Dpgsbody55 Posted March 24, 2024 Author Posted March 24, 2024 (edited) I arrived back from New Zealand and Melbourne on Tuesday after a very enjoyable visit with my son in NZ and a short birthday stay in Melbourne. I'd have spent my birthday with my son, but the Melbourne trip was planned first before we knew that SWMBO would recover well enough to fly longer distances after having had both knees replaced last year. I seem to be a bit jet lagged which is unusual for me, hence the delay in posting something since Tuesday. So now it's time to get back into this and finish it off before we go back to NZ in May for the arrival of our second grand child. I was going to get the cowlings on after the last update, but I've only just started on that so little to report there except that I've ground out parts of the top cowling where that hits the hydraulic pump and ignition harness. That now fits. The left side cowling also has a couple of pins in place, so it's looking better although more pins will be needed. Photo's next time on that. I have instead built up the gun sight and added the windscreen and rear cockpit glass. The gun sight is made up of three parts; two for the base and also a clear part for the reflector. My plane is fitted with the reflector sight as per the photos from Furie posted back on page one of this W I P. Here's the sight, built and painted with the electrical connector wire added. A thinned bit of clear green has been painted around the outside of the reflector to make it more noticeable later. Glued into place. I painted the base centre in acrylic high gloss silver and it appears to be reflecting on the surround in this shot. Sorry about the fuzzy shot here. Camera wouldn't focus so I had to try myself. We'll call that attempt a failure.... Windscreen and glass in place, after having masked them. The pilot's mirror is also in place, after masking the mirror and painting the rest of it in the same acrylic silver. So for next update, it's back to the cowling attachment, then perhaps a bit of paint. Cheers, Michael Edited March 24, 2024 by Dpgsbody55 MikeMaben, denders, Landrotten Highlander and 6 others 9
Dpgsbody55 Posted March 27, 2024 Author Posted March 27, 2024 It looks like I'll have to take another break from modelling thank to coming off my pushbike yesterday. The worst injury is a badly sprained right wrist so I'm something of a one armed bandit at the moment, meaning no modelling. Lots of abrasions to both knees and my face looks bad (or even worse then usual ) but thankfully I was wearing a skid lid which protected me from worse injuries. This is what comes of trying to do something I could have done when I was 16.... So this build will have to wait, which is annoying. I had hoped to get it finished by the end of April, and I'm traveling again in May. So it's in the lap off the modelling gods as to when it gets done. So score one damaged bike, one stuffed skid lid and a badly delayed model build to me. But at least I can still laugh about it . Cheers, Michael Shoggz, mozart, LSP_Kevin and 1 other 4
Dpgsbody55 Posted March 28, 2024 Author Posted March 28, 2024 (edited) More bad news. Turns out the wrist is broken and not just a simple break but one bone broken and another dislodged. So now I'm plastered and not in the enjoyable way . Oh goodie..... At least my mind is occupied trying to find ways to do basic stuff with my non dominant hand. Shaving is slow but at least my jugular is still intact. Cheers, Michael Edited March 28, 2024 by Dpgsbody55 Landrotten Highlander, MikeMaben and LSP_Kevin 3
mozart Posted March 28, 2024 Posted March 28, 2024 So sorry to hear your sad tale Michael, that’s a real bummer. Sprained wrist is bad enough, broken much worse, but you are in good spirits about it all, and I guess it could possibly have been much worse. I enjoy cycling too but it only takes a momentary lapse of concentration to spell disaster. Good luck for the coming days and weeks mate.
