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1:48 Wasserjungfer (kit bash)


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@Pete in Lincs & @Corsairfoxfouruncle talked about the rotation of the props, so I’ve taken a “managerial decision” and decided to “turn around” one set of blades.

The Airfix kit comes with two options of blades, thin ones and thick ones (technical terms!), so for the look I want I’ve gone for the thicker ones.

 

These come in two parts and leave a line/gap/seem near the bottom of each blade.

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So one set of blades was chopped off..

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…and pinned and glued in the reverse way.

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The line/gap/seems were filled with sprue-goo and, once cured, sanded flush.

 

As I’ve decided to give her “wooden” propellor blades, so first thing was to give them a coat of Stynylrez white primer.

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For the base (lighter) wood colour I used MRP-259 pale wood.

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Tamiya tape was used to mask the laminations and then a coat of MRP-015 AMT-1 light brown was applied.

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To give a varnished wood finish I sprayed a couple of thinned coats of Mr Hobby H92 clear orange.

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Finally the prop’ hub was painted vallejo 70.801 brass, I’m reasonably certain that this will not be visible one the spinners are added.

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I’m not 100% with how these have turned out, I think its because their too orange, I’m going to live with them for a while and see if I change my mind, worst case is I’ll repaint them and perhaps make them non-glossy?

 

 

Next I’ll be painting the spinners…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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Very neat work on reversing the blades and the wood graining. I'm not so sure on the orange either, but it's not my model.

 

James

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3 hours ago, shortCummins said:

I’m not 100% with how these have turned out, I think its because their too orange, I’m going to live with them for a while and see if I change my mind, worst case is I’ll repaint them and perhaps make them non-glossy?

I was at a local airshow in July and just by happenstance there was a wooden bladed Piper cub. 

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Hopefully it shows in these photo’s that they can get quite bleached. However more importantly notice that they can  also get blemished, stained and appear to have rot in some places. I wouldn't worry too much about it, brand new they might've had a very dark tone before fading out. 

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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7 hours ago, 81-er said:

Very neat work on reversing the blades and the wood graining. I'm not so sure on the orange either, but it's not my model.

 

James

thanks James

 

the more I look at the "orange" the more I think I don't like them

 

6 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I was at a local airshow in July and just by happenstance there was a wooden bladed Piper cub. 

zYmctZN.jpg

 

QdThtz9.jpg
 

jQ5V0Gk.jpg
Hopefully it shows in these photo’s that they can get quite bleached. However more importantly notice that they can  also get blemished, stained and appear to have rot in some places. I wouldn't worry too much about it, brand new they might've had a very dark tone before fading out. 

 

thanks for these, it looks as if there's a metal edge (brass?) to them and the laminations aren't too noticeable? I do like the blemishes and stains 

 

I think I now have a better idea of what I want to achieve

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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@DalekCheese questioned about spinner patterns, I’m going to attempt a spiral pattern, if it doesn’t work I’ll do something else.

 

To start I sprayed both the spinners and backing plates with Stynylrez white primer, this will act as the spiral colour.

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Then I used some thin masking tape to make the spiral.

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My initial intention was to paint the spinners red, however I’ve decided to paint them Tamiya X-14 sky blue as this will be one of the colours used for the fuselage band that I’ll add later in the build, I’m toying with the idea of having blue and white bands.

 

Once the masking tape was removed this is the result.

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A quick test-fit to see what the prop’s and spinners look like together.

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This has convinced me that the propellor blades don't "work" so I'll be using @Corsairfoxfouruncle photos to reimagine them however in the meantime my car body filler has arrived so next I’ll be getting back to the nose section…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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As previously mentioned I wanted to make sure that the nose wasn’t too heavy for a couple of reasons,

   1) I wanted to ensure that she is a tail sitter,

   2) that the nose didn’t “fall off” because of weight.

 

So I cut-up a couple of yogurt cartons, Muller Corners since you ask, into strips and glued them in place…

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As a "belt and braces" measure these were also fixed in place with some sprue-goo which was left to cure over-night.

