moaning dolphin Posted December 15, 2017 Author Share Posted December 15, 2017 2 minutes ago, Tailspin Turtle said: The stall strip was only on the right wing as you've discovered, triangular and about the width of the wheel well. Now THAT is good to know! I found it really hard to decipher. I didn't really like what I did anyway so that gives me the go ahead and get rid and start over. 5 minutes ago, Tailspin Turtle said: PM if you would like to have a copy of my notes Inbound! Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted December 21, 2017 Author Share Posted December 21, 2017 (edited) I have had a tiny bit of chipping away on this over the past couple of days, my first priority was to get the wheel wells painted so that I could get the inserts fitted. Happy with the priming in that area I warmed up the airbrush and some Model Master blue acrylic (The spray booth is in the garage and is now struggling to get into double figures!) Overall the coat inside the well was laid down quite nicely, although the overspray is a bit messy. https://flic.kr/p/HBVz4R I offered up the Esci well inserts but as I thought they were nowhere near the correct shape, its not very obvious from the photo below but it is way out of shape https://flic.kr/p/CVs7TD So in the end I resorted to trusty plastic card, carefully cut out to fit in almost perfectly. I then cut out the wheel cut out. I went to use the kit wheel as a guide but going that large would have left me with next to no side material so the cutouts are slightly too small but to be honest if anyone notices I'll eat my hat! https://flic.kr/p/HBZkGx Going back to the spraying, I couldn't help myself and had a go at giving the hard to reach areas a blue undercoat, just to make sure that when I come to the main spraying I can just coat everything nicely. The radar dome joins didn't raise any problems so when it comes to the painting it should be nice and easy. I want to try and get this moving along faster over the Christmas period because a. I have quite a bit of available time and b. I hear Santa may be bringing along a big new stringy bag from Airfix....... only if I'm a good boy of course, so want to clear my table of this, a Lightning that is nearing completion and a baby walrus stringbag that I want to clear from the shelf of doooooom Cheers now Bob Edited December 21, 2017 by moaning dolphin Dunno why the links arent imbedding, I will retry the links again later. They do work, you just have to manually click on them 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 Coming along quite nicely Bob. Enjoy your holiday and wish for a great new year. Looking forward for the grand finale of your work. Best wishes Ron VanDerwarker 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huvut76g7gbbui7 Posted December 21, 2017 Share Posted December 21, 2017 Looking good. I had a look at the pics on your photostream. The observers in the Skyraider must have been even more cramped than those in the Gannet! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heloman1 Posted December 22, 2017 Share Posted December 22, 2017 Good work so far Bob, I've gone down the (ESCI)Italeri kit route with my build (see elsewhere on BM) as I wasn't prepared to lash out on the Tamiya kit. Rather save my ash for another copper kit... Don't fret over the radome fit, it wasn't any better in the Italeri kit and nice to see you dropped the flaps. I'm still trying to wittle the launsh strop hooks, which are attached to the main u/c legs. Tricky little critters... If you haven't got there yet, you might want to add a piece of plasticard in the radator intake/vent on the spine housing. It looks a bit open on mine! I'm away from home over the holidays, so won't get any paint on it until into the new Year. Colin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted January 2, 2018 Author Share Posted January 2, 2018 On 12/22/2017 at 9:18 AM, heloman1 said: If you haven't got there yet Been there, seen it, done it and moved on.........with a nice big gap in there , oh well I will just have to make sure that no one can view it from a certain angle! Work has plodded along on this over the last week or so (Hope you had a Merry Christmas and Happy New year by the way y'all!) just that the updates haven't been getting loaded up. The temperature has now plummeted to double minus' (and no that doesn't equal a positive!) which means my spray booth in the garage is hovering around freezing. I have had problems the last week or so with the airbrush which may have to be suspended until we warm up a bit. Rattle can spraying is fine because I keep everything in the warm until the last moment and then go into the spray booth. But I have had progress on lots of little tinkering so first up..... The leading edge slats were just fixed on with a couple of plastic rod attachments but the ends of it should be filled in, so attached a lump of plastic to each end that matched the contour of the leading edge. I deliberately left it oversize so I could rub it back once the glue had gone off. Next day they had a bit of scalpel and wet and dry treatment, not great pics but hopefully you get the gist. In the photo above you can also see I have removed the leading edge spoiler above the wheel well, I have also replace the one above the right wheel well with a bit of cut down plastic angle It is a tad overscale but I cant really go any smaller and I do want it to be there. Next up is the main aerial on the spine, whittled up from plastic card and sized roughly from 1:72 scale drawings. Edges were blended in aerodynamically. Whilst in the aerial mood, I had a go at the tail fin aerial. This varies quite a lot during the lifetime of the aircraft but the one I chose is a large thin, popsicle on a stick type affair, I simply slide a piece of thin brass rod into a thin brass tube, now this part I think is a