Heather's Workbench - The Netherlands, 1940

[Heather Kay]

1 minute ago, Beard said:

That's very smart? What's next?

 

 

Ta. Next? Well, I’ve an itch to build one of big kits in the stash, but I’m forcing myself to think smaller. No room in the display cabinet for an FW Condor, or the Sunderland…  

 

So, it could be a Tiger Moth. I can definitely fit one of those in the cabinet. Or a Blackburn Skua, which is quite a bit bigger but should squeeze in a corner somewhere.

 

In reality, it’s the danged paying work that’s next. 

 

 

[Beard]

8 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

 

In reality, it’s the danged paying work that’s next.

 

Work is the curse of the modelling classes. (I'm not sure how that works when your paying work is a modeller.)

 

I'd like to see a Skua, I think they flew out of Detling to provide cover over Dunkirk.

[Cookenbacher]

Forgive my Americanism, but that collection is awesome.

[Heather Kay]

Well, that was an instructive half hour. 
 

I procured some food colouring today, as I ventured into the virus-ridden wasteland out to do our regular grocery shop. I set the airbrush and compressor up, got some scrap card, and set about squirting colour around. 
 

I had not clocked before that the compressor's gauge shows the relative pressure as you open the MAC valve. 
 

I know. I’m so dense I ought to have collapsed into a singularity by now.

 

It’s not a precise reading, since it’s what the compressor will deliver before you press the airbrush trigger. Once you do that, the pressure drops a little further. With practice and experience, I should be able to gauge the setting to give, for example, the 10-15psi that ColourCoats likes. Anyway, twiddling the valve allowed me to try different pressures, to great effect. The trick now is to train my trigger finger for the fine control of the paint flow, and learn to mix paint and thinners to just the right consistency.

 

Thanks, once again, to everyone that chipped in with their experience and knowledge. 

[Martian]

Nice one Heather!

 

Martian 👽

[CedB]

12 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

Well, that was an instructive half hour.

Good news!

Weird setup isn't it, but I'm really pleased you've cracked it!

[Heather Kay]

Nearly two years on, the world is still riddled with naughty viruses, and it’s time to meet some more Fokkers!

 

 

 

The poor little D.XXI has been ever so lonely, and I decided at some point late last year these two should be high on the build schedule. Having stalled on my Anson build, due to complicating things beyond my brain cell's immediate capacity, I cast around the stash for something that would a little easier to deal with. 
 

Let's poke around in the boxes and see what we get. T.V first. That’s a T Five, in case you’re wondering.

 

 

 

 

 

The typical Valom beige brown styrene in three sprues. Nice clear transparent parts, a small PE fret, and a bag of polyurethane castings for engines and stuff. The transfers cover four different planes in service during the early part of 1940, and I’ve adde the Peewit masking set.

 

What about our friends in Ukraine? I hope they’re keeping out of harm's way.

 

 

 

 

 

Clean, light grey styrene, with a duplicate sprue for the twin booms. My first thought was "hang on! Where’s the fuselage?", then I noticed it was moulded in clear plastic. Clever, with all that glazing no longer a problem. A comprehensive PE collection, glazing masks, and 3D printed transfers for the instrument panel and seat belts. Transfers for several aircraft, plus important notes on the camouflage patterns. It looks like MM did their homework on this important but ill-fated aircraft.

 

I hope to build both aircraft in tandem, but inevitably real life and paying work will get in the way. Before I pile in and glue anything together, I shall do a bit of research and see what's what.

[Gondor44]

So instead of twin engined French aircraft, I see youve gone with twin engined Dutch.

 

Gondor

[Heather Kay]

5 minutes ago, Gondor44 said:

So instead of twin engined French aircraft

My rationale is most of the French planes (six of 'em) are classic Heller and will need some effort to make nice models (nice, by my standards at least). The Dutch models are already detailed enough to just build.

 

The French stuff will be built at some point, you can be sure of that.

[Brandy]

Nothing wrong with a lady who's willing to go Dutch!

They both look interesting, but especially the G-1A. Neither were on my radar previously!

 

Ian

[2996 Victor]

Excellent, Heather, I'll be watching your progress as I've got a hankering for the T.V and the Mikro Mir G-1A is already safely in my stash!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Navy Bird]

Ooh, me likes that G-1A. And with those beautiful orange triangles to boot! I love it.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Heather Kay]

As is now traditional when I begin a limited/small run kit, I went through the sprues of both kits with a fine felt tip marker and numbered the parts. I do this to avoid having to keep referring back to the sprue maps in the instructions, which generally become harder to follow as parts are removed during the build.

