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John Adams of Aeroclub fame has graciously posted his tutorial on how to build vacform models on this forum before, but unfortunately during our various moves the thread seems to have got lost in the sands of time. I managed to find a copy the other day, so am pleased to re-post it, along with my personal thanks to John for this, as it probably saved me from disaster when I decided to do my first vacformed model back when I hadn't even completed an ordinary injection moulded kit yet! Anyway - here it is. I've added a bit about Zip Kicker from my experiences, but other than a few typos and some reformatting, it's almost untouched VACFORM MODELLING, a new approach? by John W.Adams Models featuring the vacuum formed method of construction have been around for a long time. However, many people who consider themselves to be competent modellers, will still not attempt this form of construction. Also I speak with an equal number of modellers who have had a go at vacuum forms and made (what appears to them) to be irredeemable mistakes and given up in disgust. Why? Do they lack confidence, patience or skill? Perhaps the answer lies in the traditional techniques. These vary slightly on the theme, "cut out and sand down parts using an abrasive covered board either wet or dry". Some advise modellers to leave a rim of waste plastic around the part. The theory here being that when this rim wears down to a thin membrane and breaks off, the correct thickness has been achieved. In fact, if the average wall thickness is 1mm and a rim of 2mm has to be sanded away, that to me spells 3 times the effort. Let us look at the problems. 1. Vacforms are difficult to cut out 2. I can't see how far to sand down 3. My fuselages end up like bananas 4. Parts are difficult to hold whilst sanding down And some common mistakes. 5. My trailing edges end up too thick and the wing appears flat 6. I make a mess of cutting out cockpits and wheel wells 7. I have taken too much plastic off Now let us look at some answers. Start off with the right tool for the job, a good knife with a replaceable blade is essential. I always use a straight edged blade such as a Swann Morton 10A pointed blade with a No3 handle. (The No 11 blade can be too fragile). This type of blade is good for most jobs, but knives such as Edding and Stanley are best for heavier work. Olfa and Scribe 'N' Cut, make tools whose primary purpose is scribing panel lines but can be used to score through very thick material. I use blades with a curved edge, only for scraping. Hold the scalpel comfortably like a pen and angled away (about 45 deg) from the piece to be removed. Score all around the part using reasonable pressure. 1. The first myth to dispel, is that vacforms are not cut out by brute force, but merely scored around with a sharp blade. Once the surface of most sheet material has been broken by a cut or score and that sheet is then stressed by bending so as to open the cut, the sheet will invariably break along the cut, no matter how wiggly the score line. Always take some cuts out to the edge of the sheet and start the break-out there. Practice on a piece of waste plastic. 2. Before scoring out the parts we must have a marker to show how much plastic will require removing by scraping or sanding (abrading) so the parts will fit together. We can use a fine (0.1) pointed marker pen, preferably permanent ink. A soft sharp B pencil will suffice. I find the best results are with a Rotring .25 (or similar make) drawing pen ideally filled with the type of ink specified for use on plastic drafting film (I use both Red and Black ink for contrast). Simply draw around each part where the part meets the backing sheet. This ink line shows us where we score and where we need to remove plastic. Be accurate. The ink line is King. The part when broken out is then sanded down to the pen line (more anon). 3. Fuselages end up like bananas, because, when using the traditional techniques any pressure on the centre of the fuselage will cause the part to bow, and as this is usually at the widest/deepest part, the wall plastic will be thinner. The waste plastic at the ends of a tapered fuselage, drop tank or nacelle or wing tip (where a mould cavity narrows) will be thicker. Consequently the centre edges of the part abrades away more quickly than the ends. Also slight 'moulded in' stresses can cause a part to bow when released from the constraints of the backing sheet. Obey the ink line and the parts will straighten and fit, when taped together. Paragraph 4. should provide a solution. 4. When using the traditional abrasive paper covered board the following formula applies. ‘Finger ends tend to disappear at the same rate as the plastic’, or when the water turns red, that's far enough! Also parts are slippery and tend not to want to move against the drag of the abrasive. There is nothing to grip, on such as tailplane halves or wheel halves. We need some form of adhesive tape which is resistant to shear (drag) loads, and tacky enough to grip on a curved surface, and yet peel off easily when required. Also something to hold the part in comfort. A method often employed to hold parts whilst sanding is to use some ordinary kind of sticky tape, either made into a loop or of the double sided variety, often using a piece of wood as a handle. These tapes are not made for the job and are either too strong or too weak. The part keeps falling off or will not come off easily. BluTak is equally uncooperative when used for this purpose. The answer is Sticky-pads and Tee-Al. (If this just sounds like a blatant advertisement, the simple truth is - they work)! Sticky-pads measure 12mm x 25mm and have a fabric base coated with a high-tack but highly peelable adhesive which is very resistant to side loads. Tee-Al is simply handy lengths of Tee section aluminium extrusion used as handles, other