Supermarine S6B - Eastern Express 1/72

[keefr22]

Cor blimey Ced, you got that in primer quicker than my laptop could start up....!!

 

3 hours ago, CedB said:

a pointy thing

 

That sounds like a new tool, where did you get it from....? 

 

Keith

[CedB]

3 hours ago, pheonix said:

Ced,

 

As you are clearly going to finish this in record time, can I have the time that you would have left until the end of the GB period added to mine? The I would have a good chance of finishing......

 

P

Thanks P I wish I could pass on some of the time... although I do have four more floatplanes in the stash...

2 hours ago, Fatboydim said:

Great fast progress Ced. I'm still looking at mine.

Thanks Joe I'll be looking at it too, learning, as soon as you start!

2 hours ago, TheBaron said:

Dizzy.

I'm so dizzy at the pace of this - you're quick as a kingfisher Ced!

 

That was a dandy touch to work our the float arrangements.

Tony

Thanks Tony I found the diagram whilst searching for images. For others, it's here. Printed at 94%, simples!

1 hour ago, Greg in OK said:

It looks like this one will be lots of fun.

 

I had to laugh at your photos though, I also use the worlds worst MiG-3 as a paint mule.

 

Looking forward to your build.

 

Greg in OK

Thanks Greg The MiG was the cheapest thing in the LMS with big wings!

33 minutes ago, bbudde said:

Haha, fast as ever. Primer on. Tomorrow finished? Looking good.

Thanks Benedikt Hopefully finished before I go away on Tuesday, fingers crossed!

7 minutes ago, keefr22 said:

Cor blimey Ced, you got that in primer quicker than my laptop could start up....!!

 

That sounds like a new tool, where did you get it from....? 

 

Keith

Thanks Keith The pointy thing was in the knife set I bought to get hold of some handles; it was cheap and so were the handles (plastic 'jaws', useless) but there are some useful blades. Not recommended!

[greggles.w]

4 hours ago, CedB said:

and we're ready for primer

 .. what the??? Eargh! .. must .. get .. mine ..... started!

 

Those plans show how enormous those floats were.  Imagine what speed this machine might have been capable of if there was some way to jettison them after take off!

Edited September 3, 2017 by greggles.w

[perdu]

 Are you sure you were never in the Army Ced?

 

I'm sure there's been a song written about you

 

The Galloping Major

 

Blimey don't the days flyby when you follow a CedB build, huh?

 

 

And more tools acoming, wow

[jrlx]

Interesting work on the struts, Ced. Quick and precise as always!

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[greggles.w]

On 02/09/2017 at 5:53 PM, CedB said:

Oh no, not another tool!

.. just went out to the chemist to fill a prescription & came back with a six-piece punch set from the $2 shop next door!  ... Essential, of course.

[CedB]

Thanks greggles The floats are big... hope the punch set works OK. I've bought a few cheap punch sets and, although they might work on leather and stuff, they're not sharp enough for masking tape. Fingers crossed.

Thanks Bill Sprue cutters are an obsession with me at the moment. I've seen videos of ones that 'snick' the plastic without leaving a nub or stress marks. As I seem to spend a lot of time sorting these out, especially stress marks, a cutter that doesn't cause that problem should be a boon! The PE scissors, hopefully, will stop me going mad trying to get rid of those little nubs on the tiny, tiny parts.

 

Masking for the blue. Here's a tip for you - think about the masking, not the major colour. If I'd done that I'd have realised that masking this decreasing silver stripe would have been easier if I'd done the blue first:

 

 

Luckily for me (??!!) I realised that my spraying of the silver was a bit naff:

 

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

 

so I decided to go over that with the blue and redo the silver later. Easy masking:

 

 

but not on the underside where there's a 'silver chin' in front of the wings, nor on the floats (which I should have taken a picture of, ho hum).

Blue Vallejo 71.005 blasted on:

 

 

We'll see what that's like after lunch.

[Leonl]

Steady on Ced, my seat is hardly warm and you're painting already!

[CedB]

Sorry Leon, on a deadline; I'd like to get this done before we go off for a break tomorrow

 

 

Floats ta dah:

 

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

 

Re-mask the fuselage - future builders it's better this way:

 

 

Position the floats on the diagram stuck on THIN piece of tak, carefully align them, especially in the vertical, insert the struts:

 

 

Check and check again and then CA gel in the holes:

 

 

Main aircraft ta dah (encore):

 

 

Mustn't forget the canopy and balance weights.

[giemme]

Quick and steady progress there, Ced - looks just like the Blitz GB     

 

Ciao

[jrlx]

Great paint work and impressive assembly of the floats and struts, Ced

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[CedB]

Thanks Giorgio and Jaime

 

 

I noticed a patch where the paint and primer had pulled off with the tape:

 

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

 

I thought I'd wiped down well with IPA. Just goes to show eh? I was very pleased with the chin though:

 

 

 

Curved demarcation across lumpy bits, never easy. That'll do me; the careful burnishing of the mask obviously paid off. Phew! That just leaves the painting of the bottom strip, you know the one I glued on earlier. I thought I'd try a micro-brush as it seemed to follow the strip well:

 

 

 

One wipe down the length and hooray! It held the paint well and looked really good. Not quite far enough down the sides so another pass and whoops! Slipped off the ridge all over the blue. Rats.

