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WiP - 1/48 Lindberg Bristol Bulldog


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Brad,

 

I am speechless! What a beautiful build so far! The upper wing masking of the rib tapes looks very realistic- bet that was time-consuming. BTW, is that Nivo for the upper fuselage decking? What paint did you use for that, if I may ask? Can't wait to see the RFI!

Mike

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Really beautiful, I like the chrome. I'm sure interwar mechanics would have had plenty of time to apply a bit of spit and polish. Even if not it still looks beautiful.

 

Can I ask what masking material you used for the roundels? I need to spray some roundels after destroying the decals and yours look excellent.

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On 27/03/2020 at 07:01, Brad Cancian said:

Roundels were sprayed because the Red Roo decals have the red section incorrectly proportioned (arg).

Looking at pictures of the Red Roo decals on the net, they have 1:2:3 proportion roundels which are indeed incorrect. The RAAF Bulldogs should have them to the usual British 1:3:5 standard, but your roundels (to me at least) don't agree with that.

The blue and white rings should both be of the same thickness, which should be the same as the diameter of the red centre circle.  Your white ring is greater in thickness than the blue ring and the diameter of the red circle....  To the trained eye it's very noticeable.  Also, the ribs in the vertical fin should be parallel to those in the rudder, not the line of the upper fuselage.  Sorry....apart from that it's great !

 

PS:  I found some Southern Sky RAAF Bulldog decals which appear correct...

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I have this kit in the stash and I'm amazed at what you've achieved - it could be a WNW 1/32 (now there's a thought...)!

The roundels look correct when compared to this rather unfortunate incident image...

 

spacer.png

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Thank you everyone for your kind words :)

 

Roger, I am especially grateful for your feedback and details on the roundels as well, I have certainly learned something, as I didn't realise how precise the specifications were. Gotta love those RAF administrative types! I had eye-balled the proportions, similar to the image that B-Bogus provided above (thanks for that image also, where did you get it?). I think i'm too far gone to re-do the roundels, so ill just chalk this one up to experience.  Thanks also Roger for pointing out the obvious thing that I missed on the vertical stabiliser... darn!  I have since stripped and re-painted the stabiliser and the rib tapes are now more closely aligned to the rudder tapes. 

 

Mike - again I kind of guessed at the upper decking colour based off the Red Roo profiles, museum examples, and interpreting black and white photographs. I went with my own mix of German Grey and IJN Green (both Tamiya) and mixed it until looked roughly grey/green-ish. I think I could have gone a bit darker but the museum examples seemed quite green. Again, happy to chalk this one up to experience if i've gotten it wrong. 

 

Richie - the masking tape is the Tamiya stuff that you can (or used to be able to) buy in sheets, cut with a silhouette portrait cutter. I did have to have a couple of goes to correct overspray here and there (and there's still some I can see that I missed...).  Spraying roundels is never fun; i've tried it a couple of times and each time I've stuffed up something, be it alignment, positioning, bleed or colour coverage.  This time I had all of the above occur, so I had to have a few goes (and if you look closely you can see the evidence)... the experiments will continue :D

 

Cheers again all for the constructive feedback and tips!

 

BC

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I notice that while RAF interwar types generally conform to standards, there are many exceptions. As with most scale modelling if things like that trouble you then get specific information on the model you’re making.

 

I go the other way. I’m going to do my SE5a in an IAC scheme from a description of a painting which has been lost as has the actual aircraft. :) 

 

Btw the Bulldog is looking great.

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How have overlooked this thread? This is seriously plastic engineering. I love that scratch built cockpit framing and what you’ve done to the nose underside.

 

Impressive.

 

BTW that smashed Bulldog you see above is now the one in the RAFM.

 

Trevor

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2 hours ago, Brad Cancian said:

Roger, I am especially grateful for your feedback and details on the roundels as well, I have certainly learned something, as I didn't realise how precise the specifications were. Gotta love those RAF administrative types! I had eye-balled the proportions, similar to the image that B-Bogus provided above (thanks for that image also, where did you get it?). 

 

By the interwar years, nearly every country's military aircraft (and equipment generally) were highly specified and painted according to fairly strict specifications (which typically began to be developed in the 2nd half of WW1).  Paint shades, chemical specs and application procedures, shapes and sizes of insignia were all laid out in official documents.  There are a number of books on various nation's camouflage which often reproduce these documents. The US Monogram series on their  

colour scheme evolutions are maybe the most thorough example, but there are many others.  There was an excellent one on early Canadian military aircraft colours published by Avieology a few years ago which detailed their specs and something similar would have doubtless gone on in Australia. Both clearly took their inspiration from the British practice, but with some local 'twists'.

 

The Bulldog crash photo is of the surviving aircraft which was repainted into those markings after the civil markings it previously wore. So, not done by 'official' hands.  Your 'NIVO' mix looks pretty close.

 

The easy way to lay out the roundels is to note that the radius of the red dot is 1/5 of the outer radius and the junction between the white and blue is at 3/5 of the outer radius.

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Thanks everyone :D  The top wing is now mounted (it was surprisingly easy, given the age of the kit) and rigging has begun. No pics at this point, but I think the rest of the build will finish relatively quickly once the rigging is done...

 

Cheers,

 

BC 

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Side note - I couldn't resist playing with the below photograph... 

 

pm40GJq.jpg

 

 

.... and turning it into something that I can use to make my own little bulldog decals:

 

retIzXS.jpg

 

:D  Some aircraft carried these at various times. Again there's no consistency from what I can see...  I'll apply them if they print out ok onto decal paper....

 

BC

Edited by Brad Cancian
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I'd say that ship has sailed there Pete :D  I do take your point but this is just one of those modelling liberties i've taken, because I just like the look of those wee little things. I've made enough stuff-ups with the rest of the model to not worry about absolute accuracy....! 

 

Cheers,

 

BC

Edited by Brad Cancian
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lol, hi Brad, you replied here as i was sending you a  pm. sorry, i am an increadably slow typer.  no worries, it is an aboslute masterpiece. Regards, Pete in RI

Edited by europapete
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