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Martin1962

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  1. Thanks David, it's been a journey that's for sure. I spent the weekend with my elder brother who bought me the kit and was telling him how much I've enjoyed making it. Each step has thrown up new challenges - mainly because I think my skills lie elsewhere than wood and metal. I would build another one, but there wouldn't be much point! I may do the Fokker triplane from the same manufacturer, but have promised my wife that the 1/35 Tamiya M41 self-propelled gun she bought me last year will be next. After that there's my 1/72 V Bomber collection to finish and I have an exciting plan for those. I also have Airfix's new 1/48 Gannet and Sea King kits so it will be a while before there's another 1/16 on the bench. Hopefully next week the Camel will be finished. Thanks for your kind comments.
  2. I'm nearing the end of the build now and although I wanted to have it finished by the 1st anniversary of starting, due to some pressing home DIY projects it's slipped back a little. Since the last update I have completed the build of the Clerget 9 Cyl rotary engine. I lost count at the parts total, but it's in the region of 100 pieces. I am considering displaying it as a separate kit in its own right as most of it will be hidden from view on the finished model, as these things often are. This is the view from the back with the exhausts and (I'm guessing) HT leads from the spark plugs, coloured black The propeller was next and took several hours of work. It is made from 7 separate pieces laminated together with PVA glue, then progressively sanded down to shape. I'm happy with the result. but it will need a bit more polishing. Here it is attached with the PE centre boss in place. And here is a look at the propeller as a work in progress. Unfortunate colour cast I'm afraid I'll display the kit on the supplied acrylic stand and here it is as a test fit. A few more bots of bracing 'wire' to install. and finally for now here's a model Camel I photographed today at the Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford. I'm hoping that the next photos will be the completed model in the 'ready for inspection' forum. Thanks for looking.
  3. Good evening fellow modellers. It has been a while since I've posted and life has interrupted the model-making, but a recent renewed push has resulted in some progress. I've completed the upper wing and all the rigging and very happy with the results overall. I was waiting for an opportunity to use my new Badger Extreme airbrush and set about painting the wood effect on the side and upper panels. This was done by spraying a light base colour then applying a darker top coat using a stencil. I used epoxy to fix the side panels as I was struggling to get the superglue to hold. It may be the type of glue I was using, but it didn't really work very well. I think the wood effect works quite nicely The pictures below show the state of play right now. The undercarriage frame is painted and in place and wheels will be built up and added soon. I think it's about 80% finished and although there's a decent list of jobs still to do, they mainly involve fixing parts to the airframe rather than building them up. All of the wood work is complete. The engine is part-made and will be the next job, followed by adding the upper wing. There are struts and more bracing wire (yippee), but the job doesn't fill me with trepidation as with the fuselage as I have learned quite a bit since then. Last week I was looking at the Artesania website and started day-dreaming about building their Red Baron Fokker.......................... Thanks for stopping by. More soon. The wood grain effect came off better than expected. Parts just resting on the side panels for now. You can just see the guns. Upper wing obviously not in the right place! Some detail on the upper wing. Each of the metal parts on the leading edge of the wing had to be bent three ways. At the bottom of the image is the pulley around which the aerolon control cable fits. That piece of thread goes from the aerolon through the width of the wing, all along the leading edge and into the cockpit where it fits to the pedals More 'wire' rigging. I lost count of the number of knots tied altogether but it's in the region of 200.
