Short Singapore III - Completed.

[Ray S]

Hello all.

Well, I took the Singapore to my local model club on Tuesday, and the more I looked at it, the more the canopy annoyed me. It had a distinct cant to the port, and it sloped fore and aft. It should have been level in both planes, so last night, off it came, and I was thankful I only used Glue'N'Glaze to fit it. This also gave me chance to do a better job on the next thing I needed to do, namely masking the framing. I think I would have struggled doing the masking with the canopy in situ, so I think it all worked out in the end.

I used very thin Aizu tape, then blocked the rest in with thicker Tamiya tape. I had to cut out little channels in some areas for very thin frame lines, so I hope the paint gets in there and stays when I spray (rattle can) the grey primer - I have decided the interior framing was grey by the way! After that, today I re-fitted the canopy, it is now pretty level in both axises (axies) so I hope that is that. I will need to used some filler, but I will fill with G'N'G as that can be painted on the outside with an interior colour prior to priming. I think the plane looks quite cute sat there wearing it's masking tape scarf, don't you?

I have used normal polystyrene cement this time, so I hope I have not put the mokkers on this!

In the meantime, I have turned to preparing the struts for the engine mounting. Thankfully Mr Markham in his build review I have gave the strut lengths, so I have cut them out (one pair needed to be longer at the trailing edge than the front) and they are labelled. I will have a confession to make when I fit the engines, but I will let you know at the time! It involves mismatching and great trenches in the wing joint.

With these struts, I will try and drill into them to put some reinforcing pins into them to make the fitting stronger.

I am beginning to wonder if this will be done by 30th August, if not no worries. I must say I have really enjoyed this project, and am so glad the non-injected build GB went ahead. I had forgotten just how nice it is to have to think about what you are going to do to solve an issue, and thankful for the advice that is so freely given by good people like yourselves.

Thanks for looking in, Ray

[whitestar12chris]

Coming along nicely Ray, keep up the excellent work

Chris

[Ray S]

Hello all.

I have had quite a productive weekend, despite work. I got the underside rattlecan sprayed light grey (H64) and varnished, fitted the exhausts to the engine nacelles, and found the rear upper struts I had prepped were too short, so made another couple and am now waiting for the glue to dry after fitting the nacelles to the upper wing:

I needed to put a stopper by one of the engines to ensure it was straight (hence the paint pot and CA pot), and they both look okay from the front, top and sides. I had pinned the struts with some thin brass rod, as thankfully the struts needed for this part at least are quite thick so I was able to drill into them. I have four more struts to fit to the nacelles and it will be fun trying to level them up with the ones already fitted. I am now wondering whether it would have been better to make the rear struts in one go and thread them up through the nacelles so top and bottom were one. Never mind eh? I also need to put horizontal struts between the engine pods, I have measured and marked the positions and drilled appropriate holes.

I have also started on the main paintwork on the upper surfaces, and got a first thin coat of Humbrol Light Earth brush painted onto the fuselage, wings and tailplane. I had to re-glue the middle tailplane as the original poly glue and CA I had used was not up to the job and it was floating loose and only held in place by the horizontal struts. Good job the glue worked with them!

The next few evenings should hopefully see the plane coming together in all her plumage.

See you soon!

Regards, Ray

PS - No money has changed hands for any apparent product placement in these shots!

[trickyrich]

it's certainly coming along and looks amazing!

