Badger C

[crookedmouth]

Inspired by General Melchett's work, Im starting out on this one now. I promise to try to not build it in two afternoons.

Already got the pit together, but I'm not getting worried about internal detail too much as the guts will be well nigh invisible under the canopy.

However, I did raise the cockpit floor by about 5mm and dropped the console by a few mm, otherwise the seats woul;d have been way too far below the rim of the cockpit.

The duckbill section went together nicely and the seams appear to have sanded away well enough.

The plane will be wheels up and hanging from the study ceiling (too big to go anywhere else) and will have the Kipper & Kingfish missiles on show. I do realise that the Kipper needs to be recessed into the bomb bay. Not sure how I'll do that just yet. The missile is modelled in an upper & lower section, so it mighht be that I can just stick the lower section to the bay doors. Otherwise I'll have to hack a Kiper shaped hole in the bay doors - not something I'm relishing...

I am hoping to build the 1/72 Bear at sometime inthe future, but I think I need to divorce the wife & sell the kids.

Edited August 15, 2010 by crookedmouth

[Rabspat]

Looking good, i do like those russian bombers but they are just so big, i am having problems finding room for a Nimrod. BTW nice sea Vixen you did the other day/week, i have the same kit with the FAA set so i be using your build thread.

[_H_]

Nice work so far Campbell. I'm guessing she's a biggie?

Howard

[Darth Vader]

A 1:72 Badger ... Yes Please !

Looking forward to seeing this one come together

Regular updates please Crookedmouth

[general melchett]

Ah Komrad Campbell, a real mans aeroplane .overall a good, large model, ( Boeing B-47 size!!) and fairly accurate, (which is always a bonus with Trumpeter), builds up great OOB and if you aren't too concerned about uber accuracy then it's perfectly OK. Problem areas are the canopy side window frame lines are wrong (I just sanded them off and rescribed), there are some missing windows around the nose area, (drilled and filed out) and the intakes are fine if you fit the included FOD covers but really need to be replaced with the great NeoMega ones if you want them open ala flying mode.

The Kipper is a big problem as all Trumpy do is tell you to cut a slot in the bomb bay and glue it on which is total tosh as it should be recessed into the bay not hanging down scraping along the runway. The way I'm going to do it is cut the missile up and sculpt it to fit flush to the bay doors...a bit of work but far more accurate....mind you thinking about it the missile was lowered on a beam pylon for firing so as you're having it in flying mode that may not be a big problem!!

Great work so far, you're right about the seats being too low . I went mad in the 'pit , waste of effort as like you say not much if any is visible once the canopy is in place

Look forward to progress, might inspire me to kick start mine!!!...............(but only after hammering the Blinder into shape!!)...

Cheers,

Melchski...

Edited August 16, 2010 by general melchett

[crookedmouth]

Nice work so far Campbell. I'm guessing she's a biggie?

Howard

I nearly dislocated my shoulder trying to hold the camera far enough away to keep the fuselage in frame! (OK, so perspective is doing some of yhe work here...)

She weighs in at a babushka's short 'n' curly shy of half a metre. Makes my 1/48 Cranberry look a tad on the small side. I haven't looked at the wingspan yet, but will report back.

Ah Komrad Campbell, a real mans aeroplane .overall a good, large model, ( Boeing B-47 size!!) and fairly accurate, (which is always a bonus with Trumpeter), builds up great OOB and if you aren't too concerned about uber accuracy then it's perfectly OK. Problem areas are the canopy side window frame lines are wrong (I just sanded them off and rescribed), there are some missing windows around the nose area, (drilled and filed out) and the intakes are fine if you fit the included FOD covers but really need to be replaced with the great NeoMega ones if you want them open ala flying mode.

The Kipper is a big problem as all Trumpy do is tell you to cut a slot in the bomb bay and glue it on which is total tosh as it should be recessed into the bay not hanging down scraping along the runway. The way I'm going to do it is cut the missile up and sculpt it to fit flush to the bay doors...a bit of work but far more accurate....mind you thinking about it the missile was lowered on a beam pylon for firing so as you're having it in flying mode that may not be a big problem!!

Great work so far, you're right about the seats being too low . I went mad in the 'pit , waste of effort as like you say not much if any is visible once the canopy is in place

Look forward to progress, might inspire me to kick start mine!!!...............(but only after hammering the Blinder into shape!!)...

Cheers,

Melchski...

Comrade General. all the worker's means of production are being thrown into the glorious task of completing this model. but your wise and worldly advice can only serve to advance the noble cause! If I can hang my Kipper out of my bombbay doors, (ooh err!) that would make things a lot easier, but I may recess it anyway - anything less would seem like cheating. I may live with the other problems.

As I said - I want to do the Bear sometime in the near future, but at £60 ish I may have to look for a second hand kit...

Edited August 16, 2010 by crookedmouth

[_H_]

CRIPES!! She really is a biggy!

