canberraman Posted May 1, 2015 Posted May 1, 2015 (edited) For my entry to the Non-Injection Moulded GB I will be building the S&M Andover C.1 in 1/72nd scale. Here are the obligatory pre construction photos. This model was unveiled at the IPMS Nationals last year and being one of my favorite types I had to have one. The kit is primarily produced in good quality light grey resin with while metal props, undercarriage and other smaller details. A rather nice decal sheet is produced allowing one of a number of RAF aircraft to be modelled in the original light stone/dark earth over black MEAF colour scheme. I understand the kit is also produced in association with Oldmodels decals allowing modellers 'down under' to build the Andover C.1 in RNZAF markings. I intend to depict an Andover C.1 in the livery of 46 Sqn RAF as based at Abingdon in the late sixties/early seventies. As a boy I well remember the Abingdon Andovers regularly flying over my primary school which was on the southern approach to the airfield. The shrill whistle of the twin Darts was such a distinctive sound as was that unique kneeling undercarriage to allow troops and vehicle to be quickly loaded and disembarked! I have long intended to build an Andover and for a long time regretted that I never obtained a vacform from Formaplanes or a resin version from Rug Rats when both were still available. It was therefore with great excitement that I heard about the S&M release last year and I have to say on first impression the model does not disappoint. That said I have been watching with some horror the trials and tribulations that fellow BM'er Calum has had with his build (which features on the Britmodeller WIP section). I just hope I have learnt from his experiences and will not have the same misfortunes! This is only my second ever resin build - the first being the diminutive Grob Tutor from Heritage I buily 3 years ago. I've done lots of reading up on the idiosyncrasies of working with resin, and have amassed lots of photos, and a set of scale plane that will hopefully assist. I'm itching to get started on my Andover now that the GB has started and I wish all my fellow group builders the best of luck! Mark Edited August 27, 2015 by canberraman 4
trickyrich Posted May 2, 2015 Posted May 2, 2015 Hi Mark and welcome aboard. That's a lovely looking model, I remember seeing them when they first arrived in NZ, they were impressive in the day! From what you can see the model looks quite nice indeed, none of the lumpy resin bits you find in some! You've come to the right place if you need any help as they will be quite a few resin fiends who will be only too willing to help you along the way. I do hope you have an enjoyable build and end up building more resin models, they're awesome!!! , good luck. 1
CliffB Posted May 2, 2015 Posted May 2, 2015 What a great choice Mark and from what I can see the castings look superb. It's sparked memories of televised Farnborough air shows, with the Andover kneeling for the crowds and Raymond Baxter commentating Cliff 2
Radleigh Posted May 2, 2015 Posted May 2, 2015 Would like the 748 myself, looking forward to seeing this unfold 1
nimrod54 Posted May 2, 2015 Posted May 2, 2015 Nice choice Mark, I remember watching the nose and centre section for these and the 748 come together on my daily walk across to the Apprentice Training School when I started at the Chadderton factory. They were then assembled further up the bay into the full fuselage section before being transported along with the wings to Woodford for final assembly. Good luck with your build, I'll be watching with interest. 2
Smudge Posted May 6, 2015 Posted May 6, 2015 Excellent, can't wait to see this one coming together. I really, really want one. 1
canberraman Posted May 6, 2015 Author Posted May 6, 2015 Chaps Thanks very much for the kind and supportive comments. CliffB your comment about Farnborough and Raymond Baxter made me smile, what a truly great time that was! I've made a start with fitting the fuselage windows and assembling the cockpit (much of which won't be seen!). Pix to follow soon. Good luck to all my fellow Group Builders. Mark 3
canberraman Posted June 1, 2015 Author Posted June 1, 2015 After a delayed start I’ve finally made a start on the S&M Andover. As with all resin kits the first task was to give all the components a good wash in soapy water to remove any traces of release agent. After this it was necessary to clean up some of the parts with a sharp knife and assorted files to get rid of any flash and other unwanted residue etc. By and large this is a very nice resin representation by S&M and the parts are well detailed and the dry fitting suggests this should hopefully be a reasonably easy build with relatively few parts. After cutting the fuselage transparencies from their runners, I managed to lose two of the 20 windows to the carpet monster! Thankfully Mel from S&M came to my rescue and kindly supplied me some replacements – thanks Mel! The fuselage windows were carefully trimmed to size and were affixed with PVA glue. Although I don’t think any of the interior will be seen once built, I did paint inside the fuselage a mix of grey, blue/grey and black as shown on some of my reference photos. For the same reason I have also omitted any cabin details such as seats or cargo. The cockpit area is fairly simple with a couple of aircrew seats, white metal yokes and an instrument panel that needed to be added to the main cockpit assembly. Seat belts were made from painted take cut carefully to size and instruments picked out by dry brushing. The cockpit transparency was first dipped in Klear before being hand painted