Marathon - vac style

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Once more, nice work!

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Beautiful work!  I love those seats, and the throttle quadrant is to die for!  Thanks for showing us your handiwork!

[Sabrejet]

Realised I duplicated the images. This one should have gone in there:

 

 

[Sabrejet]

OK instrument panel then. This is two thin sheets of plastic card, the rear one of which is painted white and 1/72 Reheat instrument face decals added.

 

 

And the two parts roughly positioned to show the result. The bottom part broke off (no surprises there) but no problem to add it separately.

 

 

And a quick dry fit: it will sit back a bit further once it's glued in.

 

 

Next the cabin windows have been cut out, four on the port side and five on the starboard. On 'my' Marathon the small window on the starboard aft fuselage (so the loo can be placed on either side) was not incorporated. Contrail put some serious trenches there, so I felt it would be easier to cut the hole, removing the trenches and then glue in a section of plastic card, which could be sanded flush neatly. So I backed the cut-out ready for the insert.

 

 

 

Note that this kit has a few sink marks (one visible above the blanked-off window), which I can't recall seeing on a vacform kit before. And these are the two halves after sanding flush. I'm still in two minds whether to remove the passenger and cargo door on the port side and blank them with plastic card too. Seems daft to cut a hole and fill it again but it's usually neater to scribe onto plastic than filler and the door frames will need to be re-scribed whatever.

 

 

I had also pondered on how to do the cabin windows. On some previous kits I've cut the whole line of windows out and inserted a strip of clear plastic, which can then be sanded, polished and masked. But the plastic thickness varies so much on this kit that my usual method of strengthening the clear insert with a 'picture frame' on the inside would have been difficult to do and clamp equally. So I decided to make small supports on the rear face of each aperture, which hopefully will allow me to put individual windows in after the paint has gone on. The supports should stop the windows falling inside the fuselage. Or that's the plan...

 

 

And finally, the propellers turned up, thanks to @John Aero . I thought they looked a bit small, but they scale exactly. So they are puny because the real things are. 

 

 

Paint on the interior next!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Going stupendously well!

 

[Sabrejet]

OKeycokey then. The cockpit glazing was worrying me, as it really was not very clear and has lots of bumps in it, as if the male mould was dusty when it was vac-formed. Not expecting great results, I polished it with Micromesh and the first attempt was not that great. Undeterred, I tried again, this time using each sheet of buffing cloth twice as long. And the results were awesome! So (I guess because the acrylic is softer) it takes longer to do, but after a coat of Mr Color gloss on the interior I masked the frames to get an idea of whether I had removed all the visible scratches and bumps:

 

 

And it looks like a Marathon! So that got me finishing up the flight deck, and apart from a pilot's control yoke (port side only) it's just about finished:

 

 

And then a quick look with the glazing back on:

 

 

 

Decals are looking like they're sorted but I won't get them til August at the earliest so I shan't be rushing. I'll try to pace it so that it all comes together about right, but I suspect I'll have a month or so to twiddle my thumbs...

[kev67]

Looking great I especially like how you done the interior very neat and tidy, much better than my painting skills 

[John Aero]

That interior is superb.

 

John

[Bengalensis]

This is just awesome! Found this yesterday or the day before, but now found some time reading up. Lovely subject. I thought it progressed very well with the basic vac formed parts cleaned up, work on the fuselage, and that nose gear well; a lot of lovely modelling going on. And then that cockpit is getting built... Oh my... Seriously good! Will be a pleasure to follow this work.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Awesome modeling!

[Sabrejet]

Wings together.

 

 

There are some big gaps at the front (centre section), which had me wondering if I'd got something back-to-front, but nope: that's how it is.

 

 

There is also an awkward wing/fuselage joint on the underside and so I decided that to ease painting and assembly I'd cut the wings off: they will be located with brass rod. I've also cut out the ailerons and will make some hinges from brass wire so that I can show a bit of deflection.

 

 

And this is the centre section placed back onto the fuselage. Strange about the gaps. There will be a fair bit of filler in that area.