 

I also went through the instructions marking up the colour call-outs, while familiarising myself a bit with the construction sequence.

 

Then it was time to get the glue out.

 

 

This is the cockpit area for the T.V. The instructions would have me apply the PE belts to the seats right at the start. I felt it would be easier to apply them after the basic construction and painting was done and things were easier to handle. Other PE parts to fit include a pair of dainty control columns and some rudder pedals. The location points for all these are vague, as I expect from this maker. The instructions are also a bit vague as to locations, too. However, a few minutes scratching the head and dry fitting things and it all makes sense. The various floor levels rest on tiny ledges. I assume they are meant to rest on the ledges and not butt up under them. A dry fit into a fuselage half confirms my thought. A hefty sinkhole on the back of the radio bulkhead needed some filler, but other than the expected cleaning up of rough edges and mould split lines it’s all going together quite well.

 

I think the interior colour is a light grey. Valom calls out Humbrol 128, but I think I’ll go for what I have in the paint box.

 

 

 

[Markh-75]

Been looking through this thread; very interesting! 

The MPM kist look very similar to the Special Hobby kits, even the box layout! Theyre both from Check Republic, (maybe theyre pals!😂) I dont intend using an airbrush, because I dont have the space for a booth and I'm not spraying enamels in the house, also the cost; I always insist on buying the best I can afford and I think I'd spend too much for the set up and then fall out with it when it didnt do what it was told! I'll stick with what I know, I enjoy brushing and I am able to get some pretty decent results now that I thin the paint. I mean no malice to anyone who uses the airbrush, just, each to their own.

I see you do what I do; number the parts off the tree/sprue! It can be so easy to lose track of where a part goes when there is no number on it and several parts look very similar, I kept all the parts for the port wing and stbd wing together and numbered as appropriate on my present build and a few back the way. Funny how we all have our funny little ways! These look great!

I made a Special Hobby Brewster Buccaneer last year that had the option of Dutch markings; but having a US based collection I kept to using the US stars and bars for markings, I'll be featuring the Buccaneer soon! I still have one more Special Hobby kit to make, possibly soon!

Great work Heather.👍😀

[Heather Kay]

Thanks Mark. I quite enjoy the challenge of kits from beyond the mainstream. Valom, especially, has been adding aircraft of late that hit my 1940 button nicely.

 

Progress was a little slow today, but satisfying.

 

 

 

This is the interior, with a lick of paint and all the PE. I will weather it down a bit, and do a black wash, but most won’t be visible once the fuselage is buttoned up.

 

 

Speaking of the fuselage, here it is. The interior assembly is posed. It helps to see the interesting set-up for the pilot and copilot, in tandem rather than side by side. The T.V could fly with a crew of five, but more usually three. One of the trio would act as navigator and/or bombardier, depending on the sortie. At this stage of construction, I realised I had ploughed on and fitted the glazing - something it’s important to take your time over for a good flush fit - and forgot I could have installed a couple of machine guns in the waist positions and left the windows out. There’s still scope for a gun in the belly, and I may fit the waist guns in stowed sideways positions so they might be seen. However, silly me. 
 

I’ll get some grey paint around the insides, fit the various ammunition drums, and that'll do for today. I’m in the mood to give myself a short holiday from the day job, so who knows how far I’ll get with the rest of the construction. Like my previous Valom kit, the Bristol Bombay, this isn’t a really complex build, which makes it all the more satisfying really.

 

 

 

[Heather Kay]

Making good on my threat to carry on with the build instead of working…

 

 

The T.V was designed as a multi-role heavy fighter bomber. One of its assigned tasks was to attack incoming bombers, and it duly equipped with a massive machine gun in the nose cupola, and another pointing upwards from a hatch in the upper fuselage. That’s not mentioning the four smaller guns arrayed in beam windows, under the fuselage and in the tail. As mentioned in a previous post, I forgot the beam and belly guns, so the fuselage will be all closed up for display. I haven’t forgotten the big peashooter in the nose, though. The nose gunner/bombardier is furnished with stool, which is of the standard Valom butt-joint style. I filed through the fuselage to give it a better chance of staying put, thinking it’ll be a darned sight simpler to clean up the resulting small pimple on the outside.

 

 

Another oddity and potential for disaster is a pair of glazed panels that sit on the join of the fuselage. The idea is to glue them to one side and hope the opposite side’s aperture fits them. I temporarily taped the sides together, and managed to adjust the holes to fit the panels, finagling them into place by various means through the hole at the end of the fuselage. Once tacked in place, the halves could be separated and the panels more firmly attached. Note, also, the corrugated mat for the tail gunner to snooze on.

