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It's a 'Art wiv an 'Ook: 28 Sqn Audax


hendie

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/13/2020 at 6:32 PM, CedB said:

Of course we wouldn't have known, or at least I wouldn't, if you hadn't told us!

I couldn't see the problem with the finger prints either - must be the wine…

Looking good from here :) 

 

it looks better to me now than it did when I first did the damage.  Once the wings go on I think it will look fine.

 

On 12/14/2020 at 3:56 AM, perdu said:

I have had a look at various sources about the 'tween wars roundel colours, seems fairly clearly cut.

The colours in use look to have darkened during the early days of the RAF in WW1 and most different colours on photos seem to be attributed to Ortho and other film emulsion differences.

So to me yours look good and right

Where is that fresh worm can when you need it?

 

Thanks Bill.  They're on and I'm sticking with them

 

On 12/14/2020 at 7:10 AM, giemme said:

The recovery went pretty well, I'd say :clap:

Why not painting the roundels, though? :whistle:  :D 

Ciao

 

Why not painting the roundels Giorgio ?   You nearly had me there -  I recognize a rhetorical question when I see one!

 

Before starting any modeling sessions this week I decided that it was time, nay, essential for me to have a clear up as it was all a bit messy - even by my standards.

Look what I found lurking in all the mess!  3 works in progress and a stalled build.

 

PC200027.jpg

 

S'been  a while since this Audax had any attention, so in between my triad of biplanery, I got back onto this airframe for a little while. 

As mentioned in the title, an Audax is essentially a Hart with a hook - 'cept the kit doesn't come with a hook, and I don't have one.  The itch to scratch beckons.

A leftover Wessex floor pan came into play - mainly because it had a nice sized hole in it

 

PC220006.jpg

 

Cut away all the bits that I don't want but make sure to keep the hole

 

PC220007.jpg

 

Then, bisect the part through the hole, and stick it back together around an axle. Drill a hole in the end, and we have a pivoting thingamabob for the hook when this is all finally assembled.

 

PC220008.jpg

 

some more stickers got stuck

 

PC200024.jpg

 

Then despite all odds, some actual assembly took place.  It's been a while since I did this so I started off with something small - the brackets that support the filter box on her bottom.

Tough work, so I took a rest after that.

 

PC220014.jpg

 

The wings got a coat of Alclad semi-matt which toned things down nicely

 

PC220024.jpg

 

and we even got to have that painted on look for the roundels.

 

PC220026.jpg

 

I then started finding lots of little bits I had completely forgotten about - such as the machine gun.

That was painted and then stuck in place - not very easily though.

 

PC230036.jpg

 

That channel is just marginally smaller than the the dimension across the jaws of my tweezers when gripping the gun - what were the chances eh?

Then I found these hiding away in my box of Audax bits

 

PC230037.jpg

 

So they got stuck on too. I dunno why they look so terrible in this photo - they look a lot, well, a little better in the flesh

 

PC230038.jpg

 

the gunners toys were assembled then stuck back in the box

 

PC230039.jpg

 

where I happened across the wheels. still in primer.

I've developed a method for painting wheels which may be helpful for others so if you have your own method, you can skip the next few photos.

Since I didn't have any masking tape of the right width, in this case I have overlaid 2 x 10 mm wide strips of Tamiya tape as my starting point.

I then cut a disc about the same size as the hub.  The nice part is that this disc doesn't have to be exactly the same diameter as the hub - it just needs to be close.  Once the disc is cut, I then roughly cut out the center leaving a doughnut shape.

I then slice across one side of the doughnut so it's now a C instead of an O.

I then start applying the C around the hub a few millimeters at a time.  The beauty of this method is that you can adjust the C on the fly as it were as you are going around the wheel.  If your original disc was too large you will end up with an overlap at the end. If the disc was too small, you end up with a small gap - just cut another disc and cut a pizza slice form that, and stick it over the gap.

 

PC220027.jpg

 

Then all you need to do is fill in the gaps with scraps of tape.  You can see that on the wheel on the right I cut the disc too small so used a pizza slice to cover the gap.