materials can of course be used. When these two items are combined, handling of vacform parts becomes very easy. A suitable piece of Tee-Al has one or more Sticky-pads removed from the backing strip and positioned on the top face of the 'Tee' and then the protective wax paper is removed from the pad. The vacform part to be worked on is simply pressed into place and abrading or scraping can begin. Even small curved or rounded parts can be secured by this method. In trials I have easily held and sanded down the mating surfaces of small difficult to hold parts such as drop tank and wheel halves. Highly curved parts like propeller spinners can be held by drilling a hole (in a piece of wood) and cover it with a Sticky- Pad, cut radial slits in the Pad and push in the spinner. A pair of wheel halves took a mere 3 minutes including cutting out. Sanding down the parts. For sanding (abrading) the parts I prefer to make my own handy sanders by affixing abrasive paper of the required grit (80!) to a piece of Tee-Al (or wood, even tube) with ordinary double sided tape (I recommend the new Sellotape range). Thus a whole range of sanding tools can be created for little cost. Alternatively you can use a Sandvik Handy Sander fitted with a medium Sandplate. Sandplates are rectangular metal self adesive plates (110x60 mm) with a pin point textured surface fitted to an orange plastic, comfortable handle. It is an excellent tool and widely available. Sandvik also produce a smaller tapered Hobby sander which has its uses. Sandvik also make a larger type but beware as I have found the moulded plastic handles may have a slight curve, and so the plate is not truly flat, however the self-adhesive plate (220x60mm) suitably mounted can be very useful (I have one on the bench top). I sometimes use a 10 inch single cut File (Farmers friend) of the type sold for sharpening lawn mowers (the handle is forged on the blade). Leading and trailing edges can be reduced most effectively by scraping, using a heavy duty craft knife blade (Stanley knife). This is held almost at right angles to the surface and scraped to and fro along the wings inner surface. Use the curved type for single surface biplane wings. If you want to use two hands, then Tee-Al can be easily held in a small vice. Scraping is by far the best method and is a very fast way of removing material. You can scratch build wings this way. When a Polyhedral wing (cranked or gull) is encountered, just treat the wing in separate stages. There are other advantages to using this system. Work can be carried out at a convenient eye level thus enabling closer monitoring of the plastic removal. Parts such as wings are kept flat. You can work over a sink wet or dry so the dust can be washed away. Dust is the enemy of the tacky surface. Once adhered to a dry surface, Sticky-Pads will remain in place even under water. If water gets between the pad and the part, adhesion will cease, but can be reactivated by drying. Trailing edges must be treated separately to the leading edges, which is the answer to problem no 5 (flat wings). If you draw a chord line through a section of vacform wing (representing the flat abrasive board) it should be noticed that the leading edge meets this line at a much steeper angle, presenting a smaller area to the abrasive than the trailing edge. This means that more plastic will have to be removed from the latter. So if the old abrasive board method of sanding is employed, it's all too easy to take off too much of the leading edge whilst concentrating on the trailing edge, if both edges are in contact with the board at the same time. Let us now take a look at cutting out waste areas such as wheel bays cockpits or windows. As a general rule I do not remove waste areas until I have most of the mating surfaces sanded down, unless they project in some manner as to be a nuisance to progress. Whilst still in place, waste areas help with maintaining rigidity. With a cockpit, or nose wheel, or gun position cut-out such as on the conventional fuselage split line, it is best to line up the two halves and secure them with a little tape. When you are satisfied that all is correct, score around the matching waste areas to be removed. Now separate the taped halves and where the score lines reach the edge of the part, make a positive nick with the knife. Now support the fuselage at the nick with the finger and thumb or a small pair of pliers, and then start to shear the waste with the other thumb nail or a second pair of pliers. When the waste part is beginning to move, change to the other side of waste bit and start off the shear there. Within seconds the tear should follow round the score line and the waste part should break cleanly out. When pressure is first applied some distortion may be apparent but you will notice it springs out. For rectangular areas in thicker material, make two cuts with a fine razor saw, the ends of which are joined with a score line and then cracked out. When an aperture needs to be made in in a fuselage side or a wing surface we apply a slightly different technique. Score around the area accurately and carefully. It does not matter if the shape is rounded or square, but if the shape of the required cut-out is complex (for instance a Spitfire wheel bay) divide into separate areas, i.e. a circle and a rectangle. Now score diagonal lines across the waste areas within the scored outline and at the intersection of these lines make a hole by forcing in the scalpel tip or if the plastic is too thick make a hole with a small drill. Using the scalpel tip, start to apply a cutting pressure along each diagonal in turn. It will be noticed that the little tri-angular pieces are starting to curl inwards shearing along the scored lines. Now, take a blunt instrument like a small screwdriver, simply push in the triangles one by one. They should drop out like petals, with moderate