Rizon

I think the colours are actually very close to an operational aircraft. The "dark earth" bleached quite a bit. Just a sugestion: you can try to slightly town down the colour even more by adding a very light mist of pale grey once all decals are on and the matt coat is on and dry. I have the same kit, built many years ago, which is up for restauration due to the brown being dark earth and not the actual lighter shade. So I'm following with interest....

Giving me ideas with the air brake.... Well done! If you do find that article, please post? Will appreaciate it much. I am a bit of a sucker when it comes to moving parts on models R

If I may chirp in here... Refering to the test fits of the VGs on the wing: note that the VG's are mounted at an angle of about 22 degrees (if memory serves me correctly) relative to the longituinal axis. Since you are going into that insane amount of detail.... Interesting also, at least on the Hawks that I had to measure up, is that the bit of the angle that gets stuck to the wing surface is sometines inboard and sometimes outboard. Always consistent per airframe, but different accross the fleet. The exact spanwise position also varied. However the chord-wise position is perfectly fixed. Interesting approach to your modelling detailling - you are setting a verry high challenge for the tripplet of Hawks I am planning. This is a fascinating thread, keep it going! R

Was never that much a fan of the turbine version of the Goose, those inverted engines and un-aesthetically long cowlings put me off. Hence the thought experiment if a stretched Widgeon will look a bit better....

That wing would immediately crash onto tha tail if released. I worked on a glide bomb once that would jettison its wing prior to going into the dive onto the target. The wing would innitially sepparate, but having no stabilising tail woulld immediately pitch down and fly into the mothership. The wing would need a leverage arm to force it over the top and behind the aircraft. R

Here is my rendition of Airfix's little Albatross DV built OOB in the colours of Baron von Richthofen. The first OOB build did in um dunno years at least.... I could not help but improve the kit a bit by scratch building the Daimler engine, making the prop from laminated Balsa wood and making the Spandau guns myself. For the latter I used a very fine mesh to represent the cooling jackets. Not perfect but in that scale it does the trick. Smaller improvements are an instrument panel and compass for Manfred. The rigging I made from very fine Tungsten wire not the ideal solution. The whole system of plastic wings and Tungsten wires is somewhat temperature sensitive, causing the wires to sag at times. I still need to get hold of something stretchy to keep the bracing wires tight. What first pulled me towards this build was the natural plywood of the fuselage I wanted to try and emulate that. I am in two minds about the effect I created; sometimes I think I over done it and other times I think it is way too subtle. But be it as it may, it is done now. And it is a colourful addition to my little collection of models. And a bit of detail of the scratch built engine, prop and Spandau guns: R

Here is a “What if” model of mine. Not that I normally do this kind of modelling, but as a thought experiment I wanted to see what it takes to convert a Grumman Widgeon to turbine power. I started this build as part of the what if group build of last year, but only completed it recently. Here a link to the build, with some info on the conversion of the model itself. Link To recap though on the concept: Stretch the fuselage ahead of the wing to make up for the slightly lighter engines, but also stretch the rear fuselage a bit – to increase control authority of the tail feathers. Or increase the “tail volume” as it is technically called. The trick is finding a balance between the two. Increasing the tail authority is required due to the increased powe;, to allow controlled flight with one engine out and to also counteract the now increased aerodynamic forces the extended nose will give. Also a fin root extension will be given for the latter reason to help in cross wind landings. The engine nacelles have to be extended a bit to fit the turbine engines. And also to keep the prop discs ahead of the flight crew stations in the now extended front fuselage. Wings were modified a bit with different flaps and winglets to increase the wing aspect ratio. I’m happy the way the concept worked out – so if anyone has a spare Wigeon airframe and lots of money available, I can convert it to turbine power for you. I didn’t do too much effort on getting the model to a perfect finish – I needed a bit of a fun build for a change as well. And I had fun with this build! The colour scheme was inspired by the Grumman Goose used in “Tales of the Golden Monkey”, if any one actually knows of that TV series....? And what she looks like with wheels retracted. Still want to add a little base of water for it - something like a peaceful Canadian lake diorama or so... R

Unfortunately not with me - the model is also in a different country from where I live and work at the moment. Otherwise I could quickly take some photos.... R

I inserted a 5 mm plug on the radome, about 3 mm ahead of the radome/fuselage panel line; while keeping the top side profile line continuous. The lower side of the radome then needs a very small amount of sanding to blend it in. That restored the profile quite well enough to my eye.

Yet another deadline that came woooshing past... Anyway, this is where I was when I closed up shop last night: Fuselage mostly done and masked. First it got a layer of primer, bit of refining and lastly the first coat of white. All from a rattle can bought at the hardware store. This is a bit of an experiment if it is useful to use normal commercial rattle can paint. Still in two minds about it. So here the fuselage in white. I promise it is white, not grey, white balance is just off... When and if I ever finish this one, I'll post some pictures in the RFI section of the Aircraft Modeling section. One day.... R

With the deadlines coming down like a tonne of bricks.... ....not just for the Group Build, but also at work.... this is all I managed lately: adding the flaps and ailerons to the wing: R

To date I have done a vacuform of the windscreen - using the original parts as the master. Came out quite well. That was then positioned on the fuselage and held in place using cyno. The still open cabin helped to reduce fogging and the little bit that did occur could be easily removed. And then the wings. I removed the ailerons and flaps - the flaps themselves will be modified a bit. And added winglets/rakelets. The objective here is to increase the effective aspect ratio of the wing. The real Widgeon seems to have the wings removable from the engines outboard - so it could be quite plausible the to have the entire outboard wings replaced, if metal fatigue is an issue on the donor airframe. Also that allows the application of a potentially more efficient airfoil and the inclusion of wing fuel tanks. From what I gather, the net volume of the Widgeon's fuel tanks is a bit small, so this might indeed be a necessary modification.... And then temporarily holding everything together. The aircraft is taking shape: R

Brief update: Engine cowlings are done. Also applied some primer to them to check for surface imperfections etc... Small bits and pieces done on the other parts, but nothing yet worthwhile of reporting. R

Work continuing on the fuselage; I removed the rudder and the elevators. Simply for the fact that removing them and gluing them on again makes for a convincing hinge line.... And then the engine cowlings. These were made from the original cowlings as a base. A bit of styrene tubing, flattened at one end, forms the intake which is added to the bottom side of the cowling. And the extension is made from a suitable diameter tubing, with part of the old cowling attached to the bottom to give the elliptical cross-section. And it all assembled, with final shaping still to be completed. R

Next up was adding the side windows. Airfix somehow managed to sculpt the windows, including the windshield as something looking more like gun ports on a fortress, not like something to have a look see from... Very simple construction: a strip of clear styrene, some strip styrene glued around it, and presto the larger windows are done. One extra window added though for the front fuselage extension. Also tried out my home made rivet scriber for the first time. The cog wheel I recovered from a 40mm Fuze and had an approximately correct pitch for use in 1/72. I didn't re-scribe panel lines. Don't plan to either - some pictures of the real Widgeon show that it actually has RAISED panel lines. Guess maybe that is due to the joints being folded over or something like that to make them waterproof....? R