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I'm Jenny From the Blob (of hideous yellow styrene) - with apologies to J-Lo! *** COMPLETE ***


clive_t

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7 hours ago, Wlad said:

Hi Clive,

 

Interesting kit. When I saw the black cat it triggered a memory. Have you seen this yet: https://ingeniumcanada.org/artifact/curtiss-jn-4-canuck ? There is one at the Canadian Air and Space Museum in Ottawa.

 

Cheers,

Wlad

Thanks Wlad, and also for the link - some very interesting pics there, some of which I have not seen before. :thumbsup2:

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A small update for today - the rudder is a different shape on the Canuck, so I used the rudder decals as a template to cut something the appropriate size and shape from some styrene sheet:

 

znKncsA.jpg

 

Here it is, overlaid on top of the kit rudder, to show the difference:

 

rMopiwf.jpg

 

With the old rudder removed, the replacement is loose laid next to the tail section:

 

uKu8Wwb.jpg

 

A bit more to do on it, but a promising start! :)

 

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More progress on the engine this afternoon:

 

sXGfknk.jpg

 

Next I need to work out if I can get the spark plug leads fitted. I have a reference photo of sorts, so I just need a much steadier hand and much better vision - what could possibly go wrong! :)

 

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On 12/16/2019 at 4:40 PM, Gorby said:

Very nice work on that engine Clive.

Cheers Gorby, I am quite pleased with how it's looking so far - the best bit is, even with the cowling on, you should still be able to see most of the additional detail. The picture's a bit rubbish, as the light is not the best and I think the yellow plastic plays havoc with my phone camera's white balance! Still a bit to do on it, but that's for another time.

 

Meanwhile, I have mostly been looking at another area where I was not happy with what the kit supplied - the radiator grille at the front. Even after filling the two massive ejector pin marks right in the front:

 

hEV1LP5.jpg

 

The grille effect was, to my simple mind, way too coarse. I had an idea for a much finer (and hopefully therefore more realistic) grille pattern, which involved some of this:

 

mgcIeye.jpg

 

If you are scratching your heads as to what it is, and its origins - well, its some fine gauze culled from an old water filter cartridge! It's what keeps the innards (the micro beads and the charcoal granules) from spilling out everywhere :)

 

First thing was to fill in the existing holes to give a flat surface:

 

XBmNsmF.jpg

 

I first tried cutting a section from the gauze and sticking it to the front of the radiator, but I couldn't get it to stick properly. So, to Plan B - to make another mould by pressing some Siligum onto the gauze:

 

mTvRuvw.jpg

 

Once the rubber was cured, I carefully peeled off the gauze, and coated the surface with liquid plastic:

 

j3HJPq7.jpg

 

Once that had cured an hour later, I was left with a styrene version of the gauze surface:

 

Fx9hEZn.jpg

 

Not easily seen in the picture, but the texture is definitely there on the casting, which I am hoping to accentuate with some dry-brushing when the time comes.

 

Here's the result, with a chunk of that casting carefully glued to the front of the radiator with Tamiya Extra Thin:

 

G83c4dP.jpg

 

I will leave that a while before attempting to cut the hole out for the prop shaft to poke through.

 

I am quite pleased with that!

 

 

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On 12/20/2019 at 6:06 AM, Wlad said:

Rather ingenious.

Thanks Wlad, hopefully the priming will show the detail that I am after.

 

The engine is now finished as far as I am prepared to detail it. I am, and always will be, incurably envious of those souls who seem to be able to stick bits of metal wire to plastic with CA with no issues whatsoever. I am fluent in sticking metal wire to finger tips, and not much else it seems. Anyway, the bits forward of the front seat have now come together:

 

y83bFBG.jpg

 

As well as the engine, the front radiator now has a hole where it should be; I have also fashioned a fuel tank from Milliput which will sit behind the engine. The cowling in the background has been slightly reshaped to accommodate the additional engine detail. For anyone wondering at the wisdom of creating a fuel tank which would be hidden by the cowling, well the reason I did it was because I realised from reference photos that the fuel tank is actually visible when looking into the front cockpit.

 

I don't know if I am going to get a chance to do any priming over the next week or so what with having a succession of guests descend on us for the festive period, but if I do I shall of course show the results here.

 

Thanks for looking :)

 

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On 24/11/2019 at 17:44, Gorby said:

That looks pretty good for a Lindberg kit. At least the crew are recognisable as miniature humans. If you ever get the urge to build the 1/48 Lindberg X-3, a word of advice.

 

Don't.

Bugger.

 

I've got one of those.

 

Still, a tussle now and again is good for the soul.

Edited by Whofan
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On 11/26/2019 at 4:29 PM, matti64 said:

the JN-4H pictures  are 

just to  tempt you for the future...

I love that Jenny matti. It is the Jenny that Cole Palen found for sale, in pieces, at an old airfield on Long Island.  He originally thought it was a Standard but when they brought it back to Rhinebeck they realized what they had.  

 

I grew up just a few miles from the Rhinebeck Aerodrome and spent many weekends there watching the airshows.  Really wonderful way to be a child.  I have lost count of the times I saw the Jenny fly.

 

 

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Thanks for all your comments, much appreciated.

 

I haven't managed much more progress, apart from spraying the engine and the fuel tank with Tamiya Flat Aluminium:

 

7Hh5OVe.jpg

 

I also found a pic showing the seats were quite well upholstered, so I added some padding to my seats from Milliput:

 

NfBXRai.jpg

 

I need to make some quite wide seat belts, so I will probably use strips of masking tape for that once the seats are all painted.

