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1/48 Halifax 346 Sqn PN365 (H7-B) - Finished!


woody37

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One other little issue I can think of, the front part of the cockpit canopy glazing above the crew seats rakes down at an angle and from the side looks odd. To improve the look I actually fitted it so the roof section followed the line of the the fuselage spine.

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12 minutes ago, woody37 said:

Hi Tom,

 

If it beat you, it must of been a bad copy. I don't know what condition the wings are in as Colin has dealt with them, but the fuselage isn't too bad at all. Your 1/32 build was a great inspiration for any Halifax fan. Where did you get up to with the Stirling and Shack?

Comparing the pictures of yours and mine, yours does look like a better moulding. I just lost motivation with mine but will get back to it one day - seeing yours is whetting my appetite. 
 

The Shackleton and Stirling are stalled for the time being - again through lack of motivation and loss of mojo. The 1/48th B-52 and 1/32nd Sunderland have also hit the buffers for the time being too, but I’ll get back to them one day when the mood takes. 
 

Tom

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29 minutes ago, tomprobert said:

Comparing the pictures of yours and mine, yours does look like a better moulding. I just lost motivation with mine but will get back to it one day - seeing yours is whetting my appetite. 
 

The Shackleton and Stirling are stalled for the time being - again through lack of motivation and loss of mojo. The 1/48th B-52 and 1/32nd Sunderland have also hit the buffers for the time being too, but I’ll get back to them one day when the mood takes. 
 

Tom

Balancing real life and complex builds like these can be challenging, I'm sure it will come back at some point...at least I hope it does as they are all great builds from what I've seen

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36 minutes ago, Radpoe Spitfire said:

One other little issue I can think of, the front part of the cockpit canopy glazing above the crew seats rakes down at an angle and from the side looks odd. To improve the look I actually fitted it so the roof section followed the line of the the fuselage spine.

I wasn't aware of this, thanks for pointing it out. I may form a new canopy yet and if so would use photographs to build a former. Do you have any photographs of the issue?

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Hi Woody37,

 

I'm still in the component stage of my build...its my pick-up-model..LOL! I think if you view the FM Halifax as a vac-u-form kit even thou it is a injection molded one...it helps. Look, I don't blame anyone who puts this kit on the shelf of doom because it is a pig to build...not sure if that's FM fault or the current lazy build by numbers /assemblely which is the current vogue in the hobby.  In order to put this Halifax next to other more modern kits it will require a lot of work and money. As far as shape issues go...where do I start! I think getting hold of the 1/48 Scale MAP plans is a good begining as it look the best image of a Halifax MkIII. As long as you stick to those you should get the basic design of the Halifax right. I remember Halibag Phil's, build of a resin MkIII here and I wish I had all those resin and photo-etch parts he did...and I wonder if he ever finished it? There are some parts in this build I will have to get cast in white metal and some need photo-etching, because I don't know of any other resource for the parts.  So it will be something new to me...to learn those skills.  

 

The best tip I can give anyone building a FM kit is to clean up and straighten all the parts before you do your final assembly if you just wana build the kit. By doing that you can get an idea what will work and what won't.

 

Keep going with it Mr Woody37.

 

PHIL.

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3 hours ago, Radpoe Spitfire said:

You can find more info on Small wonders site - project Fonderie Miniatures Halifax

Woody 37- put this site in your search engine, when I saw it today it had the article along with photos of the kit parts.

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Last night I got the spars glued to the bomb bay to strengthen everything up. It's looking rather rough at the moment but I'll turn to cosmetics soon. 

 

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Also started to box the bay in and tidy it up on one side. I'm added new bulkheads over the top of the kit parts as the detail isn't right

 

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2 more points to watch. On my example, the propellers - one blade root is thinner than the others, Same on all sprues. Be careful you don't break the blade at that point. Ask me how I know!

