Amodel 1:72 SPAD SA4 - Having Pulpit-ations already! *** COMPLETED ***

[Courageous]

Some good detailed work going on here, lovely job.

 

Stuart

[SoftScience]

Those are some nice PE details on the pulpit. What kind of adhesive do you use for PE parts that attach edge-on, like that protective grill thing on the back?

[clive_t]

29 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Some good detailed work going on here, lovely job.

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart, much appreciated! 

13 minutes ago, SoftScience said:

Those are some nice PE details on the pulpit. What kind of adhesive do you use for PE parts that attach edge-on, like that protective grill thing on the back?

Thanks, I've used Gorilla gel, it's a CA glue which seems to hold well. The grille is fixed in place by virtue of (very) small holes drilled into the pulpit wall, into which are located the ends of the grille with a small dab of glue. Thereafter a bit of careful bending of the grille bars to the appropriate shape, and it's done! Oddly enough, the supporting bar for the gun cradle had pre-drilled holes in the pulpit wall - go figure!

[Brandy]

Nice to see this back on the bench. It certainly benefits greatly from the pe set. I'm not sure about the wing ribs though, they are barely visible in this scale and can normally be represented with very thin masking tape strips, or even just paint. I think you may have given yourself a future problem with the coat of Mod Podge, but I stand to be corrected!

 

Ian

Edited November 26, 2018 by limeypilot

[clive_t]

On 11/26/2018 at 4:00 PM, limeypilot said:

Nice to see this back on the bench. It certainly benefits greatly from the pe set. I'm not sure about the wing ribs though, they are barely visible in this scale and can normally be represented with very thin masking tape strips, or even just paint. I think you may have given yourself a future problem with the coat of Mod Podge, but I stand to be corrected!

 

Ian

Thanks Ian, yes I take your point about the ribs looking over-scale however I've decided to persevere with it in the hope that it will eventually look less obvious. Today, I gave all the major parts a spray with some Tamiya Deck Tan:

 

 

In  doing so, it occurred to me that aside from the rigging (God help me!) I will need to apply the decals with great care - I decided there and then to apply my chosen decal set (from one of the Blue Rider decal sheets) to the separate pieces before I commit to connecting them all up:

 

 

According to a reference book I have on Russian WW1 aircraft markings, the type I used were applied to 'a batch of SPADs' without going into any detail. Unfortunately all the old photos show SPAD 7s - therefore there's a generous pinch of salt to be taken with my choice for this aircraft!

[clive_t]

Decals all done now, they settled fairly well without too much Micro-sol:

 

 

I also used a little burnt umber oil paint, smudged with the tip of a little finger, to suggest wood grain on the propeller:

 

 

Next up, I am going to make a start on the rigging - hopefully over the next few days.

 

Thanks for watching

 

[clive_t]

Creeping along at a snail's pace but as much as anything else it's down to the delicate operation that is rigging.

 

The task is difficult enough in this scale without the almost total lack of any reference diagrams - basically, I have one, and even that is open to (mis)interpretation! Ah well, serves me right for being interested in such an obscure subject I guess.

 

First off, the middle struts have their own bracing rigging - I've bitten the bullet and used the struts supplied with the kit. Things didn't get off to a great start, I snapped one of them when extricating it from its ridiculously large sprue gates For a blessing, I was able to glue it back together:

 

 

The rigging is 'EZ-Line', however I learned a painful lesson from my previous attempts at rigging with it - I wanted the rigging in this area to be very thin, however rather than stretch it thinner, I found it was better to split the line lengthways into 2 thinner lines first. Fiddly, but it is possible. Less stretching means less stress on the parts being strung together. As you can see, even the repaired strut is bearing the stress OK.

 

It was a similar story with the rigging between the cabane struts:

 

 

It might not surprise you to learn that the above represents about 4 hours work!

 

I still need to formulate some kind of strategy for doing the interplane rigging - I think I will do the rigging between around the undercarriage area first though.

 

Still, it's progress I suppose!

 

[Courageous]

Rigging in this scale always takes time. Forgot how many hours I spent rigging my 1/72 Sopwith Triplane.

 

Stuart

[clive_t]

Another interruption to the rigging process - I wanted to give the aircraft a weather-beaten look, as a consequence of the ground staff not being 'on top of their game'. Maybe I am doing them a disservice, but in my mind's eye this is how I see it. I applied some burnt umber oil paint to the leading edge of the wings, and streaked it back towards the trailing edge:

 

 

Possibly overdone, but I am quite pleased with it.

 

I also used the same idea to try and highlight the presence of the fuselage framework:

 

 

With the various major sub-assemblies arranged together, it now looks like this:

 

 

I now need to resist all temptation to recommence rigging for a few days while the oil paint dries... difficult!

 

[Brandy]

The fuselage looks great but I'd have to agree that the wings look a little over done. Having said that it still looks good though!

 

Ian

[clive_t]

4 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

The fuselage looks great but I'd have to agree that the wings look a little over done. Having said that it still looks good though!

 

Ian

Thanks Ian, yes I was sort of coming to that conclusion also - the great thing about oil paint is of course the amount of time available for correcting such things, so I have now knocked it back a little on both planes. I'll spare you yet another photo of it!

[clive_t]

OK, rigging... I am reminded of that lovely old hymn by the Sex Pistols from back in the days of my callow youth. You young 'uns might care to seek it out on YouTube, however I am compelled to issue a 'Parental  Advisory', and by extension a 'NSFW'!

 

Anyway, first I rigged the legs on the pulpit:

 

 

Flushed with the relative success of that venture, I did the same for the undercarriage proper - requiring the intervention of my biplane jig and a couple of elastic bands to stop the whole thing dancing around on a short length of EZ Line:

 

 

Not too bad, nearly time for the top plane to be fixed on!

