Borsos Posted February 22, 2023 Share Posted February 22, 2023 14 hours ago, Greif8 said: Andreas, I will probably have several rides near your area, say within 20 kms. I may be able to visit your modelling group in the Nürnberg/Erlangen area as well. Geat! Just drop me a note. You are very welcome. Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 23, 2023 Author Share Posted February 23, 2023 18 hours ago, Uncarina said: I knew you would appreciate it! It is the Way. And yes, I’m planning on that version, and have the masks and fabric decals ready. In the meantime, your build is inspiring! Cheers, Tom Ahh - another fan of The Mandolorian! I am looking forward to Season 3. Ernest Uncarina 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 23, 2023 Author Share Posted February 23, 2023 10 hours ago, Borsos said: Geat! Just drop me a note. You are very welcome. Vielen Dank Andreas! Ernest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 23, 2023 Author Share Posted February 23, 2023 (edited) Small update. I worked on the fuselage sides to prepare to insert the cockpit; and inserted it after prep work was complete. Ejection Pin marks were removed prior to any other work. They would not have been seen, but very likely would have interfered with the fit of the cockpit. I did not bother cleaning up those areas beyond ensuring the surface was good enough for a clean fit. I then primed the areas that will be seen in black, airbrushed MRP CDL Varient 1 over that and added the Aviattic decals to each side of the fuselage. I then carefully sprayed a matt coat on the "fabric" part of the decal to tone down the sheen. The wood area recieved a thinned coat of Tamiya Clear Orange to bring out the wood grain, add warmth and give varnished look. I went a bit heavier with the clear orange on the frame areas to give them a different tone. I added a thin light brownish wash to the raised areas, let that dry and got ready to insert the cockpit assembly. Cockpit inserted into the starboard half. I only glued the rear area and where the turtle back joins the cockpit frame. The join was pretty clean; I only need to put a tiny bit of filler in the small gap and put a dot of paint on to make it look right. More to follow later. Ernest Edited February 23, 2023 by Greif8 Sepp, Madmax, Uncarina and 8 others 10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 Very nice Ern Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 24, 2023 Author Share Posted February 24, 2023 3 hours ago, MikeMaben said: Very nice Ern Thank you Mike! Given how famous this aircraft and pilot were I am doing my best to do them justice. Ernest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncarina Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 I really appreciate the extra efforts you put into this. For example, the woven interior and the wrapping on the frame. Well done! Cheers, Tom Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 24, 2023 Author Share Posted February 24, 2023 5 hours ago, Uncarina said: I really appreciate the extra efforts you put into this. For example, the woven interior and the wrapping on the frame. Well done! Cheers, Tom Thank you Tom! As I told Mike above, I am doing my best on this build given how famous the pilot and plane were. I have started painting the figure and bust and posted that work in the thread I made that has several of the step by step methods I use to paint figures. Ernest Uncarina 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepp Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 Beautiful work! Many notes being taken, so I can have a go at hopelessly failing to replicate it at some point in the future Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 24, 2023 Author Share Posted February 24, 2023 (edited) The fuselage is joined, and I ran into some minor fit issues that are shown below with some comments. The issues were not dramatic and I am sure that I will be able to fix them without any great hassles. The firewall is supposed to fit flush, or very nearly flush, with the fuselage sides. I got the firewall to fit like it is supposed to as can be seen in the two photos below. I did this by gluing first one side, let it cure, and then glued the other side. The joins are pretty good and will only require some minor filling and cleaning up. However to get get a good fit for the firewall required the fuselage to be spread. And below is the result - "Houston, we have a problem." - maybe. Though I did not takea picture of doing so, the test fit of the lower wing was excellent; a surprise given the gap. Test fit of the lower engine access plate showed it will need a bit of work to get a nice fit. I have an idea how to do that and will photograph that process when I do it. The section of the center line fabric lacing strip that can be seen on the left side of the photo also did not fit that well. I am going to have to sand it down quite a bit to get a good looking fit. I had planned to remove the laces anyway as the Aviattic fabris decals I am using for