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Army_Air_Force

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  1. Army_Air_Force
    Despite the Easter Egg school project that is ongoing, we made a little more progress on the diorama today. I cleaned some of the paint away from the base, and had to do some trimming of the vac-formed base as the house didn't fit very well. Once we got a reasonable fit, the house was glued in place and then weighted down with some lead blocks to keep it firmly still while the glue set.
  2. Army_Air_Force
    Nearly there now! I'm very pleased with the look of the model, seeing it now with colour and decals. They have really brought it to life. I have a few little tweaks to the instructions following the application of the decals, but it's almost ready to go.
  3. Army_Air_Force
    With the wheels and prop balanced on, the model was set up for a few photos. The decals need another clear coat to protect them, then all the remaining accessories can be fitted.
  4. Army_Air_Force
    The tailplane decals include the dotted box where the wooden control lock fits in place. The other yellow markings are cut from a strip of yellow decal. The stencil between the elevators is only about 1mm high. When the decals were done, the engine was painted.
  5. Army_Air_Force
    On the starboard side, there's a red outline to the rear window, which I presume is the emergency "smash your way in here" window. Since I didn't want decal film over the window, the decal was cut in half and the clear film cut away from the inside of the red lines. Starboard side decals almost done.
  6. Army_Air_Force
    So with my own instruction sheet as a guide, I started slapping the decals on!! The roundels, and codes were simple enough, the little shield and the tiny stork or goose were fiddly to cut out, but were ok. The big test for me was the rudder decals where the colours needed to wrap around the bi-curved trailing edge. I didn't want it being too over size, but it still needed to be large enough to meet with the inner rudder decal so there was no green line up the back of the rudder. I just had to guess on a size when drawing out the decal graphics and thankfully, they worked out perfectly. These were the only decals than needed Microsol to get the decal around the double curve at the bottom of the rudder. The only split decal was one of the wing strut markings that ended up as two decals while trying to slide it off the paper and onto the strut. It was only about 2mm wide, and the carrier film was trimmed fairly close either side of the decal.
  7. Army_Air_Force
    The carrier film was trimmed fairly close around the decals, leaving a tab to hold with just the carrier film sliced at this location. Some of the decals are tiny, but have printed well and are recognisable when compared to the fullsize markings.
  8. Army_Air_Force
    Big day today - decal day! I had two sheets of decals, one more pale and one more bold. The first with a more faded look had colours based on various eye dropper colour pickups from photos of the real aircraft. My decal printer printed this version before I had finalised the graphics and as a result, suggested some colour changes, based on his experience of how screen colours actually look once printed. The second sheet was with the more bold colours, where the red is a bit more intense and the blue is more blue, rather than blue/grey. This second set was to be kept for the kits and I would experiment with the first sheet, knowing I had nine versions of the pale decals if it all went wrong. The instructions with the decals called for cold water and then patience while the decal released itself from the paper. The carrier film is very thin and will tear if the decal is forced to move before it has released itself. I went for a 30 to 40 second dunk in the water which also had a little "Future" added as an additional adhesive. Within around a minute, the decals were releasing. Since the film is so thin, the roundel had no trouble conforming to the panel lines on this little Bf110, without any effort or need for Microsol.
  9. Army_Air_Force
    Little legs damaged a hair net while getting her hair done ready for dance class. I said, "Great, don't throw it away, we need it for the diorama!". While the mesh spacing is overscale for a 1/72 scale camo net, it would do for us. However, for some time I've wanted to replicate the square spiral hessian camo material in WW2 netting. I had a plan. I had a few miuntes to do some testing today so stuck some parcel tape down onto a piece of scrap wood. I mixed some PVA glue and waterbased green and brown acrylic together, then added some baby talc to thicken it slightly. I didn't have a fine needle for my syringe, so ended up just scooping up a little of the glue mix onto a piece of fine wire, and dabbing it onto the parcel tape, forming a spiral. These spirals vary between around 5/16ths to 1/2 an inch square. After it was dry, it peeled off the parcel tape no problem. The plan is to cover a larger piece of wood in tape and then tape down the hair net, stretched out over the board. I'll then start applying green and brown glue spirals over the netting, leaving until dry. The net should then peel off the parcel tape, leaving the glue spirals stuck to the net. It can then be used on the diorama, supported on some poles with cotton guy ropes.
  10. Army_Air_Force
    The tailwheel is made and painted but is another part waiting until the end of the project before being attached.
  11. Army_Air_Force
    The 0.5mm diameter brass wire step was formed this afternoon. The two side braces for the step will be cut and added later. At present, the step is just pushed into its mounting holes. The wheels and prop are just pushed on. The model was also given several sprayed coats of Future today, in preparation for the decals.
