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Quite taken with it myself Tom.

 

And for now just a little bit of fettling before the transfers get transferred.

 

16104614087094384502397184108358.jpg

 

Blue and white do not sit happily together

 

yet

 

16104613092871018453725926526254.jpg

 

I have also begun cleaning up the paint line around the nose radar, looks as if it might be OK.

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My order of Microscale colour decal sheets has landed.

 

A kinda quaint way of marketing gives me two sheets of white in a pack but only one set in other coloured ones.

 

OK, it is what it...

 

I have had an experimental dabble with white along the blue white line on the top.

 

It looks almost pale blue when you open the pack but when I placed it along the wobbly junction of colours it vanished and gave me a brilliant smooth join.

 

Color (sic) me sold, brilliant stuff.

 

I also made a fillet for the tail logo by putting masking tape over the white panel on the lower tail, marking it and trimming to fit then laying the tape on the decal sheet to cut out the shape.

Added to the tail and, wow.

 

Perfection again.

 

I used Microset to prepare the decal area as Microscale recommend and ended with Daco Strong which is my go-to setting solution.

 

I'm letting it set for this morning and I will post pictures this afternoon.

 

I will definitely use this technique again 

 

😒 I wish I'd done it for the AW-101 Norwaystyle.

 

I have red dayglo sheet and it is excellent.

 

 

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Tip

 

Do not put the white on as thick as you think you need to, there will be a price...

16106386258698339745118480244430.jpg

 

.

1610638662472507456563264695110.jpg

 

Both sides leave much improvement necessary

 

16106387034734596279983121440245.jpg

 

I am pleased that I put a ceiling inside to hide the big hole where the rotor sits, phew.

 

16106387610183662427060188114513.jpg

 

OK onwards, maybe upwards...

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A day without spokes

Driving me bonkerserserserser so I went up a link to this one

 

16111551316614229947856449729294.jpg

 

There is still a little tidying of the windows to do so I have also been designing the outlined door sections for the fuselage in Paint Shop Pro

 

And sanding the white/dayglo ridges on this one before I paint it black

 

16111552136433979280401730765716.jpg


More tomorrow folks.

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Lidl's finest, now unobtainable ice cream.

 

Unless you have had it...

 

Those big red tubs define much of my modelling and automotive storage, spacious and deep.

 

I miss that stuff.

 

Colin I hope you like where we are at present, there's much tidying to work on before I can set her in flight.

 

Airfix's nose is curiously 'not quite' which sets some interesting decisions in play.

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56 minutes ago, giemme said:

I kinda like this chopper, you know? :D

 

Ciao 

Yeah, me too G.

 

Proper handsome machine,  the real Queen Of The Skies in fact.

 

Mind you the next S-61N I build will definitely be from the Revell mouldings.

 

This Airfix nose has been 'doing me in'!

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Undeserved praise really Craig, this, as is usual in my builds has been a massive consultation exercise.

 

From Colin providing the raw materials all the way from the Dark Continent (I almost wrote condiment there, it must be approaching feeding time) and others like Tomo and Timmas, Heather and Tony and well the list goes on.

 

Timmas gave me the BA logo that sits proudly on her tail, really is a combined team effort.

 

Luckily for me I was offered the chance to 'lead', glad that you are enjoying our work.

 

Next up, Sponson painting and fitment.


Won't THAT be fun...

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  • 1 month later...

 

 

Well time moves on slowly ('til you look and see it's been over a month already) as does fitting sponsons to The Queen

 

Firstly the lengths of the struts had to be determined then new struts sourced to replace the slightly too short ones from the Airfix kit.

 

I took a length of tube and flattened it in my bench vise and slid a drop of Tamiya Green Top inside whilst squeezing

 

The Aeroclub struts are actually too streamlined for this application so a new approach was called for, I didnt fancy filing off the leading/trailing edge aerofoil sections just for three inches of strut. :)

 

 

Then I found the best pair of cast sponsons from my selection of assorted pre-moulded ones that I copied when Colin sent me his collection of components for this build, I copied them because another S-61N has been on the horizon for me for a while and I was going to need spares.

 

P1010481.jpg

 

Flash has flooded the picture but it shows the progress I made.

 

Until yesterday afternoon when I had to address the elephant in the room.

 

They are actually too small.

 

Alan drew some very good plans when he posted this article in Airfix Magazine in September 1971 and as I have believed his dimensions for the build I cannot ignore the dimensions for the sponsons.

 

16147811675896548338522587655541.jpg

 

Of course this effect is magnified when the sponson is fitted with its characteristic tilt

 

:(

 

1614781258330991211892492595896.jpg

 


So Milliput dashes in to the rescue.

 

P1010488.jpg

 

One of the 'best' sponsons had its flot gear removed making it symmetrical and undercart bay void underneath filled in.

 

The first layers of Milli were put on yesterday afternoon and after filing to basic shape the second, defining layer added this morning

 

Sitting safely atop my box of nose weights above a layer of polythene it now sits awaiting final filing and sanding to shape.


When done I intend to use the sponson as a vac-form buck.


I expect this to be useable tomorrow.

 

Adieu mes braves.

 

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Well, buck's back.

 

P1010489.jpg

 

Buck was propped up on a small piece of plasticene for the shot so it's actually a view at the proper orientation.

 

I am happy with that so this morning is garage time, with added plasticard, yippee.

 

The differences between un-messed with are clear from the side

 

P1010490.jpg

 

Just a few spots of original resin visible via the previous paint job

 

P1010491.jpg

 

And this is where it all started a few months ago, slow aren't I?

 

No dont say it...

 

P1010197.jpg

 

 

They actually looked OK but when in place the attitude just didn't do it for me when the braces were held in place

 

P1010481.jpg

 

Oh well, hope it warms up a bit down in the 'dirty workshop'

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, hendie said:

who needs a 3D printer when you have a Bill in your workshop

Me

 

16149562886395317368598503762055.jpg

 

Not working as a decent vac-form buck

1614956227894775415316173294719.jpg

 

Next out has to come the latex and resin


But when it is a bit warmer though, not this week

 

 

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Wow Bill, I hadn't realised the sponsons were so undersize! I was looking at the windows after your unmasking and thought, ouch some work needed there but , nice save.

 

Coming together nicely.

 

Colin

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We seem to be doing OK ish Colin but the sponson sizes really show when you put them in place, yes you can make a model but in reality the effect is quite visibly 'off'

 

Not a worry though, I decided to try the vac forms out for effect so there is an outside shape let's give it a bit of structure and see if I need to go industrial.

 

An hour with plasticard and Swann-Morton gives us these

 

1614963439314315289024096086557.jpg

 

These inner boxes are for handling as it stands but one or both may make it into the model if the pairs of halves go together nicely

 

Experiments underway this evening possibly

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3 hours ago, perdu said:

The vac-cing does not please me.

The casting does not please me :(

 

rule #86 - Use a suitable moulding base

 

rule #87 - fix buck securely into casting moulding base, in this case a plastic cup with a little dollop of plasticene at the base

 

rule #88 - mix latex carefully avoiding as many big air bubbles as you can and fill the cup with latex, gently shaking so as to prevent too many bubbles building up on the casting area of the mould

 

rule #89 - mix enough latex

 

Guess which rule I broke?

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