Back to the Mountains of Madness - Part 1 Complete!

[billn53]

Most often, what happens is the part pops out of my tweezers while I’m handling it, disappearing someplace on my workbench or onto the floor. 

I’m considering building a box that I can put on my workbench, that I can do my small assembly in and would contain any parts that take to the air. 

[billn53]

Wow! It's been two weeks since my last post 😞  As I forewarned, this is turning out to be a slow build, primarily because I've been traveling for business so much. But, I had a few days after my last trip to make some progress, and here it is....

 

First off, for my engines I've decided to go with the P&W Wasp Junior instead of the R-1340's, mainly because I see a lot of the Jr's in period Trimotor photos, and also because that's the engine I have good, clear pics of from the Trimotor that visited here a few years ago. So, I've ordered off a triplet of new engines from Small Stuff!

 

BTW, SaberJet has excellent pics and description of building the Small Stuff R-1340 in his current Boeing P-12E WIP. Take a look here:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235045281-matchbox-mojo-restorer/

 

 

For the past few days I've been manhandling MPC's release of the Airfix Trimotor kit, and I foresee a long, hard struggle ahead.

 

First off, let me grip about MPC's instructions. Short story: they're close to useless. Part numbers in the instructions don't match up with what's on the sprues, illustrations are vague, and there's very little description of the build procedures. This is entirely MPC's fault, as the Airfix instructions (which I managed to get  a copy of) are completely different! Here's my proof (MPC at top):

 

 

 

Let's now look at the plastic.

 

I started with the engine pods. Fit is poor, and detail is lacking. It's going to take some work to get them looking anything like the originals:

 

   

 

The cockpit and passenger/cargo interior must be completed before the fuselage can be closed up, so that's where I focused on next. There are quite a few ejector pin marks to clean up. Most probably wouldn't be visible, but there are a couple that might show with the side door open, so I went ahead and filled them all:

 

 

 

Inside of the forward fuselage there are three raised ledges. One might assume the cockpit floor, bulkhead, and IP are supposed to be glued to the fuselage side, using the ledges as guides and support, but test-fitting convinced me otherwise.  Apparently, the cockpit pieces are supposed to be glued directly onto the edge the ledges, creating a butt-joint:

 

   

 

I thought it might be difficult to get everything lined up correctly, and was concerned the resulting joint might be weak, so I added some supports in a couple of strategic locations:

 

    

 

The cockpit itself consists of a few pieces that capture the general configuration, but are lacking in detail.

 

 

 

Like the engine pods, it is going to take some work to get the cockpit looking more like its real-life counterpart:

 

   

 

Most of this won't be visible through the canopy, so I'm not going to go overboard. But, before I leave the subject of the cockpit, I want to show you one of the the challenges posed by this old kit. Namely, quality of the molds and resulting flash. The pic below is of the control yoke, the one on the left as it came off the sprue, the one beside it after a fair amount of cleanup:

 

 

 

Next: the passenger/cargo compartment. Airfix provides seats for twelve passengers, mounted on a floorboard. For my Antarctic expedition, I will remove some of the seats to make room for necessary cargo:

 

 

 

I've filled in the mounting holes for the unused seats with scrap plastic, as well as the slot at the rear of the floorboard (which is there for the display stand's mounting insert).

 

The kit's seats look nothing like any I've seen in Trimotor photos.

 

    

 

But I'm tempted by one other seat design that Ford used, namely this:

 

   

 

That's all for now. This afternoon I fly out to San Francisco for another business trip, so my next update won't be until I get back.

 

Happy modeling!

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

On 10/21/2018 at 9:31 AM, billn53 said:

I’m considering building a box that I can put on my workbench, that I can do my small assembly in and would contain any parts that take to the air. 

Easy: a force field, common Star Trek and Star Wars tech, available at any reputable hobby shop...in 2,000 years.

 

[billn53]

Here we are again! I got back last weekend from my most recent business trip and found time to do some more work on the "Mountains of Madness" project. Picking up where I left off two weeks ago, I decided to make do with the kit's seats, modifying them to look more like what I've found in Tri-motor pics. I reshaped the seat backs, and opened up the armrests and seat legs. Here's a before and after comparison photo:

 

 

I also completed the flight deck. I added a few details to the center console, but otherwise it is stock from the kit:

 

    

 

I masked the passenger compartment windows inside and out, then sprayed the cockpit interior with a very light gray, and the passenger interior with light green. After that was dry, I masked above and below the passenger windows, and brushed burnt umber oil over Tamiya desert yellow to simulate the wood paneling I've seen in photos.

 

 

 

I'll let the oil dry, then give it a coat of clear yellow.

 

My last pic for today, to give you an idea of how the interior will look when finished:

 

 

 

With a four-day weekend coming up, my immediate goal is to finish up the interior and close up the fuselage. Then I'll be traveling again for a couple of weeks :-((

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Making good progress!

