trickyrich Posted May 21, 2018 Share Posted May 21, 2018 she's coming along nicely Mike, I do like the painted detailing, and weathering. Gosh that front seat looks to be the last place any sane person would want to be, especially with the nose wheel being as fragile as it was!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 22, 2018 Author Share Posted May 22, 2018 The seatbelts from HGW arrived today! Got them made up in about an hour, and they were less fiddly than I remember, but I'd definitely recommend two pairs of tweezers to accomplish the task with the least stress I glued them in place, and they are IMHO simply the best seatbelts you can buy in the modelling world today, well worth both the effort and the expense, the latter being about the same as a pair of PE belts, so it's really just more effort in the end. Here's a quick pic of the results: I've got the cockpit glued into one half of the fuselage, with the other half taped in place to make sure it stays aligned. I've also put the gunsight on the IP and touched up that missing bit of paint. The engine nacelles are underway, with some primer on the internal parts, ready for some burned up metal at the rear and RLM02 and shinies at the front Progress should be quite rapid once the fuselage is sealed up, which may happen today. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 3 hours ago, Mike said: (or rather it will be when I've finished downloading my FTP queue - don't click it yet unless you want to see the 404 error message) I clicked before i read ... I should know by now to do it the other way around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 22, 2018 Author Share Posted May 22, 2018 4 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: I clicked before i read ... I should know by now to do it the other way around. Sorry 'bout that - I put 23gb of files in the download queue before I realised I needed to upload the pic 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 22, 2018 Share Posted May 22, 2018 still downloading by the looks of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 23, 2018 Author Share Posted May 23, 2018 12 hours ago, trickyrich said: still downloading by the looks of it. I gave up last night and uploaded it this morning instead Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 23, 2018 Share Posted May 23, 2018 LOOK at that cockpit!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 On 5/22/2018 at 11:43 PM, Mike said: The seatbelts from HGW arrived today! Got them made up in about an hour, and they were less fiddly than I remember, but I'd definitely recommend two pairs of tweezers to accomplish the task with the least stress I glued them in place, and they are IMHO simply the best seatbelts you can buy in the modelling world today, well worth both the effort and the expense, the latter being about the same as a pair of PE belts, so it's really just more effort in the end. The pit looks great Mike. Did you curl up the belts between your fingers prior assembly? Cheers, Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 5 hours ago, Basilisk said: The pit looks great Mike. Did you curl up the belts between your fingers prior assembly? Thanks Yes, I scrunched the whole sheet up into a little ball before I started. I think the instructions used to say that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 I've been mucking about with the engine nacelles for the last few hours, getting them ready to hang under the wings. During that process I've noticed a few things that HB got slightly wrong in the panel line department. Usually I don't stress too much about this sort of thing, but once I've noticed them, I have to do something about it. There are a few extraneous lines here and there, the most obvious being the additional line that runs laterally round the engine's top cowling at the front. I can see how it happened actually, as we have some pictures in our walkaround here, showing the airframe at Hendon, there is a bit of a crease exactly where the panel is, and you could be forgiven for thinking there's one there. The bottom cowling is a crescent shape in profile, wrapping round the lower part of the engine, so the seam needs to go there, as do the extended panel lines on the front and rear cowlings, plus the extension of the lower cowling join that hits the rear of the nacelle. The rear fairings need a little filled to blend them together, as the join line for the tail pipe passes through them, leaving quite a crease, but otherwise everything can be done by careful alignment and sanding. I filled the panel lines with CA and sanded them back flush immediately, and found that the intake part fits much better if you ream out the hole in the nacelle that the intake fits into. I shoved my Dremel's cutting drum into the hole and enlarged it slightly, which gave me much more leeway to move it around for best fit. It all needs tidying up and a coat of primer to check for errors, but they're looking a lot more accurate already They're also a much better shape at the front than the Dragon/Trimaster ones, which were a bit 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 HB getting panel lines wrong!! I don't believe it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 Now now Rich - this is one of their good kits, so we'll forgive them a few errant panel lines Fuselage is together now, and the wings are too. The airframe is sitting on my bench now, almost complete, while all the separate assemblies set up, so everything can be assured of fitting together later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 you can't be too easy on them else they slip back into their old ways! But it is a nice look model, definitely one I'd put on the wish list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 It's definitely the best in 1:48 in terms of variety of marques, and although I haven't built my vanilla Tamiya kit for comparison, it's damn good on fit and finish too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 24, 2018 Share Posted May 24, 2018 I definitely agree with you there, I like the fact they're producing some of the more unusual variations. The Tamiya one is really nice, a bit old now but still fresh, just expensive. Now if the HB one fits the Antares conversion kits...