k5054nz Posted December 23, 2018 Share Posted December 23, 2018 On 12/21/2018 at 9:03 AM, Deanflyer said: This pic reminds me of the current state of the FHCAM R-4 restoration! (not my photo, credit to Fight To Fly Photography) Untitled by Zac Yates, on Flickr 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 10, 2019 Author Share Posted January 10, 2019 Right, after what seems a never ending round of filling and sanding, I'm pretty much ready with a primed airframe. The plan for installing the radiators into the cowlings after painting them went well enough, but the chin radiator was too wide to allow the cowling to squeeze in narrowly enough to meet the side cowling above it. I had to rip out and severely file down the radiator until it was narrow enough to allow the cowling to fit. Even then, some sanding and adjustment was necessary on the port side, involving reinstating fasteners with a micro drill. Here's the main airframe ready for paint: The control surface attachment hinges have been added here along with the main bomb sway braces. The underwing bomb racks are still to be fitted: The canopy has been masked and sprayed, the bombs completed and the rear machine gun is painted and almost complete: The undercarriage has been assembled and painted, but with the tyres masked off there's not much to see yet, so I haven't bothered photographing them. I think it might be about time to get some paint on this thing... More when it changes colour, Dean 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted January 10, 2019 Share Posted January 10, 2019 Just stumbled across this. Much the same as you, I built one around the same age and have had itchings to do another recently so this is a delight to watch. Always loved the Stuka shape, this is taking me back to my childhood! lovely progress Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 12, 2019 Author Share Posted January 12, 2019 Thanks for the comments, everyone. The underside was given a coat of blue, which showed up a few surface faults, so these had to be dealt with before being touched up. It's so big that I had to refill the airbrush cup twice to get it all covered! I'm not going overboard with the weathering on this one, but I decided that great expanse of blue was too plain, so I livened it up a bit with some streaks and shading in black/brown. It's hard to see in the photos, as it's quite subtle, but it's visible on the stabilisers and the radiator cowls if you look closely: Next step, masking off the underside and getting the green on the top side. More when it happens, Dean 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlow Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Looking good... it's interesting to see how cleanly it has gone together, very little filling and good fit... not bad for Airfix of that vintage.. I have one of these that a friend gave me some 40 years ago. He'd started it and glued the major components together with UHU glue, no painting. I carefully dismantled the whole kit and put it away for the future... maybe 40 years later is 'future enough' I'll have to dig it out... Matt 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 14, 2019 Author Share Posted January 14, 2019 Go for it Matt, it's a nice kit. It's also now green: There are one or two areas where the paint is a little rough, so I'm going to smooth those off and touch it up. Next step is to add the fixed parts of the canopy and clean up those seams, then I can touch those up while I have the green in the airbrush. More when it happens, Dean 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 24, 2019 Author Share Posted January 24, 2019 There is now no doubt which air force this plane is flying for... The 40 year old decals were a bit of a pain...some of them were so badly cracked that I had to resort to a more recent decal sheet, but as it didn't have the codes that I specifically wanted for this build I had to cobble them together. Half of the decals in this picture are the old ones, half are new: The old ones were of carpet thickness, and were only used where necessary such as the swastikas on the fin - they were even printed out of register though, so I had to do some delicate masking and spraying to even out the while border around them. Got there in the end. The photos show the airframe after a coat of Humbrol matt varnish from a spray can. Another bit of scratch building was needed though - the foot steps on the rear fuselage had been cut from the sprue, cleaned up, primed, painted and matt coated...when one of them inexplicably vanished. No sign of it anywhere. Luckily the remaining one could be used to manufacture another one. Unluckily, it turned out to be quite a complex shape to reproduce, all curves and aerofoil cross-sections. Finally got something close, though: Next up is final assembly. I've gathered all the remaining parts together, and I've counted 63 of them. They're all painted and ready to go on, it's just a matter of getting on with it now. I think the next update will be of a completed model, somehow... 😉 Cheers, Dean 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 24, 2019 Author Share Posted January 24, 2019 Aah, go on then...one more in-progress shot before completion. Its always a big moment when a plane stands on it's own undercarriage for the first time... Since this picture was taken, the control surfaces with all their bell cranks and mass balances have been added, the windows have been unmasked, tail struts glued into place, aerials and pitots added and it's been bombed up. Finishing line is in sight... 🙂 Cheers, Dean 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrahs Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Cleaning up nicely there. And looking at the cockpit, well, I wonder how on earth (or in the sky rather) the gunner managed the pull-out after the dive bombing with no back rest and quite possible facing the wrong way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 24, 2019 Author Share Posted January 24, 2019 1 hour ago, Parrahs said: Cleaning up nicely there. And looking at the cockpit, well, I wonder how on earth (or in the sky rather) the gunner managed the pull-out after the dive bombing with no back rest and quite possible facing the wrong way. If you look at post 22 you can see that the rear gunner had a back rest of a sort...looks like a leather strap which spanned the cockpit. But the whole ride down backwards would be more extreme than anything at Alton Towers, I'd have thought... Cheers, Dean 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturmovik Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Love how that Stuka is going. I fancied getting one in this scale, but after thinking how big it would have been compared to a 1:32 He 111, I threw that idea through the window. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 You are making a very good job of this. How common was it for a Stuka in the BOB period to be just plain green? I thought they normally had a splinter pattern. I'm only wondering about this as I never seem to stop learning something new about BOB and the BOF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 25, 2019 Author Share Posted January 25, 2019 (edited) 10 hours ago, Greg Law said: You are making a very good job of this. How common was it for a Stuka in the BOB period to be just plain green? I thought they normally had a splinter pattern. I'm only wondering about this as I never seem to stop learning something new about BOB and the BOF. They did have a splinter pattern, but black and white photos from the time don't distinguish between the two similar greens very well. This is why Airfix probably made their mistake when they produced the colour guide shown in my second post, and I explained then that I'm going to intentionally repeat the mistake I made the first time around! 🙂 It's a nostalgia build, I'm not going for extra detailing or weathering - I haven't even given it seatbelts! I was in two minds about adding the aerial wire... Anyway, it's finished. Just awaiting the chance to take some decent photos of it now. 🙂 Cheers, Dean Edited January 25, 2019 by Deanflyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 Thanks for the answer . I was looking for that note as I had a feeling that was the reason, but I must have missed it. You have made a really good clean finish for an old kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phildagreek Posted January 25, 2019 Share Posted January 25, 2019 That looks very smart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deanflyer Posted January 28, 2019 Author Share Posted January 28, 2019 Right, it's now in RFI... Thanks for watching, Dean 2 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