No close up shots of that but you'll see the touched up result in future photos.

 

The float assembly is satisfyingly strong:

 

 

 

Just four holes for the struts to drill. Here's the pointy thing (just for you Keith) I use as a 'centre punch' and the Revell hand drill that's great for this sort of job as you can use it one handed (behave!). The drill bits that came with it are also great - really sharp and strong. Not bad for under a tenner.

 

 

 

Assembly of the struts was OK but the worrying bit is fixing the floats to the aircraft so that they're straight! The kit main struts have weird ends in the floats and they dropped in when dry fitting.

 

 

Also the kit would have you glue the rear ones into a slot in the centre of the fuselage but this isn't right as this dry fit shows:

 

 

 ... the struts should be parallel front to back so two new holes are required further out towards the wing root, sort of here where the right side is:

 

 

 

It's impossible to drill the holes with the floats in place so they came off again and the holes were drilled using my Mk I eyeball:

 

 

The whole thing seems quite rigid:

 

 

... until you touch it and it collapses like a student on a Saturday night. (Well, in England anyway). Reassembled and supported with Lego, TET was dropped into the bottom of the struts and the front struts at the top too:

 

 

Looks OK? The worrying thing is that the rear struts won't be in their holes but I'll have to sort that later if it's a problem.

[Beard]

Nice work there Ced.

[pheonix]

As I wrote in an earlier post you seem to be building this at 407.5 mph! Very good all the same.

 

P

[The Spadgent]

hell's bells! That happend all of a sudden. To answer the question, yes Vallejo metal colour is pretty ace(but you need to use the Vallejo top coat or your scuppered) but as you know already this sche has painted silver so I think you have gone for the right choice.  The work here is brilliant Ced, I especially like the float rig.  have a nice time away. Let the rust of us catch up eh.

 

Jont. 

Edited September 4, 2017 by The Spadgent

[CedB]

Thanks Simon

Thanks P I do need to slow down, a bit...

Hi Johnny - nice to see you; I know you've been busy!

 

 

I should slow down on this one really and I don't want to rush to finish. The kits not up to 'perfect' model standard but the subject deserves some TLC nevertheless.

Here's where I am. As expected the rear struts weren't in the holes:

 

Untitled by Ced Bufton, on Flickr

 

... so they were gently teased into position, glued and taped down:

 

 

Giving us this:

 

 

I may get some time tomorrow but here's the to do list:

1. Fit cross struts between main float supports (I may cheat and use EZLine for this)
2. Fit struts to main wing, bottom ones first. The current struts flex enough to make sure the wings are level and everything's 'true' before fixing those.
3. Mask canopy. Just joking, it's tiny, but it could do with a frame painted.
4. Check the strut holes, fill and sand if required.
5. Fit balances to ailerons and rudder.
6. Paint struts.
7. Touch up where required.
8. Gloss coat or Klear patches before...
9. Apply transfers
10. Weather exhausts and highlight other holes.
11. Satin coat.
12. Fit prop and canopy.
13. Done!

I'm not off until tomorrow afternoon so I may get some time while Mrs B is packing the kitchen sink.

[giemme]

Great going Ced Will you make it in time before you leave? Suspence is killing us ....

 

Ciao

[bentwaters81tfw]

Great work. When you have finished knitting, have  ago at a Macchi MC 72. Even in 1.48 it's a nightmare.

[keefr22]

4 hours ago, CedB said:

Here's the pointy thing (just for you Keith)

 

Thanks Ced - that does look a very useful pointy thing actually!

 

Lovely looking Supermarine appears to have materialised from some other dimension onto your workbench....!!

 

Slowing down would be a good idea, even if just so the ancients in the audience can get our breath back! 

 

Keith

[TonyTiger66]

It all went so quickly I lost my balance and fell over !

 

Well done Ced, the Supermarine looks Super .

 

Particularly good advice on masking; duly noted.

 

Hope you're off somewhere nice.

Good luck with finishing off, but if you don't, it'll probably still be here when you get back.

 

We can look after it  . Don't worry, we wouldn't play with your tools  

 

Best regards

TonyT

[perdu]

Drilling with your eyeball?

 

E E K !

 

I would rather do it with a dri...

 

OK my coat is on the floor over there, I'll get it

 

Looks awesome Ced, but...

 

Reminds me I couldn't complete a Wessex in three months

 

Did I need reminding? Hardly... 

[bbudde]

Looking very good. Just begin to like tht plane.

[keefr22]

10 minutes ago, TonyTiger66 said:

Don't worry, we wouldn't play with your tools  

 

Maybe not. but I bet a certain puffin would....

[jrlx]

Great progress, Ced! It's shaping up beautifully! I'm also very impressed with the float struts.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

 

[rob Lyttle]

So, by the time I figured out how to get to "Group Builds" and have a look around, you've only gone and (almost) finished the blasted thing! Splendid little plane.