matt black on the inside. Learning from the mistake made by fellow BM-er Calum, who did not add sufficient nose weight to his Andover, I packed in some sheet lead wrapped in Plasticene in the nose and immediately behind the cockpit bulkhead. This ballast was then painted interior blue just in case it can be seen from the cabin windows once built. One of the shortcomings from the resin manufacturing process is the general lack of recessed panel lines on the fuselage halves. Using my Aviation News 1/72 scale plans for the Andover C.1, I began re-scribing using Dynotape and assorted needle and scribing tools. It was during this exercise I noticed an error with the kit in that the rear starboard door has been misrepresented and is too large. Using Perfect Plastic Putty I filled in the outline of the top part of the door, sanded smooth when dry, and re-scribed to the correct size and shape. Another tip I picked up from Calum concerned the fitting of the cockpit transparency to the fuselage. The cockpit piece is slightly taller and wider than the fuselage pieces. Therefore to ensure a better fit I made sure the canopy fitted the fuselage before joining the halves. I glued it to one half first before joining the fuselage pieces on the premise that it’s simpler to fill a small gap long the length of the fuselage than build up the circumference around the rear of the cockpit. The fuselage halves were dry fitted, the joints smoothed with wet and dry, and then joined together using Zap A Gap medium CA glue. The seams were filled with Perfect Plastic Putty (PPP), left overnight and then sanded back using different grades of sanding sponges. So far so good, I hope it won’t be a tail sitter! Now on with the wings and tailplanes… Thanks for watching, good luck to all other group builders. Mark 1
whitestar12chris Posted June 2, 2015 Posted June 2, 2015 Nice going so far Mark, will follow with interest. All the best Chris
Calum Posted June 2, 2015 Posted June 2, 2015 Looking good Mark. Glad to see you're avoiding some of my pitfalls. Look forward to seeing more I agree the door is to large. I wish I'd rescribed mine but it's to far along now
canberraman Posted June 15, 2015 Author Posted June 15, 2015 Part 2 Since the last update I have glued in place the lower fuselage centre, on to which I have affixed the wings. This was a tricky exercise as the wings are joined to the lower fuselage with a butt joint which is only about 4 mm wide and the resin wings are very heavy which places a lot of strain on the joint. I took the risk of using CA and accelerator for this part of the construction rather than use 2 part epoxy and brass rod which was Calum’s method of choice for his Kiwi Andover. It is also difficult to judge the correct amount of anhedral, which is quite pronounced on the real machine. After fixing the starboard wing to the desired angle I sat the wingtip on a paint pot that represented the correct anhedral and then repeated for the port wing. The wing to fuselage join on the starboard wing was smooth but unfortunately I had about a 2 mm gap on the port side that will need rubbing back and filling with putty. With wings firmly attached I then set to attach the tail planes and rudder. Helpfully S&M have provided twin holes on the fuselage and pins on the tail plane which helps with alignment. These are also set at a high angle of anhedral and using trial and error and dry fitting I attempted to get the wings and tailplanes all correctly positioned relative to the fuselage. I also heeded Calum’s advice to fix in place the tailplanes before adding the tailfin which seemed to aid the general fit. It was only when studying the alignments again after the joints were fully cured did I notice the same problem that had afflicted Calum’s Andover. The angle of the front windscreen compared to the fin just wasn't right, probably about 2-3 mm twisted clockwise from the vertical. It’s not a major issue so I decided I will just have to live with this anomaly. At this stage I studied some of my photo reference material with a view to adding extra detailing on the somewhat bare fuselage. Although scribing panel lines has helped there are clearly a number of ‘bits and bobs’ on the real thing that are missing. Using plastic rod and sheet polystyrene I crafted the rails that are quite noticeable above all the doors, and some of the larger hinges. I also noticed from my copy of the Aviation News scale plans that the fin was lacking a number of panel lines and access panels that I added using a template, scribing tool and metal rule. Next task was to build the engine fronts and then attach these to the wings. The existing panel lines were quite feint so I deepened them using a scribing needle. There were also quite large gaps between the engines and the wheel wells that I filled using Perfect Plastic Putty and then sanded smooth using sanding pads and assorted files. Once again, when viewed head on, I noticed another error first brought to light by Calum during his build; the starboard engine from is twisted about 5 degrees off centre so like he, using a razor saw, I cut the front 100mm off, reset to the vertical and then filled and sanded smooth. So despite a few headaches and drawbacks, we were finally making good progress…or so I thought! Whilst dry fitting the main undercarriage to check for fit, I found to my horror, and despite all the lead packed in the nose, and Calum’s dire warnings, I had a tail sitter! Nooooo!!! After pondering this predicament overnight I assessed my options: There is room in the nosewheel bay to add some more lead which may be enough to keep her on all three wheels. Alternatively I could carry