The Brummagen IPMS Beer Mat Challenge – RS Models 1/72 Avro Rota C.30

[Tomoshenko]

Well back after a longer than anticipated absence when the world really was a different place. Hope you are all keeping safe. Unsurprisingly I have more time to pick up this thread again and get some modelling done, although I do wish it was under better circumstances.

 

Anyroad, I manged to get a reasonable amount done. First I got to work on the empennage, but cut out the flaps to add a little interest.

 

 

Next I got the fuselage closed up.

 

 

Topside was quite a good fit and just required the odd smear of PPP. However, the same could not be said of the underside. While it fits together tightly, the moulded ribbing is quite poor quality notwithstanding two moulded hatches which do not exist on the original aircraft.

 

 

In fact on some versions there are not hatches at all, but the one at Duxford – which is closest to the version I am modelling – does have a distinctive hatch:

 

 

The ribbing is also quite distinctive, yet on the kit it is flat. A bit of a quandary presented itself. Replicating the hatch was straightforward enough, but how to remove the moulded hatches and re-establish the ribbing … hmmm.

 

First up I chiselled off the raised detail and adopted an old coach builder’s trick as to how to re-establish crease lines on a panel when filling with P38 (yes I know proper artisans avoid using P38 as much as possible or lead load). When you get a dent across a crease line, it’s harder than it looks trying to render the repaired crease level. One method is to use masking tape to follow the original line, fill and sand so you get a straight edge, then put another piece of tape along the other side of the crease and repeat.

 

On a micro scale I used Tamiya tape along a rib each side of the fuselage join and filled with PPP:

 

 

then laid a double thickness of tape along the centre, filled and sanded like so to build up a ridge.

 

 

The tape is removed leaving a straight and raised edge.

 

 

Another double thickness of tape is laid along the centre where the ribbing is and this is filled and sanded:

 

 

 

When the tape is removed you get this:

 

 

Then it is a matter of sanding it back to blends in. Here it is finished off with a little scratch built hatch and the tail fin fitted.

 

 

 

 

 

I also added the handles at the rear from Albion Alloys and did some re-scribing to emphasise the hatches and other panels.

 

 

I didn’t notice at first until I started re-scribing the panel lines around the engine housing, that there are no panel lines around the door aperture or the cockpit hatches. In fact they have raised details in the form of stitched seams as in the piccies below.

 

 

 

Filling in the kit panel lines (which to be honest is no great loss cos they are pretty naff)was easy enough, but replicating the stitched seams was never gonna be easy, at least if I wanted it to be reasonably convincing.

 

I initially considered using take-away tin foil, but I’d never be able to get it to lie flat notwithstanding the fact it would be a nightmare to glue in place. Then I remembered a discussion on Bill’s (Perdu’s) Fairy Gannet Naviation WIP thread about replicating raised walkways. A number of ideas were bounded about (Bill I can’t remember who came up with it but thanks to however it was) and one someone suggested using sellotape. It’s thin and quite sticky so what the hell I thought I’d experiment.

 

I tried running a riveting tool across some sellotape and then cutting out thin strips and painting like thus:

 

 

 

 

These were all hit and miss until I used the medium spaced tooth riveting wheel on the sticky side of the tape, thus giving it a raised impression. After several attempts I managed to cut some strips thin enough to remain in scale … well sort of:

 

 

 

 

Apologies for them being a bit blurry, but they are heavily magnified.

 

 

Okay not perfect but hope that gives it at least a feel of the real detail. They should look pronounced without looking too pronounced if you know what I mean.

 

Anyway this is how it now looks:

 

 

Wot next? Undercarriage or engine. Think I turn my attention to the engine next.

[Marklo]

On 3/29/2020 at 7:09 PM, Tomoshenko said:

 

I initially considered using take-away tin foil, but I’d never be able to get it to lie flat

Believe it or not it’s not that difficult to work with I used it to skin my Junkers JI to attach it double sided sticky tape with ca on the edges worked a treat.

