Sparrowhawk..?? More like Microhawk

[Putty Animal]

 

 

Well, here's what I've been up to for the last couple of months.  I do love the Curtiss F9C.  It's such a sporty little nugget. 

 

I've liked this aircraft for a long time. A real long time. Which is why I thought I'd try to do myself a favour and see if I can add one to my 1/144 scale collection. If I can finish it, it will be a nod to a much younger me and a lesson that its never too late to finish that which you have already started.

 

Some builds sit on the Shelf of Doom. This one is almost part of the archaeological record, as I started making it in 1997.   At the time there was precious little information to hand. No internet in my part of the world, and all references had to be sourced from an indifferent local library. I had some plans from a Putnam book on Curtiss aircraft and a 3-view drawing from a Rareplanes vacform kit in 1/72.  Armed with those I gave it a red hot go.  Materials were domestic and automotive for the most part.  Some beech wood offcut was used for the fuselage (pretty well seasoned now, I suspect) and a precious bit of styrene for the wings.  Primer and putty were from the car section at the hardware store, and resisted all but the most rigorous attempts at shaping and sanding.

 

The bits of this poor incomplete Sparrowhawk have been with me for more than twenty years, and I can still remember the many hours I spent whittling and scraping it into shape. The much younger me always hoped to complete it one day. I think it's time it finally came together!

Here's a couple of shots of it after I dug it out of an old biscuit tin. Lets see what we can make of it.

 

 

Pretty manky!

 

 

Over the years I have found some much better drawings and I was able to scan them at high res and reduce them down to 1/144 scale. Once that was done I began to check to accuracy of the work. To help do so I made a very simple jig from some plastic card which supported the aircraft with the upper edge of the card aligned to the level of the thrust line from nose to tail.

I pinched this idea from a warbird restoration photo I saw in a magazine. It makes plotting and measuring a breeze!

 

 

On my drawings I superimposed and identically-sized block that represented the position of the jig. By using the edges of the jig as a datum I could then accurately transfer measurements between the model and the plans.

 

 

 

Things were looking pretty good at this stage (he said, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen next). The profile wasn't too bad. The headrest was .4mm too tall, and the tail was 1mm too low, but that wasn't a biggie. I was encouraged to find that the lower fuselage was pretty good, while the distance between the wings and their forward stagger was okay too.

Happy times.

Then I went to check the plan view... 

 

 

Oh dear god. What did I get myself into? The fuselage was way too wide. Like, Grumman wide. No scratch that. It was Mitsubishi Raiden wide!

Looking at the plans and various walkaround photos, it was clear that the Sparrowhawk fuselage was barely shoulder width, whereas mine was a portly barrel of a thing. Something had to be done, so I reluctantly began trying to file it down.

I started off as delicately as I could. Scraping through a veritable who's-who of primers, putties and adhesives. Eventually though things started to fall off, and before I had gotten even halfway there I had already dug clean through the side walls of the cockpit.

 

 

I found with a bit of care I could preserve the upper bit of the cockpit edge. So I added some new side walls from .5mm styrene and flushed them in. Maybe it will work out okay

Here's where it sat, as I leaned back in my squeaky chair and frowned at it after shaping the rest of the fuselage to trying to get the cross sections to match. Eventually the shapes came together and the whole thing received a generous coat of Tamiya grey and a rub back with 1200 grit wet and dry paper. I filled the original strut holes too and drilled some more accurate ones. It should make things easier later on.

 

 

It's getting late here, so I'll add some more shots again soon.  The fuselage has been reshaped and sanded. The side panels behind the cowling were added from sheet and flushed in.  I also removed the tail and rear decking and made another one. The lower wings turned out to be too broad in span and too wide in chord, so I ended up reshaping these. To my surprise the tailplanes were actually rather good for shape, so I tacked them into position with tiny drops of PVA then backed the joins up with superglue once I was happy with the alignment. The old hinge lines for the ailerons are incorrect so these will get filled and scribed again.

