Torbjorn

I’m very happy with a manufacturer making efforts in 1/72, especially since others seems to move away from the scale.

Yes, I initially only clamped on two sides, which failed miserably. Failing is a good way of learning how the material works though, so mistakes are also useful. Thanks for the link, I have seen images of that model elsewhere (and in fact used it as template for the cockpit!) but had not seen that thread. — DMC, I read your primer and based much of my attempts on your writings. A hot air gun is certainly on the table if I will end up doing a lot of moulding. I imagine the heat is easier to control (and you don’t risk ruining your toaster). For this project I will likely not need many more push moulds. Maybe the radiator frame and floats.

They might be inspection windows (they are on top of the guns and instruments) or just to let some light into the cockpit? I think the cartridges are collected in designated boxes. Jutting them out in front of the pilot’s nose (and propeller) seems a bit reckless.

Not a lot of activity on my part, duties taking priority. Here is one update, the next will have to wait a few weeks (I did say I will struggle with the timelimit!) Since everyone is showing pictures of their perfect results I thought I’d try to be different: Ergo I’m trying to learn plunge molding in plastic. After a lot of waste, I did find a method that works for me (copied off the interwebs), so I’d thought I’d document so I don’t have to go through it again after forgetting. I first used a candle as heat source, others had - so why not me? I couldn’t get a controlled heating - even if I didn’t outright burn the plastic every time, it resulted in the above. Eventually I did this: Make a female mold with one or two mm extra width compared to the male. Clamp the plastic (20 thou) firmly on the female mold, place the lot on top of a toaster. While heating, try gently prodding the plastic sheet with a plastic stick until the plastic starts being loose and *almost* start sticking to your plastic stick when you remove the stick, then quickly - quickly! - lift the female and push it over the male mold, which has been fastened securely in a vise. This is the first succesful attempt (bottom half of engine crankcase), with the male mold glued to a clothespin. This is the upper part of the fuselage being molded with described method: Said part cut and resting in place, in need of some trimming and sanding: I have since figured out that there are two holes to be drilled on the front part. If these were open holes, it is obvious what to do, but if they were windows the easiest would to be making a new mold in clear plastic and just masking the windows. The holes can be seen in the first image in the thread. edit: For the female molds I use balsa - cheap, very quick to cut and it may be rough without detrimental affect. The male mold I used balse for the fuselage piece, but some harder piece of scrap wood for the engine casing due to the balsa being a bit too soft to achieve good results

Certainly looks good.

That was quick - thank you! ICM approach it is.

So I can’t find the clear sprue for my Airfix E-4. I hear the ICM E-3 and E-4 kits contain the same plastic and each have canopies for both versions. The cunning plan is therefore to purchase an ICM E-3 kit and use the E-4 canopy for the canopy-less Airfix. The silly question is thus: would it fit? Anyone tried already? Of course, I could just buy a vacuuformed replacement for £2, but where is the fun in that? And Hannants (where I do almost all toyshopping) have 0 of those in stock, which must be a sign.

I like it

Again I refer to armahobby.com. The webshop has a picture of the resin. Looks like a tail and tailwheel to me, but no spinner.

Hannants and Armahobby are selling them. Iirc the Finnish Buffalo is around £12 (it’s in my backorder list :p) There is one B6N1 and one B6N2 boxing with pictures at armahobby.com

There is a relatively new (around 2000) 1/72 Toko kit available for this one.

Looking and learning - thanks for the detailed description.

Thanks for the comments and encouragements, gents. It is indeed a beautiful craft and it’s a shame there is no [1/72 injection molded] kit. Regarding the commercial side, with plenty of interesting paint jobs, Italian as well as American (the latter also includes a Medal of Honor honoree). But I guess WWI is low on the list, and so are flying boats. Anyway, it is more fun to scratch it, right?

Certainly helps: it gives the centreline of the hull, including the recess for the propeller which I did not have any details on. It also shows that the cockpit is similar to the M7 and so far I only noticed that the instrument board is different. Your image looks like an early version I believe, with the gun on top. I will have two guns mounted internally. Well, in this scale I’m just painting it yellowish brown and then overpaint with oil colours or other acrylics with stiff brushes. Can’t really see any grain effect. I like painting fake wood though, especially since I get to varnish it Below is my latest attempt of a plywood-machine, will probably do something similar here, although almost every M5 model I’ve seen show much darker shades of wood. Been working on the cockpit, built on a false floor. It is a study in brown: Built from plastic strips. Wires are hair (the oned from the stick I guess are for the guns - I’ve seen other modellers add them), the stick .4mm rod. The zoom reveals what I could not see by eye: I didn’t clean up the burr good enough after drilling the holes in thr chair (slso plywood). With this finished I started assembling the hull. Since the plastic sides are thin, I did not force them to the bulkheads: these are for support, not to shape the hull. Trying to do that would inevitably result in kinks, whereas the hull should be a nice and smooth spline. Instead I heated the sides on a radiator and bent it until its natural shape followed the drawing. Then I started with the bulkhead behind the cockpit (the only one that needs to be perfectly perpendicular) and when that dried added the rest. Where the bulkheads did not follow the form, I either nibbled away or added a shim or two. It’s slow going as I’m just trying my way with new techniques - borrowed from the book of Mr Harry Woodman.

Ah, yes, of course. My memory is faltering