Kitty Hawk OS2U Kingfisher - S.O.D. resurrection

[LSP_Kevin]

Very nice work!

 

Kev

[Grunticus]

Believe it or not, I had great fun doing this. Very relaxing, with LX-Radio 80s sounds playing.

 

 

The float is now almost done. I will add the rudder last, and paint the red prop-warning stripe as soon as I can exactly align it with the prop.

 

[Out2gtcha]

Looks great! 

 

Now we just need someone to come out with a brass replacement beaching gear tail wheel..................As I recall, its pretty fragile OOB

[Grunticus]

1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said:

Looks great! 

 

Now we just need someone to come out with a brass replacement beaching gear tail wheel..................As I recall, its pretty fragile OOB

 

Yes, it is fragile. I didn’t glue it so hopefully it comes off completely if I nick it. The strut braces broke AGAIN. I must get me some evergreen in that diameter and make a whole new one..

[Out2gtcha]

25 minutes ago, Grunticus said:

 

Yes, it is fragile. I didn’t glue it so hopefully it comes off completely if I nick it. The strut braces broke AGAIN. I must get me some evergreen in that diameter and make a whole new one..

 

If you are inclined to try soldering, try looking at thin brass rod. It will allow you to drill the 4 needed holes and the finished brace adds actual strength. The key is getting the ends cut at the necessary angles.

[Grunticus]

43 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

 

If you are inclined to try soldering, try looking at thin brass rod. It will allow you to drill the 4 needed holes and the finished brace adds actual strength. The key is getting the ends cut at the necessary angles.

 

I have a stash of those brass rods... good idea, I also have soldering tools like a mini torch, and a dremel. I will have a go at it. Evergreen is on the way as a backup.

[Grunticus]

On 12/16/2020 at 5:54 PM, Out2gtcha said:

Looks great! 

 

Now we just need someone to come out with a brass replacement beaching gear tail wheel..................As I recall, its pretty fragile OOB

 

It appears some already did. Well almost, not brass.

 

I have made a start with replacing the strut braces with brass. I test-filed two pieces to try a two-part solution but decided to go with four separate parts that will be soldered together at the intersection. Handling that finished assembly while cutting and drilling was a bit nerve-racking.

 

[Whitey]

On 12/17/2020 at 5:46 AM, Grunticus said:

 

Yes, it is fragile. I didn’t glue it so hopefully it comes off completely if I nick it. The strut braces broke AGAIN. I must get me some evergreen in that diameter and make a whole new one..

I cut them off and replaced them with brass rod. Much sturdier. Still working out what to do with the fragile tail wheel strut of the beach gear.

[Out2gtcha]

2 hours ago, Grunticus said:

 

It appears some already did. Well almost, not brass.

 

I have made a start with replacing the strut braces with brass. I test-filed two pieces to try a two-part solution but decided to go with four separate parts that will be soldered together at the intersection. Handling that finished assembly while cutting and drilling was a bit nerve-racking.

 

 

 

Looks great!  Just do NOT buy that SAC replacement gear. The pot metal they generally use in their sets is normally softer than any OOB plastic. 

[Grunticus]

After a first try the result of which I deemed too coarse, I cut new sections of brass in the approximate length and started over. First I dremeled angles which met bar half a degree or so to have mating surface for the soldering tin. Then I soldered the two opposite “V” shaped struts (horizontally orientated) separately. I used the original part and traced in on a sheet of paper to find the correct angle.

 

When these came out fine I again dremeled the mating surfaces of the two “V”s flat, and secured both parts in place with Tamiya tape, snuggly against eachtother, and leaving the mating parts floating in air over a depression in the piece of wood in the photo. Then I used a toothpick to add some S39 flux, and carefully placed a tiny bead of tin on the exact mating spot. Lastly I fired-up the mini torch and cautiously let the flame heat ray melt the tin, which was sucked in to place by the S39 and capillaire action. Then a big sigh of relief.

 

 

I sanded away as much tin as I dared to make it look a tiny bit more elegant and then coated it in Surfacer 1200, and when that was dry Sky.

