Unkempt

A short run kit of a pretty obscure subject. A few little issues putting it together but I like the result. WIP here: For scale:

And here we go. The prop looks like laminated wood to me so I painted accordingly. That weird spinner up front was apparently also made of wood so that got the treatment too. No chance of getting the full insane rigging that it had in real life so I put a few thin wires in there to hopefully give the effect. Undercarriage: a bit tricky- there's no obvious location for one of the struts so I just put where it fitted. A bit fiddly, I think they were both done at least twice. Also added the windscreen, broke off the windscreen, lost the windscreen and had to use the spare one provided. Managed to get that one on though. Add a little bit of rigging and here we go: Overall a bit more work than a kit from one of the big guys but I'm pretty happy with the result and it's a subject nobody else will be touching in the near future, so thanks, Avis. (Thavis.) I think I'll actually do an RFI for this one!

... and the transfers are on. Just the three per side. They went on very easily, which is a good thing as I was four Naragansetts into a six-pack when I decided to do them last night. However, if I had screwed them up, Avis thoughtfully provided duplicates of everything - three codes and four of the others. Nice of them. Still to go is this lot: Prop, spinner, wheels. Also a tiny bit of rigging and the windshield. And that'll be it. Maybe next update? We'll see.

Not illustrated in this update: - me deciding that the engine cowling wasn't on straight - breaking off the cowling that I'd superglued on - much filing & fettling to get i to fit like I wanted - breaking off all those brass rods I stuck on earlier - actually managing to lose two of them - deciding that four brass rods is a fine number for something only visible through the wheelwells - finally getting it back on how I wanted, after an enormous amount of sanding and filling and sanding, obviously. Illustrated in this update: It's red! I can see the end from here.

Thanks guys. Yes, Marklo, I've seen your build, looking forward to seeing that finished. Proper update. The instructions for I think my last three updates look like this: which had me thinking Those rods in the middle aren't provided in the kit so I suppose I have to make them. Luckily I had some 0.8mm brass rod so I cut 11mm lengths of that. I filed the ends down and drilled a little ways into the front of the bulkhead to have somewhere to stick them They're now glued on there with superglue; it's a butt joint, so they all fell off at least once. I think they're on OK now though. I only did six rather than the eight in the instructions as the only way you'll be able to see these is through the wheel wells and there's absolutely no way you can see the bottom pair. Plus it's easier... I finished redoing the cowling. I got rid of the seam and drilled the exhausts out. In photos it looks like there's a very short pipe attached to each exhaust which presumably the detail I just sanded off represented but I don't have any pipe of a small enough diameter to represent it and I can't think of any other way of doing it so it'll just be holes on here. And so: Together at last. Let's have a look up through that wheel well: ...worth the effort. I guess? Hmm. Anyway. Nest up: The Reddening

A quick look in the box is very promising, I'd definitely recommend it. Love to see what you can do with it. These guys have it in stock if you're still looking. I'll have a proper update in an hour or two, I said I'd mow the lawn...

Meanwhile, back on topic: Fuselage together, seams dealt with and primed The real plane has a slight chequerboard surface detail on the fuselage - see this photo, for example. I'm going to attempt a bit of pre-shading to simulate that. No idea if it'll work but might as well give it a go. The rudder slots in the back. Not a great fit and I've got some filling and sanding to do there. Probably should have done that before the shading to be honest. And I've got one wing on and drying. It's a butt joint and I'll probably squirt some superglue in there to try and strengthen it up a bit. And now, the engine. On the sprue: Details are a bit soft and no doubt there's a resin replacement around somewhere, but once again you're not going to be able to see much of it when we're done so it'll do for me. The engine sits on that block, the cowling on the right goes over that and then the front end goes on top of that, so: It mostly fits, but there's a big ugly seam between the two cowling pieces and it's just a one piece thing in real life. Unfortunately getting rid of that will obliterate the exhaust detail on the top cowling bit so I'll have to redo that somehow. Anyway, getting started on that. Things should progress fairly rapidly now, especially since the postie brought me this 'get it done' incentive this morning: More soon.

I think that might actually be the one I'm thinking of; it would've been the old MRCA kit with the swing wing stuff. And looking around I can see that a few modern jet kits do it too, I suppose I just don't build any these days.