force. A pair of needle nosed pliers may be helpful in removing the waste and it actually takes less time than reading this paragraph. For very thick plastic, use a fretsaw / piercing saw. If you do not possess either of these useful saws, or a razor saw, you should! Glues For vacuum forms use the thin liquid solvent glues. These are often Methyl Ethyl Ketone based. The correct method of use is to hold the parts together and apply the glue to the joint with a brush or Touch 'N' Flow solvent applicator. Capillary action will take the glue through the joint while light pressure is applied. I do not recommend solvent glues for laminating plastic sheet (use slow set Cyano). Always work in a well ventilated room when using any solvent based glue and keep the glue covered when not in use. The wide family of Cyanoacrylate or more commonly called 'super-glues' are best used when small or dissimilar materials are to be joined, or reinforcements or instant results are required. If cyanos are used on canopies a white 'blooming' of the transparency may occur. This is caused by the 'gassing' cyanoacrylate reacting on contact with the hygroscopic plastic surfaces, and being clear you can see it. Do not remove the top of your cyano bottle and dispense glue straight from the bottle, the tingle in your eyes is the same effect as on your canopy! Buy a small glass mirror or culture dish lid and dispense a drop of glue at a time, dip a pin or a cocktail stick into this to apply the glue. For a measured drop try breaking off the tip of the eye of a small needle so as to produce a fork (be careful of your own eyes when doing this). You will need to clean out the fork with the tip of a blade occasionally. An excellent way of dispensing along “run” of cyano is to use an old fashioned draftsman's bow pen, just load with cyano instead of ink. No it won't work with a Rotring type pen. There are a number of accelerators (often called "kickers") on the market which speed up the setting rate of cyanoacrylate glues. These can contain 1.1.1. Trichloroethane, so treat with caution. They can also cause the plastic of your model to become brittle and craze, or even crack if put under any pressure, so use sparingly. Ordinary Bicarbonate of Soda has a similar effect, and can be used for building up areas quickly. I will expand on this later. Transparencies These seem to give more than their fair share of problems. I seldom put a knife anywhere near a canopy, instead preferring a small very sharp pair of scissors. Buy high quality. Next, can you see what you are doing. I find that working against a mono coloured background a help. You will find the background required varies according to the light. If the frame lines are indistinct, then cut strips of masking tape and use them to define the no - go areas. Work carefully, trim the waste off a little at a time, Flex-I-files are good for sanding the edges, but remember to remove the dust and most importantly do test the fit of the canopy to the fuselage frequently. When you are finally satisfied with the fit, hold the canopy in place. Now run a brush full of liquid glue around the edge, then apply slight pressure. Repeat with the glue and hold for a minute. If you allow the glue to dry you will find that the canopy is nicely bedded in. It can be easily removed for painting and may be finally affixed using Krystal Klear. P.V.A. base glues such as Kystal Klear are the best for affixing transparencies. Apply with a small brush or cocktail stick. Any excess can be cleaned off with a damp cloth. P.V.A. can also be thinned with water. If there is no moulded rim on which to seat the canopy then glue strips of thin plastic card to form a rim around the inside of the cabin opening. Should you then find that the fuselage plastic is of thicker gauge material than the canopy, then simply build up or pad out the rim with narrower strips, until the canopy is flush with the fuselage surface. This is fiddly but not difficult, but remember if you have over sanded the fuselage, your canopy will not fit! Battle Damage Repairs Or, "I've taken off too much plastic". It's not the end of the model, we can repair most mistakes. Most initial problems are caused by failing to mark or score out accurately. So if for instance an inconsistent score line has caused a piece to stay with the backing sheet when breaking out, simply retrieve it and glue into place using super-glue, then sand down as normal. If it's a large tear/spilt then you might want to reinforce with a piece of plastic card. All repairs are best carried out using super-glue (CA, Cyano, Cyanoacrylate), because you get instant strong joints, which sand well. A more common mistake is, over sanding of parts - especially on fuselage halves. Usually this is caused by not obeying the ink line or by being over enthusiastic when sanding down and not checking often enough. If one fuselage side has had too much removed from the middle (banana) then the answer is to assemble the parts together with tape and assess how much is missing. Once this is ascertained, glue some suitable strips (taper if required) into the gap, gluing only to the wounded side. Gap filling cyano can be used but if this is not at hand, use super-glue and bi-carbonate of soda (baking powder) to bridge the gaps. You just apply super glue and then a pinch of bi-carb, this soaks in the glue and instantly sets hard, Repeat the process until the wound is filled. Then restore the contours using a tool such as Flex-I-File or Flex-I-Pad. The result will be a strong hard repair much quicker than using two part or tube fillers. If the case is a trailing edge with a large piece missing, then the best approach is to cut out the area and square it up, then glue into place a piece of suitable size plastic strip, use super-glue and/or baking powder again and file to shape. When damage occurs to a corner of a wing tip, prop blade or