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Mostly a day of painting, today - and applying some bracing wires to the internal fuselage structure:

 

Epb09kT.jpg

 

The rigging is from an idea I picked up on young SteamGeezer's You-Tube channel, wherein he extolled the virtues of using knitting-in elastic for rigging. This is my first attempt at using it, and I am quite taken with it to be honest.

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Floor plate now assembled, and dial decals added to the front and rear instrument panels:

 

5zUEAif.jpg

 

A bit of a compromise here as the dials were mostly too big to mimic exactly the layout as seen on some reference pics - but it sort of looks the part. I am quite pleased with it. Close to zipping up the fuselage now.

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Looking good, the engine is superb, and with the primer on it no longer hurts the eyes. 
 

on a separate note what’s your recipe for liquid plastic, I’ve tried to replicate it using a sculpey mold but didn’t quite have the mix.

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1 hour ago, Marklo said:

Looking good, the engine is superb, and with the primer on it no longer hurts the eyes. 
 

on a separate note what’s your recipe for liquid plastic, I’ve tried to replicate it using a sculpey mold but didn’t quite have the mix.

Thanks Marklo. I don't have any exact science for the liquid plastic, I just started with a third of a bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin, and progressively added lumps of sprue until the resulting goo was runny but viscous rather than watery as it were. The thing to bear in mind is that over time the glue component will gradually evaporate off. The remaining goo then gets thicker, to a point where it doesn't flow smoothly, and looks lumpy when you try to spread it into a mould.

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Another brief update - the various bits of the office(s) are now secure:

 

5G9Z1cX.jpg

 

And with that, the fuselage halves are zipped:

 

HHhu8J1.jpg

 

I will leave that to go off fully before looking to sand/fill whichever areas are in need of it - and there are some I can see already!

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On 1/4/2020 at 4:51 PM, Marklo said:

on a separate note what’s your recipe for liquid plastic, I’ve tried to replicate it using a sculpey mold but didn’t quite have the mix.

Just returning to this for a moment, I wonder if the problem you are having is down to using Sculpey mold? Is that flexible at all? Is it porous? I have found the the rubber mould material I use is non porous and highly flexible, and seems to have its own inherent release agent. Just gently flexing the mould means the styrene casting just peels right off, no problems at all.

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The sculpey is like plasticine but you can bake it hard. I’ve used it to mold with milliliput and it works fine. I was using plastic weld for my plastic hoop the last time so this may have been the issue. Will try again (at some stage) wit some Tamiya thin.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all, apologies for more 'dead air' on this here thread - a combination of things, mainly the arrival of the decals for my other current project meant I could return to that and do a whole load of progress on it. I did also have some concerns about how I was going to rig this thing. I'm still concerned about that, but at least I am closer to having to really worry about it!

 

One big problem I noticed was fortunately noticed before it was too late - I needed to fill in the cut-outs on the lower wings, as they were the same as the upper wing on the Canuck, which did not have the 'cut out' section that the US Jenny had. So a couple of pieces of scrap styrene were cut to shape and glued in:

 

41H79S4.jpg

 

Once these were set, I added some pieces of moulded wing surface left over from the filling in of the upper wing surface, and filled and sanded smooth. I was then able to spray the wings. I decided that I would paint the separate sub-assemblies prior to attempting to fit them all together, as I figured that would be easier. Wing underside was sprayed a darker shade than the eventual 'deck tan' colour that will be the finished colour. This, when masking the rib tapes would hopefully give the impression of rib silhouettes once finished:

 

CbHbCKr.jpg

 

In a similar way, the upper wing surfaces were sprayed white. Here you can see the rib tape masking already applied:

 

9toiDJ6.jpg

 

Because the scheme I have chosen calls for a black diamond on the upper surface on the top wing, I wanted to show an impression of its silhouette showing through on the underside, so I sprayed a corresponding shape:

 

GXnKaEQ.jpg

 

I then sprayed everything with a thinned deck tan colour on quite low pressure, before removing the masking tape from the wings:

 

0wsGhAS.jpg

 

Lo2gGWv.jpg

 

With all masking tape removed from the wings, I then turned my attention to the fuselage. The upper cockpit area, as well as the nose, are 'green'. There is also a green stripe along the length of the fuselage to the rear. Not sure what exact shade of green, but I figured that Tamiya X-28 was close enough! Everything was then masked accordingly:

 

NlVxEVP.jpg

 

...and sprayed:

 

EeVWODz.jpg

 

...and the masking tape removed:

 

TEkCDGL.jpg

 

I then applied the (thankfully) few decals:

 

i1COgBv.jpg

 

Not much yellow visible now :)

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3 hours ago, Marklo said:

Lovely work, but I fear the green's not much better than the yellow :) 

You're not wrong! However, I have seen some photos of a restored one which has a green not too dissimilar to what I have applied, plus the paint scheme that came with the decals also references it, so I am sticking with it :)

 

2 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Masterclass in detailing an average kit into something special!

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian, although if I am honest I am only using some techniques that I have picked up from yourself and others on this forum over the years, so it's thanks to you all really!

 

Just a small aside, one of the previous photos hinted at a strange looking bit of kit:

 

ZbWhNIu.jpg

 

It's a template for cutting strips of masking tape to a desired width. You just stick a piece of masking tape on it to the required length, then with a new scalpel blade or similar just run the blade gently down the grooves. I got this for cheap from one of my fellow IPMS Portsmouth colleagues, and this proved invaluable in producing uniform strips for masking the rib tapes on the wings. The groove spacings run from 0.4mm to 1.0mm, so useful for a whole host of other things including seat belts etc. Best £10 I've spent in ages! They do other templates for cutting curves, asymmetric shapes etc. I am sorely tempted to avail myself of some of these.

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