 

With final paint retouching, a spot of weathering, and plenty of masking tape strips, the fuselage halves were glued together. No location pegs, but careful visual alignment - concentrating on the upper surfaces - with liquid cement brushed liberally along the join in stages from nose to tail will hopefully work. Tape all over the shop, and a fervent hope the cement does its job, and I’ll leave that to harden before doing anything else.

 

 

 

[Heather Kay]

The seam tidying didn’t take all that long, and only a little filler was needed. A little panel engraving was reinstated, and plenty of effort made to exclude dust from inside the fuselage.

 

 

At this point it made sense to attach the main glazing. As you can see, the greenhouse needed a bit of thin styrene strip under it to lift it so it matched the upper fuselage. The leading edges will need some filler, but otherwise I’m happy. The sliding canopy behind was actually a bit too flat. The outer sides stuck out like wings. I managed to glue it in line with the upper centreline, bodged some more strip under it and set about sanding down. It dawned on me the clear part was probably a physical part of the sliding hatch, which covered the upper big machine gun, so I didn’t sand it down to conform to the smaller fuselage radius. I will spend a bit of time polishing my handiwork, and hope the masking set makes it all good later.

 

I have considered the nose cupola. I have to drill a hole for the massive gun, and erect a fine PE framework to support said weapon. Not keen on that today, so I’ll finish up by making and fitting the tailplane horizontal surfaces. Once that’s in, I can check the tail cone fitting. A quick check earlier indicated the tail area needs some gentle persuasion to come down in diameter slightly to match the glazed cone. Hopefully the tailplane bits will help there.

 

I have to admit, although the build is advancing fairly quickly, I’m getting a bit bored with it. Perhaps I should look at getting the G-1 up to a similar point. 

 

[heloman1]

Nice pair of subjects here Heather, those transparencies look exquisite.

 

I liked your article in the latest 2022/1 issue of IPMS UK mag.

 

Colin

[Heather Kay]

Cheers Colin! I’m running out of full sets for the IPMS articles. Better get building!

 

Today, I started the G1. Designed from the outset as a heavy fighter, the G1 carried a crew of two or three, and was intended to take down enemy bombers. Several countries were interested in the plane, but only a handful had been built and were in service at the time the Germans attacked in May 1940.

 

 

Where other small kit makers would use polyurethane resin for detail parts, Mikro-Mir have the chutzpah to mould them in styrene. These three parts are a cooler intake for an engine cowling. It took me a lot of concentration not to feed the carpet monster!

 

The first two sections in the instructions cover building up the pair of Bristol Mercury engines. Then, they’re set aside until much later in the construction sequence. I found the instructions a little vague. The idea is to glue the engine to the rear plate, complete with the carburettor intake horns, attach that assembly to the small part of the cowling, along with the exhaust collector ring. There are few alignment marks, and I would like to leave the collector rings off to be painted. So, I’ve popped all the relevant pieces into suitably labelled pots and stored them safely out of the way. Once I get to the later part of the build, I hope the fitment will become clearer.

 

Stages 3 through 22 - yes, you read that correctly - cover building up the cockpit and interior. This pile of bits comprises stages 3 to 5, and is the makings of the rear cockpit tub. We have grey styrene, a clear part (which gets painted anyway) and four PE parts.
 

I’ve stopped at this point. This is because I need to paint it before it all gets inaccessible. I also have to apply at least three 3D printed transfers, that’s the radio gear and seat belts. I don’t know what the colour scheme should be, because there are no colour call-outs in the instructions at all. 
 

So, if any of my loyal readers know what colours I should be applying to the innards of a G1, please shout now. I could make an uneducated guess at a light or medium grey, and to be honest I expect I wouldn’t be far wrong.

 

Otherwise, I’m really enjoying the fiddly stuff. It becomes so easy to lose yourself in cleaning up and assembling the tiny parts, and the cares of the real world fade into the background.

[HAMP man]

50 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

I’m really enjoying the fiddly stuff. It becomes so easy to lose yourself in cleaning up and assembling the tiny parts, and the cares of the real world fade into the background.

I totally agree, the hit of dopamine that I get when I assemble, paint and weather a sub-assembly that will never been commented on let alone seen is adictive. I once showed a model to a work colleague and he noticed stuff that my other critic (SWMBO) had or would never, I just about contained the urge to do an Irish jig with clappy hands.

This thread has reminded me that there were a lot of air related work being done by countries who only merit a few paragraphs in the time line of 1939-40. I realise I now have too many Hurris and Spits in the stash and need to diversify       I wonder if there will be a Kit-swap at this years SMW?

