Pavla 1/72 Supermarine S.6

[busnproplinerfan]

Just started something different, a Supermarine S.6. This is the Pavla kit. My intention is to keep it box stock as much as I can except for adding flying wires. Here I have the fuselage glued up. I found on here another post of the same kit and noted the snags and hints encountered. I can't find the thread but it was very well done. There's no line up spots on the inside of the fuselage. So the seat fits flush to the rear cockpit opening and the instrument panel fits flush to the front opening(with the bulkhead attached) I had to trim the bulkhead and seat bulkheads to fit the contours of the fuselage inside profile. I tried out a truck for seam filling. I took stretched sprue from the same kit and glued it to the top fuselage joints and sanded it all down, works really good and won't shrink. I also drilled out the individual exhaust ports. Another thing from the other thread was to make spars from rod, I used brass, it's not shown here but I put two per side. I epoxied them the first time but didn't put enough hardener in so I took the wings off and redid them with some cement and superglue. There is no dihedral, the wings are flat.

I did the same with the tailplane, two brass rods but went through to both sides with two pieces. The struts I thought would be a pain so I drilled in small rods on each end. The rods going into the flats are bent vertically so I can plug the plane onto the floats later. There is a lot of flying wires on this plane and you can see how small it is. 0.25 x .5mm or less  flat strip would be ideal, but i don't have any. I have 0.5 x 1mm. I'll see if it works, at least on the floats. There will be some filling where the struts meet everything. The bottom spine didn't quite meet the fuselage halves so it did need some filling with superglue. You can see the dark area just behind the rear strut. I'm going to use the beaching gear as a jig for the floats.

Edited May 6, 2019 by busnproplinerfan

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Nice subject!

Going well

Cheers

[busnproplinerfan]

1 hour ago, Moa said:

Nice subject!

Going well

Cheers

Thanks, to bad I don't get to keep this one, it's another commission job.

[Courageous]

This seems to be coming along rather quickly. I have a growing interest in float planes and was wondering, was their any external differences between the A and B?

 

Stuart

[busnproplinerfan]

13 hours ago, Courageous said:

This seems to be coming along rather quickly. I have a growing interest in float planes and was wondering, was their any external differences between the A and B?

 

Stuart

So far all I know is the rudder has a functional trim tap on the earliar ones and a simple tab on the later ones. The instructions show an A version with the functional tab. The kit gives two rudders and two props but doesn't say which prop to use for either, just that they are optional. The props look the same. The photos of the preserved ones look the same externally to. I guess it depends on the number of the particular plane. I just painted the silver on today, will post pics soon. I'm surprised to how quick it is. I'm used to spending months on something.

[TallBlondJohn]

You've spotted that the rigging wires aren't round, they are flattened for streamlining. If the strip doesn't work, I did mine by supergluing two strands of fly tippet together on an improvised loom (an old square sprue) and then heat shrinking the result to get it taut. Finally paint filled in the shape - worked well.

Edited May 7, 2019 by TallBlondJohn

[lunarhighway]

I build this kit back in 2015... it took a little care but all in all went together without big dramas.

 

for the flat wires i used metal wire squashed flat between pliers...

 

I also replaced the spinner with the tip of a German bomb looked more crisp than the kit part

 

 

 

[busnproplinerfan]

9 hours ago, TallBlondJohn said:

You've spotted that the rigging wires aren't round, they are flattened for streamlining. If the strip doesn't work, I did mine by supergluing two strands of fly tippet together on an improvised loom (an old square sprue) and then heat shrinking the result to get it taut. Finally paint filled in the shape - worked well.

Haven't thought of using tippet. I do have invisable thread which works much the same way. The strips worked good. Plastruct has very small strips. I'll have picture shortly.

[busnproplinerfan]

8 hours ago, lunarhighway said:

I build this kit back in 2015... it took a little care but all in all went together without big dramas.

 

for the flat wires i used metal wire squashed flat between pliers...

 

I also replaced the spinner with the tip of a German bomb looked more crisp than the kit part

 

 

 

Yours is the one I was looking at.

