Fairey Barracuda -- Special Hobby 1/72

[billn53]

As the proverb says, "Idle hands are the devil's workshop", and after finishing my Northrop YB-35 flying wing just in time for our local show, I felt a need to do something smaller, quicker, and definitely NOT with a natural metal finish. Looking through my stash, I heard this kit singing to me:

 

 

 

Like some dogs, there are some airplanes are so ugly that they're beautiful, and you just gotta take them home!

 

Searching through the BM forums, I discovered TheBaron has posted a 58-page WIP on this very kit,

 

 

and I was at first hesitant to do a WIP of my own. But, what the heck, here we go!

 

I began by completely ignoring the recommended construction sequence, and assembled the wheel wells so I could get them painted along with all of the interior parts:

 

 

 

Special Hobby has done a fine job with the interior details. Here's an example:

 

 

 

After painting the gray-green base coat, I gave the interior a wash of "streaking grime" to give a well-used appearance:

 

 

 

I put only a minimum of effort into the instrument panel, as it will be barely visible once the fuselage is closed up:

 

 

 

My first impressions on this kit are that the detailing and fit are very good, but the instructions (although beautifully done from a graphics standpoint) are often vague about where things go, and sometimes completely wrong. For example, if you follow the instructions you'll be gluing the control stick (C45) onto the floor-mounted compass:

 

 

 

instead of between the compass and the pilot's seat.

 

Otherwise, the interior went together without any issues:

 

 

 

 

 

Before closing the fuselage, I found it essential to do much test fitting and trimming. For example, the instrument panel is slightly wider than it should be, and I had to snip off a corner to make it fit:

 

 

 

Likewise this panel on the belly needed some sanding, plus some added reinforcement at the join:

 

 

 

The test fitting paid off when it came time to glue the fuselage halves together. 

 

 

 

Fit was, for the most part, very good!

 

 

 

The belly has some minor gaps that needed filling, especially around the piece for the arresting hook mount:

 

   

 

Once again, I'm putting my trust in sprue gloop to fill these seams!

 

 

 

Test fitting and trimming also ensured the wings went together ok:

 

 

 

Special Hobby's design for mounting the wings to the fuselage at first gave me pause, but more test fitting convinced me the fit is very precise and should give a good, strong join:

 

 

 

 

 

(The fit is actually much better than the above picture might suggest)

 

Not bad progress for three day's work!

 

 

[Courageous]

Moving along nicely with the 'ugly duckling'.

 

Stuart

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Ugly?  Hey, at least it’s not a Mk.V; now that was ugly!

 

Can never have too many Barras

[Nickthebrief]

That is VERY good progress for 3 day's work!

It seems that Special Hobby put more effort into their 1:72 Barra than the 1:48 one - where the Observer's cockpit has no detail at all; the wings have a completely flat butt joint and the overall fit is "interesting"....

I shall enjoy watching your build progress.

Cheers,

Nick.

[Fishbed]

I have that very kit creeping towards the top of the build pile.  I'll be following with interest........................

 

Tim

[stevehnz]

Nice to see how well this goes together, some hope for mine yet. Nice too @billn53 to see you modelling some a bit "saner" than your last effort. I looked in occasionally but not for too long least the bug bit. Now this one, the bug bit about 50 years ago with a Frog one.

Steve.

[billn53]

1 hour ago, stevehnz said:

Nice to see how well this goes together, some hope for mine yet. Nice too @billn53 to see you modelling some a bit "saner" than your last effort. I looked in occasionally but not for too long least the bug bit. Now this one, the bug bit about 50 years ago with a Frog one.

Steve.

Not totally sane, though. Yahahahahaha!

and I’m sure I have one of the Frogs somewhere in my stash. 

 

Bill

[CedB]

I too have one of these in the stash Bill so watching with interest  

[825]

One thing to watch is the struts for the tailplane are a bit on the short side on mine (and in others' reviews) so you might need to fabricate new ones from plastic rod or similar. 

