Spin the Wheel - Aussie Roulette - *Finished*

[Andwil]

On Wednesday the postman delivered this, so I can make a start in the GB:

 

 

Sprue shots:

 

 

Usual short run fare, no locating pegs apart from one for the cockpit and four small lugs where the fuselage joins the wing.  Flash on most of the parts and huge sprue gates.  Detail is finely engraved.

 

An additional sprue with a prop (the kit gives the option of flight mode or feathered), some nicely cast resin parts for the cockpit and three canopies, two vac formed and one (frankly awful) injected.  I intend to use the injected canopy as a mask when it comes time to paint.
 

 

Decals:

 

 

The fairly straight forward instructions:

 

 

and a couple of pages of painting and decal placement plans, in colour.  I will be attempting this one:

 

 

A start has been made on cleaning up the parts, the plastic is quite soft and cleans up easily, in fact care has to be  taken to avoid over sanding.  The undercarriage parts have a mould line that is particularly difficult to remove and the wheels would have been better cast in resin.  I have had one small disaster with the spinner.  One thick attachment point was successfully cut, but the second one resulted in a breakage of the rear of the spinner itself.  I’ve stuck the broken bit back on and flooded the joint with CA so 🤞it holds.

 

A dry fit has shown that there will be some gaps but I’ve seen worse on mainstream kits.  Good news is the resin cockpit will actually fit the fuselage!

 

I don’t know how far I’ll get with this model as we have a house move coming up and it’s looking like our new place will be ready earlier than originally thought, so there might be a break in proceedings.

 

More to follow, thanks for looking.

 

AW

Edited June 15, 2021 by Andwil

[Brad]

Cool mate welcome along. My old man is friends with a retired Deputy Chief of the RAAF, he said they use to call the blue PC-9, the 'Blue Bird of Happiness". 

[Andwil]

22 hours ago, Brad said:

Cool mate welcome along. My old man is friends with a retired Deputy Chief of the RAAF, he said they use to call the blue PC-9, the 'Blue Bird of Happiness". 

Thanks Brad.  I was tempted by the blue one, but I’ve had my heart set on a Roulette for some time, so that’s what it will be.

 

Did some more cleaning up of parts today, and some dry fitting which raised the first problem.  While the cockpit tub fits nicely in the fuselage, it is a different story once the instrument panels are added, quite a bit of sanding was required to slim down the over wide IPs.  Having no locating points makes dry fitting rather difficult as everything keeps falling apart and tape only exacerbates the fit issue.  I think this kit may be more of a challenge than I originally thought.  Finally wanting to glue something I stuck the wing halves together and clamped them tight.  No pics sorry.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Dry fit of the basic airframe:

 

 

Fin and tailplanes are going to need some work.

 

Cockpit temporarily fixed with PVA to aid dry fitting:

 

My plan to use the injected canopy as a mask is not going to work as the fit is poor and paint will get through the gaps.  Further, the vacformed canopy, while its fits much better, is still going to require some blending in.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

The temp cockpit dry fitted to the fuselage:

 

 

I’m happy that after a little sanding it fits in nicely.  And with the vac canopy placed on top:

 

 

I can think about painting the interior.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[bianfuxia]

Looking pretty good so far!

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice to see a start on your Roulette build Andrew. I am looking at my stalled CAS build on the shelf. 

 

It is no shake and bake kit but I have seen a few built up nicely.

 

EDIT: Oh and thanks a lot, I took that kit down and took a look at it, second attempt at painting it has started

[Andwil]

Good morning from foggy, damp Adelaide.  Really looks like winter has arrived here.  I have been making progress with the PC.9 but until now not enough to warrant photos or an update.

 

I have painted the seats and painted and assembled the cockpit:

 

 

 

Yesterday I attached the tub to the fuselage along with the resin nose gear bay which needed a bit sanded off the back in order to fit in front of the cockpit tub.  The kit instructions recommend 7 or 8g of weight to the nose, I was able to fit in 4 2g fishing weights:

 

 

I added some plastic card tabs to assist in joining the fuselage halves:

 

 

and closed up:

 

 

You will notice a mismatch in the fuselage halves, the port half is slightly longer than the starboard half.  I matched up the cockpit opening and tail, leaving a step at the front which will be relatively easy to rectify.  I’ll leave that to cure for a day or two before getting stuck into the seams and gaps.  I have also been working on the rather agricultural fit of the upper and lower wing halves:

 

 

getting there.  I will need to describe a few lost panel lines though.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Progress update.  Lacking any plans but after studying lots of photos, Indecided that the nose problem is that the starboard half is a bit too short, so a piece of plastic card was glued on to the nose to level it up with the port half.  A shim was also added to the gap in the IP coaming.

