A journey of optimism. Or utter foolishness. Three down, one to go!!

[Roland Pulfrew]

On 9/8/2022 at 11:24 AM, Marklo said:

For roundels I treated myself to a DSPIAE circle cutter and a roll of 50mm masking tape. I do also have some kabuki tape which works well but is a whole lot dearer than the masking tape.

And I’m now using it for the second time for the rounders on my F100. And by around the fourth project it will have paid for itself vs precut masks.

 

 

For WW1/WW2 vintage RAF roundels I just use Tamiya X4 and X7. Inter war and post war roundels are both different shades, hope that helps. 

Thanks Marklo. I may have to invest.  

Anyway, it was time for a decision. I’d ordered some paint masks from H*****ts but they are still in the post, so to varnish or not to varnish?  
 

I went for it. So here are a couple of pics varnished and unmasked, and I now declare the Welly complete!

 

 

 

 

 

Two down, two to go!!

 

 

[The Spadgent]

16 minutes ago, Roland Pulfrew said:

 

Two down, two to go!!

 

👏👏👏👏👏 Fantastic work! 

[Heather Kay]

20 minutes ago, Roland Pulfrew said:

I now declare the Welly complete!

 

Looking splendid. I hope mine turn out as well when I get round to them.

 

Just one - pedantic, I know - thing, but the Wellington was nicknamed "Wimpy". From the Wikipedia:

 

Quote

The Wellington was nicknamed the Wimpy by RAF personnel, after the portly J. Wellington Wimpy character from the Popeyecartoons.

 

[Roland Pulfrew]

So after a short break whilst I get back to work, it’s time to get on with #3.  I decided to try and add some bulkheads to ensure that everything went together squarely, but gave up as I kept measuring incorrectly, then cutting and then finding I’d forgotten this mm or that mm somewhere. Grandad wouldn’t be impressed “measure twice, cut once” being a favourite of his having been an engineer!! Sorry grandad.

 

I then discovered that either the starboard half of the fuselage or the floor section was warped.  Having got a really nice fit and with glue setting the interior angle was about 110 degrees, not 90!!  So ease the parts apart and clean everything up before trying again.  This time, and by only glueing in small sections, I seem to have achieved a good fit and about 90 degrees.

 

Now feeling confident I’ve attached the port side to the floor and starboard side at the nose.

 

 

Have to say I’m quite pleased with the view into the cockpit and fuselage from the top.

 

I have a feeling, getting the port side and the bottom fuselage sides to join up as neatly might be a challenge

 

 

As will the aft part of the fuselage as I try to deal with the warping.

 

 

Still, the good news is that a dry fit of the top section of the fuselage suggests a very neat join as it does just slot in to the top of the fuselage sides.  Fingers crossed! 

[Paul Thompson]

My fuselage bits were also warped but easy to coaks together, due to the plastic being soft. IIRC I stuck one side to the floor and set the angle with some old credit cards held  upright with blue tak, and the parts kept otgether with masking tape from the out side. Revell Contacta on one surface, left a couple of minutes to go off before adding the side panel, does the trick. Then after curing added the other side, and later the top. At least I think that's what I did. I certainly did something similar with the CSM Gotha G.III even further back, and it worked okay then, using epoxy because that kit is resin. Same fuselage construction, but instead of credit cards there were already bulkheads supplied.

 

Wiffle waffle. Whatever. Looking good.

 

Paul.

[Roland Pulfrew]

Well with a bit of @Paul Thompson‘s aforementioned coaxing I think I’ve managed to get the fuselage buttoned up (or with the 0/400 is that stitched up).  Forward fuselage top went on really nicely, with just one gap that’ll need a bit of filler.

 

 

Now not sure why I took quite so long on the interior, as we won’t be able to see much of it as the fuselage is finished.

 

 

 

Then came the warped rear fuselage.  Really glad that the late Tony Rodgers of the Kinloss and Forres Model Club, introduced me to Plastic Weld and his technique for long bits of straight(ish) edges. Firstly, top right which went together really nicely

 

Then, once that side had set reasonable well, time to do the top left.  This required quite a bit more coaxing, and lots of rubber.

 

I think we are there with the fuselage, just about. Time to move onto the wings 😱.

[Roland Pulfrew]

Today, I ‘ave mostly been …. sanding!

 

So, the fuselage is together and looks pretty square. I’ve cleaned up the bits of excess glue and melted plastic along the seams and I’m quite pleased with how it looks.  I’ve even managed to preserve the (probably over scale) stitching and the linen texture.

 

Before moving on I decided to have a scan through some of the other 0/400 build threads on here already (thank you @The Spadgent and @Marklo for killing an hour or so - I’d forgotten the lengths you’d gone to in your builds) and, as this model isn’t planned to be a keeper, I’d opt for the sanding approach. 
 

