Morko Morane, 1/48th MPM

[Troy Smith]

Hi.

my first for Britmodler. (and i did a couple of unfinshed builds on the Airfix Group build on Hyperscale last year...before that? about 1982 was my last time of serious plastic abuse...., weird thing is now I just know more, and have better equipment and materials, though I hvae not practiced in all that time, wellnot on model kits and much better research access...but worse eyesight. And now use acrylic. On my windows too! DIY with oil based paints has really put me off the smell of enamel, well more the solvents)

Picked this up a few weeks ago in LSA in Hove, as it was one of those oddities I fancied. Then this GB turns up. I done a little work on this after reading Jon Kubinac-Tabinor's build of the AZ MS 406 on here.

http://www.britmodeler.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6043

I took Jon's lead and modified the rear fuselage.

I'd also slimmed down the resing, not as far as Jon did (how do you do that without it falling apart?) figuring trimming the seat back bulkhead was easier.

That was about what i'd done when the GB was announced. Easy enough to leave till it started.

also found this

http://www.internetmodeler.com/2000/april/aviation/morko.htm

the kits is based on the Classic Airframe MS 406.

http://www.internetmodeler.com/1999/june/f...rames_ms406.htm

The Az Jon built is the CA kit from what I can see with some added photoetch.

Most reviews say the cockpit does not fit. Yep. It doesn't. Nothing that some modelling skills and paitience wont' fix. The one thing that hs really annoyed me though is the instructions. Vague as to placement of interior detail to be polite about it. I got a scan of the CA instructions that are a little better in some places. There are a couple of itmes which are really "where?" in the placement.

A seat harness diagram would help, turn out it's some overly complicated type, Aviorex 32.

Hyperscale turned up answers to questions I didn't know I even wanted answer's too. Here's a summary.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/mess...+of+these+posts

nice strong box...did get me a discount though.

basic layouyt. note cuts in fuselage, seat in background.

decals. jon pointed out in the Gary's 109 G-6 that the hakristi backgrounds should be RLM 65. the blob of paint is Taimya XF-23. Makes me wonder about the undersurace markings ahving a background though....

this is a preserved harness from a Morko Morane, or at least a Finnish Morane.

...great.

some after quite some time with the metal seal from a Tuaca bottle, wire and superglue, and some guess work..... In the link above there is a model of the harness, the one in the pic above does not make sense, but the 5 strap one does...I think. Check the summary link above for the model version i used as a template.

There were indications for fixing points i the resin which I drilled out. I made the shoulder straps too long I think... I did that first as if it worked well then the rest should be easy...(famous last words)

panited as suggested, canvas straps, leather patches, as was the seat base.

Interior is RAF Medium Sea Grey, which is a this is Xtracrylix, which is glossy and and a sod to brush. realy didn't want to stick, and i had washed the kit as well. And looks too dark for scale especially after a dark wash..

MSG matches Finnish interior grey, and as as this has been re-engined it would hvae been overhauled at Tampere and repainted. Though i hvae read that the original Finnish Moranes were light grey inside anyway.

The weird bar above the trim wheel on the starbord cockpit wall is one of the "where" bits. it's look ok here but looks very odd from above.

my eyesight is going, and I now have a better camera, which shows you that two of the faces are decals. i could not see the difference with the naked eye, but the camera can.... though looking at the posting it looks better here...

all going well. Except, not trimmed enough. I has of course tacked it with superglue, fortunately only tacked, and on paint as well, so was able to pull apart and scrape down insdies and trim, test fit and trim. One really bad bit if design is the that it's not a cockpit tub, which would really help. THis layout needs lots of careful alignment to be done.... Note also the plasticard alignment tags and the lip at the rear wing joint. This one really does need careful planning. The good things is it seems to all be fitting OK now. The seat looks overflowing but then there is a lot of harness.

right, it's far too late at night. please point out any glaring mistakes, preferably before it's all glued up... Are the pics too big?

thanks

T

Edited March 29, 2010 by Troy Smith

[AnonymousFO98]

Nice work Troy

off to a great start

pics are okay for me but is best to reduce to 800x600 pxls max

[Antoine]

Nice start!

You don't see a Mörkö at every street corner.

[Iain Ogilvie]

Troy - that's looking great!

Iain

[Troy Smith]

edited subtitle... Perkele is a very common Finnish curse,

http://www.homsher.com/languages/finnish/Finnish.html

This little beast has been a real test. I'm sure i took more photos...but maybe not. A short vidoe would have been more amusing, suffice to say this has been a real test of paitience, sanity, will to live etc....

i did add dinky little straps to the rudder pedals, which are almots impossible to see....

lining everything up meant I had to take the resin sides off, more trimming, scraping down insides of fuselage, juggling the various bulkheads and panels.

paskan marjat!

eventually... and I do mean eventualy, fuselage halves were glued. I also modified the propshaft so I could mount on brass tube. Note various alignment tags and reinforcers... also slots in lower wing and plastic card added....

test fit of seat. Looks pretty. Ahhh.

