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Midway Defender - Marine Buffalo ***Finished***


Andwil

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Did a little more work on the Buffalo today, but no pics sorry.  I was able to repair the broken prop which was a great relief.  Following the example of @Navy Bird’s superb build of this kit (thanks again for the link Cookie) I added some plastic strip to the fuselage to avoid the large gap that will follow closing up and also began to paint up the horseshoe shaped bit on the engine bulkhead that is meant to represent the exhaust collector ring.  I think so now understand the wheel well framework so it should be back to full steam ahead.

 

AW

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More progress today and a milestone of sorts reached.

 

Finished painting the exhaust collector “ring”, gun metal with dry brushes of rust and light grey:

 

 

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Control column and seat added to the cockpit:

 

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Then I made up the framework for the wheel well.  After spending some pondering just how to get the four pieces into position, I decided to assemble the frame into one piece outside of the airframe:

 

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This was then added to the wheel well space:

 

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The engine bulkhead was wiggled into position and the frame arms trimmed to fit:

 

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In the process the starboard v shaped arm broke off and had to be carefully replaced with tweezers and a cocktail stick.  I couldn’t line it up against the front bulkhead but can live with that as it won’t be seen from outside anyway.

 

Fuselage closed up, glued from the back and working forward and then the front cowl added to ensure correct spacing at the front.  You can see the plastic strip added to fill the gap, this will be cut down flush after everything has set hard.

 

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AW

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Fuselage seams filled, window blank fixes and seam rubbing down today.  I also added some plastic card over the tail wheel well as I have found in the old Airfix a Buffalo that I have in the stash a suitable tail wheel.  I will sand this down flush before adding the tail wheel.

 

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It’s starting to look presentable.  Next major job is to attach the wings, which will need pinning.

 

AW

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Wings on!  Looks an aeroplane now.  I thought that the wing to fuselage join would be a butt joint, but actually thanks to a concave wing root the actual contact area is very small.  I hope that the join will prove strong enough.  I also got the port wing slightly misaligned, which I didn’t notice until I put the starboard wing on and was checking the dihedral and the two wings didn’t line up correctly.  So I had to detach the port wing and reattach it carefully.

 

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I’ll leave these to harden overnight before cleaning up the joint and then fixing the tailplanes on.

 

AW

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14 hours ago, Alan P said:

This seems to need as much fixing as assembly! Good, patient work so far 👍

After my earlier, self induced through clumsiness problem, I’m actually finding this quite an enjoyable experience.

 

AW 

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Tail planes and the new tail wheel attached today:

 

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The paint pots show just how small this plane is.

 

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Also gave the transparencies a bath in Future equivalent ( Pascoe Long Life), after first test fitting them.  The instrument coaming needed a sanding down to allow the windscreen to fit over it.

 

Getting closer to paint.

 

AW

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Today I completed the cockpit by attaching the dinghy canister and the roll over bar.  The rear V shaped piece of the roll bar broke while I was cleaning it up,  drop of CA fixed that.

 

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I have also added the radio mast and pitot tube and made up the s

mall mast on the fin which Special Hobby have missed.

 

AW

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I have spent my modelling time of the last couple of days dealing with the canopy.  When I test fitted it it seemed to fit quite nicely, so I masked it up thanking I could glue it on and start priming the model.  Ha! No such luck.  The rear section and sliding middle section fitted nicely, but the windscreen was a terrible fit.  I thought I could get it to fit better if I had the canopy open, which was my original plan, but the centre section will not fit over the rear section.  So I have been busily trying to blend in the windscreen.

 

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More sanding ahead!

 

AW

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Well this kit continues to fight at every turn.  Primer on today:

 

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The windscreen to fuselage join still looks horrible.  More putty and sanding required.  One step forward, two steps back.

 

AW

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have made very little progress with this build, the endless cycle of filling, sanding and priming to blend in the canopy has been a right pita.  I get the filler nice and smooth with wet and dry, then polished with various grades of micro mesh until it is looking good, apply primer and an ugly great blob is revealed.  This is where I am at now, I think it’s about as good as I can get it, it won’t win any prizes but I just want to move on and finish the build.

 

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AW

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On 5/3/2020 at 7:37 PM, rob85 said:

I think you have done a great job on a challenging kit so far. Your paint work looks really good too.

 

cheers

 

Rob

Thanks for the encouragement Rob, I really need it as I suspect that this build has a curse on it.  Today’s fun started when I decided to paint the undersides.  I gathered call the parts that were to be sprayed and then discovered that one of the undercarriage legs was broken, the part that attaches to the wheel had snapped off.  I stuck it back on with a generous amount of CA and then smothered it with accelerant.  It seems to have stuck hard, but the attachment point is so small (and too small to pin) that I worry that it won’t be strong enough to support the model.  Anyway, I commenced to spray Hataka light gull grey.  This sprayed beautifully on the Wildcat I built last year, but this time, after a light marbled coat, the airbrush clogged up.  I stripped it down and gave it a good clean, including the nozzle, but no good.  Would not even spray distilled water🤬.  So all the parts are now having a bath of airbrush cleaner and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.

 

Anyway, this is where I got to:

 

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Where did that seam come from?  It didn’t show under primer.  Looks like it might have opened up.  Ho hum...this is meant to be fun!

 

AW

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Well things just go from bad to worse.  Reassembled the airbrush today after giving everything a thorough clean and the threaded part broke clean off the nozzle.  None of the local suppliers have any replacement parts in stock and as they come from China, well it could be months before they get any in.  This build is therefore on hold for now and sadly may not be finished in time for inclusion in the group build.

 

AW

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3 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

Bah! Sorry to hear that AW, this one has definitely fought you, but I'm sure you will be victorious .

Thanks Cookie.  I am going to try the paint on a mule to see whether I can complete it by brush painting it.  I used to be pretty good with a brush.

 

AW

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I have been pondering an airbrush upgrade for a while now, so I have bitten the bullet and ordered a Paasche Talon.

 

AW

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On 5/6/2020 at 7:50 AM, Andwil said:

Thanks Cookie.  I am going to try the paint on a mule to see whether I can complete it by brush painting it.  I used to be pretty good with a brush.

 

AW

As a brush painter a fully support this option, thinned cotes wife brush.

6 hours ago, Andwil said:

I have been pondering an airbrush upgrade for a while now, so I have bitten the bullet and ordered a Paasche Talon.

 

AW

Well that is definitely biting the bullet from an airbrush point of view.

 

hope we see this back on if it’s possible.

 

Rob

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3 hours ago, rob85 said:

As a brush painter a fully support this option, thinned cotes wife brush.

Well that is definitely biting the bullet from an airbrush point of view.

 

hope we see this back on if it’s possible.

 

Rob

BNA in Melbourne shipped the new airbrush today, all being well I’ll have it early next week and this and the Sea Harrier will be back on.

 

AW

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Well after a delay of a couple of weeks I got back to the Buffalo today.  The Paasche airbrush arrived as expected, but I was not able to fit it to my compressor as the fittings are a different size.  I looked in vain for a suitable adaptor and ended up buying a Paasche air hose for it, which took another week to be delivered.  In the meantime I took advantage of a spell of beautiful autumn weather to get a lot of work done in the backyard building retaining walls and paths.  Anywho, the new hose arrived today so I whacked it on to the compressor and completed the underside of the Buffalo.  I have to say, the Paasche was a revelation, so much better than the Sparmax cheapie I’ve been using!

 

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Sealed in with Future equivalent which is still wet in this photo.

 

A concerted push should see this get completed before the deadline. 🤞

 

AW

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