ICM Tiger Moth

[mozart]

Not much modelling time today but managed to get the lap straps done and make a start on the compasses. 
 

 

So again this is mix’n’match; the I/P is AIMS but the compass face and support is Eduard. It led to a minor problem because the  gap in the AIMS I/P face isn’t quite wide enough to accept the compass. Eduard give the compass diameter as 4mm and depth 2.5mm. I found a piece of sprue of the right size and cut off a couple of slices. A minute or two with a file to enlarge the opening slightly and:

 

 

 

 

 

[mozart]

The bulkheads behind the seats fit well; once they were in I could do the initial fit of the shoulder seat belts, and then the port fuselage half....which fitted very precisely.  Once this was secure I could fit the throttle and cheese cutter linkages:

 

 

This leads on to thinking about the outside of the fuselage and the one glaring omission on the ICM kit, the rear bracket between the wing and fuselage :

 

 

 

The AIMS pe offers a solution:

 

 

which is OK apart from "l", which is the vertical housing for the bolt.  I think I'll experiment with a piece of rod topped with one of these:

 

 

Time to close the fuselage up tomorrow after the I/Ps have been added.

[LSP_Kevin]

I really struggled with those wing brackets on my build, Max, and am not happy at all with what I've come up with. I vaguely recalled that someone had addressed them in an update set, but couldn't remember who! I'll see if I can get hold of the AIMS set, and try something similar to your proposed solution.

 

Keep up the great work!

 

Kev

[Archimedes]

Hi Max,

 

Greetings from London! It is great to see you moving on this one.  It is looking good! Neat work on the cockpit. 

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[mozart]

8 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

I really struggled with those wing brackets on my build, Max, and am not happy at all with what I've come up with. I vaguely recalled that someone had addressed them in an update set, but couldn't remember who! I'll see if I can get hold of the AIMS set, and try something similar to your proposed solution.

 

Keep up the great work!

 

Kev

The best ones are on the Silver Wings kits Kev, they of course are moulded on but I’m using those as my inspiration as you’ll see later.  Hope you’re feeling better, I’m recovering very slowly! 
 

7 hours ago, Archimedes said:

Hi Max,

 

Greetings from London! It is great to see you moving on this one.  It is looking good! Neat work on the cockpit. 

 

Kind regards,

Paul

Back in the UK again Paul! Thank you, I’m happy with the way things are progressing, I also spent some time on the Silver Wings Tiger Moth yesterday, hopefully I will have crossed a significant hurdle today if the glue has set properly when I take her out of the jig! 

[mozart]

Small jobs always take longer than you anticipate don't they?  I had a bit of a problem with fitting the I/Ps; the location slot on the inside of the fuselage is designed of course for the ICM I/P but adding the extra thickness of the AIMS panel face meant that it didn't fit!  So a bit of butchery was involved, carving off the slot edges and sanding smooth.  Though the I/Ps are fitted on the port half I thought it wise to give the same treatment to the starboard side too.....still a tight fit but all's OK

 

 

 

The two halves fitted together without any issues.  I didn't get as far as I'd hoped with the wing/fuselage bracket but I'm planning to make the base plate (not provided by AIMS) from Oramask 810 having designed it by tracing a photograph of the Silver Wings lower wing.  

 

 

More on this tomorrow.

[mozart]

Suddenly there's two Tigers!! 

 

 

The Silver Wings phoenix is rising slowly from the ashes!

 

The ICM one continues to delight, fitting together almost "seamlessly":

 

 

Though the aft fuselage top section, where you can opt for the anti-spin strakes or not, needs a little work to hide the join:

 

 

I've since filled these joints with Mr Surfacer to get a smooth finish.  Thinking about the wing brackets, this is the Silver Wings wing on top of the ICM one to get the position of the bracket right:

 

 

 

[mozart]

I got a bit distracted by the empennage and associated bits today; the horizontal tailplane fitted well but I was keen to move on to the fin and rudder too, that typical and beautiful de Havilland shape.  The structure of the tail fin is such that there is a pretty large gap underneath it:

 

 

This is re-created quite well by ICM but, having previously cut the one-piece rudder/fin assembly into two pieces, I needed to address how that all fits together.  There are hinges in three positions, the largest of which is at the base, and in between these some "support bars", I don't know their proper technical name!  I made these out of plastic strip and small sections of stretched sprue.

 

At the base of the rudder are two bolts plates which fit either side of the tail skid and effectively link these two together so that when the pilot moves the rudder, the tail skid turns too thereby steering the plane....easy on grass, very tricky on tarmac with fine throttle control needed!

 

The ICM rudder has these moulded as one lump:

 

 

so I cut this off and attached a couple of small pieces of thin plastic card, the plates now sit either side of the tail skid:

 

 

I added a couple of bolt heads just to "jazz" things up a bit, but it's all looking fairly tidy now.

Edited January 14, 2023 by mozart

[mozart]

Just to finish things off at the tail end, I fitted the support struts……and I have to say ICM that they are a tad short! I’ve tried to get the optimum fit and added a couple of bolt heads either end:

 

 

but I’m not entirely happy!   

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by mozart

[Out2gtcha]

That is looking amazing Max! The more I read about ICMs new LSP kits, the more I want to buy their stuff.

Model on my friend!

[themongoose]

Great info. Makes for an enjoyable thread. Looks like you’re doing a bang up job!

[mozart]

1 hour ago, Out2gtcha said:

That is looking amazing Max! The more I read about ICMs new LSP kits, the more I want to buy their stuff.

Model on my friend!

Cheers Brian, ICM's kits certainly are very good, not perfect but make for very enjoyable builds nonetheless.  Their support network is also to be lauded, no quibble replacement of parts/sprues if something is wrong or missing etc. 

 

28 minutes ago, themongoose said:

Great info. Makes for an enjoyable thread. Looks like you’re doing a bang up job!

Thanks a lot.  Having an intimate knowledge of the subject matter is both a plus and a minus in that I know what's wrong or perhaps missing, but then I also have to go about correcting it! 

[Out2gtcha]

I've got both the SW Tiger as well as the ICM, so I'll be using this thread as my go to when I do start the ICM version. No kit is perfect I've found, but overall excellent fit straight from the box is something to be recognized, as we all know that doesn't just happen with any kit you pick up.

[mozart]

I can assure you of one thing Brian, which you’ve probably already gathered, the ICM kit is 100 times easier than the Silver Wings one! Both super kits, but very different skill sets. 

[mozart]

To put the final touches to the tail end, I'm fitting these "eyelets" on the forward edge of the horizontal tail plane:

 

 

You'll also notice a metal band where the fuselage meets the tailplane, this extends up onto the forward fin area.  ICM have moulded a very acceptable tail fin section, so I've just added a strip of Oramask which extends part way down the side, shown in later pictures.  This one shows the line of the cable well:

 

 

and a side detail:

 

 

I wasn't sure what to use for these, or whether to make my own, but in a rare flash of inspiration I thought of the Gaspatch RAF turnbuckles, suitably cut down:

 

 

and it worked well, a bit tall maybe (now corrected! ):

 

 

Note the "metal" band of Oramask. 

Edited January 15, 2023 by mozart