  12. Army_Air_Force
    A test fit of the 0.9mm piano wire pitot tube. The prop and spinner were assembled and I checked the hole in the engine was deep enough. Fragile things like the pitot and prop will be left until the end before fitting. The bottom of the model has also been drilled and tapped for the M3 studding that will hold it into the picture frame.
  13. Army_Air_Force
    The only progress we have made was to fill the back of the very thin vac-forming with a plaster/PVA glue mix to stop it being crushed by accident. Once the plaster was dry, the plastic was epoxied down to the MDF baseboard which has already had its edges painted black and varnished. It was weighted down and left to dry, and the lead weights came off this morning. We've got quite a bit of debris to add to the ground but it shouldn't be too long before we make a start on the Jeep.
  14. Army_Air_Force
    It's getting so close now!
  15. Army_Air_Force
    The prop on the Real Aero aircraft has double striped tips. I decided it was probably easiest to paint one large yellow tip first, then touch in the black dividing stripes after. It took a steady hand and a watchmaker's magnifier as the prop is quite small. Then it was time to start taking off the masking. This was slightly terrifying as I was convinced I was going to snap off one of the fins while wrestling with the bag, masking tape and a scalpel.
  16. Army_Air_Force
    Gradually, the orange was built up, becoming more dense as the layers added together. Also sprayed orange was the pitot tube, seen inset. Between orange coats, I did more painting of the smaller accessories, such as the black prop blades and wheels.
  17. Army_Air_Force
    Masking up the airframe in order to paint the orange took some doing, especially around the fuselage band. A plastic bag was used around the nose and tail. I had a test spray of the dayglow orange, suspecting that it would be quite transparent. It was - very! So I knew that spraying the aircraft was going to take many coats.
  18. Army_Air_Force
    No progress on this of late. We've been too busy with two school modelling projects. One is for World Book Day and that is now complete. The other, which is still ongoing, is a Moon Landing themed Easter Egg competition. We've won her age group for the last two years so the pressure is on!
  19. Army_Air_Force
    Today, the green was given another coat and after a period of drying, I began to peel off the masking. Despite spraying the edges of the tape with white first, to try and seal the edges, I had a little green paint creep here and there. After a little gentle scraping with a scalpel blade and a couple of fine touch ups of white with a fine brush, the model was placed back in the airing cupboard to allow the paint to fully harden. While all this was going one, I painted the prop, spinner, wheels and struts. Once thr green has hardened, it can be masked off to spray the dayglow orange wing tips and fuselage band.
  20. Army_Air_Force
    Today, the white was given a gentle flat back to take the pimples off it followed by masking out all the white and orange areas of the model. The airbrush came out next and I started building up lots of thin layers of paint. It started off looking a very light transparant colour, and gradually darkened and covered better. The cowl was used to hold the model for the painting of most of the airframe. The bottom of the cowl was next and then the model could be placed on its legs. This allowed the sides and top of the cowl to be sprayed. Once I'm happy with the green and it has fully hardened, the green can be masked out and the orange wing tips and fuselage band painted.
  21. Army_Air_Force
    I was running out of excuses to not open a tin of paint, so I began with brush painting around the window frames and landing light. A few thin coats were slowly built up for a short distance around the glazed areas. Once that was dry, it was masked off with Blu-Tac again and I started building up layers of white along the wings, wingtips, spine and fuselage band. The white was then left to bake overnight.
  22. Army_Air_Force
    Axles were trimmed to length and the wheels test fitted. They will be fitted properly after painting. The wing struts need finishing, but they too will probably be fitted at a later date. Some Blu-Tac was used to mask off the glazing while the first coat of primer was sprayed. This was left a little while to harden, then sanded and a little filling done. The model was then primed again.
  23. Army_Air_Force
    The model was propped up to keep everything square and level and the fin/rudder aligned with the tailplane. A little thin cyano glue was added to the joint and that was the fins attached. Finally, after what seems like such a long time, all the major airframe components are together in one aeroplane shaped lump! Thankfully, after all the hard work, it does actually resemble a Broussard!!
  24. Army_Air_Force
    The copper wire exhausts had their ends chamfered and a slight bend added. The cowl was drilled for the pipes, but they will be painted and fitted later. The filler over the landing gear fillet was also sanded down. Next, another jig for the fins was made. It was a simple piece of half inch plywood with a vertical hacksaw cut in the end. The fin was pushed into the slot and the rudder hinge line aligned vertically.
  25. Army_Air_Force
    Here's a number of wing struts and the tool to make them. After cutting the aluminium tube to length, it is taped to a smooth steel block. The block and another steel plate are placed in a vice and gently squeezed to flatten the tube. This gives the more streamlined shape of the fullsize, rather than a round tube or flat bar.
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