Jump to content

Matchbox Tiger Moth


Alain Gadbois

Recommended Posts

On 9/18/2020 at 6:15 PM, LSP_Kevin said:

You're doing an amazing job here, Alain! Much better than me, that's for sure. I didn't go in with a very solid plan of attack, and am now paying the price. Really looking forward to seeing how your cockpit turns out!

 

Kev

I checked your Ambulance conversion, and the work on the cockpit is great! Your seat turned out fine in the end and that's what counts.

 

The next photo might look just like the one in the last post, except now the center control box is essentially finished and the front seat rectangular section has its final dimensions and has details added. 

 

XXSVVmu.jpg

 

Here are the components. The original kit part is at bottom. The faint pencil line defines the shape of the front seat pan on the rectangular section. The rear kit seat fits in a slot created by pushing the seat in a blob of epoxy putty that had the excess trimmed after hardening.

 

qrAih8f.jpg

 

Bye for now!

 

Alain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Excellent work, Alain! This is showing how it's really done.

 

Kev

Thanks Kev, much appreciated! I have a reason for putting extra attention on crafting the new parts: I have a Revell reissue of this kit and casting a copy of these parts will save me a lot of time when building it!

 

Alain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Alain Gadbois said:

Thanks Kev, much appreciated! I have a reason for putting extra attention on crafting the new parts: I have a Revell reissue of this kit and casting a copy of these parts will save me a lot of time when building it!

 

Alain

 

I should have waited for you, and bought copies of your parts!

 

Kev

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bit of progress today:

 

A cutout of paper gives me the shape of the seat opening to trace on the plastic part and the Ren Shape bit I will use to sculpt the pan section.

 

HVW6Lzq.jpg

 

LrLfGE5.jpg

 

I was looking at other areas of the model and turned a bit to the tail section. In one of Max's builds he modified the fin to represent correctly the space between it and the tail planes.

I did something similar but kept a small bit of the locating lug at the front of the fin for strength. I filled in the large rectangular slot in the tail plane leaving a space at the front for the fin part. The styrene sheet I used projects below the tail plane and fits nicely in the fuselage slot intended for the fin. 

Missing in the kit is a post going down from the back of the fin, attaching to the rear of the fuselage. Evergreen styrene parts were used to make this part to which I added the tail skid part.

 

Yi2Wpwm.jpg

 

This is what it looks like when temporarily held together. You can imagine how the post, glued to the fuselage, reaches the lower rear part of the fin. I sawed out the space between top of fin and rudder. 

KyMqDMo.jpg

 

There is a notch in the rear of the fuselage that is not represented in the kit. It is just where there is a locating pin, so I filled the back of the fuselage with epoxy putty an squeezed the fuselage halves until it set. This permits the halves to close precisely when I cut the notch out.

 

azzBXkN.jpg

 

Next the notch is cut out, the locating pin now gone, and the halves still fit perfectly together.

 

URSlt5q.jpg

 

Thanks for watching!

 

Alain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, williamj said:

Like what you're doing here, but watch out for that lower wing dihedral, you will have to shorten the interplane struts as well to catch it.

:wub::popcorn:

 

Thanks! I'm aware of that by the previous builds on LSP, and I'm thinking of changing the angle of the lower wing locating tabs in the insert that fits under the fuselage, plus shortening the interplane struts of course.

 

Alain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all!

 

Didn't make too much progress last week on the Tiger Moth , apart from some trimming of the plug for the front seat.

 

tosPl3G.jpg

 

 

 

As I have a second kit I want to build, and before all the measures and references are put away, I decided to correct and detail the parts of that kit before getting too far in the present build.

Notably the Apoxy Sculpt in the end of the fuselage and the rectangle openings in the bulkheads. Easy to compare and measure before the kit is closed up!

 

zp490Tu.jpg

 

This is the lower fuselage panel that holds the bottom wings too. The molded on detail was removed on both and correct ones will be added on after the tabs have the correct dihedral.

 

SP89tsh.jpg

 

Bye for now!

 

Alain

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Peter!

 

I think the original issue is a bit better than the Revell offering as I find the fit of the fuselage halves in the reissue not as good.

 

I have found a reference online where there are many detail pictures:

 

http://www.tigermothparts.com/categories.php?category=Tiger-Moth-Parts

 

The front seat:

 

CoZtywO.jpg

 

Tail skid assembly:

 

ofLLpoi.jpg

 

Alain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Happy I could help you, Max!

I enjoy searching around the web for info about current and future projects. There's always something new that seems to pop up and the details of individual components in that site is just perfectly timed, as I am in the process of determining the shape and size of the cockpit bits. Seems to be many variations...

 

Alain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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 account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...