 

 

Baremetal or plumbers foil tape ( I have a 50m roll Of Bostick tape which cost about a tenner off eBay)are  good too.

 

This is how it looks at the moment btw.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Marklo

[CedB]

Nice work Tomo, especially on something so tiny  

 

Great tip on the bottom (fnaar!) ridge - looks great!

[Tomoshenko]

Good heavens it feels like a lifetime ago since I was here last having found it on Page 56! literally oceans have flowed under the bridge since then – a pandemic, brief loss of mojo and a home move. First tip on this revived thread:  if you can avoid it don’t move home during a pandemic!

 

Okay then, after finally settling in and sorting out the new mancave (needs decorating but lovely and spacious and south facing overlooking garden)…

 

 

…I’ve finally got cracking on this again. Next up was to get the engine sorted, I suspect there may be resin replacements out there, but I plumped to make do with the kit offering. Not too bad after a bit of a clean-up but lacking in detail.

 

 

Most prominent is the absence of the push rod housings which are quite distinctive on many rotary engines, especially the Armstrong Ganet Major (see piccies below). These were replicated via short lengths of stretched sprue, folded in half and the inserted into a small collar made from Albion Alloys tubing. I plumped for the stretched sprue because it is easy to glue it in place as opposed to cyanoing brass or nickel rod. After a few attempts it’s easy to get the right thickness.

 

 

Then I knocked up some gloop to fuse them to the rocker arm casings.

 

 

That’s better methinks. I also drilled out locater holes for the spark plug cables. The other elephant not in the room I noticed was the absence of the intake manifold. The exhaust is provided but not the intake (see below).

 

 

Funnily enough it provides the manifold for the Sierva version (not an option for my boxing) but it can’t really be adapted.

 

 

 

So I made a small collar from evergreen strip, then from rod I made my little pipes. I had to bend these in boiling hot water to get the L shape.

 

 

Glued into place as you can see.  I also cleaned up the exhaust manifold and drilled out the pipe (not that it will be particularly visible, but I know it’s there). I then added locater pins and drilled out little holes so I could fix them together. It’ll be easier to paint that way because although the restored versions show a gloss black manifold the same as the engine, mine will be gunmetal befitting an operational aircraft. It has to be said that my main bête noire with this kit is the absence of locator pins and holes, I mean just a few here and there would be okay, but not none…

 

 

Any road I then added a couple of pipes as per the real thing below.

 

 

 

 

 

They’re dry fitted for now, but they detach easily again making it easier to paint which I’ll do in a dull brass/copper colour.

 

Finally it was time for the spark plugs. These were made from stretched sprue, because they retain some shape when bent and don’t squash flat when I handle them, unlike wire. Plus they are easier to glue as I find normal polystyrene cement more forgiving than cyano, although strangely enough I still manage to get blobs of it everywhere except where I need to.

 

It was quite a painstaking faff of a job, having to thread them through the push rod casings and attach them to little slits in the collar behind.

 

 

By the time I got to the fourteenth spark plug I’d become quite adept with the affair. It reminded me a little of Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray, forced to live each day over and over again, uses each day to perfect his knowledge and skills to learn to play the piano and sculpt ice etc. in order to woo the affections of  Andie MacDowell. Now this left me asking myself a couple of questions, would I welcome being stuck in a time loop in order to a) perfect my expertise in respect of gluing together 1/72 spark plug cables on a radial engine? b) Would it win me the affections of Andie MacDowell? Well the answer to a) is categorically NO! The answer to b)? Well I think the jury’s out on that one. PS Andie if you happen to see this on Britmodeller feel free to PM me.

 

 

Anyroad here is the finished article.

 

 

 

 

 

These blinkin’ macros do throw up all the imperfections, but still an improvement on the original offering, and should look fine when painted and dry brushed.

