Heather's Workbench - the French connection, 1940 style

[dogsbody]

Azur make two FK.58 kits. Yours: https://www.super-hobby.com/products/Koolvohen-FK-58C.1-H-S-Engine.html#gallery_start                                                    And an FK.58 with a G&R engine: https://www.super-hobby.com/products/Koolvohen-FK-58C.1-G-R-Engine.html#gallery_start

 

 

 

Chris

[Heather Kay]

Although my inner completist would press the "buy now" button, there’s no point. Outwardly, a pair of identical planes. 

[Heather Kay]

Although I am keen to get on with this plane, I have other priorities. I’ve been very good, and so far got quite a bit done to my current workbench hog this week. It’s only Wednesday, too.

 

 

I have managed to turn this pile of brass scrap...

 

 

… into a passable representation of the rear end of a GWR tank engine. Much cursing, soldering and filing got me to this point. Final filling and fettling must await the pre-paint stage.

 

 

The loco kit misses a great chunk of detail from the rear of the cab, so I also had fun scratching this together from brass scraps. All of which means I don’t really feel inclined to fiddle with plastic of an evening.

 

That said, I did begin to put together the cockpit. Floor, seat and control column are moulded. Rudder pedals and what I take to be a compass are moulded to the floor. PE parts are supplied for belts and rudder pedal details. I was inclined to leave the latter off since they’ll be hard to see in the end.

 

 

The instructions are suitably vague. I don’t think it’s fair to directly compare to the big players, but it wouldn’t half help if locations for parts and assemblies were a bit more emphatic. Also, proof reading. Take part A29 for example. It’s actually B29. It took me several minutes scanning the parts tree map and mouldings. The shape referred to isn’t all that clear, and neither is where it’s supposed to be stuck. 
 

At this point, as I think may have been mentioned by another poster, source material on these planes is a bit limited due to the factory being destroyed during May 1940, and no airframe surviving the war. I’m allowing for this, but goodness me! Tell me where it’s supposed to go, not just vaguely point to somewhere in one half of the fuselage!

 

Back to the 'structions, and you’ll note how the floor sub-assembly looks like the leading edge matches to the front of the moulded frame. Like this:

 

 

Scan further ahead in the instructions, and you’ll find further framing will be fitted behind the seat, and within the cockpit opening. That means the floor needs to be fitted more like this:

 

Glad that's cleared up, then.

 

 

Next, regard parts A15 and A16. They join together. There is a helpful ridge moulded on A16, but the instructions don’t tell me whether to fit A15 in front, behind, or on the ridge. I plumped for on. 
 

 

You may note a further subtle ridge moulded in the wing bottom, where the previous sub-assembly goes. Again, no clue as to in front, behind or on, and there are literally no other location marks or guides to help. I’ll have to decide when I’m ready to install the lower wing in the fuselage.

 

I should say that otherwise, parts have been neatly moulded, flash and seam free. A quick dry fit of wing lower to fuselage shows a good fit, too. It’s not all bad, so take my complaints as constructive criticism.

 

 

Finally for this session, the instrument panel. I can’t honestly see why the film part is included. There are no dial markings at all, just tiny black dots. Assuming it can be aligned properly behind the PE part, all that is achieved is shiny dials. I can do that by dropping gloss varnish in the dials to exactly the same effect, should I care for such things generally hidden in the gloom of the cockpit and closed canopy. The film is in the bin.

 

More when I get something interesting to show.

[Pete in Lincs]

Not one for a first time builder then? Surely the day job is easier? I mean, a steam engine. How hard can it be?

[Hamden]

 

Not heard of Koolhoven before so will follow along if you don't mind?

 

  Stay safe             Roger

[JosephLalor]

1 hour ago, Hamden said:

 

Not heard of Koolhoven before so will follow along if you don't mind?

 

  Stay safe             Roger

He designed the F.K. series of aircraft for Armstrong Whitworth during the First World War, including the F.K.3 ("Little Ack") and F.K.8 ("Big Ack").

[Heather Kay]

A little paint was applied to the interior. The instructions call for "grey". French designed and built planes tended to have a blue-grey interior. Since the FK-58 was built in Holland, I found a pot of Humbrol 31 which I felt was good enough. Details picked out in Humbrol 85 satin black. The PE was fitted, including the now-invisible rudder pedals. I custom mixed a pale brown for the belts. Aluminium was dry-brushed over the instrument dials.

