PeterB Posted October 11, 2019 Author Share Posted October 11, 2019 Whilst Supermodel give a pretty good readout for the colours of the plane and its bits, there is no mention of the cradle. Unless anybody knows better I will paint it either RLM02 or Panzer Grey - probably the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 On 12/10/2019 at 07:21, dogsbody said: The secret stash, away from the regular stash? Chris No, just too many kits and not enough room to put them all. I no longer have anyone looking over my shoulder to worry about. Although I did have my daughter visit from Australia a few weeks ago and when she saw my stash I got. "Dad, oh really ". They just don't understand the need to have that one more kit. Although I have improved lately as I have just about all the kits I am interested in now. Just waiting for the 1/48 Tiger Moth and the P38 for in the new year. Then there is the Do 217M or K if ICM finally give us one. Pete I think German grey would be the way to go. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 Hi @Greg Law Sorry to hear you no longer have your Kit monitor looking over your shoulder, I am with you on the secret stash department however ! Cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted October 15, 2019 Author Share Posted October 15, 2019 I have made a start on the interior and will post pics in the next couple of days. Looking at the kit I am beginning to wonder if I will need to add some ballast to the fuselage so it sits correctly on the cradle - it is an odd shape with the short body and tailbooms so I suspect it will be tail heavy. Can anybody who has actually built it remember what they did? Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted October 15, 2019 Share Posted October 15, 2019 Great to know it's started! Looking forward to the first pictures Cheers Jaime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted October 17, 2019 Author Share Posted October 17, 2019 (edited) This is a slightly strange kit. Considering that the original mould dates back to 1977 according to Scalemates it is quite detailed. However the raised panel lines are perhaps unsurprisingly a bit heavy. As you will see it looks almost like the plated hull of a ship! Of course it was a Flying Boat and Blohm und Voss were primarily shipbuilders. Pictures seem to confirm that the hull did indeed look like this, though I am not so sure about the wings. I may do a little gentle sanding down. The cut-out in the lower hull is strange - as far as I can see the only justification for it is to create a step inside on which the cockpit floor is supported. It will be a bit of a pain filling the seams I expect the insert will leave when glued in. Then there are the turrets. Instead of the usual turret base with some sort of pivot etc, the pivot is actually part of the glazing, whixh means that they are split down the middle - a real pain! The cannon themselves are interesting. The barrels are thinner than the sort of thing found in Frog kits and the curved breech shape is similar to that in a cutaway drawing I have seen, but they have also included what seems to be the curved strip that seals the slot in the glazing as the gun moves up and down, which I have never seen on a kit before! Ok it is a bit thick, but a nice touch. As to the "upper" gun mounting at the back of the middle engine, it is just a ring on to which the gun support has to be glued - I think that will be best left until near the end and I might add the gunner to provide a bit more support as his hands can be glued to the breech. He has no seat, and as with the actual turrets there is nothing below to blank off the view into the hull. The turrets and guns are going to be a pain to mask and prone to breakage, unless I modify them so I can fit them at a later stage. The wing joint consists of two thin pins so that may need strengthening too. I can see I am going to have to be very careful handling this when painting etc. - may end up brush painting it. More before too long, but I have up to 3 builds in another GB to do in the next 5 weeks. Edited October 17, 2019 by PeterB 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Looks an interesting subject that I knew nothing about. In my book, that raised detail would need to go. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted October 17, 2019 Author Share Posted October 17, 2019 As I don't have either the time or inclination (or steady enough hands) to re-scribe it I think I will just rub it down a bit as I did with the rivets on my Shackleton build in the Frog GB. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Given that this is a flying boat, visible panel lines sounds like leaks to me and any gaps would have been filled and sealed before painting. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted October 17, 2019 Author Share Posted October 17, 2019 (edited) As you will see from the pics below in spite of their poor quality, the panel shapes are about right on the hull and there should be a lot more smaller panels on the wing perhaps. On the wing one it looks like some sealant has been applied, and on the painted nose the joints do appear to stand proud rather than being recessed - at least in some places - almost like they had applied beading over them. I remember in 1967 (I think) being in a small boat in Southampton harbour, literally touching the stem (bow) of the RMS Queen Mary, which was about to sail into retirement in the US. I was surprised to see how rough all the riveted plates looked and this does remind me of that day long ago - and yes I know the plating was a lot thinner on the 138! See what I mean? Unfortunately I can't find the other pics I took but it seems to me that the stem of that huge ship was only about 6" thick - no wonder it went through the light cruiser Curacoa like a knife when she zig - zagged too close in front on that fateful day in October 1942. A 5400 ton cruiser with 3" max armour plating stood no chance against an 80000 or so ton liner doing over 30mph - OK a lot of fittings had been stripped out before she went trooping so the weight would maybe have been a bit less before anybody points that out! Pete Edited October 17, 2019 by PeterB 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 5 hours ago, PeterB said: As I don't have either the time or inclination (or steady enough hands) to re-scribe it I think I will just rub it down a bit as I did with the rivets on my Shackleton build in the Frog GB. At the end of the day Peter, it's your build. I built Airfix's old Buccaneer with raised lines, they came off and I didn't scribe new ones either. 5 hours ago, Graham Boak said: Given that this is a flying boat, visible panel lines sounds like leaks to me and any gaps would have been filled and sealed before painting. I'd have to agree Graham. Crack on Peter, ignore us. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 Thanks guys, Actually, the raised lines are quite fine and after a few coats of paint might not look too bad, but I will give them a light sand anyway. I will also fill in the "trenches" on the wings around what I presume are access panels for the fuel tanks, and then rescribe them lightly. I might also look at fitting some bulkheads and floors to avoid the see through look at the upper gunners position and under the turrets. This is going to be a slow build initially whilst I concentrate on another GB so don't panic Pat! Pete 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 I have made a start on the cockpit interior, painting it and putting on the decs. One thing I like about this is the way Supermodel handled the numbering and placement of the parts on the sprues. Nowadays the manufacturers juggle the parts between numerous sprues, presumably to save plastic and packaging, but as a result you need to find bits on several sprues for most steps such as the cockpit. Supermodel do seem to have made an effort to keep all the parts for each stage together with the obvious exception of the clear parts, so for example all the cockpit parts are together on the one sprue, and numbered 1-21, likewise the guns numbered 22-34, right up to the beaching trolley in the last stage, numbered 133-144. It makes finding them a lot easier! The crew figures are not bad. I know it may be a bit silly putting them in whilst the kit is on the beaching trolley, but then I suppose they might have been on board before launching - easier than transfer by boat. As I have said previously I might have to fit the gunner to help support the upper gun so I might as well paint them anyway. The long parts between the seats and the floors are the inserts for the cut outs in the bottom of the hull. I am not sure when this actual kit was produced - it is one of the later moldings, but as you can see there is not much flash. The "pips" on the crew backsides seem to be deliberate as they are shown on the instructions - perhaps meant to be fixing points? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 I could do with a bit of help with this. Supermodel have provided a crew of 3 for the cockpit area. The pilot sits on the left with a control wheel and they have provided a wheel for the right hand seat as well, but the book I have says that that seat was occupied by a "Naval Observer/2nd Pilot" who did not have any controls. That does not make sense to me - surely a long range flying boat would have a 2nd pilot with duplicate controls? They have also provided another seated figure that they show behind the cockpit area ( and well below the flight deck which is probably wrong), facing what seems to be an array of radios on the Port side of the fuselage. Now I have aquired a cut away drawing from the Seawings site, but it is small, and when I blow it up it becomes virtually unreadable. However, it clearly shows that the navigator sat at a table on the Port side and the radio operator sat on the Starboard side in front of his radios, which suggests Supermodel have got the radios on the wrong side. To make matters worse the only interior pics I have say that the navigator used the right hand cockpit seat and the radio operator sat with his back to the pilot! I does not help that various sources say that there were either 5 or 6 crew, in the latter case Pilot, Navigator, Radio Operator and 3 gunners - I would have thought that the Nav or W/OP might double up as a gunner. Does anybody have any info, perhaps pics, which show where the radio op sat and what the right hand seat was used for? I have found a You Tube video of a build and they mounted the radio op's floor directly under the flight deck floor which makes more sense, but again with the radios (if that is what they are) on the Port side. I am confused! As there are no surviving (intact) aircraft I wonder where Supermodel got their info from? Cheers Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 From this booklet: Chris 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogsbody Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 More from the Luftwaffe Experten Message Board: Chris 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 Pictures paint a thousand words, looks like problem solved Pete. Good find Chris. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted October 19, 2019 Author Share Posted October 19, 2019 (edited) Thanks Chris. I have that book and I wonder if the comment about no controls on the right was just for that particular machine and not general as there does seem to be one in the second set of pics. As to the W/Op I could not work out which side he was on from the first pic as I have the German version of the book, and could not find my dictionary, but the later ones show Supermodel were correct, though the seat should not be as low as they suggest - they put him right in the bottom of the hull (unless he is meant to be the navigator? The cutaway on the Seawings site also seems to be wrong though I guess it may be for a different variant. Incidentally - the IP decal seems to be quite accurate judging by the above photo, so Supermodel clearly had a good source. Cheers Pete Edited October 19, 2019 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 6, 2019 Author Share Posted November 6, 2019 In case you thought I had abandoned this Pat, I have been leaving it until I was close to finishing the 3 kits I am building in another GB, but now I will make a start. I have glued in the cockpit floor, seats, IP etc but prior to assembling the rest of the interior I dry fitted the hull to see how it sits on the beaching trolley. It is pretty secure but I think a little lead in the nose would be a good idea as the tail booms are pretty substantial - I am a little surprised at how tall it actually is - about 8cm when on the trolley. This is going to be a bit bigger than it looks in the enormous box. As you can see the trolley is clearly shaped to fit the 138, and the positioning results in a very long towbar! I have fitted the parts in the annoying hull recesses I mentioned earlier and as expected they needed quite a bit of filling. I have rubbed the panel lines down a bit and rescribed a few that were lost around the hull inserts. I am debating whether to fit the small circular windows or to just use Krystal Klear, which will save a bit of masking. Incidentally Supermodel do give a colour for the trolley after all - I was wrong. They say "Gunmetal Black" but the illustration looks more like a greenish RLM02. I have gone with the same "Panzer Grey" the Wehrmacht used at the start of the war as that seems to be standard equipment/vehicle colour for the Luftwaffe as well and which may well be what they meant in the colour listing. I will complete the assembly of the cockpit next and I suspect I will have to fit a few bulheads/floors as the interior is very "see through" at the moment. I will also have to add a coaming to the IP by the looks of it. As ever, so much for building OOB! More shortly I expect. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 Greg - OK, just how many suitcases?? Fascinating research Peter. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 Never doubted you for a minute Pete ! 😉 Seriously it looks the business, keep up the good work cheers Pat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted November 7, 2019 Share Posted November 7, 2019 18 hours ago, AdrianMF said: Greg - OK, just how many suitcases?? Fascinating research Peter. Regards, Adrian Just two. I ran out of room to store my kits, so any space is used. In the end I sold off a third of my never to be built kits, which allowed me to get some more. Now I'm pretty well complete. Mind you I do have a Do 215 nightfigher and a replacement He 111H-3 on the way. I got the H-3 because I'm making an H-4 out of my current kit and will want to do an internal bomb load Heinkel in the future. Back to Pete. Looking good Pete. I am keen to see how this turns out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted November 18, 2019 Share Posted November 18, 2019 How is this one coming along Pete? I'm keen to see what you are doing with it. My Beaufort is still chugging along. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 18, 2019 Author Share Posted November 18, 2019 Hi Greg, It's in the queue behind the 3 kits I am building for another GB, but that ends this weekend so full speed ahead after that - well sort of as I have a kit in the KUTA as well. Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Law Posted November 19, 2019 Share Posted November 19, 2019 Excellent Pete. I will be looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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