DH82 Tiger Moth, No. 12 Local Air Supply Unit - DNF

[AdrianMF]

A bit of a late entry with this one, in the fifth scheme boxed with the new(ish) Airfix kit. I’ve built the other four versions and enjoyed it every time!

 

Here’s what I’m building:

 

Cockpit will get seat belts but otherwise it’s pretty much done:

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

 

[AdrianMF]

Fuselage together and cowling well on the way. The air intake was opened up with a triangular needle file before fitting and the exhausts were rescued from the carpet monster after pinging six feet off the tweezers while being painted:

...seat belts:

 

This kit does have a nearly-fatal flaw. The cabane struts are terribly moulded and almost impossible to prepare without breaking. Here are mine after gluing the one on the left back together after it broke into three before it even started to come off the sprue:

 

The irregular blobs of plastic around the struts suggest that they have been trying to bodge the mould to improve the situation. It’s not working!

[matford]

My boxing of A01025 has had a blob in the middle that broke the struts in four places

[tonyot]

Good luck Adrian,.... I gave up on my pair of 72nd scale Airfix Tiggies,.... the cabane struts were bad enough,.... but the outer wing struts on mine snapped with the slightest side pressure while rigging,..... almost  as f they were hollow inside and they were impossible to repair! 

I do love the scheme you`ve chosen too,.... one of my favourite Tiggie schemes.

Cheers

           Tony

[AdrianMF]

Well after two more breakages, sticking, leaving to dry overnight and really careful trimming and scraping, I finally have two cabane struts ready to go:

 

I wonder if modern cameras induce a condition akin to body dysmorphia in modellers. This is my fourth attempt at a photo - for the first three I saw a bump in the viewfinder that I simply can’t see with the naked eye, and certainly won’t see when this is on the model, but the fact I knew it was there compelled me to do a bit more scraping. In truth it’s still not perfect at 2x life size, but I have more kits in the stash so I need to get a move on!

[AdrianMF]

Got all my rigging holes drilled (whoopsie, apart from the lead outs for the elevator control cables) and I’ve put some thread into the 0.2mm holes to stop them clogging. The 0.5mm holes that get two wires each should survive my painting!

[malpaso]

When I did my Tiggie all the struts came off the sprues fine.  I was surprised that the interplane cross struts worked well to set the stagger and then could be cut out (as Airfix intended).  Unfortunately I then used non-elastic thread for rigging and the upper wing is quite flexible on the various struts so in avoiding saggy rigging I ended up with the top plane slightly askew!  

[AdrianMF]

Just propeller, struts, wheels and unused options on the sprues now, so it must be time for paint:

 

I’ve done a tiny bit of extra detailing under the fuselage, and I will add a fuel line down from the tank after painting. Every time I look at a walk around I see more and more missing details, but I am resisting...

[AdrianMF]

44 minutes ago, malpaso said:

set the stagger

I use the cabane struts for alignment and pop the interplanes in one by one. Hoping that rigging will go well!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[AdrianMF]

Very pleased with the first couple of coats of Lifecolor Foliage Green:

 

Guess who forgot to do the cowling?

[dnl42]

Dang, you're focused! 

 

FWIW, I find that a JLC saw does a nice job with those delicate parts. It's the only way I know of to remove a part with minimal stress. A few very light strokes at each attachment is usually all it takes. At this point, it's about the only way I remove parts as you can cleanly cut the part and avoid any damage due to local deformation that's common with nippers.

[AdrianMF]

Thanks for the tip. Although I drone on about the cabane struts every time I build one (5 times now!) and note the mould damage on the interplane struts, the other struts are amazing in terms of fit and precision, and also don’t break when you are cutting them off the sprue. So once past the cabanes, it’s all giggles!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[matford]

On 5/8/2021 at 7:26 PM, tonyot said:

but the outer wing struts on mine snapped with the slightest side pressure while rigging

 

Thanks for the warning Tony.

I think I'll order the SBS rigging set.

[AdrianMF]

Working late this evening but I found a few minutes to get the fuselage decals on before the rigging starts:

 

The decals are very thin and fragile, and I remember the under wing serials of the RN option giving me a fair bit of trouble last year. So having no time this evening is a blessing in disguise, because they can settle thoroughly before I handle them again!

[Ray_W]

Wonderful subject Adrian, and interesting build, nicely executed as always. 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

4 hours ago, Ray_W said:

Wonderful subject

I do love this kit once I've got past the cabane struts! This is #5, so I'm now up to date with all the colour schemes that Airfix have released for it. The foliage green is very smart.

 

I seem to be developing a similar fondness for the Po-2, as the one I'll be building for Less Than A Tenner will be my fourth this year!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Nice choice Adrian Sorry for not saying much before on your build. If and when I do build a Tiger-moth it will be in Aussie Foliage green.  

[JOCKNEY]

Looks the business Adrian

I haven't seen a Moth in this colour scheme before which makes it all the better.

Cheers Pat 

[AdrianMF]

I got to the serious bit of the rigging today. I had drilled all my 0.2mm holes before painting. Big mistake! Even though I had threaded them with some rigging line through painting, the all needed re-drilling, which is a lot harder somehow than just drilling the once. And then , using my “cabane struts only” method, I noticed this:

Uh-oh! I re-aligned the struts and gave it a touch of liquid poly cement.

 

After much fiddling, even with my optivisor (3.5x lenses and LED light), it’s getting there. The wings are aligned enough to straighten up during rigging, and all the threads are in the right holes and taped down at the free ends, ready for the struts:

 

I think my next foray onto eBay will be for some 0.3mm drills. 0.2mm drills are too fragile for me, even on this tiny delicate kit in soft plastic. The dark paint makes it considerably harder to see what you are doing.

 

As I said, I’ve built the four other schemes of this kit previously and enjoyed every one. But every time it seems to get more fiddly. I’m sure Airfix are gradually shrinking it down!

 

[AdrianMF]

Sadly, this will be a DNF:

The rigging has slackened off or fallen out after cleaning up the superglue blobs and the existing paintwork is pretty much ruined. So I’m going to cut my losses. 

 

I’ve thrown out my superglue and accelerator, which I think is a big part of the problem, and ordered some more. I am also going try to find some silver fishing line of suitable diameter because the silver effect looked very patchy. I’ve also ordered some 0.3mm drills and I will drill after painting next time. Next time? I’ve ordered another one, but it will be too late for this GB.

 

Sorry to let the side down but I’ll move on to my Under A Tenner builds now.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Graham Boak]

That's a shame.  The old solution to slack wires, in the days of "stretched sprue", was to light a cigarette and blow smoke at it, the gentle heat acting to tighten the rigging.  I certainly wouldn't recommend that source of heat, and it probably wouldn't work on fishing wire.  But it might be worth a try.  The only success I've had with rigging was to drill holes and thread fishing line through, using superglue to fix them on the unpainted surface.  Much the same as you've done.  I don't recall getting any superglue spoiling the inner painted surfaces.  I do have a couple more waiting rigging but I'm not sure I'm up to it nowadays.  Despite the O/400 awaiting...

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

So sorry its not behaving, understandable that you will shelve her for now. 

Edited May 16, 2021 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[AdrianMF]

6 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

That's a shame.

 

27 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

So sorry

Thank you gents. This model has actually gone in the bin and I’ve ordered another one, which will feature in “Less than a tenner” when it shows up. I’ve never binned a kit before (but I do have a large shelf of doom).

 

I hadn’t spent much time on it before it started going wrong and starting from scratch is easier and more enjoyable than trying to fix it.

 

Thanks,

Adrian