1/72 Pavla/Octopus Seafire Mk III with Skyfarer Intrusions

[AlexN]

Hello Brian and Bob, welcome to me 'umble fread .

Talk about sticking my head up over the gun'l, to use an appropriately naurical term!

Progress: another but much much much better coat on the last benchtop just now - it helps to be using the right applicator. The tin's instructions (foam brush) were dead wrong; advice from the boatbuilders I bought the pant from (velveteen roller) was dead right! Difference between using a twig and the best quality paintbrush - or even airbrush .

Speaking of the latter, after a bit of a squiz at the modelling bench and environs, I have worked out where to place and store the projected airbrush hood. I will just have to make it lightweight - "coreflute" would seem to be the best material - once I get a round tuit. Won't have either of those until the Seafire has been finished, or at least started!

Cheers,

Alex.

[AlexN]

A slight update - I have done a little bit o' fiddling in some spare moments:

1. Underside of Seafire wing. Note the odd blobs on the LE' and the lack of hull wing at the rear wing root. The blobs are canon mounting stubs with a lot of flash

2. Parlous propeller - flash-wise, at any rate

3. Some resin parts. Note the flat cockpit sidewalls - they should be curved. Nothing that a bit of thinning down on some wet-and-dry sandpaper won't fix. The little blob-thing on the disc is in fact the rear-view mirror (Ping!). The Floor Monster (sibling of the Carpet Monster) is already salivating and smacking its greedy little lips

4. Cockpit door. One of the vertical stiffeners has been short-shot (not to mention some blobbiness). Candidate for complete removal when the the fuselage side gets thinned to a slightly more scale-like thickness. Apologies for the execrable lack o' focus

5. Undersides of the upper parts of the wings. Again, short-shot stiffening elements - and the phone camera focussing where it, not I, wanted

6. More flash - on the lower wing panel

7. Upper wing panels. The weird blobs of the lower wing part are revealed for what they are, here

8. Seafire fuselage sides, showing over-scale strengthening frames - some sanding required

9. Pathetic polystyrene wheels. The PU resin versions are much better, happily

10. Now for some actual work (gasp) - slimming down the Seafire's cockpit surfaces: plastic (fuselage) and resin (sidewalls). A no. 10 Swann-Morton scalpel blade used - my favourite (along with the No. 15) for such tasks

11. Sandpaper after wet- and dry-sanding the resin cockpit sides. I didn't do the dry-sanding for very long. Note that the cockpit door detail on the port fuselage side has been despatched (after measuring the structure)...

12. "Would M'sieu like an aftair deener meent? Zey are waffair theen" (apologies to the Pythons). You can see where I went rather too far - the various parts that popped off (not unlike Mr Creosote, in fact) have been stored safely in one of my handily-saved handy 35 mm film containers (see snap no. 11 above)

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Again, there won't be much more for a while, since I am focussed on finishing off the adjustable feet on my DIY welding bench - so that I can complete my DIY workshop. This bench is that last piece of a Byzantine DIY puzzle, and will allow me to complete putting stuff away, including out from under foot. Then I might be able to look at fripperies such as modelling with a clear(er) conscience.

[Nigel Heath]

A lot of cleanup required there, especially that prop. Good luck with it.

[CedB]

Great progress Alex and good work.

You should frame that sandpaper and sell it to a local gallery - very artistic!

[moaning dolphin]

Good start there, that resin will go incredibly thin! I am glad you posted the pics of the plastic as it has destroyed any temptation I had to dig this kit out and try and proceed further! Any more pics like that and I may be forced to get out the tool box and nail that sucker to the shelf for ever! Keep up the good work and good luck .

Great progress Alex and good work.

You should frame that sandpaper and sell it to a local gallery - very artistic!

Blizzard on a starry night?

[AlexN]

Hello Nigel, Ced and moaning dolphin,

Thank you all for dropping by, and your kind words.

@Nigel - that prop is the very least of my worries (says he blithely - famous last words?);

@Ced - hmm, I hadn't looked at it like that but I see what you mean. I can see a stream of income popping up! You should get a percentage for thinking it up! Regarding the sandpaper, and what I meant to mention above but forgot, was that one piece (on the left) is 320 grit, the other (on the right) is 600. The 320, which I used first, was far too savage on the resin; the 600 was slightly kinder but still a little aggressive;

@moaning dolphin - it's entirely possible that I might take to this kit with a hammer, without the box and with or without nails, by the time it's finished with me. Good name for this nascent picture, I dare say that I'll have to cut you in as well. And I dare say that Mr Heath can manage it all, so there goes another whack . I could cut off an ear and add it to the composition. Now that is starting to get very silly.

The resin was alarmingly easy to sand down on the flat sheets; I was using magnifiers at the time but it still got the jump on me. The plastic, on the other hand, has been taking a bit longer to thin: I don't like the horrible vibrations that emanate from my Dremel, so I'm not inclined to use it on this tiny kit. One slip and...