[corsaircorp]

Hello Bill,

Great idea !! I was wondering about finding some 1/72 penguins....

I have a soft point for the trimotor, so, I'll follow if you don't mind...

I also use the same idea as the one depicted by my dear cousin, the tape on that awfully springing tiny parts is ace.

One can even listen that evil of little parts crying as they are deprived of liberty...

And I must that mountain of madness is the best name ever for such a building.

So, best of luck from me too, but seemingly, your skills is sufficient to overcome this challenge

Congratulations for the progress !

Sincerely.

CC

[CedB]

Nice work on the internals, especially those seats - great job  

[thorfinn]

On 11/17/2018 at 7:03 PM, CedB said:

Nice work on the internals, especially those seats - great job  

Ditto.

Have you any thoughts on 'cargo' yet?

[Will Vale]

That's a great idea for a diorama, and lots of scope for interesting details - apart from the Elder Things and other horrors you've got all the cold weather kit and camp stuff to think about.

 

Your interior is looking really good, I was quite surprised by the dramatic improvement to the seats - who knew those were hiding inside the Airfix plastic?

 

Cheers,

 

Will

[Kallisti]

Takkeli!

 

I will risk my sanity to follow this eldritch and blasphemous subject!

[Marklo]

Quote

Easy: a force field, common Star Trek and Star Wars tech, available at any reputable hobby shop...in 2,000 years.

Well (to be pedantic) Star wars is a long time ago, but in a galaxy far away and Star trek is the 24th (I think) century, so you could travel or wait for the force field.

 

Quote

Great idea !! I was wondering about finding some 1/72 penguins....

Didn't Airfix do these once upon a time. I remember having various Zoo sets but maybe not 1/72.

[billn53]

Preiser has a set of penguins in HO scale, which is close enough to 1/72 all things considered. However, Lovecraft's penguins were described as giant, albino, and blind so mine will be considerably larger than 1/72, not to mention ugly as sin 😉

Edited November 21, 2018 by billn53

[k5054nz]

I feel bad for 1) not clicking on this thread until now and b) never having read any of Lovecraft's work, particularly this one - seeing the elements for the diorama has me very curious and excited to know more!

 

I love the work you're putting into this kit. I don't know terribly much about the Tri-Motor but I do know it's a very neat, historic machine that deserves more attention from both kit companies and builders. I'll be following along for sure.

 

103 parts per engine...I was going to ask why you wasted your money on three, then I remembered the Ford generally had no cowls! Those engines are mad!

[TheRealMrEd]

Looking good, Billn53!

 

I have one in the stash for "someday", so I'll be watching yours with interest.

 

One suggestion that I use for the "fly-away" tweezers problem is to get a jar of the liquid electrical tape stuff, and dip the ends of the tweezers in it, hang up to dry on a piece of stretched string, etc., after wiper off any excess gobs with a tiny piece of paper. When dry, this helps about 80 percent of the problem for me. One small issue is that the kind of "ape" liquid I use (from the big box or hardware store) needs to be redone every once in a while, but the jar will probably last my lifetime!

 

Ed

[billn53]

19 hours ago, TheRealMrEd said:

Looking good, Billn53!

 

I have one in the stash for "someday", so I'll be watching yours with interest.

 

One suggestion that I use for the "fly-away" tweezers problem is to get a jar of the liquid electrical tape stuff, and dip the ends of the tweezers in it, hang up to dry on a piece of stretched string, etc., after wiper off any excess gobs with a tiny piece of paper. When dry, this helps about 80 percent of the problem for me. One small issue is that the kind of "ape" liquid I use (from the big box or hardware store) needs to be redone every once in a while, but the jar will probably last my lifetime!

 

Ed

Thanks Mr. Ed! I've ordered a bottle off Amazon and hope it helps for me.

-Bill

[billn53]

Here's another update (much quicker than my last).

 

Before closing up the fuselage I took time to do a little surgery. First off, I carefully removed the control horns for the elevator and rudder from the fuselage nose, and used a micro chisel/gouge to carry over the corrugations where the horns had been. (My intent is to replace the molded-in horns with 3D units, to which I will attach the external control cables.) This turned out to be easier than I had feared, helped by the softness of MPC's white plastic. Here's a before & after (using the Airfix fuselage as 'before'):

 

 

 

I also opened up the rear of the six cooling vents using a thin scriber:

 

 

With that done, it was time to begin gluing the fuselage side, bottom, and top. I did this a few inches at a time, using various clamps to keep everything tight and aligned.

 

 

 

Some touchup putty & sanding will be needed, especially forward of the windscreen and along the fuselage bottom joins:

 

   

 

Before gluing the fuselage top section, I installed a spacer between the fuselage sides to help with alignment:

 

 

After the fuselage is assembled, the next step is to add the canopy and center wing section. The canopy gets trapped between the fuselage and wing, and test fitting revealed problems (I'm not sure why, but probably self-imposed -- I haven't read of anyone else mentioning this issue.)

