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Bristol Scout D +++ FINISHED +++


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Hello all, I thought it was about time I made a start in this Group Build. Mainly because it is so warm in the model room I cannot get any painting done on my Pup or Albatros in the 'Less than a Tenner' GB.

 

This is the kit I have decided to go with:

 

DSCN7586

 

I just love these instructions, always have, always will!

 

DSCN7585

 

The vacform sheet is quite small, but superbly moulded:

 

DSCN7582

 

There are templates on the sheet for things like undercarriage struts, main/cabane struts, tail skid etc, along with mouldings for the interior, which I will probably use as templates too. There are a few white metal bits included, for gun, wheels, engine and prop:

 

DSCN7583

 

They too look nicely cast, with only a little cleaning up to do. I have not much in the way of reference for this, so I will have to see how the gun fits, details of that are not clear in the guide, and one thread I have read ( @Brandy's) said it was offset at 30 degrees or so. I might see if I can find an un-armed option.

 

There are three colour schemes on the transfer sheet:

 

DSCN7584

 

Again, that looks to be in good condition and has not yellowed at all.

 

I bought the kit at a Gloucester Model Club Show a few years back, and the price label was pretty good:

 

DSCN7587

 

I have to admit I thought it was a Libramodel, not a Rare plane! However, at that price I was not going to let it go, and now it's time has arrived.

 

Although it is very hot here at the moment, I risked starting it. One of our Club Members is Les Cooper, and he has been involved in the production of vacform models in the past, and also did a lot of test builds for the late, great Joe Chubbock who produced this kit. Les suggested an alternative way of marking up the vacform sheet before cutting it out and sanding it down. Rather than draw a line around the parts, spray it with a grey primer instead! That was so that when you cut it out and sand it down, you can see very clearly the un-sprayed section and will know when you are getting close to sanding it down to the right size. So I did:

 

DSCN7588

 

Thankfully the Halfords Grey Primer went down well and has dried very nicely, so this afternoon I can cut it out and start sanding! What a way to stay cool, man!

 

That is it for now, more soon with luck.

 

Ray

Edited by Ray S
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Looks good! A couple of pointers though if accuracy is a priority for you.

The engine is the wrong one for at least the first two options on the sheet - both of which were C models. Early aircraft had the 7 cylinder Gnome fitted, not the 9 cylinder Le Rhone and the cowling on those early aircraft was more rounded at the front. Second, very few aircraft were fitted with a Vickers. I can check my references to see which ones did (they were so fitted to test the new interrupter gear). Most, (of those which were armed!) had a Lewis and it was that gun which was mounted at 30 degrees on the right forward fuselage. The other option would be overwing mounted.

Later aircraft also had a 5 degree dihedral instead of 3 degree, I need to check to see when that change came in. The drawings are correct for the D in the respect that the wing hoops are further outboard. (On the C and prior they were directly under the struts)

If you need refs let me know and I'll see what I can find for the aircraft you want to model.

 

Ian

 

I just noticed that you could change the numbers to get 1264 aka "Granddad's Scout". That was refitted with the Le Rhone engine and there are plenty of reference pics available online! Note the wing skids are inboard, under the struts as it was a C model.

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@JOCKNEY, @Brandy and @rob85, thanks for those comments.

 

Pat, I have done quite a few from that stable of manufacturers, and they have all been top notch for their type. Have a go, hopefully you will enjoy it.

 

Brandy, I am one of those who belongs to the 'if it looks ok, it is ok' type of modeller so I am not too worried (it may be heresy in which case I apologise), but I do like to get somewhere close to what it should be. I will check out 'Granddad's Scout' as it would be closer to being right. 

 

Rob, did they have instructions when they built the real things? I hope the magic works...

 

Anyway, on with the build. The first part I cut out was one of the fuselage halves. You can see what I was on about with the white line now (sorry if I am teaching you to suck eggs!):

 

DSCN7589

 

This is really just a guide. For the really accurate builders among us, even that should not be taken as Gospel because sometimes the manufacturer takes into account the thickness of the plastic. I sanded down to the grey and it was okay for me. I used a sheet of wet-and-dry (with some water sprinkled onto it) and used a circular motion when sanding down as that then distributes a lot of the pressure more evenly for a better finish.

