AndyC Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Build No.2 - the Travel Air Mystery Ship - a much more complicated kit than the Ike. Will need some surface treatment and the paint scheme will be a masking challenge but she is a little peach of a kit. Bought for£4.50 on eBay. Scratch cockpit and seat and some simple rigging. Look forward to this one and adding to my 30's racers 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radleigh Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Tasty aircraft Andy, glad to see you in the GB too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jockster Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Shiny! I've never even seen a Testors kit up close let alone built one! Heard the name all my life and always imagined them to be quite special. Popcorn time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 5, 2014 Author Share Posted February 5, 2014 Thanks Radleigh - never one to turn down a GB! Jockster, pull up a chair - they are not bad kits of their time and have some very esoteric subjects! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 These racers really look the business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Ah, a racer, that's always right in my book! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricP Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Looking forward to your paintjob on this one! Hope the red doesn't bleed through the white "31" decals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Looking forward to your paintjob on this one! Hope the red doesn't bleed through the white "31" decals. I had the same thoughts - for less than a tenner though...I'll put up with that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Well while the Ike is settling under some filler... I started on this little racer. This will be a ground bird, so some detailing to the cockpit is needed. Plastic rod to provide some framing and a throttle quadrant and a electrical junction box - all from my imagination! I used a seat from the spares box and fashioned it to fit inside the curved turtle back to the cockpit (I think it's from the Revell Ju-52!). I also took some card and fashioned an IP, these were all sprayed black and then given a spray coat of Alclad Airframe Aluminium Some random Airscale decals were applied to the IP - I will add some switches later before fixing in place. No need for loads of them as it was a fairly simple a/c The quadrant and box were painted black and then a Flory wash applied. I will paint the seat cushion next and apply some tape seat belts. I'm not going to bother with a cockpit floor but I will glue in a rudimentary stick. The engine as also sprayed black and the distributor ring was also done and sprayed silver. Thanks for looking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deacon Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 A nice start mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Cheers Deacon! I finished detail painting on the seat and IP and CA'd them both into the fuselage. Jammy Dog tape belts were made Fuselage closed up and sanding and filling started. Not too much needed as the fit is quite good. The exhausts have been glued into the front of the fuselage - these will be almost invisible anyway The engine front has been painted and glued. The cylinders were sprayed black and fry brushed with GW silver, the collector ring was sprayed black and the Alclad was sprayed. The gear housing was brush painted Lt Compass Grey. It's a tight fit in that cowl The wings have some large ejector towers on the insides which need removing with a sharp scalpel before sanding the mating edges and then gluing. I got them glued into place once they had set and been sanded. I was a little too vigorous sanding the inside edge of the port wing and had to add a plastic strip spacer as can be seen. Again a light amount of filler and some sanding. the cowl tacked in place - what a good looking little racer! The cowl will be left off and attached after painting as will the tail planes just for ease of what is going to be a quite complicated masking job. The tail planes are a good fit without filler. The half cutaway canopy was masked and glued in with Gator Glue. Next up are the spatted wheels which have been painted inside. Lastly I will drill the holes for the rigging and then she will go in for a grey primer. I'm still debating which order to do the painting in but I'm pretty much set on red first and then mask for the black Ta for looking! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Comming along nicely Andy. The Travell Air Mystery ship kit is my favorite of the Testors Racers - probaby be cause it is the "best detailed" one. My build of it is somewhere on ARC... I really need to get my Lynx done so I can start my S6B and M.C.72 Rene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 Comming along nicely Andy. The Travell Air Mystery ship kit is my favorite of the Testors Racers - probaby be cause it is the "best detailed" one. My build of it is somewhere on ARC... I really need to get my Lynx done so I can start my S6B and M.C.72 Rene And a very nice job you did too! Astounding! Interesting effort with your rigging 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Thanks - as far as I recall it was a very easy builda and the only bigger problem was casued by using red from a Revell spry can - it took ages to dry :-D 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 10, 2014 Author Share Posted February 10, 2014 Thanks - as far as I recall it was a very easy builda and the only bigger problem was casued by using red from a Revell spry can - it took ages to dry :-D I am going for Signal Red (Humbrol 174) and then I will mask and spray the black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 So she has been primed, the rigging holes drilled out and the wheel and the tailplanes left until after painting to ease masking. She was sprayed with Humbrol 22 Gloss White which after drying was then sprayed with Humbrol 174 Signal Red I will add a second coat and then start masking for the black! Thanks for looking 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Lovely and bright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelfspace Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Lovely plane, great build. Have one of these in Deep Stash - must go and unearth it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted February 25, 2014 Author Share Posted February 25, 2014 Hi all - another update! Having sprayed the Travel Air Humbrol 174, I decided that this was too 'orange' a red and re-sprayed it Humbrol 60. Hawk/Testors have left marking guides as panel lines all over the a/c which helps in masking and painting. I tried masking the very thin black stripes but that was a step too far and so chose to mask the scallops to the wings and forward fuselage and then hand paint everything else. Here she is under Tamiya tape masks which have been cut using a sharp scalpel blade Humbrol 33 was then sprayed in two thin coats after having burnished the tape edges. Once dried I removed the masking and - OK I hand painted the spats and the tail plane scallops using Humbrol 33 and a 000 brush. Tiring work. I started the thin lines and the fin scallops. This takes a steady hand and regulated breathing! Anyway another night on it and I should have it done and ready for final assembly. Thanks for looking 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Love it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paganpete Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 Crack-a-lackin!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 Thanks for the comments Pete and Mark! Into the home straight now - the horizontal lines were finally finished using the 000 brush. I'm OK with how they have come out - any slight mistakes were rubbed off with the tip of a cocktail stick and touched up with red. The wheel spats were also CA'd in place and gave me no issues - I'm glad I left them off for painting. The it was two thin coats of Alclad Gloss Kote and then left to dry thoroughly. The decals were applied. They are very good with no bleed through the white - the only criticism is the excess white glue on the back of them as you place them which means you have to 'press and push' to get the glue out. Other than that - very good! Onwards with the rigging next and hopefully she will be done. Thanks again for looking 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bengalensis Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Very well done! Never underestimate hand painting with a thin brush for that fine precise detailing. Great work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 Thanks Jorgen...I don't brush paint much these days but there was no other way to do it and I took inspiration from Rene's (Caerbannog) build...turned out OK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 A wonderful scheme. I want one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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