Supermarine S6B

[Thom216]

Alright, back into aircraft for a bit.

In prep for the Flying Boats and Float Planes 2 GB, I'm going back to a plane that I never finished in the original one.

 

Testor's 1/48 Supermarine S6B.

 

 

I've modified the cowl, detailing the exhausts and the little air outlets (?) on them. The cockpit has been scratch built and a first coat of paint is on, no pics yet! So, I'm close to closing up the fuselage. Have to fix the wings, smooth out the floats and think of a way to mount the propeller so it can be added after paint.

 

The build so far is here,

 

I will be continuing it soon, as the build is back center-table.
 

Model on!

Edited August 16, 2019 by Thom216

[DMC]

Missed this first time ‘round, pleased it’s back.

 

Dennis

[Thom216]

I hadn't been planning on it. I was going to continue with a resin sci fi ship, but then I thought about finishing this one during the next GB and that changed to just finishing it before the GB! So, here we go!

 

I'm going to be a little back and forth, so first is the first coat of green on the interior. Detail paint to follow.

 

 

Then to the nose and how I'm going to mount the prop. It comes with a simple shaft to go into a hole in the nose. But considering the loose fit, I decided to turn it around a little. Some snooping in my styrene rod collection, found one that would slip quite snuggly over the prop shaft.

 

 

It's quite the snug little fit.

 

 

I'm going to cut the rod, leaving enough to be glued into the fuselage, after I enlarge the hole with the fuse all together. I won't be able to spin it, but slipping it on and off, to keep it out of the way, is.

 

Then I decided to trim up the propeller a bit, as the connection to the spinner it more than a little fat.

 

Before,

 

A little after...

 

And that's not accurate at all either! The props should come off the spinner without any twist, before it curves. I didn't realize that until after, but it'll be removable - so I can fix it later! Gives me a reason to buy a second kit! Or hope for someone to make a resin replacement...😉

 

And that's where she is right now. More updates to come!

 

Model on!

[corsaircorp]

Hello Thom !

Great idea, I'll follow if you don't mind since I have that same kit in my stash/attic 

Great detailling work on here !!

Sincerely.

CC

 

[Thom216]

More the merrier!

 

As for the prop, I could not leave it as is. Before bed I glued some scraps onto the cuffs. When I get home, I'll re-sand it to try and capture even an approximation of the correct shape.

[Thom216]

Well, as I was hoping, I started closing up the fuselage today! Woo!

 

There was a little work before then though. After a little bit of a struggle with the decals, I finally got all the gauges loaded up, and hoses and pipes colored.

 

 

The control stick is just a length of wire painted up in silver and gray with a little black on top. No buttons 'cause there was no pew-pew!

 

 

Then it was onto the seat. The color cutaway I have shows a deep red, and it just so happens I have a deep red color in stock. From the blank bottle it looks like an old 'custom' mix. So old I don't remember shaking it up, but there it was. And after a few brush coats, there it is.

 

 

Then I needed seat belts. I think when I first started I was going to use the decal from the F4U that also supplied the gauges, but a little looking through my Misc PE collection awarded up an Eduard USN seat belt set. They were a dark green though, and I needed tan, so I loaded up the airbrush with color.

 

 

They were already bent to shape and, after a scrape of the paint off the buckles, they were slipped onto the seat with CA.

 

 

With that done, it was time to remember something really important. Such as a throttle!

I went through my stash looking for a throttle, but not finding any I found something on a 1/72 VF-25 sprue that would work. With a little trimming...

 

 

And in place.

 

 

Of course, I forgot to take a pic of it painted, so just imagine it dark green with a silver shaft and a red knob on top. I also moved it forward, after seeing that having it where it is in the pic would put it right under the pilot's elbow...

 

And with that the 'pit is done! As I had hoped, by the end of the day she is being closed up.

 

 

And no, I haven't forgotten the headrest!😁

 

Model on.

Edited August 22, 2019 by Thom216

[Courageous]

Lovely.

 

Stuart

[DMC]

Excellent work!  Will look impressive when finished.

 

Dennis

[Andrew.S]

Good work!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Looking good!

[Thom216]

Thanks a lot, fellas!