tad underscale, but I prefer its slenderness compared to faffing around with it more. The big question now is ......... how long will those aerials last with my sausage fingers?? The brass one I am confident wont budge unless the brass rod reaches its ductility limit before I finish it, the amount of times I have had to bend it back into position! Next onto the radome and here there are 3 strips that act as a reinforcing for some rod attachments (to dampen out the buffeting I assume). I fitted these from plastic strip and add the rods in later. The front one seems to have some sort of hole type attachment on it. I cant find a good clear shot of it so used abit of artistic license and came up with this! Then some door handles from bent wire That will cover it for now, I have a bit more coming soon regarding the canopy (a moment inbound!) and then its onto the undercarriage, again not as straight forward as I would like. Until then its a good buy from me! Laters! Bob 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 Cripes is it really 5 weeks since I last posted an update??!! Man I need to pull my finger out! Progress has been a bit slow on this of late because I have a couple of Lancasters on the go which seem to be sucking a lot of my time and effort lately! So just to pick up from my little tease on my last post. That Canopy is proving to be a touch troublesome. With it fitted I end up with this. There is quite a large gap between the canopy and airframe on this side only. Having thoroughly looked into it I can only deduce that the turtle back is a little off centre. I did think about removing it and trying to reposition it, but it looks central at the moment and I don't want to have a crooked back, I also thought about filling the gap with plastic strip but again it may detract from the look as the other side would be untouched. In the end I'll have the canopy open and it doesn't look so obvious....all though now ive pointed it out you wont be able to unsee it! So onward and upward, I started to prepare for paint. As this is a dark colour I didn't want the roundel white to be affected by any dark background so very carefully measured out some masks and sprayed away in glorious gloss (ish) blue. the final result wasn't too bad at all. I left the roundel areas in primer and just glossed over them so the decals would sit nicely. Flipping it over you can see the nice bulbous dome! Quite pleased with how it is coming together. And then it was on with the decals..... Ah...... My masks were a tad oversize....bugger! Oh well although I haven't yet taken any further photos but I did VERY carefully touch up around the edges of the decal. I was pleased the white lettering came out crisp, which suggests I probably didn't need to mask off for the decals, although if I didn't sods law suggests it would have look garbage. So in the meantime I have soaked the decals in a bottle of Micro sol to try and get them to sink into the panel lines and to get the blue fin flash to sit over those protuberances. It looks pretty darn good ( by my eyes anyway!). I need to review the kit decals to see if there are any standard markings I need and then give it a good wash and seal the decals in. I shall try and take a couple of photos tonight and post them up so at least you see where I is at. Hopefully I will progress this further next week but those darn Lancies are taking up a lot of time and space! Until then, Fair the well! Bob 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJJunis Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Bob, Very nice! Nearly there on a very extensive conversion you pulled off. Well done! All the Best! Don 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 That really is coming along a treat, lovely work Bob. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted February 9, 2018 Author Share Posted February 9, 2018 (edited) Thanks! As promised a couple more post decal shots of current stage. You can also see a bit of rework that was required on those nose ducts. Not an issue though. And the reason for the sloth like progress! Cheers y'all! Bob Edited February 9, 2018 by moaning dolphin 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Great progress Bob. On both kits by the way. Also a Lancaster fan 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 This is looking highly impressive! Martian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted February 12, 2018 Author Share Posted February 12, 2018 I don't update this for weeks on end then I have 3 posts in almost as many days, I'll be turning into a bus soon! A very busy weekend meant minimal time at the bench, we are upgrading our car so there was test driving, looking at figures, choking and then going back to look at something cheaper! But I did manage to get a couple more decals on her. I checked the Tamiya and Esci sheets but decided not to add any more from them, I think less is more in this case! But I did get out my white stripes and plaster a few on. I think I am using 1/64 stripe which is technically a little thin but it looks more aesthetically pleasing than the thick chunky lines from the Esci kit. So here she is with stripes added on the tail and by the cockpit, I also added some around the canopy to mimic the white sealer used (but didn't take a photo of that one!): Its quite hard to determine what else to add. My photo references suggest the Observer access doors should have yellow dotted lines but other photo sources do not. I don't think there is anything else to add apart from on the radome There should be a white box on the radome which is quite prominent in some photos, so may add that in, and the landing gear doors require some code numbers but I think that will be that as far as decaling is concerned. There are many white stencils but alas I have non so artistic license will be applied. Until