this build has the laces printed on them and I did not want to risk a mis-match. Some work with the sanding sticks should sort this out fairly easily. Most of the strip I talked about above. Pretty short update. I spent alot of time thinking through construction, painting and decaling during this phase of the build with a lot of test fitting, so though there are not many photos I actually soent a fair amount of time working on the build. One of those bench sessions where you have to burn brain cells to get the build sequence straight in your mind to avoid problems later. Ernest Edited February 24, 2023 by Greif8 Borsos, LSP_Kevin, MikeMaben and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 24, 2023 Author Share Posted February 24, 2023 12 minutes ago, Sepp said: Beautiful work! Many notes being taken, so I can have a go at hopelessly failing to replicate it at some point in the future Thank you Sepp! I am sure your build will look fantastic! Ernest Sepp 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 11 hours ago, Greif8 said: One of those bench sessions where you have to burn brain cells to get the build sequence straight in your mind to avoid problems later. Oh man Ern, have we been there. It makes my head hurt ... Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 25, 2023 Author Share Posted February 25, 2023 16 minutes ago, MikeMaben said: Oh man Ern, have we been there. It makes my head hurt ... Since I am using the Aviattic decal set that covers nearly the entire model I have to really consider the order in which I am assembling and painting more than I normally have to do Mike. The decal set covers all the fabric areas but the metal areas have to be painted so I am thinking through the process carefully to ease both the decaling and painting. In addition this kit has some of the issues the early release runs by Meng, a few broken parts and wings that have a curved shape which complicates things - for me at least. So I am thinking alot hoping to avoid that dreaded "WTF!!!" moment. Ernest MikeMaben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greif8 Posted February 26, 2023 Author Share Posted February 26, 2023 Progress continues to plod along. I opted to glue the lower access plate now, though the directions would have it installed later. My plan to prepare the surface for decalling with the Aviattic decals means that it will be better to have as many of the sub-assemblies as possible finished. Hopefully that will ease the decaling process. I thought through installing the lower access plate part and took it slow to try and get the best looking fit possible. The first step was to cut the part in two along the joint between the lower access hatch and the plate that covers the lower wing main spar. This had to be done to enable the installation of the lower wing later in the build. I seperated the part using the very common method of scoring along the joint line with a scapel until it parted. The larger piece was glued in position. Prior test fitting showed that there was a gap that had to be addressed; unsurprising due to how I spread the front of the fuselage to get a stepless fit for the firewall. The port side fit is quite good and will only need a small amount of filling. However, the same could not be said of the starboard side. My fix was to cut a piece of Evergreen 10x40 strip to length and glue it along the edge to cover the gap. It would have been less work using a 10x30 strip, alas I did not have that size on hand. The strip was than sanded to shape tapering it to the correct width as it thinned towards the lower wing spar. I than added very small amounts of putty to that work and the firewall joint. I still have to correct the tiny area at the most forward part where you can see the little triangle area that still needs to be covered. The port side area was also puttied at this time and cleaned up after it dried. Checking the progress showed that I still have to slightly sand the portside rear of the access cover to ensure it is symmetrical. I'll do that in a later step as I missed seeing the issue until reviewing the photos I took. I also sanded the lacing strip smooth on the bottom of the fuselage. The spacing of the laces did not look like they would match up with the lacing on the decal; however, the Archer lacings might. I am going to take some careful measurements to see if I can make them work. If not, I will go with what I have. I did quite a bit of parts prep, including getting the curve out of the wings. Not really worth any pictures, but I hope to get many of the parts primed and prepared for decaling today (Sunday). Ernest Landrotten Highlander, Sepp, Uncarina and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archimedes Posted February 26, 2023 Share Posted February 26, 2023 A neat solution to the underbelly issue Ernest. Your build speed is also impressive! I am enjoying your build very much. Kind regards, Paul Greif8 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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