 

Next up is a toss-up between the undercarriage and the rotor assembly. Both are somewhat spindly and spidery assemblages. I think I’ll opt for the undercarriage because it looks the most challenging and I read somewhere that it is a bit ill-fitting or wrong (can’t remember), so it looks like I may have to replace some parts and rig up some sort of jig. Anyroad so you a lot sooner this time.

 

 

[Terry1954]

Great to see you back after so long Tomo, and good news you have now settled into new home. The man cave looks the biz.

 

And of course you return in splendid style with some incredible detailed work on that little rotory engine.

 

Fantastic stuff!

 

Terry

 

PS good luck with your quest to find Ms MacDowell on BM!

 

 

[CedB]

Superb work on that engine matey.

I had bookmarked your thread for when I built mine but I think you've raised the bar too high for me!

 

Good luck with Annie Tomo!  

[perdu]

Ced might have meant to say good luck with Andie Tom, a sentiment with which I heartily concur.

 

Cor...

 

 

Also cor for that engine, probably the best Genet I can remember seeing, probably better than the real engine.

 

Certainly going to fit better on a beermat.

 

Brill mate, utter brillness.

[Tomoshenko]

Just a teeny weeny update. I’ve made a start on the undercarriage struts. And as expected they need cleaning up and a few slight modifications, not some much as to improve accuracy – although that helps - but to add location pins and lugs for sticking them together.

 

Here are the two main vertical struts. Yep I busted the one when I cut it from the sprue so a repair is needed. As you can see it’s attached to the sprue right where a collar is. It seems a universal constant among model manufacturers to attach kit parts to sprues in the most delicate or inconvenient place detail wise.

 

 

Anyroad I cleaned them up a bit, then wrapped the top halves in a couple of layers of sellotape to give the sleeve more definition. Ditto the small collar on the top which is a tad wider than it should be. There should also be a small collar on the bottom but this level of fiddlyness is beyond my physical and mental ability. The small yokes on the bottom are quite distinctive on the real aircraft and the kit offerings were too blobby so they had to go. The horizontal struts are attached via a pin via a plate on top of the struts on the real aircraft so I added small tabs to replicate these. Also it will make fixing things together easier … erm that’s the theory at least…

 

 

Better than before methinks. It looks like I’ll be doing something similar to all the other remaining struts. Oh well as they say in for a penny in for a pound.

[perdu]

I think kit/mould designers have to go to moron school before they are allowed loose on our money.

 

The more moronic the act the higher grades they get.

 

You just got somebody demoted to average daft sod from budded genious, next time out he will have to become ingenious to get his grade back.

 

Now I dont normally say this to a geezer Tom. nice legs.

 

That's it, dont revel in it.

 

Looks good chum, now I am off downstairs for a drink.

 

Just had a party can of Hell delivered.

 

Let the good times...

[CedB]

3 hours ago, Tomoshenko said:

a couple of layers of sellotape to give the sleeve more definition

Oooh, another master tip for the bachelor degree... 

Does that last Tomo?

Normal selleotape is it?

More glue required?

Asking for a friend  

[Tomoshenko]

17 hours ago, CedB said:

Normal selleotape is it?

More glue required?

 

Ced the selleotape came courtesy of HM Government ... erm I mean borrowed from work on a long term lend lease arrangement ... so it is likely to be cheapo stuff, nothing special. All I did is wipe over the plastic surface it is to be attached to with some methylated spirit or any other cleaner will do just to ensure you have a nice clean surface. No glue was used, but it is important to burnish it down well. This is fine where you are dealing with large surface areas. Regarding the two small collars on the top of the struts, I did run a small amount of cyano along the seam.

[Brandy]

Nice enginery stuff on that radial (yes, it's a radial, not a rotary) - biggest clue is the exhaust  - rotaries don't have them!

 

Ian

[Tomoshenko]

Happy Christmas all. I have managed to get a little bench time in. I am beginning to get to grips with the undercarriage which is a sort of Gordian knot. I decided to clean up all the struts and would dry fit assemble them. I can’t really glue them all in place until I’ve got the BMF on the engine housing. Plus due to their intricacy I’m bound to bust them off. The plan is to rig up a jig and insert little bits of nickel rod in the ends so they will snap fit together. There are no locater pins and I can only predict an unholy mess of glue all over the place without any pin holes. What could possibly go wrong?

