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It's a Ten from Len


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Sorry if I got all you Strictly fans out there all in a tizz expecting sequins and all that pizazz, but there's no Foxtrot in this thread (just a Hotel for the Tail code I'm afraid). We could publish a photo or two of Ola at some point though if I can find a tenuous enough reason to add her to this thread!

 

I've now started my first attempt at an oh so fiddly 1/144 kit for over 35 years and I tell you that the eyesight is now definitely poorer and the fingers porkier, so this may be a trial by fire, but hey we all wanna see that don't we - car crash moddeling at its best!

 

We are attempting the Roden Super VC-10 K3, to be finished in the Hemp scheme to allow http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/profile/98-roland-pulfrew/ to add the all grey version of this beautiful bird (can I add Ola's photo after this comment he thinks?) after he's finished his East African civvy version.

 

On to the box shots (stop it before you even start Ced!):

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And a couple of quick photos of some flash with various parts attached to it!

 

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and some photo etch which I'm sure will result in my being stuck together with CA as usual!

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Hopefully this will be a far far quicker and more rewarding build than the 1/24 Spit that I've just beaten into submission finished. Look away if you love your Spitfires with dihedral!!!

 

 

I've cleaned up these monster sprue attachment points on the fuselages and have cleaned up and stuck together the tail parts, the wings and the engine assemblies. I have added some brass tube to the exhausts to give some depth to them, and have started building the photoetch cockpit.  I will clean these up and restore lost details before I show and tell these parts as I have found the Roden plastic extremely soft and liable to deform/warp/get covered in fingerprints after an attack from Tamiya Extra Thin.

 

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Anyways will upload some more piccys to Flikr as and when we get a bit further down the road for your delectation.

 

Thanks for looking in, until next time - Keeeeeeeeeeeeep Modelling!!! 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, despite not posting anywhere near as often as I'd have hoped to, some progress has been made.

 

I forgot to take photos (or maybe took them on my phone, must have a look later) of putting strips of tape either side of the window line and then priming, pre-shading and adding some final colour to allow the windows to be added and not individually masked during the main painting.

 

The cockpit P/E went together much easier than I expected using thin CA superglue and an old, but a bit too cumbersome, Mission Models PE Bending Tool. I have seen some pretty neat little bending tools (RP Tools?) in other WIPs lately and my wish list has been appropriately expanded to include one.

 

This later got primed and very roughly painted, I'm just hoping for an impression of a cockpit through the tiny windows rather than a superdetailed work of art that only I know is there.

 

DSC_0312

 

DSC_0366

 

Having seen http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/profile/98-roland-pulfrew/ push his widows in from outside whilst decalling his East African Ten, I used plenty of white PVA to hold mine in place which will hopefully survive whatever ham-fistedness I intend to throw at it later!

 

Does anyone know why when I put in the URL for a member's profile like above for Roland, it doesn't become a tag and then notify that member that they've been mentioned in a post?

 

DSC_0320

 

Then the fuselage halves were joined together, not forgetting the addition of 15+ grams of self-adhesive tyre-balancing weights stuck to the underside of the cockpit floor.

 

DSC_0382

 

Now for some sanding and I also think I might just drop some PVA into the windows that are blanked off in order to get them a touch more flush.  The next installment will see if that works!

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I'm looking forward to seeing how your old school method of window installation works out Chris. Reminds me of the old Airfix instructions from the 1960s.

From the picture you posted, it looks to have worked very well

 

Chris. (Another one)

:thumbsup:

 

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On 19/03/2018 at 8:03 PM, zebra said:

Great to see another VC10 in the group build, looking forward to this. 

Thanks Zebra, first 1/144 for many years and enjoying it. Trouble is now I will be adding this scale to my ridiculously expanding stash now as well as the far more than I build 1/48 ones.

 

11 hours ago, stringbag said:

I'm looking forward to seeing how your old school method of window installation works out Chris. Reminds me of the old Airfix instructions from the 1960s.

