WiP - 1/48 Lindberg Bristol Bulldog

[JamesP]

4 hours ago, Brad Cancian said:

Sadly, but predictably, not much more than the seat can be seen when it's in the fuselage, but it certainly looks busy enough to pass muster.

I'll take comfort in that when I don't add anything nearly as good in mine!

[Brad Cancian]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

 

Cheers,

 

BC

[Greg Law]

Great work. I'm really looking forward to seeing this done.

Another kit Airfix should do in 1/48. If done well it would have to be a big seller and a good follow up of the elusive Tiger Moth. 

Looking at your models Brad I can see we can expect a other well built  creation. 

[Martian]

Delightful workmanship!

 

Martian 👽

[woody37]

Enjoying your progress, lovely detailing

 

[Brad Cancian]

Hi everyone - it's been relatively slow but steady progress. 

 

The next step was the engine. The kit engine is a bit blobby. I had the Karaya Jupiter VII resin engine, which is very nice, but the main body of the engine wouldn't fit under the kit exhaust ring. Likewise, the kit exhaust ring pipes wouldn't reach the cylinders. So I ended up kit-bashing the crankcase and exhaust ring from the kit with the cylinders and exhaust pipes from the Karaya engine. I also used some brass tube for the centre of the spinner. It looks something like this:

 

 

It's yet to be painted; i'll do so when I have finished fitting all of the bits and bobs that will sit around the engine. After that I was done, I closed the fuselage. Luckily it went together relatively easy with the cockpit structure inserted. The seam on top of the fuselage thankfully didn't prove too troublesome. The front nose piece (which the engine slots into) didn't fit quite as well, so it needed a little filler and re-scribing.  

 

 

The next challenge was the underside of the nose; in short, the kit has it very wrong. The kit nose has a round underside (which can be seen on the box top), with the same fairings behind the cylinders as you see around the rest of the nose. The actual aircraft has broadly flat-sided panels under the nose, with a scoop-like intake behind the lower two cylinders. On the RAAF machines, a conformal radiator was also fitted under the nose; this is represented in the kit, but as lengthwise lines around the round fuselage. I deliberated over whether or not to fix this problem, and decided in the end that I couldn't live with it.  So I scratch built a new underside for the nose from sheet styrene:

 

 

I then glued it to the fuselage:

 

 

I then went about blending it into the fuselage, which took a little bit of sanding and re-filling.  The result was alot better, and more accurate:

 

 

 

The kit also omits the round fairing under the rear lower wing; this is fairly prominent and needs to be added. The tricky bit here was getting the right shape for the fairing to blend into the fuselage sides above the wing. I got there in the end, but it'll need a little filling once the lower wing is actually mounted.

 

 

Here's where things are at (engine and wing aren't glued yet, but you get the idea).

 

 

Cheers,

 

BC

[Brad Cancian]

Hi everyone - some more minor updates - the nose has had some more sanding and smoothing, and some details have now been added to the forward fuselage. The fairings behind the cylinders were hollowed out, the under-nose radiator was made with a couple of layers of fine mesh, lacing is etch, and the rest of the bits and bobs were made from plastic.

 

 

Still some tiding up to do around the gun vents before I mount the lower wing, but getting there slowly. 

 

Cheers,

 

BC

Edited February 24, 2020 by Brad Cancian

[Col.]

Seriously impressive work Brad

[bristol boy]

Looking good! Love the engine.

[DJJunis]

This is really excellent Brad...you are really doing the subject justice ...looking great!

 

All the Best!

Don

[shortCummins]

really nice work going on here, the under-nose radiator is a fantastic addition, where on earth did you get that idea from? quite wonderful

 

I agree with Greg, Airfix should do a 1:48 version, I'd also like to see a decent Hawker Fury

 

keep up the good work, I'll steal some of your ideas if I may

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[dogsbody]

Brad, your pictures have gone u/s.

 

 

 

Chris

[Brad Cancian]

Thanks guys - Chris, I think it's photobucket (which seems to have become very unreliable of late) - photos seem to be there on my screen? Anyone else having issues with the pictures?

[shortCummins]

2 hours ago, Brad Cancian said:

Thanks guys - Chris, I think it's photobucket (which seems to have become very unreliable of late) - photos seem to be there on my screen? Anyone else having issues with the pictures?