OK, here we go. Oh yes - hence the 'invisible cockpit' I mentioned above. More on that later. Moa, mate, I've seen your builds - you're not going to learn anything from me. He's a little beaten up and sadly not to scale, but... For a start, I think this is only kit I've seen where the fuselage is divided horizontally. I assume there's a moulding reason for this, but it works out fine for me. (Actually, way back there might have been an F14 that did that? Or something?) So, starting on the cockpit. Fairly simple; there's a forward bulkhead thingy with what looks like a moulded in instrument panel, a floor, a stick and a seat. It all fits together neatly enough. The bulkhead goes in the lower half and there's a smaller blanking bit behind the cockpit hole in the top half.I'm assuming all this stuff bar the stick and the panel is wood, for which I use Tamiya deck tan with this stuff over the top: It's actually an acrylic but it's got an oil-paint like consistency and it dries a lot faster. That gets us this: I've added a PE belt I had spare from something or other, but otherwise OOB. I painted the panel black. The floor is attached by sliding it through that bulkhead and gluing in place. This needed a bit of fettling to get it through the holes. Useful to try fitting the top half when you're adding that as you want the seat to be directly below the hole; I actually move it forward a couple of mm, but that may just be me misaligning something. Either way, as we said earlier you're not going to see a lot... Yes, it is in there, honest. With the flash: Look! A seat! I think if I was trying to smarten this up then I might look for a replacement seat; It's practically the only thing you can see once the fuselage is buttoned up. Next up: sticking that together and some front-end engine type gubbins.

Already looking better than my 1:48th effort. Don't know how you do it, amazing work as ever.

Well, it's official - I now have the inter-war civil aircraft bug, and next up is this little guy - Avis' 1/72nd Bristol Racer. 'What the heck is a 'Bristol Racer' I hear you cry? Well, wikipedia says The Bristol Type 72 Racer was a British racing monoplane designed by Wilfrid Thomas Reid and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company at Filton, England. - and who am I to doubt them. More to the point, it looked like this: Who couldn't love that? Well, apparently the pilots who had to fly it because according to wiki it was terrible and scrapped just a couple of years after it was built. Still, it looks good, doesn't it? Anyway, thanks to Avis for making a kit of such an obscure piece of aviation history. Apparently they're only making 500 of these kits, but I've got one so let's hope I can actually finish it and make it look halfway decent when I do. As is traditional, here's the box: And here's the bits: Moulding is definitely short-run, but I've seen worse. Next time: The amazing invisible cockpit!

Finishing up, better late than never... I did fix up the exhaust; I filled in one of the provided bits, drilled holes in it then used some thin wire for the 'pipes' Last thing was the prop; neither of the provided ones look much like the reference pic here https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/Stock-Images/Rights-Managed/MEV-10993393 ... so I found a spare (I think from a Testor's Laird Solution) and a backplate from I don't know what and made this: which doesn't look too bad. That pic does show flaws in the aerosol paintjob, though. So, anyway, here we are: ... and that's it. Overall I really liked the kit with just a few minor complaints, although the biggest one is that none of the decent paint manufacturers make the right colour which is no fault of Dora Wings. I think I'll be getting more of their kits.

