Auster AOP6 ended at long last

[perdu]

Thanks Debs, that is great

Makes me luvya even more

How's the car these days?

(it seems to be 'de rigeur' to chat about automotive exotica here lately, so why not?)

I hope we can get to see it run at the next - next Marham track day

This latest one being off limits for both of us

I suppose I ought to get back on 'model making' track

How's my Albert coming along?

[Ascoteer]

Well after 4 new tyres, 4 new dampers, a CV joint, new rear discs and pads, and a new exhaust flexi joint, touch wood it's ok.

It certainly still goes like greased weasel whatsit!

However, I'm still stuck in the doldrums of having no modelling mojo atm so Snoopy is still stalled..

[perdu]

Hmm

Almost automatically pushed the cursor to ""LIKE"" when I remembered that it's a familiar situation I certainly DO NOT LIKE

hope your MO starts JO ing soon

We are bursting to see how it comes along

Car sound healthy though, so not ALL bad

[CedB]

Very neat masking Bill, can't wait to see the paint on

(Hi Debs - hope you get the mojo back soon... )

[hendie]

Very neat masking Bill, can't wait to see the paint on

(Hi Debs - hope you get the mojo back soon... )

ditto

and

ditto

[Miggers]

The Isle Of Wight

Just how lovely is any of our British Isles allowed to be?

No more about that, just a quiet W O W . . .

(OK a little more, hot sunny Sunday afternoon, a bar overlooking the beach with live jazz and classy classic music, chips, cold lager, decent bitter and for SWMBO a very fine Pinot Grigio... Beat that in May round here!)

And here I am back and refreshed

I fitted the new canopy/glasshouse and settled down to mask it off

Blimey twelve or so pieces of Tam tape eek

Tomorrow I will seek 'permission to paint, Number One?'

And get the Dark Earth coat on the fuselage and wings

And finish orf the legs on Neddy the Hansom hauler

Thinks

DO remember to add the lump of lead on a stick for the rudder mass balance too, it's been sat in the cupboard for a week or so

Views of the fresh paint soon

I wonder if anyone making the Antarctic version has the ARMY decals spare from their kit

I'd even pay more than the undying gratitude rate that seems most common round here

Money available if you need some

ta for looking

I've got TWO complete kits from the last release a few years back Bill.

If the Debsta doesn't find her spare set of decs gimme a shout,I'm sure we can come to an arrangement.

Know what you mean about no mojo Debs,I've got a Sea.46,an FR.47,Sea Vamp.T.22, the latest Airfix Dak and an ICM Spit XVI all trying to get

my attention to progress them further........................

[perdu]

Thanks for that offer Miggers, I rather think I'd enjoy making one proper like from the start

Purrups I ought to enter negotiations

Debs has been in touch ta

Didn't get any painting done but happily I have finished the decorating of the spare room

Tonight I'll be adding a light brushed layer of Humbrol or Johnson's Clear on the Auster to isolate the masking and windows from the layers of paint that are a'cummin' in

Tomorrow paint and a trip in search of Evergreen for stock replenishment

[Miggers]

Whenever you're ready Bill,just give me a shout.

[Tomoshenko]

Very neat masking Bill and intricate cockpit framing. I am awaiting the paint job.

[perdu]

Getting paint on is coming soon but first we need to have her stood on her own two (three?) feet

Airfix's at best poor representation of the U/C legs has been damaged in the strip down, thank the lord, so needs a new set up making

The Wheels are somewhat mmmmmm too so they are in for treatment, I have no alternatives to draw out of the bits box

So on with the legs first, 536 has just been completely recovered which means that her tubular legs got a streamlined covering, this made it easier to replicate from polycard

Cut out the shape and round off the edges as if they are two tubes covered with cloth on each leg

 

I've left the characteristic gaps across the top of the tubes but actually although 536 doesn't have these it is quite a familiar feature so if the plan to replicate the old scheme falls through I can pick one of the others

If I need to, filling the space will be a cinch

I glued the legs in place with Humbrol Tube Glue from an Airfix starter set, lovely jubbley, proper glue and set up the angles with this block jig built from Wilco's Blox to let it dry and set

