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L391 Search and Rescue LeO 453S - Update 15mar21 - Flory wash, windows, hand rail, etc


RidgeRunner

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11 hours ago, Johnson said:

Nice work Martin!

 

 

Er... interesting stuff you use 'gloop'. How do you make it?

 

Cheers,

It is simply a little extra thin cement mixed with chopped up sprue. I made this bottle about two years ago for my F-105B nose. I guess you can use other cements and still get the same result. When using be sure to mask off to 1) avoid damage around the filled areas and 2) to reduce the amount of sanding. 

 

Martin

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On 1/8/2021 at 12:33 PM, RidgeRunner said:

The masked and filled wing joint on the starboard side

Why have I never thought of masking before filling?! I get the stuff everywhere.

 

She's looking great.

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3 hours ago, JeroenS said:

She's looking good in primer, looks like painting can begin shortly. 

I’d love to think so but there is still a number of things to do before any comprehensive painting starts. I now have to get the exhaust positions decided and cut out. Then the engines need painting together with the firewall areas. Because of the way that Airfix have designed the cowlings they have to be fitted in two parts each. Therefore once the engines are painted I need to cement the cowlings on the model and add the dorsal intake, which I have yet to consider. Probably it will be made up using a small drop tank from another kit. 
 

Once that is all done and I have tidied the various glitches, I will get started :). Initially it will be a white undercoat for the red bands and black around the nacelles and a walkway on the starboard wing. All good fun :)

 

Sadly I can’t see her done before the end of the GB :(

 

Martin

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1 hour ago, TonyOD said:

Why have I never thought of masking before filling?! I get the stuff everywhere.

 

She's looking great.

It is a real time saver and also helps to protect detail when applying the filler and sanding (apart from PPP which washes off easily). I use tape whenever I want to protect things during sanding :)

 

Martin

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A bit more done .....

 

Yesterday I fashioned what I thought were nice looking exhausts for styrene rod only to look again this morning and realise that I was way off beam! So, a new approach! I started today with some lengths of sprue and first bent the ends over a candle. The exhausts on the P&W engined LeO 453 were semi-recessed and at the end the "pipe" turned outwards. This gave me the bend I needed. Next was to sand the length of sprue, including the bend so that I had a round round cross-section, apart from the final turn. Then I bevelled the forward ends where they disapper behid the cowlings, and drilled out the opposite ends (the outlet). Trying to get a good image of the exhausts is a challenge as they were embedded in a black painted area and photos from the time weren't great. Anyway, this is how they should be (if you can make them out) ;)

 

LeO38

 

My attempts resulted in this:

 

LeO36

 

I also drilled the locator holes for the rods that hold the hand rail along the starboard side of the fuselage. On these machines, as they were originally envisaged as fast tansports, the passengers and crew entered via an overwing door. I will use 0.5mm rod later on. I hope you will excuse the rough looking windows!:

 

LeO37

 

I have also surveyed the model for glitches. A few areas needed filling and sanding, including the wing/fuselage joints. I used PPP all round for the filling as it was only small areas and it is eaaily wiped clean with a cotton bud. 

 

I started to prepare the ADF bullet to go under the nose. It is oming from a Heller Texan.

 

Yesterday I noticed that I had incorrectly applied the cockpit mask. Based on some photos I had presumed that it was fitted with the later one piece windscreen. However, on looking at photos of the actual aircraft it is clear that she had the original two piece. I therefore modified the mask

 

LeO35

 

Back to day and once I had completed the surgery for the day I gave her once over with a 12,000-grit pad and then gave her a wash with a wet cloth. After that I got the airbrush out, applying a little more very thin Humbrol 1 over the sanded areas and then the white areas that will be an undercoat for the red bands on the wings and rear fuselage. I also started painting the engines by painting the firewall face and rear engine blocks wth Humbrol Matt Black. R1830 experts out there will know that I will now need to get the cylinder blocks painted aluminium, the heads a lighter and brighter metallic and the central hub a dark grey. The various rods etc will be black. 