 

One of the great things about primer is that it often brings out details on a kit which you cannot see on the bare plastic, and as I was sanding the fuselage parts down I noticed that the detail lines were very fine indeed:

 

DSCN7590

 

That finesse applied to the fuselage and wings too:

 

DSCN7592

 

I am leaving the ribs as they are with this one, but I will clean up the moulding pips with a sharp blade and will need to be careful to retain the location points for the struts. Another great thing about spraying the sheet with grey primer (on the top surface only) is that when you get close to sanding enough of the carrier away, it shows up very nicely underneath when you turn the part over:

 

DSCN7593

 

The grey shows through the thinning plastic very well indeed, and you know you are almost there! To finish off the underside sanding, I used a scraper and a slightly rougher sanding block, followed by a smoother block. You do need to be careful when sanding these things down, as you end up with some suspicious looking stuff:

 

DSCN7594

 

I did not keep adding water to the wet-and-dry, but the dampness just meant there was less dry dust floating around (I still used a mask though), but for some odd reason I enjoy scraping this stuff up to see how much accumulates. There is less than when I did the Felixstowe (and the plastic was much thinner this time too!).

 

I have got a quite useful book of plans which I am using for references. I do not know how accurate it is, but when I eventually sanded down the tail surfaces I checked them against the plans and they were pretty much spot on. This is my guide:

 

DSCN7597 (2)

 

This book is getting some pretty serious hammer at the moment as it is assisting my Sopwith Pup and Albatros builds too.

 

After about an hour and a half's sanding down I had this lot of components:

 

DSCN7598

 

I still need to cut out a few bits and bobs and openings, but it is almost ready to start properly. As the heat is set to build even more, I may well cut and sand out the entry for the 'French Fancy' GB, which will be another vacform, but a parasol aircraft. Then I will have four WWI types on the go! I promise it is not the heat sending me doolally!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hello all, I had not forgotten about this build. I have finished a couple of kits from the 'Less than a Tenner' Group Build, and it is now time to concentrate on this Scout. I have decided that I am going to use the transfers supplied with the kit, and if exact details are not correct for those markings, I can live with that. 

 

Today, I continued the clean up of the vacform parts, I thinned down the wings a bit more and tried to tidy up the leading and trailing edges. There were also some bits that needed clearing from the fuselage, first was the nose section. A 'D' shaped raised section had to go from the very front:

 

DSCN7750

 

That was quite easily done, the plastic was lovely and cut-able so it did not take too much time. The cockpit area likewise:

 

DSCN7751

 

It still needs a little more cleaning up, but the fit of the fuselage was pretty good and crisp. I may need to widen the nose a touch as the one-piece cowling is a little wider than the fuselage. I will sort that out soon.

 

I have also cut out part of the interior details, I was going to scratch build an interior, but may well use what Libramodels supplied instead:

 

DSCN7753

 

I will be thinning the seat down a bit later too, and making a cushion for it, and also some more paper seat belts, they worked a treat in the Sopwith Pup I did a while ago.

 

I know it is only a short update, but it is good to have started this properly now. Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

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Hello all. I have now really started this, and added some extra internal detailing. I do not have much in the way of reference for this, and the internet has not been too forthcoming either, so it is a bit of a 'generic' interior. I have popped some framework in, and rigged the frames with some rolled speaker cable wire, which is a silvery colour:

 

DSCN7755

 

I have read that clear doped linen aircraft tended to have a slightly different colour inside, so I have given the interior a coat of Revell 'Flesh' paint to give a salmon pink finish I hope that is not wrong, but it looks okay to me, and not a lot will be visible when the fuselage is closed up. The floor and rear bulkhead has had a first coat of Humbrol 110 natural wood, and here it is just blu-tacked in an approximate position:

 

DSCN7758

 

I have thinned the kit vacform seat down and given that some paintwork too, alongside the floor/bulkhead on its peg stabiliser:

 

DSCN7757

 

I will try and rustle up some paper lap belts for this next session.

 

Before I did all that, I looked at the book of plans I have for this, and found that if I add a shim of .8mm plastic strip at the nose, the profile comes more in line with the plan and the cowling fits a lot better, so I will go with that when the time comes.

 

That is it for now, thanks for dropping in and having a look.

 

Ray

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Nice work on the vac form. The additional interior work looks convincing.

 

I have a couple of the LibraModels kits in the stash, and they are lovely little things.

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Now I know why one of my stash vacs is primered!  I had a feeling it would work as a go/no go similar to the pen outlining method, so thanks.  

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20 hours ago, Jinxman said:

Nice work on the vac form. The additional interior work looks convincing.

 

I have a couple of the LibraModels kits in the stash, and they are lovely little things.

Thanks for that. I have done quite a few Libramodels vacforms, and I think they are up there with the best.

 

5 hours ago, malpaso said:

Now I know why one of my stash vacs is primered!  I had a feeling it would work as a go/no go similar to the pen outlining method, so thanks.  