next time! Bob 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 (edited) I've decided not to put more stencils on this and have just kept it as it is. I let the decals settle for a few day, given it a good wash (I had used a lot of micro sol to fry and get the decals to settle into the recesses). I then dug out some ProModeller wash (from before Mr Florys coming together with a large model company and still going strong). Now for this I have gone for a lighter shade for more highlights as opposed to a probably more correct dark wash. Let me know what you think? Does it work? Without a flash And with the flash The flash does bring the panel lines out alot but it is refined in reality. I do need to go back over the whole lot and give it a good clean before giving it a final Matt coat. Nearly there now, just need to sort out the wheels! Bob Edited February 18, 2018 by moaning dolphin 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 That is looking very smart indeed! Martian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 So I have progressed onwards! I gave her a good clean up and then it was out with the matt so here she is in here final coat.... You can see that the matt coat has really lightened the blue and looks all right. One thing that did occur that I couldn't see under the gloss coat was the white stripe decals have a bit of silvering and air bubbles underneath them. It kind of ruins the appearance, you can just see it below the cockpit sill on the footstep marking above, but ho hum what can you do after ive sealed them in! I might look at seeing if I can puncture the decal and soak some more Micro Sol in there. Also above you can see the difference of the two blues with the sliding canopy which hasn't yet been matted, quite a change indeed! And now for her underside..... The above were taken with a flash so that does bleach the colour a bit. I have also assembled the ancillary items ready for a bit of detail painting, here a fuzzy shot of them The rears of the main wheels were painted metallic to represent the brake disc and unit. Next is a close up of the main landing gear. You can see the changes to the fairing and the scallop where the catapult hook is situated. The hooks are fitted but blend in nicely so I need a bit of a wash and highlight to make them more obvious. I got them from an old Airfix Seafire, They are a tad undersize but will do. Like I said Ive got a bit of detail painting to do and then I will fit everything in. Final thing to do is the prop. I was sure I had already painted that when I did my Lancaster props but as you can see its a bit blank, so once the ancillary stuff and the prop is done I reckon this will be transferred to the shelf of hope and joy!...........Oh and the seat, mustn't forget the seat! Cheers now Bob 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 Just did a catch up on this build and what an interesting subject and cracking job as well. I have always been drawn to the more characterful naval aircraft such as the AEW1, the Gannet and Wyvern none of them in the slightest bit 'beautiful' but all fascinating solutions to the requirements. Great stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 A stylish undertaking Bob. This Big Blue Flying Goolie simply oozes quality in construction and colouring. Well done indeed sir! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted February 22, 2018 Share Posted February 22, 2018 Lovely work Bob, really like the light colour used to accentuate the panel lines. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moaning dolphin Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 Thanks for the encouragement folks, we are nearly there in this project. I did a little bit more work over the weekend, first up was to finish off the prop, which has come out all shiny and new like! I have painted the hub blue but it turned out almost violet blue so may tone that down a bit, I have seen some pictures with a light blue hub. I also added a bit of brake wire to the landing gear before attaching that and also fitted the bubble windows for the Observers to observe out of (when they haven't got their curtains closed!). In the cockpit I readied the seat and hunted for a suitable harness from my spare etch stock. There wasn't much available and I opted for a harness from a Hurricane. I think this may be too old looking for this aircraft, I have fitted it but I'm not too sure, what do you guys think? Out of place? I also added a foil curtain behind the pilots head and opened it up to show the electronic boxes behind, quite pleased with this effect but doesn't show too well in the pictures, the canopy is just loosely fitted in the top photo. The last thing to add was the pylons for the drop tank. These are from the Esci kit as the Tamiya ones aren't the right shape, I will also use the Esci drop tanks. There is no positive engagement for the tanks to fit onto the pylons so they would be literally just hanging there. Having looked closer at the tanks there is a lot more to them than just simple tanks so back to the drawing board and I will modify them quite a bit. So here is an update on where we are sitting now..... Apart from the tanks, all that is left is a little bit of tweaking here and there and a bit of weathering although I shall try and have it in a clean fresh condition, so hopefully the next update will be a finito post and then I can put here out on the display shelf with Mojo quite restored! Thanks for looking in Bob 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
f111guru Posted February 28, 2018 Share Posted February 28, 2018 (edited) Bob, Excellent build. Thanks for the work in progress, great information put out. Ron VanDerwarker Edited March 1, 2018 by f111guru 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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