nimrod54 Posted September 5, 2018 Share Posted September 5, 2018 Great work Dave, looks better each time that I drop by (I know that is a dumb comment to make) it is the attention to details that catch my eye. I hope you manage to complete it in time, but it will be a super looking model whenever it is finished. Your build is tempting me to look at aircraft of the British Antarctic Survey to sit alongside this DH.60G of The British Arctic Air Route Expedition that I completed earlier this year. I apologise for the thread hi-jack and I hope you don't mind me posting this small image of the finished build. Cheers 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted September 5, 2018 Share Posted September 5, 2018 6 hours ago, BIG X said: ah - 'The Great Icescape' - fantastic movie... 🤦♂️ Don’t give up the day job! Trevor 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted September 5, 2018 Author Share Posted September 5, 2018 John @nimrod54, thread hi-jacks are not only welcomed but extremely encouraged, especially when there’s a beautifully built model shown to inspire us to take a second look at this barren ‘theatre of operations’. At one point I was also considering building the Auster Antarctic, however the kit I possess is one fuselage half short!! Not to worry, It probably wouldn’t have been finished in time anyway. Cheers and thanks to all for the latest round of comments. There should be some colour included with the next update... Dave 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted September 6, 2018 Share Posted September 6, 2018 (edited) Very nice so far, Dave. I'm tempted to dig mine out of the pile and have it as an accompanying build. I have plans for mine as a Colombian machine. Martin Edited September 6, 2018 by RidgeRunner 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted September 7, 2018 Author Share Posted September 7, 2018 Update #9 - Primer Base Coat Finally, construction is all but finished on this Beaver kit, so now its time for the fun stuff - or make or break time in most of my cases! Now my chosen subject (A95-201) has two window shades on top of the small circular rear cabin windows. I wasn't quite sure how to manufacture these and wasted a good two or so hours trialing all sorts of bits and pieces. In the end, an innocent black drinking straw was carefully chopped down to what you see in the first photograph. Funnily enough, these two finished pieces took me less than a minute to make and as I was quite chuffed by the end result didn't really think about the previous time wasted until "SHMBO" came home and asked me what I did all day?? The next day (after a rather unpleasant night in the dog house) it was time to start painting this little thing. I underestimated how difficult it is to apply white paint over white plastic, and I stupidly added to the difficulty stakes by placing this all over a white paper towel. So here's me happily spraying away and not realising that my paint may have been a bit thick as the AB started sputtering all over the place. I only realised this once I stopped and looked in horror at this spotted high wing monstrosity! There's always a recovery period in all my builds, so out came the sanding sticks, wet n dry and micro mesh. A quick soapy wash and hair dryer session got this back to the paint booth where I slowed down a bit and started to apply a number of thinned layers of matt white paint over a non-white background (lesson learned). So here's the Beaver all ready for its first layer(s) of top coat. After all that, I think I might push my Anti-Flash White Victor projected build a little further down the line. Cheers.. Dave 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Looking resplendent in its white topcoat Dave, and those eyebrow shades look superb. Well done mate. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Now Dave it looks like I'm rubbing off on you. That is my kind of mistake. However, your recovery was faster and better than mine. It's looking good now. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyW Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Imagine my horror at opening this thread, to see your progress, only to have a shaved beaver appear on my screen!!! And it's a might fine looking one as well. 😁 Tony. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawzer Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Nice! I'm not going to make any further comment however as I don't want to go down that road 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 16 hours ago, Greg Law said: Now Dave it looks like I'm rubbing off on you. That is my kind of mistake. However, your recovery was faster and better than mine. It's looking good now. We all do it Greg and although I’ll never win a modelling contest, I might give the ‘recovery’ trophy a bit of a shake - some days I spend more time recovering than modelling. Goes with the hobby’s overall territory I suppose. Thanks for your comments. 1 hour ago, Lawzer said: Nice! I'm not going to make any further comment however as I don't want to go down that road 😁 Wise move Ian, I’ve now applied copious thin layers of top colour in order to achieve a nice solid finish. To my dismay I have watched it turn from a blonde Beaver to a somewhat ginger Beaver with each layer applied! I’m trying to convince myself it’s close to a good match, however am now in two minds. I’ll post pics a bit later. Cheers.. Dave 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 Update #10 - Colour Conundrum and the thrills of colour matching! My chosen Beaver has a solid yellowy / Orangy overall scheme and the two colour photographs available (c/o ADF Serials website) show what appears to be two quite different contrasts in colour? I'm pretty sure that the photographs below are taken during the same expedition period of around 1955-56 so I'm assuming that perhaps the low lying Antarctic Sun may throw off different spectrums of light to what we may view in other parts of the world (this is entriely based on my non-Scientific nor Optometric backround!). Anyway, the decal instructions mentions this overall airframe colour as Humbrol 24 Trainer yellow. An old copy of SAM mentions Bright Orange and the ADF Serials website itself mentions Yellow then repainted to Orange after a maintenance re-fit? Below are some real life photographs of my chosen Beaver. The B&W image shows both A95-201 and 202 together. I have included this image as although it's hard to identify B&W colours, I see tonal differences between 202's Orange & Dayglo Panels and 201's lighter tone. The paint I have used is Gunze Mr. Color 109 Character Yellow. I used somewhere between 3-4 thin coats of paint in order to acheive a solid finish and each time I applied it, the colour changed? It honestly started off as a Canary yellow and then slowly went darker as I kept spraying. I was totally convinced I got this wrong last night, however this morning I took some photographs in a well lit room and now that I'm comparing these images in Flikr am starting to think that its not that bad a match. What does everyone else think? Cheers.. Dave 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebra Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Looks great in yellow. Really like this colour scheme, it’s going to be a beauty. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 That looks not bad to me Dave. Your last photo where the aircraft has been rigged for slinging appears to be a truer colour in that the light appears more diffuse, without the harshness & shadow of the previous photo & that being so, I think your yellow should look OK. Steve. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Yes, the colour looks good. It is better with a little orange tint in it than straight yellow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RidgeRunner Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 (edited) 3 hours ago, stevehnz said: That looks not bad to me Dave. Your last photo where the aircraft has been rigged for slinging appears to be a truer colour in that the light appears more diffuse, without the harshness & shadow of the previous photo & that being so, I think your yellow should look OK. Steve. 1 hour ago, Greg Law said: Yes, the colour looks good. It is better with a little orange tint in it than straight yellow. I agree to both. It is pretty close . She is really looking the part now Martin Edited September 9, 2018 by RidgeRunner 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawzer Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Now that's not something you could call a lo-vis scheme! 😁 Very nice! 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 That is looking the biz, great work with the yellow its certainly not the easiest colour to work with. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted September 15, 2018 Share Posted September 15, 2018 Great stuff Very impressed with your yellow, I have always struggled to get a uniform finish, yours looks like it was made in that colour. look forward to the next instalment cheers Pat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted October 1, 2018 Author Share Posted October 1, 2018 Belated Update #11 - Recovery, Decals and Finish! My God - where did those three weeks go? Seems like an age since I last updated this thread and for good reason as well. All was going well until I knocked off one of my handmade eyebrow window shades somewhere in-between two rooms of my house. Had I found it, the recovery would have been quick, however for the life of me it pinged off somewhere that was impossible to see. I thought, being yellow, I'd have a good chance of spotting it however this was not to be. I then had to make another and do you think I could get the shape right to match the starboard one? Well on the third attempt I possibly did. The biggest issue with all this was repainting it as the yellow changed destiny with every coat I gave it. The whole thing looked a bit of a mess and I could not believe something so small would cause me so much grief. In the interest of moving this kit on, what I ended up with just had to do. I gave the Beaver three coats of clear and once dry started to apply the decals. The decal instructions do warn you that these items are super thin and only need a maximum of 11 seconds of water. I started with the fin flash and although I still had 75% of the decal still on the backing paper, once the decal left the water it just folded in on itself like nothing I'd ever come across before. I managed to save the Fin Flash (although I have spares) but was then quite sceptical about some of the other decals that I still had to apply and couldn't easily replace! The whole decalling experience took two evenings and boy did I sweat this out. I won in the end, but it was not a very pleasurable experience. I seem to always stall the final finishing stage - maybe it's just getting my head over the fact that this model has been in my head for the last three months and is now coming to an end? I've applied some Uschi thread rigging material which is so thin it's so hard to see. Anyway - here she is, all done is a yellow / orange RAAF Antarctic scheme circa 1955-56. I'll take some better photos before I insert this into the Gallery, however I'm so relieved that this Classic Airfix Beaver is now officially finished. I find these bold bright schemes just as hard as multi-coloured camo jobs to get right. They might look easy enough, however try getting a smooth and even finish, then keeping it all pristine till the end? I've always said that building a crisp and clean model is just as hard as building a well weathered one and this kit just intensifies my belief. Now my original intention was to build at least two classic kits for this GB, however this little Beaver and life in general stretched me all the way. I'm glad that this and the ever updated 'GB Build List' will soon be all over - but let me add, both have been fun (at times). Cheers and thanks for all the encouraging words along the journey.. Dave Now it's 'Beaver' time! 18 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zebra Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 Very nice indeed Dave. A beautiful model, well worth all the effort. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkSH Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 A really nice tidy and accurate build resulting in a lovely model 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nimrod54 Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 Another stunning build Dave. The yellow looks spot on to me and matches the colour photos very well. It can't have been easy juggling your time between modelling, keeping the build list updated, managing to comment on other builds, not to mention the time demands of domestic life. Well done on finishing this one and thankyou for all of your efforts throughout this GB. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Masters Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 First rate, nice and clean...ready for the expedition! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Headroom Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 10/10! Trevor 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawzer Posted October 1, 2018 Share Posted October 1, 2018 Simply outstanding Dave! Top notch work and fantastic end result there!! 👍 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now