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Airfix 100 Years Of Naval Aviation Collection


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Hi All

 

Just back from a week camping in The Lakes :rain:, now nice and dry again back in The Lab!

 

Had a go at spotting those red spots

IMG_20170812_172615.jpg

 

Once I was satisfied they were in the middle, I rolled over them with a cotton bud to get the excess water out and make sure they were central.

 

Then I carefully brushed on some Micro Sol, at which point they casually lifted and drifted to one side.

 

Rinse and repeat.

 

Sometimes they look alright, and sometimes they follow me round the room... :frantic:

 

Anyhoo, those on the tail sections have come round now they've been trimmed and touched up.

 

On 8/8/2017 at 9:03 PM, TonyTiger66 said:

You're using Humbrol acrylics with an airbrush  :o ?

 

Is this true?

 

If so, you're an alchemist. A genius :smartass:.

Thanks Tony, yes I'm ploughing on spraying with the included Little Paint Snots, but I'm neither an alchemist nor a genius!

 

Pig headed, obstinate, naive, fool hardy, I'm sure there are more :clown:

 

Taking the plunge with an airbrush and compressor setup, along with the myriad of paints available, seemed a bit of a leap into the unknown, so I'm putting it off as long as I can by making all my mistakes getting acquainted with the whole shebang with as little outlay as practical.

 

Once I'm comfortable that I've got the hang of the basics, then I'll step up the gear ladder.

 

On 8/8/2017 at 9:03 PM, TonyTiger66 said:

Please would it be possible to know your pressure setting, needle size, thinner and ratio etc?

Sorry, I don't know the pressure, I'm using the bargain basement special for the hard of thinking :dunce:

IMG_20170812_173905.jpg

Three lights on and from a distance of about a foot for primer and Pledge coats, one light on and a bit closer (4 inches/ish) for smaller sections.

 

I'm diluting the paint about 50/50 with water using the 0.3mm needle with a 0.5mm nozzle.

 

Changing from the supplied 0.3mm nozzle to a 0.5 one was a revelation!

 

However, the 0.5mm needle had a more abrupt taper, and I found the paint flow was either on or off. Putting the 0.3mm needle back in gave me more control.

 

I've just started using Flow Improver, and this has meant the mix has come down to about 70% paint with 30% water and a drop of improver.

 

The more observant amongst you may have noticed that the needle extends quite a way beyond the nozzle, and it's bent.

 

I'm using it without the guard, as it was easier to keep from clogging up, but I dropped it :doh:

 

Didn't affect the results.

 

It's a shame that this Humbrol paint has such a textured finish when sprayed. I can probably get away with it for the fabric coverings of the two biplanes in this collection, but for the other three it's going to look a bit naff, especially if I put as much effort into the build as this one.

 

 

And so onto this evening's question.

 

Windscreen?

 

YooniqImages_216346790.jpg

 

Is it the regular Pup one

img_3162.jpg

 

A Whitehead built one

Whitehead%20built%20Sopwith%20Pup%20A621

 

Or even one of these from a triplane?

Sop3pit.jpg

 

 

 

Stamped and addressed comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Certainly not the standard one as that was fitted to the rear of the Vickers, which wasn't carried on this machine. The "Whitehead" one is the most likely, although again, all machines fitted with the Vickers had the screen fitted to that. The one in the pic is unarmed, or has the same Lewis setup as the machine Dunning flew, so I'd go with that.

 

Ian

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Hi All

 

Time to put my mono filament where my holes are!

IMG_20170813_150858.jpg

 

It works out at a tad over 5mm at scale, but as it's at the limit of what I can see / feel / manipulate, it'll have to do.

 

A bunch of 20cm lengths are drawn under the nib of that metallic marker

IMG_20170813_153352.jpg

 

And with a touch of CA gel, placed on the lower surface of the upper wing

IMG_20170813_154535.jpg

 

Four down, not too crazy

IMG_20170813_164243.jpg

 

Aand there we go :hypnotised:

 

I hope all this works...

