The Dual-Build Diaries - A Meatbox Apocalypse! 1/48 Edition.

[The Spadgent]

The Dual-Build Diaries - A Meatbox Apocalypse! 1/48 Edition.

Before I commence with this new WIP I will explain the strange course of events that lead me to build this my next bench time beauty.

A Tamiya Gloster Meteor F.1.

Stick with me it’s going somewhere I promise. During the build of my first WIP a few months ago a 1/48 Tamiya Swordfish I came along a BM member, Tony, aka “The Baron” building the same plane albeit at 1/72 and Matchbox. We built along in tandem sharing advice and tips along the way, great fun!

This was all very coincidental but the banter kept the momentum of both builds going strong. So to cut a long and convoluted story short we mailed each other and decided to do it again but this time on purpose.

Two different blokes, Two different Countries, Two different scales but the same plane, well almost.

As I said Mine will be a Tamiya Gloster Meteor F.1 1/48 and Tony’s will be a Meteor NF.14 1/72.

You can find “The Dual-Build Diaries - A Meatbox Apocalypse! 1/72 Edition.” here.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235002360-the-dual-build-diaries-a-meatbox-apocalypse-172-edition/

I/we hope you find this Duel WIP thread interesting and fun, I know I’m going to have a blast.

Here goes. Wish us luck.

Tony and John.

Here is the obligatory box shot with a few little extras I couldn’t help but add to the shopping list.

And here are are the sprues.

 

I have some early start posts to add tonight but I need to go bath the kids, not a euphemism. So you will have to excuse me for a little while. but before I go a question..........

Edited August 23, 2017 by The Spadgent

[The Spadgent]

Before the question.

Although the new Airfix Meteor has just come out I was interested to see what the Tamiya version was like being a bit of a fan boy, so I searched for reviews and found the Curse of The Tamiya Airbrake!! I actually liked that the guys at Tamiya had got the Cosford plane DG202/G recreated accurately and added the airbrakes from the F3 wings. Cosford is just down the road from me and I spent many childhood days there with my old man so recreating this very plane seemed like a great Idea. I Won an E-bay Bargain £14 I think, Imagine my horror when it arrived with air brakes on the sprues but nowhere for them to go. Slump.

 

Right so heres the question. Should I

A: Leave well alone and build an accurate F1 with F1 wings..

B: dig out the wings and make the lovely Cosford one with F3 wings. (btw apparently its in London now)

Thanks for any comments and thanks for looking, More in a while....

John

Edited August 23, 2017 by The Spadgent

[The Spadgent]

Any way on with the build.

The kit threw me a curve ball by getting me to put the fuselage together first, this made me twitch ever so slightly so I tentatively taped the fuselage together and went for the wings, noticed that the detail in the wheel wells was a bit, well flat and decided to move onto the cockpit. Mmmmmm photo etch or monster food as Phil would say.

Here's the sheet.

I was hoping for more wheel well parts but alas. Still the cockpit stuff looked dandy and for once I don't have to build bloody seat belts.

to be fair the cockpit is pretty plain so having to cut out more seemed a little odd but who am I to argue? Off with its head.

Yet more chopping to the top part of the fuselage.

and gone.

After the chopping had finished some sanding took place and the task at hand was clear.

This.

Into This.

I'll see what can be done.

Thanks for looking.

John.

Edited August 24, 2017 by The Spadgent

[TheBaron]

Am so envying your PE parts that actually can be seen with the naked eye. Great to see you getting stuck in to that pit already. Am expecting to be able to read the numbers on those dials in your build

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Cheers!

Tony

[The Spadgent]

After spraying the PE with tamiya base coat I got down to some serious tweezer action.

 

Those little nobs and dials are tiny, serious case of cross eye going on and luckily I only lost the one piece.

here are some of the side details in place. and the IP balanced for good measure.

The other side was a little lack lustre so I added some fuse wire cable with tamiya tape straps, not totally accurate but good enough for me.

I primed the seat and control stick and did a dry fit to see where we were.

Not a bad contrast from the initial empty box.

Well there we are for now. I hope you lot enjoy our two Meatbox builds.

Until the next thrilling instalment.