 

PC220028.jpg

 

I buff the edges down with a cocktail stick just prior to paint.

Spray - then hey presto, once the masking tape is removed, you have this

 

PC230032.jpg

 

When checking references - of which in regards to the Audax, there are very, very few, I originally thought the wheel hubs were a shiny black.

As luck would have it, I came across a half decent photo where I could see that the outer hub was black, but the reverse of the hub was nice and shiny. Then on closer examination I saw that the center of the outer hub was nice and shiny too.  Damn research!

Remember that useless Montex mask that I bought? Well I am finding that it's not so useless - at least on jobs that it was never intended for.  The white section of the roundel was a perfect match for the center of the Audax hub

 

PC230033.jpg

 

Another job scored off the list.

 

PC230034.jpg

 

While striking off all these little jobs, one of those "little" jobs was to paint the leather padding around the cockpit opening.  This type of thing is a complete nightmare for me as I just don't do detail painting very well. To complicate matters, the "seam" between the fuselage and the leather was a small radius, and the leather was two different widths around the opening.

This probably took 20 minutes alone, but one of my better attempts thankfully.

 

PC230041.jpg

 

As she sits now. That touch of color takes away the overall drabness

 

PC230042.jpg

 

With that job behind me I started tackling the airscrew.   There's not much to go on evidence wise.  I have stumbled across about three different schemes on the airscrew, but have no idea what the props on 28 Sqn were like - so I'm making it up as I go along

 

PC230040.jpg

 

Starting with a light grey overall, then a black semi-gloss center section.  The rear of the blades will be matt black, with bronze (?) protective edge strips. Lastly the nose forward of the blades will be nice and shiny aluminum.

At least, that's the plan

 

 

 

 

 

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29 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Those wheels look great , do you airbrush those,? It may seem a daft question but I don't airbrush and it seems a lot of work to thin paint and then clean out the airbrush for.  

Chris

 

Airbrush, yes.  I airbrush whenever possible as my brush painting skills are atrocious. 

It may seem like a lot of work, but once you have the routine - I can have the paint mixed, sprayed, and the airbrush cleaned out in easily less than 10 minutes

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1 hour ago, hendie said:

and we even got to have that painted on look for the roundels.

 

PC220026.jpg

 

That is cheating.  :rofl2:  :rofl2:

 

Delightful update, Alan - excellent progress :clap:  :clap: 

 

Ciao

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Lovely work, so far ( you really do have to resurrect the first Brisfit, it was going so well)

 

For wheels I just insert the cocktail stick in tightly or glue it if necessary and hold a brush steady while slowly rotating the cocktail stick. Sometimes I use a sharpie instead of a paintbrush.

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On 12/24/2020 at 4:15 PM, giemme said:

That is cheating.  :rofl2:  :rofl2:

Delightful update, Alan - excellent progress :clap:  :clap: 

Ciao

 

Best I can do Giorgio - you'll need to show me ho w it's done.

 

On 12/24/2020 at 4:22 PM, Marklo said:

Lovely work, so far ( you really do have to resurrect the first Brisfit, it was going so well)

For wheels I just insert the cocktail stick in tightly or glue it if necessary and hold a brush steady while slowly rotating the cocktail stick. Sometimes I use a sharpie instead of a paintbrush.

 

The Roden kit isn't forgotten, it's just taking a back seat for the moment

 

On 12/24/2020 at 6:20 PM, Dandie Dinmont said:

I’ve just spent a very pleasant evening reading this thread. The breadth and quality of modelling skills on display is astounding. I look forward to further developments!

Craig. 

 

Thanks Craig

 

On 12/24/2020 at 6:53 PM, CedB said:

More nice work hendie and great tip for wheel masking - noted! :) 

 

Thanks Ced

 

On 12/27/2020 at 6:19 PM, The Spadgent said:

Great catch up Hendie. It’s always nice to have a clean bench again. That tip for the wheels!!!! I’ll be having that one. 👌🙌👏👏👏

Shes looking great by the way. 😇

Johnny

 

Sadly Johnny, the bench does not seem to stay cleared for very long.  Someone needs to invent a robot vacuum for modelers workbenches.

