Kitchen Modeller Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Hi all - having recently got back into the hobby and after a very nice welcome from everyone here, I thought I’d put my latest work in progress on here for some scrutiny- it’s the current Airfix typhoon which is a plane I’ve always loved - and Airfix kits seem to build pretty well (mostly) and they're nice and cheap. So with every build I’m trying to expand the skill set and try something new - this time I’m adding some pe parts from Eduard for the cockpit and attempting some riveting. I’m also going to go for some nice weathering on the fuselage using oils and maybe some double layer chipping... we’ll see how it goes. After 4 nights (about 8 hours) I have the following: My first photo etched part assembled and painted... I thought this was going to be a nightmare but it turned out okay I think. All done with a modeling knife and tweezers. Cockpit all done and ready for assembly- all that lovely detail that no one will ever see. So far so good. I painted the base colors with Tamiya cockpit green - used Tamiya panel line wash and chipping with a silver artist pencil which works surprisingly welling as it’s a pencil. Dry fit of the fuselage half’s seems okay. Some fiddling required on the cockpit seat. Glued, clamped and left to dry. I haven’t tried riveting before but love the extra detail it brings out - using this as a source and using my new riveting tool from trumpeter I hacked out rivets on the upper wings. The results are so so... I really need to figure out a better way to do this before doing the rest of the model. I used a transparent ruler to use but it kept slipping and so quite a few rivets went where they shouldn’t go. I was going to use label tape but the stuff I got was way too thin. If there any kiwis or aussies know a good brand to get for this job I’d appreciate it. That’s all for now - thanks for reading and for any feedback you have to offer. I’m only working on this for the moment so it should be a relatively quick build. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Newsome Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Good start. As a heads up when you get to step 11 in the instructions I had to sand quite a lot of the wheel wells to get the upper wing halves (parts D50 and D51) to fit. Give them a dry fit first but I've borrowed one of your photo's to show where I mean. The plastic was almost transparent by the time I got mine to fit. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 @Roger Newsome Jeepers - thanks for the heads up. And I thought things where going so well. I’ve worked on few Airfix kits recently and they’ve been either really good or bloody terrible fit wise. Especially how the wings fit to the fuselage. Sounds like a possibly painful night ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Newsome Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Forewarned is forearmed. Hopefully I was just unlucky and you don't have any issues, if you do it's nothing some vigorous sanding won't put right. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 4 hours ago, Kitchen Modeller said: So with every build I’m trying to expand the skill set and try something new Thats the best rule to follow. Great looking Tiffy by the way. 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugle07 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 I've never tried using a riveting tool before (although my inner tool addict voice is now telling me to get one, right now!) but would electrical tape work? Or even household paint masking tape? Excellet rivets, and the pit looks spot on! Will be watching this one. Geoff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 3 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: Thats the best rule to follow. Great looking Tiffy by the way. 👍 Thanks for that - I think trying at least 'one new thing' every project has been working well for me so far - Plus the fact that it's a lot of fun. 16 minutes ago, Bugle07 said: I've never tried using a riveting tool before (although my inner tool addict voice is now telling me to get one, right now!) but would electrical tape work? Or even household paint masking tape? Excellet rivets, and the pit looks spot on! Will be watching this one. Geoff Thanks Geoff - with the riveting tool that I have from trumpeter - you really need something to steady it against when trying to do straight lines - as the tool wants to do its own thing (off to bendy line land) so I think a very thick tape would work quite well - there are other tools out there that work better I think but are way more expensive - and I'm a cheapskate. You have to lean quite heavily on the tool to get visible rivets which means you're more prone to error... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugle07 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Mitre 10 do insulation tape, nice and thick tape, probably not to tacky, not that wide, $1.59 a roll? Could be a winner! Geoff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 That's sounds great Geoff - I did find some thick label tape in the Warehouse office - but it was nearly 50 bucks a roll which is too rich considering what I needed it for - this sounds like just the ticket... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugle07 Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 Best o luck, if I hear of anything better I'll let you know. Anyway, back to the kit, had no issues when I fitted the wing half's together on my version, although I did wheels up, can't remember if that made a difference now? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Newsome Posted October 17, 2018 Share Posted October 17, 2018 29 minutes ago, Bugle07 said: Best o luck, if I hear of anything better I'll let you know. Anyway, back to the kit, had no issues when I fitted the wing half's together on my version, although I did wheels up, can't remember if that made a difference now? That makes me wonder what, if anything, I did wrong. 😆 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 Is it Tiffy-time? Seems like it! Take care with the guns/wing leading edge joint, it's far from pretty in it natural state. Very nice looking pit too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 18, 2018 Author Share Posted October 18, 2018 (edited) Some more progress... I realised that if I was going to rivet the underside of the wing, I would need to do it at this point as it would be too hard once the wings were on... so continued with my flawed ruler method - first draw some lines with a pencil: There is a good bit flexibility in this piece so it lent itself better to the riveting process. However, I still made loads of mistakes - I'm going to wait until the primer stage and see how bad the damage is - hopefully I'll be able to fill the really bad issues. None the less, most of the rivets went in okay... I then had to make the decision to go with rockets on the underside of the wing or bombs as you need to drill the holes at this point... I like the idea of the bombs as it would give a cleaner look - but after looking through my reference photos and seeing some models with different configurations - the rockets won out - they just give the aircraft a really mean look. Once this was done, I could move onto attaching the wings... So I was a little apprehensive about this - mainly due to hearing some of the horror stories that some have experienced here with this kit. I thought a multi stage approach would work best - where I clue everything in sections, allowing tweaking as I go - which is probably the way I should always do it in