Dave Swindell Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 More Progress this afternoon. I've used the solid resin canopy as a mould for a plunge formed replacement - original mounted on a bit of balsa to hold it in a vice with the first attempt beside it, the second one has been cut out and is shown here being tested for fit. I'm fairly sure I chopped the fin off as I thought the bulged section along the bottom was moulded too horizontal. I've taken a bit off the back of the stub left on the hull and re-attached it with a subtle rake aft. A notch was also cut in the top of the fin and a length of stainless microtube glued and faired in, fine brass rod will be added later for the actual pitot. I've also carved a square recess on each side of the hull below the leading edge of the fin, this vent is very noticable on K7 after the Orpheus was fitted. Tonight I hope to finish painting the cockpit and get the canopy attached. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted January 27, 2012 Author Share Posted January 27, 2012 Had a mior change of plan after posting last night, and decided to leave the canopy off for a while so there was no chance of fogging it during the remaining construction - so it went for a dip in some Klear instead! Last night the cockpit painting was finished, decal instruments applied to the panel, and the Skipper secured in place from below, allowing the bottom of the hull to be smoothed out. The remains of the overscale flow directors under the bow were also removed, plan is to replace these after painting with bent foil ones. So here's where I was this morning:- Cockpit finished with decals on the instrument panel - I went with just 3 major dials, there's a couple more smaller ones and a few switches that should be there as well, but they'd be virtually impossible to see so left it at that. Hull underside smoothed out & filled. The second blank behind the cockpit was where the original stand was mounted, this isn't on the new mouldings. With the bottom smoothed out I could now fit the rear planing wedge, then the water brake which fits on the back of the wedge. With these in place the rudder and fin could be positioned either side, seen here from behind And below Next up was the stabilising fins on the bottom of the sponsons. Those supplied in the kit are larger swept versions seen earlier in K7's career, by 66/67 the fins were smaller and rectangular in shape below the sponson, these can clearly be seen in photos on the 4th Jan where the sponson is out of the water. New fins were made from thin plastic card and attached as below, with the kit ones for comparison. The black spot under the port sponson is a bit of sprue filling the only casting bubble I found in the kit. With the fins attached, the sponsons were firmly fixed in position, and the model starts to look more like K7! The cockpit and intakes have been masked to preserve the paint in this area until the canopy is attached. Next up it was the remaining fiddly bits before painting started. The two bent brass air intakes on the engine cover were provided in the kit, the dimples marking thier position just needed drilling out with an appropriate sized drill. The small fairings on the sponsons outboard of the front spar attachment are difficult to spot in photo's unless the angle and lighting are just right, but they are there and were missing on the kit. These were made by plunging heat softened sprue into the teardrop shaped holes that Eduard have started putting down the side of their etch frets, and slicing off the resultant pimple. I was a bit skeptical about this idea and it took a few goes to get two the same size, but once I'd got the hang of it I was quite pleased with the results. Not sure if this will work with more brittle clear sprue, but if it does it should make great tiny nav lights etc. Once fixed in place the blisters were smoothed out to reduce thier height a bit. Lastly the 4 lifting lugs for craning K7 in and out of the water and on and off transport were added from slivers of plastic card, one each side of the hull on the front spar and one each side of the tail pipe on the decking just forward of the transom - difficult to spot on the photo's but they are there! The model has now had a coat of primer, and will get some black sprayed on tonight for the undersides, as primer for the alclad for the natural metal planing shoes, rudder and fins, and (hopefully!) as an undercoat for the intakes. This is to give a slightly different shade here to represent the new intakes fitted with the second Orpheus after the first set of intakes collapsed and destroyed the original engine. Here endeth todays lesson Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousDFB1 Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Looking great Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmonk Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 That's coming along great Dave, makes me want to get going on it's big brother. The other GB builds may have to suffer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted January 28, 2012 Author Share Posted January 28, 2012 Madmonk said: That's coming along great Dave, makes me want to get going on it's big brother. The other GB builds may have to suffer! Thanks for the encouragement guys, appreciated as there's been a couple of minor setbacks today. It would be good to see a bit more progress on yours Warren! Last night the grey primer went on, then