 

 

As appears to be my modus operandi, I'm still waiting on decals.   I can't rush the guy too much - it is was Xmas after all.  Without those decals though, I can only proceed so far.  That meant today (and prolly a few more days) was spent looking for those little tedious tasks that need done and those types that I generally put off until the end of the build or when I can no longer ignore them.

 

The airscrew got another coat of paint - the wrong one!.  Damn Humbrol give you one color on the tin lid and it's another color inside.  In my defence it was grey, and I intended to paint the prop grey. Just not that particular shade of grey!  It was enamel too so had to wait ages for it to dry before I could recoat it with the correct color this time.  I shant bore you with a photo of another part painted airscrew... maybe tomorrow :D

 

First port of call was to have a ratch through the Audax box where I happened upon the exhausts... remember them?  I reckoned it was about time I could fit them now.  

I used 1 hour Epoxy to give me enough time to faff about getting the position right.  I just knew that 5 minute epoxy would set up on me before I had the thing sitting right.  

Can you see it?

 

PC260002.jpg

 

An hour later I could start to fit the other side

 

PC270012.jpg

 

Both of them in position.

 

PC270011.jpg

 

The rest of the exhaust system will have to wait until the transfers are on I'm afraid. 

So it was back to the reference photos to see if there was anything else that I had missed.  Guess what?  Loads.  I happened across some new 28 Sqn Audax photos which showed up some wonderful detail in just enough quality so that I couldn't make things out clearly.  That lead to a lot more googling.

I had spotted something hanging off the underside of the wing out towards the wing tip.  Eventually I learned that this was a Holts Flare System.  Endless hours of searching got me a diagram - of the wrong mark of course  :wall:  

I couldn't locate a good photo of the one I needed, so like most things in life, I am making this up as I go along.

Now I dunno about you but a flare to me sounds like a lot of very very hot hissing and gaseous flames shooting out of a canister of some description.  Does hanging that mini-volcano off a fabric covered wing sound like a good idea to anyone?  Thought not.

Anyways, the aircraft I'm modeling has them.  Therefore...

First attempts included butchering some Wessex aerial parts by cutting off the end and then carefully cutting down the middle with a hacksaw (the brass tube will be cut shorter later)

 

PC260003.jpg

 

and it sits about here on the underside

 

PC260004.jpg

 

Then I decided I wasn't happy with that version so went through a few design iterations

 

PC260008.jpg

 

Want to bend 4 lengths of rod/wire and get the same bend angle on each piece?  Simple - tape them together, and then bend 'em

 

PC260007.jpg

 

Stick on a few styrene shapes and it's looking a little better.

 

PC260009.jpg

 

Stick on more bits then paint them up

 

PC280022.jpg

 

Now, I know it's not strictly accurate, but close enough and better than the parts the kit doesn't provide

 

PC280023.jpg

 

I then flirted briefly with the idea of trying to stick on the cabane struts.  See that little dark patch just below the strut in this photo?    Well, that's the location for the strut.  This is one of the very few areas where I think AMG could have done better.

The thought of trying to glue that strut onto that tiny ledge and not messing up the metallic finish absolutely terrifies me.

 

PC280016.jpg

 

So I put it away again and banished those thoughts from my mind.  The cabane struts are a job for another day.

In the interim, I had spotted that the Audax has a pair of lights on top of the wings, and there was nothing in the kit.

After several false starts trying to use plastic bits and pieces, I turned to the old fallback... brass.  Here I tuned some brass rod down in the lathe, drilled a 0.6mm hole in it and soldered in a 0.5mm rod.  The reference show some funky shape going on with the lights bracket, so I tried to replicate that, failing miserably, but got something that should look okay at this scale.

 

PC280017.jpg

 

I tried sticking some clear styrene on the end of the rod, but every time I tried to file it to shape, the clear part broke away.

I wonder if superglue can make decent lamp glass?   I guess I'll find out tomorrow once it dries.

 

PC280021.jpg

 

While the soldering iron was out, I attacked one other job that I had been avoiding - that of the step bracket hanging off the fuselage.  The kit part arrived broken in 3 pieces.  The molding was so fine there was no point in trying to repair it as I knew I'd bodge it up.