something like the end of a tip tank or radome, simply apply super-glue and then dip in a small pile of bicarb, this will harden immediately. Repeat the process until a suitable sized blob has formed and then file back to shape. If you have to use those vacform props then this is the solution for filling the blades. When joining fuselage halves it is usual to strengthen the joint with strips or tabs of plastic card glued into one half so as to form a rim on to which the other fuselage half fits. A better fit will be achieved on very curvaceous fuselages if these tabs are placed at intervals and stick outwards, 10 thou card is best. It is a tedious job cutting a number of these tabs, so I use an office paper punch to produce a load of little plastic discs which will contour nicely around the inside of a fuselage half, even if the half fuselage does look temporarily like a Viking ship. Perhaps here a word of caution about choosing your subject. Vacuum form kits vary in quality. If you have never before attempted a vacuum-formed kit please don't be tempted to go out and buy that 15 year old Scruggs Four Engined Wonderplane kit. Instead try a few simple exercises, get some plastic card and make a new tailplane for that damaged Mustang, or practice making holes in a piece of plastic card. There are lots of cheap vacuum formed kits around often from Eastern Europe, and they can be picked up at model shows. Examine the kit and if it's crisp and cleanly moulded it will probably fit together well, If it looks blobby and ill defined, don't buy it. If some items like spinners or wing roots are thin and crushed then reinforce with Milliput or bicarb but never use tube type fillers (most tube type fillers are only good for shallow surface blemishes as they usually work by solvent evaporation). Milliput if properly mixed and placed on a storage heater or hot domestic radiator (below 70deg) will harden very quickly and not affect the kit plastic. (Here’s a tip, mix and heat the Milliput before applying it - it will harden just as fast, but use it quickly. It is advisable to wash your hands immediately the putty is mixed and again after the application is completed. The following useful tip came via one of my customers. To fill well-fitting joints such as leading edges and fuselage centre lines scratches or panel lines, use Tippex Correction fluid, Note it must be the bottle which incorporates a Red oval 'Perfect' design in the label and not the one with a Green oval. The environmentally friendly one may do wonders for typists but it's no good for modelling. Tippex bonds very well, dries quickly and sands beautifully. White metal Most recent vacuum formed kits contain detail parts cast in white metal, or suitable parts can be purchased to improve older kits. The best adhesive is cyanoacrylate. White metals usually contain a proportion of lead, (Those called Pewter should not) so don't eat when working with it and do wash your hands. Blow holes or any deficiency in the castings are best repaired with the super glue and bicarb combination. Milliput or Plastic Padding car body fillers also adhere well to white metal. If a hole in a propeller or engine is too big then bush it with a piece of plastic or metal tube. Household pins make good strong prop shafts. However the occasion often arises when there are no under carriage legs available for that old large kit. The solution is Aluminium or Brass tube. This can be bought in a variety of concentric sizes with which you can fabricate oleo legs. If you cannot find it in your local plastic kit store, then make a visit to a Model Railway shop or one specialising in flying models. You will be amazed what goodies you will find. It does puzzle me still just how parochial many 'plastic kit bashers' are! Tube can be easily cut with a fine saw or even with a heavy duty craft knife by rolling the tube back and forth with the blade as you apply pressure. Plastic card fillets or fairings can be stuck on to the metal with super glue or 5 minute Epoxy, then filed to shape. Brass has the advantage of being soldered for greater strength (exit plastic modeller-stage left). Axles can be glued to the end of the tube, or drilled right though to accept a piece of wire (a section of sewing pin) which can be sleeved up with metal or plastic tube to scale size. If you are boxing in a wheel bay, make the top from thick plastic card or if it is a kit vacuum formed item, strengthen it so that it can be drilled to take the under-carriage leg. Metal tube can be utilised for wing spars, and when threaded through a fuselage it can be bent either side to set the dihedral angle. Jigs The assembly of any type of kits can be facilitated by making jigs. A jig can be as simple as a piece of plasticine, or an elaborate affair constructed from plastic card. With only a little imagination, a few pins, cocktail sticks, plasticine, right-angled triangles cut from card and a square of card with lines drawn on to it, for a base even the most complex biplane can be set up for accurate final assembly. There is now my purpose built metal Biplane Jig only available from me. Vacuum formed models do require some hand and eye skills but remember these can only be discovered or improved upon if you are prepared to have a go, the hardest part is picking up the scalpel and making that first cut (sorry, score). If this article fires some of you to stretch your horizons or provides a solution to a particular problem then it has achieved its aim. If on the other hand you are going to sit back and wait for the Big Injection Company to produce that Scruggs Wonder plane, I have it on good authority they never will. So you might just use your time while saving up for the resin from Blob-o-Kit (who probably nicked it from the vacuum form anyway), to have a go, and find as my youngest daughter used to say the World can be your Lobster! Copyright . John W. Adams.