a fair bit of masking and the black undersides were sprayed, together with the top of the intakes. This morning, more masking to leave just the planing shoes, rudder and fins uncovered. These were sprayed with Alclad aluminium and dark aluminium, together with the sponson front deflector plates and the exhaust, the exhaust was then given a touch of jet exhaust (what else?) rount the edge to represent burnt metal. Here it all is before things started to go wrong I'd had a bit of a hint that things weren't going to go to plan today when I got the airbrush out to spray the alclad, the needle was stuck and took a good half hour to free and clean up fit to use. After removing the masking over the grey primer I started to mask the front planing wedges and the alclad started coming off in patches whilst repositioning the masking tape then in a moment of carelessness I managed to drop the model on the floor, both the rudder and the rear fin which I'd just masked both snapped off level with the bottom of the hull . Ho Hum, these will have to be refitted right at the end. I gave up masking the front shoes, sanded the alclad off, reprimed, and I'll repaint these later. Meantime the canopy was masked up, then it was sprayed along with the main hull as seen below. The plan was to get the canopy attached and left overnight to set up, but I think I'll leave well alone and tackle that tomorrow. Just spotted a bit the spaying missed round the water brake, I'll have to remember to do that when I do the top of the intakes once the canopy is in place. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousDFB1 Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 Nice one Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 Nice one Dave Cheers Mish - sum total of work done today = remove masking round cockpit, micromesh edges of maskin to remove ridge, glue on canopy - didn't bother getting the camera out for that! More tomorrow (checks time -later today!). Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted January 31, 2012 Author Share Posted January 31, 2012 Sorry, didn't get round to posting an update yesterday, but there has been some progress as seen below- The main paintwork is done, masking off (except cockpit), decals on, and a coat of satin varnish applied. The original issue decals weren't brilliant, most of them oversize so I redrew them and printed my own. I've just had a check of the new release decals, they're much better in both size and detail and as there's also a spare Bluebird logo on each sheet and I've got 3 more kits I'll raid one to replace the yellow disks I used this afternoon. Tomorrow it's detail painting and a hunt for the acetate spray deflectors - yes I've misplaced them somewhere! Not too difficult to scratch though. I'll also have a go at the undernose flow directors. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmonk Posted January 31, 2012 Share Posted January 31, 2012 Looking good Dave, not much left to do now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousDFB1 Posted February 1, 2012 Share Posted February 1, 2012 Nice Dave, nearly there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Swindell Posted February 3, 2012 Author Share Posted February 3, 2012 Wel guys, I'm calling this finished for KUTA IV, I was hoping to get it on a base but I've run out of time, off back to work tomorrow Extra bits added since the last post include the Bluebird decals, plus decals for what I think are Bristol Siddeley zaps on the engine cowling - they only appear on photo's taken in her last few days, coincidently after a couple of BS engineers turned up to work on the Orpheus. Coincidence? I think not! Also added are the flow directors under the bow from an Ali flapjack tray, and the clear spray deflectors from thin acetate sheet - couldn't find the kit ones so scratched them and added the reinforcing strips as well. These and the flow directors were made by folding thin strips lengthwise in a photo etch folding tool. On top of the canopy the latch toggle was made by heating the end of some stretched black sprue until it formed a ball, then trimming off and glueing in place. The aerial is an old toothbrush bristle which gives it the swept back look, and the pitot from thin brass rod painted silver was added. Finally the rudder and fin were glued back on after their unfortunate separation. I'll post a couple more shots in the Gallery, and a full walkround Here in a few minutes Thanks to all who've been watching, and Mish and Warren for thier support - no excuses now Warren, lets see some work on yours! Cheers Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmonk Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Dave, That looks great, still one of the best vehicles ever built IMHO. I have got bogged down in too many GBs so need to do something about it, a couple of others may have to be part of KUTA V next year!! The 1/12 K7 won't be one, I have a couple of commissions (1/43 F1 Driver figures) then it's back on the desk. Glad to have been of help. Cheers, Warren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It'sAllGoneHorriblyWrong Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Really excellent result Dave - top notch stuff Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonymousDFB1 Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Very nice work Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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