 

I discovered the primer trick on this Forum when one modeller sprayed a vacform flying boat black before cutting it out, and re-discovered the trick when one of the Gloucester IPMS Club Members did something similar with a Gotha GIV vacform. It is a great idea, this is the first time I have tried it. I seriously began to worry with one big vacform I did recently as to whether the Sharpie pen I used to mark around the parts was going to leak through the paintwork if I could not get it all off.

 

Today I have done quite a lot of work (time-wise) but not a lot to show. I made up some paper seat belts using the Wingnut Wings Sopwith Pup instructions as a guide for shape and colour, along with where to put them in relation to the seat. I cobbled up a control column too. I tried to make a fuse wire hand grip for it but that beat me, so the spade grip on this one is some thin card cut into a triangular shape and added to the column:

 

DSCN7762

 

Rummaging around in my WWI spares box, I found a photo-etch sheet from Airwaves which gave some throttle quadrants, so I flipped a coin for which of the three types I should use, and attached it to a similar position as WNW suggested for the Pup:

 

DSCN7763

 

And finally I cut out the instrument panel and painted it with a brown followed by a clear Orange varnish, then picked out the instrument faces with black. Not much will be seen once it is in, so this will pass muster as far I am concerned:

 

DSCN7764

 

Everything seems to dry fit inside the fuselage okay. so hopefully I can get this in and closed tomorrow, remembering to add the spacer to widen the fuselage at the front end.

 

Thanks for looking and for the comments.

 

All the best, Ray

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Some nice progress, but the interior framing is probably better omitted completely than installed as is. I know you said you weren't worried, but if you want to see what the framework should look like (albeit with the framework slightly overscale) take a look at my thread. I copied the framing from pics on "grandad's scout" page. A bit of plastic strip should sort it out nicely!

Having said that, if you're happy with it, feel free to leave as is. After all, it is your model!

 

Ian

 

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14 hours ago, Brandy said:

Some nice progress, but the interior framing is probably better omitted completely than installed as is. I know you said you weren't worried, but if you want to see what the framework should look like (albeit with the framework slightly overscale) take a look at my thread. I copied the framing from pics on "grandad's scout" page. A bit of plastic strip should sort it out nicely!

Having said that, if you're happy with it, feel free to leave as is. After all, it is your model!

 

Ian

 

 

Thanks for the advice there, I will think about it. I had looked at a couple of other MAC Distribution Scout builds online, and seen your thread and remembered the two double-square etch frames which were similar to the way the builds showed and which I copied, but I had totally forgotten that you did not use that and had done your own in that different style.

 

All the best, and thanks again,

 

Ray

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Hello all. I have done a few things to this aircraft over the last couple of days. First up, I had to think long and hard about the advice that @Brandy gave concerning the interior framework. I have decided to keep what I have done (sorry Brandy!), but when I looked at my book of plans, I saw exactly what he was describing - the detail was right there all along and I had not noticed it. It did take me a long while to make my choice, but the main reason that convinced me in the end was that I did not want to potentially damage the model removing the stuff I had put in. I will put it down to experience and I hope you will understand. Many thanks for letting me know though, it was very much appreciated.

 

Having made my choice, I fitted the interior and instrument panel to one fuselage half. As the plastic is quite thin, I added strip to the fuselage half to give a little more gluing area.

 

DSCN7765

 

DSCN7766

 

I also added the extra plastic 'spreaders' to the nose area to bring the profile out so the cowling fits better, and then closed the fuselage up. This left quite a gap along the top and bottom of the forward fuselage due to the shims, but the tabs also then provided a key for the filler to come. I popped some masking tape either side of the fuselage joint before adding the filler to help protect the delicate detail. I used Revell Plasto filler, as I thought that my usual Perfect Plastic Putty would not have enough 'oomph' for this job.

 

DSCN7767

 

DSCN7768

 

I have now sanded down the filler, and it seemed to smooth out quite well but still needs a little work. Where it shrank, I needed to add some extra filler.

 

Libramodels supplied a 'firewall'(?) to go on the front end of the fuselage, and that is sized exactly for the cowling to sit on top of it and align well with the raised lip, although I found that the mount did not meet the fuselage sides all the way around, probably due to me widening the front end slightly.

 

DSCN7769

 

Then I did a dry-fit of the cowling to see how it looked:

 

DSCN7770

 

Not too bad a fit. I am quite happy about the way things are going, even with my errors taken into account.

 

That is it for now, thanks for looking and for the comments and advice,

 

Ray

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Coming along nicely, and no need to apologize.

It's your model, you can detail it as you wish. I just wanted to make you aware of it in case you wanted it accurate!

 

Ian

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@Brandy and @Greg Law, thanks for those comments.