on with the build and display her with Bluetack under the nose wheel to fix it to a base. Or, there is the nuclear option; cut off the nose, add some more weight to the forward fuselage, refix and sand smooth. This approach would also fix the problem noted above with the forward fuselage being slightly twisted off centre at present. So with nerves of steel and a steady hand I sawed through the nose using the forward vertical panel line and some Dymotape as a guide. I so hoped that I would not ‘cock up’ as it would be an expensive mistake if I got it wrong and that’s assuming I can obtain another kit before the end of the Group Build. I’m glad to report the radical surgery went well. Another lead fishing weight was glued into the port forward cabin area. I stuck some shortened cocktail sticks into the main rear fuselage to act as dowels and then reattached the nose with two part epoxy. The forward fuselage was rotated about 2mm to starboard which corrected the off centre nose. After another round of sanding, filling blemishes and polishing the resin to a smooth finish, I felt ready to apply the first coat of primer. First however, the cockpit glass was masked using small strips of Tamiya masking tape and the fuselage windows were masked with Humbrol Maskol. The primer used was Humbrol spray can acrylic primer which I find always gives coverage and leaves an even finish. Hopefully despite the avoidable pitfalls I ‘m now back on track. More to follow soon. 7
Ray S Posted June 15, 2015 Posted June 15, 2015 This is coming along well, despite the hiccups with the nose weight and skew-wiffedness of the mouldings. It looks a really nice plane, and I have to admit I do like the Andover. I saw plenty in Singapore in the '60s (if I remember properly) along with Hastings and Argosy(s). Look forward to seeing more, All the best, Ray 1
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted June 15, 2015 Posted June 15, 2015 Nice to see another Andover in the works, and that surgery! Nice progress Mark! 1
AndrewE Posted June 17, 2015 Posted June 17, 2015 Lovely work. Well done for going for the nuclear option and removing the nose to add weight and correct the twist. It will be a much more satisfactory build for you now it has all worked out properly. 1
Calum Posted June 18, 2015 Posted June 18, 2015 (edited) Great work there. I know this doesn't make it any better for you but it's nice to see that perhaps the issues I found weren't entirely my fault. I like the extra detail you added. I wish I'd done the same. There appear to a few strakes on the rear of the aircraft that are missing on the kit, plus there is a interesting arrangement on the tail. I've got a good walk around of a Kiwi one, taken buy a friend. I've put it on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.773793486071917.1073741949.372459509538652&type=3&uploaded=150 Edited June 18, 2015 by Calum 1
canberraman Posted June 18, 2015 Author Posted June 18, 2015 Chaps Many thanks for the supportive comments, muxh appreciated. Calum, that set of walk around photos of a Kiwi Andover are really useful. There's a whole load of strakes, lumps and bumps that I hadn't previously noticed Cheers all, good luck to all other non injected group builders. Mark
canberraman Posted August 23, 2015 Author Posted August 23, 2015 Well the finish line approaches and this is going to be tight. What with RIAT, our annual trip to Malta, school hols and several reunions to attend, I don't know where the summer has gone! But enough of the excuses and lets give you an update. Since the last installment I gave the top sides of the aircraft a further coat of Halfords white plastic primer as a better base colour than grey for the light stone and dark earth topcoats which will go on later. This was duly applied and then sanded smooth with sanding sponges and Micromesh. While the painting and finishing was underway, I also started work on some of the smaller details such as the propellers and undercart. The white metal props were first sprayed with metal primer before being further sprayed with rattle can aluminium. The yellow tips and black anti icing details were hand painted after careful masking with Tamiya tape. Once I was happy with the primed finish and all the blemishes filled with Tippex or model filler, I began preparation for the top coats. To get an even finish I had decided to use Humbrol rattle cans for the black undersides. After masking the top sides I carefully applied a couple of misted coats of 85 satin Coal Black which gave a surprisingly smooth and even coverage. Once I was happy with the undersides, the process was reversed, and this area was masked ahead of the upper surfaces which were to be brush painted. For this task I used Xtracolor gloss Light Stone and Dark Earth which were thinned to the consistency of milk with Revell Color Mix. I used good quality sable flat edged brushes and left several days between coats to allow the paints to cure. Once I was happy with the finish, the whole model was then given a further rub down with sanding sponges and Microsmesh to get as good a finish as possible ahead of decalling. 7 days to go and still quite a bit to do. Here's hoping for a quiet week! Thanks for looking. Mark 4
trickyrich Posted August 23, 2015 Posted August 23, 2015 thats excellent, the finish you have achieved is amazing, well done. 1
Calum Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 I love the extra detail on the doors. Pant job looks great as well. 1
Radleigh Posted August 25, 2015 Posted August 25, 2015 That does look fantastic. I wish I had a need to build one.... 1
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