 

 

Then one of the final bits before the fuselage halves get glued together, the nose landing gear. I wanted to have a strong mounting but also be able to paint the model without worrying about masking round landing gears. So the idea here is to make the main fitting of the shock absorber (which lies within the fuselage profile) so that it can be fitted before the fuselage halves go together; and then the sliding part/torque links/wheel/tyre can be installed when it's all painted. So the main bit is just brass tubing, cross-drilled so that I can locate it with a trunnion pin made of brass rod. Again I just don't want it falling out!

 

 

And this is it in situ, with the rod slid through the nosewheel bay structure and through the main fitting. Pretty much as per the full-sized.

 

 

Then the final part was to make a retraction actuator from brass tube (Albion Alloys to the rescue), which holds the main fitting at the correct angle. Once it was all in place I snipped off the ends of the trunnion pin/rod and we're almost ready to go. Seats next.

 

 

[71chally]

Superb work, hard to believe that the nose gear bits are 72nd scale!  Coming together really well and you have got the glazing just so, really important with the Marathon as it contributes to its character.

[Sabrejet]

I did feel that I'd let @Moa down, so I've made a small addition.

 

 

 

You'll have to bring your own loo roll. 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Great progress and lovely detail on this.  The toilet is a scream.  No pax seats, but at least there's a lavatory.  

 

On the nose gear strut, did you solder the metal parts together?  Sure looks like it to me.  

 

Good call on using brass rod on the wing-fuselage join; there's no messing around with this critical element.  I will almost certainly do that if/when I build the Heller Noratlas 2501.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

I did feel that I'd let @Moa down, so I've made a small addition.

 

You'll have to bring your own loo roll. 

😁

Fantastic!

You are rewarded with a commendation scroll from the Shaolin Modeling Monastery, and a month-long free membership to its gym, where you will find endless seams that you can putty and sand to develop those biceps.

[Mr T]

Really nice work, especially the cockpit. On the Magna resin the wing fuselage joint was not the easiest to sort out cleanly. 

[Quiet Mike]

Late to the party, this is amazing! I can't believe it is 1/72 😮

[Space Ranger]

11 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

I wanted to have a strong mounting but also be able to paint the model without worrying about masking round landing gears. So the idea here is to make the main fitting of the shock absorber (which lies within the fuselage profile) so that it can be fitted before the fuselage halves go together; and then the sliding part/torque links/wheel/tyre can be installed when it's all painted.

 

An excellent idea. I wish all kit designers and manufacturers, especially those that insist the landing gear has to be installed early in the assembly process so as to make it easy to break off later, would adopt this approach.

[Sabrejet]

1 hour ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

Great progress and lovely detail on this.  The toilet is a scream.  No pax seats, but at least there's a lavatory.  

 

On the nose gear strut, did you solder the metal parts together?  Sure looks like it to me.  

 

Good call on using brass rod on the wing-fuselage join; there's no messing around with this critical element.  I will almost certainly do that if/when I build the Heller Noratlas 2501.

No - I used superglue. However the tubes are 'notched' to get a conformal fit.

[kev67]

Love the toilet

 

[Space Ranger]

2 hours ago, Moa said:

a commendation scroll

That's a synonym for 'toilet paper' I'd not heard before now!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Space Ranger said:

That's a synonym for 'toilet paper' I'd not heard before now!

Trying to be polite, as it's fit for a modeling monk.

[RidgeRunner]

 Very nice work, SJ

[Sabrejet]

Tail bits. The plastic for these was mega thick - like 2 to 3mm thick.

 

 

Anyway nothing that a good sanding won't sort out. Tailplane halves before and after.

 

 

The joy of the thick plastic is that you can remove the deep trenches; the fuselage won't be so straightforward because the port half is actually quite thin. All of the control sufraces (two rudders, two elevators) will be posed with a bit of deflection, so 0.6mm wire hinges were added.

 

 

 

 

Then a shot of the main structural parts fitted together (but not glued yet):

 

 

And this is how it all looks together:

 

 

 

Depending on the weather, fuselage join-up today and then LOTS of filling.

[kev67]

You probably have these photos, but these were taken from the Magazine Early Post War British Airliners that has the Miles Marathon