[Ray S]

Hello all again! I have had a busy few days with this. I mentioned the other day that I had a confession to make when it comes to fitting the engines. Well, a teaser:

The four white spots are where I had drilled out the mounting points that had been moulded onto the top wings. Well, it seems as though when I fitted the wings to the fuselage, I made a hash of this simple job, which may well have explained the huge gaps I had. The engine pods fitted to the lumps on the underside of the top wing, and when they were then married up to the lower wing, they were way off from the location points! In fact, they have ended up fitting on the reinforced strips, which I think should be walkways. So out came the Perfect Plastic putty and in two shakes of a lamb's tail, said holes were filled. I think I should have got rid of all the plastic at the wing joint, rather than keeping it for strength. Anyway, talking of the pod mounting points -

This was another area that needed lots of filler. I used milliput, and carefully moulded the stuff to try and blend things in, but it was now getting quite awkward to do this, but ended up with this (sorry about the quality of this shot)

They look a bit better in real life than here, especially after being painted. Next up was the main camo scheme. I used Humbrol 119 Light Earth and 84 Mid Stone for the uppers, and 64 Light Grey for the underside. The grey was spray canned, but the upper colours were brush painted, with a couple of coats. I used a wide flat brush and it came out ok. The transfers are a mix, I had ordered roundels and small codes (they are Post War serials, but we can keep that a secret, can't we? Especially as I could not find any the correct style!), only to find I had both sheets in stock already! Doh. It turned out there were only two of the large roundels on the sheet anyway, so I did need the spare. In this pic I still need to overlay another fuselage roundel as the yellow ring was a very thin one, and all mine were thick yellow. The transfers went on really well, they were Xtradecal, and worked well with Micro Set and Sol. The varnish was Wilko's Gloss indoor acrylic, dirt cheap and brushes on well with two coats, and you can recoat within an hour, although the tin says you can do that after 4 hours.

I have now removed the masking tape from the inside of the fuselage, and fitted a series of complex struts under the tail, and dry fitted the top wing. The struts were not easy to fit to the engine pods, they needed to line up with each other and they are not too far out, but it will not win any competitions. They are also not a clean fit to the wings, but I am hoping a bit of filler of some sort will blend things in a bit -

I have drilled out the holes for the rigging wires, and fitted the inter-engine struts. They were awkward too (what hasn't been?) and I had to forget one of the holes I had pre-drilled as it was way out despite measuring. I am going to blame my glasses, not my steel rule. They have not gone in quite straight, and the Contrail strut material is quite flexible so it looks bad, but they are as good as I can get. I am thinking of getting Albion Alloy's Strut maker, so I can use brass rod and tube to make this sort of thing, it will be stronger and flex less.

And finally (do I hear thank goodness?), the propellers. I have got the Aeroclub sets for this. They are white metal, and they polished up really well. I could not find details of colour, but one photo of a camoflaged aircraft shows a dark colour with light tips, so I have gone with a light black (Revell Anthracite) and yellow tips, with the prop boss being unpainted polished metal. When I was painting the props, I noticed they had a letter embossed on the back plate, two had P, two had T. Could I figure it out? No, until three days later when I realised it stood for Pusher and Tractor. Now I know where to put them. Thanks JohnAero for doing that, ideal for folks like me who could not work it out from the drawings!

I know this has been a big update, but it looks like it will now be finished in time for the 30th, as I am off work for this week, and I have the jobs for this written out on a day by day basis so I (hopefully) don't miss anything.

Thanks for looking in and getting through this.

Ray

[canberraman]

A majestic looking model Ray, can't wait to see her finished.

Mark

[BritJet]

That's a huge step forward and looks really good, you should easily finish by the 30th.

Steve

[trickyrich]

WOW, you have made some real progress there, even though she does seem to be less willing than you are! But she just keeps getting better, you are will and truly in the home stretch now.

[Ray S]

Hello all.

OOPS! Spoke too soon!

Out came the acrylic rattlecan matt varnish, shook it for three minutes just to be safe, sprayed it on over the acrylic gloss varnish (like I have so many times in the past) and it has now gone all white and frosty. Thankfully I have only done the top wing underside, so just need to work on the nacelles, so hopefully not too much of a setback.

I am going to try brush painting Humbrol matt acrylic that has been thinned with flow improver.

Wish me luck please!