So here are the next build steps, according to the instructions, getting some elbow grease 

 

 

 

I’ve decided not to go too much to town on the undersides, but the topsides were too plank like.

 

Also tried dry fitting the bomb bay, and just like one of the other builds, something isn’t square

 

 

So a little minor surgery and we’ll be good.

[The Spadgent]

No worries. I hope you found the WIPs useful. There was a lot of sanding going on. 😲. Yours it’s looking lovely by the way. 
 

Johnny

[Roland Pulfrew]

Another busy weekend doing other stuff has, sadly, meany little progress on either of the last two.  Still starting to attach wing sections, with trepidation, to the 0/400.

 

Bomb bay is going to need a little work:

 

As will the tail.  
 

First of the engines is coming together and looks quite nice, need to check whether the front part should be flush, or slightly proud.  Also to do some research on the colours involved - after I’ve cleaned off a bit (quite a lot) of flash

 

A little bit of filling and the exhaust pipes are looking a little more realistic

 

 

Hopefully I’ve retained the look of the nicely moulded exhaust stacks, it’s just the perspective in this picture that makes them look a bit spindly.

 

 

 

 

[Roland Pulfrew]

Slowly plodding through this whilst dealing with work and lots of annoying and trivial distractions.  A little bit of progress today with adding the top surface of the stub wings, along with the first bits of rigging. 
 

I have a suspicion I’m going to regret doing this, as they are just going to get in the way, but they’re there for now.

 

Started to look at the undercarriage - lots of seams to clean up again here.

 

 

Also found a bit of the kit that I can hopefully finish quite quickly - the tail handling trolley.  Anyone got any ideas what colour these might have been?  The kit instructions just say 155 olive drab, but they say that for the whole airframe too.

 

Exhausts for the number 2 engine also painted. Have to say, although very simple in construction, the engines do have some nice detail on them.  

 

The undercarriage is going to be interesting, here is the first one “setting” (not yet glued in), but then I was sceptical about the strength of the HP Harrow undercarriage a few pages ago.

 

 

 

 

[Paul Thompson]

I think the H155 is their interpretation of PC10, a can of worms that I'll leave unopened. Don't forget not to follow the Airfix rigging plan, because it leaves out half of the main strutural stuff.

 

Paul.

[Roland Pulfrew]

3 minutes ago, Paul Thompson said:

I think the H155 is their interpretation of PC10, a can of worms that I'll leave unopened. Don't forget not to follow the Airfix rigging plan, because it leaves out half of the main strutural stuff.

 

Paul.

Thanks Paul.  I’ve been trying to look for some good pics of the rigging, but that’s just making the trepidation worse.  From what I’ve found, it seems like double wires at each bit of the main plane rigging, is that what you are referring to? Or is there another gotcha in there?

[Paul Thompson]

The stand-out absentees are the incidence wires that cross, front to back, between every pair of interplane struts. IIRC Airfix give you cavernous holes for some of the rigging, but not those. Those wires are what stops any top wing from wandering backwards and forwards (but I haven't seen the most recent re-issue, so did they fix that?)  Yes to the double rigging (could be worse, some American designs had courses of 3 wires). And hard to see indeed, but there is rigging around the engines - I can't remember how that goes because I built mine as an 0/100, which has much longer nacelles. I'm very under the weather at the moment (flu, I think) so can't face looking through the two Windsock books, but if you're willing to wait I can see what can be scraped together in a non-copyright infringing way after the weekend. You'll surely need help with the tail rigging, it's a howling pain, particularly the rudder and tailplane runs.  Which sounds scary but isn't - if you've seen a good image of what you need to do, there is a lot which can be done light - I would normally never suggest that but the area is busy enough to distract the eye.

 

 

Paul.

[Roland Pulfrew]

Thanks @Paul Thompson. Sorry to hear you’re down with flu, proper man-flu I hope 😉 .  I’m actually away for the next week, so more than happy to wait for more info, if and when you are feeling up to it. 
 

Don’t think Airfix have changed anything from the original kit, and they only show the rigging lines as one continuous thread on the main planes.

[Roland Pulfrew]

So after a week away, in the Caribbea….. overseas, time to get on. Now I may still be suffering jet lag, but can any 0/400 builders just check me out on some thinking please?

 

The instructions with the kit seems to show step 24/25 as building the starboard engine (step 28): 

 

But, here are parts 93 & 94 (highlighted in blue in the picture above):

 

 

So when I add the mounting structure it will be on the starboard side of the engine (note the mounting holes).