 

Anyhoo, got an approximation of that windscreen in

IMG_20170813_220009.jpg

 

To fabricate this specific part, I could spin a tale of vac forming, or plunge molding, or or milling from a block of perspex, but in reality I just cut a bit out of the bottom of a fizzy water bottle.

 

I also started on the under carriage by removing the Pinocchio from the wheels

IMG_20170812_141728.jpg

 

And cobbling them onto a bit of bent wire. I'm not going to use the kit axle as it's too thick.

 

Let's see how that turns out later...

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Well done on the rigging Steve :thumbsup2: 

The monofilament really looks the part.

 

I will now be looking at fizzy pop bottles in a new way ;).

 

Could I ask; what thickness of CA do you use to glue the monofilament in the hole? Do you apply it with a special tool?

 

It's really neat. When I've tried this in the past I've managed to get blobs of glue coming out of the hole onto the wing; not good when it's painted :sad:.

 

Looking forward to the next instalment 

TonyT

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Hi All

 

On 8/14/2017 at 9:31 AM, TonyTiger66 said:

Could I ask; what thickness of CA do you use to glue the monofilament in the hole? Do you apply it with a special tool?

Hi Tony, I just use the "Loctite Super Glue Power Flex" stuff, comes in a small black bottle with silver squeezable sides.

No special tool other than a couple of pins. One pin to take a tiny amount from the tip of the bottle (as it's standing up on the desk, SLOWLY squeezing the sides till it just peeks out!), then the other pin transfers some of it to the hole.

Needs hardly any, then when it's dry, dab over the connection with some of the colour. As it's on the underside, it shouldn't matter too much if a little bit gets away :snail:

 

Think I may have painted myself into a corner here. I needed the top wing on to construct the Lewis tripod, but now it's there it's going to be tricky getting it through the rigging. But I needed the rigging on before I put the top wing on. But I needed the top wing on to get the tripod right. And so it goes.

 

 

Anyhoo, bit the bullet and got the upper wing on by glueing the central supports so it looked square, then threading all the wires through their respective lower holes to make sure none of them were knotted, then glued the outer supports.

 

IMG_20170815_184900.jpg

 

Here they are just loosely pulled through. That hole in the front engine bulkhead came in handy after all!

 

A little bit of glue did get awry on the forward port side, but I'm hoping to disguise that :whistle:

 

The cockpit also came in handy for a couple

IMG_20170815_181947.jpg

 

Going to let it set for a while before I glue the wires taut, then a touch of CA on the underside of where each wire passes through and a dab of paint on the topside, should be close enough?

 

I'm hoping to do the control cables in the same way, but use a dark grey marker to distinguish them.

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Hi All

 

IMG_20170816_164718.jpg

 

:penguin:

 

 

I now have a better idea of how much CA to put on the connection so as to minimise the lump.

 

Not saying that I'll apply said knowledge, just that I am aware of it. The underside will remain mysterious for as long as I can get away with it.

 

 

Now then, how to build the tripod in front of the cockpit and put the Lewis on it, without dislodging any of those wires :unsure:...

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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It shouldn't be too awkward to slip it in from the cockpit side as there are no rigging wires from side to side between the rear  struts. (He says, knowing just how small the space is....)

 

Ian

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Looking good

 

Don't know if anyone has suggested it already but mixing a little gloss varnish with those paints might help. As long as the acrylic latexes in the paint and varnish are compatible with each other (it depends how the emulsions are stabilised so if the surfactants don't like each other it might gel or just fall out of suspension but if you're in luck they'll mix happily) then it might flow out a bit better/have lower pigment volume concentration. You can then matt it afterwards

Edited by LostCosmonauts
colloidal pedantry
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Hi All

 

Just passing through, but managed to bend a couple of bits of wire into a tripod shape for the Lewis

DSCF5412.jpg

 

I've left the front leg long to cut back once I can get the angle.