 

The following morning I mixed some Isopon P.38 multi-purpose body filler and applied a rough layer to the nose framework to act as a base/key for the final shape.

I’d used some masking tape to protect to P-38 nose and main body whilst applying the isopon, I removed the tape straight after the putty had been applied as I didn’t want to risk having the tape permanently fixed to the airframe!

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Interestingly, Isopon contains styrene and there’s a warning that it will cause skin and serious eye irritation!

 

I left this base coat to dry overnight and then knocked off some of the higher peaks of the base layer to enable a more uniform layer.

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Once I was satisfied with the “base” layer I applied more, building up the filler until I got the nose into more or less the shape I was after.

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I think I must have got the mixture wrong, you have to add a “hardener”, approx. pea size to golfball size of filler.

As I was mixing a small amount I think that I must have added too much hardener as the mixture started out easy to smooth and then, very quickly, 30 seconds or so, turned to “marbles” as I tried to smooth it. I’m not too worried as when I sanded the “base layer” it was really easy to work.

 

 

 

I'll leave this overnight before shaping and smoothing the filler…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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After another overnight drying I wet-sanded the nose to shape.

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You can see from these photos that there are some divots left as the isopon either wasn’t applied thick enough or the "bobbles" took some of the base with them when they were sanded.
I’m going to try filling these with sprue-goo as I think trying to get the filler mixture correct for such a small amount would be tricky.

 

Sprue-goo applied

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Some of these divots are deeper than others so I’m going to leave this batch overnight and then “top up” as needed.

 

 

 

While I’m waiting for the nose repairs I’ll be revisiting the propellors…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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After @Corsairfoxfouruncle provided the photos of the bird-dog propellor my mind was made-up to change the too orange versions of my initial attempt so off to Google I went to find some other ideas and this is what I found…

 

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I like the idea of a brass/metal strip, I also like the “tips” a different colour, these ones look to have been dyed?

 

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Here’s another metal edged prop’.

 

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Something a bit different with the tips brass covered.

 

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This looks as if it was made to slice something.

 

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I think these are decorative pieces, but I like them and may well use this sort of idea on a future build.

 

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Probably my favourite with painted end panels and heavy brass edges and tips.

 

 

Anyhow before anything else I removed most of the paint with some Isopropyl wipes…

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…and then given another coat of Stynylrez white primer

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Next I’ll be painting the “new” laminations, painted panels and metal edges…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

Edited by shortCummins
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I'm glad you changed the paint on the props. They looked a bit harsh to me. 

You could foil the leading edges? I like the blades with the chequers.

After car body filler I use body putty to fill those divots. But Humbrol filler is pretty much the same thing.

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16 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

I'm glad you changed the paint on the props. They looked a bit harsh to me. 

You could foil the leading edges? I like the blades with the chequers.

After car body filler I use body putty to fill those divots. But Humbrol filler is pretty much the same thing.

thanks for the tip Pete

 

yesterday I applied some sprue-goo, the "smaller" divots filled in quite nicely however the "larger" ones need more, obvious really?, so today I've sanded the first batch and added extra sprue-goo to the deeper ones. It looks as if I'll need to repeat this process a few times so I'll probably dig out my squadron green and use that.

Foil for the leading edges is a really good idea, watch this space!

I've decided to "paint" the tip ends of the blades, I'll see what they look like as one colour but they could well end up chequered.

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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Nice progress. I'm quite liking the shots showing the airframe pre-painted, gives it even more of a "made from whatever we had to hand" vibe

 

James

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9 minutes ago, 81-er said:

Nice progress. I'm quite liking the shots showing the airframe pre-painted, gives it even more of a "made from whatever we had to hand" vibe

 

James

thanks James

 

the idea behind pre-painting is that I'll be adding the top wing, eventually, and I needed to give myself both a guide for the camo, mainly for the engine nacelles, and as a base for the weathering of the upper parts of the bottom wing (camo) and the underside of the upper wing as they will be difficult to paint once the upper wing is bolted in place.

 

Having said all that the finished "paint job" will be of a very "used" aircraft so it will look quite tatty and I plan to add some "field mods" that will be very much in the "whatever we had to hand" offerings.

