Giorgio N Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 (edited) Here's my entry for this GB, the lovely 1/144 A-model kit of the Grumman Albatross. The Albatross has been probably the most succesful post-war flying boat (or better amphibian) and it was used by many services as an SAR plane. In my case I'll build an Italian Air Force (AMI) plane serving with 15 Stormo in the '60s/'70s. These planes were based at several airports over the country and gave sterling service, being finally replaced by the HH-3F helicopters in 1978. Here's a picture of one such plane: http://www.84centrosar.it/storia/grumman.jpg Now I normally do not build 1/144 ! However 2 weeks ago I was at a model show in Milan and a dealer had a number of A-model 1/144 kits for sale.. euro 5 each (bit more than £4), how could I resist ? So it was that I bought the Albatross and a Lancaster MR.10. Now the latter would have been good for this GB, but I'd like to convert it into a Lancastrian... so the honour will go to the Albatross. The plane I'll build is coded 15-10 and was based at Linate airport... this is the "local" airport for me and the show was held beside the airport, so it seems very fitting to me to build this plane! Box art first: First thing to notice: the box does not show an ASR plane but the ASW version. A-model has a number of boxes of this kit with different versions and some have the SAR version included. The ASW version was used by several countries and differs for the different radome and other added equipment (MAD etc.). Still, there was no specific SAR box for sale, so it was this or nothing (would have meant another Lancaster probably...) A look in the box shows that the standard radome is also included...I can build my SAR Albatross ! The kit is quite small, with the fuselage shorter than most 1/72 prop fighters.... The wings are a bit bigger: And here are the other parts: A-model kits are short run so the parts all have thick sprue gates and softish details. Still the detail is very good and puts to shame many 1/72 kits of well known manufacturers !!! A result of me having to buy the only version available is that the parts in the box represent a HU-16B, while the italian planes were HU-16A. The differences between these two versions are not small and include: - longer wing on the B - different horizontal taiplanes - bigger tail and rudder on the B A-model has a box for a US Navy HU-16C/D, and this has the same wing and tailplanes of the A, so anyone not wanting to cut is advised to look for that box. Still, I want to do the italian one, and I have this kit, so I found an old magazine explaining the conversion of the 1/72 Monogram kit, so I just have to scale the drawings and start cutting ! First to be cut will be the wing: a quick check of a few references found that Grumman lengthened the wing inserting a rectangular section between the original inner and outer wing sections, and this is reproduced faithfully in the model: I highlighted with a pencil the area to be removed. The remaining sections should then fit ok as they are... but this is something I'll find out when I finally cut the wing ! Edited January 1, 2012 by Giorgio N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Pulling up a chair, getting out the , gonna be watching this one. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Work started ! First of all I cut te extra length in the wing: a new blade in the knife and the soft plastic used by A-model made it easy even if the wing is quite thick in part (the leading and tailing edges are moulded on the upper wings). A quick measurement showed however that more had to be removed... here's a check with a scale drawing (originally in another scale but converted to 1/144) The comparison also howed that the ailerons are quite different in the two versions and the leading edge beside the engine is angled. Sounds like there's more to be cut and some more to be modified.... Here's the upper right wing finally cut to the right span compared to the original span showed by the insert of the lower wing part (yet to be cut) Reattaching the wing shows quite difference in chord at the junction. This is where the angled leading edge will come into play. I have to say for a moment I thought I had done something wrong, maybe the wingtip had to be removed to bring the aileron in the right place, but a check with drawings and pictures showed that I had done it right.... While working on the wings, I also checked a few other things: here's the tail compared to the drawing of what needs cutting on the 1/72 monogram kit (again drawing rescaled to 1/144). Quite a bit will need removing but at least the sprues have the original rudder included among the parts not for use. I feel I'll need a few new blades for this one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Sorrry to upset you, but A Model do the other versions with different tails and wings among other bits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) Sorrry to upset you, but A Model do the other versions with different tails and wings among other bits! Paul, don't worry, I'm not upset: as mentioned in the first post on the thread, I'm aware of the box for the short wing version (the HU-16C/D USN navy box). I'm going through the surgery because I found this box for very cheap and decided I still wanted to do the Italian version. Anyone wanting to do the same subject