[TheBaron]

On 8/29/2019 at 7:04 AM, billn53 said:

and I was at first hesitant to do a WIP of my own. But, what the heck, here we go!

Go for it man; you're off to a cracking start already and it's a lovely kit of a distinctive aircaft.

Good luck!

Tony

[billn53]

2 hours ago, 825 said:

One thing to watch is the struts for the tailplane are a bit on the short side on mine (and in others' reviews) so you might need to fabricate new ones from plastic rod or similar. 

Thanks. I recall TheBaron found an issue with those struts so I’ll be on the lookout when I get to that point. 

[billn53]

1 hour ago, TheBaron said:

...it's a lovely kit of a distinctive aircaft.

“distinctive”. That’s an euphemism, isn’t it?

 

But it is a lovely kit. 

[Brandy]

Ooh, another Barra, and another bill build! Can't go wrong with that although I'm gobsmacked at the pace so far!

 

Ian

[billn53]

Since my last update I've been focusing on the canopy and other clear parts. These are molded quite thin, being very clear and with little distortion. I've gotten into the habit of polishing and clear-dipping my canopies, and although I probably could have skipped this for the Barracuda, I went ahead and did it anyway. Here is the canopy post-dipping:

 

 

 

As you can see, it is very clear and the interior details should show through a-ok, even after the copious canopy framing is painted:

 

 

 

Fit is not perfect, there being a significant gap over the shoulder just above the forward wing. To mitigate this, I had to move the canopy slightly to the rear and down. I trimmed the rear of the fuselage opening to move the canopy back, and sanded the front bottom of the canopy to achieve the downward shift. These actions were an improvement, although the fit is still not perfect:

 

 

 

Once again (for the fourth time this year), I managed to crack the canopy while manhandling it with my big, fat fingers:

 

 

 

The crack pretty much follows the canopy framing, and I'm hoping it will be less obvious after the framing is painted. For my backup plan, somewhere in my stash I have a Falcon vacuform set which I believe includes a Barracuda canopy. I might even go so far as to open up the canopy, as TheBaron did in his build.

 

Moving on to the wings, Special Hobby gives the option of adding the wingtip position lights. A set of clear lights is included on the sprue, and the instructions detail where to cut the wingtip. I drilled out the bottom of the clear parts and filled in the holes with red and green paint to simulate light bulbs:

 

 

The clear lights do not fit well, and are larger than the opening cut out of the wingtip. I'll describe how I attacked this problem. First, I glued the lights into the wingtip cutouts using UV-activated clear acrylic gel:

 

 

 

Next, I used a medium grit sanding stick to shape the lights and blend them in to the wingtip.  A multi-grade nail buffing stick, procured from my pharmacy's cosmetics aisle, was employed to fine sand and polish the lights:

 

 

 

I followed this up with Tamiya plastic polish (medium and finish grades). Voila! Lights are done, easy as pie.

 

 

 

Finally, I detailed the landing light on the port wing leading edge. First thing I did was to over the kit's incorrect aft bulkhead with thin plasticard:

 

 

 

Using the photo below as a guide, I painted black dots to simulate lightening holes, and added a 2.7mm diameter, stick-on lens to model the Barracuda's landing light.

 

 

Next, I glued on the kit's clear cover, again using clear, UV-activated gel. I found that the kit cover stands a bit proud of the wing surface, so I carefully sanded it flush with a sanding stick:

 

 

 

Looks bad, doesn't it?

 

Just like with the wingtip lights, a few minutes work with the nail buffing stick and Tamiya polishing compound brought everything back into clarity:

 

 

 

Pretty slick!

 

Next up: Finish up the fuselage assembly, add the wings and horizontal stabs, and get a primer coat on.

[Tempestwulf]

This gives me a good insight to building mine too. Something about the fugly brutish Barracuda endears me to it.

[mdauben]

On 8/29/2019 at 1:04 AM, billn53 said:

Once again, I'm putting my trust in sprue gloop to fill these seams!

 

 

Excuse my ignorance but could you explain this?  I've heard of using bits of stretched sprue to help fill in especially big gaps, but this technique is a new one to me.  Thanks!

