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Holiday quick build - Airfix 1:72 Shorts Tucano T1


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I’ve been in the modelling doldrums recently due to a variety of reasons. I have a few weeks of extended leave so to get things going I thought a quick build would help. I dug this one out of the stash.

 

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Fairly straight forward paint job 😁

 

Sprue shot:

 

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Old style “square” sprues, so I am guessing this is a relatively old kit. Not much flash though.

 

Busy decal sheet:

 

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I am going to do one of the black options.

 

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Ok, to work. Nothing fancy, just a quick build out of the box. First the cockpit, which went together quickly. The seats were a tight squeeze. Just some painted Tamiya tape for seatbelts. Didn’t spend too much time on the cockpit, the canopy is pretty thick and distorting.

 

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I gather this one is a real tail sitter, so I stuffed the front with as many lead fishing weights as I could.

 

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Then in almost no time at all I was glueing the fuselage together. I’ll be putting more lead in under the cockpit tub.

 

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While waiting for the fuselage to cure, I hollowed out the exhausts with a pin vice and hobby knife.

 

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That's it for now.

Edited by SimonL
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And that's about where mine's been for the last 11 years (good grief, is it really that long?) I really must move it up the build list.

 

Great progress thus far, and it looks good too. I'll keep an eye on it.

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On 7/10/2018 at 9:22 AM, charlie_c67 said:

Watch out for the aerials, the ones supplied are not the ones on the actual aircraft. Really must get on and finish my one!

 

Can you give a hint about the issue with the aerials? Is it the blade aerial on the top of the fuselage? It looks different to the he front of the box.

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From memory, they're only suitable for the red and white version in the box, the black version needs a little bit of plastic rod on one or two of the aerial blades to be accurate, though there is also a third option with a small whip aerial instead of a blade, but I can't remember the colour scheme. Best bet is to Google it and go from there, typing in the ZFxxx should help narrow the search 🙂

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Thanks - I’ll take a look. Got a bit of time on my hands - the seam between the wing and fuselage opened up and needed glueing and filling again so I haven’t cracked on as fast as I wanted to.

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Here's one with the whip aerial...

 

Shorts Tucano T.Mk1

 

Here's one with the extension...

 

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000659391L.html

 

I think this is the most similar to the Airfix black scheme.

 

And here's the original further down the page (picture three?)

 

http://ulsteraviationsociety.org/shorts-tucano-t1-g-btuc

 

Sems to be a mix of black and white depending on the year/wind/phases of the moon 🙄

 

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Thanks. I actually tracked down a photo of the one I am making - it has the extension so I will need to fix that up.

 

This has taken a bit longer than I expected - multiple rounds of fill and sand. At last she was ready for paint.

 

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Two coats of brushed on Tamiya acrylic Matt Black.

 

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Then a gloss coat.

 

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On 7/16/2018 at 9:25 PM, danntheman said:

Nice job so far. I have built this, posted here as well.

 

Thanks. I know - I saw it 😁 Hope mine looks as good once completed

 

On 7/17/2018 at 12:24 AM, heloman1 said:

Looking good indeed, mine resides on the shelf of doom, don't ask why? I really wanted to finish it!!!

 

XColin

My one had potential to be a shelf sitter, all that filler! However I pushed on through, and I feel like I am making progress.

 

On to the decals - so many for such a small aircraft! I am taking it slow and steady. First the topside of the wings.

 

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I love how they bring this to life.

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More progress. Wheels on. Sadly for all the lead I stuffed in, its still a tail sitter 😞 Painted the exhausts.

 

Painted the canopy, and then applied the decals for the canopy breaker  - which was really gruesome. Broke into little pieces, which will require some carefully touchup painting later.

 

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Edited by SimonL
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A shame about the tailsitting

 

Sometimes wonder whether I should invent helium fillers for tailsitters

 

Small water balloons filled with funny voice gas and shoved down the back end

 

I might call them 'Liquid Lightness', for the crack

 

She does look very nice in black

 

I suppose you have tried filling the nose with 'Liquid Gravity', it trickles down into all sorts of little crevices...

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Thanks all! 

 

@perdu Ive heard of liquid gravity, but not used it. I am taking the approach of fixing it to a base, which I quickly pit together from a photo frame and some architectural paint samples from the local hardware store.

 

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This were stuck to a cardboard base in a tile fashion, then given a light "dirty" wash with well thinned oil paint.

 

I think it looks ok. When the time comes I will just glue the front wheel to the base with some glue.

 

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Your build inspired me to dig mine out. I started it when I was in the UK in 2007 as a gift for my uncle, who hasn't yet received it (obviously). However seeing as he didn't know that it was for him, I guess that that point's moot.

 

I added a bulkhead ahead of the cockpit area and filled the resultant sealed space with small lead weights that I bought from an angler's supply shop in the next village over before gluing the engine cowling front on. Mine seems to balance fairly well on a finger, hopefully it'll be ok on its undercart as well.

 

Also in the box are some Aeroclub white metal bits and seats, as well as some Pavla resin seats- a few days work should actually see this one done; I wonder why I stopped work on it? I'll put it near the top of the 'must finish' pile. Thanks for the inspiration!

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Hi Rob. Thats pretty much what I did. Don't get your hopes up - mine balanced on my finger as well 😓 Having said that, the white metal bits may help?

 

Anyway, almost all done - although all the little stencil decals are taking FOREVER to do. I added a bit of very fine plastic rod to the top of the blade aerial as mentioned above. Just a few more decals and this one will be done. Looking a bit dusty as well!

 

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And finished! I though the decals would be the death of me. Not quite as quick a build as I expected, but I am pretty happy with how it turns out. Back to work on Monday! Thanks for following. More photos in RFI shortly.

 

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