1/48 Testors Cessna O-2A Skymaster

[sunray]

This isn't the fastest build but I have managed to get around to a bit of painting. First the pilot. I made the seat belts for the pilot from rolled lead and glued them to each side of the moulded buckle on the pilot. I made the belts longer than required to enable me to glue the belts to the side of the pilots seat. Then I sprayed the pilot with Tamiya XF1 black. I use black because I find if my painting is a bit untidy and I leave a small space between say the flesh colour of the face and the helmet, the black can pass as say the liner of the helmet or shadow. It works on the cuffs as well, etc. I used Vallejo paints for the helmet, hands and face and Citadel for the flight suit. I prefer to use these two makes of paint for brush painting as they go down really well.





As you can see from the photo I have painted the inside of the cabin as well. I used Interior Green by LifeColor as well as using Citadel and Vallejo for the detail. When I was happy I gave it a coat of Klear then I used one of Vallejo's washes and their airbrush cleaner to move the wash around. The Klear protects the paint below from the affects of the cleaner.











I painted the yokes as well. I haven't glued them in place yet or the pilot because I want to attach the lower windows first but it never hurts to test fit one more time.

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Love that cockpit; the back looks nice and "lived-in". Perfect

[James G]

Really nice work, that cockpit is coming alive!

[modelling minion]

Fantastic work on the cockpit Ian, very well done.

You are really bringing this aircraft to life, and making me want to add one to the stash!

Craig.

[Don]

Fantastic work so far Ian. Since you're building this in-flight you won't have to worry about the too weak main gear. I built this kit several years ago and the gear legs have sagged so bad that the rear of the fuselage is almost resting on it's bum.

Keep up the great work. I'll be following along with this one!

[swimmer]

Great work, Really inspiring

[sunray]

Thanks lads. I have glued in the lower windows with PVA and attached the yokes, the pilots seat belts and pilot to the seat using CA glue for the yokes and belts and Tamiya extra thin for the pilot. When they were dry, I glued the fuselage halves together with no problems and a small amount of filling and sanding was required.













Next I was looking at the front of the engine cowling which looked a bit boring so to improve it I decided to add some radiator grills.



So I used basically the same method I did for the windows. That was to drill small holes around the shape I wanted to remove and then cut out with a modelling knife, file and sand to finish.







For the grills themselves I used some fine mesh off a filter from our old washing machine which I kept when we replaced it. It was just a case of cutting to shape with scissors and gluing with CA glue.







I was quite pleased with the result and I glued it to the front of the fuselage.



I also attached the rear undercarriage cover to the fuselage and plugged the holes of the undercarriage legs with plasticard. For the cover there was a large gap but that was easily filled with a shim of plasticard cut to size and sanded.





I then added the forward undercarriage cover which also required a shim and I replaced the kit moulded forward engine exhausts with ones made from syringe needles.





Next job was the wings. Looking at the wings they were covered in raised rivets and panel lines. I was just going to lightly rub down the rivets to reduce their size but then I changed my mind and decided to rub down the rivets. Using a pointed scriber I made small holes to replace the rivets. Because the scriber slightly pushes up the plastic around the holes I rubbed them down so they would be flush. The reason for this was because when I add a wash later on it will just show the rivets slightly and they would be more to scale. Anyway thats the plan. I also rescribed the panel lines on the wings. All this was done before I assembled the wings.



As you can see from the photo there were a lot of rivets.









With that done it was just a case of assembling the wing halves and gluing.



After tidying the wings up I had cut a hole for a window in centre of the wing for the cabin roof. As before I made a template of the kit window using frog tape. I marked a centre line on the wing and the template and just lined them up.



Then I lightly scribed around the template to mark the window on the wing and using my drill again I drilled small holes inside the scribed line.



As before I used a knife to join the holes up and removed most of the unwanted plastic.



Then using a file and sanding stick I tidied up the window getting ready for the acrylic glass.

[Mike]

That's looking really nice Ian - I wasn't convinced by the pilot until you painted him, and now he's installed, it looks great!

[Ace From Outer Space]

This is a great build, really like what you are doing to this kit Sunray!

[snapper_city]

Really coming together now.

In case you haven't seen it this is interesting.

https://youtu.be/oPXOLWlmN38

[modelling minion]

This really is fantastic work Ian, great attention to detail.

Just goes to show the good results that can be obtained from an older kit with a bit of effort.

Keep up the great work.

Craig.

[Bob Henry]

You are doing a great job on this build. However I do have a question. How do you make the raised panel lines disappear and know where to exactly re scribe the new engraved panel lines ? I have been afraid to try this for fear of not getting the new scribed lines in the correct location. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Bob H.