 

 

I think that works. The instructions suggest fitting the IP and cockpit floor assembly to the starboard fuselage half. Experience tells me, what with an almost total lack of attachment guides, that way frustration and skew-whiff parts lie. After some dry-fitting, it became apparent the interior ought to be capable of being inserted after the fuselage was stuck together.

 

This turned out to be the case.

 

 

Sadly, the sidewall frames hardly support the floor. If the floor had been glued to one half first, everything would have ended up offset to one side. I managed to finagle the floor in, and aligned where I thought it should be, and got some cement in there hoping it would dry square. Whether the later cockpit framing will fit remains to be seen.

 

 

I had assembled the wings, after carefully thinning the trailing edges a little. Here you can see the dry fit with the fuselage. It’s not bad, although filler will be needed. Incidentally, no filler required on the fuselage joints, just a little careful sanding.

 

 

Quite the gap at the wing roots, though. I need to do some fettling here, and to check if the wing dihedral might need to be greater, which would minimise the gaps. I’ll have to be careful to avoid the undercarriage legs being splayed.

 

Slow progress, but steady. The horizontal tail surfaces should go on before I stop for this session.

[Heather Kay]

How does that rhyme go? You know, the one about "for the want of a nail the shoe was lost"?

 

Today, children, a lesson in why properly designed instructions are important.

 

 

A pair of triangular pieces are fitted behind the pilot's seat, to form a roll cage I suppose. Can you work out where they fit?

 

 

The smaller triangle seems to sit athwart* the cockpit sides, directly behind the seat. You can begin to see where this is going...

 

Right at the beginning of construction there was no definitive location given for the seat. Then, no location for the floor. Two wrongs now mean the seat and floor are probably too far back, so the rollover cage doesn’t fit. It’s impossible now to retrace steps to undo things. We are, as the metaphor has it, up Cack Creek sans propulsive devices.

 

 

 

See? The apexes (apexises? Who knows‽ It’s probably all Greek to me) don’t meet as expected. I’m going to have to busk a solution where the butt end of the larger triangle will be supported by molecules of oxygen and nitrogen. All because someone didn’t think to prepare better drawings and provide some location guides in the plastic. 
 

 

 

*You can have that word on me. Use it in your conversations today.

[AdrianMF]

Cockpit looks smashing Heather! Nice save on the symmetry too.

 

I would be tempted to cut a flat angled surface onto the back bracing item so it butts nicely against the front one and dig out the superglue. If it's any consolation, looking at the instructions it looks quite conceivable that all the pieces may never have fitted in the intended manner in any case - your seat doesn't seem too far back at all. I sympathise with your position after doing some last minute cockpit framing in my Storch build (after fitting the canopy).

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Brandy]

Or bin that part and stick in a couple of pieces of Evergreen rod so that it looks as though it was meant to be that way!

 

Ian

[Heather Kay]

16 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

I would be tempted to cut a flat angled surface onto the back bracing item so it butts nicely against the front one and dig out the superglue.

 

1 minute ago, limeypilot said:

Or bin that part and stick in a couple of pieces of Evergreen rod so that it looks as though it was meant to be that way!

I think I’ll attempt adjusting the kit part by trimming off the base and then gluing it where it’s allegedly supposed to go. If that doesn’t work, Evergreen or brass rod bodged in. It’s hidden under the canopy, after all.

 

I've just been surveying the next few stages. There’s a lot of nice PE grilles and things that don’t seem to be used anywhere. I’m glad I paid for those. The engine block is resin, with a myriad tiny push rods to glue on. The prop mounting is also a work of art, which really won’t work in real life.

 

Anyway, haven’t I got some paying work to do?  

[Gondor44]

I immediately think that there are two possibilities here, 1) they numbered the parts incorrectly and the triangle you have at the rear should be behind the seat 2) they completely made a mess of the sizes.

 

Regarding the instructions, isometric projection isn't always the best when showing how parts go together.

 

Gondor

[LorenSharp]

2 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

How does that rhyme go? You know, the one about "for the want of a nail the shoe was lost"?

 

Today, children, a lesson in why properly designed instructions are important.

 

 

A pair of triangular pieces are fitted behind the pilot's seat, to form a roll cage I suppose. Can you work out where they fit?

 

 

The smaller triangle seems to sit athwart* the cockpit sides, directly behind the seat. You can begin to see where this is going...