John

Edited August 23, 2017 by The Spadgent

[The Spadgent]

Am so envying your PE parts that actually can be seen with the naked eye. Great to see you getting stuck in to that pit already. Am expecting to be able to read the numbers on those dials in your build

Looking forward to the next instalment.

Cheers!

Tony

Ha! don't bank on it the little plastic dials are a bit bobbins to be fair. Everything else seems nice though. Especially the belts. Mmmmm belts.

Jont.

Edited May 12, 2016 by The Spadgent

[Squibby]

Back to 1:48 scale again? I must say I'm enjoying my first 48th scale experiment so I can't blame you

Good start so far, Keeping an eye on this one

[Martian]

The pit in particular is shaping up very nicely already.

Martin

[The Spadgent]

Back to 1:48 scale again? I must say I'm enjoying my first 48th scale experiment so I can't blame you

Good start so far, Keeping an eye on this one

Yes. I was going to stay small but the mix up makes it fun! I'm following your build too. I might try 1/32 next.

[The Spadgent]

The pit in particular is shaping up very nicely already.

Martin

Thanks Martin. I've been looking forward to this for a week or so now. It's going to be weird doing a finish that's not all beaten up for once. Bricking it a little bit.

[The Spadgent]

Quick update. I am learning fast that Photo Etch parts are a dark art. The dials are printed on a piece of clear plastic. Thin clear plastic. I guess you need to stick that to a piece of white plastic? I saw folks taking about plasticard so I got a few sheets from e-bay and stuck it down. The tamiya glue dried and the sheet fell off. (Slump) so I bit the bullet and used super glue. This didn't frost the plastic but I'm pretty sure it made the dials bleed a little. Either way it stuck fast, I cut out the parts and glued it to the back of my new shiny I.P.

Typically I took no photos of the work but I do have an all over black pit with glued in dials, if a little dark.

 

Actually looking at the photos while drinking wine they don't look three bad.

The wiring looked ok too for my first attempt.

I did a little bit of dry brushing with Vallejo metallics to bring out the detail and colored some of the little handles. I did use reference pics but every one seemed different so I hope I got it slightly right?

And from the other side.

All looking good to my eye. The seat got a little attention as did the control stick, I did bend the primed belts into place, can't wait to paint em. but I'm pooped so that's it for tonight.

Thanks for looking.

If there are any opinions out there for what I should do with the air brakes don't be shy. Please pipe up before I do something stupid.

Next time. Wheel wells.

John.

Edited August 23, 2017 by The Spadgent

[TheBaron]

Very nice

You've caught that bluff matt black look to the interior you see in so many Meteor reference shots really well there John, liking it very much. After staring at 1:72 all afternoon, looking at your cockpit is like suddenly looking through a pair of binoculars - everything looks a lot closer and richer in detail

As to your airbrake quandary - I'd say 'dig for Cosford baby' but that's purely because I have to somehow dig those monstrosities out of my wings myself and why should you have it easy

BTW, it only occurred to me earlier - are we going to need to put any nose weights in these babies to stop them popping wheelies? Obvious question but I never thought...

Ciao for now,

Tony

PS. If you're looking for novelty items to add I came across a site online that had a works drawing for a VTOL Meteor. I kid thou not. I'll see if I've bookmarked it anywhere.

Updated. Wrong Mk. and a bonkers idea:

Edited May 13, 2016 by TheBaron

[The Spadgent]

Very nice

You've caught that bluff matt black look to the interior you see in so many Meteor reference shots really well there John, liking it very much. After staring at 1:72 all afternoon, looking at your cockpit is like suddenly looking through a pair of binoculars - everything looks a lot closer and richer in detail

As to your airbrake quandary - I'd say 'dig for Cosford baby' but that's purely because I have to somehow dig those monstrosities out of my wings myself and why should you have it easy

BTW, it only occurred to me earlier - are we going to need to put any nose weights in these babies to stop them popping wheelies? Obvious question but I never thought...

Ciao for now,

Tony

PS. If your looking for novelty items to add I came across a site online that had a works drawing for a VTOL Meteor. I kid thou not. I'll see if I've bookmarked it anywhere.

Updated:

Thanks. Every bloody cockpit I looked at was really knackered and like you said Matt. A lot of the were cobweb covered. As for the weight. Yup, my kit comes with a BIG one to add to the nose to stop it popping wheelies. I did see someone using lead shot or lead gun pellets in blue tack. Might be an option. I'm actually enjoying the size of this one but I can't help but pine for the smaller, ahem, gentle mans scale.

