380 Everyone's favourite Aunt - the Ju52/3m

[Toryu]

5 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

they rushed to get out and to the nearest bar.

... and took away engines and weapons so that nobody flies it off until they have recovered from the blues. It looks wonderful so far, Heather!

[Heather Kay]

I’m working on the engines at the moment. I haven’t taken any pictures, though, as I’ve been so engrossed in trying to assemble them.

 

More later, I expect.

[Heather Kay]

 

Propped in place for now. I have a cunning plan to enable painting of the cowlings.

 

 

The rather mind-bending angles of the two outer engines shows up well here. 
 

 

As you can see, the undercarriage legs are installed. The wheels are designed to attached with trapped collars so they can spin. I shall glue them in place. The wheels attach square to the undercarriage, which I think is correct for a plane on the ground. In the air the wheels take on an angle to the vertical, which needs to be borne in mind if you want your Auntie to be on the wing.

 

I’ve also fitted the oil coolers/air filters under each engine. I drilled out the ends so they look like tubes now. I have done the same with the exhaust pipes on the cowlings. The Townend ring on the centre engine is a very loose fit and has no actual fixing locators, so I think some shimming will be required for a snug fit. The outer engines are moulded with three pegs that match holes in their respective cowlings. The centre engine's exhaust system appears to be asymmetrical, which I don’t think is correct. I can't make the tailpipes sit level with each other no matter what I do, so I think I’ll leave it. There are still front grilles to fit to the engines, but I need to paint both parts first. I don’t want to paint the engines yet, because I want to use them to hold the cowlings in place while the main camouflage painting is done. Happily, the engine assemblies plug into holes in the front of each nacelle and the nose.

 

So, the next step will be to reinforce some of the control surface location points with CA, and get the thing ready for some primer.

[CedB]

Looking good Heather  

[JeroenS]

11 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

I have a cunning plan to enable painting of the cowlings.

Aah, a cunning plan that cannot fail! 

 

I would have though that props would need to be facing in the direction the plane goes? But, as I said before, I know very little about planes, apart from what I've learned while participating in GB's.

 

This is a big one, looks like a flying tool shed with all the corrugated panels though 🙂 

[Heather Kay]

My cunning plan wasn’t going to work, so on to plan B… 

 

 

Muttley, my own personal black dog (depression), decided to park himself in my life earlier this week. He’s a right s*d to shift, and this time he meant to stay. I managed to persuade him out of the room yesterday, but I can still hear him whining and scratching at the locked and bolted door.

 

Anyway, my failed cunning plan was to prop the engine cowlings in place so they could get primed and painted with the rest of the airframe. In the end, I felt that was just too much faffing about. The airframe got a light coat of, would you believe, Humbrol 240 enamel, which is their rendition of RLM02, thinned with their own thinners. I needed to paint the canopy frames that colour, and since I’ve had previous luck with Humbrol enamel as a base coat/primer, I thought it might be worth the shot. So, snot green all over, and what a lot it took, too! Blimey! This is not a small aircraft.
 

That can dry for a while, then I can perhaps get a hairy stick into the places the airbrush missed. ColourCoats RLM65 on the under parts is the next job, I think.

 

Now I have to see if I can give Muttley the heave-ho properly.

 

Oh, my choice of colour for the base coat was also influenced by the fact the Humbrol 1 "primer" is grey and it would be hard to see the coverage on the pale grey plastic during airbrushing.

[Rabbit Leader]

She’s coming up even better with every post Heather, I quite like that RLM02 overall colour and would almost be inclined to leave it be. Anyway, sounds like you need a little boost of spirits, so perhaps start thinking and researching that next (Heller) kit... that should pick you up I hope. 
 

Cheers and we’re all here to help.. Dave 

[Heather Kay]

1 minute ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Cheers and we’re all here to help.. Dave 

🥰

 

Thanks Dave. Hanging around forums helps quite a bit. 
 

