fjaweijfopi4j48

Thanks, Martian. Here some images of the smaller parts, of really nice quality, like the Venturi, to the right of the sprue: It's for me always difficult to properly clean minute prop spinners of the remains of their attachments to the sprue, so I made new ones from rod: The wing halves seam underneath is puttied and sanded with no problems: The aileron hinge, solid in the mold, is easily drilled to match photos:

The nacelles' interior is painted black and dry-brushed: But as said not much will be seen: There is an air outlet that can be carved: The horizontal stabilizer halves are given a pass on the sanding block, and it shows that the matting surfaces need further truing and thinning: After a bit more sanding, it's wise to drill the marked holes for the central fin location: Now that's better: The box drawing inaccurately described the central fin as going over the elevator: If you plan to pose the rudders deflected, beware that the central rudder was balanced: The kit maker forgot to trace the line that divides both stabilizers. As is, that stab could not deflect in real life either. The line is thus engraved: On both sides, of course: The halves are glued, the rest of the parts are presented in the photo. The prominent seam in the kit aft cone (parts already glued in the photo) I believe was not so prominent. Will have to check and correct if necessary:

Steve: 😉 Paul: thanks. Assembly proceeds: The tail part of this structural top fuselage assembly, as it comes, it's angled upwards, which seems to be at odds with the instruction drawings and general lines of the plane's backbone: There is no side drawing for this assembly, so I am kind of lost here: Hoping I am doing the right thing, I sanded it to accompany the top line of the general assembly: The engine nacelles are comprised of two side shells, a pan, a front "fake" part and the nose: The small pan has some detail underneath (four rectangular bumps, as per the real engine) that will never be visible, but will hinder a bit its positioning. The front "fake" part will also be mostly invisible, is kind of odd and doesn't really adjust to reality, nor it touches either side of the shell. I think that it should have represented the first cylinder as seen through the nacelle nose opening : There is an hemispherical light bucket that goes on the cockpit nose septum. I hollowed it a bit in order to add an MV lens for realism:

I know very little about kit manufacturing, and perhaps there is a valid reason, but why the master maker (or, more unfortunately, CAD person) did not make the parts' separation where the hinge line is (or the curve in the case of the flaps), instead of in the middle of the panel, that now has to be filled in and sanded?:

Hi Martian It would be great to have some cargo going on, there are a couple of images on the Net showing that. Any suitable 1/72 vehicle would do I guess. Meanwhile, a bit more progress:

Hi Aeronut: Yes, only some parts need a bit of adjustment (bigger parts) and the smaller parts go on quite well. I have built other Mikro-Mir kits and I am very satisfied with them (and their subject choices!). Here the engines are being put together as we speak:

Agreed, Paul, have to keep the sanding stick at hand, some parts do require a swipe or two (and may be three); as you said, the fact that it was released is already an occasion for celebration ;-)

This release has been posted and commented on somewhere else in Britmodeller, so I won't abound much in disquisitions. The variant released by Mikro-Mir is the IV (fourth), and includes several liveries in its decal sheet. But, if like me, you tend to diverge and follow your own path, there were other many liveries out there. Just be careful to see if they are the right variant, and not the ones with different windows or engines. Some adventurous modelers may even convert this kit to those other variants, perhaps the most extreme of which was the Hurel-Dubois/Miles HDM 105, with a high aspect ratio wing. In any case, you also get a fully detailed interior, nice for the scale, but beware that some variants used the cabin as cargo hold. Photos show one even loaded family cars! Another of them had installed neon signs for night flying. An interesting and well-produced model. Logical breakdown: Nice transparencies and decals that look nice: A much welcome set of masks: Very tiny and fragile parts, dealt with with a razor blade (cover the other edge): The big partotas: Assembly of the fiddly seats (five parts) begins: Seats ready and other sub-assemblies in progress for the cockpit area (side console, front console, pilot's seat): More sub-assemblies for the structure of the fuselage area:

Thanks, Abat. Your comment is particularly true in regard of metal finishes, as in this case. An added layer here is the "anodized grey" of the 247, which renders a kind of patchy, greyish metal sheen. I enjoy a lot construction, especially adding details and modifying things, and above all scratchbuilding, but meticulously hate and abhor finishing the surfaces and painting. I eventually return to a normal Dr. Jekyll condition at the time of applying the decals and add the last details.

The most boring part -for me at least-: puttying, sanding, priming, repeat. Sigh... The propellers are masked in a very convoluted way, to preserve the black blade backs and be able to airbrush the three colors of the blade tips one at a time:

Thanks Ivan, you are very kind. Building proceeds. Careful touch-ups will make the canopy fit well: Once again, a bit of filing and several dry-runs will help with the fit of the wing:

Hi Trevor Indeed you remember correctly, it comes with the two options, rubber and plastic wheels. I went for the plastic ones. Modelers are not confident about using the rubber wheels provided with some kits for fear of rubber degradation. I have been using O rings as wheels for about 17 years or so in scratch projects and they all look fine. It may depend on the rubber composition and what kind of paint/varnish is used on them. This old kit continues to surprise me in a positive way. It has, as mentioned before, its shortcomings, but some details are very good. Speaking of transparencies, the windows have very well formed thin lips, and their fit on the fuselage side is perfect. Of the let's say 30 modern kits I have recently built in the last year and a half, only one had a good comparable window fit. Oldie but goldie.