 

My first problem was that the forward bulkhead, between the cockpit and passenger compartment, stood too high and was slightly off-center, thereby interfering with the canopy. Some gentle sanding & grinding fixed this.

 

 

 

BTW, it's a good thing that I didn't spend too much effort detailing the cockpit, as visibility through the thick canopy glazing is less than desirable. And, that's after doing the polish-and-dip-in-Clear routine.

 

 

 

Next up, the wing center section wouldn't go in at all. I had to do some surgery both fore and rear to make things work.

 

    

 

But, in the end I prevailed over this old kit!

 

   

 

The mate at the rear of the wing looks ugly, but photos of the actual aircraft show a distinct join there, so a little putty should do fine to clean this up.

That's about it for now. Thanks for watching!

Edited November 23, 2018 by billn53

[CedB]

Very nice work on the control horns and cooling vents Bill and your perseverance with the joins has certainly paid off.

Good job  

[pinky coffeeboat]

Echoing CedB above, great work on the control horns. It's good to see you're taking charge of this old beast and not letting it get the better of you.

The rear wing/ fuselage joint is indeed quite noticeable on the real aircraft and you're quite right it should be tidied up and not eradicated but it would just annoy the life out of me every time I looked at it. Just one of those things, like neat masked and painted D-day stripes being "better" (but not necessarily correct) instead of rougher, wonkier free hand painted stripes (but more accurate). One looks better, the other looks like a rubbish paint job!

 

Jeff

[Retired Bob]

1 hour ago, pinky coffeeboat said:

 Just one of those things, like neat masked and painted D-day stripes being "better" (but not necessarily correct) instead of rougher, wonkier free hand painted stripes (but more accurate). One looks better, the other looks like a rubbish paint job!

 

Jeff

Exactly, I have reproduced finishes as per a photo and is it appreciated..............not usually.  

 

Bob

[Matt_]

Wow. This is great. Mad, but great.

 

[Marklo]

Quote

 like neat masked and painted D-day stripes being "better" (but not necessarily correct) instead of rougher, wonkier free hand painted stripes (but more accurate). One looks better, the other looks like a rubbish paint job!

Like this you mean...  (hence the photo in the photo ) Personally I (try to) go for accuracy.  But there are times when people will think your a bad modeler, e.g take a look at the fabric sides on most BE2Cs it would be genuinely hard to replicate them and they would look atrocious on a model.

 

BTW love the trimotor, great progress so far.

Edited November 23, 2018 by Marklo

[pinky coffeeboat]

^ exactly like this!!! It's like the first model you've ever made but, importantly, it's accurate!

 

Jeff

[billn53]

Wow! Back-to-back updates... I must really be humping now 😉

 

Seriously, though -- I woke up in the wee hours of the morning and since I couldn't get back to sleep, I found my way to the hobby room and got some more work done.

 

Considering the age of this kit, the fuselage fits together surprising well (problems above notwithstanding) and little putty is needed. In fact, I instead used thin styrene rod to fill most of the fuselage joins, which were pretty minor in any case.

 

My thinnest rod was sufficient for the join along the fuselage top on the starboard side:

 

 

 

The port side needed slightly thicker rod:

 

 

Joins along the fuselage bottom got the same treatment:

 

 

 

One problem with this kit: the landing gear braces, which are sandwiched between the bottom of the passenger floor and the top of the fuselage belly, are weak. This is because Airfix reduced the thickness of the struts where they pass through the fuselage side, creating a potential failure point. I've already broken one strut, which I fixed using plastic weld. Now I'm taking great care avoid putting weight on the struts until the landing gear is complete.

 

    

 

Remember my effort on the passenger compartment? Here's what's visible through the entry door:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, well. Maybe I'll be surprised when I remove the masking from the side windows. Right.

 

A couple more details:

 

Hole drilled for the center engine oil filler. I'll punch a small disk to represent the filler cap.

 

    

 

And I couldn't resist this "Easter Egg"

 

   

 

The February '36 issue of Astounding Stories, which featured H.P. Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness" (Part 1 of 3).

 

Keep watching this space!

 

 

Edited November 25, 2018 by billn53

[Learstang]

Great work on the Tri-motor! So that's what a Shoggoth looks like! It looks like those chaps have light sabres, though.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[billn53]

16 minutes ago, Learstang said:

So that's what a Shoggoth looks like!

 

 

... the nightmare, plastic column of fetid black iridescence oozed tightly onward through its fifteen-foot sinus, gathering unholy speed and driving before it a spiral, rethickening cloud of the pallid abyss vapor. It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. Still came that eldritch, mocking cry—"Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!" 

Edited November 25, 2018 by billn53