 

I mentioned earlier about not seeing what was before my eyes when adding the (now spurious) cockpit framing. Well, I just had to go checking some other details, didn't I? And noticed this:

 

DSCN7771

 

The prop is a bit larger (3mm) than the plan suggests, and goes the wrong way. I will leave it like that as I do not have any spares, and hope that the engine (a 9-cylinder one) that is in this kit is for this prop, here is a reminder of the white metal bits supplied:

 

DSCN7583

 

Anyway, with life getting in the way at the moment, I have not had much chance to do anything to this model, but I have drilled out struct location points with a small drill, I will enlarge them later when I get the struts sorted out. I have taken the step of adding the lower wings, and drew out a plan for alignment and added some supports at the wingtips to give the 3 degree dihedral which Libramodels suggested.

 

DSCN7772

 

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I will be even busier over the next few days so it may be a while before I make more progress.

 

Thanks for looking and for the comments and likes.

 

Ray

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On 8/25/2021 at 7:08 PM, Ray S said:

The prop is a bit larger (3mm) than the plan suggests, and goes the wrong way. I will

Prop rotation is in the correct direction, it's just the curved edge is trailing instead of leading. You could just file off the hub detail and turn it over!

 

Ian

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2 hours ago, Brandy said:

Prop rotation is in the correct direction, it's just the curved edge is trailing instead of leading. You could just file off the hub detail and turn it over!

 

Ian

 

Nice call Ian, thanks for that idea!

 

Over the last few days I have been getting rid of paint and filling and adding paint. The paint needed four lots of paint remover, and I needed to do quite a lot of sanding. Filler was used on quite a few surface irregularities and sanded, and I was thankful for a dust mask! I have given everything an undercoat.

 

Anyway, enough of the redecoration of our hall and stairwell, back to the Bristol Scout D! This afternoon I was able to get back to the bench (you know all about the diversion now) and checked out how the wings had set. All looked pretty good, they were on well and seemed to be about the right dihedral. I was debating whether to make my own fin/rudder, but decided in the end to use the kit part, so I cut that out and sanded the reverse side to shape. I have fitted the tailplanes now, and I used my 'jig' to ensure they were square.

 

DSCN7774

 

I will be painting this in a Clear Doped Linen scheme and I had to do something about unifying the surface colour so the differences would not show through. I have painted the whole thing with thinned Humbrol 27 Sea Grey as a base coat.

 

DSCN7775

 

My plan will be to paint over this with Humbrol 121 Pale Stone (which Wingnut Wings suggested was suitable for CDL), and then over that with the 74 Linen (except the bits which will be Silver). I do not intend to mask for ribs or anything like that with this one.

 

Well, that is it for now, thanks for looking and the advice @Brandy about the prop, it is something which I would not have thought of.

 

All the best, Ray

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@JOCKNEY, Thank you for the very kind comment!

 

The Scout has had a number of coats of paint since the last update, one of Pale Stone to take away the darkness of the grey, and two of Clear Doped Linen. One more to go, and then I can varnish it and add the minimal fuselage markings.

 

DSCN7777

 

I have to admit I was very surprised at how well the thinned CDL brush painted so am quite happy.

 

I am off to see if I can download other manufacturer's instruction guides for the paintwork and markings, the Libramodels' guide is minimal.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ray

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Thanks @rob85!

 

Today, I finally had some time to myself for a while, and started a little bit of forward planning. I got the struts measured out and cut from the aerofoil(ish) section of strut material. This was a pre-loved kit when I bought it, and the original owner had pre-painted the strut stuff, but I will re-paint it when I have got it all fitted.

 

DSCN7779

 

I have now drilled slightly larger blind holes into the lower wing to accept these, and over the next couple of days I will see if I can create a jig to hold them at the right angle when fitted to the wings.

 

In the meantime, I found a couple of sets of instructions online which gave me a bit more detail about general colours. I got the instructions downloaded, they were a couple of the MAC Distribution ones from Scalemates for their different boxings, and when I printed out the scheme pages, I found it was the same sheet! Undeterred, I then found a set on there from a Gavia 1/48 kit, and got that one too. I painted the cockpit surround area in a wood colour (Revell 382 Wood Brown), and then gave it a coat of Clear Orange:

 

DSCN7778

 

Then (somewhat belatedly) I checked the colour notes from Libramodels and the Gavia guides, and they both suggested dark wood, so I redid the paintwork with Humbrol 110 Natural Wood and a Clear Red/Orange varnish:

 

DSCN7781

 

I may well re-mask it and redo with Revell's 85 Brown instead, it seems to give a more wood-like finish I think. I am still experimenting with the clear varnishes for the wood effects.

 

That is it for now, more soon with luck!

 

Ray

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