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Airfix Handley Page O/400: sorting the surface corrugations


Seahawk

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In his Scale Models article (May 1984) on superdetailing the Airfix Handley Page O/400, Ray Rimell describes the vastly overscale wing rib detail (think ploughed field) as the only significant flaw with the kit.  He recommends sanding and filing it all off and replacing it with scored lines, Letratape (?), fine sprue or 5 thou plastic card or strip sanded down.  It is also apparent that he did not actually do this himself on the model illustrated!  Has anyone on here ever done this or even know of anyone who has?  How did you/they get on?  It sounds not only very tedious but also a scarily easy way to write off a kit that is currently out of production>  But I would be happy to follow in the footsteps of some brave pioneer.

 

Thanks in advance for your advice.

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1 hour ago, Seahawk said:

In his Scale Models article (May 1984) on superdetailing the Airfix Handley Page O/400, Ray Rimell describes the vastly overscale wing rib detail (think ploughed field) as the only significant flaw with the kit.  He recommends sanding and filing it all off and replacing it with scored lines, Letratape (?), fine sprue or 5 thou plastic card or strip sanded down.  It is also apparent that he did not actually do this himself on the model illustrated!  Has anyone on here ever done this or even know of anyone who has?  How did you/they get on?  It sounds not only very tedious but also a scarily easy way to write off a kit that is currently out of production>  But I would be happy to follow in the footsteps of some brave pioneer.

 

Thanks in advance for your advice.

I've done it, as part of a conversion to an 0/100 (using new engine nacelles by Roseparts, now very hard to come by). Not that hard, just elbow grease. For new tapes I used thin Xtradecal stripes on the top surfaces, and scored the bottom ones with 2 scalpel blades stuck together. Certainly worth the effort.

 

Paul.

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1 hour ago, Seahawk said:

the vastly overscale wing rib detail

 

this is a link to a method  @John Aero suggested for the Dora Wings Gee-Bee

I had a go a scrap Hase Hurricane, and it does work.  I don't know the 0/400 kit, so don't know how thick the wings are etc etc, but perhaps worth adding to the idea pile. 

 

good build here https://modelingmadness.com/review/w1/gb/foster0400.htm

 

HTH

I

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This is what you get if you follow Rimell's methods. I wrote an article about it once, but IIRC it was in Dutch for the Modelbrouwers forum. Anyway, here it is on the WWI Mailing Lists old site:  http://www.wwi-models.org/app/sbj/srch/Macn.php?action=uModelList&subjId=166

 

Clicking on Thompson dhould bring up the photos.

 

 

Can't find the article, but did find the in progress photos. If anyone is mad enough to be interested I can post a few. I had forgotten, but there was also a lot of filling needed on the undersides of the wings due to the parts breakdown.

 

Paul.

Edited by Paul Thompson
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42 minutes ago, Paul Thompson said:

This is what you get if you follow Rimell's methods. I wrote an article about it once, but IIRC it was in Dutch for the Modelbrouwers forum. Anyway, here it is on the WWI Mailing Lists old site:  http://www.wwi-models.org/app/sbj/srch/Macn.php?action=uModelList&subjId=166

 

Clicking on Thompson dhould bring up the photos.

 

 

Can't find the article, but did find the in progress photos. If anyone is mad enough to be interested I can post a few. I had forgotten, but there was also a lot of filling needed on the undersides of the wings due to the parts breakdown.

 

Paul.

Thanks, oh intrepid pioneer, for the advice and encouragement so far.  Your finshed model looks very nice.  I would very interested in any in-progress (or finished) shots that show what the upper and lower wing surfaces ended up looking like, especially the undersides after the two-scalpel-blades-taped-together treatment.  Not sure that moving from ploughed field to huge expanse of featureless plastic would be an improvement so detail of some kind would be reinstating.

 

1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

 

this is a link to a method  @John Aero suggested for the Dora Wings Gee-Bee

I had a go a scrap Hase Hurricane, and it does work.  I don't know the 0/400 kit, so don't know how thick the wings are etc etc, but perhaps worth adding to the idea pile. 

John achieves impressive results (as I would have expected) but I think it takes me too far out of my comfort zone.  But, as you say, worth adding to the ideas pile.

 

1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

A very useful article that I shall certainly keep to hand.  As a newly returning modeller he achieves an excellent result.  It certainly does help: thanks very much.

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10 hours ago, Seahawk said:

Thanks, oh intrepid pioneer, for the advice and encouragement so far.  Your finshed model looks very nice.  I would very interested in any in-progress (or finished) shots that show what the upper and lower wing surfaces ended up looking like, especially the undersides after the two-scalpel-blades-taped-together treatment.  Not sure that moving from ploughed field to huge expanse of featureless plastic would be an improvement so detail of some kind would be reinstating.

 

 

Here we go then. Excuses for the long post. Reminding myself, in some areas I left the under wing ribs, these being much better executed than the planks on the top wing and looking (at least to me) okay after a light sand.

 

For those who haven't seen this kit, here is the problem:

414151206.jpg

 

The underside needs much persuasion and then filler.

 

414151196.jpg

 

414151205.jpg

 

 

Everything needs sanding off the top surfaces:

 

414151197.jpg

 

The re-ribbing process. First mark the rib stations with something that will stick. On the underside I've then scribed them with 2 scalpel blades stuck together.  For a clear doped surface this would be enough if marked dark before overpainting, but the HP was PC10 underneath so I added decals strips instead.

 

414151200.jpg

 

This is the result for the top surface lower centre section:

 

414151203.jpg

 

Similar work on the tailplane, with slots being opened for the control lines to run through:

 

414151204.jpg

 

Nearly there. Here are the lower wing bits prior to paint topcoat.

 

414151199.jpg

 

This shows them in place, with the folding gussets still to be painted:

 

414151195.jpg

 

........ and this is the whole beast awaiting final assembly and rigging.

 

414151201.jpg

 

HTH.

 

Paul.

 

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Many thanks.  Excellent workmanship - and eyes!  Applying 27 rib transfers precisely parallel to each other and at precisely equal spacings must have been fun.  And then there's the other wing.  And the centre section.   I feel daunted but not necessarily deterred.

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Thanks . It isn't hard though, just boring. Anyway, this was 10 years ago, and even then a headband magnifier was essential. Couldn't do anything without it now (even reading the labels on paint tins. is a challenge..........).

Paul.

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  • 3 years later...

Sorry to re-animate this thread, but I just looked in because I had a notification from someone else who just had, and see that my contribution was torpedoed when my photo host Picturetrail decided to stop hosting. So all the images I posted are dead. I loaded them back down, if that's a real-world operation, before the account terminated, so if anyone wants to see what it was all about I can send them if you PM me your email.  (If I can find where I put them).

 

Paul.

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I have ribbed a few aircraft in 1/72 scale with varying effect! Here's a scratch-built RE5...

y4mebSmO6_M5dk0TbdYbxJmUx5v90En60h0Lfo3K

 

y4matg8JsV4yY7qFBJKi9B8hc4JLmYNmyjpIuLjd

 

...taken backlit to enhance the effect for visual purposes.

 

All done with stretched sprue - laid on to a previously brushed strip of liquid glue, then when the wing is finished an overall brushing with liquid glue for permanence. Once dry, three or so coats of nice thick matt enamel of a suitable colour (usually white or pale grey is best), then rub down with fine wet'n'dry.

On my RE5, you can see the wing worked quite well, but the tailplane could have done with a couple more coats of paint.

On something as large as an O/400 the exercise could be quite tedious and time consuming - I know, I'm halfway through one myself, but I'm using even thinner stretched sprue than on here - experiment first, over-thin gets melted by the glue!

Just one note - when sanding down a wing or preparing a scratch-build, make the wing thinner than you'd wish the final result to be, the sprue and the paint adds a significant thickness.

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I've used stretched sprue and sanding once or twice when I started this sort of thing, but being naturally a lazy git I much prefer using decal strips these days. The thinnest from the likes of Xtradecal work fine for me, although in larger than 1/72nd I've also used redundant blue or pink lozenge rib tape strips I've had leftover from various sources. The main thing is to lay down at least one good coat of varnish or Klear to give them some extra protection for later handling and make sure they son't come loose.

 

 

Paul.

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4 hours ago, Paul Thompson said:

naturally a lazy git

 

 

Paul.

Ditto. Though I've had so many strips of decal wrapped round my finger/hand/face I've given up trying.

Besides, what else would we do with all that single-use plastic that sprue represents? We'll only have the environmentalists after us, glueing themselves to model shop doorways :angrysoapbox.sml:

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11 minutes ago, alancmlaird said:

Ditto. Though I've had so many strips of decal wrapped round my finger/hand/face I've given up trying.

Besides, what else would we do with all that single-use plastic that sprue represents? We'll only have the environmentalists after us, glueing themselves to model shop doorways :angrysoapbox.sml:

Rigging? (For the terminally old fashioned, like erm, me sometimes).

 

Paul.

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3 minutes ago, Seahawk said:

Rigging?  I thought real men used invisible thread.  (Finally located enough of this mystical product to last my lifetime in my late mother's effects!)

I'd use it if I knew where I put it down last.

 

Paul.

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