I can see them on Safari (my "normal" browser), Firefox and Chrome

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[dogsbody]

9 hours ago, Brad Cancian said:

Thanks guys - Chris, I think it's photobucket (which seems to have become very unreliable of late) - photos seem to be there on my screen? Anyone else having issues with the pictures?

 

They're back today. Stupid Photobucket!

 

 

Chris

[Gary Brantley]

I'm loving this WIP! 😀 I have the Bulldog, Gladiator II, Goshawk and Fury kits from Lindberg among my "'tween the Wars" stash and the Fury is the only one I've finished and that was so many years ago.  These ex-Impact kits are a great canvas upon which to create a really nice model.  My Fury was the second biplane I built and a couple years ago it suffered a bad accident with a heavy Fernando Pinto resin car kit fell on it from two shelves above.  Yikes!  The lick knocked loose every single piece of rigging and broke one strut.     I'm gonna rehab her some day...😉

  

I'm anxious to see how this one progresses.  Off to such an impressive start too!  The cockpit and extra work around the nose are especially nice.   Thanks for sharing this with us!  Cheers! 🍻

[corsaircorp]

Awesome results Brad !!

I'll save the thread in my files !!

Impressive work !! Congrats !!

Sincerely.

CC

[Greg Law]

This is coming along very nicely. It really confirms to me it is one of my major wants in 1/48 from Airfix. 

It's a real pleasure to watch you work on it. 

[bigbadbadge]

Wow, your scratch built cockpit looks absolutely stunning, what great work.

All the best

Chris

[Shorty84]

Hi Brad,

really gorgeous how you transform this old Lindberg kit. You are really giving this old moulds a new lease of life 👍

 

I have a Lindberg XF-88 Voodoo which I'm woking on and off (rescribing, riveting, scratching stuff, ...) and its a nice kit for its age (fit is great). So I'm really enjoying what you are doing with your Bulldog.

 

Markus

[Brad Cancian]

Hi everyone - thanks for the ongoing kind words. The build is progressing painfully slowly, but surely.

 

I've now added the lower wing and tail feathers, built the undercarriage (dry fitted), added a tail skid, cleaned up and added detail around the back of the fuselage and underside, built a bomb rack and shackles, scratch built a windscreen frame (the panes will be added from clear sheet later), hollowed out and added the exhaust pipes, and added induction pipes, spark plugs and ignition wires to the engine.

 

 

I'm still to decide the exact configuration of navigation lights, flare racks and wind-driven generators that i'll fit to the aircraft; RAAF aircraft carried different configurations of lights and racks depending upon the photograph. I'll only build the one bomb rack, as it appears that RAAF machines only carried the one rack, under the Port wing. Likewise I've noted that RAAF machines didn't seem to carry wind driven generators or radio wires very often (if at all); presumably the RAAF didn't operate much of this equipment - any experts out there able to advise?

 

It's getting very close to painting time...  

 

Cheers,

 

BC

Edited March 9, 2020 by Brad Cancian

[shortCummins]

looking very good, I had to check that it's only 1/48 and not 1/32 which makes it even more impressive

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[Biggu]

Man........... I'm loving this build !

Jeff

[72modeler]

Wow- love all the enhancements and scratchbuilt bits you have put on this classic old kit! Sure ain't gonna be your father's Lindberg kit by the time you're finished. If the nav lights on your chosen subject are the teardrop-shaped type that are mounted on the uppersurface of the wings or are fixed to the trailing edge of the rudder, I can suggest one method. If you have some 1/48 5-inch HVAR rockets in  your spares bin, you can cut off the pointed end at the correct length; drill out the cut end for the bulb; put in a drop of red or green paint, then use a blob of clear PVA glue to make the clear cover. Drill a small hole in the bottom of the body for a metal or sprue rod and mount to the wing. For the tail nav light, the mounting strut will be different. Did this on my 1/72 Matchbox Siskin  with 1/72 rocket bodies, and they turned out really nice, as I was going crazy trying to taper and round off sprue to get two identical housings- the rocket noses solved that problem for me. BTW, what squadron markings are you going to do? Can't wait to see the finished model- going to be a beaut!

Mike

[Tomoshenko]

Excellent work Brad your additions really bring it to life. Will bookmark this build for reference when I eventually tackle my Airfix 1/72. I have a query about your intended livery though (I'm unfamiliar with RAAF versions), will you be giving the engine housing a polished aluminium, bare metal finish? A lot of faff but it would look fantastic on this build at this scale.