 

 

More later!
 

Edited November 6, 2019 by Putty Animal

[isaneng]

Don't do it folks, don't get dragged into this build. He's mad I tell you, quite mad - like he's got a bionic eye for building ridiculously detailed tiny little models..

You have been warned....   

 

[Putty Animal]

Hehe.  Just you wait! 

[Marklo]

I have an old scale models that has a 1/32 build and I think and Ray Rimmel plans(drawn by, not of), might be too late but I’ll try dust off hen off this evening. Definitely one I’d contemplate adding to the collection, but in 1/48 not Braille scale  

Edited October 14, 2019 by Marklo

[Putty Animal]

1 hour ago, Marklo said:

Definitely one I’d contemplate adding to the collection, but in 1/48 not Braille scale  

 

I always thought braille scale referred to 1/72.  Is there a nickname just for I/144?  Nano-scale perhaps? 

 

Okay, here's where it got a bit fiddly.  First I managed to get that coat of primer on. Its pretty heavy, so I left it to harden for a few days before trying to smooth it down with some 2000 grit prior to doing the wing ribs.

 

 

I also managed to find the wheel spats that I made 20+ years ago. These turned out to be rather good in profile, despite the sketchy references I had at the time. The frontal profile was too wide however, so a bit of sanding was required. sticking them temporarily to a piece of evergreen strip made them easy to hang onto. Wish I'd thought of that when I was younger!

 

 

Anyone with a mind to heeding Isaneng's warning...  Please leave now!  

 

So... I started thinking about the engine. The perforated hub was a scary proposition and I'd been pondering ways of doing it for years.  In the end I stuck a piece of 3mm styrene to the end of a .7mm drill bit and while spinning it in a dentist-style motor (poor-man's lathe) used a file to shape it to size and the desired profile. 

After that I made a 9-segment setout in photoshop and printed it out. This was stuck to the remaining styrene sheet and a .7mm hole drilled precisely at its centre. A bit of rod was jammed up the hub's backside and pushed into the hole at the centre of the template. I made sure it was firm but rotated smoothly.

I measured one of the segments of the wedge shaped cutouts and scored this on another bit of plastic that was positioned over the hub and secured with bulldog clips. Pretty rough, but it did the job.

 

 

 

Now using a sharpened needle, I was able to use the guide to mark the top and bottom of each cutout with a little countersunk mark. After each one, the hub was rotated and the action repeated. After doing each segment I could then take the hub off the template and drill a hole at each end. A 0.2mm hole at the inner, and a 0.5mm at the outer edge.

 

 

After that a fresh scalpel blade was used to "join the dots" and cut a Vee out of the plastic between each pair of holes. The needle was used to dig some of the plastic out too, and was often used to burnish the edges into shape. The resultant hub is pretty tiny. Only about 4.8mm across. I went back later and fussed over it a bit more, but that gives the idea for now.  I was almost cross-eyed from two hours of that...

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to do the raised ribs.  They are pretty narrow on the Sparrowhawk.  Only 0.15mm in 1/144 scale, which is about as fine as I can consistently cut without the tape being so narrow that it actually tips over sideways.

 

I don't know what you would call this. Reverse-masking perhaps? 
This is the beginnings of the rib tapes. Each one gets marked out by a strip of tape, then the rest of the wings get masked off around them before these strips are removed, prior to painting.

 

 

I pecked away at it over the course of a week, masking off the wings either side of the rib tapes.  Using a diamond grader's loupe to check that the edges were butting together properly and stashing the whole thing inside a lightweight freezer bag when I wasn't working on it, to keep the dust of the exposed edges of the tape.

 

Eventually it was ready for showtime.  A sunny Sunday morning and an airbrush full of Tamiya primer.  The fine strips of rib tapes were removed at the last minute just before painting and a last minute sweep along each rib with a little blob of blutack ensured they were dust-free.

 

Time to get painting!