Ray

PS, Yesterday, when I was out, an old school friend phoned and told my good lady that he would phone back today. I have not seen him for 33 years, and he is now in New Zealand. I said to my lady this morning, 'I don't know if I am more nervous about talking to him or spraying this plane', and now she understands why!

[Ray S]

Hello all.

As mentioned in the previous post, I had a bit of a hiccup on the painting front:

The rattlecan spray went horribly wrong on the underside of the top wing and nacelles, thankfully I sprayed that first and waited. I sprayed acrylic matt over acrylic gloss. I had heard that if you gloss coat over this effect, it clears. Well, it did not for me! So tomorrow I will be re-painting the nacelles and inter-engine struts, then varnish them matt by brush. I have matt varnished the rest of the plane okay by brush, and two coats have given me quite a good finish with virtually no brush marks. I do wonder if it is a bit too matt though!

Anyway, I have had some success today, I unmasked the canopy, and am quite chuffed -

It does look better in the plastic rather than this hugely magnified image, I promise!

This evening I start attaching the rigging lines to one of the wings in preparation for when they are joined together.

Regards, Ray

[trickyrich]

Oh dear! I had that problem with matt out of a can a couple of years ago on an Ar-234 I was building, went frosty and started to crack the paint! (the paint had even cured for a couple of days before hand). Had to sand back the tops of both wings and fuselage, then airbrushed this time with matt acrylic. Clear matt out of a rattle can can be very hit and miss, just go a fraction too thick and you're stuffed sometimes.

Hopefully the repaint won't give you too much grief. I'm dying to see this finished as she does look amazing.

[Ray S]

Hello all!

The last couple of nights have been quite busy on the kit front. I pre-fitted EZ-Line into blind holes in the upper wings (they were too thick to drill through), and fitted the first outboard wing strut, only to find that there was not much room for me to thread the line into the holes in the lower wing. Hmm, I thought, or words to that effect anyway, then like Baldrick, hit upon a cunning plan! I have never seen or read of this being done before, but - how about completing the rigging BEFORE fitting the rest of the struts? Mad? Well, as it turns out, the wing structure on this plane is pretty rock solid, and EZ-Line stretches a bit, so it should be no problem. First up was the rest of the first wing, one strut in place

The second strut went in fine, then the other wing was rigged in its entirity before fitting either strut

The next two struts went in fine too, so I had no issues. I don't think this idea would be too good for many vacforms, but this one was good. I pinned the struts with some brass rod, the drill bit was only just smaller than the strut width, but I managed okay without piercing my fingers!

The rest of the plane went okay, and she is now done, I will post photographs in the next day or so, I have some grand-daughter sitting to do tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who has followed this and given their invaluable advice. This has been one of my most enjoyable build for years, despite (or is it because of?) the problems and difficulties that cropped up.

All the best everyone,

Ray

[stevehed]

Well done, Ray. Ingenious rigging and have followed the build with great interest.

Regards, Steve

[trickyrich]

Well done Ray, that was an amazing build and you just nailed each of the challenges as they cropped up.

She is definitely one of the more impressive builds we have had, so give yourself a good pat on the back.

Just remember to post your photos before Sunday midnight.

[Ray S]

Hello all, as promised a couple of finished photographs (I will put five into the Gallery too):

The brushed on matt varnish has given a slight white residue, but I am not going to try and fix it! Although the plane is finished, I now need to do a stand for it, I am not sure whether to try and make one out of plastic, or wood.

I used 6 injection moulded parts which I did mention at the start of the thread, three scarff rings and 3 guns.

Well. that is it, I am now off to do something simpler, an Airfix 1/72 Harrier which I was given for my birthday, or possibly scratchbuilding a tramp steamer from plans I have in a book I got for my birthday too!

Thanks for all the encouragement you have given, and all the advice,

Kindest regards to you all,

Ray

[BritJet]

That looks great, well done.

I like the idea of doing something simpler next, I'll certainly be giving that a try.

Steve