Ventora3300

To get some detail in the Airfix Mk.VI cockpit, which comes with two benches only, I built up the Frog Mk.VI cockpit and tried to reproduce this with plastic card. By now, I have had the opportunity to dig out other reference material and can see that the Nav's seat was not a big comfy affair like the pilot's, hence just a square seat back which will line up with the bench in the starboard fuselage half. I will be building this kit with wheels up like I would have done as a boy and also after being warned somewhere I think by @AdrianMF that the wheels provided represent big buttons! The fit of the undercarriage doors was pretty dreadful and plenty filler was required. Also, there are curved cut-outs at the forward end of the doors which do not appear to fit up to anything other than the undercarriage legs when they are down. A look at the reference material shows me that the carburetor intakes under each nacelle extend down to the front edges of the undercarriage doors - not reproduced accurately on this kit at all. I glued on some more plastic card to extend the carb intakes as necessary. Also at this stage, I've tried my hand at nav lights using clear sprue sanded and polished to shape with a drilled hole painted inside as bulbs - much easier to do than I imagined. Thank you BM for that 'top tip' and learning.

Thanks, @tempestfan. Yes, it struck me that the kit felt earlier than 1971. However, I am a martyr to good old Airfix so can't resist pressing on.... I can feel that I'm going to end up building the Series 3 kit as well in the Mk.XVIII version with the big cannon!

Yes Dave, and that vastly improved 1970's tooling must have been the one I built as a boy as it has the Nightfighter scheme.

Oh dear! as warned by @Rabbit Leader, I found the detail in this moulding of the Mossie to be very basic. Also, I was reading about the Pathfinder versions so that would be the Mk.IV rather than the single Mk.VI option available in this boxing. Another rummage in the loft revealed that I also had the Frog kit from 1968, which has parts for the Mk.IV. Here are the contents. Much more detail on the Frog kit. So, it looks like I'll need to build the Frog kit to get a Mk.IV Pathfinder but I'm a confirmed Airfix nut so there is the opportunity to build both marks and use the detail on show in the Frog kit to make some mods to the Airfix kit to do the Mk. VI justice.

Hi Dave, how are you doing? You are right of course and I'm hoping with Christmas coming up, one of the family will do the right thing and gift me a brand new one! I've missed the Airco and De Havilland Group Build earlier in the year but my rate of build has dropped to less than glacial so I just can't keep up. I did make and am making a bit of an effort on this Mossie since finishing the books so hopefully will get in the swing again with all you guys on here.

I walked down memory lane and opened the Series 2 box. Yes, it's 'locate and cement' - type Instructions.

Some time ago, out of the blue, Mrs V. (knowing my passion for aircraft etc.) said she had seen a book in which I might be interested - the one by Ian Redmond as above. The title really grabs you and I actually read it on Kindle and enjoyed it immensely. Then I got another book..... This has been another great read and of course, being of the modelling bent, I needed to scratch the itch to build a De Havilland Mosquito. I did build one when I was a boy and it would have been Airfix and I remember doing it in as a nightfighter with black undersides, which would have been one of the paint schemes given. I do happen to have an Airfix Mosquito in the loft... Of course, it's the first tool Airfix kit from 1957 (says Scalemates) with this boxing in 1971. I bought this because I was looking for Roy Cross artwork and at the time I was under the impression that the earlier the kit, the better the pressing quality from the moulds. What I have learned since, of course that some of the early moulds were very basic indeed and were improved upon later. Hence, as all the usual BM suspects know, building early kits can be bl***y terrifying!

Lovely paintwork and decaling on the F3F. You must be proud of this one.

Lovely work on the Albatros, Pat. and you must be wearing white gloves to build this - not a glue smudge in sight. Sometimes a little painting of details is just right on these old skool builds, after all the transfers are on of course!

Jean, your F4B-4 is looking great and I had to check the scale several times - thought it was 1/48 but its 1/72 and tiny as you say. Not a gluey fingerprint or smudge in sight. Excellent painting. Looking forward to the finish and a fly round the workbench!

Action! That's a fantastic diorama and the Wildcat build is excellent too. Spot on! We'll all have to get one of these...

Port wing now masked for spraying as well as the engine cowlings. The engines are fitted in the cowlings and I've cut between the gills with a razor saw to make more realistic. The undercarriage legs and struts are painted too. Starboard wing now masked for the de-icing boots.

Moving on with the wings now - these have turned out straight and seams have been sanded. Picking out the main top panels in brushed silver to contrast with the polished metal of the rest. (I'm not entirely sure why I'm doing this - different metal alloys used for some of the panels?). I've also brush painted the ailerons silver. Got the starboard wing spray painted now - didn't leave the extreme end panels in brushed silver. All paint and masking behaved beautifully - not my usual problem with overspraying. Looks good to me. In the background, the engine cowlings have been reprofiled and the prop blades painted in black. Underside too.

Looking at the sprues on the above link provided, the exhausts are the set of four bent 'elbows' included on the sprues with the cuffed propellors. There is only one outlet provided per engine side / turbocharger rather than the two we can see in real life. So you do have to make additional exhausts to double upon the kit ones and I have come up with the idea of using the tail / open end of airgun pellets!

