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The underrepresented one - Special Hobby - Clive Caldwell's Mk.Vc


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Huh.

Fancy that, no Mk.Vc in sight as of yet! That'll not do, so as a secondary I'll add this Special Hobby Mk.Vc box to the mix.


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The subject of choice will be Clive Caldwell's BS295 from the box.
The leading Australian air ace of World War II, officially credited with shooting down 28.5 enemy aircraft in over 300 operational sorties.
Caldwell flew Curtiss P-40 Tomahawks and Kittyhawks in the North African Campaign and Spitfires in the South West Pacific Theatre. He was the highest-scoring P-40 pilot from any air force and the highest-scoring Allied pilot in North Africa.


His military service ended in controversy, when he resigned in protest at the misuse of Australian First Tactical Air Force's fighter units and was later court martialed and convicted for trading liquor.*

 

*Left largely to their own devices as so many fighting men in the SWPT, trading booze for parts was 'part of the job' for many.

During their assignment in Morotai (NEI), they got the short stick and Caldwell together with others resigned in protest at being bypassed.
The booze trade court-martial was later attributed by the Daily Telegraph as a form of retribution.

 

Edited by alt-92
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Sprue shots:
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slightly rough around the edges, but the kit comes with an expansive decal set for 5 versions, and also contains resin parts (among which is an Aboukir style air filter!) and some PE.

 

For the colour scheme, there is only one choice  for Acrylics for Foliage Green and Earth Brown.

And I need these anyway, there's a Boomerang somewhere in the stash ;) 

y4m3gvjIBptJA9_rho97LHva4ZZXIPVGP2yONk7Z

 

 

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Not at all. 
Pace may be a bit reduced though, the parts for the Four Seasons are coming in this week and I need to get started on those as well.

 

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Great subject, mind if I pull up a seat too? 

 

If you haven't build one of these, can I offer some of my findings with this kit? It is IMHO a bit over engineered, but on the up side, lots of nice detail. It is one of the few kits that attempts to replicate the lapped panels on the fuselage. I found EVERY part needed to be cleaned up due to flash, but the plastic is quite soft so not hard, just time consuming when all you want to do is build (!). There isn't a lot of positive locating for the main parts so I used a lot of Tamiya masking tape to hold assemblies while glue set. I also used small tabs of plastic card to help locate the wing upper surfaces to the fuselage wing root - this helps ensure surfaces match. I think I may have used these tabs on the fuselage too. From memory, the sliding canopy didn't sit too well in the open position and I used a vac form replacement. I installed the undercarriage after assembling and painting the aircraft - it needs a bit of wangling but will fit, make sure you open the locating hole for the locating pin on the arm and clean the flash off the locating pins. It is very much a 'check fit before gluing' kit but I like the finished result. 

 

PR

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On 4/16/2020 at 11:47 PM, Peter Roberts said:

It is very much a 'check fit before gluing' kit but I like the finished result. 

Thanks :) I'm aware of that, fortunately. 
Done more 'shorter run' kits that share that tendency - it's not a Tamiya shake & bake and that's fine with me.

Kinda therapeutical actually...

 

Finally found the time and mojo after a busy week WFH to start - been dealing with a splitting headache in the evenings earlier this week, probably due to a less than optimal setup as I'm working in the living room and the initial monitor placement meant it reflected a lot of daylight.

That's changed now, no more headaches from squinting against the glare.

 

So into the bits we go!
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Interiors applied, small bits loosened....

And seat & armour plating done. Also drilled out the lightening holes in the frame.

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Ready for a sealing coat, decal & oil wash.

More tomorrow.

 

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I am doing this kit as well during lock down. The one thing that fixed the bad fit for the cockpit tub is just cutting the sides in two at the rear so the rear bulkhead fits in. I have test fitted it and this appears to solve the issue without the need to cut the section for the front bulkhead.

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Thanks for the warning :) I did several dryfit sessions, and thinned down the rear sidewalls already before attaching them at that point.

You really have to be careful and do plenty of fiddling as @Peter Roberts said.

Keeping the locating 'grooves' free of paint and additionally a crape & sanding stick pass on the frame seems to work as well.

 

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Not that much done today, spent most time outside in the sunshine, reading a bit and looking up reference stuff.

One of the detail parts that stuck me as wrong in the kit is the undercarriage lever system, it's in the Up position.

Scalpel fixed that.

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Besides that, it's decidedly empty in there.. maybe some scratch work is in order here.

 

Did do some PE parts, and of course the seatbelts - complete with passthrough slot. 

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There's some thin wire in the toolbox to attach it to the rear frame later on.

 

 

 

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Working IT has its advantages.
Stripped a bit of Cat5E cabling and used it to detail up the office.

- cable boom from U/C selector

- piping through IP frame

- leftover PE bits bended & folded on Stbd side

- single strand of copper wire from the roundy thingy above the throttle quadrant

- very light oil wash (it's there, trust me)

 

General fettling and meddling to ensure everything still fits, which it does. Seat in place, IP decal freshly added. 
Just waiting till that's dry to add the pedals & control column and close up.

 

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Edited by alt-92
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Final check on all the PE bits before closing up revealed one rather essential bit missing in the cockpit.

No compass?

More scratchbuilding with spare bits & sprue... 
 

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Progress!

Fuse closed up. A bit of a seam on the front, but some putty & sanding will sort that out.

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Meanwhile, the internals are still visible, well pleased with that. 
Managed to scratch-add the radio box and compass (Ok, barely visible, but it should be in there).

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Not forgotten, just a bit busy. 

Seam & step gone, rescribe on the panel lines.

 

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Started on the wing assembly, but nearly FUBAR'd the cannon cover with a nice, fat juicy TET fingerprint.

I've managed to get rid of the evidence though.

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