should buy the other box. There's also a HU-16B box for a USCG coast guard plane, with long wing and SAR equipment. Guess the ASW box was on sale because it's the least known of the various versions. In a sense I'm also looking at this as an exercise for the day when I'll tackle a similar project in 1/72, where I believe the old monogram B is still the only game in town (expensive resin stuff apart maybe) Edited October 7, 2011 by Giorgio N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Yes, I realised I made the mistake of not reading through your text properly! Whadda misstaka toomake-a! I think some where here I posted images of my A Model Albatross finished in Canadian markings. Not an easy kit but challenging and fun with a good model resulting. I look forward to seeing yours progress and in Italian colours too. How are you going to tackle some of the markings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 7, 2011 Author Share Posted October 7, 2011 Paul, I'll look for your build, I'm sure it will help me a lot with mine ! Markings will come partly from the spares box (roundels mainly, for which I have a sheet of 1/72 ones that include some small enough for this model) and partly from my own design. Codes and SAR titles are easy enough to print, the unit insignia might be more troublesome but until I try I woun't know... this build is feeling more and more like experimenting with different techniques... something that is easier when the kit costs a fiver... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 10, 2011 Author Share Posted October 10, 2011 The weekend brought some good and some bad: good was that not only I had time to build something, but I also visited a park where a real Albatross is visible. This will help a bit in the painting stage. The bad was that going there I was involved in a minor accident and now have a big dent in the car front and while there I got a parking ticket... a nice but expensive trip ! To try and cheer myself up I did some more work on the small scale Albatross and started oing something on the fuselage. As I said the box contains parts for both the ASW and the SAR versions, so I glued the radome for the latter. I also attached the wheel wells, that don't really fit that well. While I was working on the fuselage, I reshaped the tail using the drawings and the part for the small tail rudder provided in the kit (and marked as not for use of course). A quick check showed that there will be a lot to do in order to get a decent fit of the wing on the fuselage.... well, it's an A-Model kit, can't expect the fit to be much better... Now back to the wings: I was right in thinking I was doing something wrong ! The real extensions on the wing are in two places: the square insert I had highlighted in the first pictures and the part between the end of the aileron and the wingtip. The magazine suggested to remove material beside the square insert, and this is what I did but the magazine was wrong ! Lesson learnt: never trust a single source ! Magazines can make mistakes too. Overall it makes a small difference in that the system I used results in a slightly smaller chord over the outer wing sections. Of course I'm going to live with it, but whenever I'll do the same on the Monogram kit I'll do it right ! The surgery on the wing was not difficult and here it is, a short span HU-16A wing, everything glued together with some filler already on one side and none on the other. Still missing is the modification on the leading edge. This will be done with plasticard and more filler (miliput or my trusted Isopon P-38). The work on the wing was not too difficult, pity I did it the wrong way but at least the result is quite good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 The Albatross is a 1/144 model, and initially I thought that I'd have only used the pilots seats and the IP coaming... but you know modellers, we always make plans and then do something different ! So t was that I added a very few bits to the cabin. The seats all came from the kit, however I arranged them differently following pictures of some SAR planes I found on the web. As the cabin seats are red, I thought these would have kind of become visible. I also added some stretchers on the left side of the fuselage, again a detail I saw in several pictures. The most important job however was to move further back the front bulkhead as this is too close to the pilot seats in the kit. Now that the bulkhead is in the right place, a third seat can fit in the cockpit. A piece of plastic was then added in front of the first cabin seat, with bands painted in black to simulate electronic equipment on a rack... not ideal but will do the job. The pictures also show another feature of the build: the quantiy of lead that I had to use to prevent the model from being a tailsitter ! I've used more lead in this kit than in other much bigger ones, I'm scared at the thought of how much weight would be needed in a 1/72 Albatross... One final picture here to show a small detail that has been added compared to the previous two: the control wheels ! These come in the kit and are so tiny that I'm surprised I didn't lost any.... The fuselage is now ready to be closed ! A first dry fit showed that it will not be easy at all, but I hope I can make it. Notice that I left the fuselage windows off. These are very thick and not really clear, so they'll