Patrik Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 (edited) The Skua had been on the top of my “to build pile” already when I came across the excellent build thread by Navy Bird here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234952011-172-special-hobby-blackburn-skua which boosted my interest. Although I have no illusions about my ability to achieve the same level of perfection, the thread contains quite a lot of useful hints which – with some luck – allow me to avoid some of the Navy Bird mistakes, hopefully without making too much of my own. The cleaning of the parts went reasonably well. The plastic is rather hard and that makes the cleaning of the smaller parts rather tricky. After dry fitting the fuselage halves and the canopy I decided to insert a plastic card fillet in the front in order to prevent fit problems later on. The well-furnished interior came next, with small fit issues here and there, but in general nothing dramatic. Edited November 11, 2017 by Patrik 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crobinsonh Posted June 15, 2014 Share Posted June 15, 2014 Lovely start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted June 16, 2014 Share Posted June 16, 2014 Great start, Sir! Always a treat to see a Skua. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vulcanicity Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Great stuff! I just dug this kit out of the stash to have a look about half an hour ago. I thought to myself, "I don't think I've ever seen anyone build a Skua on BM" and lo and behold, up comes your build! Will be following Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted July 26, 2014 Author Share Posted July 26, 2014 (edited) Finally some progress after considerable break caused jointly by business travels, the World Cup in Brazil and vacation in Greece. The fuselage halves were joined together as well as the wing parts. The wheel wells needed some sanding from the outer side in order to allow the wing halves to fit. I opened the gun troughs and the position lights and reduced the underwing blisters – in my opinion they were not that prominent on the real plane anyway. Edited November 11, 2017 by Patrik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted August 1, 2014 Author Share Posted August 1, 2014 (edited) All major parts joined together, only very reasonable amount of filler was needed on the lover wing/fuselage joint. I was not sure how to assemble all the 22 engine parts so they fit correctly inside the engine cowling. In the end I decided to manufacture a temporary mounting, which allowed me to fix the engine provisionally inside the cowling and assemble all the parts within. Edited November 11, 2017 by Patrik 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavDoc Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 (edited) Nice start! Navy bird's builds are always inspiring- glad to see that inspiration rubbing off and leading others to dive in and build up their own skills-- what a great hobby !! Edited August 2, 2014 by NavDoc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 (edited) A few more steps close to completion. Undercarriage was added together with some missing scratch-build details. From back to front – tail position lights, circular cover in front of the tail (destroyed while sanding the fuselage halves seam), wingtip holds and oil cooler vents. And the bottom, front to back – connection rods attached to the front of the undercarriage legs, catapult brackets? (just guessing, any idea?), bottom position light and the pipe on the port side behind the wing trailing edge. The undercarriage construction was a bit puzzling affair and exactly why the middle straight photo-etched cover was almost 4 mm longer than necessary, I cannot say. Edited November 11, 2017 by Patrik 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crobinsonh Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Lovely detailing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Excellent progress, Sir! You are making a splendid job of this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Beautiful work indeed! Have you decided which markings you will use? Cheers, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted August 31, 2014 Author Share Posted August 31, 2014 L2933/K from 800 Sgn., all in silver, with red fin and wingtips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted August 31, 2014 Share Posted August 31, 2014 Nice work Patrik, I'm making one of these - the Norwegian Campaign version - at the moment, I found the same issue with the undercarriage strut cover for the central leg (and with the Roc kit too) and as I couldn't find any way of making them fit as they were I trimmed them back too. I haven't added any detailing (apart from the cooler vents which are a bit too noticeable to ignore) but seeing yours I wish I had at least attempted it as it is looking very nice indeed. Cheers, Stew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted September 21, 2014 Author Share Posted September 21, 2014 (edited) The engine painted and mounted. And the last glimpse into the completed cockpit before it is covered for ever. Edited November 11, 2017 by Patrik 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 This is looking fantasic Patrik,.....(look a that- I`m a poet and I didn`t know it!)