 

Box On

 

Strickers

[alt-92]

For the Fokker G.1, I can recommend Dutch Profile 28 on the subject.

Camo patterns were done in batches and differed between them (alternating patterns and colours).

 

Your guess at the interior colour is correct, light grey

 

 

[mgbooyv8]

1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

Cheers Colin! I’m running out of full sets for the IPMS articles. Better get building!

 

Today, I started the G1. Designed from the outset as a heavy fighter, the G1 carried a crew of two or three, and was intended to take down enemy bombers. Several countries were interested in the plane, but only a handful had been built and were in service at the time the Germans attacked in May 1940.

 

 

Where other small kit makers would use polyurethane resin for detail parts, Mikro-Mir have to chutzpah to mould them in styrene. These three parts are a cooler intake for an engine cowling. It took me a lot of concentration not to feed the carpet monster!

 

The first two sections in the instructions cover building up the pair of Bristol Mercury engines. Then, they’re set aside until much later in the construction sequence. I found the instructions a little vague. The idea is to glue the engine to the rear plate, complete with the carburettor intake horns, attach that assembly to the small part of the cowling, along with the exhaust collector ring. There are few alignment marks, and I would like to leave the collector rings off to be painted. So, I’ve popped all the relevant pieces into suitably labelled pots and stored them safely out of the way. Once I get to the later part of the build, I hope the fitment will become clearer.

 

Stages 3 through 22 - yes, you read that correctly - cover building up the cockpit and interior. This pile of bits comprises stages 3 to 5, and is the makings of the rear cockpit tub. We have grey styrene, a clear part (which gets painted anyway) and four PE parts.
 

I’ve stopped at this point. This is because I need to paint it before it all gets inaccessible. I also have to apply at least three 3D printed transfers, that’s the radio gear and seat belts. I don’t know what the colour scheme should be, because there are no colour call-outs in the instructions at all. 
 

So, if any of my loyal readers know what colours I should be applying to the innards of a G1, please shout now. I could make an uneducated guess at a light or medium grey, and to be honest I expect I wouldn’t be far wrong.

 

Otherwise, I’m really enjoying the fiddly stuff. It becomes so easy to lose yourself in cleaning up and assembling the tiny parts, and the cares of the real world fade into the background.

Hi Heather,

 

Great that you are tackling the Fokkers for your 1940 obsession.

AFAIK both Fokkers had a light grey interior, for which Humbrol 129 is a good match.

More info on IPMS NL website: https://www.ipms.nl/artikelen/recensies/vliegtuigen-militair/3337-micromir-fokker-g1-72-english and https://www.ipms.nl/artikelen/nedmil-luchtvaart/vliegtuigen-f/vliegtuigen-f-fokker-g1 (text in Dutch)

and on the website of Wilko Jonker (he is no longer with us, but his website is still alive): https://kw.jonkerweb.net/index.php/en/

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

 

 

 

[Heather Kay]

51 minutes ago, HAMP man said:

This thread has reminded me that there were a lot of air related work being done by countries who only merit a few paragraphs in the time line of 1939-40.

I know what you mean. It’s why it’s become something of an obsession for me. Helping to tell of the often gallant but ultimately futile attempts to stop the German forces has been a fascinating journey.

 

37 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

Camo patterns were done in batches and differed between them (alternating patterns and colours).

Useful to know. I’m going to use one of the kit schemes. Mikro-Mir seem to have done some good research, both on the kit and the markings, so I’m happy to go with their offerings. Which brings me to books.
 

I love books. I like to buy, own and read books, especially good reference works. You should see my growing day job reference library. However, I find I am a little unwilling to justify expenditure on a publication - no matter how authoritative - for single model build. I have made exceptions to this self-imposed rule, but I try to find books that cover more than a single subject where I can. If I was someone that liked to build lots of the same type, then I’d be all over such material. For a single build, not so much.

 

If such things were readily available from our public libraries, that would be different, of course. Potentially, I could purchase, use, then sell on. But I like books too much to do that!

[Dave Slowbuild]

Great thread Heather.

I have to admit, and with apologies to @alt-92 and others, the G.1 is a type I was not aware of...  I have now read the Wikipedia entry, so have learned something new today!

Best wishes for the build, it’s a beautiful looking aircraft.

 

Dave

 

[HAMP man]

1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

I love books. I like to buy, own and read books, especially good reference works.

I have just two words to say Hay on Wye!

 

With your permission I would like to join in your obsession with the 'air war' such as it was during the sit-down and the flash.

 

Desk-top survey of airfields first methinks.

 

Box On

 

Strickers