[billn53]

54 minutes ago, mdauben said:

Excuse my ignorance but could you explain this?  I've heard of using bits of stretched sprue to help fill in especially big gaps, but this technique is a new one to me.  Thanks!

Sprue gloop is closely related to stretched sprue in its uses as a gap filler, and they are often used together. 

Take a mostly-empty bottle of liquid cement (such as Tamiya Extra Thin) and add snips of sprue to it. The cement, over a period of hours, will melt the sprue. Keep adding sprue until you achieve a thick, almost honey-like consistency. 

For filling gaps, if the gap is small you can fill the gap just using the gloop. For wider gaps, fill with stretched sprue and cover with gloop. 

There are also other uses for sprue gloop: Ridgerunner built a new nose for one of his mods, covering the entire nose with gloop!

Just be aware that gloop takes a lot of time to thoroughly harden (depending on thickness).  It also doesn’t adhere well on painted surfaces.

Plus side is, it’s plastic just like the model, takes scribing well, and doesn’t chip or flake like most putties. 

[CedB]

Nice work Bill - those clear parts look really good, especially the landing light  

[Grey Beema]

Lights work really well.  Might get one of those nail buffing kits myself..

[mdauben]

14 hours ago, billn53 said:

Sprue gloop is closely related to stretched sprue in its uses as a gap filler, and they are often used together. . 

Thanks!

[billn53]

8 hours ago, Grey Beema said:

Might get one of those nail buffing kits myself..

Not a kit, actually. Just a multi-sided sander/buffer. They come in a variety of shapes & sizes:

 

 

[billn53]

Been working the underside of the wings prior to joining wings to fuselage.

 

The attachment for the flaps is a challenge and requires careful preparation for success.  Taking a cue from TheBaron, I thinned the flap strut attachment point in order to increase its contact area, for better adhesion when I glue them together:

 

 

 

The instructions give almost no guidance on where to glue the struts. There's a 'nub' on edge of the strut where it joins, but no corresponding hole on the wing. After deciding where the inboard strut should be, I carefully drilled a hole for the nub:

 

 

 

Using the flap as my measuring device, I added the outboard strut (again drilling a hole for the outboard strut's nub). It is critical that the two struts be precisely positioned, so that the flap can be installed later without any issues. (My plan is to paint the flaps separately and install them during final assembly.)

 

 

 

There is still an actuator to install, but for now the flap situation has been sorted out.

 

Next, I installed the underside wing fence. I used Tamaya Extra Thin to position the fence, followed with gap-filling CA for added strength.

 

 

 

There were also a couple of items on the nose that needed to be done.  I added the two "cheek" air scoops -- be advised that the instructions have apparently mixed up the part numbers, and would have you put the left scoop on the right side of the fuselage, etc. Again, the instructions give little guidance on where, exactly, the scoops go, and in any case the fit leaves a lot to be desired.

 

 

I also assembled & painted the nose piece, and glued it in place. I highlighted the interior mesh using a bronze-colored weathering pencil from AK Interactive.

 

 

 

That's all for the Saturday afternoon report.

[CedB]

Nice work Bill - I especially like that nose  

[dogsbody]

3 hours ago, billn53 said:

Not a kit, actually. Just a multi-sided sander/buffer. They come in a variety of shapes & sizes:

 

 

 

My youngest daughter is a cosmetician working in the boutique at one of the local stores of a national chain of drugstores. She got me this, using her employee discount. She also said it's a good one that she used on her nails. Hard to argue with a professional especially when she's as stubborn as her mother!

 

 

 

 

I concur with @CedB. Nice work on the radiator.

 

 

Chris

[billn53]

Wings are on!

 

As you can see below, there's no gap at all. I used Plastruct Bondene, which is perfect for this kind of join. It immediately dissolves the plastic and sets in seconds. Liquified plastic oozed out of the join, making putty superfluous.

 

 

 

(I've re-purposed the old Frog kit canopy to mask and protect my interior.