Jump to content

Flight of the Phoenix **COMPLETED**


Mike N

Recommended Posts

Really great work Mike - I smiled when I saw you start this thread as I have had an urge to attempt this for the last 30-odd years!

That beats my 20 years :P It took this Group Build to come around to get me motivated to go for it, and it's certainly been a pleasant challenge! I can highly recommend it if you fancy doing something different and want to practice your scratchbuilding skills :)

Those skids look great, love to see this coming together!

Cheers, I'm quite pleased with them too! I had original expected them to take more time but they came together quite easily in the end, just lots of drilling...!

Very good, loving this build
Looking really good.

Thanks for the continued support guys, glad you like it :)

No progress to report tonight, the primer has shown a couple of areas to improve, but I've run out of primer now so won't get much further until the weekend. With a bit of luck I'll get the first colour sprayed on then too.

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ohh my! I don't return for a few days and I see you've made some great progress. Have you considered any thoughts as to how you plan to display this bird (diorama, or desert display base perhaps, or maybe an aviation chart stamped "MISSING")?

I thought the bodge work on the plane itself was great, but the gear struts are a work of art!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mike, that's amazing :yikes: , I will have to go and buy the Dvd (hangs head in shame) not got a copy I'm afraid...Can't wait to see it finished...Bye the bye, is the new version of the film any good??.... ....Tony

As a stand-alone film it's not bad. Compared with the original, no, it's not good. And I don't like the design of the plane in the new one - except for the clear mismatch where the wing joins the fuselage, which is a lovely touch to show how they were just working with what they had.

Trivia note: it was while making this film that Hugh Lawrie submitted his audition tape for the lead role in 'House: MD' - filmed sitting in his hotel bathroom.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ohh my! I don't return for a few days and I see you've made some great progress. Have you considered any thoughts as to how you plan to display this bird (diorama, or desert display base perhaps, or maybe an aviation chart stamped "MISSING")?

I thought the bodge work on the plane itself was great, but the gear struts are a work of art!

Agreed. This is looking fantastic. B)
Mike, that's amazing :yikes: , I will have to go and buy the Dvd (hangs head in shame) not got a copy I'm afraid...Can't wait to see it finished...Bye the bye, is the new version of the film any good??.... ....Tony

Gents, you are all too kind :blush:

To answer the above questions:

I think I will have to display it as part of a diorama to give it the proper context. I'm thinking of the point where Towns is in the cockpit about to try starting the engine for the first time, that way the prop will be accurately at rest. Of course doing the diorama is a bunch more work, so I'll see how I get on for time!

As for the film remake, I think Gordon has answered that as well as I could. Watch the new one if it's on tv, but go for the original on DVD :popcorn:

Thanks for the continued interest!

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the comments!

Got the primer on and only a little bit of rework to do.

Phoenix075s.jpg

Phoenix076s.jpg

I toyed with doing some pre-shading but looking at the film it really doesn't have that appearance, so I decided to try for some subtle effects after putting on the main colour. I bought 3 different light greys from the LHS and plumped for Humbrol 127. Here's how it looks on the plane:

Phoenix077s.jpg

Phoenix078s.jpg

Next step is to add various other shades of grey and general grime, and then add the red trim. Quite a busy weekend ahead though so not sure when all that will happen!

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't had much time to progress the build over the last week or two, but managed to get a little done yesterday.

The airframe got a light coat of a slightly darker grey, to try to break up the monochrome expanse of the base. This then got pretty much obliterated by the 'dusting' of a sandy brown to begin the weathering process (the real thing is filthy!). I had masked some areas to match the film, for example around the cockpit where panels were added that contrasted with the local weathering. Some of that can just be seen in the pic below, but the weathering still has a long way to go. I want to work on the grey a bit more before adding the red trim.

Phoenix093s.jpg

I've also worked on the engine (cleaning out the sand, etc :) ). The kit parts are nicely detailed for the scale and just needed some drybrushing to bring that out. One thing I did to improve the look was to add the ignition harnesses to the front bank made from fine fuse wire. This is something I've rarely done before. Here I'm part-way through:

Phoenix083s.jpg

And here it is finished, with a thicker piece of fuse wire aound the crank case. I'm debating whether to paint it to tone it down or leave it au naturelle:

Phoenix089s.jpg

The other news is that I've found a pilot! While skulking around my local model shop I mentioned my quest to the staff and after a few minutes a pilot was handed over, no questions asked!

Here he is:

Phoenix080s.jpg

OK, the observant among you will notice he is wearing a bone dome with associated oxygen tubing, etc. Off with his head! A head donor was found from the Airfix USAAF personnel set:

Phoenix082s.jpg

This chap has the proper headwear, and just needed some cleaning up; easier said than done as the plastic is more like rubber, and horrible to work with! The original pilot's body was cleansed of equipment unsuited to a Phoenix pilot and I tried to add detail of Frank's jacket instead, but we'll see how he turns out after painting. Anyway, here's the result - Frank(enstein) Towns:

Phoenix091s.jpg

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Weird! quite Frankenstienien, if that's a real word!

