Heather's Workbench - The Netherlands, 1940

[HAMP man]

Could it be that the tail surfaces are a smidge too wide, as if the booms are parallel then the gap would have to be as illustrated at the pod.

Drifting a bit, cheap iron ordered off Amabay 60w with a built in temp dial tin of flux and 60/40. Citing times ahead

 

Box on

 

Strickers

[Heather Kay]

If anything the booms tended to point outwards, hence the need for tape to keep them in register. It was important to keep the leading edges looking right, too, otherwise the port wing would be tending to point backwards.

 

Plenty of filler ahoy, and lots of sanding. It’ll be fine. 

[HAMP man]

I always try to fettle, as my filling and sanding skills are hit and miss, however, the recent revelation re resin and uv might be a game changer.

Are your bogies BOGIES yet?

 

Box on

 

Strickers

[Navy Bird]

Filler is your friend.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Heather Kay]

So close to being ready for paint, so I spent today slowly adding final fittings here and there to both models.

 

 

Wing landing light transparencies were glued in. I painted the slot black, and drilled a dimple that had a spot of silver paint applied to represent the lamp. They’ve since been sanded and polished up. I also made a pair of wireless aerial masts from brass wire. The tail wheel was glued in place under the tail.

 

 

Another brass fabrication was made up for under the rear fuselage. I don’t know what it was, but I will assume it’s a pitot tube. Brass fabs replace PE parts where the latter will vulnerable to handling damage. The main undercarriage doors have been fitted, plus intakes and PE cooling gills. A feature common to both these aircraft is a part of the undercarriage that seems to have no obvious function. Bars are attached to the main wheel axle ends and sit aligned with the ground when the plane is sat on it. No idea what these features are, and because they’re very likely to be damaged they will be left until all the painting is done.

 

 

The propellers were fitted with brass rod pins for a nice positive fit in the engines.

 

Meanwhile, more PE gills on the T.V cowlings, plus exhausts and intakes.

 

 

Another brass aerial mast. Since this photo, I decided to fit the nacelle plugs and attached the engines. I’m not bothering with extra detailing, so apologies if you’re expecting it. I really feel I need to push these models on and finish them. The engines need to be painted before I fit the cowlings, though I’m tempted to leave the latter off and paint them separately, which would mean I could paint the engines much later in the process. A pair of tiny clear lamps are provided for the landing lights, which I have glued in the wings. I’m going to try and use the resin clear parts for the covers.

 

I still need to make the T.V tail wheel, which is an awkward assembly of two plastic parts and a PE parts, and still confuses me. I think it’ll be fitted after painting.

 

Progress, then, has been made. The smell of rattlecan primer can’t be far away.

 

 

[AdrianMF]

Nice progress.

 

Tail wheels in the middle of the tailplane just seem wrong….

 

Regards,

Adrian

[dogsbody]

1 minute ago, AdrianMF said:

Nice progress.

 

Tail wheels in the middle of the tailplane just seem wrong….

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

The Fw 189 had a retractable tailwheel in the centre of it's tailplane.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[AdrianMF]

6 minutes ago, dogsbody said:

The Fw 189 had a retractable tailwheel in the centre of it's tailplane.

I know. That’s just wronger

 

Sorry Heather….

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

[Heather Kay]

A lot of rattlecan grey primer got sprayed about yesterday. Having left it all overnight, I gave everything a look over for remedial work. For a change, I couldn’t see anything obvious. I set up the airbrush for the first camo colour.

 

As I was airbrushing the T.V underside in chocolate brown, I noticed the port engine was definitely wonky. This is a real problem where things don’t have a positive location, and something that bugs me. I managed to prise it off without further damage and continued spraying. By the time the fourth day of the England vs New Zealand Third Test started I had got to here. Things will be left to dry for a while before I begin to consider the camo patterns. I’m tempted to try masking and airbrushing, but I fear I may well end up with the good old hairy stick. We shall see.

 

 

[Brandy]

Are the bars on the wheel axles pointing outwards? I would suggest they are to close the gear doors and hold them closed while the gear is up. It saves on a separate system just for the doors.....

[Heather Kay]

1 hour ago, Brandy said:

Are the bars on the wheel axles pointing outwards?

 

 

You can see them in this cropped image, there on the wheel hubs. On the deck, they’re always aligned with the ground plane, but I suppose they then become vertical when the wheels are retracted. They’re an odd feature I’ve not seen on other planes of the period.

 

 

 

Well, that was a fun couple of hours. I think a bit of refining of edges here and there, and I’ll call that satisfactory. I noted a fairly soft edge to the three-colour patterns in some period photos. While these soft edges might better suit a larger scale, I’m fairly happy.