[busnproplinerfan]

Here it is just before paint. When I started painting I accidently forgot to take the beaching gear off. I decided to paint it as a whole because it's silver and to hard to touch up. The flying wires are Plastruct 90710, 0.10 x 0.20. I did the pieces on the floats first. I also predrilled all the holes that were needed at the correct angles. There's no way to get at anything once it's built. I should have glued just one side of the wires first or left the loose. Any movement after puts twists into the wires. For some reason, when looked at from the top, the floats are pointing right slightly off the centerline. Can't fix it, just don't look. The rudder weights are left off till the decals are done and the pitot tube is brass wire. Wasn't going to attempt to cut the resin one off it's molded sprue. I made tie down loops from stretched sprue curved around into two holes I drilled. Did this on the front and rear of the floats. The cockpit has a mess of wet toilet paper for masking.

Here it is painted. I sprayed Testors silver into a gar and airbrushed it, much easier that mixing. I put two coats of Future on after. I want to brush the blue on, no way to mask and need the future to keep the blue and silver from mixing.

[lunarhighway]

looking great!

 

btw check your references when painting the floats, as far as i could tell for whatever reason the blue demarcation on the starboard float is a bit higher than the port one!

 

since you mentioned Future...for hand painting i like to thin my paint with something i think is similar to the Future ... it breaks the surface tension making the paint flow much nicer and gives it a more glossy sheen. so far it worked with all acrylics i've tried. no brush strokes etc even with multiple coats

 

 

 

 

[busnproplinerfan]

Thanks. I'm using MM Ford engine light blue enamel. It's new so it should be ok. Juat wondering about the gloss on the silver if it's to much. I have some semi gloss clear but can't get the jar open. I remember reading your note about the floats paint line. Watch me forget.

Edited May 8, 2019 by busnproplinerfan

[lunarhighway]

the real plane is pretty glossy

[azureglo]

1 hour ago, lunarhighway said:

the real plane is pretty glossy

Damn right it is, I spent hours dusting and shining her...

 

 

PS Humbrol no 11 is a good silver to use for touch ups, I know it worked on this one...😉

[Cookenbacher]

Wonderful build, wonderful subject.

[busnproplinerfan]

7 hours ago, azureglo said:

Damn right it is, I spent hours dusting and shining her...

 

 

PS Humbrol no 11 is a good silver to use for touch ups, I know it worked on this one...😉

Your the one who'd know. I was think it would be glossy, you want it fast. Good because I'll leave it with two coats of future, has a scale gloss, maybe a bit more. I'd love to hear this thing run.

3 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Wonderful build, wonderful subject.

Thanks.

[Courageous]

Doesn't she look beautiful and you're not finished yet.

 

Stuart

[StephenCJ]

35 minutes ago, Courageous said:

Doesn't she look beautiful and you're not finished yet.

I agree with Courageous.  I should get one.

[cmatthewbacon]

15 hours ago, lunarhighway said:

btw check your references when painting the floats, as far as i could tell for whatever reason the blue demarcation on the starboard float is a bit higher than the port one

Great looking S.6b... I should get one to compare with my Frog Pioneers version...

 

I believe the floats are painted slightly differently because they are ballasted so one floats deeper than the other when the engine isn't running. It's designed that way so it levels up when the prop is up to speed and the torque from it is pushing one side down harder than the other...

 

best,

M.

[bentwaters81tfw]

On 07/05/2019 at 07:44, Courageous said:

This seems to be coming along rather quickly. I have a growing interest in float planes and was wondering, was their any external differences between the A and B?

 

Stuart

The S6B is 3 feet longer than the S6. The difference is the length of the floats, which are asymmetric to compensate for engine torque on takeoff. The port float is larger in section on the B. The floats were also the fuel tanks.

[busnproplinerfan]

These were sure highly developed for there time.

[busnproplinerfan]

Mostly done, just wanted to show the bottom

Here's the beaching gear, trolley, whatever you want to call it I made a brass wire to across to the wheels. I didn't want the to sag. I figured, with other carts I've seen from this vintage, they had a full length axle. The two rear the saw horse looking things had to be trimmed down, were to tall. I painted he wheels with a mix of satin black and dark brown and dry brushed the spokes with steel and dark grey mixed. The frame is was painted steel, didn't like it so I went over it with satin black and dark grey mixed. The wood is a mix of tan and light brown.

[busnproplinerfan]

Here's the built S.6 https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235055844-pavla-172-supermarine-s6/&tab=comments#comment-3355738I put brass pins made from rod  into the float supports and beaching wheels into the wood base. I sprayed the wood with two coats of gloss just to look a bit finished.

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by busnproplinerfan