 

Now came the next hairy bit: shoving each strut leg into the drilled holes one by one, while holding the float with delicate parts already on it and trying not to break the soldered strut. In total I had to move the strut five times to get it in. Be careful not to exert pulling force on the soldered joint when you try something like this, only pushing force. Succeeded as planned:

 

Lessons learned:

• Less is better. Less S39 (or S65, two types of flux), less tin, less heat. Let physics do their thing.
• Do not let the struts mate too precise, the S39 and tin need somewhere to go to and it will result in a stronger bond.
• Leave a small amount of overlength, you can never lengthen but always shorten it, and if like me you attach the float with brass rods make sure not to let the float strut protrude into the hole for said brass rod, you’ll be sorry when mating-time comes and it won’t go in.
• Do not pull the struts to get them in to position in the drilled out holes, push from the opposite side.

Very satisfying repair job, glad I proceeded and did not accept the broken and now crooked looking plastic part.

 

 

All that was left to do was repair smaller paint blemishes. Wow, it worked out okay I would say.

 

 

With that out of the way, some more paintwork and assembly was done on the bombs.

 

 

One of the first things I did after opening the box last century was drill out the holes in the wings for the various attachment points (because in some build threads people had forgotten to, glued the wing halves together, and then had to guess where to drill. The wings are marked on the inside with holes of a certain diameter and I forgot the check the diameter of the matching pin connections before hand and drilled them in the suggested diameter. It turns out that the four inner ones were okay, but the holes for the auxiliary float struts were way too big resulting in a weak joint on finals assembly. So I plugged up the holes with stretched styrene and re-drilled holes in a tighter fitting diameter.

 

 

Last for today I could not resist a dry-fut of the wings just te get an idea of what will be. The fit of the wings is truly exceptional, maybe the best I ever saw. The horizontal stabilizers have slightly different sized reception-slots to prevent mixing up left from right. Nice touch KH!

 

 

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

Yep, very similar to how I proceeded on a customers model which was my 2nd. Glens KHM demo model (my first) was a different story, and I kept the OOB inter-braces, and it was a big mistake. Brass is definitely the way to go on these, as once soldered together and the subsequent material sanded smooth in the inter cross-connect area, it really can take bumps and adds a lot of strength.    The kit also demands that same brass for strength between the main float and fuselage, which also left off of Glens demo model (also a big mistake IMHO). Id suggest epoxy for the joint (JB Weld is what I personally use) between the main float and fuselage as well.

Looking forward to more!

[Grunticus]

Just a small update. I had little time due to work and holiday preparations.

 

The bomb racks are really nice. I dirtied-up the bombs a bit with mascara powder and then weathered and sealed the racks. In this magnification every flaw is visible, but in normal view they look pretty okay. Bombs are not glued yet, that would impede safe mounting under the wings of these fragile assemblies.

 

 

I took the outer scrap mask of the Eduard set for the windscreen, scanned it and then traced it in the Silhouette software, and cut them with the cutter. This way I can mask both inside and outside. The canopy parts are extremely thin, which eases the process because one doesn’t have to account for the difference in inner and outer radii.

 

 

Happy holidays folks!

[shark64]

such a cool airplane.  Looking sharp

Oliver

[Grunticus]

I painted the wings and insignia, but when sealing them with MRP gloss they frosted like hell. No idea what happened. But that’s okay, I have stripped the paint (went off quickly using ethanol) after this pic and started over. Just glad this happened before I glued them to the fuselage. Looked nice.....shame 

 

 

Not much time during the holidays (have been in the kitchen three days, my other hobby). Today I closed the boarding ladder hatches with stock styrene, they are only open when a ladder is attached.

 

 

@Tolga ULGUR got my attention to this product in his wonderful Spitfire Mk.1 build which showed very very nice demarcation lines on his cammo (I used it on the wings in the top photo for the first time). I can attest this is really great stuff. Cheap, Easy to shape, leaves no residue whatsoever, and makes for nice transitions in conjunction with paper masks, very tacky to both styrene and paper. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Grunticus]

Did a bit of work at (what I think is) a camera mounted below the cockpit.

 

 

The kit part is on the right and not very representative shape-wise to the real part, my crude fabrication on the left. I think it looks better, we’ll see after some more sanding and paint. You can see the hole drilled for the power / actuator cable (if that). Still getting the hang of this sort of thing.