Second point. After sanding the nacelle fronts, and butt jointing the cowlings, the gill rings are still too small to fit properly. The gap at the top for the air intake is consequently too large, but fear not - when the oil coolers are fitted, they interfere with the gills, so by cutting them diametrically opposite the slot, they will then fit as 2 halves.

Incidentally, MEK will not touch this plastic, so every joint is superglued.

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Hi Woody37,

 

Yeah you is do'n it M8! Oh you prob know this by now but all the detail FM put in the kit is dubious to say the least. The bomb bay is a joke and so are the end bulkheads. I suggest getting the Haynes book on the Halifax which has a (shop drawing) of the bulkheads and bomb bay. Or someone might post a plan image for you...as photos just confuse me. I think there are 15 bulk heads but who knows...Gee and I thought a Lanc bomb bay was complicated.

 

IMPORTANT - Another thing, I found out this the hard way...any pressure points on the FM plastic with cause it to shatter/crack. A guy on FineScale built the beast and it shattered, not at the glue seam but next to it between the top turret right to the tail. I guess it was the high stress point. The FM plastic is way to brittle (too much heat?) for my liking so remember everything you design to support the air-frame must not be FM plastic or put pressure on the FM plastic it at any joint. A tight fit is not recommended with this plastic. Never beat the thing into submission as it will fail on you even if you think your've won. So don't squeeze the thing treat it like a lady. The plastic is that BRITTLE!.

 

I found Revell Contacta "professional" to be the best glue when glue'n this FM white plastic but there are times when I use ZAP products POLY-ZAP to deal with most probs that need strength. But you will prob use your fav ...glue. Cleaning the surface before doing anything to remove mold release helps with the clue'n and paint'n buts that is basic and you know that by now.

 

Yeah my fuselage at the rear is twisted and I don't know what I will do to straighten it. Like I said any undue pressures with cause the FM plastic to shatter/fail. May be I should go back to my Mig29.

 

Best of luck.

 

PHIL.

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I was always under the impression that the rear fuselage (at least one of the halves) was to narrow. In a previous attempt I added a long sliver of plastic card to bridge the gap. The opening at the rear fuselage for the turret is too narrow (the turret is too).

Thanks to this topic I will pick up my build where I left off.

Keep it up Neil.

Cheers

Cees

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12 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

2 more points to watch. On my example, the propellers - one blade root is thinner than the others, Same on all sprues. Be careful you don't break the blade at that point. Ask me how I know!

Second point. After sanding the nacelle fronts, and butt jointing the cowlings, the gill rings are still too small to fit properly. The gap at the top for the air intake is consequently too large, but fear not - when the oil coolers are fitted, they interfere with the gills, so by cutting them diametrically opposite the slot, they will then fit as 2 halves.

Incidentally, MEK will not touch this plastic, so every joint is superglued.

I've not even looked at the props yet so one had better go and do so!

Are you suggesting turning the nacelle around by 180 degrees so that the wide slot fits the cooler and a narrower slot can be cut for the intake? If so, makes sense. Thanks for the heads up

11 hours ago, LongMan2 said:

Hi Woody37,

 

Yeah you is do'n it M8! Oh you prob know this by now but all the detail FM put in the kit is dubious to say the least. The bomb bay is a joke and so are the end bulkheads. I suggest getting the Haynes book on the Halifax which has a (shop drawing) of the bulkheads and bomb bay. Or someone might post a plan image for you...as photos just confuse me. I think there are 15 bulk heads but who knows...Gee and I thought a Lanc bomb bay was complicated.

 

IMPORTANT - Another thing, I found out this the hard way...any pressure points on the FM plastic with cause it to shatter/crack. A guy on FineScale built the beast and it shattered, not at the glue seam but next to it between the top turret right to the tail. I guess it was the high stress point. The FM plastic is way to brittle (too much heat?) for my liking so remember everything you design to support the air-frame must not be FM plastic or put pressure on the FM plastic it at any joint. A tight fit is not recommended with this plastic. Never beat the thing into submission as it will fail on you even if you think your've won. So don't squeeze the thing treat it like a lady. The plastic is that BRITTLE!.

 

I found Revell Contacta "professional" to be the best glue when glue'n this FM white plastic but there are times when I use ZAP products POLY-ZAP to deal with most probs that need strength. But you will prob use your fav ...glue. Cleaning the surface before doing anything to remove mold release helps with the clue'n and paint'n buts that is basic and you know that by now.

 

Yeah my fuselage at the rear is twisted and I don't know what I will do to straighten it. Like I said any undue pressures with cause the FM plastic to shatter/fail. May be I should go back to my Mig29.

 

Best of luck.

 

PHIL.

The bomb bay will be scratch built so I'm prepared for that. What is strange however is that the plastic I'm working with appears to be very good, flexible and has already been handled quite roughly. In correcting the rear turret shroud for example, I literally bent the plastic in to a new shape without issue. Tamiya extra thin is working well with the plastic too. It does sound like I've got a Monday kit but most have a Friday one!!

2 hours ago, Cees Broere said:

I was always under the impression that the rear fuselage (at least one of the halves) was to narrow. In a previous attempt I added a long sliver of plastic card to bridge the gap. The opening at the rear fuselage for the turret is too narrow (the turret is too).

Thanks to this topic I will pick up my build where I left off.

Keep it up Neil.

Cheers

Cees

I'm planning to do the same Cees, looks to need 2-3mm so the tab that I've glued along the fuselage protrudes out more so that there's still a tab after adding more plastic. Look forwards to seeing your progress, the more inspiration, the merrier :)

 

I'll be getting the wings to a nearly finished state before turning to the fuselage so my intention is to tidy them up and detail the wing bomb bay cells this weekend. I'm still debating what to do about the engines however, I may just buy a couple of Tamiya Beau's, expensive but easy! 

 

Cheers

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45 minutes ago, woody37 said:

 

Are you suggesting turning the nacelle around by 180 degrees so that the wide slot fits the cooler and a narrower slot can be cut for the intake? If so, makes sense. Thanks for the heads up

No. After fitting the cowlings, carb air intakes and oil coolers, cut the cowl flaps into equal halves (after test fitting of course), they will then fit correctly either side of the cowlings/nacelles. Mine still need a little fettling around the oil cooler. Any resultant gap is then at the bottom, and a small piece of plastic card can be used to fill in. Don't forget to fit the cowl flaps before the exhausts.

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8 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

No. After fitting the cowlings, carb air intakes and oil coolers, cut the cowl flaps into equal halves (after test fitting of course), they will then fit correctly either side of the cowlings/nacelles. Mine still need a little fettling around the oil cooler. Any resultant gap is then at the bottom, and a small piece of plastic card can be used to fill in. Don't forget to fit the cowl flaps before the exhausts.

Ah ok thanks. They are already glued on but I may not use the kit parts yet, depends what I can get sorted

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Having deliberated over the best way to tackle the wing roots I decided to take an approach of adding a piece of plasticard and filling the gap on the lower surface there rather than waiting until the wing is fixed in place. To do this, I cut an approximate but oversize piece of 60 though card and glued it to the upper half that then left a gap on the lower side. This was reinforced with a few bits of scrap plastic then the rest filled with P38 car filler, my usual weapon of choice on these types of build.

 

Firstly, the wing bomb bay on one wing is loosely constructed:

 

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The oversize card that was then filed to shape by regularly dry fitting to the fuselage. I'm not too fussed about dimensional accuracy as long as it looks right...

 

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Here you can see the gap on the underside that is ready for filling...

 

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One side has been sanded and primed to check for blemishes. The bay interiors still need to be detailed

 

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How the roots look now. There's a few cracks appeared on the engines from rough handling but I'll sort them in due course.

 

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Getting there one step at a time! So far I'm pleased with the progress. The wings are a good fit once pushed up to the fuselage so very little filler will be required on final fitment

 

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Cheers

Neil

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Hi Mr. Woody37,

 

Its look'n good there woody and I like the idea of adding to the wing root for strength. I hope you take a look'ie at the rear elevators and do some strength'n up there to. I carried my main spar all the way to the inside of the wheel well and spare/auxiliary tank in the 3rd bomb bay position. Effectively creating a wing box...

 

Yeah its moving along nicely.

 

Phil.

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Nice progress.

The wingspars normally protrude into the wheelbays and are visible from there, but life's to short.

Regarding the canopy/windscreen, I agree on that one. I think I have one drawing left from my 1/1 scale Halifax cockpit build (now at East Kirkby) and that shows

the canopy arrangement. I will dig it out and mail it to you Neil.

 

IMHO the entire canopy will have to be completely replaced and moulds made. On my build I have removed the section in front

of the windscreen similar to the 1/72 Revell kit (and Falcon vac set). That will it will hopefully be easier to make a usable mould. I am no stickler for accuracy but feel that the

character of an aircraft such as the canopy needs to be reasonably well rendered.

Cheers

Cees

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19 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

You're giving me nightmares all over again....:door:

I've sprayed mine with filler primer, sorted the details, and the Dark Earth is on. Currently masking for the Dark Green.

Have you got any photos to share? Be good to see some inspiration!

12 hours ago, LongMan2 said:

Hi Mr. Woody37,

 

Its look'n good there woody and I like the idea of adding to the wing root for strength. I hope you take a look'ie at the rear elevators and do some strength'n up there to. I carried my main spar all the way to the inside of the wheel well and spare/auxiliary tank in the 3rd bomb bay position. Effectively creating a wing box...

 

Yeah its moving along nicely.

 

Phil.

Yes, I’m thinking the rear section will need strengthening, may stick a dowell through both sides as it’s quite flimsy down there. The wings are pretty solid now without glue so think they’ll be fine. The gear interior don’t look that accurate anyway but look busy enough not to need any more detail in there.

8 hours ago, Cees Broere said:

Nice progress.

The wingspars normally protrude into the wheelbays and are visible from there, but life's to short.

Regarding the canopy/windscreen, I agree on that one. I think I have one drawing left from my 1/1 scale Halifax cockpit build (now at East Kirkby) and that shows

the canopy arrangement. I will dig it out and mail it to you Neil.

 

IMHO the entire canopy will have to be completely replaced and moulds made. On my build I have removed the section in front

of the windscreen similar to the 1/72 Revell kit (and Falcon vac set). That will it will hopefully be easier to make a usable mould. I am no stickler for accuracy but feel that the

character of an aircraft such as the canopy needs to be reasonably well rendered.

Cheers

Cees

Hi Cees, I haven’t had a proper look yet so need to put some time aside to get my head round it.

7 hours ago, Mancunian airman said:

This really does sound a beast of a kit

Best of luck to each and every one of you building her, I'm sure the results will reflect the time and effort put in.

 

I shall continue to watch and learn . . . .

Sometimes with these kits, I prefer to sit and watch but I haven’t done much this year so need to pull my finger out and take one for the team 😂😂

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The camo is on, the black is on. When I strip the masking off, I'll put a photo up. It's awaiting the main gear, props, turrets and transparencies. They will follow the decals and matt coat. RG618  MP I of 76 squadron.

I think the assembled gear bays will need some more surgery to get the main gear legs in place.

I want to look at it daylight before I unmask it.

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@bentwaters81tfw, that's looking fantastic, just the inspiration I need :)

 

Had a quick half hour after work so found some solid 2mm brass rod and used it as spars for the tail feathers. I've put two in, front & rear and it's more than enough to cope so we now have the basic shape of a Halibag :)

 

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Is it me or do the outer wings, from the outer engine to the wingtip, loo a bit short on Bentwaters Halifax compared to Woody's ?

 

There is much to be admired in getting this Halifax kit to the paint stage and I wish you good luck with the rest of the build . . .

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