Speaking of slips, what I haven't shown is where I was idly playing with the back of the tip of the No. 10 blade in the cockpit door lines - without Dymo tape. That'll teach me. I filled the resulting carnage in with some Perfect Plastic Putty, my first use of this substance. I'll probably end up replacing that with polystyrene soup since the PPP is likely to be far more brittle than the plastic and won't scribe true, even with the tape. No snaps of the stuff-up as I had happily forgotten about it until I was typing this reply. Maybe next post of work; perhaps I'll cut the whole door out and have done with it.

I have a little notebook which I used to jot down the measurements of the cockpit door structure, along with a little diagram - if I really stuff things up, I can make an entire new door. Last resort, though.

Apologies for not having quoted you all - I didn't want to run the risk of having a nasty fight with the ipad this late in the evening!

Cheers,

Alex.

[Leonl]

You've lots to be getting on with there!

[AlexN]

Lots indeed. I'm hoping to get the last couple of non-trivial bench feet out of the way today, hooray!

[TonyTiger66]

Good start Alex. Looking on the bright side with the prop, at least it isn't four separate blades and a blobby hub. There are some kits out there (well, on my shelf of doom!) like that.

Looks like you're tackling the hardest bits first; all downhill from here

Best regards

Tony

[AlexN]

Thank you for your kind words, too, Tony. Not having separate propeller blades (as in many Classic Airframes kits - albeit 1/48) is a bonus with regard to this kit.

I'm not too sure about the "hardest stuff first" - there's the "sculpting" of the gull-winged wing roots and their re-scribing, plus the vac-formed canopy, see CedB's Spitfire PRIa build, post no. 134 et seq. - I've got the shakes...

I'm not looking forward particularly to attaching the tailplane parts, either, and I don't much like the look of the angular and uneven (and solid) exhaust stubs. I can't complain too loudly, however, since it was my rather eccentric choice to kick off my build threads on BM.

[The wooksta V2.0]

I'd advise binning the wings totally. The Sword Seafire III reboxing with the D-Day stripes has a set of spare Vb wings - build it as a Seafire II and use the spare III wings on this one.

Brian, I've a spare set of Octopus markings *somewhere*. PM your address and I'll try to locate them and bung them in the post.

[brianthemodeller]

I'd advise binning the wings totally. The Sword Seafire III reboxing with the D-Day stripes has a set of spare Vb wings - build it as a Seafire II and use the spare III wings on this one.

Brian, I've a spare set of Octopus markings *somewhere*. PM your address and I'll try to locate them and bung them in the post.

You are a gentleman! PM on its way!!

[Darby]

It's a Seafire therefore it must be built no matter what. Good luck with that one.

[The wooksta V2.0]

The alternative is to fit an Airfix mk IXc wing - it will fit, I've tried it - and do a Seafire II.

[The wooksta V2.0]

If the decals don't inspire, this sheet from Hannants may fit the bill:

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72135

I dug out one of the Octopus Seafires I had - I'd bought it at a low price as a parts donor as the resin alone is worth the price - and remembered quite why it was buried! I'm watching this thread with keen interest.

Brian, I'll get those decals out in a day or so.

Edited June 7, 2016 by The wooksta V2.0

[AlexN]

Hello The Wooksta!, thank you for your input. I may in fact end up following your advice if I make a complete fist of the "refit" (quite likely). I'll do some searching for said kits for the relacements if needed.

A very warm welcome to you, brianthemodeller and Darby . I have some more snaps to put up, will do that presently.

Cheers,

Alex.

[AlexN]

OK, more snaps, as promised (or is that threatened?)...

1. Wayward "scribing" filled with Perfect Plastic Putty: first use of this stuff. It might be a bit on the soft and/or brittle side for rescribing over the top of, though. Once again, despite being told exactly where to focus, the phone camera did what it wanted to do. I suspect that I was beyond the close-up focal limit, grumble grumble. The real camera's macro function has croaked completely, so I shouldn't really complain (again). Nice sharp focus on the cutting mat in the background, though

2. Perfect Plastic Putty cleaned up by sanding and scraping. Tools in background. I may end up cutting the whole door out - I haven't decided yet. that reinforced frame really does stick out, doesn't it? 30-odd scale mm? Hmmm...

3. Rather crude Seafire exhaust stubs: nothing that a little gentle coaxing with a no. 15 scalpel blade won't fix, though. And it is 1/72, after all

4. Here's a DIY snap sneakily sneaked in with much sneakiness - it's the prototype foot for my welding bench: DIY tapered nut (cut from 19 mm sq. stock, drilled and tapped M12, nut tapers bevelled with file - four sides and four corners), M12 bolt and locking nut. Whacked in with my 2 kg block hammer (very much a press fit!). This will allow adjustment for levelling the benchtop. All six little feet are finally complete, I have cleaned up the residual weld spatter from ages ago, plus the rust, and will paint the bench in the next day or so (with zinc paint). Then I will have a clearer conscience to do more concentrated work on the Seafire. That's the plan, anyway...

