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1/72nd RNZAF Percival Vega Gull. ***FINISHED 05/04/2021***


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Feeling like I was having the 'Kiwi's' left out doing my builds I had a look through the stash to see if I had anything I could add to this GB and found this, DORA Wings nice little Proctor/Vega Gull combo (which I bought last year online for only a couple of pound more than the individual kits!).  Looks like your typical 'short run' type kit and is tiny! Hopefully my ham-fistedness will be overcome while doing this!

I also have the Eduard dual boxing of the Spitfire Mk.XVI which has markings for a Fassberg based RNZAF machine, we'll see how I get on.

 

Davey.

 

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Great stuff Davey

I must admit the Vega Gull is a new one on me, I built the old Frog / Novo Proctor when I first returned to the hobby, its certainly an aircraft with a bit of character. 

Best of luck with this one.

Cheers Pat 

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4 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Great stuff Davey

I must admit the Vega Gull is a new one on me, I built the old Frog / Novo Proctor when I first returned to the hobby, its certainly an aircraft with a bit of character. 

Best of luck with this one.

Cheers Pat 

 

Yeah, I'd heard of the Proctor and think I had the NOVO kit at one time, I think that was a later mark that is different (bigger) to the early one. The basic parts are the same, the canopies are different.  Once I get the Kittyhawk's well on the way I'll make a start on this.

 

Davey.

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While waiting for coats of paint to dry on my Kittyhawk builds I thought I would take a look at the Vega Gull. 

The instructions start you off with the undercarriage but I turned my attention to the cockpit and the fit of the fuselage sides and bottom.  

The instrument panel is 3 pieces, plastic, film and etch.  I assembled this into the coaming which is a separate part and looks like will need to be carefully fitted when the fuselage is put together. 

Some cleaning up of mould seams is required. 

The cockpit floor is best fitted into one fuselage half with the rear bulkhead as the pins and holes don't line up for any of them!  They would have you put the seats and pedals etc. in before hand but I reckoned with my cack-handedness it would lead to trouble!

The lower part of the fuselage was glued in and the other half was offered up to ensure everything would fit and was aligned.

I lost the throttle levers when cutting them out of the etch frame and won't bother with a lot of the parts in there.  Dora seems good at moulding small parts so I don't know why everything in the cockpit wasn't done in plastic!  To annoy numpties like me most like!

The bottom 'shelf' under the instrument panel is an etch part that you have to glue the (tiny!) throttle quadrant on, WHY!? (not shown in place yet)

 

More soon.

 

Davey.

 

Scratch on the front of the panel, I'll try to paint it in after!

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  • 1 month later...

Having finished the 3 Kittyhawk's I had on here I thought I would bash on with this.  I had glued both halves together with the floor/bulkheads and bottom fuselage piece in place. After it set i found there was a bit of a step along the top, probably my bad.

If you follow the instructions they have you put the control columns where the rudder pedals should be and the seats where the control columns should be! There are square holes where the seats go, mounted directly to the floor it seems, as there is a step down into a well where the rudder pedals are.

 

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I'm not even sure this is correct but the seats would be right under the cowling, which I have yet to fit.

Getting the front of the fuselage halves to join and line up was a bit of a chore after making sure the lower part of the halves were butted up against the floor,  hopefully all will be well when the tape comes off!

I've assembled the wings and undercarriage, you have to cut out the starboard landing light on this one, must be only one on the Proctor but I haven't had a look yet.

No idea what the interior colour is on this particular aircraft as it was an ex-civilian machine bought by the RNZAF late in the 30's. Looking online it seems a grey colour was used on private aircraft, military orders were painted in the RAF Grey-Green colour. I've gone with a light grey with Brown seat cushions.

I'm not adding the etch rudder pedals and other tiny items and just gonna add belts using painted tape.

 

More soon.

Davey.

