Bonhoff Posted September 14, 2012 Share Posted September 14, 2012 (edited) My first ever group build - Please be gentle with me! The Airfix 1/72nd Ford Trimotor..I've just started it and photos have been taken but bear with me whilst I sort out a photo hosting account. I picked this kit up a good 20+ years ago, whilst I was heading to the pub after we'd all been thrown out of the office in Nottingham, prior to the Christmas hols. There used to be a toyshop near our office on Chapel Bar (They had two branches - The other one was in a unit in the Broad Marsh centre where MZ currently resides and for the life of me I can't remember the name of the store) and I noticed that they were having a closing down sale - everything half price - I came out with a Tamiya Tyrell P34, A Tamiya Jag XJR-9LM and this. Ticket price was £2.99 so I guess it was only £1.50! Got rather drunk that afternoon but got me and all the kits home in one piece Edited December 17, 2012 by Bonhoff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted September 14, 2012 Share Posted September 14, 2012 Good luck, Sir. You can expect some resistance from the kit.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 She should be a beauty, if a little challenging! I nearly saw the one at Kermit Weeks's museum fly in Florida last year but she went u/s at the last minute - shame Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 One of my favourites! Are you going to use the kit decals? Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czechnavy Posted September 15, 2012 Share Posted September 15, 2012 I have just finished one and it turned out okay but that was based on the experience of previously building another back in the 1980s and discarding it before anyone saw it! Key points are: make sure the four parts that make up the fuselage set square - this time I added a couple of bulkheads from plastic card to ensure this the luggage doors in the bottom of the wings are a poor fit - I backed them with plastic card and built up their edges with thin strips of card before fixing them in place - avoids using any filler the wing to fuselage fit needs plenty of dry fits before the glue comes into play! I filled the gaps with pollyfilla made with a 50/50 mix of water and PVA glue, gave that a couple of coats of Klear to harden it a little more and then scribed the corrugations across the filler - worked perfectly!! the engine struts need replacing with Albion Alloys tubing the u/c legs on my kit were very poor with dimples in the mouldings - plenty of filler and sanding needed - but my kit could have been a one-off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted September 18, 2012 Author Share Posted September 18, 2012 Well - So far I've not had too many issues with it - Photo's still pending I'm afraid - The Decals are scrap TBH as they are over 40 years old - the carrier film has gone way beyond yellow. Fit's not been too bad - Certainly didn't have an issue with the underwing luggage doors but then again as I've been working on a number of AMT Star Wars models anything else is a good fit by comparison. Wing / Fuselage join does need a bit of work as Czechnavy has noted - Not looked at the undercarriage yet..... It's surprisingly large as a subject too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatbaldbloke Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) Decals are scrap TBH as they are over 40 years old - the carrier film has gone way beyond yellow. Masking tape and stick them to the inside of a south facing window. Within a couple of weeks they should be more or less white again. You'd be wise to treat them with Microscale Liquid Decal Film or clear laquer before trying to use them too. Edited September 18, 2012 by fatbaldbloke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted September 19, 2012 Author Share Posted September 19, 2012 1: So here we are - The box contents. For the benefit of the packaging anoraks it would appear to have been produced between 1968 and 1971 given the style of the box and the leaflet inside extolling the virtues of Airfix Magazine for the price of 1 Shilling! A few mould lines but not much flash - Quite a few parts had come detached from the runners (Considering it had lived, unwanted, on a toy shop shelf for 20 years) and the canopy is scratched. The decals would appear to be unusable given the state of the carrier film - so a decision will need to be made with regards to livery options later. 2: The dry build - Perhaps I should build all kits like this - Takes no time at all!! Doesn't appear (At this point) to be many pitfalls ahead although there aren't many decent locating pins either. Should be good practice for building a limited run kit! Apologies for the blurry picture but I sometimes forget that my camera occasionally throws a wobbler when flourescent/power saver bulbs are involved. 3: Accuracy warning ahead!! I generally attempt to build these old Airfix kits OOB and will often take liberties with interior paint colours to go with whatever I have to hand or fancy. To this end I hairysticked / airbrushed the basic interior with Vallejo "Grey Blue" to the walls and ceiling and Vallejo German Army Uniform Green to the floor which has received an infill fillet where the stand slot would be normally. The more recent Airfix instructions I found online suggested black for the cockpit interior sidewalls but I went with aluminium as per photos of a somewhat overrestored one also found online. Vallejo once more. 4: Tried a mottled effect to one of the cabin walls. Looked rubbish. Resprayed cabin wall plain again. Interior window frames then picked out in Vallejo Dark Earth to represent timber. 