From the picture you posted, it looks to have worked very well

 

Chris. (Another one)

:thumbsup:

 

Chris, yes a new kit with 60s style Airfix windows surprised me. Thankfully due to BM we know how to deal with these things far better than way back when.

 

I have now added PVA to the blanked off windows and it just needed a very swift swipe with a nail buffer when set hard and will definitely  look better now when the blanks are painted over. Will do the other side later and paint them both together and then show and tell in front of the class!

 

1 hour ago, LostCosmonauts said:

Nice work

 

To tag someone I think you just type @theirusername and that should work

Thanks LC, now to try out the Roly mating call then.

 

@Roland Pulfrew

Cacaw, Cacaw...........

 

Well it looks good and is like what I’ve seen you clever folk do.

 

Did it work?

 

I love a school day!!!

 

Thanks all, and I hope the next update won’t be too far off.

Edited by Fatcawthorne
Left out mating call, d’oh
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3 hours ago, Fatcawthorne said:

 

I have now added PVA to the blanked off windows and it just needed a very swift swipe with a nail buffer when set hard and will definitely  look better now when the blanks are painted over. Will do the other side later and paint them both together and then show and tell in front of the class!

 

I thought you were leaving the windows fully glazed when I first saw the picture with the "Hemp" coloured paint surrounding the windows.  I hadn't realised you were painting over them.

My mistake, but I'll still be watching from the side-lines.

 

Chris.

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1 hour ago, stringbag said:

I thought you were leaving the windows fully glazed when I first saw the picture with the "Hemp" coloured paint surrounding the windows.  I hadn't realised you were painting over them.

My mistake, but I'll still be watching from the side-lines.

 

Chris.

No mistake made at all Chris as that was plan A, and Plan A would have suited any civil or the C.1 transport versions, however during the conversion from their civil or transport roles to the tanker role, some Johnny decided that the tanks of Jet Fuel in the fuselage didn't need a nice window-seat view for the flight (I think he went on to implement Ryanair's free seating allocation procedures) and therefore almost every other window was blanked off as per the picture below that I've nicked from Wiki as a reusable image (it is attributed to Andrew Thomas from Shrewsbury, UK BTW).

 

 

ZA148 VC10 K3 v2

 

Now someone who wasn't a part-time gravel-bellied infantryman but knows the real reason for blanking these windows will be along soon to enlighten us!!

 

Anyways what I was trying to do was add the PVA to make the blanked off windows flush (as I didn't want to leave the impression of the glazing which would be there if I didn't fill them with something) and then paint over them, leaving the un-blanked windows perfectly framed.

 

Now that was Plan B, and Plan B sucked too!  The PVA that I used was Deluxe Materials R/C Modellers Craft Glue and although when I leave a blob of it on my cutting mat for instance it dries to the specific hardness of the Kohinoor diamond, then the second I try to attach a canopy or indeed fill in some blanked out windows with it I get the consistency of watered-down latex! 

 

Now we're into Plan C, and Plan C has involved using various dental implements and my biggest stippling brush to get off the aforementioned PVA, (damaging the lovely framed finish on one side of the fuselage but not the other - strange!), and then I will be filling the blanked off windows with Perfect Plastic Putty or maybe Vallejo Acrylic as it has a more controllable application nozzle. This will get a spit and cotton-bud wash to make it flush (aren't you glad your mum and Gran didn't know about that technique!), a bit of Krystal Kleer dropped into the glazed windows to make them flusher and clearer and when that's dry (and it will dry I command you!) they will get a blob of Maskol to allow the paint damage to be repaired.

 

Do we have a sweep-stake starting up among the betting folk on here as to what plan letter we will end up at - a fiver on Plan K for me please!  

 

Until later good folks.

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On 4/2/2018 at 9:26 PM, stringbag said:

Now I get it Chris.  Thanks for the explanation.  I hope it turns out as planned.

 

Chris.

Now of course it didn't Chris.

 

I filled the blanked off windows with Vallejo Putty in the end as it's tiny nozzle won the day (now where I heard that before?).