 

seen from below the quite complex undercarriage assembly parts are coming together nicely

 

on the TW536 facebook page the recovered undercarriage legs are nicely featured so I was able to get a decent look at the things first

The two bracing struts are of aerofoil section (made by glueing a tapered wooden spar to the brace tubes in real life) but as I only have clumsy fingers I used John Aero's lovely aerofoil strut set I bought off him at Huddersfield instead

Thinnest strut is perfect for this

 

Now I had to do something with the wheels, ouch

When I glued the original kit together some glue strayed out of the axle into the hub space and wrecked the inner surface

Even though they weren't the best wheels Airfix ever made they were quite close to 'right' so it was a drawback to me

So after a think, and a couple of swigs of Gallereux Lager I decided to repeat the wheel building I did on the nosewheel of the Sherpa

Drill out the hub 'rubble' and leave the tyre alone, make the holes 0.250" and then insert a piece of 0.250" evergreen tube from their rods and tube set

 

Cut to length to make the wheel rims, then using some of John Aero's excellent tubes make inserts to be the wheel inners

Here ready to cut down to length and receive a drop of Tamiya Extra Thin each

 

Sometimes a drop of Extra Thin is too much, more to do to rectify that now

 

 

You can see the wheel nave structure is in place now ready for the next part

(yes even more stuff down in that 1/4" hole)

Take a length of Slater's plastic rod (Very much the hardest type of such rod available and my long time favourite for construction jobs) and slip inside a piece of the Aeroclub tube that fits inside the nave part of the wheel and glue it in with Extra Thin

Then when dried out thoroughly (ask me later why THIS is important ) cut a thin sliver of the rodded tube to leave a hub plate's width on the end of the rod

OH ... like these

Now we can relax

Here the loose ends of the struts have been locked in place as it all sets

 

And lo...

 

and behold

And to hold it I will be adding the thin skin of cyano to add rigidity and allow handling during the upbuild of wings and things

Soon be in the paint shop now, then I will get a move on with the Hansom

She who... is getting irritated at the delays on that one

Cheers and thanks for looking

[Tomoshenko]

Great work Bill. Think the wheels did need a bit of the MG Midget restoration treatment.

[Hamden]

Under cart looks the business, looking forward to seeing it in paint!

Roger

[hendie]

Nice work on the undercarriage.

fyi - when I had a mishap with one of the wheels for the Dauphin, I made a mold of one half of the good wheel, cast two copies, then sanded the excess back to make one wheel when glued together

[perdu]

Yes I remember but

You had a 'good' one to play with, detail to retain and all that

What Airfix give us isn't much like the real thing even though it does have a scale eight inch rounded off protusion

And terrible u/c leg devices so the u/c can work for wheels, floats and skis

Inaccurately for all three versions

I think it took me about an hour for both, longer in fact to find the different tube sizes than to drill and cut to suit

Tonight I will be mostly making odds and ends, steps, the venturi airflow device and adding the lead balance to the rudder

Paint maybe tomorrow

Humbrol Authentics again, yippee

Proper paint, that stinks

In the far end of the garage

Edited May 22, 2016 by perdu

[perdu]

And there's more

"Assooom the position!"

The necessary thin layer of cyano is now all around the vulnerable glued joints so I hope that it will be good enough to stop wayward wheel syndrome

 

And the wing pick up points are in

Very scary drilling into the new canopy, even though I'd not have turned a hair if it'ld been the old Airfix one

And on the rudder

The new mount for the Ident light

 

 

The actual lens is far smaller than the plinth, go figure

So that's it 'til termorrow

sitthee

 

Some of the pictures and text needed removing during the edit I have lost them during the move to a newer computer, the way cyberspace works/operates they might be on somebody else's drive

Yours even, try a look down in your depths 

[perdu]

Dear old St Disastrus likes to show he's only just around the corner during any of my builds (which I admit says all it needs to about ME) and on this leg of the trip he decided to jellify my last remaining tin of HB1 Dark Green when it was time to mist paint across these pieces of WIP

So

After decloggging the airbrushes (yes, I bu... clogged both of them) I decided on Humbrol's Acrylics range and misted a layer of no 30 over the three parts waiting for the paintjobs