Brass seemed a way more attractive option. 

Using 0.5mm rod, I came up with this jig to hold things at the correct angle relative to each other.

 

PC280024.jpg

 

A quick touch with the soldering iron and the job was done. Snip off the unwanted parts, then a quick rub with wire wool and hey, we have a step

 

PC280025.jpg

 

 

and with that,  I shall close for the evening.

 

 

 

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Lovely measured work, great stuff. I’m interested to see if the glue worked for the lamps. I have had it look good wet then shrink away to nothing. @CedB’s Krystal Klear works well but I’m sure you know what you’re doing so I’ll close ma flap hole.🤓

The flair and step work is superb. Are they dry fitted for now? 🙏 I would knock those off just by thinking about trying not to knock them off. Fingers crossed for speedy decals.

 

Jonster. 
 

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Another great update and more excellent detail taken care of.

Those cabane struts - can the ends be drilled and a tiny piece of brass wire added?  Alternatively cut a small slot in the strut to add the wire then add PPP/sprue goop/your choice of filler to hide the slot. Then you could fit them by drilling a hole in the ledge and using a drop of CA to secure them. That should avoid any damage to the surrounding paintwork.

 

Ian

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This is beautifully delicate and precise work! I wish I could get close to these standards in 1/48, never mind 1/72.

 

For the clear section of your brass lamps, I think there is a chance that the CA will work but I'd probably go straight to clear epoxy - I find the widely-available Gorilla brand to be highly satisfactory, but there are I'm sure many others. Sticks like anything, you can build it up in layers and it files / sands / polishes nicely after a couple of days' curing time

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8 hours ago, hendie said:

Best I can do Giorgio - you'll need to show me ho w it's done

:D You seem to be doing very good with decals, anyway - I've never had a roundel decal looking painted on like yours, hence I paint them.... 🤷‍♂️

 

Impressive detail job, once more :worthy: :worthy:

 

Ciao 

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Marvellous update hendie - I love your micro-engineering posts :) 

 

As Johnny says I've used Krystal Klear for bulbs before, and that new fangled DecoArt 'Liquid Glass. And UV glue. And ClearFix.

Horses for courses.

If I was to plump for one I think it'd be Klear.

But ClearFix for windows.

 

I'm with Ian on the strut - bit of wire should do it.

I've collected wire from Italian wine bottles (hic) for this sort of job.

It's brass too, I think.

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On 12/29/2020 at 2:12 AM, The Spadgent said:

Lovely measured work, great stuff. I’m interested to see if the glue worked for the lamps. I have had it look good wet then shrink away to nothing. @CedB’s Krystal Klear works well but I’m sure you know what you’re doing so I’ll close ma flap hole.🤓

The flair and step work is superb. Are they dry fitted for now? 🙏 I would knock those off just by thinking about trying not to knock them off. Fingers crossed for speedy decals.

Jonster.

 

Ah yes Johnny - everything is just dry fitted for the moment. I'm going to wait until the wings are on before fitting all those little knocky-me-off parts.

You were absolutely correct about the CA glue drying into nothing - see later in this post - so I chose a slightly different approach

 

On 12/29/2020 at 3:16 AM, Hamden said:

More nice detail engineering, just wish I had your skills!

  Stay safe           Roger

 

Roger - I only show the good parts.  You don't get to see how many failed attempts I go through before getting to this stage

 

On 12/29/2020 at 3:38 AM, Brandy said:

Another great update and more excellent detail taken care of.

Those cabane struts - can the ends be drilled and a tiny piece of brass wire added?  Alternatively cut a small slot in the strut to add the wire then add PPP/sprue goop/your choice of filler to hide the slot. Then you could fit them by drilling a hole in the ledge and using a drop of CA to secure them. That should avoid any damage to the surrounding paintwork.

Ian

 

Drill and wire??? Do you realize just how narrow these parts are Ian ?   Dodgy out of focus photo to follow...

 

On 12/29/2020 at 5:40 AM, Work In Progress said:

This is beautifully delicate and precise work! I wish I could get close to these standards in 1/48, never mind 1/72.