DSC_0410

 

The putty was cleaned up with buffers and Krystal Klear was blobbed into the remaining windows using a cocktail stick.  It was a case of let it dry and repeat until the windows were flush with the fuselage sides.  Everything got a coat of Future at this point to seal everything in. 

 

DSC_0417

 

The cleaning up of the Vallejo Putty has lead to all that lovely paintwork coming off, but I think it will end up well in the end.

 

One thing I have now noticed is that the kit supplies masks for the unblanked windows that will be used instead of the micro-mask and hence the coat of future.

 

The front end has also had a bit of attention.  I used gloop around the canopy glass which will then sanded back to fair it in.  Happilly there are quite pronounced raised details for the cockpit framing (or the windows are recessed might be more accurate), so the polishing should leave the actual windscreen clear of scratches.

 

DSC_0416

 

I'll break out the manicure buffers once this is all dry and let's see if we can get some progress towards getting the airframe together.

 

Until the next one...

 

Chris

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@Fatcawthorne not sure if the tagging works but I didn’t get a notification that I had been tagged.  Your 10 is coming together nicely 👍

 

The etch cockpit captures the real thing quite well - I’m not looking forward to trying it if I get round to the grey K3; I’ve never really hacked etched parts and “super glue”. I always end up with my tweezers and fingers glued to the etch 😄 Any tips?

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7 hours ago, Roland Pulfrew said:

@Fatcawthorne not sure if the tagging works but I didn’t get a notification that I had been tagged.  Your 10 is coming together nicely 👍

 

The etch cockpit captures the real thing quite well - I’m not looking forward to trying it if I get round to the grey K3; I’ve never really hacked etched parts and “super glue”. I always end up with my tweezers and fingers glued to the etch 😄 Any tips?

You must have the magic touch as your tag sent me a notification, I still must be doing something not quite 100% correct.

 

With the etch I use McDonalds ketchup pots and pour in some cheap thin poundland/budget superglue and this then gets transferred to the part using the tip of a cocktail stick.  I've heard that there are tools specific for this but never having seen one (and thus committing myself to buying one!), I'm still happy in my cocktail-stick ignorant bliss.

 

I also use the thinnest needle tweezers to give the smallest surface area when things do get stuck together.  There are sets of cheap Chinese ones for a couple of pounds on EBay, but as my wife's a beauty therapist I either pinch hers or accompany her trips to the local beauty wholesalers to also pick up supplies of nail boards and buffers which are a fraction of the price of modelling-targeted products. I never quite got the correlation between accompanying and paying the bill though, so perhaps any savings made are completely phyrric.

 

I use the tweezers with a peg as a clamp, and the nuclear option when things don't stick as planned is to use a spray kicker. The only downfall to kicker I find is that any stray blobs of CA become solid stray blobs instead of spreading themselves as a thin, and to me unnoticeable, layer if left to set naturally.

 

Lastly the only part of the etch I'm not 100% happy with is the back of the instrument panel, as once closed up and the canopy attached a gap is quite visible. I'm hoping once I've masked and painted the windows that it will be less noticeable.  Not sure that my camera lens can focus down to this level but will try to get a picture to demonstrate next time I get some bench time.

 

Edited by Fatcawthorne
Spling
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5 hours ago, Fatcawthorne said:

 

13 hours ago, Roland Pulfrew said:

@Fatcawthorne not sure if the tagging works but I didn’t get a notification that I had been tagged.  Your 10 is coming together nicely 👍

 

The etch cockpit captures the real thing quite well - I’m not looking forward to trying it if I get round to the grey K3; I’ve never really hacked etched parts and “super glue”. I always end up with my tweezers and fingers glued to the etch 😄 Any tips?

You must have the magic touch as your tag sent me a notification, I still must be doing something not quite 100% correct.

 

@Fatcawthorne  I’ve checked and I did receive a notification that you had tagged me using the @usernamehere thing (I didn’t know that either) I just assumed (erroneously) that it was because you had linked my build topic on your build topic - every day is a school day.  Thanks for the info on etched brass and superglue; I guess I’m going to have to try it all out when, if, I get round to the grey K3!

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