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Infinity 1/32 Son-of-a B!tch 2nd Class


RadBaron

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23 hours ago, petrov27 said:

that pit is looking fine indeed - great work!

 

22 hours ago, airscale said:

very nice work on that 'pit Denzil - looks great

 

also i love seeing our stuff in action :)

 

Peter

19 hours ago, monthebiff said:

That's some serious progress Denzil. Really like your extra detail with the paint work bringing it all together. 

 

Regards. Andy 

 

Thanks guys, I appreciate the compliments! 

 

4 hours ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

 

Even if I had waited my entire life for this kit, that photo would convince me to pass. That kit MG looks like a toddler's mud pie.
My hat is off to you sir for not only tackling this kit, but doing an amazing job. BRAVO!

It reminds me of the quote attributed to Michaelangelo about carving the statue of David:

 

"The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”

 

Seems about right, except we're grown adults playing with little plastic planes :lol:.

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Time to get the instrument panels finished up. 

 

As mentioned earlier, the kit provides solid clear panels, with dial decals to be applied to the rearside of the clear panels. Like all theories, this one seems sound. The kit provides some stencils and placard decals,  which went on beautifully, so I figured the instrument dials should be a walk in the park! Right?

 

20221030_205833

 

The eagle eyed amongst you might already see where this is going...

 

20221030_205914

 

 

tenor.gif?ctx=share

 

Yes, the dials are printed intending to be applied as a single piece. 

 

I should have taken my own advice right back on the first page, instead of assuming the kit knew better. 

 

Never mind, a quick session punching out and applying decals. I'm sure that some of them are upside down. I promise noone will ever see them after they're installed in the fuselage :lol:

 

20221030_231017

 

They're having a last soak in Microset before clearcoating and an application of 5-minute epoxy to the dials. 

 

Onwards to seatbelts!

Edited by RadBaron
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7 hours ago, Borsos said:

I‘ve seen some nice builds of this kit, but still I shy away because of the sheer amount of work it needs. You are a brave man to start that epic struggle! Your progress looks nicely!

best regards,

Andreas

I'm looking at it from a Dollars-per-Hour of "enjoyment" mindset. Thats the motivation getting me through so far :lol:

 

1 hour ago, D.B. Andrus said:

Denzil

 

I look forward to what you have planned for the landing gear!

 

Cheers,

Damian

 

All components (lots of them!) are currently being cleaned up. Looks like they'll be a good starting place to replicate the real thing :D

Edited by RadBaron
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23 hours ago, dennismcc said:

Looks amazing, nice work

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

22 hours ago, mc65 said:

Wow, those cables bundles really made the mark!

 

14 hours ago, monthebiff said:

This is just an amazing build, your details are superb and I'm equally impressed that turn after turn you are dealing with the absolute dire nightmare of this kit. Carry on Sir!

 

Regards. Andy 

 

4 hours ago, MARU5137 said:

Your cockpit and detailed  work is simply brilliant. 

:thumbsup:

Given that you have had parts that were , er, tad wrong   you have done a fantastic job so far.

:clap2:

keep it coming.

:yahoo:

 

3 hours ago, spyrosjzmichos said:

Great progress!

Love the details! 

Thankyou very much guys, the support is most appreciated!!

 

14 hours ago, Gazzas said:

Those interior details are just fabulous!  I hope some can be seen once closed up.

Thanks mate! Most of it will be able to be seen, it's pretty much there simply to fill up negative space. Pics of the real thing show an absolute spaghetti-nightmare of cables around those radio racks, so a representation is good enough for me :lol:

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Moving forwards, I've run out of excuses not slap the fuselage halves together, so...

 

Here you can see the anticipated exemplary fit of the cockpit parts into the fuselage.

20221102_201953

 

 

The instructions will have you trying to connect the front and rear sections together. I'm sure in another dimension that can be made possible, but not the one I'm currently inhabiting. I tacked the parts in place on one side, and ground away the locating tabs from the other fuselage half. Once I'm satisfied that the halves have glued together securely, I'll flood the cockpit joints with 2 part epoxy to hold everything together securely.

 

 

As you can imagine, fit of the fuselage halves was just as precise as the preceeding assembly. My usual approach to this is using tamiya extra thin to cement the fin and rudder together, then tack the rest together with spots of super glue, aligning panel lines and trying to maintain smooth profiles. Once it's all as aligned as im going to get  it, all joints are flooded with extra thin. 

 

Which is how this happened

20221102_210401

 

 

I'll let it dry for a few days to make sure that everything is secure. 

 

In the mean time, my attention has been drawn to some legs

 

20221102_223324

Initial stages, just to get my head around geometry and how best to securely Install them in the plane. 

 

Denzil

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On 11/3/2022 at 10:47 AM, alaninaustria said:

Wow, coming along nicely! 

Cheers

Alan

Thanks, Alan, one bit at a time!

 

 

Whilst the fuselage is drying, let's have a look at the wings. 

 

Previously I'd assembled the supplied gear well ribs, spar and thinned the lower wing surfaces. To make assembly of the wheel wells easier (and also because I wasn't sure about the wing dihedral per the spar) I chopped the spar in half. I'll use 2 part epoxy later on in the build to get a strong wing attach. 

 

I'd been wondering what best way to tackle the seam where the wing meets the fuselage.  On the real thing, the wing continues all the way through the fuselage, forming the roof of the bomb bay, so some quick plasticard sheeting of the inner wing sections closed up the void. 

 

20221104_190341

 

The kit supplies an inner most "rib" to close the gap into the fuselage. On the real machine, the inner end of the wheel well is closed off by the fuselage skin. Aligning the kit supplied rib with the fuselage skin, left quite a large bare area in the wheel well, so I made an extra rib to fill in the area. I'd read somewhere that the wheel wells were missing a rib, guess that is correct. 

 

20221104_193033

 

The inboard rib as supplied filled from leading edge of the wing all the way back to the spar. On the real thing, there's an opening in the fuselage skin, so I chopped the rib down. That gap is filled by a canvas cover, which will be made later.

 

20221104_194550

 

 

Fitting this into the fuselage brought to light the next hurdle.

 

20221104_225413

 

 

Now that the wheel wells have been lengthened, the openings in the lower wing skins don't accurately replicate the real thing. 

The kit has the wheel wells finishing well before the joint between the wingroot and the fuselage.

20221104_224056

 

 

Where as on the real thing the wheel well goes all the way to the fuselage.

Curtiss-SB2C-3-Helldiver

 

Now the decision needs to be made, to leave the kit wheel wells as is, or open them up as per the real thing...

 

 

I know which of the answers I'll ultimately choose, so prepare yourselves for more cutting, grinding and sanding!

 

Denzil

Edited by RadBaron
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