 

Right at the beginning of construction there was no definitive location given for the seat. Then, no location for the floor. Two wrongs now mean the seat and floor are probably too far back, so the rollover cage doesn’t fit. It’s impossible now to retrace steps to undo things. We are, as the metaphor has it, up Cack Creek sans propulsive devices.

 

 

 

See? The apexes (apexises? Who knows‽ It’s probably all Greek to me) don’t meet as expected. I’m going to have to busk a solution where the butt end of the larger triangle will be supported by molecules of oxygen and nitrogen. All because someone didn’t think to prepare better drawings and provide some location guides in the plastic. 
 

 

 

*You can have that word on me. Use it in your conversations today.

Oh Heather don't you know? Two wrongs don't make a right, but two wrights make an airplane. But on the bright side the pilot does have more leg room. Apexises sounds almost Gollumish.... Myyyyy Apexises.🤨

[Heather Kay]

1 hour ago, LorenSharp said:

Oh Heather don't you know? Two wrongs don't make a right, but two wrights make an airplane. But on the bright side the pilot does have more leg room. Apexises sounds almost Gollumish.... Myyyyy Apexises.🤨

And the Dutch are known for their generally tall stature. 
 

The Gollumness seems to have got stuck after a bit of banter over in @Martian's vac-form tutorial thread. 
 

Paying work is going by the way today. The mood for it is not there.

 

 

The frame bodge worked. Basically I hacked off the base of the triangle, then shortened the legs while - ooer! - spreading them a little. It’s stuck in now, and needs a dab of paint. I might get the canopy masked and stuck on. 
 

Wing root gaps were dealt with by first gluing styrene strip n them, followed by filler. I think the styrene helps to strengthen the joint as well, as there isn’t much actually holding the wing assembly in place.

 

 

[Heather Kay]

 

The engine block only needs a gentle sanding on the back side, but then needs umpteen valve rods glued in. You can see where I lost one and had to replace it with brass wire. Unsurprisingly, there’s no clue as to the correct length of the rods, so pinging them from the pour block is an act of faith. Some are shorter than others. I used PVA to sit them in place, which allowed me a little wriggle room to get things sort of aligned, and followed up with drops of CA to reinforce.

 

I'm going to need to drill out the shaft. Currently, the instructions expect me to glue a shaft to the propeller, and then glue that to another shaft. That would look, charitably, quite bizarre. Time for some paint, I think.

[Heather Kay]

Right, where was I? Ah, yes. Paint.

 

 

Humbrol 85 satin black. I’m not going to bother about highlights or anything. Once stuck in the cowling and with the prop and spinner on, there’s not much left to see, sadly.

 

 

These two sticks are one pair of the four machine guns. Someone with injection moulding knowledge might be able to explain why these are not fed from the ends, instead of leaving a massive knob of plastic to clean off the middle. Infuriating.

 

 

So, instead of failing to clean up plastic, I whizzed up some 1mm diameter brass rod in my Dremel.

 

 

Aside from the main undercarriage and canopy, this is all that’s left to attach to the airframe now. See what I mean about the engine? I drilled out, miraculously more or less down the centre, for the prop boss. A length of 0.7mm wire has been glued to the prop assembly. It will spin, but not freely. Not bothered, really. It’s more than the kit designers expected!

 

 

The main airframe is looking tidy. The tailplane needed adjusting, as I’d attached one side on the wonk. Two further attempts, and it’s now square.

 

Underneath, and you can see the worst amount of filler at the rear of the wings. Tiny tail castor and gun pods attached. The latter needed the gun holes drilled out. All that was mould was fine ovals, to which I assume one was supposed to butt join the guns after they’ve been successfully extracted from the tree and cleaned up. Right. Now you see why I made metal replacements.

 

If I get the cowling attached next, and mask the canopy and fit it, I think it’s about time to prime.

[Heather Kay]

 

Couldn't resist. 

 

Is it just me, or is there a definite hint of Zero here?

 

The cowling join cracked as I stuck it on, hence the daub of PPP. 

[Paulaero]

On 11/02/2019 at 20:25, Heather Kay said:

Slowly, slowly!

 

 

The Morane all stickered up and ready for matt varnish.

 

 

I think the Bloch is my favourite of the four.

 

 

Looking smart is the Dewoitine.

 

 

The Hawk has unit and data markings, just waiting on someone with a set of compasses to paint the national markings!