Inspecting the painted surfaces revealed what I hoped and expected, some filler needed adding to and some needed taking away

Whilst handling it the paint bruised and scratched very easily and as any fule know Humbrol 30 isn't a lot like proper RAF Dark Green so after sanding what needed sanding and cutting the under cowling tunnel for the exhaust to lie neatly in-and-out of she went back into the paint shop for a respray with Tamiya's RAF Dark Green

I know I rejected this colour for the Jaguars but on the Auster it compares well with photographs and as I don't have an Auster in the back yard to refer to this is what we're using in this build

pic 1 the sides sanded to the ribbed shapes after the reveal coat (AKA H30)

 

 

Back from 'the shop' signs of real progress

The fuselage sides now have a decent amount of swollen on 'em and the colour looks pretty decent too

I have been adding wing tapes to the rib locations as per the wonderful pics in the TW536 facebook thingy and the air driven generator housing sits nicely in the leading edge of the starboard mainplane

 

The revised fin to fuselage swelling taper shows nicely too

 

I dont think the ridged fuselage sides are overdone, how about you?

Do they work for you?

 

 

More when we're a bit earthier

night all

[hendie]

judging by what you are showing there Bill, I think you kicked St Disastrus firmly in the nether regions

nice work. I'm really looking forward to seeing the next installment with more color!

[perdu]

Tamiya Dark Earth

I have it somewhere, I know

Dohhh

[Tomoshenko]

Get behind thee St Disastrus or you'll get a Brummie slap!

[perdu]

Well

There's colour...

Not alas the Tamiya Dark Earth I have somewhere but that eludes my mk1 search engines, my eyeballs

But never mind, I'll find it tomorrow

Now I have used Humbrubbish instead, dammit "airbrush to unclog stations number one!"

I know not pretty but I need to get on with this

Hansom to finish too and a Frog Buccaneer to Navalise just down the line

As always when I unmask there are 'issues'

Here we have the paint rudely ripped away from the underwing tank access panel, obviously painting Solartrim is fraught with adhesion risks

And that little knobbly bit of plastic used to be one of my hand carved Fowler flap hinges

Humbrol's very decent tube glue will 'perform' on that

 

Some of the other usual 'paint lifting in a few places' issues which will be brush anointed soon and odd bits of colour divergence from the 'brush' clogging need to be addressed

but the fuselage now unmasked reveals almost exactly what I needed/wanted

Tiny brush adjustments will do the trick here

 

Tiny bits is all I'll do here

 

I am quite happy with the new canopy, shed effect

Something of an improvement and a pity Airfix didn't like their own moulding enough to amend the stupid roof issue themselves

She is a little beaut with a few bits done to her

 

So there's to be more

Later...

 

Bad news a few more lost pictures but there are still enough for a narrative

Sorry folks

[hendie]

that home grown canopy really makes all the difference Bill.

tough luck with the paint stripping but I'm sure you shall overcome the paint demons

[Sgt.Squarehead]

That looks so much better than the kit parts.

[perdu]

Fixed already H ta

Just pondering where the mass balance rod has absconded to?

I had it here an hour ago, now?

Goneski

Will you take a look in your carpet monster's lair for me, it sure ain't here in mine...

Oh well off to the stretched sprue store in my little toolbox, see if there's another length of the same one

[Anthony in NZ]

I am totally loving this build thread!!!

Thank you so much for sharing your skills with us. Paint looks brilliant so far. Sorry to hear about the paint mishap, but it is nothing someone with your skills cant easy fix. I especially like all the fine details you can see through all that glazing.

I can only imaging how good she looks in real life considering how small the kit is and how big she looks on my screen!

Oh and massive thanks for the Cosford photos you took of the flare gun mount, it was just what I needed to get one manufactured from the drawings I had. Those pics answered some important questions!!!

Cheers

Anthony

[perdu]

Anthony thanks for your kind words

I'm glad you found the pictures useful

Its only 3/4 of an hour away if you need another looksee

As you guessed no doubt I rather like the look of a scale effect canopy myself but kit makers can't really do much more than they do

(except Airfix with this diabolic contraption)