For the clear section of your brass lamps, I think there is a chance that the CA will work but I'd probably go straight to clear epoxy - I find the widely-available Gorilla brand to be highly satisfactory, but there are I'm sure many others. Sticks like anything, you can build it up in layers and it files / sands / polishes nicely after a couple of days' curing time

 

I've tried Gorilla WIP but never had much success with it.  My old fall back is diluted PVA and it usually works wonders

 

On 12/29/2020 at 5:45 AM, giemme said:

:D You seem to be doing very good with decals, anyway - I've never had a roundel decal looking painted on like yours, hence I paint them.... 🤷‍♂️

Impressive detail job, once more :worthy: :worthy:

Ciao 

 

The only real trouble I've had Giorgio is when I need to remove them.  That's happened on a few occasions in the past. I tried Tamiya tape, painters tape and even strong sellotape and they wouldn't budge.  I ended up having to sand them off. (then realized I could just have painted over them!)

 

On 12/29/2020 at 5:46 AM, CedB said:

Marvellous update hendie - I love your micro-engineering posts :)

As Johnny says I've used Krystal Klear for bulbs before, and that new fangled DecoArt 'Liquid Glass. And UV glue. And ClearFix.

Horses for courses.

If I was to plump for one I think it'd be Klear.

But ClearFix for windows.

I'm with Ian on the strut - bit of wire should do it.

I've collected wire from Italian wine bottles (hic) for this sort of job.

It's brass too, I think.

 

Some more micro-engineering coming up this episode Ced, stay tuned.

Just to please Ian, I risked life, limb, death and deformity by attempting to drill and pin the cabane struts.  I do humbly apologize for the dodgy out of focus shot but sometimes ya get what ya get.

Just for reference - that is a 0.5mm drill bit in there... yes, that's Zero-Point-Five tiny little millimeters.

 

PC290002.jpg

 

But is does give me a fighting chance when it comes to fitting at least these two cabane struts.

 

PC290003.jpg

 

At that juncture I was so terrified and my digits were so shaky that I gave up trying to figure out the other two cabane struts for another day.

 

A couple of episodes ago I started painting the airscrew, then realized my method was making things difficult for myself, so I started painting it again - this time painting from the tips inwards, as opposed to from the hub outwards. That still left a little bit of challenging masking to be performed at the end as the airscrew I was trying to replicate had a nice shiny nose.

Once again I used my wheel masking method - a donut of tape sliced than wrapped around the offending object.

Then some secondary masking just to be safe.

 

PC290007.jpg

 

Did it work?

Well, here's the back end 😉

 

PC290010.jpg

 

Oh, you want to see if the masking worked?  Ah well then - looks to me like it worked.

 

PC290008.jpg

 

and from the front end it even looks roundish.  Success I'd call that.  I'm quite pleased with the way the prop has turned out.  I'll let that paint harden up then hit it with a clear coat then lightly micromesh down the ridges

 

PC290009.jpg

 

I finally came across a decent quality shot of an Audax where the underslung hook was clearly visible. What it showed was that the hook wasn't just a plain old hook - it was one of those curly wurly type hooks :(

It took me a little while and a few failed attempts before I got something approaching acceptable.  The hardest part was the curly wurly effect.

Then I hit on the idea of a) drill a 0.3mm hole in some styrene, then b) stick some 0.25mm wire through the hole and bend over the reverse side, then c) stick a pin in the same hole to jam the wire and stop it from rotating and finally, d) pull the wire around the pin a few times to create a spiral

 

PC290004.jpg

 

Just like this spiral

 

PC290005.jpg

 

The hardest part came next - I had to try and open the spiral out slightly, then trim off a length on the inside of the spiral. I could hardly see the darned thing, far less cut it accurately.

I settled for this after a few attempts.  Curly Wurly hook stuck in a length of 0.5mm tube.

 

PC290006.jpg

 

Job done, that was stored with other greeblies in the Audax box of bits to be fitted later.

 

For some light entertainment I fitted the window (why here?) so the groundcrew could make sure the pilot wasn't flying barefoot.