 

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Hi Davy,

 

Sorry I missed this one - Really nice to see

a lesser known type being Modelled :thumbsup:

 

The Vega was one of a number of "Impressed" Aircraft

flown by the RNZAF during WWII

 

This photo below shows not only your Model NZ571, but a number of

other "Impressed Airframes" - RNZAF Station Rongotai (Now Wellington Airport)

NZ571 is hiding behind NZ 577

PR4197.t5e4de303.m800.xWW-c-7R5.jpg

(RNZAF Official - RNZAF Museum - Used with Permissions)

 

NZ571 at Wigram (Christchurch)

ALB933372034.t5fa344ba.m800.xqsixdBv3.jp

(RNZAF Official - RNZAF Museum - Used with Permissions)

 

The only comment I would give you re the Kit Colour Scheme, is that in 1944, RNZAF Aircraft in

New Zealand were more likely to be in NZ Sea Blue Grey/NZ Dark Green/Duck Egg Blue* or

NZ Foliage Green/NZ Sky Grey - It's possible that (depending when in 1944) that it may have

still been in NZ Dark Earth/NZ Dark Green/NZ Duck Egg Blue, as the Order to change to the

Pacific Scheme* was given in Early-Mid 1943

Hope that helps?

 

Look forward to your build - awesome :thumbsup:

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

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48 minutes ago, LDSModeller said:

Hi Davy,

 

Sorry I missed this one - Really nice to see

a lesser known type being Modelled :thumbsup:

 

The Vega was one of a number of "Impressed" Aircraft

flown by the RNZAF during WWII

 

This photo below shows not only your Model NZ571, but a number of

other "Impressed Airframes" - RNZAF Station Rongotai (Now Wellington Airport)

NZ571 is hiding behind NZ 577

PR4197.t5e4de303.m800.xWW-c-7R5.jpg

(RNZAF Official - RNZAF Museum - Used with Permissions)

 

NZ571 at Wigram (Christchurch)

ALB933372034.t5fa344ba.m800.xqsixdBv3.jp

(RNZAF Official - RNZAF Museum - Used with Permissions)

 

The only comment I would give you re the Kit Colour Scheme, is that in 1944, RNZAF Aircraft in

New Zealand were more likely to be in NZ Sea Blue Grey/NZ Dark Green/Duck Egg Blue* or

NZ Foliage Green/NZ Sky Grey - It's possible that (depending when in 1944) that it may have

still been in NZ Dark Earth/NZ Dark Green/NZ Duck Egg Blue, as the Order to change to the

Pacific Scheme* was given in Early-Mid 1943

Hope that helps?

 

Look forward to your build - awesome :thumbsup:

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

 

Cheers Alan. Great photos, the one I'm going off is a well known one starboard side view that I can't seem to attach a link to!

Going for DG/DE over Sky (Duck Egg) Blue (trusty RLM 76) early scheme.

Is NZ571 not behind NZ576, in front of the Harvard, the glazing and raked/framed windscreen suggests so. It seems the metal cowl makes the colours lighter compared to the rest of the fuselage?

 

Davey.

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Got the seats in and the rest of the fuselage together.  The wings were glued on next, just a simple butt join for the tail-planes, the mainwings had a couple of tiny pegs to align into holes which were neither use nor ornament! Being light I just butt joined them using lots of liquid poly to 'weld' them into place. No gap on the upper join but getting the wings level left slight gaps on the lower join which are easily dealt with.  

Annoyingly the rear wing root fillet doesn't line up with the trailing edge of the wings, may just trim the wing back to suit instead of extending the fillet, not sure yet.

More soon.

Davey

 

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5 hours ago, DaveyGair said:

Cheers Alan. Great photos, the one I'm going off is a well known one starboard side view that I can't seem to attach a link to!

Going for DG/DE over Sky (Duck Egg) Blue (trusty RLM 76) early scheme.

Is NZ571 not behind NZ576, in front of the Harvard, the glazing and raked/framed windscreen suggests so. It seems the metal cowl makes the colours lighter compared to the rest of the fuselage?