 

Moving ahead, I've made a decision about the float struts. First off, the pair of bars going across between the floats are imaginary. According to the pics, that should be strengthening wire.

 

So, I'll be cutting them out and replacing them with some thin metal rod to try and keep the wire look but also keeping the strength in there.

 

Also, the attachment points to the fuselage and the floats are pretty messy. They will need a lot of filler/sanding in order to make them look realistic, so what I'm going to do is snip the struts off from the connecting points and blend those directly into the fuselage. That should allow me to keep the struts off while the major putty/sanding work is done. I'll secure them to the floats as instructed, but pin the tops for easy assembly with the fuselage. In fact, I'm going to drill the pin holes before the struts are cut away from the mounting parts, to hopefully help them line up again at the end.

 

Another thing for the under side are these raised panels running from the nose towards the tail.

 

Those are supposed to be radiator piping like along the sides, but they are far too flat, the detail is not consistent across the bottom of the wing and they just fade out near the tail. As you can see on the wing, I've already sanded that 'detail' off, and I did the same for the belly.

 

I'm going to make a trip to Syracuse and Walt's Hobby for some half-round styrene rods, which will be used to replace them with something a little less lackluster. Won't be exact, but I'm going for 'better.' 😉

 

An addition to the cowls as shown in the upper pic, are some bulges under the exhausts. Both of the remaining examples of the S6B, restored and not, have them, so I added them to. Need to clean them up a bit.

 

I actually decided to remove those and replace them with thinner stock, but I found out I would destroy more than I would want to repair in the doing, so I just sanded them down more. (Also, if I do this model again, the cowls will be added after the fuselage has been put together like directed in the instructions. Doing it before meant that I was able to place them on a little uneven front to back... oops...)

 

Last bit is just cleaning up the spine. Adding the cockpit detail put a bit of a spread into the join, and some PPP fixed it right up.

 

 

So far for now. Model on!

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by Thom216

[DMC]

Coming right along.  Here’s a nice computerised image of the S6b cowling. Looks pretty accurate.  Also note the wing rad scribing.  Yours looks very good.

 

Dennis

 

Link to image: http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/hirano/gal2/s6b/s6b3.html

 

 

Edited August 25, 2019 by DMC
Link

[Thom216]

7 hours ago, DMC said:

Coming right along.  Here’s a nice computerised image of the S6b cowling. Looks pretty accurate.  Also note the wing rad scribing.  Yours looks very good.

 

Dennis

 

Link to image: http://www003.upp.so-net.ne.jp/hirano/gal2/s6b/s6b3.html

Thanks for the pic. Interesting how the trailing MC.72 is also the next build I have planned!😁

[Tzulscha]

Looking good.

I built this thing many (many) years ago but I just slapped it together and slathered paint all over.

 

Still have it hanging from the ceiling...

 

Yours is better...

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Thom216 said:

MC.72 is also the next build I have planned!😁

Good, I do like the Macchis.

 

 

[Thom216]

1 hour ago, Tzulscha said:

Looking good.

I built this thing many (many) years ago but I just slapped it together and slathered paint all over.

 

Still have it hanging from the ceiling...

 

Yours is better...

My father use to have WWII planes hanging from the living room ceiling. It's what got me interested in models too.

37 minutes ago, DMC said:

Good, I do like the Macchis.

 

 

It's one sexy plane, eps with that long nose.

[MattSimps74]

Hi Thom it’s looking great so far - I hope you don’t mind if I share some pics of my shelf queen on your thread?

I’m looking forward to seeing how you tackle the float struts - that’s the point at which mine stalled! Hope you can push on through!!!

A nice reference work is the Haynes S6B Manual, some great period photos. 

 

I put a vertical keel piece under the fuselage, over the radiator you’re talking about.

 

cowling corrections

 

 

Cowling straps are strips of vinyl, lord knows how I’m going to paint the cockpit!

vents from styrene semicircles bent around a paintbrush handle.

going to have to scratch a canopy.

Hope these are of use, you’ve rekindled my interest in this one.

cheers, good luck with the rigging!!

matt

 

[Thom216]

5 hours ago, MattSimps74 said:

Hi Thom it’s looking great so far - I hope you don’t mind if I share some pics of my shelf queen on your thread?