I then went for fitting the upper wings to fuselage to get less of a step.

I has to pack out the fuselage wing root with, well, 2 layes of 10 thou, as one ewasn’t enough, as the wings were thicker…. With 10 thou as a joiner plate.

some Morko’s have wing intakes, some don’t it seems. I have a compromise, ones that are too small… the white round the wheel wells is cheap pound shop tippex, as is the super, 10 tubes for a quid... bargain. Note, tippex thinner , or was, and it still smells the same, tri-chloro ethane, so i assume, now for those of you paying attention, tri-chloro ethane is also super glue accelerant.... superglue on wet tippex sets really fast. Must see if you can still buy tippex thinner.

after getting everything to line up neatly, including a pig of a join in the middle of the underside fabric, and having to pull it apart as I had precut the aeilerons, and the wing didn’t want to line up…..finally everything pretty much lines up and no huge gaps. Only a little filler. Sadly this pic seems to have gone astray. I hallucinated that I had taken from releif….

Now, Jon adjusted the rear fuselage, I thought I had better check new tailpane with, so printed out some plans. …ah, yes, that’s why the tail is too thick. It’s too short. About 4mm. But just in front of the fin, which throws everything off.

Out with the razor saw, quick nick of thumb. (my first paintful cut)

And, lots of jiggling, slimming donw the fin more, platic card and eventaully milliput, more carving, and sanding,and swearing….trying not to destroy the fabric detail. In the end I added some very fine strached sprue, tried 5 thou card, to add the tailplanes metal….in the end I went for more Tuaca bottle foil. I should take a pic over the phto i used as refereence.

and with some primer, brushed on quite think to try to even out the new panels.. the steps are not that prominent.

this also afftected the tailplanes, here is a before(with my added rods, otherwise it’s just a butt joint) and now cut down, note new elevator shape. The plastic has since been replaced with cut down steel moulding pins, which are same aas the plastic rod and a lot stronger. Note previoulsy i had trimmed off the elevators, note the new hinging points.

I really cannot believe how much work this has taken...and I did not do more pics. It's a new to me camera so maybe they got lost....

right. It's fianlly stopped raining so I'm off out. Will recheck for spelling later.

do tell me any bits i missed, please..

T

Edited March 29, 2010 by Troy Smith

[AnonymousFO98]

So it's a nice forward shake and bake then Troy?

some nice work going on there

I like the idea of the foil at the fin

Tried to improve the Revell Hurri around that area with Tamiya Surface primer, but needs more work.

Your method looks neater.

[AnonymousDFB1]

Looking good, love the harness

[Heraldcoupe]

this is a preserved harness from a Morko Morane, or at least a Finnish Morane.

Troy, is that a Finnish made harness, or does it originate from the original Morane, as supplied to the Finns? It's the kind of issue I'm trying to resolve for my Blenheim build,

Cheers,

Bill.

[Troy Smith]

Troy, is that a Finnish made harness, or does it originate from the original Morane, as supplied to the Finns? It's the kind of issue I'm trying to resolve for my Blenheim build,

Cheers,

Bill.

Hi Bill

The harness I beleive is the French made one fitted to the Morane (and the D520), the Aviorex 32 ,

this image came from kind folks at Hyperscale. I would think the Finns used whatever was supplied with the Blenhiem, and it would only be replaced if it broke.

They were always short of equipment it seems, and the Blenhiem i assume used a sutton harness? They had quite a few British made planes so I presume replacemenst were available?

As you posted there is a MkIV and the nose of a MkI at the museum at Tikkakoski.

But if you want facts rather than my supposition, I suggest emailing them as to what is fitted, they have been very helpful when I have asked questions.

In fact i have just emailed my thanks to their research assitant who supplied me with some information about the VL Humu. I have also told them about this group build, which I hope will be of interest to them.

HTH

T

Edited May 24, 2010 by Troy Smith

[Heraldcoupe]

But if you want facts and my supposition, I suggest emailing them as to what is fitted, they have been very helpful when I have asked questions.

That's a good call, I'll mail them. The Blenheim I'm building is a later Finnish licence built example, with plenty of notable differences to the British types. Their MkIV is also Finnish built, but lacks it's belts in the cockpit photos I've seen. Not to say they've not been kept elsewhere though,

Cheers,

Bill.