 

Hi Davy,

 

Is this the one you're referring to?

Percival Gull

 

Looking at the Photo of NZ571 at Rongotai again, Yes you're right

(did this late last night before going to bed (that's my excuse anyway :whistle:))

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

 

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31 minutes ago, LDSModeller said:

 

Hi Davy,

 

Is this the one you're referring to?

Percival Gull

 

Looking at the Photo of NZ571 at Rongotai again, Yes you're right

(did this late last night before going to bed (that's my excuse anyway :whistle:))

 

Regards

 

Alan

 

 

 

 

Yeah, that's the one.  I'm not fit for purpose late at night, nor early in the morning either come to think of it 🤔

 

Davey.

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Here's a quick update.  A first fiddling with the 5 cockpit glazing pieces seemed to indicate they would fit without much trouble, however the reality was a little different. The two roof/side pieces when joined would end up being too wide so some filing and test fitting was needed. the doors then needed a lot of faffing about with to obtain a decent fit. The windscreen was a nice fit over the contours and didn't need any adjustment.

There is an annoying seam to deal with along the roof top and I also have to deal with four sink marks on the fuselage as indicated by the filler.

Once rubbed down I can apply the supplied canopy masks and give her a shot of undercoat. Not sure if I'm going to bother with the myriad of etch bits on the fuselage, maybe just the pitot tube.

 

More soon.

Davey.

 

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Been busy getting this one into the gallery.

I decided to have another go at brush painting, used Xtracrylic for the DE/DG uppers and Vallejo ModelAir for the lower colour.  It didn't turn out too bad, looked a bit 'brush strokey' before I did the decals and then a final Gloss and Matt final finish.

 

Here's after the coats of paint, the Xtracrylic dries Gloss so just needed to gloss the lower parts as ModelAir dries Matt. The supplied canopy masks are the Vinyl type so don't want to stay down on curved surfaces!

 

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And with decals and final Gloss ('Future') coat.

 

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Now with Matt coat and masks removed. A bit of cleaning up around the glass with a toothpick was required. Just got to add Propeller, aerials, exhaust and landing lights and I think we're done!

 

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Size comparison compared to a Whitley main wing!

 

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Davey your Vega Gull looking very smart. Like the 1/48 version the glazing proving to be more difficult than it need be. You say nav lights to be added - are these clear or, as in the 1/48 version, solid?? JP

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On 4/2/2021 at 4:34 AM, DaveyGair said:

Just got to add Propeller, aerials, exhaust and landing lights and I think we're done!

Hi Davey,

 

Your model is just awesome :thumbsup:

 

Well done in your build

 

Look forward to when she's all done

 

Regards

 

Alan

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3 hours ago, Jpthedog said:

Davey your Vega Gull looking very smart. Like the 1/48 version the glazing proving to be more difficult than it need be. You say nav lights to be added - are these clear or, as in the 1/48 version, solid?? JP

 

Many thanks. I actually said landing lights 😉, the nav lights are just markings on the wings which I'll just paint. I looked up the 1/48th one on the internet and was amazed they have the cut-outs for the Red/Green navigation lights but not done them in clear parts but solid plastic !! :shrug:

 

Cheers Alan, it has built up into a nice model but is not a 'shake'n'bake' kit!  Looking at the photo's again the instructions tell you to fit the aerial mast but this aircraft doesn't have one. Also if you look back in the thread they also tell you to fit the rudder with the nav light but again, no nav light on the real thing so I sanded it off before painting, there is a plain rudder included but the instructions aren't the best. I have their first Lysander kit so will no doubt need to research that while building!

Not done any modelling the last couple of days but this will be finished very soon.

 

Davey.

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  • DaveyGair changed the title to 1/72nd RNZAF Percival Vega Gull. ***FINISHED 05/04/2021***

Got this finished today, just the few little bits needed adding and painted.

Thanks for your interest and encouragement, I may do another kit for this GB but there are other projects looming so we'll see how things go.

 

Davey.

 

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