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Roden's 1/72 SE5a - wing spanning the century


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Evening All,

 

Now this is small! I think this is the smallest kit that I've ever made and that include the Airfix Chipmunk.

 

Anyway great fun, but being a Roden kit it requires a fair bit of test fitting and additional supports etc. only really done some preparation and painting plus added some hint of the internal fuselage structure.

 

41372056221_ba65d4de51_b.jpg

 

Plus I've used oils for the wood grain so the slow drying time will allow me to progress one of the other builds a bit faster.....hopefully.

 

Cheers, M.

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Evening all,

 

A little progress on the SE5a, I have got the main assembly together and have continued to paint some of the wooden areas with oils again causing a slight delay for drying time. I have also started drilling holes for the rigging.

 

27654344428_3d4dcde365_b.jpg

 

27654344698_3c5d23a737_b.jpg

 

I'm trying to get all the current builds (SE5a, Typhoon + Flycatcher & Swordfish (from the carrier GB)) to a ready to prime point at the same time hopefully this weekend.

 

Cheers, M.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening all,

 

Gosh this is all really slow going, but finally started to apply some external paint to the SE5a.

 

I decided to brush paint the little biplane as its so small I think it might have disappeared out the window if I'd turned an airbrush on it.

 

Anyway, taking a leaf out of the mighty Stix's brush painting bible/video (thanks @PlaStix) I dove in with thinned paint onto un-primed plastic and.....it worked.

 

three coats for both the Green and the 'Linen' colour and then I buffed up the paint with some kitchen towel, applied a pin wash to the details and dry brushed a darker mix of the green chord-wise in between the ribs and a lighter mix across the ribs. Its quite subtle and looks better in the flesh than the photos suggest. a similar process was followed on the fuselage.

 

27872454888_002dfff130_b.jpg

 

 

The biggest issue having read some of the lengthy discussions on BM and other forums was what range of paint to actually use for PC10 and the linen colour on the underside of the wings, which all in all seemed to be a bit of a minefield. Of course I didn't have any of the suggested solutions so mixed up my own versions. For PC10 (I didn't want to go to brown) I used Humbrol enamels Matt 26 Khaki and 116 U.S. Dark green and for the Linen colour I used Tamiya acrylics XF-78 Wooden Deck Tan, XF-2 Flat White and a small amount of XF-3 Flat Yellow.

 

27872455078_b044ca5c13_b.jpg

 

40841883575_fa3b73fc7f_b.jpg

 

I still have to paint the leading edge of the wing undersides with the green mix and high and low light the linen colour and there is still a fair bit of detail painting to do, the rudder is painted white in preparation for the red, white and blue flash. Slow progress but quite happy with it so far.

 

Cheers, M.

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Afternoon all,

 

I have made a start on the rigging for the SE5a and finding it a bit of a challenge to say the least, its amazing how uncooperative a small piece of monofilament can be!!

 

As I said before apart from aerial wires I have never rigged an aircraft before so I am learning by failure rather than success which all in all doesn't bode well for the little Roden kit.

 

41781736401_f2f6794498_b.jpg

A bit of a rat's nest!

 

As you can see I have also tested out a decal, mainly because I'm starting to develop a complex and associated twitch when it comes to decaling kits. the decals have good colour density on the white but absolutely refused to settle down fully over the wing details.

 

41781736581_e8d1d4e0e9_b.jpg

 

Most of the various bits and pieces are ready for fitting to the main assembly once the rigging is (ever) completed

 

 

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Evening all,

 

Several exacting hours of fiddling with truculent monofilament, fixing broken struts...again and sticking myself to bits with superglue, result a rigged SE5a that ....hmmm doesn't quite look right I think some of the wires are mis-aligned. However I'm going to have to live with it I just don't have the time to take it all apart and some of the parts are so fragile now I think I'd have to make replacements for them, oh well put it down to experience and a first attempt. It's now on its legs and they'll need some rigging wires also as does the tail and ailerons...... a few of the rigging wires have come adrift during handling and some paint touch-ups required also, but now its time to give my eyes a rest. :blink2:

 

41786015731_b51ce1b74f_b.jpg

 

Cheers, M.

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The painting on that looks good Mark,  especially the top wing.

 

Good luck with the rigging, it will be worth it when you've done.

 

{edit - cross posted with your last post - rigging does look good! /edit}

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Thanks Robert, The painting is the most successful part so far, yes I did drill through and that worked ok its just that I wasn't careful enough getting the glued angles right when setting the wire in the underside of the top wing.

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4 minutes ago, MarkSH said:

Evening all,

 

Several exacting hours of fiddling with truculent monofilament, fixing broken struts...again and sticking myself to bits with superglue, result a rigged SE5a that ....hmmm doesn't quite look right I think some of the wires are mis-aligned. However I'm going to have to live with it I just don't have the time to take it all apart and some of the parts are so fragile now I think I'd have to make replacements for them, oh well put it down to experience and a first attempt. It's now on its legs and they'll need some rigging wires also as does the tail and ailerons...... a few of the rigging wires have come adrift during handling and some paint touch-ups required also, but now its time to give my eyes a rest. :blink2:

Looks good to me! I've built one of these and know it's not an easy build. You've done a great job.

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That is looking very impressive Mark. I've not done a kit that requires rigging - not sure I'm going to! Yours looks great! Very well done so far. :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

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  • 2 weeks later...

Evening all,

 

The SE5a is all but finished, obviously it forms just part of the whole GB effort from me, so I'm not putting it in the gallery until it is part of the full display.

 

However here are some pictures, quite a fiddly build not least because it was a first attempt at rigging. Not a bad little kit overall but as @stevej60 found with his Roden Gladiator the decals left a lot to be desired, very brittle and even on a gloss coat and under two coats of matt varnish the edges can still be seen. However that being said I enjoyed it and definitely feel it wont be my last 72nd rigged aircraft, here's the piccies:

 

42063653511_6a93dae4a1_b.jpg

 

42063653381_b5e30b9eab_b.jpg

 

42018873752_eded2330f9_b.jpg

 

42018873632_65607ff44c_b.jpg

 

Cheers, M.

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