80313 Nord 2502 Noratlas - Aero Maritime LANDED WITH FEATHERED PROPS AND ALL TANKS EMPTY...BUT LANDED

[bianfuxia]

13 minutes ago, JOCKNEY said:

10 minutes left, I'll try and distract @Enzo Matrix while you sneak this one in. 

Look lively now, just get it in the gallery and update the build thread after.

That's a Blitzbuild GB tip, by the way

 

Cheers Pat 

Haha yes I am one step ahead

 

 

[bianfuxia]

 

 

Well, I worked on this one last night as seen in my last post, finishing up all the decals and other parts.

 

The morning routine didn't go so well today so I didn't get back to this task until about an hour before the deadline (including after zipping to the supermarket for some superglue). 

 

In that time I managed to put the wings on, remembering to add the tailplane (!) then added all the undercarriage doors and the wheels themselves.

 

Mini-potential disaster was that one main strut was kind of loose. It wouldn't take the weight of the plane without sending the wheel forward (a bit like an athlete's knee collapsing). I took a look at and just pumped some superglue into the loose join and 15 seconds later that was dealt with.

 

 

 

Major-potential disaster was that it then turned out to be a tail-sitter. Not just gently, either; it sat on its tail like an elephant at the end of the circus! So I raced down to the garden and gathered up some pebbles, wondering if the gear would be strong enough. 

 

Fortunately, it was.

 

So then I tried to deal with the side passenger doors and couldn't find a single photo of them in place while open. I'll have to look further into that later.

 

The clamshells I wanted to make a proper hinge or connection, so they are just blu-tacked on.

 

So with literally ten minutes to go I quickly popped off some photos on my ready-made tarmac on the driveway and thankfully the internet here is really fast and I got some images into the gallery! 

 

 

 

I should do some touch-ups with the silver (including the prop tips) but I will do that later.

 

Anyway, it was a fun build and I will be honest and not humble and say I am pretty pleased with how it turned out, given how old the kit and especially the decals are.

 

thanks for the supportive comments and for following along!

 

 

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

Well done for getting this one into the gallery, we did need another big one! The pebble shot made me laugh 🙂 

[bianfuxia]

46 minutes ago, JeroenS said:

Well done for getting this one into the gallery, we did need another big one! The pebble shot made me laugh 🙂 

thanks!

 

And yeah, there was about thirty minutes left and I realized I had never actually tested whether it would stand up or not (I usually do this way earlier in the build, when there is still time to do something about it!)

 

As I gingerly set it down on its recently superglued u/c, I suddenly thought, "oh no, it's gonna be a TAIL SITTER". You can imagine the kind of words I directed at it, at myself, and at the evil concept of center of gravity as I had that horrifying realization.

 

But luckily it's a cargo plane! 

 

If I'd had a little more time, after a screw up like that, I'd have made a model cargo box, very heavy, with a stamp on the outside that said "RUBBER DOGSHIT: ORIGIN: HONG KONG"

 

 

 

 

[RidgeRunner]

Its nice to see a Norrie, mate :). Well done for finishing

 

Martin

 

 

[bianfuxia]

1 hour ago, RidgeRunner said:

Its nice to see a Norrie, mate :). Well done for finishing

 

Martin

 

 

thanks! I'l probably clean it up a bit here or there later this week, but yes it was good to get it done!