Exactly what I was thinking - also, they will exert a bit of friction on the back of the prop shaft and muck up the free spin. The kit actually came with two 'spigots' broken off, which I have glued back on, and one missing completely. I can just imagine the ones I glued back on becoming detached again and rattling around inside the wings. Thanks for that!

Starboard wing now weighted... Starboard wing glued with a straight edge eliminating any warping (got that idea from one of the BM Community commenting above). You can see the warping on the port wing halves. Port wing glued with straight edge taped on with plastic wood keeping the weights in place. Both wings glued and spars just dry fitted to get an idea of wingspan - yes, it's huge!

Engine plate and propellor now assembled to the re-profiled cowling - spins well The locating of the engine cowlings on the front of the nacelles is not very positive - just a matter of mating up the back edge of the cowling on the flat nacelle front and aligning as best you can. Consequently, I'm putting some 'anti tail sit' weights (20g plugs of lead, I think) in each nacelle rather than the cowlings as I think they would drop off too easily. Now I know what the funny bent spigot is attached to the inside front of each nacelle - they appear to hold the prop shafts in position from the back. The Instructions say that the props are just a push fit on the shafts so maybe this allows fitting of the props well after the cowlings are glued on and painting complete.

I've also had a go at recreating the twin turbocharger exhaust pipes on one side of the engine nacelles. The kit only provides one pipe and this seems to be the outlet from the turbine but reference photos also show another outlet which I think is from a bypass gate. In the pic above, the kit part is on the right and I sanded this to make more oval. The other item on the left is an airgun pellet (found a bag of them at my parents house) which I squashed a bit, clipped off the back and glued behind the kit part. A bit of paint and here is the result. I need to change the colouring slightly but you get the idea. Only 7 others to go!

Another early item to get installed in the wings of the Superfortress is the insides of the undercarriage wells - called the 'wheel plates' in the Instructions. These are 'handed' to allow for the dihedral of the wings so you have to make sure that you get each of them in the correct sides - the inboard side of each is slightly deeper - make a mistake here and the undercarriage legs will end up at the wrong angle. I painted these in silver and did a dark wash to try to bring out the details. I tried painting a couple of the 'boxes' on the pipe runs a darker steel colour but not really showing up here. Here is the first one installed. I thought I might be able to glue in the undercarriage legs and paint up first but not possible to slip through the narrow gap in the underside of the nacelles.

Now for the engine fronts themselves - only the front of the first row of cylinders provided and a mix of steel and silver on a black background is about all I can do. The magneto cover (6 o'clock position?) has since been painted black as suggested in the Instructions. I added a bit of silver mesh behind the intake port.. One prop also painted and the plastic seems really hard so I will not attempt to sand off the cuffs.

Thanks all for all the info concerning the Monogram 1/48 B-29 Superfortress and the reference pictures which will help to improve the known inaccuracies of the kit. First up is the engine cowlings - I have had a go at re-profiling the fronts of the engine cowlings to the more closely cowled shape required - this also seems to have narrowed the intake 'smile' - the one on the left is one of the unaltered cowlings as a comparison. the re-profiling of the one on the right looks better to me so only three more to go! I also cut out the cowling cooling gills with my brand new razor saw and managed to break it - hard plastic indeed.

Many thanks Alan for the picture and to you and everyone else for the links and interesting information on inaccuracies to be addressed. I've decided to address the exhausts / engine cowlings / props before starting anything else. Here are the pieces involved. The cooling louvres on the cowlings in front of the exhaust outlets look OK, the large exhaust pipe can also be used if I check/fettle the fit to the depression in the cowling then I just need to work out what to use and how to fit in a smaller exhaust pipe, which I think comes from the turbocharger each side behind that. For the engine cowlings, it looks like these are thick mouldings so I'm going to try a little sanding to shape more steeply down to the circular opening. I may try altering the shape of the 'smile' for the intakes with a little filler at the corners. Possible a grille behind the opening below the back piece which has some of the engine on it. I should also file/sand off all the 'cuffs' on the prop blades but I don't know yet if I'm brave enough for that - a lot can go wrong on 16 blades! Here are the same parts from the 1/72 Airfix B-29 kit - I'm looking for inspiration in terms of shapes. That kit also only provides one exhaust pipe per side but those extra sprue bits attached to each which require removal look interesting.....

Yes, Pete, and I didn’t let slip that I have the 1/72 B-36, 1/48 B17 and 1/48 Revell boxed B-24 tucked away as well! Storing with the wings off sounds like a good idea - I’ll need to make a good job of wing joint lines.

You are right - the decals are all cracked - don’t know if they are saveable. I’ll have a look for substitutes.

I’ll be able to show pics of the spruces I have in the next post. Quite a few items off the spruces so someone in the past has had a fondle but then taken fright! I’ve suddenly got very interested in what the engines and exhausts should look like if I am going for the full armament version ‘Thumper’.