[Troy Smith]

Brief update.

The morko has been sitting about for a couple of weeks while i try to get it to a point where I can attempt to airbrush it. (using the old Humbrol Studio One Airbrush. Which might mean something if your in 40 odd)

But, I noticed that there is enough for a brief update, after i finally worked out that photobucket had added a new uploader...grrrr..

Well, this was the wing underside, I slit the underside fabric in the centre, and where it joined to the wing roots, with 10 thou locator inside the fuselage. The fabric was also scored insdie to try to get it to align with the rear fuselage. I got a much better fit and now it's looks pretty good. Pic next time. This is before had cut off the tail and extended it, and should have come in the post before.

with the wings, I had never used the add upperwing first, and it worked very well, did not have much filling to do, except at the trailing edge.... this is just the upperwing halves, the lower gave a base for filler.

Here with the trailing edges filled, i used milliput. Also with this is with tailpanes added, note the added hinges, and after I added 4 mm just in front of fin. Compare to first pic regarding fuselage thickness. the white stuff is generic tippex.

and, the vac canopy, having been sectioned, and here clued on with fast Grab PVA. I masked it first, and brushed on the grey.

The canopy was a lot of fun, I packed it with blu-tack, and fitted a new blade and held my breath....did i say the kit only had the one vac canopy?

and was going to used painted decal strips, but the bit of 30 year old airfix decals wasn't sticking, the painted tape did not allow for the window curves and after I had futured the separate bits and they had dried, I managed to knock the pot over, and and the windscreen "dissapeared" on the kitchen floor...i finally got it out of the toaster i found and brought home and never tested which was on the floor...(don't ask.)..after 15 mins on my kness with a torch and then shaking this bloody toaster it finally fell out. . After that gluing them on was a breeze, and the glue filled in little gaps neatly.

There is a roll over frame i forgot to take a pic of, one bit of which dropped inside the fuelage and wedged somwher never to be seen again, so was replaced with a bit of plastic rod.

next stage is a grey primer, and then the yellow eastern front bands, which are sketched with pencil. As you can see from the date stamps the pics are out of order, and i have been working on a couple of other Finnish projects.

the grey primer almost went on a week back but the airbrush blocked as i had not thinned it enough and then it got shelved until I had a couple of hours to concentrate on it. Also the underfuselage radiator, with xtracrylic RLM65, which look a bit too dark to me.

I am pusssyfooting around on this but I have been putting into practice many of the things I have been reading about on the interweb sites...

and this, the most recent pic, with added elevators, the majority of Morane pics show dropped elevators, you can see moulding pins here (thin steel pins used for fine wood moudlings, cut down easily and have a drill bit the same size)

The rudder has added hinges, and a plate near bottom made from Tuaca bottle foil. And has been thinned down a LOT. The first attempt at gluning it on was not very good, as it just lookee glued on, in the end a bit of brass tube at the base and a flattned staple neat the top gave suitable fixing that made it look separate. Which does not show up very well in this photo!

next post soooner i hope.

T

Edited May 24, 2010 by Troy Smith

[Troy Smith]

Brief update 2

having been sent links to a couple of builds on a French site of an MS405 and MS 406, I though sorting out the gear legs would be good.

Turns out that the AZ MS 406 is not the same kit....and has useful things like gear legs that are part done and have locating points....

anyway... here is gear leg attempt 1, with the parts you are supplied with to the left, I had drilled out the leg on the sprue and added a steel pin aleady.

I added some plastic rod to make a base of retraction struts for the one fitted.

Oh, that was easy i thought, until I came to the next leg.... turns out the the wheel weels don't sit exactly the same... and I managed on the first attempt to make the same leg..... ie not the mirror image I actully needed.

I also had to take the first attempt apart.... not quite aligned properly.

After a very very long time with little bits of rod and superglue and trimming the wheel well(too much in the end..) I got a fairly matching pair..... I hope..... they also need some hydraulic tubes adding.

The wheel hubs are not aligned the same, but as i think they need a brake disc this should cover this up, it's not exactly a "positive location" ...is that a surprise?

the French builds are here

http://www.master194.com/forum/viewtopic.p...429&start=0

http://fighters.forumactif.com/vos-montage...ighlight=morane

they have some very useful detail photos for Morane, especially the undercarriage and the MS 405.

Next ...possibly it's time for paint. If my airbrush doens't work I'll just brush paint the little *********** ...i won't be beaten!

On a more positive level this has really honed a lot of techniques for me.

cheers

T

[David Koktavý]

I see, this is not straightforward and easy build. But I believe it is worth to working hard on it. I am looking forward to see next progress.

Regards, David