OK, it's update time! Still to do: prop, underside engine panel (more on that later) and windows (more on that later, too.) The tailwheel went on. It looks like this (excuse blurry photo): That bit sticking out at top right is a locator pin, but there's no hole for it to go in. I cut the pin off and it fits fine; I'm pretty sure I didn't fill the hole in by accident but can't rule it out. This hole on the other hand: Just behind the cockpit. I'd been keeping that one clear because I thought it's where an aerial would go, but as it turns out, no. Not in this version, anyway; presumably it's for the Proctor. So that got filled in. So here we are at the moment. Now. Two things. One is that engine plate at the bottom. The kit bit I'm supposed to use looks like this: The pipe sort of comes along a slot and then angles down. That looks right for some of the planes I've seen online. But, on the other hand, the colouring diagram in the instructions looks like this: - with individual pipes sticking more or less straight down. I'd tend to go with the part over the diagram but then I went and found this pic on the internet. I won't post it here for copyright reasons but you can see it here: https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/Stock-Images/Rights-Managed/MEV-10993394 Now, that's the actual plane and hey, look at that, it looks like the diagram is right and the part is wrong. Ho hum. I haven't yet decided whether to try and make a new part or just use what I've got but it's sort of worrying at my brain now... The other thing: windows/doors. I said earlier I was thinking of leaving them open. Now, this is a bit odd, but for some reason I had in my head that they opened upwards, like gull-wing doors - maybe because of the Gull in the name? I don't know. But a couple of days ago I was flicking through the cable here and came across a movie called 'The McKenzie Break'. Frankly it wasn't very good but at the end a British officer goes looking for some escaped Nazis and he does it in what I assume is a Percival Proctor which as we all know is nearly identical to the Vega Gull. Awesome, I thought. But eventually he landed and he got out. They don't open upwards at all. They open from the front like most car doors. Dammit. This wouldn't matter s much except the cockpit parts have a fairly thick ridge at the top that the doors fit onto; - which doesn't exist on the real plane and would be a complete pain to remove at this stage. So I think I'm going to have the doors shut. Top tip: if you want the doors open, get rid of that ridge before assembly! And that's where I am now - basically deciding whether to finish up or make life harder for myself. Decisions decisions.

Thanks! I've started decals and the colour's a really close match to the lettering so I'm quite happy about that. More pics shortly.

It peels right off in my experience but I haven't used it lately. Always a good idea to test a bit first.

Well that craft paint was horrible and I've completely failed at mixing up a good match, so I'm going to cheat here. Not perfect but that's what I'm using. Needs a bit of cleanup and some minor detailing. The end is in sight, honest!

Copydex or other latex-based glue works. Don't know what the Belgian equivalent would be.

Some slow progress. I quite liked how the interior turned out so I thought I'd leave one or both of the windows open. To do that though I need to paint the interior framing of the canopy, something I've never bothered with before and no masks are provided. So, at a very gradual pace, this happened: ... and then this Looks OK so far. You can see the undercarriage in that pic too; here's a close up: I thought it was a bit odd doing the legs in two pieces like that but a look at the photos showed that there is a noticeable join in the real thing so that's OK. Cockpit mostly on: I'm currently trying to get rid of that obvious join line between the transparency and the fuselage, as there isn't a panel line there on the original that I can see. Still, getting there (slowly)!

This is a lovely looking model, but I've got to say - that's kind of a niche market, isn't it?

Ohhhh, that makes sense. I was wondering what the heck was going on there.

Flaps and ailerons: Those inboard panels are the flaps - they look pretty strange and on the underside there's a noticeable gap: It does look a bit odd, but I found this, um, action shot of a guy fiddling with his flaps on the internet - so I can actually believe that yep, there's a big gap under there where the whole thing hinges out. I also masked up the canopy. I don't usually use pre-cut masks but these were provided, easy to position and seem to fit really well. No idea why they're made out of transparent grey film but there's enough colour to them that you can see what you're doing so I'm not complaining. Next post should be paint time! edit: found a pic here: https://www.airplane-pictures.net/photo/314584/g-aezj-private-percival-p-10-vega-gull/ - which seems to show a gap where that underside flap line is, so I'm leaving it.

Current plan is to spray the whole thing silver and then do the blue over that, but I might do some more tests first.

Further paint update: I found this stuff in a local hardware store Now, this is not designed for scale modelling or even for plastic; it's a water based acrylic that says 'general craft and decorative painting' on 'wood, canvas, plaster, clay, metal, bisque and more'. But it's almost exactly the colour I'm looking for, so... I thinned some with IPA and tried airbrushing it onto a test I-16 I keep around for the purpose. That's actually not bad, and it's only one coat. Takes a while to dry but I can live with that. I think I can use this. In actual model building news, I've also stuck a few more bits on!

So, paint. This is what I ordered: This is what I got: Looks like I've got some mixing to do. Sigh.

Thanks, I thought as much. OK then, let the fettling begin! Yep, that's better. Might need a smidge of putty in there but it fits now. Easily fixable but I don't get how they missed that. I still haven't got my turquoise paint - the guy very nicely sent me a replacement for the one that's obviously lost in the post somewhere between Poland and Vermont, but according to the tracking the replacement's still in Poland so there might be another delay coming up...