That probably took the best part of half an hour to get a piece that fitted well enough - then as is my modus operandi, I used dilute pva to fix the window in position.

 

PC290014.jpg

 

Followed by sticking on some kind of venturi, trumpet shaped thing on the underside.

 

PC300024.jpg

 

Now, as I've been gazing at this Audax over the last few months I was becoming increasingly less than blown away by the overall drabness of the port side.  There's detail there, but it really didn't 'pop' if you know what I mean.  On checking a few references, I noted that the frame surrounding the steps was usually a different color/shade/hue/whatever.

Well there we go I thought, let's try some dull aluminum BMF is what I thought.

Stage 1 - cut a little piece of BMF and slap it on

 

PC290011.jpg

 

Stage 2 - realize just how damned difficult it is going to be to accurately trim that little sucker.

Stage 3 - resign yourslef to the fact that you have to do it so just get stuck in...

 

The first one (the upper one) went reasonably well, as did the second to be honest - then I thought that having the whole step and frame in BMF was a tad chintzy - so I decided to remove the center portion and just leave the frame in BMF.

As before, the top one went straightforward enough, but when I came to cut out the center section of the second step - the whole darned piece of BMF came away - complete with paint and primer behind it :wall:

Warning - some viewers may find the following shot disturbing. I certainly did!

 

PC290015.jpg

 

Luckily I had made a decent job of the trimming step and there was no damage to the outlying surfaces.  After carefully and deliberately weighing my options, I determined there was really only one option. I therefore chose that option and slapped some more BMF on the bugger.

After carefully trimming out the center (this time the BMF stayed in place) I painted the flippy step some light shade of grey - that looks remarkably similar to the surrounding silvery finish.

 

PC290016.jpg

 

OF course, I have now decided I don't like the BMF!  It's supposed to be dull aluminum, but once it's buffed down, it looks more like chrome - waaay too shiny for my liking.  I may slap some flat clear on it too see if that tones it down and if that doesn't work, maybe some paint is in order.

 

As our dear Mr. @The Spadgent so accurately predicted, the CA as a lamp cover was a no go.  It dried into nothing. Well not quite nothing, but nothing useful that's for sure.

Okay then... Plan B - file it off and start again

 

PC290001.jpg

 

This time I used... guess what?    okay Ced - you got it - diluted PVA.

I don't know why I didn't go straight there in the first place - I know it works as I've done it before. Oh well, lesson learned.

I built up the tip with a few applications of the wetted PVA and when dry, flashed it with the usual transparent red and green

Another dry fit.

 

PC300023.jpg

 

I'm very pleased with that effect.  I think it captured the shape of the mounting bracket/stem as much as I could at this scale.

 

One of the problems with coming across decent photos is that you start to see more and more detail. Generally detail you have missed previously.

Take this image for example. It's one of the photos I'm basing this aircraft on.  I just noticed that the upper surfaces of the wings appear not to be silver.  That gave me a bit of a fright untilI realized that I have other shots of this aircraft showing overall silver, wings and all (phew!)

and Dammit!  I just noticed that the wheel hubs are not black.  Too late, I've painted mine and they're staying that way now.  I'm sure if I look hard enough I can find a photo with black wheel hubs.  These 28 Sqn Audax seem to have gone through a whole mish-mash of one scheme to another with every variation in between.

Anyhoos, what I am trying to get to here is - look in the center section of the upper wing... see those two pipe looking things ?

 

Image1.jpg

 

I scoured the interweb for hours and hours and could find no decent shots of an Audax upper wing, but there's clearly something going on up there.

I did find one shot showing that pipe in more detail - interestingly that particular aircraft (not 28 Sqn) only had a single pipe, and not two as is clearly shown here.  Additionally, the kit plans show two hook like objects mounted on the upper wing, towards the leading edge.  My reference shots show that the 28 Sqn aircraft only had one of these hook shaped thingies, and mounted towards the trailing edge. 

Wonderful thing research, isn't it?

 

Unfortunately, the photos are of such quality that it's nigh on impossible to tell with any degree of accuracy where those pipes originate from, or terminate at - so I had to take my best guess and plunge on regardless.