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I've finished off Aeroclub's 1/48th scale Avro Vulcan over the weekend - this has been my 'holy grail' of kits for as long as I can remember and I was finally able to get hold of one last year. The kit is a beautifully moulded vacform with resin intakes and tail pipes, along with lots of white metal detail parts. It was a pleasure to put together and once the main parts were sanded and trimmed to shape, it was more or less like an injection build. The only tricky part was the fit of the tail pipes, and these required a bit of trimming and shimming and plenty of Milliput to get everything together. I did have a couple hiccups - one of my own making which was managing to ruin the paintwork when I didn't secure my airbrush cup properly and it managed to drip grey all over my carefully masked dark green and the other was the very old decals which silvered to the point of them having to come off. I managed to raid the spares box to cobble together some stencils and Xtradecal came to the rescue for the roundels and serials. I decided a kit of this size and quality needed an open bomb bay so spent a good few evenings scratch-building all the internal detail and I think it was worth it as it adds some nice visual interest to the bottom of the model. Paints were my usual Xtracolor enamels with lots of Tamiya tape for the masking of the camouflage - that's many hours of my life I won't get back! Other than that this is what you get in the box - a very large model of a very impressive aeroplane! For those interested, here's the 'Work in Progress' here Anyway, here she is all done and dusted - I've modelled XL386 as it was when on strength with 44 Squadron, based at RAF Waddington in the mid-1970s... Best regards, Tom
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FIAT G-91T 32 Stormo, Italian AF, 1994 This is the Aeroclub kit of many years ago, mated with wings and tailplane from the Revell G-91.This has been in the stash for longer than I can remember but finally I got around to building it. My inspiration was looking back at some photos taken at the 1994 Cottesmore open day – back in TTTE days. Two of these little trainers were there in the static. The Aeroclub fuselage is a basic vacform which needs lots of work. A nice bag of white metal bits is provided including undercarriage, airbrakes and seats, but the rest of the cockpit interior needs scratching. Injection moulded wings and tailplane are also provided but are very basic. I had an Revell kit in a state of disrepair so I used that, but the wings needed new much thinner fences and a pitot on each wingtip. Pylons are provided in white metal but they didn’t look quite right (I think they were copied from the Matchbox G-91Y kit?) so I made my own. The droptanks were reshaped from an Italeri Hawk kit. Decals for roundels, squadron codes and finbadge were from a Tauro sheet, and yes, the camo is matt while the orange bits are gloss!
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The Short 184 is an iconic aircraft from the First World War, being the first to attack and sink a ship with a torpedo attack. As far as I know the only kit is this Aeroclub short run kit from many years ago. It's been in the stash for a long time and last year I decided to pull it out and have a go at it. The airframe and floats are injection moulded and struts, prop, seats, radiator and some other parts are in white metal. Overall it is a straightforward although intricate build, the fit is generally good though some scratchbuilding of parts from provided material and plastic rod is needed. It does build up well and despite the fragile look it is pretty robust. Finished as Number 842 from HMS Ben-my-Chree, this was the first aircraft to sink a ship with a torpedo attack. As outlined it's a mixed media kit mainly injection with white metal. The transfers although the original and therefore a few years old performed beautifully. Brush painted Citadel Bleached Bone for the overall clear doped linen, Akan Dark Admiralty Grey for the grey metalwork and Tamiya Clear Orange over Akan Aged Wood for the varnished wood. It is a bit of a beast in size. I appreciate a Bristol Scout is small but it was a contemporary.
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This is probably @Martians fault. The vacform tutorial build got me thinking about challenging myself to do something other than an injection moulded kit. I stick to 1:48 and almost always the end-of-the-cold-war through to modern era aircraft that I've seen at shows since my childhood. So there really isn't tons of choice in vacform, as soon as I saw the Lightning I knew it was the right one for me. I don't normal go for the un-boxing type shots, but a lot of you might be as new as me to this form of modelling. the box Unfortunately no longer with the etch or the redtops that have been redacted from the front The fuselage Wings Spine stiffener, belly stiffener and an over wing tank Another tank White metal parts for the undercarriage, cockpit, exhausts and nose. injection moulded parts canopy Decals and sticks attached to the bottom of the box First job, as it says in the instructions is to read the instructions. I might have done this in excess of 30 times before I was brave enough to do anything. But eventually the time came. I bought a new cutting mat Outlined the fuselage halves with a fine pen and with my new #11, cut the fuselage out of the backing. Sanding and more sanding until they fit together and also the nose and the exhausts fit snugly at opposite ends. I have no idea how that ended up working so well. Until next time.