 

This suggests that step 24/25 is the port engine and it does mount on the port side

 

 

So I thought I’d check to see whether I’d cocked-up somewhere.  Had I got the wrong parts for the first engine, but parts 91 & 92 (step 26/27/28) are still on the sprue and are marked as 91/92:

 

 

So, have any other 0/400 builders spotted an error or am I doing something wrong?

 

[Brandy]

Looks as though you have it right, but I haven't built mine yet! The hole is definitely on the correct side for the port engine but you'd better make sure you don't have another port engine still on the sprue!

It will only take a bit of filler and a drill to correct it, so nothing major.

Coming on nicely!

 

Ian

[Paul Thompson]

Sorry I can't help. I used resin 1/100 nacelles on mine.

18 hours ago, Roland Pulfrew said:

 

 

[Roland Pulfrew]

Not much progress on the Journey of Optimism, so whilst I am trying to work out how to do the wiring (and I have to say thanks to @Paul Thompson for sending me though some great plans), I decided to pick up a project off the Shelf of Doom.  Decided it was way past time to find my tin of Humbrol Dayglo and paint the requisite areas on a Swedish Vampire that’s been stuck at this stage for too long.  Took a while to mix all the sediment smoothly through the carrier, but I have to say I’m quite pleased with the result - so far

 

I also started pondering what colour to do the 0/400.  I’ve had a little play with Model Air ‘camouflage green’ and ‘green brown’.  The former is quite a dark green and the latter is a khaki green-brown (or browny-green).  Anyone got any ideas on a good match?

 

This also arrived in the post this week, so I might start some work on the Washington too

 

 

Anything to distract me from biplane rigging wires 😄

 

[Roland Pulfrew]

Well this is going to be quite fiddly!! Lots of tiny parts for the carpet monster to claim.  
 

 

Now, to paint, or not to paint before attaching to the plastic, that is the question.

 

Fortunately, some late night doom-scrolling found me this:

 

https://www.scalemodellingnow.com/members-photographicreferencelibrary-aircraft

 

The new B-29 collection has loads of great reference pictures of the cockpit, which is nice.

 

Decided it was also time to get on with the 0/400, although I have a feeling I’m going to regret having done this at this stage

 

 

As time and tide wait for no man, it was out with the airbrush to do some pre-shading work, which I may have overdone slightly on the wings:

 

 

Now staring to think I need to work out what paint to use to match ‘PC10’’; anyone got any suggestions?

 

[Roland Pulfrew]

OK. I’m back. Sorry for the lack of progress, but a move of house has meant all my models and modelling kit being stashed in a garage until we can smash 2 houses into one.

 

The good news is, I now have a modelling space and today saw a bit (a little bit) of progress on the 0/400.

 

 

 

 

Still pretty cold in the garage, but hopefully spring is on its way and I can crack on with this, particularly as the first of my ‘23 group builds, starts soon 😳

[Roland Pulfrew]

Getting bored of sanding flash and seams, so decided it was time to put some colour down.  I’ll probably regret doing it this early, but I thought once the wings start to go on, it’s going to get tricky spraying between them.

 

Been struggling to decide what to use to represent NIVO, and it was a toss up in the end between Vallejo green-brown or their brown-green.  I plumped for brown-green and I’m happy with how it looks (for now).

 

 

 

 

[Roland Pulfrew]

Started to add the top wing surfaces to the 0/400.  Lots of EZ line dangling ready for the bracing wires.  
 

Annoyingly, my 0/400 moulds seem to have been slightly out of alignment, so lots of offset seams to be filled and filed, including the the wing struts, all of which need filling and sanding.  Still, it’s starting to look the part

 

 

Have to say, I got bored with the filling and sanding, so I decided to get on with the final in the four, with a bit of work on the Washington cockpit.

 

Started to add some of the photoetch in the cockpit.  I did take a big intake of breath when I realised how big this one is going to be.  I think I’m going to need to practice spaying Alclad.  

This is obviously going to be quite a lot of aluminium!  I don’t suppose anyone has any good drawings, pictures or suggestions about which shades of metal should go where?

 

[Roland Pulfrew]

Right, new set up in the garage 🥶 but at least everything is set up and accessible.  It’s been fun with photoetch on the Washington for a couple of evenings.  Still trying to avoid rigging in biplanes!!  Still at least I can count this as progress.

 

 

and a little more 

 

Now for a bit of shading and weathering.

[AdrianMF]

Super work on the pair of them. A great contrast between the two cockpits - the B-29 looks a lot more comfortable!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Roland Pulfrew]

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

A great contrast between the two cockpits - the B-29 looks a lot more comfortable!

 

Regards,

Adrian

Thanks Adrian

 

Indeed the joys of an open cockpit.  In winter!!