be replaced with synthaglass, a very good product used to make transparencies. Even with this, I'm not sure much of the interior will be visible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted October 24, 2011 Author Share Posted October 24, 2011 Fuselage closed, wings glued ! Closing the fuselage took some time, as the wo halves didn't really align well at all. It took time and effort to close them and plenty of steps ad gaps had to be filled. Not that gluing the wing was any better.... again plenty of filler and sanding were needed to achieve what looked like a decent result: As the plastic is white, anything in any other colour on that kit is filler of some kind..... Of course what looked like a decent finish appeared totally different after a first coat of primer was spraid on, and plenty of touchups were needed. I spent most of sunday filling gaps and imperfections and sanding, then spraying primer on before having to fill again....and it's not over yet ! Still, at least the model now looks like a Albatross... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted November 11, 2011 Author Share Posted November 11, 2011 (edited) And came the day of the first primer coat ! After some epic filling and sanding sessions, the Albatross has finally received its final coat of primer ! Now my favourite primer is the tamiya spray one, however my can finished before I could prime the Albatross. Tomorrow I'll go and buy a new one, but in the meantime I've decided to prime using a tamiya acrylic grey. Here's the result in a couple of pictures: To be honest there are probably still a few spots that are less than perfect. However there comes a time when a modeller must stop looking for perfection and go ahead. For me the time has come for this model. I don't think I've ever had to fill and sand so much on any other model I've built til now !!!!!!!!! Now it's time to paint ! The colours to be used on this model are aluminium, yellow and dayglo orange... 3 of the worst colours to use on a model.... Edited November 11, 2011 by Giorgio N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted November 11, 2011 Share Posted November 11, 2011 there's some great work gone into this, and I think you're gonna have a lovely little model at the end of it . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted November 13, 2011 Author Share Posted November 13, 2011 there's some great work gone into this, and I think you're gonna have a lovely little model at the end of it . . . Thanks, hope the final result will be at least half decent... For a number of reasons I've decided to spray the yellow areas first, followed by the dayglo and leaving the main aluminium painted areas for last. Paints used are a mix of different types, depending on what I have.... Yellow first then ! This is tamiya acrylic, mixed with some tamiya white. The yellow used on Italian post war militay aircrafts is quite light compared the for example RAF trainer yellow. Tamiya's paint is already lighter but some white makes it perfect. An unusual feature of the colour scheme of these planes is the bottom of the hull in overall yellow, most likely to make the plane more visible from shose who need rescue... After the yellow was fully cured, it was time to start adding the dayglo. This was obtained starting with a vallejo orange to which a few drops of citadel blood red were added. As I believe a second coat will probably be neede, I'm not removing the masking yet. The model is still a long way from being finished, but it already promises to be something quite colourful ! Must say that masking all the areas in this scale is not something I loved... next 1/144 kit must have a simpler scheme!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It'sAllGoneHorriblyWrong Posted November 15, 2011 Share Posted November 15, 2011 It's going to light up the display cabinet when it's finished! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 (edited) It's going to light up the display cabinet when it's finished! It sure will ! Have a look at the colours with the masking removed: I'm not sure about the dayglo, but it must be said this colour tended to change wildly with fading, until it faded to white. I'm not going to change it ! Once the paint was all on, I realised that another couple of areas would have required more (or better...) filling. What was not visible with the grey primer became visible once the aluminum paint was on. Oh well, I'l do better next time, I'm not going to repaint now ! Having completed the airbrushing does not mean painting is over: the Albatross had black de-icing boots on wings and tailplanes, a black radome and black stripes bordering the yellow and dayglo areas. as Sunday here the city council stopped all cars to limit pollution, I needed no excuse to stay at home working on the model... and here's the result of a good day at the bench: The wing de-icing parts and the radome are painted, the stripes are done with these: Yes, dry transfers ! That however I use by first applying them to clear decal film. In this way I have a nice strip of constant and controlled width, that behaves like a decal. The clear decal I use is extremely thin and the dry transfer don't add really in thickness, so the resulting stripes are very thin too. Being very thin they also follow curvatures very well. This technique allowed me to make the stripes much better than by painting