Cabin and cockpit in place. The canopy was assembled, and a custom cut at the top made to represent the emergency exit hatch, which will be posed open in the finished model:

Hi Dennis Of course a little time is needed, but I found that the more you build the less time it takes. I also count on being prepared. Those curtains, for example, that I have used in many models, were printed in different types, sizes and colors long ago in one go, precisely to have them available for future use. Same with the toilet and toilet roll, made long ago in different sizes and types as one was then needed for another project. It doesn't make the model build itself, but it helps. I have a little container with scratched spare seats, control columns and the like, made as a surplus whilst building other models. Since I invariably scratch either the entire model or part of it (as in this case) having the parts ready helps. All this of course is known by all modelers...but we hardly do it ;-)

Almost all elements of the interior are now in place, included toilet, toilet roll, foldable sink, doors, luggage nets, curtains, etc.:

Some detail painting and inst. panel decal: And the sub-assemblies ready:

The console is given some minimum detail with the help of fine brass wire and small blobs of white glue: Some details and internal components are airbrushed in their proper colors in one session, so assembly can continue. Color details will be hand-painted:

Indeed, Grumpy Git. Many civil planes, including their famous racer series. And Trevor, yes, the kit is old and it shows, but overall is better than many kits released much later in time. I found the engines quite acceptable, actually, they have a ribbed gearbox, the bolt heads, the pushrods. You may want to replace them with current up-to-date resin renditions if available, but again, they are in tune with the rest of the detail (raised panel lines, for example) so I have chosen to use the kit's engines. The props, for example, have the balance weights and cuffs, a detail many times missing from newer kits. Also, there are so many liveries for this 247 that is mind-boggling. Some I have seen offered online, some are in the kit's options, depending on the particular issue of the kit. But if you can make your own decals, or can commission them (I did) then the horizon is vast, with at least 20/25 sort of known users, and many more with arcane companies with unfortunately insufficient data to produce accurate decals. For those curious, there is a book: The Boeing 247, The First Modern Airliner, by Van der Linden. Cheers

Here is the ongoing project, a Williams Bros. in National Parks Airways livery. The well-known, old, venerable kit is the base for some upgrades, further detailing the interior adding the nose hatch and mail compartment, opening the hatch for the aft cargo compartment, creating the much needed restroom for the relief of those poor 1/72 passengers -with toilet and paper roll, made of actual paper-, adding the luggage nets and so on. The kit is actually, for its age, quite workable, with refinements missing many times from much modern kits

Well, in rigor, its pilots had to use the type of cap that has the spinning prop on top. Or so it is said. Gyro Gearloose

An early scratch effort, from 2008. It is, undoubtedly, a cute little thing. Glad there is a model of it now. If I knew I would have waited ;-)

Thank you all for your kind comments. "Dalea" member stresses the point, a lot of time was spent researching. This is particularly important, since the kit represents a more generic version, apt to many planes, but not totally accurate for the Ocean Crossing event. The livery of this model belongs to a few years later after the crossing. However, if modelers don't want to embark on a deep modification, the kit could be used to represent the plane as it was later in life (the parts are present in the sprues) so no doors or window modifications are needed. But other details may apply. Long life, this plane had, and a significant one (although all life is significant) with many changes; a challenge an a joy for historians, amateur researchers and modelers. Cheers

This may be of particular interest to the Subjects from Australia and New Zealand This Fokker F.VIIb3m was originally Wilkins Polar plane "Detroiter" that ended up crashing. It was repaired using also parts of the F.VII "Alaskan" -that was the other plane of the polar expedition- and painted with the reg. 1985 as the Southern Cross with some sponsorships (The S.F. Chronicle, Fageol Flyer, Spirit of Los Angeles), flown finally to Australia with the registration 1985 earning much deserved fame -but without the sponsorship letterings-; it was re-registered there as G-AUSU and finally as VH-USU -and as such again in many different decoration schemes that differed from one another to some major or minor extent, as well as in windows and doors location and engine gondola types and other details. Later in its life the plane was restored to a more original configuration, and in that guise it can be represented with the kit as it comes, studying of course that later scheme. However, the kit, as it is, was not duly modified for the configuration necessary to represent the machine on its epic flight to Australia. For that you need to work a bit. And study another bit. Depending on which moment in the plane's life you would like to represent, the details are as subtle as this: for the Fageol Flyer livery, you can see six-point starts, but from then on, only five-point stars depicting the iconic constellation. The kit's decals have seven-point stars, following the inaccurate museum "restoration" -that somehow mixed some features of the plane at different stages of its life. So this is one of the many VH-USU configurations, one less-commonly portrayed in photos and one I have never seen in model form before, that entails a specific decoration on the wings. The kit required some modifications and many additions to fulfill its destiny as presented here, but it is a fair base to work upon, so much so that I bought another one to build perhaps as the Wilkins polar exploration machine, or the Argentine ex-Friendship, or some other arcane livery. Valom's Fokker F.VII -already a bit dated- is not really a refined kit, although the resin and P.E. add-ons surely help. It's a bit heavy-handed and requires work to show its potential. But with some little skill, good references and love, it can be transformed and adapted to depict many Fokker liveries. Parts for those transformations are sometimes included already in the box. It is much better than the Frog/Zvezda release, no doubt, but still needs the modeler's help to shine.

Thanks Meatbox8, it is a nice kit and that makes things easier. Cheers

I used the Arctic Decals for both machines