 

[shortCummins]

and I though 1/72 was too small, even with magnification I'd really struggle with this size

 

my hat is well and truly doffed to you

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Marklo]

Quote

I always thought braille scale referred to 1/72.  

Probably, I tend to use the term for anything unfeasibly small, in the same way that Douglas Adams had the idea of speed D (I think) which wasn't any particular speed, just one that was far too fast.

 

Amazing work btw. 4.8 mm my word, I struggled with my Pfalz and it was 22mm.

Edited October 14, 2019 by Marklo

[isaneng]

See, I told you, but you wouldn't listen, would you.....................

[Putty Animal]

Man, I haven't even busted out the giant matchstick yet...! 

 

Here's how it looked after a good squirt of primer.

 

 

The trick with masking the rib tapes is to sand the excess paint off the tape before removing it.  If you don't the edges tear and get lots of jaggies.

Below is a picture of the left wing immediately after the tape was removed, while the right wing has the paint sanded back to reveal the tape.

 

 

 

Some tape residue there and a few stray whiskers of paint, but it cleans up well with a wipe of methylated spirits and a cotton bud.

 

 

The ribs get a very light sand initially, but the main thing for blending them in is a buff with Tamiya plastic polish and a square of neoprene rubber as a buffing pad.  It smooths things out nicely and stops you going too fast.  With the polishing compound; if anything goes wrong you have just enough time to notice!

 

 

Not too bad for 1/144.  Moar matchstick next time! 

[gingerbob]

Yep, definitely a certifiable build... or is that builder?  I think I'll stick to my Williams Brothers 1/32!  At least I can see what I'm working on.

 

You're making it look, if not easy, at least "reasonable".  But I see through that, trust me!

 

bob

 

p.s. I've got plenty of those grand childhood ideas that I haven't quite gotten around to realizing yet.  My wife says I'm a procrastinator.  I just think I'm patient.  But that biological clock is ticking, or rather I'm beginning to hear it.

Edited October 15, 2019 by gingerbob

[Putty Animal]

My wife once asked: “Why do you just paint them all grey?”

 

Me:  “That’s primer darling.  We do that before we paint and finish them.”

 

Wife: “Oh...  Well, which ones have you finished?”

 

Me: “Um...”

[Putty Animal]

Here's the engine hub drilled and new the cylinders too with their funny offset branching heads. So far they are just a push-fit, as I didn't know yet whether I should add them after painting the hub so as to cut down on masking. The original brass cowling is a bit risky for paint adhesion, but I'm obstinately determined to use it for old-time's sake.  Things look a little bit squiffy for now when its all temporarily held together by crumbs of blu-tack, but it will all get squared up (hopefully) in the final assembly.

 

 

 

Next up is the finishing of the rib tapes and flushing in the lower wing...

[Silenoz]

so that's where the ring went... 😉

 

Nice work on this tiny jewel...

[Putty Animal]

Thanks!  I'll try and bring the whole saga up to date as quickly as possible so I can share the current progress. 

 

With the various assemblies primed and pampered a couple more times, I was ready to put the lower wing back on.  Making that jig was the best thing I ever did.  It let me get the alignment right, and also set up the very slight anhedral for the lower wings.  The ailerons and elevators also got their rib detail by this stage and the fuselage was scribed.

 

 

The tricky bit was the rather vast gap between fuselage and lower wing.  This really couldn't be helped, but gap filling superglue was able to fix things in position before Tamiya putty came to the rescue. 

 

 

Rule number one with 1/144 is: never apply putty straight from the tube.  It makes a big old mess, dries too soon and destroys more detail in it's removal than you will ever get back.  The best thing is to dissolve the putty with thinners to form a slurry and float it on in layers with a brush.  Much better! 

 

Below is a quickie shot after the wing joint was restored and the undercarriage began to take shape.  The main gear leg is brass, and the other struts are styrene.  The wheels are styrene too, turned up on the end of a drill bit.  Originally I planned to make the wing struts from brass, but opted for styrene in the end.  I needed to add them after painting and could see myself scratching the paintwork with metal ones otherwise.

