tomprobert Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 Fantastic stuff! That is a masking master-class! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave A Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 Cracking stuff, a real reminder of how "smart" military planes used to be, before all this grey stuff... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox Posted September 23, 2012 Share Posted September 23, 2012 Wow! Top modelling young man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted September 23, 2012 Author Share Posted September 23, 2012 Thanks for all the comments guys. Forth bridge, yeah thats about right. I know what you meant about smart planes Dave, something to be proud off. Well with the wheels on I couldn't resist popping the wings and props on. The wing joints are not perfect but not bad for a fist fit. Im sure these will tidy up once Ive scrapped all the paint off the locating pins. She's well big now though! Has anyone ever made this with the wings on? Cheers Colin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Looks great Colin, Masking looks excellent. Who needs full decal sheets for schemes like this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pacificmustang Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 oh, that does look stunning. Top effort Bruce Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted September 28, 2012 Author Share Posted September 28, 2012 Hi All Many thanks for the comments. Over 6000 views and no one reminded me to put the fuel filler and aerial on the centre fuselage before I sprayed the walk way! Shocking. Anyway its been decals this week. I finished the decal sheet and printed it off. I forgot to take a picture but you can get the idea. The roundels I will just cut out and use but the compass rose is a bit harder. The rose is gold with a black shadow so the plan is to cut out the black decals and use them as masks to spray the gold then put the black decal over the top. The last time I tried this I had problems with the decal (and these look mighty hard to put on as well) but ended up using the carrier paper instead. Lets see how this pans out! Here is the black decal cutting out. Meanwhile here are the lower wings with the home made roundels and the red stripe as described for the fuselage. Plodding on Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matcham11 Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 Wow, looks great! Keep up the great work! Robin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z Aviator Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Amazing! Love the paint job! This is a truly beautiful bird! (And I still think it's funny that NZ elected a bird that can't fly for the insignia of its air force..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don McIntyre Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Very nicely done, Colin! You've really got something to be proud of there, and you certainly won't see any just like your on display anywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 Hi All Thanks for the comments guys. As you can see Ive cracked on a bit with the wheels and hare are a few pics of the nose undercarriage door. I did build this with the kit parts but the sit was definitely wrong so I rebuilt the door with the flightpath parts. It looks much better. Since the kit part needs to flex to fit it is compromised for shape and strength. The PE parts are very 2 dimensional which was why I initially rejected them but actually there are not bad really. To fit them I made a shaft to go between the locating holes in the fuselage which then passed through the PE parts. A splash of super glue is all that's needed to hold it in place and a couple of dots on the rear pins and its a great improvement on the kit. All it needs now is a dark wash and job done Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Fox Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Looks absolutely first class. Well done sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moeggo Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Nice to see a Kiwi Herc being built! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted October 5, 2012 Author Share Posted October 5, 2012 Hi All Well with the wheels now on I have returned to the back and got rid of the rest of the masking. The side parachute doors took some prising off as the car paint had glued them on good and tight. Still they did the job and no grey got into the fuselage. All the window masks came off the side cleanly so a good result. I started with re-attaching the parachute doors in the open position. There are no rails for these so I fashioned a small runner on the fuselage rib and glued the doors to the inside of the fuselage. I replaced the hydraulic rams as the kit parts were pretty poor. I used the kit top bracket and added a length of brass tube. I then slotted some aluminium tube inside which was ultimately attached to the cargo door. The joint between the lower fuselage and the door was cut away and replaced with some brass rod. I took pains to get this right since I hadn't added any nose weight and the plan was that the ramp holds the nose down. I didn't realise they actually did do this until last night. Looking more the part now. Work on the gold compass rose is proving challenging. More later. # Colin W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FZ6 Posted October 5, 2012 Share Posted October 5, 2012 Looking good. It's inspiring me to crack on with my stalled build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noeyedears Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 gobsmacked, she is beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted October 11, 2012 Author Share Posted October 11, 2012 Well plan A for the compass rose didn't work very well so I tried plan B. I used the backing card from the decal to make a mask and sprayed the gold through then printed the black as a decal and popped that over the top. Quite easy actually. I masked and sprayed the antenna on the fin. Does anyone know what it is? Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j3cubfan Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 Amazing work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted October 11, 2012 Author Share Posted October 11, 2012 Well the light is at the end of the tunnel now. I've got most of the decals on, Only the upside down one on the door and the 'No Steps' came from the kit sheet, all the rest are home made. I've also added the aerial fit on top of the nose and underneath. To give them a fighting chance with all the extra handling needed to take the wings on and off I decided to drill holes for the aerials and the 2 black ones holding the wires I drilled out and inserted some .75mm wire to make a decent connection to the fuselage. The front crew door was quite a good fit but the addition of the brass support should give it a bit more strength. The ramps from the door to the ground are missing from the kit and completely wrong in the Flight Path set. I built and painted the flight path ones but they look so awful I've decided to make my own. I'll just tidy those bits up over the next few days and we'll be there. Colin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkkeeper Posted October 11, 2012 Share Posted October 11, 2012 the compass rose is superb, the whole a/c is looking fab too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 (edited) Looks good Colin, the tail markings worked out nicely Edited October 12, 2012 by TrojanThunder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Well as I said I'd get on with the ramps. These somewhat key items are not in the kit, which is a surprise since the kit has been excellent so far. They were on the Flightpath sheet but built up from 2 flat pieces of Brass to be nothing like the real thing. Here are the tops. Flight path on the right, Plasticard and wire on the left. And the bottom view. The ramps are quite distinctive with the 3 ribs on the bottom and the far from smooth upper surface. Its getting quite hard to get all the 6 wheels and cargo door on the floor together since the plane is so long any bend in the surface means the wheels are raised. To stop this being worse with the ramps I built them on a hinge so they can raise and lower with the surface. Its quite basic and not 100% accurate but its better to have the thing sitting flat. I have drilled 2 holes in the rear of the cargo door to take the wire ends since these will probably get knocked a fair bit. Last few decals to go and we're there. Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkkeeper Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 (edited) the real ramps sit on bars in the end of the lower rear cargo door, RAF herks can have 4 load ramps side by side for tracked or wide vehicles. I did 3 years on role equip flight at lyneham from 2/77 to mid 1980. the ramps are not light either. IIRC they had a non slip grey upper surface, don't remember what the lower surface looked like, smooth alloy possibly. Edited October 12, 2012 by Hawkkeeper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin W Posted October 12, 2012 Author Share Posted October 12, 2012 Interesting. There is a pic on the Kiwi Wings web site showing the underside of the ramps and they definitely have the three ribs on the bottom.. Maybe the Flightpath ones are representing the RAF ones? However they only give 2 ramps not 4. The grey upper surface makes sense to match the surface of the ramp. I hope mine are wide enough to get Airfix's new Land Rover on! Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exdraken Posted October 12, 2012 Share Posted October 12, 2012 Very inspiring, totally awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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