or cutting strips of black decal film. Another area that called for a different approach were the main transparencies: these are poorly moulded and the frames are little visible. To avoid painting them I decided to cut a strip of aluminum tape. This is sticky enough and being real metal is nice and shiny. Again, it made the job much easier. There are still some bits to paint, then it will be time for decals... as I said before roundels will come from a generic Tauromodel 1/72 sheet, but the rest will have to be home-printed Edited November 21, 2011 by Giorgio N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted November 22, 2011 Author Share Posted November 22, 2011 (edited) Hard day at work today and for some reason I had not interest in toying with paints and plastic, so I started working on the decals. First step in designing decals for me is deciding what is needed based on pictures of the real thing. The two main things to do are: - Codes ! These follow the typical italian system of two blocks of numbers: first is the Stormo (wing) number, in this case 15 for 15th Stormo. This is followed by the identification of the aircraft within the wing (in my case 10). These are in black in my case - SAR titling. These are in white over a dark blue band, so the band minus the lettering will be printed on white decal film. There is then the Stormo insignia: this was not always carried by all aircrafts and early in the life the Albatross carried a different marking in place of the insignia. Now I'm not sure I'll be able to print this in 1/144.... moreover, there's something wrong with the proportions of the yellow band on top of the fin, might be that I made a mistake. I'll find out only after I place the SAR titles in place. Some stencils might be required: the windows have red dotted cut markings and there are a couple of axes and fire extinguishers markings. I'll try to do these, but again I'm not sure if in 1/144 I'll manage a decent result. Something I might avoid is the propelle warning band: this is included in the A-model decal sheet but has lettering in english and not in italian. Moreover, a couple of warnings are in red over white while on Italian HU-16s these are white over red or in red only. I'll try and see what I can do, if not I'll modify the box decals to adjust the vertical position. As someone had asked me before how I did my decals, I'd like to show some of the process here, might be useful to anyone who wants to start: to draw the decals I use Corel Draw or inkscape.. or better, I always used Corel Draw but I had to format the HD a while ago and reinstall everything only to find out that the Corel CD rom was damaged... so it's inkscape at the moment... It's always useful to start from a drawing, and here I used one I found on the web. The drawing helps in getting the proportions right, but constant checks with photographs are important. The codes were drawn starting from polygons and adjusting the nodes until a shape similar to the pictures is achieved for every digit. Of course having to draw 15-10 meant I could just draw one "1" and duplicate this. To draw the codes I initially use a red contour only so that the size can be checked against the drawing. When happy, I fill the contour with black and delete the outer line. The SAR letters were obtained modifying slightly some US Navy letters I prepared a couple of years ago. These were initially black. I then had to draw the blue band, lower this under the letters and change the colour of the letters into white. I'm not too happy with the "R", I might redo this but I might as well just not care... Letters and codes can then be aligned using the software tool. Here's a picture of the file with the drawing used as template, the codes and the SAR titles. At this point none of the new markings has been scaled yet. To do this, it will be necessary to check the model agains pictures and derive the size of key elements, in this case the height. The nice thing of using a vectorial drawing software is that every part can be scaled individually directly in the size required. But scaling will be done tomorrow... Edited November 22, 2011 by Giorgio N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fifer54 Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 that's definitely beginning to look a very attractive model, and a great insight into decal design there, as well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 unfortunately the printer decided to break down a while ago, so I've been stuck with the homemade decals. A new printer has now arrived but I've yet to sort all the right settings. So I decided to go ahead and add other decals: the roundels came from an old Skymodel's sheet and are IMHO not great, being quite thick and not adhering very well. At least they are fine in shape and colours: too many times I've seen italian roundels with too small centre dots, like if they were some RAF A type roundels... As I was adding decals to the upper surfaces I decided to tackle the walkways: Italian Albatrosses had white walklines outlined in red. The box includes grey walkways with black outline so I had to find a solution. This was to use strips of wihte decal sheet, cut using to the decal provided in the box as a template... or so I thought: a pictures showed that there were some small differences, so I slightly modified the design. Here's the model during the