 

Thanks for watching

 

[Courageous]

A good start with the string.

 

Stuart

[Brandy]

I'll second Stuart!

 

Ian

[clive_t]

On 12/12/2018 at 11:00 PM, Courageous said:

A good start with the string.

 

Stuart

 

On 12/13/2018 at 2:34 PM, limeypilot said:

I'll second Stuart!

 

Ian

Thanks Stuart and Ian!

 

A bit more progress today, plus a set-back. I decided to do as much rigging as possible before fitting the top plane, which went pretty much to plan:

 

 

I then glued the middle struts with their own rigging already done to the lower plane:

 

 

I fitted the remaining interplane rigging to the underside of the top plane:

 

 

I then took a deep breath and attempted to glue on the top plane. I found the jig more of a hindrance than a help, so I took it off the jig and carefully placed it upside down on the bench - I was then able to see all the contact points and make sure they were all aligned before gluing. Success!

 

 

... well, almost. One casualty of this particular battle was one of the rigging wires on one of the middle struts came loose, so I now need to replace that with the wings in situ!

 

That's for another time, I think - for now, I will quietly count my blessings that I made a big stride forward with this today - not much further to go now.

 

Thanks for watching

 

[Andwil]

Great stuff Clive, coming along really well.  Like you I find the biplane jig to be more nuisance than it’s worth.

 

AW

[clive_t]

On 12/16/2018 at 9:49 PM, Andwil said:

Great stuff Clive, coming along really well.  Like you I find the biplane jig to be more nuisance than it’s worth.

 

AW

Thanks, although to be fair I have found it useful on occasions - just not at this stage!

 

Rigging completed, plus the outer struts. I also managed to effect a repair of the damaged cross-bracing on the middle strut (not actually visible in this pic though):

 

 

I was then able to fit the PE bell-cranks for the ailerons:

 

 

It was at this point I went into a full-on mental breakdown, and decided to fit the pulpit so that it was actually operable! First I drilled out the holes in the PE plate hinges, and stuck in a spigot made from thin wire - the kind that adorns bottles of Spanish wine:

 

 

I also had to finally fit the prop:

 

 

I was then able to fit the anchorage points on the lower legs of the pulpit to the aircraft undercarriage - I also fitted the securing booms to the top of the pulpit:

 

 

All in all, a good day's work! Just the fitting of the anchor points for the booms to the top plane, plus the undercarriage wheels and tail-skid, and dare I say it we are more-or-less done!

 

Thanks for watching

 

Edited December 18, 2018 by clive_t
Corrected rubbish grammar

[azureglo]

This is inspiring & gorgeous work,  time to get this into the 2018 yearbook!

 

Cheers

 

Anil

[Andwil]

Operable pulpit! Marvellous work 👏

 

AW

[clive_t]

Thanks, chaps for your most kind comments

 

On 12/18/2018 at 10:11 PM, azureglo said:

This is inspiring & gorgeous work,  time to get this into the 2018 yearbook!

 

Cheers

 

Anil

Ha, not quite Anil, but getting there!

On 12/18/2018 at 11:40 PM, Andwil said:

Operable pulpit! Marvellous work 👏

 

AW

Yeah, me and my big mouth...

 

After more than a day of faffing around with CA that flatly refused to cooperate apart from gluing one of the parts to my jumper sleeve, parts that were swallowed up by that close relative of the dreaded Carpet Monster (the lesser known, but no less soul-destroying Bench Beast), and no less than two disastrous incidents of dropping things on the model and trashing some of the rigging as well as the gun cradle, I managed to get to a fully operable (as in, prototypically removable) pulpit!

 

The fitting of the hinge pins (made from a single strand of bell wire) was a complete nightmare, and necessitated that I sprout an extra pair of hands (courtesy of Messrs Heath and Robinson) in order to stand any chance at all of fitting it:

 

 

 

The second boom took the most time, as I managed to lose the last bit of PE (with no spares either) to fit to the end of the plastic rod. I had to work out a way of fabricating a viable replacement part - eventually I hit on using a thin strip of aluminium cut from the tray of a mince pie - a great idea, apart from necessitating that I eat the mince pie in order to have the tray available to me. This, I believe, is what is known as 'suffering for one's art'

 

Finally, we are done:

 

 

Wow, that was a world of pain I could have done without!

 

Just the wheels and tail-skid, and re-fitting the Lewis gun (another casualty of my earlier ham-fistedness) and a final waft from a paint brush to go!

[Courageous]

Looks great...and well mucky!

5 hours ago, clive_t said:

Wow, that was a world of pain I could have done without!

...but you've learnt lots no doubt.

 

Stuart

[clive_t]

13 hours ago, Courageous said:

Looks great...and well mucky!

...but you've learnt lots no doubt.

 

Stuart

Thanks Stuart, yes I think the principal lesson I learned there was, 'don't go shooting your mouth off on a forum before working out if something you want to do is even possible!'

 

Anyways, I think I am going to call her done now:

 

 

RFI will be forthcoming shortly with a bit of luck, thanks to all for looking in, and your comments - they were very much appreciated.

 

[Silenoz]

Just stumbled upon this one... Nice work and perseverance with this A-monster kit.

 

Recently build their Rutan Voyager, and was finally glad to have it finished...

[Brandy]

Nice to see it finished, I'm sure you're pretty pleased too!

Great job.

 

Ian

[Terry1954]

Nice to see this one done Clive. I saw this from the start and thought what a challenge you had set yourself, but it has come out really well ........ you should give yourself a pat on the back! I'd be scared to even touch it, as it looks so delicate.

 

Terry