[harrison90]

Just spectacular! Keep ups the awesome work.

Harrison

[sunray]

You are doing a great job on this build. However I do have a question. How do you make the raised panel lines disappear and know where to exactly re scribe the new engraved panel lines ? I have been afraid to try this for fear of not getting the new scribed lines in the correct location. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Bob H.

Thanks Bob. The way I do the panel lines is to sand them down lightly with a medium to fine skinny stick or well and dry paper just enough so you can see them to use them as a reference. Then using a flexible metal ruler, scribing templates, dymo tape or thin 3M insulation tape as a guide depending where the line is; as a guide I gently run the p cutter along the guide to cut the line. Don't apply any pressure just let the weight of the cutter bite into the plastic. Then do it again and again, just try to keep the cutter running along the guide. Once I am happy with all the scribing I use a fibre glass abrasive pen or fine wet & dry paper to flatten the lines and take off any ploughed scrap plastic. Then I clean out the line of plastic dust by running the p-cutter along the lines and I run a tiny drop of tamiya extra thin cement along the lines to tidy them up.

If there was no line in the first place I use references and put a pin mark to mark the start and finish of where I want the line and use the guides (tape, rule,etc).

I have an old kit wing to practise on every now and then as there is no easy way to re-scribe, I find its just down to practise. Here is another build I did that required the whole kit needing re-scribing that might help you.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234976812-172-airfix-f-80-shooting-star/

If you have any more questions please feel free to get in touch.

[sunray]

Thanks everyone for all the encouragement and kind comments which are most appreciated as always.

[AdrianMF]

Ian, amazing work and attention to detail! I have a soft spot for the old Airfix 1/72 version so I'm interested in the type as well. I loved your interior work with the radio and the pilot looks great. Looking forward to more!

Regards,

Adrian

[HL-10]

Some really impressive modelling going on!

Great work on the interior,especially the pilot!

(Reminds me of the film "Bat 21").😀

[tonyot]

What an absolutely fantastic job you are doing with this old kit Ian,.......I love it how the pilot is even looking into his turn!

I have one of these which I was hoping to convert into a Rhodesian one but seeing the amount of work needed to make it look `special' I may sit on it for a while more, although your build will definitely be used as a reference when I do it,...keep up the great work,

Tony

[sunray]

Thanks lads. Before making the windows I decided to add a touch of detail to the ceiling of the cabin. I could of just added square pieces of plasticard to act as ceiling liners but I changed my mind and added cables, etc to make it look more interesting. Its not based on any photo's but just a guess how I think it could look like.







The reason I did this is because there are that many windows in the cabin that you could easily spot how bare the ceiling looked, so with a few pieces of wire and plastic that was quickly changed. Now I just made the clear acrylic for the windows cut to size and as normal tested the fit.













As I am having the aircraft banking to the left I adjusted the ailerons using a razor saw and glued in position.







As with the wings I had to sort out the rivets on the tail plane and booms. I also did a bit of re-scribing on them as well.







The windscreen isn't the best fit so I have decided to make a replacement using my vacuum former. Normally I would use the kit part as the plug but I have noticed using the clear kit parts, that if you have to use them a few times, small hairline cracks start to appear inside the part So after having a look on the internet I decided this is the road I was going to take. Using the kit part as a pattern I would make a silicone mould and then using plaster of paris to produce the plug. The main reason for using plaster of paris was basically the cost just in case it doesn't work.





First I used Lego to make the jacket to hold in the liquid silicone.



Then I rolled out plasticine for the base of the mould and to hold the pattern in place.



I added some plasticine to give the part a bit of support and to help form the shape I wanted for the plug.



The photo shows only two layers of Lego, this is just to show you how the part sits in the jacket. Before I poured in the silicone I added another layer of Lego so the height of the jacket was well clear of the top of the part. The silicone kit I used was bought off Amazon for around £27 and it consists of 1.1 kg of silicone rubber and a bottle of the hardener. Using kitchen scales I weighed out the silicone in a plastic drinks cup and then after giving the hardener a good shake I added it to the cup of silicone. The ratio was 10 parts silicone to one part hardener. Then I mixed it together with a wooden ice lolly stick until it produced a uniform pink colour trying not to make too many bubbles. Now I just poured it into one corner the mould jacket slowly trying not trap any air in the mixture and letting it slowly fill the jacket pass the top of the kit part.



I tapped the sides of the jacket to help the trapped air escape. I did this for about 10 minutes until I was happy I couldn't see any more bubbles raise to the surface. I then just left it to cure for approx 24 hours.



Once cured I just broke open the Lego jacket, removed the plasticine and the part which came away without any problems from the newly formed mould. Then I just removed any unwanted silicone carefully.