fairness. After a dry fit, everything seemed to work okay - the biggest issue I could see was that it was impossible not to have pretty large seam lines where the wing meets the fuselage on the upper side. So I would try to minimise these as much as possible and then fix it with filler and sanding. I left this bit unglued while I clued the rest of the wing - this might have given me some more leeway with the rest of the components. First stage complete - wings, guns clued and clamped with some masking tape support - I left this to cure for a few hours... Notice the large seam line - yes it's horrible. Next was to try clue the rest of the wings while trying to reduce the horrible seam lines. I used the masking tape sling method for this - not sure what brand of tape this is but it's quite strong and did a good job... This was left to cure overnight. Next morning I have this: Still pretty bad but way better than earlier- I'm hoping some filler and sanding will do it's thing. This was not without problems but thankfully not the nightmare I was half expecting. I'd like to thank the commentators here for their advice as I think there would have been a much greater chance for mess ups if I wasn't so careful. Very glad I made the decision to post the build here. I can totally understand why so many have trouble with this part of the build - there are quite a few components to line up - and you can't really tell if things are correct until you get to the final stages. If I was doing this again, I think I would clue the wing bits together as a separate piece first - and then squeeze them onto the fuselage as a second stage which I've done on other Airfix models. Next up - I'll need to finish the tail section and then onto filling and sanding. Thanks for the feedback. John Edited October 18, 2018 by Kitchen Modeller Spelling 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Newsome Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Glad yours went together without all the sanding I had to do on the wheel wells. Strangely though I didn't have such a large gap at the wing root. 🤔 I intend on doing another at some point in the future so it'll be interesting to see what I get then. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
invidia Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Good looking build, I use dymo tape to help with riveting and scribing panel lines, it's flexible, the right thickness and sticks. I just got a really cheap kit, stuck it together and just practiced on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Way back when I did the Airfix Tiffy I glued the top halves towards the fuselage first and then against the under wing. That turned out to be filler free. What magic is this? Photobucket works again? Anyway, great work on the riveting! It looks great. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 50 minutes ago, Roger Newsome said: Glad yours went together without all the sanding I had to do on the wheel wells. Strangely though I didn't have such a large gap at the wing root. 🤔 I intend on doing another at some point in the future so it'll be interesting to see what I get then. Not exactly problem free - maybe our mistake was following the instructions... 46 minutes ago, invidia said: Good looking build, I use dymo tape to help with riveting and scribing panel lines, it's flexible, the right thickness and sticks. I just got a really cheap kit, stuck it together and just practiced on it. I've actually looked at Dymo tape but its crazy expensive here in New Zealand - so need to source something cheaper 17 minutes ago, Christer A said: Way back when I did the Airfix Tiffy I glued the top halves towards the fuselage first and then against the under wing. That turned out to be filler free. Wow - that looks perfect - obviously the best way to do this. If only you had posted this last night! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 On with the build - some filling so I can let it dry and do some sanding later tonight... This bit (filling and sanding) is not my favorite part of the build - hopefully it doesn't go pear shaped... 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christer A Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Hang in there! Another tip would be to put a strip of tamiya tape right next to the wingroot before filling. That way you can avoid most of the spillage, and save a few details in the process. But I'm too late for that tip as well 😳 Or start using Perfect Plastic Putty, which is water soluble, and you can wipe off the excess with a wet cotton bud... Will you add more rivets to the top side? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 4 hours ago, Christer A said: Hang in there! Another tip would be to put a strip of tamiya tape right next to the wingroot before filling. That way you can avoid most of the spillage, and save a few details in the process. But I'm too late for that tip as well 😳 Or start using Perfect Plastic Putty, which is water soluble, and you can wipe off the excess with a wet cotton bud... Will you add more rivets to the top side? Thanks for that - all excellent advise. Masking the area before putty would have really helped in this case. Will know for next time! I already put the rivets into the upper side of the wing earlier so that’s all good. I spent about 2 hours sanding down the seam lines tonight. Far longer than I have so far in my short time back in the hobby. I must say I really hate sanding. I find it very tedious and it’s easily my least favorite part of the build. (Not fond of applying decals either) However, I saw an interesting YouTube video the other day about simple ways to improve your skills and one of them was to take a task that you dislike doing and take the time to do it really well - therefore instantly becoming a slightly better modeler. In this spirit, I tried to do the best I could with these seam lines - they’ll still probably come out terrible but maybe less than after my usual efforts. We’ll see after priming. I also added a small part of photo etch for the canopy slide. Right - off to bed. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martian Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 This is coming along very nicely! Martian 👽 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugle07 Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Nice work there. Filling and sanding is always pain, I just remind myself that I'm not sanding the seams on the bl#@$y Airfix 1/24 Spitfire and I feel better about it! Geoff 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 2 minutes ago, Bugle07 said: Nice work there. Filling and sanding is always pain, I just remind myself that I'm not sanding the seams on the bl#@$y Airfix 1/24 Spitfire and I feel better about it! Geoff Maybe should get myself one of those! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 I've got one of these on the to do very shortly list so I'm watching this with great interest KM.You're doing a great job of ironing out any rough edges. What scheme do you have planned? I specifically want to do this kit as there's the decals for Stapme's Tiffie - I've got a soft spot for him after reading his book when it came out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bugle07 Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 Mines been on the shelf of doom for almost two years now! Present from the in-laws...... I was just doing 1/700 ships back then, and they got me the Spit.... I could make 10 RN destroyers just from the wings! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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