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Hello all. I have just completed this Aeroclub 1/72 scale vacform kit of the Felixstowe, and what a joy it was to do. It was for the 'Anything but Injection' Group Build on this very forum. I love to do kits that give me a 'challenge', and this one was no stranger to 'challenges'! I had a lot of help and advice, and the build log can be seen here if you would like to see how things went (both right and wrong!): I built an interior for it (more of an impression that reality), the model was brush-painted with Humbrol enamels, the white swirls were from an AIMS Decals sheet (72D004), and the rigging was InfiniModels rigging thread. Anyway, here is 'Felix': The swirls transfers did not settle down quite as well as I hoped as could be seen in one or two of the photographs, but it turned out a lot better than if I had tried to paint them! I would like to say a big thank you to @John Aero for producing this kit, it was fabulous! Thanks for looking, Ray
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HR686 of 502 Sqn took off on the night of the 3rd October 1944 from RAF Stornoway for another routine operation looking for targets of opportunity in the sea off Norway. The Germans were moving men and equipment from Norway to Europe to reinforce their defences following the allied invasion. A typical cold dark & wet night in that part of the world with a low cloud base, the 9 crew went about their duties routinely. The aircraft was loaded with depth charges and enough fuel for 12 hours meaning that the fuselage bomb bay was laden with fuel leaving the wing cells to carry the depth charges. Eventually a target was picked up on the ASV radar and the aircraft dropped down to investigate. Cloud cover was broken at just 800ft, where the contact appeared to be illuminated leading them to think it was a neutral vessel causing them to turn away and call off the attack. This was a tragic move as the illuminations were in fact gun fire from the ship Amisia. The inner port engine was hit along with other damage and there was no option for pilot F/O McManus but to prepare for a ditching. A successful ditching was made and its believed that all crew escaped alive, but the life raft that is located just behind the port inner was burned, hence useless. Fortunately, one of the inflated main wheels came to the rescue allowing them to stay afloat. Rescue was made at dawn break by the Amisia but unfortunately, only 5 of the crew had survived long enough. 3 of the crew were missing and were never recovered, the body of F/O La Palme was washed up on a beach in Norway. The 5 survivors became POW's and lived to tell the story, unlike many of their fellow squadron crews who simply went missing on these long and lonely missions, most of which became victims to their intended targets. Build HERE. The kit is the flawed Revell Mk.II. Fortunately, Aeroclub provide complete engine nacelle and propeller replacements. I'd wanted to do a Tollerton Z Nosed version for a while and was inspired by the reading of the Coastal Command missions in Merricks fantastic book 'Halifax - From Hell to Victory & Beyond'. This lead me to choosing HR686 as a basis using the Freightdog Z Nose and mid upper fairing. Whilst there is only one known photo of this aircraft, photo's of other aircraft in the white livery show them to be somewhat dirty with heavy oil streaks on the lower surfaces of the wings and engines. I wanted to replicate this effect, so it was a great excuse to get carried away with the pastels! On the whole, a pleasant build and the Aeroclub engines make a big difference to the look of the Revell kit. I also used a few bits from an Airfix Lanc that were left over from conversions; the main wheels (although Aeroclub provide these) and the Rebecca aerials due to being more refined. There were a few assumptions made, the first is that there is a gun protruding from the nose above which you would expect for anti ship & sub missions....I've just noticed I've located it too low, god knows how I made that mistake!! Also, I painted the fuel tanks in the bomb bay black, although there is a very good chance they were brick red. Anyway, enough blurb, here's the pics... Thanks for looking
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This Flycatcher has been sitting in a box for years as I had problems getting the upper wing on straight and staying straight. I got it out as part of my 'let's get these finished' drive this year and there was a lot of filing down of hard superglue, new cabane struts made and a lot of straightening out of the main interplanetary struts. I was worried the undercarriage would be weak and be a nightmare to assemble but it wasn't too bad, maybe I'm improving with my skills. It's not perfect but it's a decent resemblance of this iconic Fleet fighter. The kit, which dates from the 1980s, is a mixed media, short run kit with the main parts injection moulded and the detail in white metal. It comes complete with transfers, which I had put on years ago. So I had to work around them and touch them. Built as S1287 of 405 Flight Naval Air Service from HMS Glorious in the 1930s. Painted with Revell Aluminium.
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This Meteor used to be at an Air Training Corps close to where I used to live and the colour scheme always interested me. I got an Aeroclub winch and an old Matchbox Meteor NF so that left no excuses. The decals are a combination of my own and those from the kit. The target towing gear under the rear fuselage is scratchbuilt. Steve
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In 1950/51 the Royal Navy trialled the use of 3 Skeeters. The trials were not a success and the three aircraft WF112, WF113 and WF114 were returned to Saro and subsequently issued to the Army Air Corps. This is the Aeroclub mixed media model which I picked up at SMW about 5/6 years ago. It's a neat little kit with injection moulded main parts, white metal interior and details, and a vac form canopy. The shape looks right but lacks detail. I added some detail to the cockpit, and various sticky out bits from various sources. The WIP is here So here we have one of the Royal Navy's Saro Skeeters, WF113, finished primarily in Revell's Aqua Aluminium brush painted. Transfers partly (roundels and tail warnings) from the kit and the Royal Navy and serials from an Xtradecal sheet of serials and British st war markings. Enjoy these pictures of a little helicopter that was an important development and tucked away in the annals of history.
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The Navy trialled three Skeeters, WF112, WF113 and WF114 around 1950/51. The trials didn't go anywhere and the Skeeters were handed/sold back to Saro and subsequently went to the AAC. I picked up this Aeroclub kit at SMW a year or so ago and it is an engaging little thing. The WIP is quite far along as I didn't keep a record and I have only just managed to sort out photobucket. It's mixed media, injected, white metal (including the cockpit which makes it stand on its tricycle undercart) and a vac formed canopy. It's a little stalled mainly as I attacking a couple of Hurricanes for the Battle of Britain GB and my inmate fear of vac formed canopies. But here is the little fellow so far. It is tiny, about 3 inches long. It's built pretty much OOB with a little detailing in the cockpit and some of the drive details. The drive details are from a corner of plastic packing smoothed out with filler while the drive wheel is a circular piece of plastic mounted on wire. The fire extinguisher is a Blenheim anti personnel bomb trimmed, the instrument panel wires are indeed wires and the straps Tamiya Tape, with the cyclic a piece of wire. Aluminium paint is brushed on Revell aluminium thoroughly thinned with Flow Improver.