5: Cabin completed - Instrument panel picked out with white. Rudder bars in black. Pilots Belt straps from Tamiya tape. "Wicker" portions of seats in Vallejo Desert Yellow, upholstered bits in German Army Green. Next step is to assemble the fuselage. 6: Next step - Glued the two halves of the fuselage together after first making sure that I could get the interior in afterwards. The engine was pressed in place to help with alignment. Then slid the interior in and located it roughly where it was intended to live. Then I installed the fuselage floor - Remember to attach the undercarriage to the fuselage floor before the floor is installed! The two bars across the floor that support the undercarriage had to be trimmed everso slightly to allow the fuselage sides to close up properly. The fuselage floor was then clicked into place and fixed by gluing from the inside with both CA and Liquid Poly whilst the whole thing was held together by spring clamps and tape. Little tip - Apologies if you know this already - If your spring clamps are the ones that have a habit of pinging off when you attempt to clamp down something that has a taper on it - Quite why the pads on these are made of nylon escapes me given its co-efficient of friction - try fixing a bit of tamiya tape to the faces of the model where you want to put a clamp. They should, I'll repeat should, then stay in place. The interior floor was then glued in place along its back edge where it meets the fuselage floor. The overall location of this was a bit vague on the 1960's instructions but the later instructions I'd downloaded were slightly more helpful. In retrospect another way to install the floor/interior as one might be to remove the 6 locating pins on the sides of the fuselage - Then, gluing the interior floor at the rear only, locating the interior using the little ridge under the cockpit bulkhead / cabin floor junction. Be careful with the control columns though - They are a little tight under the cockpit coaming. I'd only glue it on the back edge as if you glue it on the front edge too then you've effectively set the curavture of the fuselage floor. Which may not be the same as the fuselage sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 Looking very nice indeed! Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted September 20, 2012 Author Share Posted September 20, 2012 Thanks - Currently working on the wing and have started filling the gaps...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swordfish fairey Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 She's looking pretty good, nice to see a kit of that age being made.........Smudge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 7: Main wing now attached to fuselage. Needed a little bit of trimming here and there but seems OK - Filling of joints done mostly with either Games Workshop "Greenstuff" (?) and also a bottle of Citadel Codex Grey paint that seems to be thickening up nicely. Not done much on it recently as I've managed to distract myself with an Revell/Italeri M901-A1 ATV and an Airfix/LS F-16XL as you can see in the picture bottom right. 8: And here's the Wing / Fuselage joint - It's not actually as bad as it looks and I've since discovered a photo of the top of a Trimotor that shows a joint at that location so a little bit of filling and sanding and the job's done. 9: Sesame Street is brought to you by the letter "B" and the word "Ar5e!" - I've just dropped it. One of the undercarriage "Wishbones" has snapped off but can be repaired. No other damage so it would appear to have been a good idea to use CA to fit the wing in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Glad the hear no serious damage done Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smuts Posted October 7, 2012 Share Posted October 7, 2012 Built one of these once many moons ago.....no I ain't tellin how long .....but that's alot better then i did it, you're doing the old girl justice.. Andy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted October 10, 2012 Author Share Posted October 10, 2012 Hopefully going to get some paint on this tonight. As a change from my usual Halford rattle can primer I'm wondering about using a gloss finish prior to spraying a couple of top coats of Metalcote polished aluminium - Hopefully this will give a smoother overall finish. I'm wondering about the colour of the undercoat though - I notice that Alclad users seem to use gloss black but would that make the Metalcote darker than if i used say battleship grey? Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 PM sent re decals for this build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted October 15, 2012 Author Share Posted October 15, 2012 PM sent re decals for this build. And a big Thank You to Paul J for the decals which arrived in the post today. Now have the choice of either American Airlines or US Marines. Decisions decisions. I'm currently adding a number of extra ribs to the top corners of the fuselage prior to painting then I'll try to make up some guides for the control wires to the elevators and rudder. The AMS stops there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Hopefully going to get some paint on this tonight. As a change from my usual Halford rattle can primer I'm wondering about using a gloss finish prior to spraying a couple of top coats of Metalcote polished aluminium - Hopefully this will give a smoother overall finish. Any thoughts? Hi Bonhoff. If it's not too late to ask - just how shiny were these Trimotors? I'd always assumed that they were painted silver - I could well be wrong though! Cheers Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted October 17, 2012 Author Share Posted October 17, 2012 Hi Bonhoff. If it's not too late to ask - just how shiny were these Trimotors? I'd always assumed that they were painted silver - I could well be wrong though! Cheers Cliff That's a good point Cliff - I've been googling and it has to be said that in the period photos they're not exactly shiny. I tend to use the metalcote as it's pretty much foolproof with my clumsy airbrushing technique but I might try the Vallejo Model Air Aluminium that I have in instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 Remember not to attempt multi tone metall effect! As Cliff mentioned, it ought to be an overall painted aluminium finish and not chrome or mirror like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted October 17, 2012 Share Posted October 17, 2012 That's a good point Cliff - I've been googling and it has to be said that in the period photos they're not exactly shiny. I tend to use the metalcote as it's pretty much foolproof with my clumsy airbrushing technique but I might try the Vallejo Model Air Aluminium that I have in instead. I've had some good results with Vallejo Model Air Aluminium, although it is pretty fragile when handled (or I'm particularly clumsy!). Over-spraying with a matt acrylic varnish can protect it and also knock back the shine. Good luck! Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonhoff Posted November 1, 2012 Author Share Posted November 1, 2012 10: Progress - As mentioned before I've used some styrene strip to make new ribs where the fuselage top meets the sides - The ribs were then sanded down to make them blend in a little bit better. Shame the camera shows just what a cack handed effort it turned out to be... And there's the control cable guides as promised. Picked up the smallest diameter brass tubing I could find at MZ and then cut three little lengths. These were then glued to the fuselage and checked to make sure the nylon line would pass through them. Then repeated on the other side. My apologies that they don't truly represent the prototype but I can live wth them. At least the cables have a home 12: Cockpit masked and thin white primer coat to check for blemishes. There's a few. And of course a "DOH!" moment when I realised that I should have primed the cockpit framing grey instead. 13: And on to the engine mountings. Quite early on in the build Old Man warned me that I'd expect the kit to put up a bit of resistance but haven't had much from it so far. The kit's just ambushed me! The instructions need some serious understanding at this point (How any young lad would have understood them back in 1969 escapes me - Refer to a later set online if you get the chance) and, although I think I've interpreted them correctly, the engines have been loosely placed on this photo and look.... The Starboard motor is pointing inwards and the port is pointing straight ahead. Hopefully I just have to fill and drill to correct it. You will also notice how the other undercarriage brace/wishbone has helpfully fallen off so you can see more clearly. Another little tip - My head was starting to hurt trying to identify the port and starboard engines so I painted the engine locating rings green on Starboard and red on Port. 14. There's always a danger that upon the purchase of a new tool or material you start to find reasons to use it. So here's a tale of when is a bad time. I'd started work on the exhaust system for the central engine and discovered that the collector stubs moulded on the exhaust manifold don't actually line up with the cylinders. Suitably inspired I set to with my set of mini drills to drill into the back of each cylinder to accept a stub made from the aformentioned brass tube. I then started dilling out the manifold to accept these stubs. Partway through I attempted a dry fit only to discover that the engine wouldn't fit with these bits added. The stubs have now all been removed and the manifold will be glued directly to the backs of the cylinder heads instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 Great stuff - that really is a big ol' wing isn't it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMChladek Posted November 3, 2012 Share Posted November 3, 2012 This is coming out rather well IMHO. Given that your kit was likely made from the tooling when it was new probably has contibuted to the relatively few hassles with it, although a Tri-motor is not an easy beast to build by any standard. I can't wait to see the completed results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mach Turtle Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 What a wing. I love the transition between technologies -- you can see the design engineer thinking, "We make railroad cars this way, why not airplanes?" And the logic makes sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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