! You have done a stunning job so far and it will look brilliant in the 800 NAS all silver scheme,..good choice. Remember that it was painted silver and not natural metal, Cheers for now Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Looking great! Have you test fit the canopy yet? Some builders have reported that they needed to sand down the height of the rollover bar in order to get the canopy to set properly. I didn't have that situation on my build, so I'm curious what you find. Cheers, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted September 22, 2014 Author Share Posted September 22, 2014 As shown above, I test fitted the canopy even before I started the assembly and decided to insert a fillet in the front starboard side. I test fitted the canopy after fixing the cockpit parts again and I had to sand down the top of the bulkhead behind the pilot (rollover bar) for the canopy to fit. And I had to do the same once again after painting the cockpit and joining the fuselage halves. In spite of this, the canopy fitted quite well on the starboard side but there was still a gap in the front of the port side which I could only solve by sanding the height of the plastic on the port cockpit wall. But I am afraid there will be still some putty needed. I will post some pictures after I fit (but first mask :-( the canopy. What glue do you recommend to use to fix the clear canopy? I do not have that much experience (this is my first large closed cockpit canopy after years and years). Some force will be needed to fit the canopy correctly and I am afraid the usual ClearFix I use for my biplane's windshields is not strong enough. Patrik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 I used cyanoacrylate (superglue) on mine, but you have to prepare the canopy properly to make sure you don't get any fogging on the inside of the canopy from the superglue fumes. Luckily, this is not difficult. Just dip the canopy in Future (or Klear) floor wax and let it dry for a day or so. Once the canoipy has a protective layer of Future, I've never had one fog. You don't have to use much superglue. I'm more worried about your needing to use some force to fit the canopy correctly. If this is to make the canopy wider (or narrower), or to twist it so that it contacts all the way around, I wouldn't recommend doing that. It will impart a tension in the canopy that can lead to it breaking or coming off in the future. You can get away with that on a vacuform canopy, but not an injected one. Is that what you meant by using force to make it fit correctly? On my sample, I did some sanding on portions of the bottom of the canopy in order to make it contact nicely all the way around. I also used some filler to blend it in with the fuselage, and then after painting I added some very thin black decal stripes to represent the rails where the moving section of the canopy slides back. Cheers, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted November 17, 2014 Author Share Posted November 17, 2014 (edited) Finally some progress to report after quite a long modelling pause caused by rather turbulent development (meaning positive) in my company. Landing and positon lights added, cowling attached, canopy masked and in place. Certain amount of filling was necessary for the canopy to fit properly. Putty was sufficient in the front, however stretched sprue was needed in the rear (red in the pictures below). I also added some more small details (in green below), two holds (?) below the cockpit and two rods for the aerial. Thanks a lot for the Future/superglue advice Bill, worked perfectly, though it took me a while to find Future where I come from. Finally I found it among my wife’s cleaning tools called Pronto. I found rather useful source for the position lights plastic recently. You must search for the proper colour, and the right profile, but if you do not mind being considered to be some kind of freak (when searching through the supermarket shelves for half an hour), you will be rewarded by quite realistically looing position lights. I was unfortunately unable to set the camera up to show the colours properly, the background was in fact pure white. Edited November 11, 2017 by Patrik 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darby Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 That looks as though it's a lot better than the outward rudeness the Pavla kit showed towards me some 8 years ago. I may have to add one to the pile. Nice idea about the nav lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 Looking forward to seeing the paint going on this one! Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted November 18, 2014 Share Posted November 18, 2014 That looks as though it's a lot better than the outward rudeness the Pavla kit showed towards me some 8 years ago. I may have to add one to the pile. Nice idea about the nav lights. It's a nice little kit, and it gives the Skua some respect. Which I think is something it needs, as its reputation has been tarnished down all the years. When the aircraft was deployed doing what it was designed for - namely dive bombing - it made a good go of it. All at a very bad time with severe opposition. The old Skua done OK in my book. Cheers, Bill 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudge Posted November 20, 2014 Share Posted November 20, 2014 Nice work on the Skua, looking very good. Looking forward to following this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrik Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 (edited) Painting started. Edited November 11, 2017 by Patrik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke_sc Posted November 30, 2014 Share Posted November 30, 2014 I just finished the Revell/Novo 1/72 version but this looks a much better kit. And it's a pleasure following your build so far. Re: the undercarriage the Revell instructions didn't seem to understand how on earth they went together but the older Novo ones seemed to look more like yours do. I'm tempted to have another go with this kit coz I really like this unusual looking plane. Looking forward to the next update. Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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