5. See? I've cunningly hidden my gratuitous DIY snap in amongst all the other modelling stuff - no-one will ever notice. Er...

Seafire-related scribbles in my notebook; cockpit door measurements, in this instance. I think that I will be able to interpret what I've written when I eventually get around to re-doing this structure...

6. Magnifiers - an essential bit of reed-making and modelling equipment for me these days. It's a General Hardware Co., Inc. item, and my favourite magnifiers: robust, clear and sharp. Also used (and originally bought for) my metalworking activities

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This is the current state of affairs at the moment. More when I have got the welding bench painted and turned the right way up - and round. Slow and careful is the trick with the latter operation(s).

Note to self: locate and retrieve all the special scribing tools that I have squirrelled away somewhere safe.

Cheers,

Alex.

[CedB]

Hi Alex. Looks like the PPP was OK for scribing over. Those exhausts look good too.

[moaning dolphin]

Although the plastic is poor I think welding my be a bit extreme! The framing does look way over scale, I equated it to the thickness of Dave's finger (Dave is my 1:72 datum guy, an ex Islander pilot I use to guage scale thickness), so I would wager that reinforcing piece to be Aluminium so a block of ally, like you say nearly 30mm thick would be an almighty lump to fix on the side, just the fasteners would probably make it too heavy! A good rub down is in order me thinks.

Keep plugging away!

Bob

[brianthemodeller]

Brian, I'll get those decals out in a day or so.

Thanks Wooksta

I suppose I'd better get my Buccaneer sorted so I can have a look at a Seafire conversion...

Alex,

Any chance of some pictures of the arrestor hook assembly??

Edited June 8, 2016 by brianthemodeller

[AlexN]

Hi Alex. Looks like the PPP was OK for scribing over. Those exhausts look good too.

I haven't actually waved a sharp pointy object near the PPP yet - I am biding my time! Those exhausts look a bit different in real life - the David Hamilton-esque soft-focus snaps make them look nicer than I think they are. They will be dealt with in due course, too...

Although the plastic is poor I think welding my be a bit extreme! The framing does look way over scale, I equated it to the thickness of Dave's finger (Dave is my 1:72 datum guy, an ex Islander pilot I use to guage scale thickness), so I would wager that reinforcing piece to be Aluminium so a block of ally, like you say nearly 30mm thick would be an almighty lump to fix on the side, just the fasteners would probably make it too heavy! A good rub down is in order me thinks.

Keep plugging away!

Bob

Thanks Bob. I think I'll try scribing around the frames then sanding them flat - and won't let the arc welder near them

Thanks Wooksta

I suppose I'd better get my Buccaneer sorted so I can have a look at a Seafire conversion...

Alex,

Any chance of some pictures of the arrestor hook assembly??

I'll have a go at that later tomorrow - my success with close-up snaps has been very poor of late, unhappily.

On another note, I have found that PU sanding residue has glued itself into various nooks and crannies on the resin cockpit walls. Some careful prodding with a wet stiff-ish paint brush has fail to dislodge the muck so far. Maybe some washing-up detergent will help, will have to try that. Or methylated spirits.

Cheers,

Alex.

[Nigel Heath]

I would have thought washing up detergent and maybe an old toothbrush should do the trick.

[AlexN]

Thank you for the reminder, Nigel! I have a collection of soft (used, clean) toothbrushes in one of my modelling drawers, will dig 'em out.

[Nigel Heath]

I have a collection of soft (used, clean) toothbrushes in one of my modelling drawers, will dig 'em out.

Glad to hear they are at least clean and soft, thats got to help.

[AlexN]

This post is especially for brianthemodeller, since I promised him some snaps of the arrestor hook detail:

1. Attempted close-up of Seafire arrestor hook resin part. Despite my best efforts, the phone camera persists in revealing my parlous photographic "skills"

2. Side view of arrestor hook part: slightly more in focus...

3. Ventral surfaces of arrestor hook part. Awful focus, again. Maybe a hammer will improve it

4. Aft-ends of Seafire fuselage arrestor hook area. Note the flashed-over corner in the starboard-side part. Flashers-R-Us, this kit (I have seen much worse, though - many years ago)

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The phone camera is driving me up the wattle. This is the best that it's going to get unless I get a new camera. This latter event is highly unlikely as I really truly can't afford a new one. there is a little Nikon digital happy-snap (Coolpix L-something) camera lurking around somewhere. I will try and locate it as it can't be worse than the stupid phone camera, and my poor Canon's late macro function (RIP).

Got the first coat of zinc paint on the welding bench today - I will be able to put coat no. 2 on tomorrow or Monday - then I will be able to flip the bench over when dry and load said bench up with stuff. Hooray! Single snap of the first coat up on Flickr.