The detail the silicone picks up is quite impressive. Here is one of the spare canopies I had ago at before this one.





Next is to use plaster of paris to produce the plug. I haven't done it yet for the Cessna but here is my first attempt using the plaster of paris on a canopy of an Airfix 1/48 Hawk which had a crack across it to see hows it comes out.



To be continued.........

[sunray]

Here is a quick update. I bought the cheapest casting plaster of paris I could find from Hobbycraft for £2.00 for a 1kg bag. I gave the mould a quick rinse of water to make sure there wasn't any dust or hair in it so it was ready for the mix. I made a small mix up which was straight forward , it says on the bag of 1 part water to 2 parts plaster which I did. I added the powder to the water slowly and mixing it as it went in careful not to create too many bubbles. The plaster goes off pretty quick so as soon as it was ready I slowly poured in the plaster in the mould slowly to allow the plaster to fill the mould again without creating any bubbles. With that done I tapped the sides of the mould to try to ex-spell any trapped air and just waited about 30 minutes for the plaster to cure.



I took the newly made plaster plug out of the mould which came out really easily and then its just a case of checking it to see if there are any large holes where air was trapped. If not I just tidied up the base of the plug cutting off any unwanted plaster. The process is some easy and cheap I made a few more plugs just in case.





I then glued a small piece of wood cut from an ice lolly stick to slightly raise the plug when its placed in the vacuum former. I also used a small piece of "White Tac" to keep the plug in place while in the vac former. Then I put in a small sheet of PETG clear plastic in the vac former, turned the heater on, when the plastic starts to bow down on went the vacuum, I lowered the now heated plastic, heater off, gave it about 1 minute to cool and then vacuum off.



That done I then cut out the plug and canopy from the and carefully I cut around the plug with scissors and using cocktail sticks I release the canopy from the plug. When I first tried this on the Airfix Hawk canopy I damaged the plug which made me cheesed off for a minute, until I realised that the plug was really cheap to make and only took about 30 minutes to make. Thats why I made a few spare plugs just in case. The beauty of doing it this way, was its cheap and fast.



It still amazes how well it picks up the detail.



Now its just a case of tidying everything along the edges with a skinny stick and to see how it looks on the fuselage.

[modelling minion]

Ian that is fantastic work.

You have also given probably the best "how to" on the making of replacement vacuum parts I have seen, a big thank you for that!

I am really looking forward to seeing how this turns out as you have put a huge amount of effort in.

Craig.

[Nomore Shelfspace]

I certainly like that vac form machine! Beats the "Alan W Hall Method" familiar to olde tyme modellers (like me). This build is more detailed than anything I'd attempt but I'm looking forward to seeing the finished item. Just got to say though, the first page of that Testors instruction sheet at the start - that's how you do an instruction sheet! Revell, are you watching?

Oh yeah, and I like the "DON'T SHOOT" decal...

[sunray]

Thanks guys.

[Tomjw]

This is impressive stuff. I'll enjoy following this.

Cheers,

Tom.

[sunray]

Thanks Tom.

At the minute I am playing around with how to polish the plaster plug. What I am finding is the finished canopy is really clear but as you would expect if there is a mark or uneven surface on the plaster plug, it shows up on the inside of the canopy even though you get a really smooth finish on the outside. If you try to rub down or polish the raw plaster I found it is too delicate and small holes start to appear in the plug which in turn show up on the inside of the finished canopy and you could easily loose some detail as well

I have tried a few things but what seems to work is when the plug is completely dry, I carefully wipe off any dust off the plug and then I give it a light coat of Plasti-Kote Super Clear gloss spray varnish. I am using this varnish as it has a high temperature range. The plaster draws the varnish straight in which is what I want it to do then about 10 minutes later I give it a heavy coat, which again is drawn into the plaster leaving a matt even look. I did this a few more times and left it over night to dry. What I was hoping is that varnish will give the plaster a harder finish and thats just what it does. Using a battery Dremel with a buffer wheel I am able to polish the surface of the plaster to make it shine which allows me to see any imperfections such a small air holes and scratches without losing any detail.

That leads me on to my next problem. How to repair the plug if there is a scratch or sort out any small holes? I could recast the plug as the plaster is cheap enough but I thought it was a bit of a waste if there was just a small hole caused by an air bubble. So I thought I would varnish it as I have said before, give it a polish and I used thin CA glue to fill any holes, cracks or marks. I just left the glue dry without using any accelerator just in case it reacted with anything, then its was just a case of rubbing down the area with a fine skinny stick and polishing with the dremel to make it shine.

I wasn't able to use the plug tonight but I will give it a go tomorrow and let you know how it comes out.