 

Anyroad I made a start on the horizontal struts which are a V, or wishbone shape. The plastic breaks easily, and as you’ve guessed it I broke both of them, despite being as careful as possible. Trying to repair them was a nightmare. I also remember on Patrik’s thread  RS Models 1/72 Avro Rota - Page 2 - Work in Progress - Aircraft - Britmodeller.com that he had difficulty with them too. They are in fact slightly too narrow, and he ended scratch building new ones. It was driving me nuts and I’d had quite enough so I decided to do the same.

 

 

I made a start by bending some aluminium tubing but only for it to crack on the bend when I flattened it to replicate the real strut. After much trial and error and unseasonal language I cut up lengths of brass rod. These were flattened slightly and then cleaned up like thus.

 

 

Then it was out with the soldering iron (pre-soldering shot) once they were positioned in place.

 

 

I’ll spare you the blobby soldering shots. Here are the finished articles and one kit original for comparison:

 

 

 

 

That’s enough soldering and filing for a while. Next up is to complete the jig and get all the undercarriage struts sorted. I also managed to break one of the axle struts so I may as replace that too, but no soldering need for that little job. See ya soon.

[perdu]

Good jointing Tom,  coulda done with some Aeroclub strut stuff from @John Aero to do that.

Hope Chrimble was OK in the new nest.

I still have my 5ltr of ABK Hell to sample on New Year's eve how are you doing without a pub these days?

Not that I am implying anything obvs. 

 

😉🍺👍🏻

[CedB]

Great strut work Tomo and some frustrations overcome…

 

Not looking forward to mine quite so much now  

[Tomoshenko]

Okay so a little more work on the struts. As I’ve mentioned numerous times above there are no locator pins or anything locatorish on the struts, and nothing remotely like on the real aircraft below:

 

 

This is a Spanish variant, but the undercarriage assembly and fixing points are pretty much the same no matter what version. The horizontal struts are welded to the inside of the upper strut, which in turn is connected to the vertical leg via a pin through a u-shaped yoke. I needed to extend and shape the upper struts and provide said yoke. This was done care of gloop and tiny strips of evergreen. On retrospect I realise I haven’t quite got the shape right and the u yoke is a tad over scale. That said it is barely noticeable – note penny backdrop for scale.

 

 

Small holes were drilled in their undersides so they fix onto the horizontal struts. Dry-fitted like thus:

 

 

 

Next up was to knock up a basic jig and dry fit the assembly thus far.

 

 

 

The starboard yoke needs a little refinement. Note the legs aren’t accurately aligned yet – pending refinement of the ole and axle struts – but I think you get my drift.

 

 

I suspect you’re wondering what the hole in the lower part of the starboard upper strut is for? Well that is for the pitot. Two piccies below. I won’t be covering mine in a sheaf as below.

 

 

This is how it should look:

 

 

Piccie courtesy of and all rights reserved  hochmuth©2004

 

Here is my concoction care of bits of copper wire and flattened aluminium tubing. The kit includes a pitot but it bares limited resemblance to the real article.

 

 

Tidied up and dry fitted:

 

 

It should sit a little further back which I shall attempt to rectify. Anyroad slowly but surely. This is fiddly and time consuming, but I’m hoping it will save grief down the road. Next is the oleo and axle struts plus the wheels.

[Fritag]

Love these skilfully crafted almost absurd but beautiful details. Now that’s modelling 

[AdrianMF]

Smashing work - nice to see it back! Rather unfortunate for me to come across your pictures when I'm just about to get busy with the Shvetsov M-11 engine at the front of my Po-2. It has two fewer cylinders than yours but I strongly suspect it's going to end up with 14 fewer spark plug lines!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[CedB]

What amazing micro-engineering Tomo - superb stuff