1/72 captured Luftwaffe Lioré et Olivier LeO 451T (Heller) ** RETIRED HURT **

[AdrianMF]

Looking good! The real thing looks pretty smooth in photos (and it was designed with speed in mind) so no rivets will suit just fine I think. It is an interesting design, such a change from its predecessors (Amiot 143, I'm looking at you!).

 

Regards,

Adrian

[DaveyGair]

11 hours ago, TonyOD said:

Tonight’s shift had been finishing the masking on the canopy. Pretty much every build I’ve ever done has been reasonably straightforward in this regard but this is eye-watering. The see through bits are very clear but also quite thick so refract light impressively. On to the nose bit....

 

I generally do all my masking as you do but for my BoB He-111 I chickened out and obtained an Eduard mask!

 

 

Davey.

[TonyOD]

3 minutes ago, DaveyGair said:

I generally do all my masking as you do but for my BoB He-111 I chickened out and obtained an Eduard mask!

Funny you should say that, as I was battling with this I was thinking "I will never build an He-111!". The carrier based planes I've done up to now haven't had a lot of challenging see through bits, I did a Fulmar during lockdown which was a bit of a greenhouse but technically straightforward as it was just lots of little rectangles. Here be curves.. Like lots of things that I do it looks rubbish with a close-up photo but half-decent to the naked eye!

52 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

(Amiot 143, I'm looking at you!)

You know you want to.

[DaveyGair]

10 minutes ago, TonyOD said:

Funny you should say that, as I was battling with this I was thinking "I will never build an He-111!". The carrier based planes I've done up to now haven't had a lot of challenging see through bits, I did a Fulmar during lockdown which was a bit of a greenhouse but technically straightforward as it was just lots of little rectangles. Here be curves.. Like lots of things that I do it looks rubbish with a close-up photo but half-decent to the naked eye!

You know you want to.

I always end up doing a lot of cleaning up with a toothpick, as a matter of fact I hand painted the turret frames on the Wellington and just cleaned up with one, looks OK as long as you squint, in a dark room wearing sun-glasses!

 

Davey.

[TonyOD]

5 hours ago, DaveyGair said:

I always end up doing a lot of cleaning up with a toothpick, as a matter of fact I hand painted the turret frames on the Wellington and just cleaned up with one, looks OK as long as you squint, in a dark room wearing sun-glasses!

 

Looks fine to me!

 

I never seem to have much luck with canopies... seems that the more layers I pile onto the framing (interior colour, spray primer, however many layers of top colour, spray varnish) the more likely it is that some of it will come away with the masking tape. On my last build (the Wessex) I tried a "double masking" technique which seemed to work better - mask up with tape, hand paint the framing (inner colour, outer colour only) then mask it with Maskol which I removed only for the last squirt of matt varnish.

Edited September 29, 2020 by TonyOD

[TonyOD]

I was just reflecting on the fact that my original pick for this GB was a single-engined fighter...😭

 

 

(Rather charmingly, the rivets are moulded on the inside of the framing, meaning that they won’t be visible when it’s painted.)

[JOCKNEY]

Look forward to seeing you bring this one to life. 

cheers Pat 

[TonyOD]

Just spent a happy hour on hands and knees on the kitchen floor with a high-powered headtorch and a magnifying visor, trying to find a dropped piece of glazing.

 

Eventually found it stuck by the Maskol to the front of my shirt.

 

Oh, the joys of scale modelling.

[TonyOD]

Dismal weather so I've had a full day at the "bench" (by which I mean the breakfast bar in the kitchen), it's coming together, separately, but still there isn't really anything to look at. I marvel at the speed with which others complete builds. Waiting for paint to dry seems to be my biggest obstacle to progress...

[John Masters]

On 9/29/2020 at 12:39 PM, DaveyGair said:

I generally do all my masking

It looks like I did all your masking.  That's usually what mine look like.  Yours is neater.

[TonyOD]

What is it with yellow? Three days of schlonking layers of enamel onto the undercarriage doors without achieving anything like a uniform coverage. Stripped it off and went at it with a rattle can. Boom!

 

[TonyOD]

This build feels like one of those that will be the sum of many very very small parts.

 

@RidgeRunner, who is building a LeO over  on the Heller Classic GB, inadvertently brought it to my attention that the dorsal aperture on this aircraft was modified, with the “cutaways” filled. I’ve glued in some bits of plasticard (well, margarine tub lid) that will be the base for some Milliput experimentation when the fuselage is joined. 🤞🏻
 

 

Hoping for something worth looking at in... a week or so?

[DaveyGair]

On 10/4/2020 at 10:49 PM, TonyOD said:

What is it with yellow? Three days of schlonking layers of enamel onto the undercarriage doors without achieving anything like a uniform coverage. Stripped it off and went at it with a rattle can. Boom!

 

I've had good results airbrushing Vallejo ModelAir RLM 04 just 'wafting' on lots of thin coats, as with my Blackburn Botha build a little while ago.

 

 

Davey.

[TonyOD]

14 minutes ago, DaveyGair said:

I've had good results airbrushing Vallejo ModelAir RLM 04 just 'wafting' on lots of thin coats, as with my Blackburn Botha build a little while ago

It looks fantastic when done right, as is the case with your Botha. I don't have an airbrush so a rattlecan it has to be, though I'm thinking of having a go at some pencil-based preshading and putting a last very thin layer (or two) of enamel over the sprayed base.

