Welsh Models 1/144 IL-76

[Caleb]

Thought I'd do a "wip" thread because I've never done one and hoping it'll keep me focussed and making progress. First attempt at a vac, looks good but perhaps I should have picked one with resin wings. Anyway, for the princely sum of £9 I got this and thought it can't be any worse then the Venturer Seafire it took me a year to finish. I've always liked the big Russian cargo stuff so quite excited!

Obligitory box contents shot;

IL-76

Vac mouldings look better then I expected

IL-76

Some tidy looking resin in an odd colour

IL-76

IL-76

I like the idea of the white metal undercarriage, should be able to support a hearty amount of noseweight to balance the massive tail. As you may have spotted there are no decals, my plan is to do one of the converted Gen 1 Aeroflot liveried aircraft which had the tail turret removed. Not sure what I'm going to do about windows, never been a fan of decal/painted glazing so may go the clearfix route just a bit worried about strength around the cockpit and nose area.

Anyway - I've made a start, just need to do a not more sanding and tidy up the tails.

2015-11-12_10-36-48

2015-11-17_06-47-00

Help/advice/pointers greatly appreciated!

[robvulcan]

Fantastic I will be watching this for sure. I love the Heavy Lift scheme too. Fantastic Aircraft too

[MikeW]

This was my first vac too - but let's not say I could call it a success. I did it as Cubana, and it sat on my shelves for a while, but it was so badly built it is one of the few builds I have ever binned. I'm still not a fundy with vacs, but I enjoyed more success with later ones.

Will look forward to seeing how this turns out.

Cheers,

Mike

[Jessica]

It builds very well, so you shouldn't be terribly concerned about problems. I needed to pin the nacelles to the wings because I constantly knocked them off, and a spar through the stabilisers is no bad thing. I suggest that you leave them off until you have the wings and gear fairings cleaned up, otherwise your access to sand in that area will be very restricted. Mine looks pretty good with black paint flowed into the window openings. There's nothing to see in there anyway, and from a distance the windows look very dark.

Are you going to do the painted over tail turret, or the full civvy tail cone?

[JosephLalor]

I wonder if the Heavylift decals can be modified for use on the Belfast

[Gondor44]

Personally I would have primed the plastic with a grey plastic primer prior to removing anything from the sheet. That would enable you to not only see any imperfections on the parts but would also allow you to see how much plastic to remove from each piece as the excess would still be white while the rest is grey. But that's just me.

Gondor

[Caleb]

Personally I would have primed the plastic with a grey plastic primer prior to removing anything from the sheet. That would enable you to not only see any imperfections on the parts but would also allow you to see how much plastic to remove from each piece as the excess would still be white while the rest is grey. But that's just me.

Gondor

Hi, thanks for the tip but I don't see the benefit? Surely the marking for cutout is similar to what I've done drawing round the parts in a thick pen? So far so good - I've been going with the score and snap method then just sanding back the white until the edge is the black line, then fit them together and know they are right when the black on adjacent parts are touching? A lot of the panel lines are very fine and need rescribing but I won't do that until its more together. I jsut think covering everything in primer so early isn't going to end well for me. For a start I'm really clumsy and secondly there is a lot of flexing while sanding each individual part. So much so in fact, and worried I'll start snapping things I'm using sanding sticks rather then a a board as I find its easier and gives a better, closer fit.

I wonder if the Heavylift decals can be modified for use on the Belfast

Not sure as I don't have the Heavylift decal sheet. You can probably use the titling but not the H on the tail or the stripes, here's why I think that....

It builds very well, so you shouldn't be terribly concerned about problems. I needed to pin the nacelles to the wings because I constantly knocked them off, and a spar through the stabilisers is no bad thing. I suggest that you leave them off until you have the wings and gear fairings cleaned up, otherwise your access to sand in that area will be very restricted. Mine looks pretty good with black paint flowed into the window openings. There's nothing to see in there anyway, and from a distance the windows look very dark.

Are you going to do the painted over tail turret, or the full civvy tail cone?

Hopefully the civilian tail cone, but until the new decals arrive I'm not 100% as the bird I want to do had a turret, the plated turret and the replacement aft frame, and although it was in Aeroflot livery never actually flew for Aeroflot! I'll cut the turret out before the fuselage goes together, yet to decide if the replacement (you can see the part on the sheet, it's both sides moulded together between the wing spar and the bottom half of the stab) should go together first before fitting - as in trying to stick 3 bits together or two. I wouldn't have thought the tailplane would need a spar as it's top and bottom halves and should be pretty rigid by the time the trailing edges have been thinned, but I'll have a look when we get a bit closer. I've got some assorted carbon rods in to assist the wing spar (I wanted at least 2 to try and prevent twisting in addition to the vac one) so could easily pop a couple in fore and aft of the join. Good idea about the nacelles - I was thinking they look a bit precarious!

Edited November 20, 2015 by Caleb

[Jessica]

JosephLalor, on 19 Nov 2015 - 12:09 PM, said:

I wonder if the Heavylift decals can be modified for use on the Belfast

The kit decals come with extra bonus titles sized to fit the Belfast (seen here), and another set to fit a CL-44 (look on the top of the page). The stripes and tail logo are sufficiently angular that they can be easily masked and painted.

Caleb, I suggested a tail spar because the butt-joint isn't terribly strong; I've knocked the tailplanes off several times. A bit of piano wire would be all that's needed.

[Caleb]

So just over two years later, after changing jobs and getting back into aerobatics again I've finally had a chance to pick it up again! And here's where we are - just about to join the fuselage. I added a little noseweight in the form of a resin block which the nosewheel can also be drilled into. I've taken a little too much off the aft tailgunners position so have a bit of a gap. At the moment the plan is to run some cyano over this seam afterwards which should fill the gap, then sand the seams and reinstate the panel lines. Might need to use a little filler around the gunners radome just to get the shape again. All good fun though, wish I'd resumed earlier!

[k5054nz]

I can't see the photo right now but I'm glad you're back into this project! I quite like the Candid.