 

[Putty Animal]

After 22 years in a biscuit tin, the Sparrowhawk finally gets the first top coat on. 

 

This is Mr Color lacquer #338 which is said to match the USN light gray (looks the same as the primer if you ask me). I splashed out and bought their levelling thinner too and tried it here for the first time. Pretty happy with the result and will definitely be using it more in the future!

 

 

I took a risk and masked the fuselage off so I could do the silver and yellow wings same day. Ideally I should have left it to dry at least overnight, but I figured if I was quick I could get it done before the light began to fade. The silver is my favourite mix for aluminium dope; Mr Metal Color "Alumine" with a few drops of white. Oddly it makes the silver paint appear darker. One of the great things about the Alumine is that it covers extremely well. Just one pass with the airbrush is equal to a full coat. This is especially handy here, as the space between the wings is extremely hard to reach.
 

 

My masking looks pretty untidy, but there is method to it. I tend to use many smaller overlapping pieces of tape rather than continuous bits. These small pieces have much less "pull" while unmasking and are far less likely to tear the paint up with them.
 

 

The yellow is Mr Color lacquer #113. This is the very first time in my life I've used anything other than Humbrol's Trainer Yellow for anything. It's a weird feeling!

 

 

Also managed to get the red done too.  Being colour blind, it took me three tries before I was able to get a good result though.  Fortunately a few other makers whom I greatly esteem were able to come to the rescue and point me towards the right shade. 

 

 

 

[Andwil]

Simply gorgeous and very very clever work.

 

I could never understand why people refer to 1/72 as Braille scale, as Braille is designed for blind people, I’d have thought it more appropriate for larger scales like 1/32 or 1/24.

 

AW

[Putty Animal]

14 hours ago, Andwil said:

I could never understand why people refer to 1/72 as Braille scale, as Braille is designed for blind people, I’d have thought it more appropriate for larger scales like 1/32 or 1/24.

 

That's a good point.  I hadn't thought of it that way.

 

 I suspect the people who originally coined the phrase for 1/72 never even spared a thought for 1/144.  It still has an unlovely reputation thanks to all the old Crown and Revell kits that people remember from 40+ years ago.  Things have changed a lot since then though, and one need only check out the recent Eduard/Platz  Super44 range when they are next at their local to see just how far they have come.  When done right it is like a small, heavily armed butterfly just landed on your desk. 

 

Markings were a bit of a problem for this one, as the Sparrowhawk had US insignia of a non-standard size.  The various ones I had in the spares box and those available commercially were all either too big or too small.  In the end I decided to try making my own.

 

I had a sheet of plain white decal film, so I sprayed a bit of it in the appropriate blue and cut a series of disks from it to the required size.  Below is a shot of the improvised circle cutter for doing this.  Basically it is a dental bur sharpened to a point (my favourite scriber) with a scalpel blade and styrene spacer superglued to it.  It takes a little trial and error to get the precise diameter, but it works really well.

 

 

And a shot with the first decal layer.  It was about this time that I realised I'd probably have to respray that red too. 

 

 

The stars were a bit of a worry, but they tuned out quite well.  I traced their outline to scale in photoshop and printed them out on another scrap of the white decal film. 

 

 

Using a straight edge and a fresh blade, these were carefully cut along each line.   Just enough to cut through the film, but not through the backing paper.  One by one they were dipped in water...

 

 

The homemade stars then got applied over the top of the blue disks.  Very encouraging! Red dots would next be made in a similar manner and applied over these.

 

 

More soon!

[Andwil]

Being attracted by miniaturisation, 1/144 certainly appeals to me, it would make possible a very large collection.  If I wasn’t so heavily invested in 1/72, I think it might be the way I would go.

 

AW

[Marklo]

Lovely work. Found my scale models, plans are by Ian stair and are to 1:72 scale up to 150% and were in business. Definitely going to add one to the 2020 queue but in 1/48.

 

on a semi related note having built and enjoyed  my Horsa in 1/144 I’m warming to the scale,  but for big things, I bought a c47 and a Heracles and have plans for an over strand and maybe a zeppelin stakken (another old scale models, has plans in 1/144; still big, but not as big as my 1/72 vacform, which I really do not have the shelf space for)

 

I was a die hard 1/72 scale builder but I’ve now switched to 1/48, mostly WwI and interwar subjects so fairly compact models. With a line of 1/32 racers, ( a depredussin and a Bristol racer so far, with a gee bee to follow, again early ones so small. And 1/144 big things, granted only one so far. The linking theme is that most of the models are around the same size, regardless of scale. 

 

I’ll probably still do the odd piece of armour in 1/35 and 1/76 as the mood takes me. 

 

Now I do have about a dozen 1/72 kits in my stash, but once they’re gone I shan’t buy any more.

Edited October 20, 2019 by Marklo

[Courageous]

Just found this Putty. Absolutely fantastic work in the micro world, may it continue.

What happened to the Fe2b?

 

Stuart

[Putty Animal]

15 hours ago, Courageous said:

What happened to the Fe2b?

 

Hi Courageous, glad you found it!  I'm taking a bit of a break from the Fe2 for now as I burned myself out on it doing the nacelle and wings.  I'm planning to get back to it once the Australian summer arrives though.  I'll be sure to continue documenting the saga again when I do. 

 

I need to start thinking about navigation lights soon, as there are two prominent ones on the shitehawk's upper wings.  Rather unhelpfully, these are red and green.  Which is a bummer really because I'm red/green colour blind.  I literally don't know whether I'm coming or going... 

 

I guess red is red in anyone's book, but what would people suggest as an out-of-the-bottle colour for green navigation lights?  Any insights for the chromatically challenged will be very gratefully received!

 

Okay, here's the next wodge of photos and we're nearly up to date.  The red dots were cut from decal sheet that had been airbrushed with a coat of Tamiya XF-7.  I often use brass tube for small disks and ream out the inside of the tube with a scalpel to form a cutting edge.  It works really well and I've managed to cut disks as small as 0.4mm this way.

 

 

 

Then I had to take care of those stripes.  I had to mask them carefully without harming the decals, then spray a white undercoat before reapplying the red.  This way I could finally get the shades to match.  Bits of polythene bag were used to mask off broad areas. 

 

 

I had a bit of a "ta-da!" moment when I unmasked.  I'll never fear running out of US insignias again

Feeling greatly encouraged by my new-found decal dealing prowess, I also cut some scrap pieces of black into fine strips and applied them to represent the black pinstriping either side of the red.  Plus some other bits for the walkways on the wings.

 

 

With a bit of filling about I found that .13mm is about the minimum for these lines.  Anything less tends to break.  Very handy to know for future projects.

 

Here's a couple of shots with the bands applied to the fuselage and various bits test fitted. 

 

 

[Courageous]

You should be chuffed, very chuffed indeed.

 

Stuart

[Putty Animal]

Alas, I was.  Then I discovered last night that I’d painted the gull-wing center section too wide and the grey portion should be about 2mm narrower.  This will have a bad knock on effect for the trapeze, so I’ll have to work to correct it before I can continue.  I think I can make it work, but the masking is going to be diabolical.  

[Marklo]

Looking stunning as usual. Looking through my copy of scale models, the landing lights are quite opaque and look like a red dot and a green dot. I wouldn’t say anything too fancy is required, of course if you’re of a mind old toothbrush handles are de rigeur for landing lights, not  sure how much the colourblindness will get in the way of that however.

[Putty Animal]

Cheers Marklo.  I was hoping to mix some green paint with PVA or UV resin to do the landing lights.  That's why I was wondering what shade of green to use.  They are much too small to make from toothbrush handles unfortunately.