 

LeO39

 

So here she is as of now. I'll get more done tomorrow. Probably that will be more on the engines, the red stripes and the black nacelles and De-icing boots. Some of these machines had the latter fitted, including my subject. Once the engines are done I need to fit the cowlings and start work on the intakes on top of each.

 

LeO34

 

Martin

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  • RidgeRunner changed the title to L391 Search and Rescue LeO 453S - Update 18jan21 - fixing glitches, exhausts from sprue, painting ....
1 hour ago, RidgeRunner said:

A bit more done .....

 

 

She's looking great. There aren't many WIPs that don't look like complete horror stories when subjected to close up photography (well, mine all do) but this is a really tidy job.

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15 hours ago, TonyOD said:

 

She's looking great. There aren't many WIPs that don't look like complete horror stories when subjected to close up photography (well, mine all do) but this is a really tidy job.

You are very kind but I’m not sure it is justified ;). I certainly see flaws in my work!
 

By the way, I have noticed that the kit actually has other inaccuracies :(. Compare the whole front end with photos. The actual aircraft was more stumpy in appearance In the frontal area. Heller gave it a larger nose, I think.   So, aside from the 5mm length issue that was debated early on, there are other issues - insurmountable ones. Ho hum......

 

Martin

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10 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

The actual aircraft was more stumpy in appearance In the frontal area. Heller gave it a larger nose, I think.

 

Yes I noticed that not from photos but from some drawings I saw. I won't be losing any sleep over it. 😉

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On 1/18/2021 at 3:03 PM, RidgeRunner said:

and De-icing boots.

I just saw that my subject machine didn't have them! I'm losing my marbles!!!!!!! :confused:

 

Today I got the ADF aerial bullet installed and cemented the wing landing lights. 

 

Martin

 

 

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Getting there steadily .....

 

Today I started by sanding the wing light glazing that I had cemented in place yesterday wth Ultra Thin, having drilled them out internally so that they would take the styrene rod I had inserted to mimic the lights. With coarse, medium, light and polishing sticks followed by polishing compound, I got them to a reasonable state. I then filled around them with Kristal Klear. After a while of drying I masked them off. Here there mid-sanding.

 

LeO40

 

After that I painted the engines. I'm not great at that kind of detail. They will have large spinners over them anyway. They got a coat of Humbrol 27002 Polished Aluminium, a dark grey centre hub, some black detailing, black dry brushing, a wash and then a rub around with Oil Stain Weathering Powders. Meanwhile I had to fill the gaps in the DC-3/C-47 cowling fans where the Dak exhaust would run. I used thin plastic sheet for this, cemented in place with Extra Thin and cut to shape. It was only a part curve (5.5mm dia). 

 

LeO43

 

Once dried I got the DC-3/C-47 cowlings on.

 

LeO42

 

LeO41

 

You can also see that I got he ADF antenna in place. This came from a Heller AT-6G Texan, extended and set on a mounting plate, as per the real aircraft. 

 

I am now starting to make the intakes that go atop the cowlings and along part of each nacelle. I have started to fashion these from the DC-3/C-47 intakes, giving them a round cross-section and less length. They’ll feature in my next photos assuming they work okay. 

 

That's about it for today.

 

Martin

 

PS: I got the fins/rudders on too!

 

LeO44

 

 

 

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  • RidgeRunner changed the title to L391 Search and Rescue LeO 453S - Update 22jan21 - landing lights, engines, cowlings on, bullet antenna, etc
On 1/18/2021 at 10:22 PM, RidgeRunner said:

The actual aircraft was more stumpy in appearance In the frontal area. Heller gave it a larger nose, I think.