LSP_Kevin Posted March 28, 2024 Posted March 28, 2024 Sorry to hear this, Michael. Focus on healing and get back to the bench when you can. All the best for a speedy recovery! Kev
Dpgsbody55 Posted March 29, 2024 Author Posted March 29, 2024 16 hours ago, mozart said: So sorry to hear your sad tale Michael, that’s a real bummer. Sprained wrist is bad enough, broken much worse, but you are in good spirits about it all, and I guess it could possibly have been much worse. I enjoy cycling too but it only takes a momentary lapse of concentration to spell disaster. Good luck for the coming days and weeks mate. 4 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said: Sorry to hear this, Michael. Focus on healing and get back to the bench when you can. All the best for a speedy recovery! Kev Thank you both. My own stupidity caused this, so I just have to grin and bear it. I've always enjoyed cycling and my current bike is a pedal assist e-bike which is great to ride and keeps me fit too, which my cardiologist appreciates as much as I do. The thing I'm having the most difficulty with is writing left handed (some say I can't write with my right hand either - they're correct there ) and trying to wash my left armpit with my left hand. Give that a try. I dare you. Cheers Michael mozart 1
MikeMaben Posted March 29, 2024 Posted March 29, 2024 We never realize what we have until we lose it. I'm still dealing with my fractured right thumb. You should get your doc to put a cast on it as it's your most used hand it's impossible to 'not' use it, or at least try. It's instinctive (as you know). Hope you get back in shape asap Mike. Dpgsbody55 1
Dpgsbody55 Posted March 30, 2024 Author Posted March 30, 2024 22 hours ago, MikeMaben said: We never realize what we have until we lose it. I'm still dealing with my fractured right thumb. You should get your doc to put a cast on it as it's your most used hand it's impossible to 'not' use it, or at least try. It's instinctive (as you know). Hope you get back in shape asap Mike. Very true. It is plastered and I see the ortho surgeon next week so hoping it doesn't need surgery. This is the first time I've ever been plastered, at least in the sense of a cast. The other type of plastered has happened on occasion but we won't go into that right now..... . Can't wait to get back to normal. I've always valued my independence. Cheers, Michael Shoggz and MikeMaben 2
Dpgsbody55 Posted April 13, 2024 Author Posted April 13, 2024 Not so much a model update, as a personal one. I had surgery on my wrist on Wednesday so now I have a plate and pins and expect to set off airport scanners. If anyone needs a weather forecast now, just ask me . It's now likely that I'm going to be away from the modelling bench for quite a while, which is very annoying, so it's unlikely I'll finish this by the deadline. Cheers, Michael MikeMaben 1
LSP_Kevin Posted April 13, 2024 Posted April 13, 2024 Rest and recuperate, Michael! The model can wait, and we can move it into the WiP section if required when the time comes. Kev
Dpgsbody55 Posted April 16, 2024 Author Posted April 16, 2024 Thanks Kevin. Cheers, Michael LSP_Kevin 1
MikeMaben Posted April 16, 2024 Posted April 16, 2024 Yep, take care of yourself Michael , get back sooner rather than later. Dpgsbody55 1
Dpgsbody55 Posted May 2, 2024 Author Posted May 2, 2024 I had my second session with the upper limb therapist on Wednesday, and it seems I'm doing well enough to be able to remove my thermo plastic splint around the house and when I'm doing only light duty things. Like building this fitznstartz Spitfire project with my 1.5 hands. I don't like wearing but it does have a few advantages, such as drivers being nicer to you and stopping when you want to cross a road. I picked a good colour!! So this is a small update both because I shouldn't spend too much time with it off, and because I've started masking the model ready to start painting seeing as now I can start wielding an airbrush ( I hope ). I've decided to start by painting the D-Day invasion stripes, which on this model are very fiddly due to the position of the wing stripes so close to the fuselage. This model will have D-Day stripes on both the upper and lower surface, which is correct for the period that Clostermann had this plane. He was transferred out of ops on July 6th 1944 and the next day the upper stripes were removed and it was taken over by Jacques Remlinger. Before my accident, I'd spent some time getting the engine cowlings to fit by carefully placing pins into the side cowlings to hopefully line up with the holes drilled in the cowling support frames. I should have done this before attaching these frames to the model which would have been much easier as I've had to do some over to get them to line up. Unfortunately no pictures of that before said bike accident, but you can see them in place in the pictures below. I'll take proper ones later. I've started masking with 2.0mm Tamiya flexible tape, and it has to go over the wing root, which is very fiddly to get right and a passable match on both sides. Then I've added 6mm Tamiya tape over the top to make sure the flexible stuff stays in place. This is the top side. I've also put tape inside the side cowlings to mask off the exhaust port, as well as tape over the gun bays. The top cowling is held down by tape which attaches to the tape inside the side cowlings. The covers will go on when I paint the camo pattern and undersides. I've also added the pilot's door on the cockpit, but this is held on only with MicroKlear as I'll remove it after paint and probably use the open door, as in the picture on the first page of this WIP. Here's the lower sides. I still have a little more masking to do before I paint the area white, followed by the black stripes. In this scale, each stripe is 19mm, which is 18inches reduced 24 times. This seems to match the picture on page one of this WIP. I'll be painting the undercarriage doors at the same time, then masking off to paint the yellow leading edge stripe which as best I can make out was partially obliterated by the D-Day stripes. That's for the next update, assuming it goes well enough. After that, it will be on to the camo painting. I'm to be getting on with this again and much sooner that I'd expected, so maybe I will yet make the June 6th deadline though that depends on how much time I can spend at the workbench each time. As well as whether or not I make a mess of this stage. Cheers, Michael LSP_Kevin, BradG, Landrotten Highlander and 2 others 5
mozart Posted May 2, 2024 Posted May 2, 2024 Well done Michael, that’s an unexpected bonus but for goodness sake don’t push it too hard, tempting as it is, then set yourself back even further.
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