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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I wanted the wood for these to be slightly darker than the previous version and also for the laminations not to have as much contrast.

So I’m not going to use the pale wood for the base this time as I’m going to try having the propellors “darker” so the first colour was MRP-015 AMT-1 light brown which was the “darker” of the laminations previously.

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For some reason this photo makes it look as if there is grey showing under the light brown, “in real life” it there’s no grey.

 

One of the things I didn’t like about the first set of propellers was the laminations looked too large, so I made them smaller.

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Once the laminations were masked I used Tamiya XF-57 buff to depict the different colour laminations.

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Next I’ll be adding the painted tip ends and “metal” leading edges…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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I agree with Pete that the chequered tips look good, I wanted a light colour but not white, so these were masked and given a coat of MRP-257 clear doped linen variant 1.

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Then I masked some squares and gave them a coat of Tamiya XF-81 dark RAF green.

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Pete also suggested that I could use foil for the leading edges, I thought that it was a really good idea however, I’m really pleased with the way these look so I’m going to leave them "as is", at least until after a coat of semi-matt and then decide on the leading edges later in the build.

 

Here is what they look like with the spinner…

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Im really happy with the more muted colours, the previous orange "varnish" didn't work for me, these "light browns" along with the green and off-white give an "old fashioned photo" feel that has turned out better that I'd imagined.

 

 

Next I’ll be going back to the nose…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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On 12/10/2021 at 14:14, Hunter Rose said:

Wow those are some damn fine looking propellers!

 

On 12/10/2021 at 14:39, 81-er said:

Those turned out beautifully John, very nice work indeed

 

James

thanks lads

 

I must admit to being very happy with the result, so much better than my first attempt 👍

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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After leaving the sprue-goo to cure overnight as expected some of the divots will need topping up, this could take several goes.

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On the fourth attempt I think their looking about right..

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However before adding the panel-lines, rivets and access hatches I’ll give the nose a coat of Stynylrez black primer just to what other “work” is needed.

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Next I’ll be finishing off the dinks and then adding the panel lines and rivet detail to the nose…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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This is starting to show real promise and is a great lesson in going back and fixing things you're not happy with.

 

As you use P-38 may I suggest Holts knifing putty as a suitable partner. texture very similar, a tube lasts ages, apply thin layers wait a few minutes and you're ready to go again and finally if you go too thick don't panic as it will set but take a while. Got to say the rhinoplasty is looking very good indeed.

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47 minutes ago, SleeperService said:

This is starting to show real promise and is a great lesson in going back and fixing things you're not happy with.

 

As you use P-38 may I suggest Holts knifing putty as a suitable partner. texture very similar, a tube lasts ages, apply thin layers wait a few minutes and you're ready to go again and finally if you go too thick don't panic as it will set but take a while. Got to say the rhinoplasty is looking very good indeed.

thanks for the tip, all this is new to me and I'll have some more work to do once I add the twin booms and while the sprue-goo works, it takes several layers to build up and therefore takes quite a while, not that I'm in a rush but I'd like to have less time having to wait before I can continue.

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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2 hours ago, Uncle Monty said:

That's a good nose job. Watch out for the dust when sanding that filler, it gave me a sore throat a while back.

thanks for the tip Uncle Monty

 

as I suffer with a "bad chest" I tend to use a mask whenever I spray or sand anything but its worth pointing out the issues you can unknowingly cause yourself.

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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So there were a few “dinks” that needed to be filled which I did with some more sprue-goo and sanded flush.

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Where the “nose” joins the fuselage and also to the P-38 machine-gun part, I want to add a panel line, so I used some flexible tape to act as a guide and scribed it.

I also wanted to add some access panels so that the machine guns can be re-armed and maintained. A panel was scribed and some “fasteners” added, then I “cleaned” the primer off with an isopropanol wipe so that I could see the markings…

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…then another coat of Stynylrez black primer was applied.

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It looks as if some of the sprue-goo has fallen out so I’ll get some Holts knifing putty see if that does a better job.

 

 

 

Next I’ll be returning to the engine nacelles…

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, criticisms or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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