Edited October 10, 2020 by TonyOD

[TonyOD]

Progress is sloooow but I have some landing gears. Squirt of matt varnish and they’re good to go. They are delicate, spindly things and as they have to fitted before the wing halves are joined protecting them for the rest of the build will be a trick. I find myself wondering if CA glue was widely available when this kit first appeared in 1966.

 

 

 

[TonyOD]

Bit more tinkering and I’m somewhere close to having the wings together and the landing gear in position, and slowly I’m making progress with the interior. I have a couple of weeks off work imminent so hopefully will be able to speed up progress on this and my Heller Classic builds (not even started, so far).

 

Before closing the fuselage I need to sort out what I’m doing with the dorsal aperture. The Leo 451 was ordinarily equipped with a rear-facing dirty great Hispano 20mm cannon, the logic being that as a fast bomber the LeO would find itself on the receiving end of tail chases by enemy fighters, who would in turn find themselves in the sights of the gunner. Did it work? Well, this isn’t necessarily typical, but it’s recorded that on 6th June 1940 gunner sergeant Grandchamp of GB II/11 shot down two pursuing Bf 110C’s in a single day. Luftwaffe pilots soon got wise to this danger and took to attacking the LeO’s from below; as well as the formidable firepower up above the LeO could extend its retractable ventral “gondola” turret with a 7.5mm machine gun manned by the radio operator, thought the resulting drag slowed the aircraft significantly. Later LeO’s had the upper cannon supplemented by two additional 7.5mm machine guns (I think they're in evidence in the pic below, sitting atop the cannon), as the magazine capacity of the cannon wasn’t great and changing a magazine during flight was apparently very difficult.

 

It’s fairly clear that the cannon was absent from this transport conversion, and as noted above the shape of the aperture was modified to fill the “cutaways” that presumably allowed the gunner greater range of movement, though it’s  less clear from the few photos I have what was going on with the canopy that partially covered the aperture. The canopy was part of a “pop up” arrangement that incorporated a forward glazed “fairing” and that would be raised while the cannon was in use. I can’t tell if this was modified in any way, but if I just glued the upper section on i.e. in the “down” position as shown in photos it would have to sit on two large tabs moulded onto the fuselage halves. These would be clearly visible through the transparency so I’ve done away with them and will incorporate the fairing that somehow I’ll affix within the fuselage. The fit ain’t great but I’ll give it a go.

 

 

Elsewhere in other builds there is fairly major surgery going on to correct the slightly short fuselage on LeO but I don't have the patience. Or the skills. 😉

[AdrianMF]

22 hours ago, TonyOD said:

dirty great Hispano 20mm

The kit cannon seems to be even bigger than the real thing, more like a Bofors gun!

 

And your undercarriage looks great. It must be very satisfying to look at an almost empty sprue after assembling that lot.

 

Looking forward to your progress on this one. It’s a real gem of a kit and an interesting aeroplane.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[TonyOD]

2 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

And your undercarriage looks great. It must be very satisfying to look at an almost empty sprue after assembling that lot.

Not any more it doesn't. Just joining the wing halves last night I managed to break off several little bits. 😭 I will probably put them in a safe place (dropped one on the kitchen floor last night, spent 40 minutes on my hands and knees looking for it) and glue them back on absolute last thing. 

[TEMPESTMK5]

1 hour ago, TonyOD said:

Not any more it doesn't. Just joining the wing halves last night I managed to break off several little bits. 😭 I will probably put them in a safe place (dropped one on the kitchen floor last night, spent 40 minutes on my hands and knees looking for it) and glue them back on absolute last thing. 

Good afternoon Tony

 Unfortunately this happens to me very often too sometimes I'm lucky and I find the lost part and sometimes I have to replace it with another one either from scratch or from another kit ...

Best regards

Patrice

[TonyOD]

1 hour ago, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Unfortunately this happens to me very often too sometimes I'm lucky

This part is grey in colour, 4mm x 3mm approx. 

 

I think I was lucky!

[TonyOD]

Wing halves joined, but there’s something a bit weird going on with them: while they match beautifully at the forward edge, the fit of the upper and lower engine cowling halves is significantly out and has required some sanding, I’m hoping to even them out with a smear of filler sanded smooth.

 

What’s left of the undercarriage is (very crudely) masked to keep it from further harm, not just when I spray the whole underside with primer then rattlecan yellow, but also to keep sanding dust away; I’ve already sprayed the legs with Humbrol enamel matt primer which according to the label dries in minutes, but in reality stays tacky for days if not weeks and it attracts dust for fun!

 

[RidgeRunner]

Nice work, Tony

[RidgeRunner]

17 hours ago, TonyOD said:

I’ve already sprayed the legs with Humbrol enamel matt primer which according to the label dries in minutes, but in reality stays tacky for days if not weeks and it attracts dust for fun!

How thick do you apply it, Tony? I thin it well and, while it is tacky for a few hours, it is easy to handle the next day. 

[TonyOD]

3 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

How thick do you apply it, Tony? I thin it well and, while it is tacky for a few hours, it is easy to handle the next day. 

Too much, probably. It's hard to regulate when all you've got to play with is how long you press the nozzle. Three short, sharp bursts. I'll try one in future and see how it goes!

 

[TonyOD]

I’ve managed to smooth out those misaligned cowlings at the cost of some of the very fine raised panel line/rivet detail in that area, which is a pity but won’t be that noticeable I suppose.

My 45-year-old decals are taped to the window in the hope that the yellowing in the carrier film might be corrected, but there isn’t a heck of a lot of UV light to be had in Nottinghamshire in October!

 

I feel like I’m getting somewhere now and have a couple of weeks off work, so hope to speed up progress a bit!

 

Thanks for looking...