sroubos Posted April 10, 2014 Author Share Posted April 10, 2014 (edited) I've received the white metal gear set from Heritage Models and they do look good. It will require a bit of cleanup but the detail is much better than on the resin parts. I've checked richellis' walkaround pics and they are incredibly useful, even vital to get the parts in place. The nose gear bay is a nice piece, and while it will take a bit of work to install, it will be a big improvement. Unfortunately the nose gear leg is very different, so I can't use that one. I've run out of my usual Tamiya primer which I need to progress the wings, but I have done most of the scribing. Applying the primer will highlight loads of issues no doubt The tail is starting to look very good, just the pointy end now that needs some work. Request: Is the manual for the Airfix Nimrod online somewhere? It would be very useful to me. Edited April 10, 2014 by sroubos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fostersdave Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 first plane I ever flew on was a dan-air comet to Italy,remember the in flight meal was a sandwiche and mars bar!.watching this build with interest and memories! dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzn20 Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 (edited) You were lucky! We used to dream of Mars Bars ! Looox sherree ! Edited April 10, 2014 by bzn20 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fostersdave Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 You were lucky! We used to dream of Mars Bars ! Looox sherree ! and a hot cup of tea! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted April 20, 2014 Author Share Posted April 20, 2014 (edited) Time for a brief pictorial update! Progress is slow, mainly because of lack of time but also because the rescribing effort is immense. After filling quite a lot of bad panel lines on the wings, I've rescribed some of them but I need a layer of Tamiya primer to check the result and see what else is required, and the primer is in the mail. Focus therefore shifted to the fuselage, which has started to look pretty good. I hacked and dremelled away at the nose gear bay to make room for the Heritage Models resin part, in the process removing the 'cockpit floor' on which I'd glued my 40 grams on nose weight, so these had to be reattached. I put them on top of the gear bay, and added a support in the fuselage to give some support. Unfortunately this only worked partially, and the bay dipped a bit on one side. It is now a little bit off center but rearranging it is a bit too much to ask I'm afraid... I filled the various gaps with card, CA and filler. It's now nice and flush. After doing a bit more work on the tail section, I decided it was time for some primer to highlight the areas that still needed work. Since I thought it was in pretty good shape, I used Mr Surfacer 1200 which is very similar to Tamiya Fine Primer. Normally I'd use normal Tamiya primer, which has better scratch 'n gap filling properties, but as stated, I'm out. Looks good, right? Right? Wrong of course. Apart from the areas I had expected around the connection of tail and stabilizers with the fuselage and some irregularities around the windows I'd filled, the primer highlighted that the panel lines on the control surfaces needed a lot of work as well: Just about the only line acceptable for me here is the horizontal line for the moving part of the stabilizer. The rest got the filler treatment. So this is where we are now. The various bits of filler on the fuselage are no biggie, but the control surfaces add a lot of work to the already substantial rescribing effort. The fuselage itself will require scribing as well... This will be a long and tedious job, but I won't give up Edited April 20, 2014 by sroubos 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted April 29, 2014 Author Share Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) Well, I received notice that my shipment of primer is carried by steamboat from Hong Kong to the UK. Since I'm still aiming on completing this kit before the decade is out, I've started using Halfords primer and it turns out to work quite well. I'm two sessions of priming and sanding later now and most of the bumps, scratches and bad panel lines are under control... almost. On the wings I've removed what was left of the scoops. I'm still not sure if I will replicate them using card or plunge molding. I'm also trying to fit the main gear doors, it seems the larger doors that covered the wheels were usually closed from photos and naturally, their fit is atrocious, so more slow progress! Edited April 29, 2014 by sroubos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Fascinating build! My Dad will love to see this, he made one out of wood when just a wee lad. Keep up the good work she's looking great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 This weekend I'll start on the wings; I read somewhere that the wing fences were added after initial problems with the aircraft, and since their scale thickness is terrible and I don't like the look of them in any case, I was wondering if someone can confirm this. I haven't found any photographs, apart from the prototype. The wing fences seem to have been fitted to the second and all subsequent aircraft (Even the prototype got them eventually) - the prototype originally had extending leading edge lsats, but they were found to be of no benefit, so were locked shut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Unfortunately the nose gear leg is very different, so I can't use that one. Interesting as my references all show the Nimrod leg as being a beefed up version of the Comet leg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 (edited) It's been a while and the build hasn't progressed as fast as I would have liked, but that's because there really, really is very little to like about the kit itself, apart from the subject it is representing. Over the past months most of the time I've worked on the kit was spent filling and rescribing panel lines. Not a single one of the original panel lines turned out to be acceptable, and since I'm not much good at rescribing, it was a very protracted process with lots time wasted correcting unintended scratches and double lines. i've also started to accept that this kit will not be my best build ever, and that it will lack refinement in some areas, to put it mildly. So what's the status? The rescribing work is pretty much done, and I had hoped the latest layer of primer would not highlight too many issues, but it seems there are still quite some areas that require a layer of Mr. Surfacer and some sanding paper, notably around the wing roots and lower wing. I have reinstated the scoops on the top of the wings, I carved them out of the cannon bulges from a Spitfire. I'm quite happy with the result. I'm passing on the ones at the bottom... I made a giant mess by drilling out the engine intakes and exhausts to give them some depth. Most fun I had on the build so far Considering the quality of the surface detail, i've decided to skip Alclad and use Humbrol Polished Aluminium, as I'm hoping it will be a little more forgiving in highlighting the inevitable remaining scratches. I've promised myself I'll finish the kit over the holiday period, so stay tuned for major progress over the next few weeks! Edited December 7, 2014 by sroubos 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 I'd say you're doing a great job on what looks like a very rough kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted December 9, 2014 Author Share Posted December 9, 2014 Thanks - It's been an education so far and I have definitely learned quite some skills I can apply to other kits in general, and particularly to my next resin challenge, a Fokker T-V. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallyinoz Posted December 10, 2014 Share Posted December 10, 2014 give that man a medal!.... and a sanity check love the comet, your will look a treat on the shelf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted December 14, 2014 Author Share Posted December 14, 2014 (edited) There it is, first layer of natural metal! Actually, it's a layer and a half. I'm using Humbrol Metal Cote from a can, and I ran out in the middle of applying the second layer. The can started spaying drops, which means I'll have to do a little bit of buffing on the other wing and fuselage before carrying on. I've got a few days because I need to order more paint. I ordered two cans online, fingers crossed they won't take too long to arrive with all this Christmas business. Does anybody have any experience with buffing this stuff? I was thinking of buffing the whole thing with a soft cloth, then masking around the moving surfaces and giving them a bit of extra buffing to set them apart from the rest of the model. I've also enlisted the help of my dad, who has been experimenting with printing his own decals recently, to improve the decal sheet a bit. To be honest, it's every bit as poor as the rest of the kit. It's a printed sheet, and the colors are not very consistent throughout. They are also out of register in places. The biggest issue is not the kit's fault though: The windows on the sheet are printed transparent, which will cause issues on my kit of course since I have no windows in it. They need to be black. Dad will fix all this for me, a nice little Christmas present Edited December 14, 2014 by sroubos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted December 14, 2014 Author Share Posted December 14, 2014 Can anyone confirm if there is a thin yellow outline around the blue horizontal fuselage band? It is on my decals, both above and below. On pictures I can't see them, only a white outline at the bottom, separating the blue band and the natural metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 (edited) Thanks to a very quick internet supplier I got my cans of polished aluminium yesterday, so the whole plane is now fully metallized My dad has done a great job in reworking the decal sheet, in effect he's completely recreated the whole thing. It's now a lot sharper and more importantly, it's correct. Windows are in the correct place, missing decals have been created, colors are more properly saturated, the yellow strip has been replaced by a white one etc. etc. etc. Now he's only got to print it for me and send it over. In the meantime, I've primered all the remaining loose bits, so after spraying the roof white, that's going to be the focus this weekend. Edited December 17, 2014 by sroubos 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Wonderful job and congratulations on the endurance ! I think your dad missed his vocation with the decals, he could run a very successful business with results like those ! Cheers Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Unfortunately little progress over the holidays... the first batch of decals my dad sent over had some color issues, so I've just received a second set which is looking much better. I've had to cut out the decals very carefully but I'm happy with the result. I've also sprayed the roof white and done a lot of touch up on the aluminum. Finally, a coat of future is in place so I'm ready for the decals - some time this week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marty_hopkirk Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 There is indeed a Welsh Models Comet. Here it is: The fuselage and outer wing panels are vac, the centre section and tailplanes are resin and the detail parts white metal. I had a few troubles getting the wings to fit onto the centre section but far less trouble than you're having with your kit. The Welsh kit is available with BOAC/Air France or RCAF markings. All in all, I think it's the superior kit. Yes, the Welsh kit is generally a straight forward build. The Comet 1 u/c was totally different from the Nimrod and later Comets. Marty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) A few hours of careful decalling and this is the result. Dad's printed decals went on very well, I'm quite happy with the result so far. They will require a bit of touch up with paint at the front and on the tail. Unfortunately I will need some larger serials for the wings; the ones I have appear to be way too small. It seems there is some discrepancy when it comes to these serials; most kits I've seen built have quite small serials, like the ones I have available, but this picture (when doctored a bit in PS) clearly shows the serials to be much larger and cover most of the wing panel outside the fences. I'm going with the photograph's serials, so dad will have to print some more Edited January 11, 2015 by sroubos 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learstang Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Excellent work! Makes want to get out my Welsh Models kit and have a go. Regards, Jason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted January 27, 2015 Author Share Posted January 27, 2015 Well, in a bout of perfectionism I've removed all the fuselage bands... when doing touch up on the nose I saw they were totally misaligned at the nose, so I stripped them. It will mean a good few hours of respraying and decalling and there's little modelling time in the near future so the kit will go past the one year building time after all Still, it feels weirdly kind of good to have made the decision to do this - I've come too far on the kit to let an obvious flaw like that mess it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme H Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 What a bummer, hope you get it all sorted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garryrussell Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 (edited) Just caught up with this Re the stripe. It should have yellow pin top and bottom. The bottom one had an additional wider white pin between the yellow and the natural Standard BOAC stripe at the time https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7414/9529775739_9d3dc93e6b.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/De_Havilland_Comet_pic_1_REJS.jpg http://www.airteamimages.com/pics/115/115084_800.jpg http://www.airteamimages.com/pics/115/115015_800.jpg Edited January 28, 2015 by garryrussell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Ouch... I did look at this as the original decals had one yellow line at the bottom, but I couldn't confirm it, in the pictures I found. With the decals stripped I have no excuse to do it right now I guess, so dad will have a bit of work ahead of him as of tonight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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