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 24, 2018 Author Share Posted May 24, 2018 16 minutes ago, trickyrich said: Now if the HB one fits the Antares conversion kits...... Only one way to find out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mottlemaster Posted May 25, 2018 Share Posted May 25, 2018 Your seat belts in your earlier post do ,like you say look the best belts out there . As I've not installed the belts in the bomb Aimee's position in mine I'm going to go ahead and order some today . Are you going to instal the pilots gun sight . My MDC instructions show it but I can't think that it would be equiped .i will probably miss it out . cheers alistair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 25, 2018 Author Share Posted May 25, 2018 @Mottlemaster I haven't got any spares for the BA, but I'm pondering that as I'm undecided what to do. I think I may have some more HGW belts around, but I don't know where I've installed my gunsight on the basis that A ) it would leave a hole in the top of the panel, and B ) I think it was a converted airframe and pulling out a gunsight would be a PITA unless you were desperate for that last few ounces of weight saving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted May 25, 2018 Author Share Posted May 25, 2018 The Kfz.385 T-Stoff wagon conversion arrived from SBS Models (thanks guys!) in Hungary, and has been prepped and dumped in the ultrasonic cleaner to remove any remaining mould release and sanding dust. It seems I got the length of the roof of my effort DEAD on, but I misjudged the slant of the rear doors and my front cowling is a bit short. Not bad from a couple of pics though, and I may still use it anyway to save the SBS parts for when I build an Komet, so I can take advantage of all the internal greeblies that the conversion includes. I might just build the two up side-by-side and decide later I'll post some pics up when I've got the body parts together later. The patio outside my workshop is looking a bit Christmassy at the moment after the attack on the big moulding plug on the tanker by my Dremel. I looked like some portly snowman by the time I'd finished too, so I was glad I'd gone outside even though it was raining lightly 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted May 25, 2018 Share Posted May 25, 2018 resin + Dremel = snow angels! and fun times. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted June 13, 2018 Author Share Posted June 13, 2018 On 25/05/2018 at 23:54, trickyrich said: resin + Dremel = snow angels! and fun times. ...and if you don't wear a mask, you're possibly going to become a real angel quicker than you'd hoped 🧟♂️ I've been a bit lax on this since I got distracted (this happens a lot), but I have managed to get the engine nacelles on the wings, and some clear wingtip lights on the....errr, wings. The engines were primed in black to check my work, so they contrast a bit and in this shot the fuselage isn't attached to the wings yet - Just dropped in place. I have done some pre-fettling to improve the fit however, as this seems to be a slight weak-point of the kit, unless @Julien and I were both similarly bad at fitting these bits together. I'm a lot happier with how the parts engage now, so once I've run out of reasons not to attach them, I will do. Please excuse the dust - I'm sure you can guess where it all came from if you've been reading the posts above I've been filling the join at the trailing edge of the wings where the underside wraps around onto the top, in order to get a nice thin trailing edge. As with a lot of things, the compromise involves some filler. Such is life I'd also managed to fit the windscreen slightly off-centre in the aperture, so I've added a bit of filler to the low side, which needs a little more to complete the task. The rest of the glazing is now fitted however, and I'm toying with leaving open the bomb-aimer's canopy in the nose, but haven't decided yet. The pilot's canopy will definitely be open however to show off me sexy seatbelts 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 13, 2018 Share Posted June 13, 2018 gosh that looks so tidy!! The engine pods/wing joins look great, pre test fitting defiantly proves the way to go! Super tidy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted June 13, 2018 Author Share Posted June 13, 2018 Might get a bit more done this evening - I think I still have to check the fettling of the fuselage halves before I can glue the wings on. I could be wrong though - it happens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted June 18, 2018 Author Share Posted June 18, 2018 I managed to ping off the rear glass while I was masking it today, so I've just reattached that with a bit of slow curing CA, tipped up so the fumes can escape through the opening. I'll be doing a bit of priming later to check my fuselage seams, and if those turn out ok I'll attach the wings, and move on to final priming. I've also got to crack on with the truck, and rebuild the back end of the towing arm I built, as the flat parts I cribbed from the pics of the PE set should actually be tubular. Fortunately, I'm not short on tubes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 2, 2018 Author Share Posted July 2, 2018 After what seemed to be a fast start, I inevitably slowed down doing other site-related things, but yesterday I got the first test-coat of primer on, which exposed a few blemishes and some panel lines and rivets that need reinstating before I can paint it. I've still not attached the wings, and to be honest I might leave them off longer to allow me to paint things a little easier, as there are lots of corners where paint build-up can cause gritty areas. The elevators are just push-fitted on, and no-one would really notice if I never glued them, as the fit is so neat After priming I flatted it back with the green side of a buffing pad and here's a few pics of the aftermath: I promise faithfully to get this underway again, as I've a hankering to build the Su-34 Fullback I reviewed today 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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