As to the next project, I fear I have way too much "paying" work to deal with. I am trying to pile into that as well, and it ought to take priority - though the sheer quantity I’ve let myself in for isn’t helping with my mental health. I think I’m going to have to disappoint a couple of clients if I’m going to make any headway there.
 

My plan has always been to try and complete one build at a time during this GB. There’s plenty of time.

[TonyW]

Nice work Heather. Getting a project into one colour is always a major step forwards for me. It give a moral boost just when it's needed.

 

You are right abut the Forum helping keep the spirits up. It's a little bubble of calm in an odd world at the moment. 

[mike romeo]

On 10/10/2020 at 5:35 PM, Heather Kay said:

 

 

As you can see, the undercarriage legs are installed. 

Hi Heather, any chance of a few close up shots of the main gear legs?  Struggling to see how the drag stays fit.  The best current fit will require some reshaping of the stay end and before I do that it'd be good to get a second opinion on how they fit . . .

 

. . .  given that the helpful Heller inset drawing isn't.

 

Thanks in advance.

Rgds

 

Martin

[Heather Kay]

22 minutes ago, mike romeo said:

any chance of a few close up shots of the main gear legs?

Your wish, etc.

 

 

 

 

The rear strut has one end more scalloped in shape, which is supposed to mate with the tiny blister moulded on the belly. The other end has to, somehow, mate with the main leg. Like you, I found the instructions  fairly lacking in this area, with the only real clue being the top of the main legs being parallel with and the legs perpendicular to the belly. Mine ended up a bit untidy, but it’s the best I could manage, and it’ll be mostly lost to shadow under normal viewing conditions.

[mike romeo]

4 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

Your wish, etc.

 

 

 

 

The rear strut has one end more scalloped in shape, which is supposed to mate with the tiny blister moulded on the belly. The other end has to, somehow, mate with the main leg. Like you, I found the instructions  fairly lacking in this area, with the only real clue being the top of the main legs being parallel with and the legs perpendicular to the belly. Mine ended up a bit untidy, but it’s the best I could manage, and it’ll be mostly lost to shadow under normal viewing conditions.

Brilliant, thanks, Heather.

 

That's exactly what I needed.  Personally, I thought yours looked very neat - even up close as in your shots.

 

Rgds

 

Martin

[stevehnz]

11 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

Blimey! This is not a small aircraft.

It'd be twice the size if you stretched all the wrinkles out.

That is looking good Heather, nice going with it. I hope you can send Muttley packing.

Steve.

[JeroenS]

7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I hope you can send Muttley packing.

Me too! 

[CedB]

…and me. These are weird times and I'm sure your clients will understand if their builds are delayed a bit. Better to take control yourself and kick the mutt out!  

 

Nice painting Heather, looking very smart.

[Heather Kay]

Thanks all, for the kind words. Depression used to be a taboo subject, and it’s encouraging that talking about it is seen as an important thing nowadays. Realising my low moods and bouts of just being miserable for what they really were has made a difference. Now I see it coming, and try to deal with it as best I can. Unfortunately, what with the state of things in the wider world, I’m finding it much harder to see the bright side and consequently it takes me longer to boot Muttley into touch.

 

I wonder if he’s related to Shuck, which hails from one of my ancestral homes. I might have to rename him...

 

In other news, I think another coat of "primer" will be required. What I laid down yesterday has dried nice and hard, with a fair grip on the plastic -  - but I missed some areas with the spray.

 

They say patience is a virtue. 

[Heather Kay]

RLM65 goes on.

 

 

All those little corrugations are hard work with an air brush. Shooting from one side causes a shadow in each trough - another good reason for using a fairly dark base coat - which requires you to shoot again from the opposite side, and then go over the whole thing again almost at right angles to the model. 
 

I am going with one of the kit options for the camouflage and markings, which meets my 1940 obsession criteria. It’s an interesting scheme, where the RLM65 is half-way up the fuselage sides, and is subsequently decorated with a snake in either RLM70 or 71. 
 

