Tomoshenko

I tried not to I really did, but resistance is futile. Bonkers brilliant stuff Alan.

Looks superb Bill. Don't forget it's magnified. Tin foil hat in place...what about knocking up a template with pre drilled holes. The clamping the two strips of evergreen to the template and drill away. Appreciate it's easier to type than create, and making the template would be almost as difficult.

Looking superb Bill. Sorry I've been AWOL for a while. Just caught up. Hopefully will see it in real life one day...

Yikes! Well at least you know the scale of the (not insurmountable problem), and as Ian remarked, something to keep you busy during house arrest.

Nice winter camouflage scheme Bill...

More chance of discovering life on Mars...

Excellent work Adrian. I do admire and enjoy your kitbashes. Out of interest what is the S.E.5a like?

Excellent workmanship Bill, and good old school techniques and skills.

Cometh the sanding cometh the man

Hell that looks superb! Love the ribbed effect.

Well back after a longer than anticipated absence when the world really was a different place. Hope you are all keeping safe. Unsurprisingly I have more time to pick up this thread again and get some modelling done, although I do wish it was under better circumstances. Anyroad, I manged to get a reasonable amount done. First I got to work on the empennage, but cut out the flaps to add a little interest. Next I got the fuselage closed up. Topside was quite a good fit and just required the odd smear of PPP. However, the same could not be said of the underside. While it fits together tightly, the moulded ribbing is quite poor quality notwithstanding two moulded hatches which do not exist on the original aircraft. In fact on some versions there are not hatches at all, but the one at Duxford – which is closest to the version I am modelling – does have a distinctive hatch: The ribbing is also quite distinctive, yet on the kit it is flat. A bit of a quandary presented itself. Replicating the hatch was straightforward enough, but how to remove the moulded hatches and re-establish the ribbing … hmmm. First up I chiselled off the raised detail and adopted an old coach builder’s trick as to how to re-establish crease lines on a panel when filling with P38 (yes I know proper artisans avoid using P38 as much as possible or lead load). When you get a dent across a crease line, it’s harder than it looks trying to render the repaired crease level. One method is to use masking tape to follow the original line, fill and sand so you get a straight edge, then put another piece of tape along the other side of the crease and repeat. On a micro scale I used Tamiya tape along a rib each side of the fuselage join and filled with PPP: then laid a double thickness of tape along the centre, filled and sanded like so to build up a ridge. The tape is removed leaving a straight and raised edge. Another double thickness of tape is laid along the centre where the ribbing is and this is filled and sanded: When the tape is removed you get this: Then it is a matter of sanding it back to blends in. Here it is finished off with a little scratch built hatch and the tail fin fitted. I also added the handles at the rear from Albion Alloys and did some re-scribing to emphasise the hatches and other panels. I didn’t notice at first until I started re-scribing the panel lines around the engine housing, that there are no panel lines around the door aperture or the cockpit hatches. In fact they have raised details in the form of stitched seams as in the piccies below. Filling in the kit panel lines (which to be honest is no great loss cos they are pretty naff)was easy enough, but replicating the stitched seams was never gonna be easy, at least if I wanted it to be reasonably convincing. I initially considered using take-away tin foil, but I’d never be able to get it to lie flat notwithstanding the fact it would be a nightmare to glue in place. Then I remembered a discussion on Bill’s (Perdu’s) Fairy Gannet Naviation WIP thread about replicating raised walkways. A number of ideas were bounded about (Bill I can’t remember who came up with it but thanks to however it was) and one someone suggested using sellotape. It’s thin and quite sticky so what the hell I thought I’d experiment. I tried running a riveting tool across some sellotape and then cutting out thin strips and painting like thus: These were all hit and miss until I used the medium spaced tooth riveting wheel on the sticky side of the tape, thus giving it a raised impression. After several attempts I managed to cut some strips thin enough to remain in scale … well sort of: Apologies for them being a bit blurry, but they are heavily magnified. Okay not perfect but hope that gives it at least a feel of the real detail. They should look pronounced without looking too pronounced if you know what I mean. Anyway this is how it now looks: Wot next? Undercarriage or engine. Think I turn my attention to the engine next.

Well Bill it appears you have adapted well to the current lockdown and working at home requirements. Your output is efficient and of high quality. PS the belts look great, I don't see any issues with the paint. Reference my point above, anything magnified always looks worse than it actually is, though I always say you can't beat a good wet shave...

Looks better than good Bill. Ooh those pesky rivets though...

Reckon you need one of these Bill to check calibration and everything working OK: