Johnson Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Hi Folks, Bit of a late start but I reckon I might just be able to get this done before the close. It's been sitting in the stash since it came out in 2009, cost £15 new, I see the latest kit with new markings is £40! Hopefully it will be completely OOB, which will be a first for me! The (limited run?) soft plastic looks OK, the surface has a slightly rough texture to it and odd marks where it looks like it maybe stuck slightly in the mould? So some clean-up and maybe very light sanding. A bit of flash but nothing to worry about. Not too many parts, but no locating lugs, it may be a good idea to add some - does that disqualify it as an OOB build? Decals look nice, very thin. A bag of resin parts, some for the plane - the engine cowlings and cockpit detail, and a stand/frame/trestles which I guess they used to get it into the water. A bit of research needed. But... Rigging! Not a lot I grant, but I have never, ever done rigging, just seen the scary movies. So if and when I get that far, I may need some expert guidance! Something about drilling holes first (I read that in a FROG GB thread which I will have to find) and adding wire? I've almost finished my (pre FROG Squad GB) Airfix 1/72 Spitfire XIX, so I'm hoping to start this at the weekend. Cheers, 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 (edited) Hi Charlie, At least it is a monoplane so rigging should be relatively easy. I would be tempted to use thin piano wire or stretched sprue for the floats and perhaps some rigging thread for the wings as they are more likely to be damaged by handling. Pete Edited November 5, 2019 by PeterB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 (edited) This might help if you have not seen it already. Rigging looks quite thick, http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/mark_hayward/supermarine_s.6b_s1595/index.php?Page=1 Be careful about sanding as the hull was corrugated and the floats were covered in radiators as I recall. Pete Edited November 5, 2019 by PeterB 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Glad to see an S6B. I have 2-3 in the stash but not a Pavla variant. Crack-ob Charlie, let's see how this turns out. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Just discovered that the one I took photos of in about 1965 in Southampton was an S6A masquerading as an S6B according to Wiki - not sure what the difference was except of course for the engine! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Nice choice! FWIW when I did the Airfix one I used stretched sprue for the rigging and it worked OK. There isn't an awful lot of it so it's probably a good intro kit for rigging. Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 Hi Charlie! Welcome to the GB! It's never too late to join, especially with such a beautiful machine! Good luck! Jaime 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted November 5, 2019 Author Share Posted November 5, 2019 Thanks for all your comments and support everyone - and I haven't even cut one bit of plastic yet! 27 minutes ago, PeterB said: Rigging looks quite thick They look more like steel bracing rods than cable rigging. Thanks for the link, that's a great walkaround. Lots of details in the photo - I mustn't look too hard! I've seen that plane many times in the Science Museum when I was a kid living in London. South Kensington was just a few stops away on the tube. Bit more difficult these days. 11 minutes ago, AdrianMF said: FWIW when I did the Airfix one I used stretched sprue for the rigging and it worked OK. I think stretched sprue may be just the thing Adrian. We'll see! 15 minutes ago, PeterB said: S6A masquerading as an S6B according to Wiki The instructions suggest that the rudder was different and they give you two different props in the kit. The paint will also be interesting. Pavla suggest Humbrol 15 - Midnight Blue which would be easy. The blue looks different in various shots in the walkaround. Quite bright and light in the flash photography, the darker ones I suspect are in natural light. Cheers, 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 The Science Museum one is very dark whereas the Southampton one is more of a mid-blue. I think the consensus is that the lighter blue is closer to the original colour and the dark blue is a repaint. FWIW I used Humbrol 25 on mine, although I think the darker blue looks nicer. Regards, Adrian 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterB Posted November 5, 2019 Share Posted November 5, 2019 (edited) Hi Charlie, I tend to agree with Adrian - to my mind the colour would have been lighter that Hu15, though perhaps slightly darker than Hu25. I rather fancy BS381C -108 "Aircraft Blue". or perhaps the BS110 Post war roundel blue that is in the Xtracolour range, For what it is worth Wiki says the Science Museum S6B is "in an unrestored state" and presumable therefore faded (which some blues seem particularly prone to as witness the old BR Diesels) whilst the Southampton one has been repainted. Whatever - go with what you feel happy with. Pete Edited November 5, 2019 by PeterB 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greggles.w Posted November 6, 2019 Share Posted November 6, 2019 Hurrah for another Schneider racer! Interesting this kit claims to be 6A or 6B ... I seem to recall there was a marked difference in float size (length maybe?) between the two? With the 6A larger? Where did I come across that ... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted November 9, 2019 Author Share Posted November 9, 2019 On 11/6/2019 at 12:53 PM, greggles.w said: Interesting this kit claims to be 6A or 6B ... I seem to recall there was a marked difference in float size (length maybe?) between the two? With the 6A larger? Where did I come across that ... I shall have to investigate... but I don't think I'll be altering the length, hopefully Pavla got it right for the 6B! Cheers, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 10, 2019 Share Posted November 10, 2019 Hi Charlie, good to see you in the GB . This will be good. Good luck with your build fella. All the best Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted November 14, 2019 Author Share Posted November 14, 2019 Made a start but progress has been a bit slow, partly down to me and partly to the kit. Not as easy as I'd hoped, but my experience with this type of kit is minimal, I've tried a couple of CMR resin kits in the past and decided they weren't for me and this kit may be heading a similar way. According to info I found on the web, the Pavla kit started life in resin form. The office furniture (seat, firewall bulkhead and dash) prevented the fuselage closing properly, maybe the resin fuselage sides had thinner walls? Anyway, with a bit of surgery I think I can get the sides to join up. And possibly I misinterpreted the instructions but the placement of the instrument panel doesn't agree with the photos I found of the S6B cockpit, nor does the stick look anything like what Pavla provided. I followed the photos, not that much will be visible. As you can see, the insert for the bottom isn't a great fit. But I reckon it will be OK. Then, getting the wings on, I can't wait! Cheers, 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 Nice to see it started. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMC Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 Your thread prompted me to do a little research on the type and the Pavla kit. I found the link below quite useful. Worth a look if you haven’t seen it before. http://www.hyperscale.com/2010/reviews/kits/pavla72066reviewmd_1.htm Cheers 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 3 hours ago, DMC said: I found the link below quite useful. Very useful thanks DMC. The instructions included in the review are better than the ones in my (S.6B) kit. It's a very good review, well written and informative. And to quote from it; 'Pavla has in my view tended to make a bit better job of their resin parts than they do of their plastic. Their styrene kits do demand some refining of fit and cleaning up etc' I've certainly found that to be true. Although I probably sounded a bit negative in my post #14 above, I think that if I'm careful it will work out and I should have a nice kit to display, we'll see. Cheers, 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted November 15, 2019 Author Share Posted November 15, 2019 While waiting for the fuselage glue to set, I got on with the floats. The instructions say add some weight to the front of the floats. How much? No idea. I filled the front with P38 car dent filler. As far as filler goes it's fairly hefty. I know some people have used lead to avoid a tail sitter, but I reckoned I didn't need that much weight. We'll see... The bottom pic hopefully shows that the floats are 'sided'. One side has the locations for the struts to the main fuselage and the other attachment points for the 'rigging' (actually flattened steel rods, looking at the pics in the walkaround that Pete kindly linked to in post #3 above). So, for anyone building this kit in the future, I think the instructions may be wrong about which float (part number) joins to another and you need to be careful. The panel lines and surface detail is very good. It doesn't capture all the detail, rivets etc, that are on the real S.6B, but for 1/72 it's about right. Cheers, 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted November 15, 2019 Share Posted November 15, 2019 Nice start, Charlie! Cheers Jaime 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 17, 2019 Share Posted November 17, 2019 Great start Charlie, you will soon have this one conquered I'm sure. Keep up the good work All the best Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted November 17, 2019 Author Share Posted November 17, 2019 Thanks Jaime and Chris, I'm beginning to enjoy this now I've got the fuselage joined up! Currently filling gaps and cleaning up the parts. My next challenge is joining the fuselage to the floats and the wings. There are no location tabs at all so I will add some location pins and drill reciprocal holes. But I'm not sure which to do first; add the wings, or the floats? I'm thinking floats first as this will be a trickier job to align the parts, let it all dry and set, then the wings. Any thoughts or advice folks? Cheers 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted November 17, 2019 Share Posted November 17, 2019 Charlie, I think I would add the wings first and get them all lined up with the tail, because then you can use the wings to tell you if your floats are aligned. It would be horrible to get your floats aligned and then find out the wings look wonky! FWIW when I did the Airfix one I got the two floats aligned with each other first before trying to add the fuselage. Regards, Adrian 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted November 17, 2019 Author Share Posted November 17, 2019 42 minutes ago, AdrianMF said: I think I would add the wings first and get them all lined up with the tail, because then you can use the wings to tell you if your floats are aligned. It would be horrible to get your floats aligned and then find out the wings look wonky! FWIW when I did the Airfix one I got the two floats aligned with each other first before trying to add the fuselage Good points Adrian, thanks. The kit has a wheeled trolley to get the plane in and out of the water that will be useful in aligning the floats. Before I stick anything I am going to do a rough fit (blu tack) to see if there are any obvious misalignments. Cheers, 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pheonix Posted November 17, 2019 Share Posted November 17, 2019 Just found this - good to see another Schneider Trophy aircraft. They do look fast! I agrre with Adrian that you should add the wings first as it makes alignments easier. I know from scratch building that this always works better. P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted November 17, 2019 Author Share Posted November 17, 2019 Great advice chaps, much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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