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I'm hoping somebody can help with this as having Googled, and searched on this site as well as my own sources I can't find the answer. I'm currently making the Airfix 1/72 Defiant in the Night Fighter scheme. I'm about to start on the propeller when I discover, deep in the recesses of my man cave, an old Aeroclub propeller and spinner #AP056 marked (by me a long time ago) as appropriate for a Defiant. (Its a De Havilland 11' 6", 3 Blade). However comparing it to the Airfix version in the box its so different I wonder whether its actually only appropriate for the Defiant II with the upgraded Merlin. Can anyone help? Do I stick with the Airfix one or was it so badly wrong that the Aeroclub prop is essential? Thanks in advance guys
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I’m dragging three reluctant shelf queens along with the XIV in a race for quadruple Griffon engined glory! They’re all at the same stage and will get similar treatment (although the 46 will be clean as a whistle and semi-glossy), namely seal coat, filter, oil dots etc, before I move on to an FR. Mk 47. I love this (1996) kit!! first up - Planet Models Seafire f.mk 45 This was a pricey kit when I bought it (£45-odd iirc!) Must have been ten years ago, too - I remember warping the wings to the right angle and heating up a baby bottle for number 2 son in the warmer gizmo -worked a treat! That canopy masking’s been on there for a decade though. May have to re-glaze this one - but I can do that sort of thing these days, right? Of similar vintage, and inspired by Desmojen’s one on this very site, you’ve seen it all before, Mk 46. Bit more optimistic about the canopy mask on this one! I can’t help thinking the LM on the tail of this should have the black outline too. The hook wasn’t fitted to this plane. Number 3 - Contra-Prop Mk. 45 Aeroclub Mk 21 fuselage, Airfix 46 wings and prop. This mark was the longest of all of the Spitfire line - a two stage Griffon, contra-prop, broad rudder and hook, meant it was too long for the deck lifts on the Pretoria Castle, where Eric Brown did the deck landing trials. It still needed more rudder area as was unstable - it had sacrificed some area for the sting hook. Even with the contra-prop it was a bit of a pig to fly, so for the mk.46 the tail grew in height instead, borrowing the spiteful/seafang tail unit. What an awesome machine, I love it -Joe Smith and his team really knew how to wring out the spitfire airframe. You’d be pleased as these two if one was parked on your lawn, wouldn’t you? TTFN, Matt
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Another display build a very simple ( boring some may say ) Colour scheme. Think this was the first kit with etch struts. Rigged with stretch thread Finished with Extracolor RFC Green Side on with background And a couple with out colour Can't decide if I prefer B&W or sepia ? I have a very nice set of 48th figures mastered by Tim Perry which I must find to put with this
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Aeroclub T7 1/72 with homemade decals. Converted from single-seater G-AIDC Steve
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Aermacchi MB326 South African Air Force 'Silver Falcons' aerobatic team, 1970s This one had been in the attic for a long, long time and recently saw the light of day for a photo session. It was built around 1985 using the Aeroclub kit. This had a vac-form fuselage and canopy, white metal seats, undercarriage and interior detail, with the rest of the airframe in extremely basic short-run injected plastic. I had some nicely printed SAAF decals and wanted something to use them on . The colour scheme was done with some challenging hand painting, though I think the aluminium was airbrushed. While I was into things South African I also finished an old Matchbox Mirage IIICZ. Not my best, but it here it is anyway!
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I have started a small project to build the old Aeroclub Gloster Gamecock, and I'm looking for some references/pictures especially the cockpit and I/P colours, but also some clearer details on the visible differences between the Mk I and Mk II. The only plans I have are some very old line drawings from Scale Models dated 1974, which if correct seem to imply the kit has Mk II wings. The drawings also suggest that the Mk I has the larger tail fin which I don't believe to be correct. The kit provides 2 types of tail fin, but only one type of wing. Any references of further info would be appreciated. Thanks Terry
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- Gloster Gamecock
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I've spent the last year reacquiring lost modelling skills, and I think I'm ready for a BIG project... ...with a little help. And to be honest, I feel some trepidation. Me, an unwashed Yank building a Vulcan?!? I may as well be putting a TSR-2 in USAF livery😨. Anyway - If anyone has a photo of a Vulcan farther along rotation, I'd appreciate it - especially closeups of the gear. I'd like to model the photo below, but with the landing gear a bit more "up". I think I'll use acrylic rod (X4 with LEDs) to hold the aircraft over a base of blurred runway. This is going to be a slow build, because it's important to get this build right. image pulled from some site. I'll be happy to pull it down if necessary. Major parts marked, scored and removed from main sheet parts arranged, along with a few articles I've saved over the years. Let's do this!!! Items in the bottom right will be molded in resin, since weight-bearing is no longer an issue. Comments and advice are definitely welcomed.