I now think it is actually my photos, taken at wide angle by phone, where the nose is accentuated and the perspective looks a little skewed ;)

 

Martin

 

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  • RidgeRunner changed the title to L391 Search and Rescue LeO 453S - Update 22jan21 - landing lights, engines, cowlings on, bullet antenna, fins and rudders on

Over the past two days I've been getting the intakes sorted out atop the engine cowlings. I started out trying to modify the DC-3/C-47 offerings that were fitted further back and squared in section. However, this didn't really work so I set about searching for an alternative amongst my scrap. I measured many drop tanks and eventually settled on using two Mk83 bombs halves. They are about the right size and just needed a little sanding and cutting to get them right. They were split at the cowling flap pointand so I built them in two pieces for each, the rear slotting in to the forward section. Here is how they were once cemented and with some PPP in the gaps:

 

LeO45

     

LeO47

 

 

I still have a little more filling here and there to get, for example, the wing joins neater. 

 

Today I have been painting!!!! It has been the red (Humbrol 60) for the wing and fuselage stripes, and Humbrol Matt Black for the nacelle undersides and the starboard wing walkway. I'll get here masked tomorrow and will be painting the undercarriage trains and internals of the nacelles. These will be mix of Humbrol Steel and Polished Aluminium. Thereafter it will be more masking and the application of the overall metal coat (Humbrol Polished Aluminium). Eventually she will be either Matt or Satin varnished to get her close to the lacquered aluminium finish that she had. 

 

LeO50

 

LeO49

 

Martin

   

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  • RidgeRunner changed the title to L391 Search and Rescue LeO 453S - Update 25jan21 - Paint!

A little more today and it has been all about masking! 

 

My first challenge was to ascertain the exact positions of the red stripes. There are actually few photos that show them and therefore I have had to make some calculated guesses as to where they were. You can see my thoughts on the drawing in the photo below. It is important for the fuselage code numbers and roundel To determine the position to a fair degree. My problem is that I opted to remove the "panel lines" and so, at that point, I lost my references. I therefore had to produce a reference point, which was the upper aerial position. From there, with the top of the fuselage being straight, I made a 90 degree template out of old business cards to get a vertical line. Off that all other references will come. Here she is with the red masked.

 

LeO51

   

Next was the black areas around the nacelles. These were a bugger as I had to work around the exhaust and undercarriage apertures. Here is my work under way:

 

LeO52

 

And finished! :)

 

 

LeO53

 

Later today I wil get some white on the red and black overspray areas before applying the Aluminium. I will also paint the undercarriage before masking them too. 

 

Martin

 

PS: Ooops ... I forgot to mask the walkway on the starboard wing! Done now! :)

 

Addendum:

 

I got a shot of white over the red and black overspray areas :). It will then be a thorough inspection again before attacking her with the Polished Aluminium later this week. I'm trying as best as I can to beat the 07th Feb deadline. For that I'll need to get her painted and dry, Glosscoted and decals on next week. Cutting it fine ....... And that is if nothing goes wrong! 

 

 

LeO54

 

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  • RidgeRunner changed the title to L391 Search and Rescue LeO 453S - Update 26jan21 - more masking :(

Looking great Martin, although I don't envy you all that masking. I have to humbly admit though, that my eyes kept getting drawn away from the LeO by the image of a Tunnock's tea cake. A few years of living in Scotland will do that to a man. 🤣

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29 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

Tunnock's tea cake. A few years of living in Scotland will do that to a man. 🤣

@fightersweep

 

Ah ha!!! It’s the Caramel wafers for me :). The mug mats were bought for me by my daughter. I had the wafers in my lunch box while at school in the 1960s and still maintain a stock in the cupboard :). 

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@RidgeRunner

 

Have to agree. The caramel wafers are pretty awesome. I used to help my Dad on the milk round he did for a few years in the late 70s. There was a stock of the wafers in the locker in the cab of the float as they were sold along with the usual milk, eggs and other stuff . Our mid morning refreshment break usually consisted of a bottle of gold top and a pack of Tunnock's wafers. Happy days!

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I've just seen this for the first time, and it's very impressive. Looming deadline or not, I'll keep checking in as it will be very interesting to see how this turns out, especially as anything SAR-related is quite close to my heart!

Jon

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