CliffB Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Fired with enthusiasm for my first GB of 2018, I will be building this. The kit dates from 1998 and is nicely moulded with fine recessed panel lines. I've built a couple of similar vintage SH kits, so I'm not expecting any nasty shocks. There are a few resin parts for the engines and cockpit interior (I particularly like the IP with integral rudder pedals), plus a vac-form canopy. The weak part of the kit is that the cabin windows are provided as individual panes - I predict tears before bedtime. The kit's decal options are inspired: there's a SCW machine (as per the box art), one from the Romanian AF and finally the NMF aircraft in which Amelia Earhart disappeared in 1937. Despite these great choices, I'll will be building mine as YU-SAV, to add to my collection of Aeroput (a Yugoslav inter-war airline) aircraft. I'll be using these Lift Here! decals. Their artwork shows the aircraft pressed into military service, but strip away the camo and there's a sexy polished aluminium beauty waiting to be seen Cheers Cliff 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Looking forward to this I do enjoy the classic Lockheed’s. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted January 14, 2018 Share Posted January 14, 2018 Nice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted January 15, 2018 Share Posted January 15, 2018 Good one Cliff,nice to see something a bit different too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 That certainly does look like a very nice kit! Kind regards, Stix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Lovely looking Aircraft. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Masters Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 That'll be a pretty one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted January 20, 2018 Author Share Posted January 20, 2018 Thanks guys for your interest and support . Despite having four other builds that I want to complete by the end of the month, I really wanted to make a start on the Electra on this first day of the GB. So here's where I've got to in the two hours since lunch.... I needed to do a fair amount of fettling to get a good fit, but as the parts are fundamentally the right shape this was no big deal. Interestingly, the cranked rear bulkead is moulded as a single flat piece with the instruction to bend it to shape (the first time, I think, that I've had to fold a plastic part). Fortunately, grooves are moulded into the rear face to make folding easier. Apart from what you can see, the kit provides no other detail for the passenger cabin, so I'll be looking to my spares box to provide some seats (10 required, I think). Having got this out of my system, I'm putting the Electra back in the cupboard now for a couple of weeks so I'll see you all again in February. Cheers Cliff 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 The weakest part of my example was that the canopy has yellowed. Did you find a replacement from somewhere or are you just lucky? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted January 20, 2018 Author Share Posted January 20, 2018 1 hour ago, Graham Boak said: The weakest part of my example was that the canopy has yellowed. Did you find a replacement from somewhere or are you just lucky? Hi Graham. My canopy had yellowed too, so a few months ago I emailed Special Hobby and they kindly sent me two replacements FOC. First class customer service Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted January 20, 2018 Share Posted January 20, 2018 Excellent. Are you willing to sell one of them? After you're happy with the fit of the first, of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted January 20, 2018 Author Share Posted January 20, 2018 You're welcome to have it with my compliments Graham. Fingers crossed for the first one then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prenton Posted January 21, 2018 Share Posted January 21, 2018 Looking forward to following this one - I have two of the kits in the stash. It's not a shake and bake, though, according to what I've seen on the 'net. Not only the canopy fitting, but apparently the rear assemblage. Philip 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 On 21/01/2018 at 12:35 PM, Prenton said: Looking forward to following this one - I have two of the kits in the stash. It's not a shake and bake, though, according to what I've seen on the 'net. Not only the canopy fitting, but apparently the rear assemblage. Philip Thanks for the warning Philip - forewarned is forearmed etc..... With the 'time sensitive' models in my back-log now completed, I feel free to add another one to the queue - so I'm picking up this Electra again! I thought I should get the worst over with first and tackle the vac-formed canopy. Guess what? It fits almost perfectly It's still going to need some care to get a seamless line through to the top of the fuselage, but things could have been much, much worse. Next up I'm going to look at the injection moulded cabin windows. Cheers Cliff 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandboof Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Another fine addition to your Yugoslav collection Will be watching Martin H 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 On 09/02/2018 at 7:45 AM, Grandboof said: Another fine addition to your Yugoslav collection Will be watching Martin H Thanks Martin and I'm glad that you like the Yugoslav subjects - there are plenty more in my stash! Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 After reading of your woes with the yellowed canopy, I thought I should dig mine out & see if its canopy was OK, yes being the answer, happily. I was even more surprised to see the instructions showed a whole kit of passenger seats & the little baggy of resin bits was bulging with them. I'm wondering if yours (& Grahams) kit was an early one? Scalemates only lists the one year for this kit. In any case, I'll be watching this, I aim to eventually build mine in pre WW2 Union Airways colours as operated around New Zealand. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted February 10, 2018 Author Share Posted February 10, 2018 2 hours ago, stevehnz said: After reading of your woes with the yellowed canopy, I thought I should dig mine out & see if its canopy was OK, yes being the answer, happily. I was even more surprised to see the instructions showed a whole kit of passenger seats & the little baggy of resin bits was bulging with them. I'm wondering if yours (& Grahams) kit was an early one? Scalemates only lists the one year for this kit. In any case, I'll be watching this, I aim to eventually build mine in pre WW2 Union Airways colours as operated around New Zealand. Steve. Hi Steve. Yes, mine was one of the early ones - I bought it new when it was first released. There's no mention of passenger seats in my instructions . One of the hazards I guess, of being an 'early adopter' (sorry, I thought I'd left the management speak behind when I retired!). I'm glad to hear though that you have some. I also have a Special Hobby Lockheed 12 in my stash which is similarly lacking (despite having seat supports moulded into the cabin floor). Undaunted though, I've found some seats in my spares - conveniently painted a lovely shade a blue. I'd obviously used them on a previous model - I'm guessing an MPM DC-2 which came to a sticky end. I had to chop the tops of a few of them to make them fit. Rather crudely done, but all looks fine when the fuselage is closed up. The cabin windows turned out just fine too. Each one was a beautiful push fit. I've run some liquid poly into the join, but to be honest friction would probably have sufficed on its own. In the photo, you can see what appears to be some frosting around the perimeter of each window. This is within the moulding itself (not my clumsy use use of solvent ), and is all but invisible in real life. Overall, I'm really pleased with how the cabin windows turned out. Next up, I'll be dealing with the resin pieces which, as I've said before, are quite nice for standard kit parts. Cheers Cliff 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted February 11, 2018 Author Share Posted February 11, 2018 Today's progress... No horrors, although the tailplane looks a bit nose-down to me (nothing as bad as a Revell Junkers F.13 though - if you've ever built one!). Just a smear of filler required to level off some of the seams. And here's a close-up of the cockpit. I'm looking forward now to getting those twin fins on Cheers Cliff 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 Great progress Cliff, looks fabulous. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebra Posted February 11, 2018 Share Posted February 11, 2018 Nice work Cliff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted February 17, 2018 Author Share Posted February 17, 2018 Thank you for your kind words chaps The L10 is looking a lot more complete now: In addition to the obvious bits, I've also added a flange at the top of the cockpit. The roof area is not glazed, so I can use a nice blob of epoxy adhesive to securely fix the vacform canopy at this point. Once that's well set, I'll seal around the remaining edges using thinned Kristal Klear. I've also added a couple of landing lights to the nose. These are very prominent on the original, but missing on the kit. I haven't yet decided how to finish them off (possibly I should have thought about this before taking drill to plastic !). Cheers Cliff 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted February 17, 2018 Share Posted February 17, 2018 Very nice tidy build Cliff and the kit does justice to a very attractive aircraft. great stuff. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted February 18, 2018 Author Share Posted February 18, 2018 14 hours ago, MarkSH said: Very nice tidy build Cliff and the kit does justice to a very attractive aircraft. great stuff. Thanks Mark. You're right about the Electra being an attractive aircraft and for me that helps to maintain my interest. The last Aeroput aircraft that I built was a Caudron Goeland - which IMHO was the complete opposite! It's good to have it in the collection, but I couldn't get enthusiastic about the build. Cheers Cliff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grey Beema Posted February 18, 2018 Share Posted February 18, 2018 Nice model of a nice aeroplane.. For your nose mounted landing light could you drill into the nose, add a shaft of clear sprue turned down to fit (mount in a drill chuck ant turn it with a file against it) then trim to length, sand and polish? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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