Max Holste Broussard 1/72 Scratch Built Masters & Models

[Jonners]

This is fantastic stuff, Steve. Very impressive in terms of effort, technique and results. Nearly there!

Jon

[Army_Air_Force]

I started with the landing light glazing today. I took a slice off the clear casting and slowly sanded it down to fit the slot. I drilled a shallow hole in the back which was painted silver for the lamp and after force drying it, the glazing was glued in, leaving most of its length protruding out of the leading edge. The excess was cut off and the remainder wet sanded flush with the wing skin.

 

 

Here's the finished, polished glazing.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The port wing tip was drilled with a 0.5mm hole for the pitot tube.

 

 

The filler on the top of the fuselage was given a first wet sand, along with the tailplane fillet. It will need primer before I can tell what else needs looking at.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Before moving on to attach the wings, two 0.5mm holes were drilled under the doors for the wire step. It was easier to do without the wings fitted.

 

 

After supporting the centre section off the board and with the tailplane supported to keep it parallel with the board, I was ready to attach the wings. Two supports held the wing roots, at the thickest point of the chord, giving the correct height. The wing tips were weighted and the trailing edges wedged to lift the root trailing edge to match the centre section. Thin cyano was then run into the joints.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The landing gear was next. My instruction sheet sets the axle position measured back from the cowl front. To achieve this ( bearing in mind I have at least one more model sold in a finished condition ), I made another jig. I like my jigs. They sometimes take a while to set up, but it ensures things are square, symmetrical and repeatable. The wooden support held the axles while the side to side position was done by eye. Once I was happy with the set up, I mixed a little 5 minute epoxy and applied it to the slot. The brass was then pushed into position.

 

 

After about 10 minutes to give a good cure, the model was turned over to sit on its legs for the first time looking like an aeroplane ( well, at least it does to me!! ).

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The gear fillet was next. This piece is cast quite over size, so if you're a bit enthusiastic cutting the gear slot, there's still plenty of fillet to plug the hole! Excess glue was cut from the slot to leave a clean hole for the fillet to fit into. It has already been cut down in this shot. It took a number of trial fits to get it to sit down onto the gear and be about flush with the fuselage.

 

 

Once the fit looked good, it was dropped into place and some thin cyano applied to wick into the joints to fix it in place. It just needs a light fill over the joints followed by a wet sand flush.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The aluminium wing struts start off as round tubes. These are squashed in a vice to give the flattened, more aerodynamic shape of the fullsize struts. The two on the right are the first and second goes. A piece of 1mm steel sheet in the vice limited how fat the jaws could travel.

 

 

The root end of the strut was sanded into a 'V' to fit against the fuselage and landing gear. The outer end was chamfered to lie flush on the wing underskin. It is just balanced here as time ran out and my daughter arrived after a day out with grandma since it's half term holiday week. I'm on daddy day care tomorrow, so there's unlikely to be any progress on this, but my daughter's diorama my get some attention.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[SallysDad]

Looks really interesting

[Army_Air_Force]

Here's a number of wing struts and the tool to make them. After cutting the aluminium tube to length, it is taped to a smooth steel block.

 

 

The block and another steel plate are placed in a vice and gently squeezed to flatten the tube. This gives the more streamlined shape of the fullsize, rather than a round tube or flat bar.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The copper wire exhausts had their ends chamfered and a slight bend added. The cowl was drilled for the pipes, but they will be painted and fitted later. The filler over the landing gear fillet was also sanded down.

 

 

Next, another jig for the fins was made. It was a simple piece of half inch plywood with a vertical hacksaw cut in the end. The fin was pushed into the slot and the rudder hinge line aligned vertically.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The model was propped up to keep everything square and level and the fin/rudder aligned with the tailplane. A little thin cyano glue was added to the joint and that was the fins attached.

 

 

Finally, after what seems like such a long time, all the major airframe components are together in one aeroplane shaped lump! Thankfully, after all the hard work, it does actually resemble a Broussard!!

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Axles were trimmed to length and the wheels test fitted. They will be fitted properly after painting. The wing struts need finishing, but they too will probably be fitted at a later date.

 

 

Some Blu-Tac was used to mask off the glazing while the first coat of primer was sprayed. This was left a little while to harden, then sanded and a little filling done. The model was then primed again.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[RidgeRunner]

She's looking the part now, Steve!  

 

Martin

[k5054nz]

Just brilliant. I've only Liked instead of replying as I'm enjoying the progress so much and don't really have much to say other that WOW!

[Max Headroom]

+1!

 

This is giving a great insight into what it takes to do this from scratch.

 

Inspiring stuff.

 

Trevor 

[Gondor44]

That is looking great 👍

 

Gondor

[Army_Air_Force]

I was running out of excuses to not open a tin of paint, so I began with brush painting around the window frames and landing light. A few thin coats were slowly built up for a short distance around the glazed areas.

 

 

Once that was dry, it was masked off with Blu-Tac again and I started building up layers of white along the wings, wingtips, spine and fuselage band. The white was then left to bake overnight.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Today, the white was given a gentle flat back to take the pimples off it followed by masking out all the white and orange areas of the model. The airbrush came out next and I started building up lots of thin layers of paint. It started off looking a very light transparant colour, and gradually darkened and covered better.

 

 

The cowl was used to hold the model for the painting of most of the airframe. The bottom of the cowl was next and then the model could be placed on its legs. This allowed the sides and top of the cowl to be sprayed. Once I'm happy with the green and it has fully hardened, the green can be masked out and the orange wing tips and fuselage band painted.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Today, the green was given another coat and after a period of drying, I began to peel off the masking. Despite spraying the edges of the tape with white first, to try and seal the edges, I had a little green paint creep here and there.

 

 

After a little gentle scraping with a scalpel blade and a couple of fine touch ups of white with a fine brush, the model was placed back in the airing cupboard to allow the paint to fully harden. While all this was going one, I painted the prop, spinner, wheels and struts. Once thr green has hardened, it can be masked off to spray the dayglow orange wing tips and fuselage band.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[RidgeRunner]

She is looking fabulous, Steve.

 

Martin

[Army_Air_Force]

Masking up the airframe in order to paint the orange took some doing, especially around the fuselage band. A plastic bag was used around the nose and tail.

 

 

I had a test spray of the dayglow orange, suspecting that it would be quite transparent. It was - very! So I knew that spraying the aircraft was going to take many coats.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Gradually, the orange was built up, becoming more dense as the layers added together. Also sprayed orange was the pitot tube, seen inset.

 

 

Between orange coats, I did more painting of the smaller accessories, such as the black prop blades and wheels.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The prop on the Real Aero aircraft has double striped tips. I decided it was probably easiest to paint one large yellow tip first, then touch in the black dividing stripes after. It took a steady hand and a watchmaker's magnifier as the prop is quite small.

 

 

Then it was time to start taking off the masking. This was slightly terrifying as I was convinced I was going to snap off one of the fins while wrestling with the bag, masking tape and a scalpel.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

It's getting so close now!

 

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

A test fit of the 0.9mm piano wire pitot tube.

 

 

The prop and spinner were assembled and I checked the hole in the engine was deep enough. Fragile things like the pitot and prop will be left until the end before fitting. The bottom of the model has also been drilled and tapped for the M3 studding that will hold it into the picture frame.

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by Army_Air_Force