On first fitting, it looks like my home grown gun may be a tad large, so may be on the search for a replacement.

 

While that is solidifying, I had a go at the landing gear.

 

I first tried to assemble it all and attach it as one, but it was having none of it, so I used the lower cross brace thingie to get the spacing and just glued them in individually.

DSCF5415.jpg

 

I'll let that settle and come back to it all a little while later.

 

It's all getting a little delicate in there, and that's only the half of it!

 

How do you guys hold these things and not keep snapping things off??

 

 

Comments, suggestions and slender fingers welcome.

 

 

Cheers

Steve

 

 

 

Edited by ProfSparks
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1 hour ago, ProfSparks said:

How do you guys hold these things and not keep snapping things off??

 

 

Comments, suggestions and slender fingers welcome.

 

 

 

Very, very, carefully!

 

Ian

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Hi All

 

On 8/24/2017 at 11:22 PM, limeypilot said:

Very, very, carefully!

 

Ian

:boom:

 

Thanks Ian, more of that later...

 

 

So, having set the legs akimbo, time to put on it's boots

DSCF5416.jpg

 

not too lop sided either!

DSCF5417.jpg

 

out with some string

DSCF5418.jpg

 

That's a bit of luck, seems to be almost central.

 

 

Now to the part I must admit I've been dreading for some time

DSCF5419.jpg

 

You will notice that's a different tripod, it's the third.

 

First one was all going well, but was just a little too long on one leg.

 

You know when you've a chair that wobbles, and you cut off a tiny bit from one of the legs, but it still wobbles a bit, so you cut off a tiny bit from one of the other legs, and the process repeats until you've turned it into a foot stool?

 

I couldn't fit the Lewis to the foot stool.

 

The second was the right shape and length and everything, but slipped down inside the cockpit. It rattled for a bit while I tried to get it out, but has since been silent.

I hope it's happy in there.

 

So here we are, Jaws music playing in my head, steely eyed like a Western gunfighter, and in it slots

DSCF5421.jpg

 

DSCF5420.jpg

 

DSCF5423.jpg

 

:elephant:

 

It was so nice as a practice, that I left it there and dropped the tiniest bead of CA on the front of the front leg.

I painted it black so it looks like a mounting foot (through the slot in the upper wing, just like painting your hall from through the letterbox), and I hope that'll be enough to keep it located.

 

I'm keeping the Lewis off until the last moment, as I know I'll just smash it off later.

 

I must be half way by now, only the engine and tail section to install and rig.

 

No pressure.

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

Edited by ProfSparks
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Hi All

 

On the home straight now!

 

Tail feathers on and rigged

DSCF5426.jpg

 

DSCF5428.jpg

 

Crossed cables (for lifting?)

DSCF5431.jpg

 

There are some loops of what look like rope hanging from the lower wing and fuselage, these were made from short lengths of thread and stuck on with CA gel.

DSCF5432.jpg

I couldn't get the glue any smaller, and it still looks huge this close up :(

 

Anyhoo, got the Lewis in!

DSCF5434.jpg

 

That looks huge too, but will have to do in lieu of a decent scale item.

 

But there again, it was my first scratch build, and so it deserves standing out :P

 

Finally, the last three parts

DSCF5435.jpg

 

And suddenly it's as good as finished!

DSCF5436.jpg

 

DSCF5439.jpg

 

DSCF5438.jpg

 

DSCF5437.jpg

 

DSCF5443.jpg

 

Just a bit of tidying up to do, then I'll get it across to RFI.

 

Thanks for all your help and support, a most enjoyable little project, even though it seems like I've spent 100 years building it!

 

 

Comments and suggestions welcome

 

Cheers

Steve

 

ps RFI here http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235026194-airfix-172-sopwith-pup-100-years-1/

 

Edited by ProfSparks
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