 

I must not forget to fit the props, the missing pitots on two of the planes, the Bloch weapons, plus all the gunsights.

They all look very nice Heather, I do like some of the French subjects for 'via la difference' !!

 

 I build display models for my good frend JP, from model art and they make a nice change in colours.

[rob Lyttle]

1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

See what I mean about the engine? I drilled out, miraculously more or less down the centre, for the prop boss

That's what I do most of the time now, Heather. I've got matching Ali tubes, and brass now too. 

And they spin like a beauty! 

I was caught out badly with a 1.48 Beech 18 build. I didn't see the rubbish kit method coming and had to come up with a solution. 

And I use it as standard now, and the prop can go in at the end. Or swapped around, or stored safely. 

That's the prop from a F4U - 4 and it's in the process of being copied for the P47D in the background. 

Drilling straight and dead centre can be a bit of a challenge, but I'm getting better! 

[AdrianMF]

1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

a definite hint of Zero here?

I’m getting Miles Master with a Zero cowling...

 

With regards to guns and stuff, although it seems like a cheat when an instruction sheet has a call out for “10mm x 0.5mm dia” instead of a part number, it’s often quicker and better than spending half an hour trying to clean up a part before you bin it and reach for the rod/tube. And somehow more honest.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Heather Kay]

 

With the main construction complete, time to get the paints out. I really can’t be doing with airbrushing these days, especially for the complicated camo patterns from French planes. Hairy-sticking ColourCoats enamels takes a lot longer than acrylics. I did once try to match colours from an acrylic range for French types, without much success. Heller list Humbrol colours, which is a sort of start. Anyway, ColourCoats it is.

 

I brushed a mid-green acrylic as a primer, and I’ve now got two coats of CC ACF09 Gris Bleu Clair on the underside. Waiting for it to be strong enough to recoat demands patience, so things will now slow to a glacial pace.

[nasosrr]

Wow, this thread is epic. Really. This project is likely one of the most impressive and ambitious I've seen. I'll certainly follow it, now that I've discovered it. What a magnificent source of inspiration for unusual subjects it is, too. And I must say that the work you do on these models is brilliant! And I haven't even seen all of them yet... I'll study it more thoroughly tonight.

[Heather Kay]

3 minutes ago, nasosrr said:

This project is likely one of the most impressive and ambitious I've seen

Thank you! So far, I’ve only collected models depicting France's landborne aircraft of the period. The French navy is still to come. Don’t forget I am also working on all the other air forces in northwestern Europe for 1940. If you’re interested, look out for my Belgian thread, and a Dutch one will appear one day.

[Heather Kay]

 

You can see why some folk have several models on the go at once. You can pick up another while filler or paint is drying on another. The Gris Bleu Clair has had three brushed coats, and the last was dry enough for masking so I could start the three-colour camouflage. ACF06 Ombre Calcinee has been brushed over the green primer coat.

 

Previously, I had all kinds of problems brushing CC enamels. I’ve found a way that works for me. I have small plastic shot glass, into which I pour a small amount of CC naphtha-based thinners. I shake, then stir, the paint, and using a soft sable brush (size 2, since you ask) I drop some into an aluminium pie dish. Then I dip the brush in the thinners, and mix the two in the tray. This has two effects: it lets the paint flow nicely, but also accelerates the drying slightly. One coat, set it aside to dry for a night or so, then a second coat can be done. For the camo, I hope I might be able to apply the first coat for all three colours because I’m not doing one overall coat of any single one, so not over-painting anything already laid down.

[Graham Boak]

Very similar indeed.  I have a small dish divided into quarters, which was purpose-made one pottery class in school nearly 60 years ago.  I add several dollops of paint into one quarter, then add thinners until the desired consistency is reached.  This then does to paint all of the desired areas,  This seems better (to me) than what reads like repeating what is basically the same process several times over, but I guess that depends upon the size of your pie dish.  Any recommendations?  Steak or cake?  Mince pies sound about right?  Must discuss with the culinary department.  This can however result in some waste of paint, which may offend some people.  They are recommended to buy smaller pies, which is probably good for them anyway  First find your pottery class... but any similar container will do, lined with metal foil if not otherwise expendable.

 

After over fifty years use, I dropped it on the floor earlier this year, and chipped a wedge out of one quarter.  Signs of mortality?   Ah well, three left and I only use one anyway, so 150 years to go yet.  Maybe I will finish my stash, as long as these companies stop bringing out new kits.