anyone recommend a book I could purchase with RN Kingfisher photos, or a website? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sakai Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 I'm with Robert on this kit, a breath away from pressing the purchase button. Then I think back to Matt "Doog's" description as well as others and fall shy. You might change my mind Grunticus, I'm watching your progress. Rockie Yarwood and Grunticus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunticus Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 4 hours ago, Sakai said: I'm with Robert on this kit, a breath away from pressing the purchase button. Then I think back to Matt "Doog's" description as well as others and fall shy. You might change my mind Grunticus, I'm watching your progress. I must say that after my initial dismay I am starting to really enjoy this kit. Yesterday I closed up the fuselage and fit was very satisfying. Dry fitted the wings, and they too fit very well. Just take your time with the engine assembly, and do not snap-cut small parts and you’ll be fine. Whitey, Rockie Yarwood and Sakai 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitey Posted December 9, 2020 Share Posted December 9, 2020 Great stuff Grunticus. Great to see another Kingfisher build underway. I've got mine almost to decaling stage and agree with all of your comments. The instructions are terrible, the engineering lacking and the plastic is different but not horrible and sands and polishes ok. While a challenge the kit has some very nice detail, especially inside, and I am impressed with how it looks once together with some paint. And it is an enjoyable build. You will have fun when you get to the wing floats but once you get them on they align ok. My concern at this stage is the amount of weight that the model puts on the beaching gear's tail wheel and the fragile strut. I have beefed up the tail wheel strut with some superglue but I am sure it will spend of its time with some foam under the rear part of the main float to keep the weight off the strut. I haven't worked out what the clear bulges on the wing are yet which appear not to be clear on photos of the real thing. Keep an eye out for it in RFI soon. Have fun with it. Rockie Yarwood and Sakai 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunticus Posted December 9, 2020 Author Share Posted December 9, 2020 The fuselage is closed. I have putties the minimal seams and am now in the process of making the flaws visible with a coat of primer. Until now I always used Surfacer 1000 / 1200, but this time I will be trying out the MRP primers. Such a gratifying paint brand, I stopped using others. The included RN scheme is suspect to me since RAF colors are called out. I have spent most of the day searching online for Royal Navy Kingfisher photos, but only a few come up and none in the Temperate Sea Scheme I so adore. This color combo below is too good to pass up on my Kingfisher, so I’ll use KH supplied pattern but with TSS colors and not finish it in the delivery scheme of Intermediate blue / Gray as I stated in the OP. If any of you have more information about the TSS scheme and pattern, please share! Rounders and fin flash will be airbrushed on using homemade masks. Rockie Yarwood, LSP_Kevin, Landrotten Highlander and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockie Yarwood Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 Love it! Sakai 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sakai Posted December 10, 2020 Share Posted December 10, 2020 OK Grunticus, I'm in. I'll make this my next purchase when I go shopping again. Look's like a bunch of fun. Bill Grunticus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunticus Posted December 10, 2020 Author Share Posted December 10, 2020 Today I worked on the main and auxiliary floats a bit. `Eduard PE was added to the main one, and I looked for an easy but sturdy method to attach the main float to the fuselage. I removed the tiny locator pins that are supposed to hold the main float to the fuselage strongly (NOT). Next I drilled pilot holes with a small drill for easy alignment, and then a correct sized drill which I let do it’s work slowly without pushing it. The end result works well. It took a tiny amount of force to get both assemblies seated well. The brass bar in the engine compartment goes up one inch and down to the bottom of the float. In this photo it’s only attached for testing, not glued. It so happens that the hole underneath the fuselage lines up exactly between the two engine firewalls of the kit, plus they the space between them matches the diameter of rod I used. This method yielded a very strong sturdy connection which is very unlikely to break. Since the above image was taken the main float was primed with MRP silver primer and looking good. I rescribed whatever panel lines were lost of damaged when sanding the seams. Getting better at this with time and very happy how that worked out on the float. Alain Gadbois, Sakai, Rocat and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunticus Posted December 10, 2020 Author Share Posted December 10, 2020 16 hours ago, Sakai said: OK Grunticus, I'm in. I'll make this my next purchase when I go shopping again. Look's like a bunch of fun. Bill Good show Bill! And rightly so, after loosing my frustration over the engine I am now thoroughly enjoying this one. The instructions are quirky but with care you can figure everything out. Fit os te main parts is excellent. I have cut off and cleaned up wings, stabilizers and flaps and they too fit beautifully. BTW the Eduard instructions are also poor. Some items are shown to be placed on the back of something without any indication where exactly Sakai 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunticus Posted December 11, 2020 Author Share Posted December 11, 2020 Today I finished readying the sub-assembles for the auxiliary floats. I drilled small holes in the struts and put wire in because the moulded minuscule pin connection seemed very weak. The float assembly is now strong and sturdy. I gave them a coat of MRP primer. There is some attachment to the aft float-stub, on both sides. KH instructions say to use part 16 and 21 from the supplied PE fret. Well, there is no part 21. Highest part count is 20, and only 16, so just one, is provided. I decided to make two new ones from evergreen. On the right the KH PE part. In place they look like this. Good enough for me. Whitey, LSP_Kevin, Rockie Yarwood and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircommando130 Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 For guns I've taken a #2 pencil and shaved the lead off and then kinda ground it up and brushed it over the metallic used for the gun. Gives it a worn metallic look. Great work so far! Cheers Ron Rockie Yarwood, Grunticus, Sakai and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grunticus Posted December 11, 2020 Author Share Posted December 11, 2020 37 minutes ago, aircommando130 said: For guns I've taken a #2 pencil and shaved the lead off and then kinda ground it up and brushed it over the metallic used for the gun. Gives it a worn metallic look. Great work so far! Cheers Ron This for the heads-up! I will give it a try and see how it looks. Sakai and Rockie Yarwood 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg W Posted December 11, 2020 Share Posted December 11, 2020 Very nice work here! Its always great to see a project like this return to the bench. Following! Rockie Yarwood and Sakai 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now