I'm looking forward to this one now. Big models are awesome lol

Howard

[general melchett]

If I can hang my Kipper out of my bombbay doors

.................Be very careful where you do this Komrad...the Politburo may take a dimski view of this kind of subversive behaviour!! ......If I can be of any service during the glorious build then don't hesitate to give me a bellski, only too willing to help those that serve the great cause !................onward Komrad, for the glory of the Motherland.

BTW hope your Artexski is up to the job, this blighter weighs a fair bit....

Melchskiovich.....

[Doctor Strop]

Looking good so far. Are you going to reinforce your ceiling before you hang that one up?

Cheers

Andy

[Hypnobear]

Nice progress so far, I like the big Russian aircraft!

Got one of these (though Hobbycraft's boxing) to build, a nice Egyptian camouflaged scheme lined up for mine

[crookedmouth]

Looking good so far. Are you going to reinforce your ceiling before you hang that one up?

Cheers

Andy

Just spent Sunday up in the loft locating the joists

[crookedmouth]

It's been a while - the Badger is taking rather more filling & fettling than one would have expected. The fuselage seams are actually quite good, as are the engine nacelle and wing root seams - a wee bit of filling for the sake of it, but nothing much at all. The problem has been the many hatches and doors in the belly. This kit (and several others I've encountered) are designed to be constructed with all the doors open, so the fit when closed is not terribly good and a lot of filing and filling is needed.

Worse still (and here's a tip) actually fitting some of the crew doors was a bit of a trial and they had a tendency to drop through the hole and get lost in the fuselage. I then hit on the solution of fixing them to a large bit of masking tape and lowering them into the hole, accompanied by lashings of glue. This held them more or less flush to the fuselage and the tape could be peeled off the next day when the glue had dried. It would have been a lot easier to fit the doors before joining the fuselage halves though.

I'm going to have to do a fair bit of rescribing of the panel lines in places. I don't have the right tool for this so I've adapted a small screwdriver, by sharpening the blade, and the results seem more or less OK. I may just wait till I've primed her before I start that job though.

Here's the Kipper, sliced off at the top, ready to go onto the plane. Fortunately the plane's belly is more or less flat, so no drastic profiling of the cutaway will be necessary.

Off to Milan next week to play with real planes (helicopters really) so progress will continue to be slow.

Thanx for looking

Edited August 21, 2010 by crookedmouth

[crookedmouth]

By the way - does anyone know of any decen decal sets that would enhance this? I'd like to add some stencilling to the plane and the missiles...

[crookedmouth]

Been a bit quiet round here. The model has been through a rather long drawn out stage where I've been rescribing the panel lines. I don't know that it really needs it all over, but a few have been lost under the sanding and primer coat, It looks a bit rough, but I'm hoping it'll settle down under the topcoats.

You can see my scribing tools in the photo of the cockpit - a sharpened mini screwdriver and a credit card hotel passkey fora ruler. Works quite well!

That joint between the cockpit and fuselage sections is a bit sad. I had to do a lot of sanding and I'm still not sure that I nobbled it. we'll see how it goes.

The bomb bay doors are also seriously $hi7, but they'll be well hidden under the missile.

Next job is to attach the PE antennae and then start on the painting...

[general melchett]

Nice job Campbell that's about as far as I got with mine, (which is still sitting in the attic three years on!). There are a few glaring errors in shape with it which is a shame, the apart from the weird drunk looking cockpit frame line error, poor intake shape and oversized under nose radome there is a pronounced dip in the fuselage top where the canon turret sits...it's there on the real thing but not as scalloped as on the kit...a difficult one to fix. Basically it's a typical Trumpeter product, these problems could have been avoided with better research.

This shot highlights the problems, very nice model as it is....

If you ain't bothered about these things then it's fine OOB.

I might get round to correcting all the faults some day.......Keep going , looking good,

Andy

Edited August 30, 2010 by general melchett

[crookedmouth]

If you ain't bothered about these things then it's fine OOB.

... that's me. cut me in half and you'll find "good enough for government work" written all the way thru

Thanks!

[Nobby]

Nice to see the progress on this mate. I love the soviet bomber jobs! I'd have a go at some myself but i really don't have the room for these buggers!

[Doctor Strop]

This is looking really good mate. Looking forward to seeing some paint on it.

[_H_]

Morning mate.

This is really coming on fast now. Gonna be looking pretty darn awesome in paint!

Crack on!

Howard

[Fozzy]

Come on pull your finger out,stop dragging your feet lets see some paint on there!

Looking good Campbell

Fozzy

[Metallicus]

looks really impressive! cant wait to see more!

[crookedmouth]

Hi guys - actually she's finished now, so I'll post the piccies in RFI tonight. In the end, the look isn't all I would have liked. Perhaps it's that silver paint that really shows up the errors & imperfections in my finishing. My rescribing especially needs some practise and TBH most of it was unnecessary. Almost all of the PE antennae knocked off within 30m of the CA drying and some of the seams that I thought I had sorted show up like a bulldog's b0ll0cks. The model is crying out for a decent set of decals, too.

All said and done, though, it went well and I'm still keen to do the 1/72 Bear which, I reckon will be more like 3/4 of a metre in span...

Edited September 6, 2010 by crookedmouth