Revell 1/72 OV-10A Bronco

[Scargsy]

OK here's my KUTA build.

Started at the beginning of the year and flew as a build but has been languishing ever since, mainly due to a couple of reasons. firstly being tail heavy - which the kit warns about and says to weight the nose - I did (by gluing some ball bearings in and also some just behind the cockpit) but obviously not enough. This means I'm going to have to make her 'in flight' which will be a pain. Secondly there's an awful join just behind the cockpit area, which I'm not entirely sure how to fill - given there will be the multi-piece clear parts to attach.

 

There's also a hole behind the rear seat - I'm not sure if that needs filling too.

 

Anyhow let's attack it and see what I can do, better to try than leave the kit languishing.

 

 

[Scargsy]

Plasticard and scalpel in hand I decide to try and fill the holes, to at least stop the undercarriage door falling into the hole all gluey and making a mess...

 

For the nose I managed to cut to size and attach a strip in.

For the rear wheel wells I built up some plasticard too.

 

There's some pretty shoddy sizing / fitting for the pieces - that's not going to fit.

Now what's the old maxim: Measure once, cut once, swear vigorously and decide to fill later?

 

Rear undercarriage doors were a similarly bad fit, I wonder if it wouldn't have been easier just to fill all the holes and scribe in some panel lines later?

I'll see how they look after priming, they seem to have sunken in a bit and don't look very flush. Maybe I'll do some filling, etc then.

 

Here's a shot of all the other bits I'd previously built up. The kit has the ability to make the propeller blades spin but I figured it would be easier to paint them separately then glue them fixed in place. I have to decide what the weapon load out will be and cleanup the bits soon.

 

 

[Dazzio]

I've got the Academy boxing of this kit that's been sitting on the shelf of doom for about 8 years now, so I'll be interested to see yours finished.

 

Looking forward to seeing more, Scargsy.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Dazz

[Scargsy]

OK so I know the GB is about to finish and I forgot to post some updates - anyhow it's not finished yet, so maybe she'll get another airing in the next KUTA build

 

As for the update...

I added some filler plasticard behind the cockpit, I'm not sure if that's actually meant to be open (so anyone in the rear cargo compartment could get some light) but since I'd shoved a ball-bearing in there before for ballast all I could see was it shining back at me! I added some filler on the wing-top to canopy join.

After a bit of paint in the cockpit part I fitted the canopy, which is formed of four parts. It was a bit of a pain to fit but not too bad, I'm not great at this kind of thing so there was PVA glue all over the shop. Once dried I masked up the canopy, this was definitely a mistake in ordering as I ended up pushing the top canopy piece back through - it would have been simpler to mask the 4 canopy sections first before fitting.

After that it was a trip to the paint shop garage for a coat of Zero light grey primer, I decided I'd leave that as underside colour - maybe adding a filter or washes later, so masked up and did the top side.

For the top colour, although probably not correct I chose the closest thing in the paint drawer - some Vallejo UK bronze-green primer. This laid down great but I was concerned it was a bit on the dark end of the spectrum so of the available choices I had, I went for a semi-transparent coat of bronze green (you can see the dried test blobs of paint under each bottle in the picture...

 

All was seemingly going well until I removed the masking tape and discovered I'm masked up the belly / side line a little too high, so back on with some masking tape to try and fill the gap. This is where it all started to unravel  I went a bit too wet with the coat and a lot ran into the underside (between the masking tape) and it still didn't give great coverage.

I'd actually left it for some time before I discovered that but the Vallejo paint (some in lumps between the tape) seemed to scrape and peel off mostly. The remaining bleeds I didn't fancy masking and respraying again, so I found an approximate grey (some Liquitex acrylic ink) and did a few brush painted coats over the worst areas.

So that's how she stayed for a while until I realised the deadline and in a flurry of activity today tried to get her to the finish line!

After a bunch of brush painting small bits and decal affixing here's where I'm at...

Close but not quite at the finish.

Still left:

1. I seem to have misplaced the clear lense for the nosecone, I'll have to try fill it with something clear.
2. Still needs a lot of the smaller decals fitted
3. Requires the pitot tube fitting
4. Those hand painted prop stripes are annoying and I really need to touch-up / redo them.
5. Needs clear-coat sealing for the decals.
6. Needs weathering.

As I say a candidate for the next KUTA group-build, hopefully that time I'll actually get it finished!

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Scargsy