 

They say practice makes perfect. Looking back to the D.XXI build in this thread, I was getting very frustrated with the airbrush. Since then, I’ve replaced that model with one that has a screw stop for the needle. I still need to perfect the MAC valve and screw stop combinations, and getting just the right mixture of paint and thinners, but I feel pretty confident doing freehand stuff like this now.

 

[dogsbody]

Regarding the bars on the main wheels, I have posted the question on the Dutch Aviation forum. Awaiting a reply.

 

 

 

Chris

[Brandy]

OK, now I see why you're confused! If they wrap around the rear, maybe to clear mud off the tyres, but then why do they extend around the front? I can still only see them as something to do with the gear doors, but there must have been simpler methods of doing that. I'm eagerly awaiting a response to Chris' question on the Dutch forum!

 

Like the paintwork too!

 

Ian

[AdrianMF]

Camouflage patterns look spot on. No idea about the weird bar on the undercarriage…

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Navy Bird]

Nice camo work! I love those colours too.     👍

 

Cheers,

Bill

[dogsbody]

Reply from the Dutch Aviation forum:

 

" Is a guide for the wheelbay doors. These doors were closed by an elastic cord. The guide had to avoid that the doors got damaged by the wheels. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

 

 

[Heather Kay]

Aha! That’s makes sense Chris! No complex electric or hydraulics, just a bungee, with the doors held open by the gear.

[AdrianMF]

6 hours ago, dogsbody said:

avoid that the doors got damaged by the wheels

That makes sense Chris. But I’d be more worried about damage the other way round!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Terry1954]

As others have noted, those colours look good!

 

Glad the wheel thingy mystery is sorted, that was hurting my head!

 

T

[Brandy]

Not a bad guess then! 

 

Ian

[Heather Kay]

Surface prep letting me down again. I must remember to smooth surfaces.

 

 

Some sort of gloss coat went on both models, so it was time for transfers. The rudders are a royal pain the wossname, but the transfers went on more or less okay. The first one, however, suffered a little crumbling of the black outline. On inspection, I noticed the spot varnish was just out of register. I decided to spray a Halfords gloss lacquer over the uncut transfers, as this has worked for home-brew stuff. To avoid any silvering around edges, particularly the big triangles, I cut each one out close to the black lines.

 

While they took a few minutes to come away from the backing paper, the transfers are commendably thin and don’t need any setting solution to settle down into detail. The triangles took quite a while patiently pushing water out from underneath them. Happy with that. I’ll let things alone overnight, then look at a matt varnish tomorrow.

 

I think I’ll tackle the G.1 now. Don’t expect pictures.

[dogsbody]

Another reply:

 

When going out( extending):

The front of the rod is bent and pushes the doors open. These will hang against a support on the landing leg.

 

When entering ( retracting 😞

As soon as the aforementioned support has passed the edge of the door, the rod slides along the edge and thus keeps the door open. As soon as the curved part (front) passes by, the door will press itself shut.

 

 

Used GOOGLE Translator for this.

 

 

And this: 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Heather Kay]

Well, that’s that little mystery solved. Many thanks, Chris, for persevering.

 

 

Most of the final little odds and ends have been fitted. The T.V tail wheel - three plastic bits and one PE - was assembled and attached. The location point on the fuselage is hopeless, so I hope it survives. Hindsight tells me I ought to have dealt with it earlier in the build and provided a more positive and stronger location, but I thought it might be a bit vulnerable to damage.

 

The main wheels have been fitted to both models now, plus the fragile PE gear retraction doodads referred to up thread, and it’s all had paintwork touched in. I also dabbed some black paint round the rudder markings where the transfers didn’t quite meet or suffered cracking.

 

 

And so, ready for a coat of matt varnish. The G.1 still required the gunsight to be installed, and both will have radio wires fitted. There’s the big gun to install in the T.V, too. With a fair wind, I may get the RFI shots done today.

 

I have been feeling a bit guilty that I’ve been neglecting the day job, but there are times when my mental health comes first - plus this pair were so close to being finished over the weekend it seemed a shame not to push on.

[HAMP man]

Camouflage and big-huge-massive national insignia, surely someone must have asked the question 'what are we trying to do here?'

at bit ike Destiny's Child.....LOOK AT ME I'm invisible

 

Very tasty colouring in

 

What's next?

 

Box on 

 

Strickers

[Heather Kay]

7 minutes ago, HAMP man said:

Camouflage and big-huge-massive national insignia, surely someone must have asked the question 'what are we trying to do here?'

at bit ike Destiny's Child.....LOOK AT ME I'm invisible

Ha! The Netherlands were technically neutral right up until the Wehrmacht invited themselves in. The markings are, I believe, referred to as "neutrality markings", and presumably were meant to be easily visible in the air to drum home the point. Until 1940, the national colours of red, white and blue were used. Roundels in the usual places, divided like a pie chart, and the rudders with horizontal stripes following the national flag.

 

Next? There’s that Anson lurking.