  4. Here's my latest progress update with some photos. As mentioned before the whole fuselage was re-strung due to issues with the material I was using and I prefer the new results. The bottom wing is more or less complete and all that needs doing is to tie off the remaining 'cables' onto the aerolons. You can see on this photo below how a photo etched part recreates a pully that the cable runs around. The other end of that cable connects to a control on the cockpit floor. I think it's a pretty cool bit of detail The upper wing is coming along and is at the bracing stage so more knot-tying to be done. It's difficult to get the whole thing into one shot as it's about 50cm long, but this was a representative shot from earlier today. You can see the bar on the leading edge is white and that's because it's made from styrene rod. I ran out of the stripwood that came with the kit, and although it was only about £2 to buy from Artesania, the £12 postage was bit salty. Attached to the leading edge of the wing are a number (24) photo etched ties. The parts are flat and have to be bent at both ends to make them 3D. Fiddly or what. I bought a decent pair of snippers. One false mood and its an hour on the floor searching for it! Each piece had to have a twist applied at both ends ......and fixed into place. Another pulley is shown inside the rectangular metal frame. I want to throw in a couple of phots of the refurbished fuselage as it looks now The revised bracing and cabling. All of this had to be re-done and every fixing eye de-glued and cleaned out. Took weeks! The constant companion for this build is the laptop with the instructions open. I have noticed that there are some errors in a few steps and also part numbering. Also there isn't always a warning that a certain step will impact upon another much later one. One example relates to the aforementioned cable from the cockpit to the aerolon pulley to the cockpit. The instructions don't explain how it's fixed at one end and how that later relates to it's final position, so I ended up tying a length to the cockpit control and waiting for several step before I found out where it went. If that makes sense. Having said that, it's so utterly complex I can understand the off error! Thanks for dropping by. Next steps involve painting metal parts, so I'm looking forward to making use of my new Badger Patriot airbrush. Thanks for stopping by. Martin
  5. If I post some photos they will look almost exactly the same as the previous ones, but my update is: Removed all the bracing and control 'cables' due to too many stray fibres on the cotton, making it look like......er, cotton Removing all traces of superglue from the bracing 'eyes' using a sewing needle. Some came adrift and had to be re-glued Bought polyester thread to use instead of cotton. Far fewer stray fibes Set about replacing all the bracing. This involved tying something in the region of 90 knots (180 really because each eye has two knots). It took weeks Replaced all the control cables that run from the cockpit to along the fuselage Replaced the wood leading edges of the wings with 1.5mm x 1.5mm polystyrene strips because they were the wrong size Lower wings mostly completed and wing jig constructed That's quite a lot of activity since my last update. Removing the old bracing and superglue residue was a labour of love. I think this makes the kit about 1/3 done!
  6. Coming real soon - updates on progress. No, I haven't given up on it, but have been sidetracked by summer holidays, family commitments and so on. The normal stuff of adult life!
  7. Thanks. I tried that with watered down PVA glue and it looked OK to begin with but once dry had a hard white residue. I'm obviously doing something fundamentally wrong here!
  8. Good tip. i've found some on Amazon. .28mm thickness. is that going to be in scale for 1/16 scale?
  9. An instant pre-order for me and it certainly looks better than the old Hasegawa Sea King that I made a couple of years ago. I too am also a Gannet fan and that's on pre-order too.
  10. After buying a tin of beeswax and coating some thread, it doesn't look as if I'm going to be able to make that method work for me either, so the trials fo on. I had another go at fishing line, making sure my end knots were really tight and small, but couldn't get them taut enough between the fixings without pulling the fixings off. No matter what I did I ended up with slack bracing. With reference to Artesania's YouTube channel I looked again at how they tightened them using an extinguished match. That didn't work either and I melted another line that is going to be very fiddly to replace. The level of skill required for this kit overall is probably beyond my limits, having only ever made plastic model kits since childhood, but I am still determined to keep on. My next material choice for the bracing wires will be polyester cotton which shouldn't have any stray fibres and may look better. To do that, all of the remaining bracing will have to come off and be re-done. Again! More later!
  11. Jeff thanks and you’re right. I couldn’t get the fishing line to work at all so had to use cotton but will definitely give the beeswax a try
  12. It doesn't look as if I've done much to the Camel since last time, but don't let the similar-looking images fool you! I've completed all of the wire bracing for the fuselage which covers top, bottom and sides. I've also added the first spars for the lower wing plus all of its assorted PE brackets and strengthening panels. There's a couple of PE pieces (B5 in the parts list) which have to be bent then fitted to the outside of the cockpit where it meets the engine bulkhead. Whilst bending the first one it slipped from my feeble grasp and flew into my left index finger causing a deep cut as if done with a sharp blade. The part (B5) then changed direction and flew across to the right and then buried itself - quite literally - into my right index finger, pointy end first. Two woulds for the price of one. It was one of those surreal moments when the blood began to seep from my first would while my eyes fixated on the piece of metal lodged into my other finger. Eyes moved right, then left, then left, then right again, now focusing on the foreign object, which I pulled sharply out of its embedded position, much against all of my first aid training. Five minutes under running water and a couple of plasters later I was fixed up for the next session, but two hours later when I had a look, the first would was still bleeding. Oh dear. Anyway, I carried on - rather heroically I feel - and finished the instrument panel and gun magazines which are now installed. The next step in the instructions is to make the lower wing and instal it on a jig to the fuselage. Nasty part B5 is the steel piece at the bottom right of this image. Sharp isn't the word. This picture also shows the first of the wing spars As I say, it doesn't look a let different here, but the bracing is complete Completed instrument panel. Tweezers for scale Top side showing ammunition magazines This one shows the instrument panel in place and shows off many of the control cables That's all for today. I must peel back the plaster and see if the superglue is needed! Thanks for looking Oh and the new Xuron side cutters are phenomenal.
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