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The Gloster Gauntlet was the RAF's last open cockpit figter. This is Aeroclub's 1/48th Gloster Gauntlet offering, I believe that they had a 1/72nd version too. The box Parts I haven't tested them, but the decals look to be in good shape. The decals are for aircraft from 46 Sqn or from 74 Sqn. I haven't made a final decision on which I'll build yet: the 46 Sqn aircraft had squadron markings on the top wing, while the option is present in the kit for 74 Sqn wing markings, there is a question whether they got around to painting them. AM stuff The seat belts and instruments are left over from earlier projects, while the Vector engine was bought to replace the kit's white metal parts.
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Aeroclub 1/144th Mosquito B35, built for a group build on Kampfgruppe 144. Represents B35 of 139 sqn RAF Hemswell. Kit has cockpit added, figures converted from Preiser groundcrew figures. Nacelles and wings have a few additions, main u/c doors are milliput. Base is temporary as I've run out of clear rod! Hand painted using Hataka (MSG) and Vallejo air ( NATO black) Weathered using watercolour pencils
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Hello All, I've started an Airfix Hawker Demon, as the first of a planned sequence of builds covering the Hart family from various kit manufacturers. For these builds I have an Airfix Hart and a Demon - the Demon (Left) is a modification of the Hart mould (Right), "modernised" with added fabric sag (shame!). I am using up my dodgy Hart with a warped top wing and slightly warped fuselage - I still have a mint one in the stash. The Demon seems to be about 3mm short and the fin/rudder is off compared to photos, but otherwise pretty accurate in outline. The Mushroom Model book plans and the Air Pictorial plans both match the kit, but they come up about a foot short. The old Harleyford/Aeromodeller plans show the right length. First stage was to lengthen the fuselage and add some cockpit detail. I rebuilt the gunners cockpit as well, as the Airfix one doesn't really line up against my references. So here's where I am Thanks for looking, Adrian
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During a sort out in the loft I have come across a kit of a 1/144th DC-3 in a snap-top polybag with no instructions nor decals. This polybag was tucked inside box containing a 1/72nd Italeri DC-3 I bought secondhand at a show a couple of years ago - that kit is complete with decals and instructions and I assume the previous owner had forgotten about the 1/144th kit in with it! The 1/144th DC-3 kit is injected moulded in the caramel-coloured plastic I have seen AeroClub use for their own kits in the past and has finely cast metal parts in a separate polybag. A Google search brings up no mention of an AeroClub 1/144th DC-3 but lots of mentions of Welsh Models 1/144th vacform kits - this definitely is not vacform!! Can anyone help identify this kit? Second question is ' is it accurate' - it looks like a DC-3 but ...... See JohnAero's reply below for the full story - many thanks for the info, John!!
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Aeroclub 1/48 EE Lightning F1a 111 Squadron
SimonR posted a topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Well this really is my first RFI for ages, I've been battling with this mixed media kit for months and finally given in, definitely going to stick with injection kits now I've removed this from the loft lol! Ive had this kit for ages and finally decided to build it last Christmas to go with my Airfix F6 - to be fair the kit goes together ok, just my cack handed modelling that made it more difficult. The base kit was actually an F3 but I wanted to do an F1a as I had a spare Airfix F1 fin. So with that in mind its probably not 100% accurate, I shortened the ducting on the lower fuselage but theres probably more I should have done. The Eagle Eyes among you will probably notice the markings on the fin are not quite right for an F1 either, they are modified F3 decals kindly supplied by fellow Britmodeller Rob G (Cheers mate!). All OOB apart from the pitot tube. Paint used was Revell Aquacolour Aluminium & Silver and yellow and black for the spine and fin. Anyway, here is it, only managed to get a few passable photos :-) -
I am still awaiting the arrival of my Welsh Models Albatross kit, so had another rummage around and came across this little fella. There are not a lot of parts but the masking for the paint should prove to be enough of a challenge to keep things interesting, I may even make an attempt at rigging it too.
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Only the second build to cross the finish line this year, the Canberra is now done. Not one of my best builds, probably trying to rush to get it off the bench having stared at it for so long, but the paintwork is surprisingly complicated, not only with stripes, but with cut outs in the stripes for the codes, damn inconsiderate of the RAF to do this! At some point, I'd like to do a silver one as the Canberra has such graceful lines that are lost somewhat on this scheme. Built using the Airfix PR.9 (Edit: B(1).8!!!), CMK gear bay and flap sets, Aeroclub wheels and B.2 conversion and scratch built bomb bay with thanks to John (Canberra Kid) and his excellent website (http://ipmscanberrasig.webs.com/) for some great references. The decals were a mix of Airfix and Model decal for WH640. Despite my best efforts, there is still evidence of silvering on them.The intake FOD covers were Flightpath ones, although slightly too big they were filed down until they fitted in to the intakes as they should. You can see the build HERE The B.2 conversion comes with a resin canopy, but I used the Aeroclub vac form one instead. Despite sticking a ruddy great bolt up front, it is still a tail sitter, so had to use the supplied tail stand in the Airfix kit which I've photoshopped out of most of the photo's. Thanks for looking Cheers Neil
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