I’m looking forward to seeing how you tackle the float struts - that’s the point at which mine stalled! Hope you can push on through!!!

A nice reference work is the Haynes S6B Manual, some great period photos. 

 

I put a vertical keel piece under the fuselage, over the radiator you’re talking about.

 

cowling corrections

 

 

Cowling straps are strips of vinyl, lord knows how I’m going to paint the cockpit!

vents from styrene semicircles bent around a paintbrush handle.

going to have to scratch a canopy.

Hope these are of use, you’ve rekindled my interest in this one.

cheers, good luck with the rigging!!

matt

 

Wow, she looks fantastic!

Other than a little envy now, I'm glad your interest has been rekindled. Would be a shame to let her sit incomplete.

 

No pics at the moment, but I'm working on the struts, cleaning the filler where they attach to the floats and I set up the holes for the pins that will secure them to the nose.

Also bought some half-round rod to redo the radiator piping on the bottom. Once the wing is on, they'll be laid down.

 

Model on!

 

[Thom216]

Okay some pics.

 

First off is drilling the struts for some pins. After all is said and done, I'll bend the pins before gluing them into the struts, so they go straight up.

 

I then needed to cut off the top parts in order to glue them into the slots under the nose and belly of the wing.

 

For the nose, I ended up with this.

 

Didn't like that though, so out came the round stock, and since I only have solid at the size I need, out came the drill bit. 

Ended up (again) with this.

 

Need to clean that up some, but it is much better. Again, I'll bend the pins to go straight up from the struts into those.

 

Next up was gluing the struts to the floats. After taking the tops off, I left them connected at the bottom to help with eye-balling alignment, as well as having a distance to measure for the wire that will replace the bottom spans.

 

Once that was dry, the bottom spans were cut out and I could start puttying the big gaping holes in the floats from the struts. All the white is PPP filling the aforementioned holes.

 

Have to remember to re-engrave the lines. And mark where some holes will be drilled for the new wire that will connected the floats.

Also have to think about the cuffs for the tops and bottoms of the struts...

 

To end the day, the wings have been glued on!

 

Let that dry and I'll blend it in at the front and back and run a little filler in at the sides. Not enough to erase the seam, but just to take some depth out of it. Also have to run some filler along the join between the cowls. Still a little mess to behold there!🙃

 

All for now... except for this pic of the S6B belly!

 

.Model on!

 

Edited August 28, 2019 by Thom216

[DMC]

Neat work, Thom, looks as though you’ve sorted your strut problem.  If you haven’t already, thought you might like to see a photo of how I made the “cuffs” on the Macchi.  Struts are made up of .010 styrene around lengths of wire and a bead of Milliput  then cemented.  A pretty solid structure once all set up and cemented. 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

[Courageous]

Great work Thom. That belly shot shows that she wasn't as streamlined as I thought.

@DMC, like the rectangular jig at bottom right, helps to line everything up.

 

Stuart

 

[Thom216]

On 8/28/2019 at 12:30 AM, DMC said:

Neat work, Thom, looks as though you’ve sorted your strut problem.  If you haven’t already, thought you might like to see a photo of how I made the “cuffs” on the Macchi.  Struts are made up of .010 styrene around lengths of wire and a bead of Milliput  then cemented.  A pretty solid structure once all set up and cemented. 

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks! I'm going to try a few options first, such as miliput or resin copies from another build I'm doing, the A6M float plane. But this will be kept firmly in mind!

Edited August 30, 2019 by Thom216

[Thom216]

Smol update.

 

I redid the rear mounting holes the same as the front pair. Drilled a pair of holes, drilled some holes through some rod and glued them in.

 

 

I know they are slightly off, but there should be enough play to line them up when the times comes.

 

Model on!

[Thom216]

On 8/28/2019 at 2:53 AM, Courageous said:

Great work Thom. That belly shot shows that she wasn't as streamlined as I thought.

@DMC, like the rectangular jig at bottom right, helps to line everything up.

 

Stuart

 

A real lot of detail under there. Not that I'm doing all of that!😉