This was my first attempt at replicating those pipes.  The kit has two nice filler caps towards the leading edge, but I have no idea what they are for.   Anyway, I decided to use those as the starting points for the pipes.

 

PC300027.jpg

 

Then it dawned on me that it was highly unlikely that pipes would enter or exit from anything that looked like a filler cap - as that filler cap would have to open and close, otherwise it wouldn't be much of a filler cap now would it?

After that eureka moment, I re-positioned the pipes just aft of the filler cap, and terminated them just forward of some access panel.  It took me forever and a day to get those bends looking correct - don't ask how many lengths of 0.5mm rod gave up their lives for this endeavor.  (I think this is about my 5th or 6th attempt)

 

PC300031.jpg

 

Now I just need to figure out what color to paint them.

 

Staying with the wing, I made the hook type thing and positioned as best I could based on the two photos I have showing it with any degree of clarity. I also added the two aerials - all from brass of course.

 

PC300025.jpg

 

Does anyone have any idea what that hook thing could represent ?  Initially with two of them up on the leading edge I thought it may have been some kind of hare-brained message retrieval system for pilots with a death wish. However, Once I spotted that the 28 Sqn a/c only have one and it's towards the trailing edge, I ruled out the death wish scenario.  Is it possible it's some kind of vent? or ridiculously small intake thing?  Who knows, not me for sure.

 

So there we have it for today - some greeblies on a wing.  A lot of time spent for essentially not a lot to show, but I does (to me anyway) certainly liven up that wing upper surface - so I'll leave you with a few parting shots of my days work...

 

PC300033.jpg

 

Of course, all dry fitted

 

PC300034.jpg

 

Oh, and I filled in the two holes from my errant drilling operation earlier and painted the filler caps grey. So there!

 

Stay safe y'all now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A rather splendid - if belated  - catch up with progress here Alan.

On 29/12/2020 at 02:28, hendie said:

Brass seemed a way more attractive option. 

Yer'll hiv no argument from me in this regard Alan.😁

 

You're dead right  about the extent to which all those added metal details work to enliven the overall structure - your ministrations in this regard giving a real sense of purpose and articulation to affairs.

 

1 hour ago, hendie said:

One of the problems with coming across decent photos is that you start to see more and more detail. Generally detail you have missed previously.

From personal experience I'm convinced that this is indeed a fractal process that could easily lead to a build of indefinite duration if not dealt firmly with. On the plus side, it does prolong our viewing pleasure in getting to watch you transpose ever finer levels of detail from photo to model!

1 hour ago, hendie said:

I just noticed that the upper surfaces of the wings appear not to be silver. 

I have it on good historical authority that this was  an exercise routinely carried out by the RAF during the interwar period whereby a group of aircraft would be temporarily painted with anomalous colour schemes and a single photograph taken for the purposes of sowing doubt and confusion in the minds of future modellers.

 

I love the foot inspection window btw:  was this for medical or disciplinary reasons?

 

Greeble on good sir.

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Nice save on the step Alan, and the detail on the wing looks great. The pipes are obviously fuel tank breathers (I'm sure you already knew that), but I'm afraid I can be of no help with the hook thing. It looks good though! Maybe the same guys who kept repainting them also added spurious bits, then with a sly chuckle took a pic, and promptly removed the bits again as they served no purpose?

 

Ian

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Those extras are really making this build into something even more special than it was before. Alas I can’t help on what the pipe or hooks are but I can egg you on and say how cool they look. 😀 glad you got the lights sorted out in the end. Happy new year my good man.

 

Johnny.

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We used to do exactly that (the spurious bits thing) when operating near Soviet spy “trawlers” - add some made-up and extravagantly-wired box to the aircraft, complete with warning placards and perhaps the odd small radioactive source warning sign.  It was usually a wooden spares box attached to a weapon carrier, suitably painted and be-greebled.

 

We liked to think that we could imagine the KGB wonks poring over a few grainy photographs trying to work out what it was for... whereas in fact they were no doubt thinking “bloody 820 clowns playing silly b’s yet again”.

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