 

 

After leaving these to set and harden for 48 hours they were cut and sanded to shape.

 

 

looking more like a PC-9 nose.  The tailplanes were glued on after some fettling, and the wing attached.  The tail needed a fair bit of filler and will need sanding to eliminate a step.  The wing fitted quite well, needing only a swipe of filler in the port wing root.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Ray S]

That was a nice nose job for this. All in all, it is coming along very well indeed.

 

Ray

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Nice progress Andrew, the fix for the nose has worked well

[Andwil]

Getting the house ready for sale has meant I have had very little benchtime, but I have managed to get the PC.9 looking like an aeroplane.

 

The vertical fin has been attached along with the ventral fillet.  The kit part for the fillet was seriously short shot so a replacement was made from plastic card:

 

 

The rear bulkhead was painted light green and the IP coaming black.  The wings have got some primer:

 

 

The gap in the rear of the cockpit will be hidden by the rear seat.

 

Exhausts have been sprayed dark aluminium for a base and sepia wash sprayed over the top for the heat stained metal effect:

 

 

The next job will be to get the seats fitted and the canopy attached and blended in.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Canopy attached and sprayed black and the model primed which has revealed a couple of areas requiring a little more attention but generally looking better than I expected.

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Brad]

Nice work there.

[PattheCat]

I like the look of the exhausts (but not only).

Good job.

[Andwil]

I’m afraid progress on this model is going to be rather intermittent for the next few weeks.  Since the last post I have done some more filling, sanding and polishing.  Today I made up some of the antennae that go under the plane and on the vertical fin, pitot, as well as the position light under the fuselage.  Then a final primer coat.

 

 

 

The various antennae and bits, this is many times life size as they’re quite small so look a little rough but I have included the photo anyway.

 

Ready for paint now.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Andwil]

Today I found some time to paint the model white.  Gunze gloss white, a light misted coat followed by a heavier, wet coat.

 

 

I will leave that to harden for a day or two and then mask up for the red.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

Looking very nice Andrew

[Andwil]

Some significant progress made today with the model being sprayed red:

 

 

 

Masking of the wings and tail was easy, the fuselage masking was helped by Ozmods providing a 1/72 profile of the aircraft.  Tape was placed over the profile  and the outline traced on with pencil.  The tape was then transferred to the cutting mat and the mask cut out with a sharp blade and placed on the model.

 

After letting the paint dry for about three hours it was with some trepidation that I unmasked:

 

 

 

 

 

Result!  A little bleeding on the starboard side and some lifting on the port, both easily touched up.

 

Finally, the canopy was unmasked:

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

AW

 

[Alex Gordon]

That paint job is seriously impressive,be proud of that .

[PattheCat]

It begins to look really lovely!

[Andwil]

On 6/2/2021 at 12:41 AM, Alex Gordon said:

That paint job is seriously impressive,be proud of that .

 

On 6/2/2021 at 1:32 AM, PattheCat said:

It begins to look really lovely!

Thanks guys I appreciate the support.

 

No piccies today, but the wheel wells and insides of the gear doors were painted aluminium and then the whole got a coat of clear in prep for decals which I hope to get on over the weekend.

 

AW

[dnl42]

Love the paint scheme!!! 

[Andwil]

On 6/5/2021 at 2:13 PM, dnl42 said:

Love the paint scheme!!! 

Thanks mate, very kind of you.  Now how can I stuff it up?  Decals!

 

A frustrating afternoon that almost saw the kit go in the bin a couple of times.  Started out OK with the wing roundels and the under tail blue flash it went pear shaped with the tail fin trim and rear fuselage pin stripes.  The decals are long, very thin and prone to buckling.  Worse, they don’t want to set, moving one section carefully into position and another piece applied an hour or so earlier started to buckle.   It seems that breathing on them makes them fold and buckle.  There are also a few gaps and tears that will need to be touched up, I hope my dark blue is a good match.

 

 

 

 

 

Having decided to leave well enough alone and finish the decalling another day I noticed that the front seat has somehow pitched forward, odd as it is not loose. Very nearly threw it across the room but managed to stop myself.  I now have to decide whether this one is worth continuing with.

 

AW

[PattheCat]

I'm the worst singer you'll meet so I'll leave it to pros:

 

 

Hang on, mate, it's too nice to leave it there.

Cheers.

Pat.