decaling phase (with the original decal beside for comparison): And here it is after the white part of the walkway has been completed. Not only that, but some white paint was added on top to better cover a couple of spots where one strip didn't match perfectly with the other. Fot the red borders I was thinking of using the red surround included in some old Almark decals: these were printed on a sheet with a continuous decal film, so the red borders can be used as well as the main artwork. Unfortunately these borders are too wide and I guess that I'll have to print my own borders... let's hope I can sort the printer settings ASAP !!! Now the printer might have been out of order, but the work on the decals had to continue ! I draw a few other parts, mainly the red markings around most windows and the propeller warning markings I also prepared the serial numbers (M.M. for Matricola Militare). The latter were done starting from the USAF Amarillo font and modifying a couple of things. They are not 100% accurate, but will do the job. As I had completed all the markings that must be printed on clear decal paper, I then copied and pasted these parts on a new file: The file has a number of spares. You never know what might happen with these homemade decals, as they are very thin and sometimes the coating lets water in that destroys the artwok (yes, it's not supposed to happen but I don't get it right 100% of the times... :shithappens: ) So better have a few spares printed just in case.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kev1n Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 fascinating........looking forward to seeing this finished Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted December 21, 2011 Author Share Posted December 21, 2011 A very quick update with no pictures: I now have most of the decals printed ! It took time as finding the right settins for the new printer wasn't easy. I also had some unusual problem with the decal paper, but now I'm sorted.... or so I thought ! Checking the picture of "my" aircraft I noticed as it carries the earlier unit markings and not the later standard crest that I printed (and came out well too...).... oh well, fortunately Chistmas is coming and will bring some days off to relax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted December 23, 2011 Author Share Posted December 23, 2011 As I mentioned settings on the printer, the best way to find the best is just by trial and error. This must be done only once, and I jut had to do it because of the new printer. Every printer might give the best results with different settings. Now I woun't go into the details of the troubles I've had, however this pictures shows some of the trials: There are other bits not for the albatross (swastikas for a Fw.190-d and iraqi markings for a Fury), however all the albatross markings are there. It can be seen as some attempts were quite bad, with the final one beng fortunately ok. The decals printed on the white background though will need replacing: the band with the SAR titles came out too light (it should be a very dark blue) and the unit insignia is right for a later aircraft but not for the one I'm building. With the decals coated, it was finally time to start applying them ! And here is the model with the first few decals on: Not bad, although the cut lines around the windows came out slightly too big... of course I'll live with it, the GB closes in a week, can't waste too much time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 Ok, I'm probably not going to be able to finish it by tonight, but as my plans for the new year's eve party have been trashed, I might manage to arrive at a decent point..... Decalling would have been complete if only I had found to right settings to print on white decal paper.... at least most of what had been printed on clear paper is now on: Between yesterday and this morning I also managed to glue in place the landing gear. As the parts are very delicate and the sprue gates are huge, it was not an easy task and I'm sure more patient modellers and modellers with better skills can do much better. Here's the model as it stands now, together with some bits that will be glued before the end of the day. At that point I'll most likely call it "completed" even if there will be a number of decals missing. Also missing will be the antennas, as I'm still researching these. The box includes some antennas but the configuration of the italian aircrafts looks quite different from what is included in the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham77 Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Looks good to me good job, looking forward to seeing it with the last of the bits stuck on Good job Graham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 What a stunner - really eye-catching Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wez Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 What a stunner - really eye-catching Cliff I agree! It's something I've never understood - why, when the Italian SAR schemes are so attractive, why are there so few decals for them? Baffles me so it does! Giorgio, this is a really attractive model of an interesting aircraft made from frankly, what isn't, a state of the art kit - good job, keep it up! Wez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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