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Hurricane and Swordfish - Airfix 1/72 - FINISHED


Vadim

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Unfortunately, no much progress over the weekend...

I faced two major problems: 

1 - one of the cockpit frames was significantly bent. I tried to correct it with the boiling water, but the result is not very convincing

2 - there is one photoetched part (top cockpit frame - see photo in the previous post) which is pre-painted in quite dark green. Spent lot of time trying to find the most appropriate colour for the rest of the cockpit... and again not satisfied with the result.

Will check once again in the daylight. (The colour on the picture is much lighter than in reality)

20170212_232946_zpsxzdlwrm9.jpg

Edited by Vadim
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  • 3 weeks later...

I thought it will be no-stress-build...:fraidnot: well... As I wrote before, some of the cockpit details were deformed and bent and do not fit well... :deadhorse:

But finally it seems I managed to finish this cockpit, apart a few small things. And soon both halves of fuselage will be connected :yahoo:

 

Here are some pictures:

 

20170304_163801_zpsg6zuuytj.jpg

 

20170304_232020_zpsgkphro52.jpg

 

20170304_231947_zpsp4ugq6br.jpg

 

20170304_231926_zpsfjbpkrhk.jpg

 

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Some of the parts fit ideally with a 'click' sound :-) love it!

Now, those small windows are masked. Need to mask cockpit and do some sanding. It seems no filler is required.

20170307_164122_zpsgxfdg4dl.jpg

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Right... The time has come to learn of how this bird was weathered, how stains patterns looked like, where paint was chipping etc.

Here are a few excellent examples:

 

6ae439f42f3ef6399a4ff8bcc35d79da_zpsgmum

 

345345_zpsoao8voxg.jpg

 

swordfsh_zps1thfzu7x.jpg

 

 

This one is my favorite! It shows a piece of canvas replaced from another aircraft with different color scheme: 

 

 

Swordfish-gunner_zpsk688ib5i.jpg

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Agrhhh!.. I hate these bent parts!.. Look at this:

20170308_223846_zpscgffe1av.jpg

 

20170308_223938_zps27vb4wh2.jpg

 

May be it was just my box which included all the possible defects...

Anyway, finally I glued these struts after bending them in an oposite directions with tweezers:

 

20170308_233330_zpsldf2e6fv.jpg

 

I left it and started to assemble the wing. No problems so far...

 

20170308_233414_zpsgsdhtdag.jpg

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It's a shame about the lack of quality control on these kits. My new Swordfish (as yet unbuilt) had similar issues. Hopefully moving Airfix production back to the UK will improve matters. It may be a bit of a frustrating slog for you but the build looks really good!

 

Regards,

Adrian

Edited by AdrianMF
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Now the upper wing is assembled. The fit is perfect! I also started to install lugs for rigging. I decided to go for a rigging method used by Tom Grigat in his famous step motion model building videos. 

 

20170310_224052_zpsqnodjh89.jpg

 

20170310_224142_zpsc26fzgwb.jpg

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And just as I was wondering how to thread the rigging line through a top and bottom half of a wing... I realise I've only rigged planes with one-piece wings so the thread is easy to push straight through. Those rings must be tiny!

 

Regards,

Adrian 

 

 

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I just caught up with this Vadim. It was 'Stress relief' that caught my eye (and Hurricane, and Sworfish) :).

 

A little late, but the Hurricane is very nice. I didn't know they had ever worn American stars. Lovely weathering.

 

As for the Swordfish: :wow: !

Those lugs :o! Is it extremely fine wire that you are wrapping round a pin? Guitar string maybe? It must be so very fine.

 

The patience to do 40; well done.

 

I'm looking forward to the rest of this, especially the rigging.

 

All best regards

TonyT

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I too like that rigging method Yadim and your models are looking really good.

Thanks for the tip - I found Tom Grigat's YouTube video tutorials very helpful, including details of the materials he uses. Bookmarked!

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Thank you all for your kind comments!

(  @TonyTiger66, @CedB, @The Spadgent, @Jaffajake, @AdrianMF, @limeypilot)

 

I have never done any biplane before and never did rigging as well. So I've decided to do it using this method as it looks really nice (hope I can finish it as it should be)

The material I used for those lugs is a beading wire I picked once at Hobby Craft.

Also Swordfish rigging (according to the various walkaround pictures) does not look made of a one material. Some rigging lines look wider, and some are narrower. Probably those are made with different materials. I was thinking to make some of them using the albion alloys tubes/rods (0.4mm) and then some with rigging line from AMMO (which is 0.2 mm). But finally I probably will do all of them with 0.2 mm. Otherwise I have to purchase another pack of albion alloys... 

Here is a picture of beading wire I use (34 Gauge - 0.16 mm):

 

20170313_080407_zpsf5uxvjic.jpg

 

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