One slight detail that I am worried about is the squarer wing tip on the original picture but I know there were several airframes used for the movie and you may be looking at one with the round wing tip. This is a most entertaining build.

:cheers:

Adam

Worrier of chaos

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've also worked on the engine (cleaning out the sand, etc :) ).

Should've fired one of the cartridges, with ignition off, just to clean out the cylinders. :whistle:

Coming along nicely. I like your "Mr Towns". ;)

Are you planning on a full compliment of survivors, hanging on the wings?.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Should've fired one of the cartridges, with ignition off, just to clean out the cylinders. :whistle:

He was going to, but Hardy Krüger wouldn't let him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Weird! quite Frankenstienien, if that's a real word!

One slight detail that I am worried about is the squarer wing tip on the original picture but I know there were several airframes used for the movie and you may be looking at one with the round wing tip. This is a most entertaining build.

:cheers:

Adam

Worrier of chaos

Cheers Adam :) I had wondered about the wingtips, but couldn't find a good enough view to see the geometry. I had put it down to an optical illusion of the LH tip as the RH wingtip does appear to be the normal curved type. I'm leaving well alone now though as I'm into the painting!

Should've fired one of the cartridges, with ignition off, just to clean out the cylinders. :whistle:

Coming along nicely. I like your "Mr Towns". ;)

Are you planning on a full compliment of survivors, hanging on the wings?.

:lol:

Thanks Smiffy. I was thinking of a diorama at the engine starting scene, with only Towns on board. I am mighty tempted to go for the fully crewed option though!

He was going to, but Hardy Krüger wouldn't let him.

Indeed! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little bit of progress to report.

I started weathering the grey by using random spots of oil paint and blending them in to give tonal variation:

Phoenix094s.jpg

I used mainly white, I tried yellow too but that effect wasn't so good. I also used some brown and black to create streaks and general grime. It's difficult to see in the photos but it is all there. I may have to make the effect a bit more pronounced.

Phoenix095s.jpg

Phoenix097s.jpg

I also got to the point where I could add the red trim to the cowl and tail surfaces. I used Humbrol 20 with a touch of white and brown to try to tone it down a little.

Phoenix098s.jpg

The trim will need some weathering and chips, but it is starting to look better!

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking good, very nearly there now. I was just reading earlier about using the technique with the oil drops to reproduce oil and rust stains on tanks and trucks it looks like your use to break up the grey may be another trick to add to the list of uses for the technique

Cheers

Graham

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't worry about making the effect more pronounced for our benefit. I've found that when one tries to do weathering to pop in photos (especially digital ones done with typical auto settings), it can make the model look TOO weathered in person. In my own case, I try to achieve a look that pleases my eye more than how it might necessarily look in the camera. Once I've got that, then I try to manipulate the camera settings and do the photoshop passes to get something that looks close.

Perhaps at least doing a spot wash or a very slight pre-shade on the control surface splits might help a little though. But even if you don't do that, this bird already looks fabulous.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the continued interest guys! :)

Approaching the endgame now. Something I wasn't sure how to do was the text 'THE PHOENIX' along the fuselage. My first thought was to try to stencil it on. I picked 6 different fonts in Word and then printed them in different sizes in the hope that one would suit.

Phoenix101s.jpg

However, after cutting the text out as carefully as possible I tried the technique on a scrap kit by dabbing an almost dry paintbrush to minimise bleed:

Phoenix102s.jpg

No good! And I'm glad I tested it elsewhere first! My fallback option was to use decals and then paint over them.

Xtradecal lettering decals applied:

Phoenix103s.jpg

And after free-handed painting over with a dark grey:

Phoenix112s.jpg

I had no trouble producing an authentic rough, brushpainted edge :P I applied the text to both sides of the fuselage, as although the completed Phoenix I'm building is only ever seen from the port side (I think), the O-47 stand-in at the end has it on the starboard side.

That's the airframe so far...

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The other things I've been thinking about are the base and the figures.

I was thinking of using a round base, maybe a chopping board. When I was skulking around Wilkinsons looking for something suitable (and cheap!) I came across this corner shelf:

Phoenix104s.jpg

It was just the right size :) So I've added polyfiller just to give it some texture but kept the terrain pretty flat.

Phoenix108s.jpg

And now primed:

Phoenix114s.jpg

On with some paint later this week...

I've also been struggling to find suitable figures. Knowing nothing about 1/72 figure sets I again sought advice from my local model shop and was pointed in the direction of this set:

Phoenix115s.jpg

I'd never even heard of armourfast before, but the figures seem reasonably detailed and this set of 4 identical sprues includes 2 different blokes lying down, enough for my purposes. Here's one up close:

Phoenix116s.jpg

He will need to be parted from his uniform and equipment, and a head transplant will again be necessary... I now know why I prefer 1/48 scale! :wacko:

Mike

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...