I will have to let that sit and dry for a while, even though I’m using ColourCoats enamel. I’d rather the paint is nice and hard before I attempt masking it off than have to repair and patch paint on the wriggly surface. I’ll have a wander round the build threads and see what everyone else has been up to.

[CedB]

Very nice Heather  

[Heather Kay]

Oh, this is going to be fun. The snake was apparently masked out of the RLM70/71 when the 65 was over painted. 
 

I could use the kit transfers, but they won’t match the paint I’m using for the splinter camo. The laser cut mask really expects the splinter camo to be in place and the light blue painted over it. Hmm. I reckon I should bite that mythical bullet and paint the orthodox camo pattern as the plane came from the factory, then mask up and respray the blue.

 

This is, apparently, going to be fun. 
 

Incidentally, I’ve been attempting to get my noggin round how to use the masking set for the markings. I can’t, for the life of me, work out which order colours should go on and how to even apply the masks. There is absolutely nothing in the package to explain how best to use it, and no hints anywhere. Flummoxed, I are. I suspect the water slide transfers will end up being deployed. At least the snakey masks will be used. It seems this masking set, which seemed such a good idea at the time, has been a bit of an expensive but ultimately flawed experiment. 

[alt-92]

It isn't perchance one of those reverse-positive mask sets where the colours are swapped?

@CedB I believe had one of those where you unexpectedly have to apply the darker (green in his case) first.

 

As for applying: a thinned toothpick following the grooves would work. I do it to avoid paint seepage in trench larger panel reliefs.

[Heather Kay]

16 hours ago, alt-92 said:

It isn't perchance one of those reverse-positive mask sets where the colours are swapped?

I think it may well be. It would have been useful to have some guidance in the packet, or at least some mention of the order of painting expected. Why go to all the bother of designing and cutting the masks but not explain how best to deploy them? Still, they’ve have my money now. I shall make a point of avoiding Montex in the future if at all possible. I’m never very keen on their vinyl canopy masks anyway. So there.
 

*stamps little foot and accidentally stamps on other little foot's big toe*

 

 

I have decided the kit transfers will be used for markings, but the snakes will need to be masked and painted. Therefore, the entire upper surfaces and fuselage sides have been given a coat of Schwarzgrün RLM70. I didn’t bother with masking the undersides at this stage, since I’m going to have to repaint most of them later anyway. Trying to get even coverage across vast expanses of model aeroplane with an airbrush is slightly vexing, but in the end it sort of takes on a sort of faded and slightly weathered look I quite like. 
 

Next, the tedious and joyless task of masking for the Dunkelgrün RLM70. I think some loud music might help. 
 

*heads for music collection, and winds amp volume up to eleven*

[Heather Kay]

Right, here we go.

 

 

I have to drawings for the camo and markings. The upper drawing by Wojtek is in the Montex set. You can see it doesn’t quite match with the drawing in the KP instructions. No matter, I shall navigate a path between them.

 

 

This is such a large model, compared to some of the stuff I’ve been working on recently at least, I’ve decided on the strategy of mask a part of the model, paint it, unmask and let it dry, then mask the next bit and repeat. That means I won’t have to handle a model covered in sticky tape, can concentrate on getting the pattern more or less right over a smallish area, and maintain some semblance of sanity all at the same time. 
 

More later, if this works.

[Heather Kay]

 

I think this will work.

 

Feeling happier about masking it now.

[Heather Kay]

 

That's both wings and tailplane/fin done. Just the fuselage to work out. Then I think I’ll leave things to dry thoroughly before working out Hissing Sid and his oppo.

 

Yes, there has been a casualty. The starboard elevator has become unstuck. Remarkably, the only control surface that has, considering how little material is in contact to be glued!

[Jinxman]

Camo looks great, and suitably very minimal contrast between the greens - lovely.