Btw a VTOL Meteor?? What the actual flip????

[Martian]

I think I would go with a standard F1 at least you have re marking options that way.

Martin

[The Spadgent]

I think I would go with a standard F1 at least you have re marking options that way.

Martin

Re marking options? Not quite sure what this is, maybe it's the wine and the lack of sleep on my part?. I'm going for the prototype scheme as I like the custard underside. The Tamiya kit comes with decals for the Cosford one. My initial thoughts were to dig out and add air brakes but I wasn't sure if it might be seen as some kind of blasphemy.

Jont.

[Martian]

Not blasphemy at all, you must build the model the way you want it to be. After all, it is you that has to look at it when this thread is done and dusted. It doesn't look to be the hardest job in the world to reinstate the airbrakes if you want to.

Martin

[cathasatail]

Is the cosford meteor still there somewhere or has it moved to Henson? I can't recall seeing it last time I went?

Following this build with interest!

Sam

[The Spadgent]

Not blasphemy at all, you must build the model the way you want it to be. After all, it is you that has to look at it when this thread is done and dusted. It doesn't look to be the hardest job in the world to reinstate the airbrakes if you want to.

Martin

I guess you're right. I think I'm going to put the brakes back in. Not quite sure how yet, maybe a re scribe? But after some of the builds I've seen today this looks like child's play.

Thanks for the sage words.

John.

Edited May 14, 2016 by The Spadgent

[The Spadgent]

Is the cosford meteor still there somewhere or has it moved to Henson? I can't recall seeing it last time I went?

Following this build with interest!

Sam

I'm not 100% sure but the wiki page said it had been moved to London. I'll have to go visit it one day.

Thanks for looking, I'm glad you like the build.

John.

[TheBaron]

I guess you're right. I think I'm going to put the brakes back in. Not quite sure how yet, maybe a re scribe? But after some of the builds I've seen today this looks like child's play.

Thanks for the sage words.

John.

The thing that's bothering me about doing those airbrakes is the fact that there are positive shapes that fit within the negative spaces of the air brake flap when it's flush with the wing:

It'll be an absolute swine trying to add those with plasticard but I don't see any choice...I don't know if you've any thoughts on this one?

Tony

Edited May 14, 2016 by TheBaron

[The Spadgent]

Well I had an idea to possibly scribe out the airbrake shape into the wings. This would save any hole cutting and plasticard adding. This might not work so my second thought is to do as you have done and cut holes, add the provided breaks put some plasticard underneath and cut little bits to fill the holes. Actually while writing this I'm thinking while looking at that picture, file the plastic brakes down to super thin versions and pop em on the wing. Might need to do some digging though. At this point I wish I had a dremmel.

Which ever way it's going to be a fun first.

Edited May 14, 2016 by The Spadgent

[The Spadgent]

The wife is mid Eurovision and I'm putting the boy to bed. So while I had a quick chance I popped into the cave to mull it over.

I think with a bit of sanding I'm on to a winner. Or is it "Nil pwa"

Jonst

Edited August 23, 2017 by The Spadgent

[The Spadgent]

Ok guys. I've been looking at dremel type tools. Which is a good one for plastic? Is there a good cheaper alternative to

Thanks for any advice.

John.

[TheBaron]

Recently got this Dremel-clone John:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KX9Y8CO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It'll also use genuine Dremel accessories as well as the ones that come with it.

I've only had it a fortnight but very happy with it so far, given the price. Drilling, grinding cutting etc. all handy enough.

There's a few floating around in this price bracket but most seem a similar spec to this as far as I can tell.

Tony

[Squibby]

I'd just take it easy and manually sand it down, the rotary will need to run at very low speed or it'll melt your piece.

As an alternative, have you considered masking the shape out (no idea how hard this may be given the size) and applying some putty (tamiya basic?) over. Apply it thickly thickly over the mask and before it dries carefully remove the masking tape and you should end up with the positive detail formed by putty. Leave it to dry out overnight and then gently sand it down a bit to your taste.

May be easier than evenly sanding down that fragile looking little part.