South African AHRLAC 1/48 scratch build, Decision made Bronco II it is.

[Marklo]

Came across this while surfing the interweb and thought I had to build one, I may even attempt the digital camouflage.

 

Step 1 as the plan is slightly bigger than A4 I resorted to good old pen and paper drawings to scale it to 1/48. I’ll mold it as wings, tails, booms and fuselage/canopy so quite a bit of woodworking to follow.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Marklo

[CliffB]

I'm glad you haven't forgotten about this one Mark 

 

Cheers

[Colin W]

A very ambitious project. I'm sure you can make a good job of this so I'll be watching.

[Marklo]

Should be a bit of fun; especially as it’s outside of my usual WWI /interwar builds.

Edited August 17, 2021 by Marklo

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Welcome aboard and definitely following this one.  

[Marklo]

Wing bucks from basswood.

 

Tail planes and booms. I’m assuming a symmetric aerofoil so I can  make the four wing halves from just two molds (although looking at the photos it may not be). But I can always fill the wing halves and reprofile them on assembly if I have to. 
 

I’ll work on the fuselage next I’ll probably split it horizontally with the canopy being in the upper section.

 

Edited August 27, 2021 by Marklo

[CliffB]

It's nice to see this one under way 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Great subject!  
 

In idle moments I’ve thought about doing one of these myself, but I don’t think it’ll ever get to the top of my to do list so I shall just watch yours come together instead. 👍

[Marklo]

Fuselage buck, second attempt, much happier with it.

[Marklo]

And after a bit more jigsaw work and some sanding with my new mouse ( black and decker that is) I’m going to square off the canopy section and I set a piece or basswood for the canopy which I’ll carve in situ so as to get the contours to match.

 

I have a typhoon and a lot of Messerschmitts to finish so probably won’t go molding till next week, but should be fun.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Marklo

[Marklo]

Happy with the bucks. I’ll separate them and ca some 1mm sheet on the canopy joins to give me some cutting margin. 

[Marklo]

Got a bit of molding done Fuselage and wings. Still need to do the booms and tail planes and canopy.

[Marklo]

Fuselage joined up and wings assembled. I’ve left part of the fuselage buck in for rigidity and done the same with the wings.

[CliffB]

You make it look so easy Mark!

 

Cheers

[Marklo]

1 hour ago, CliffB said:

You make it look so easy Mark!

Thank you but,  I’d wait till I try to tackle the booms before saying that  

[Marklo]

Managed to get a bit more molding done this morning.
 

First off the canopy. On the second attempt, a pretty good mold.

After a rough trim. A few minor blemishes but good enough I think.
 

Next the booms.

 

After trimming with a scissors. I’ll put the balsa core in these when I assembled them.
 

The story so far. The Tailfins, horizontal stabiliser, engine intakes, spinner,  sponsons and the little winglets that the main gear attach to all need to be molded. So lots more woodwork needed before I’m done.

[Marklo]

Vertical tail planes molded and roughly cleaned up. I’ll sand them down and assemble them next. I just need a horizontal tail and  then I think I’m ready to start assembling the main components. 

[Marklo]

Horizontal tail surfaces more or less done, it’s a balsa core skinned with .5mm sheet. It just needs a bit of filler at the sides of the elevator and some brass pins for attachment to the booms.

[Marklo]

All the components. I’ve cut and pinned the wings which are dry fitted. Not entirely happy with the canopy, it’s serviceable, but could be better. I have some clear acrylic on order and still plenty of time to have another go at it.

 

The rest of the assembly. The horizontal surfaces are pinned and dry fitted. Next job cut out the wings/ booms to finish assembled.
 

Except for the intakes and sponsons which still need to be carved and molded.

 

Once I get it assembled it’s going to need buckets of filler to clean up everything  ( if milliput are watching I’m open to sponsorship  )

 

 

[CliffB]

As if by magic, a plane starts to appear! 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Great work!

[Marklo]

Assembled, wonder of wonder the geometry is spot on. Needs a bit of filler next. While I work on the various appendages in parallel.

[Marklo]

After a brush coat of neutral gray to see whet work needs doing. I also trimmed the canopy to sit in fully. The nose is s little bit eccentric and the fuselage section aft of the canopy needs building up. But other than that not too bad.

[Marklo]

6 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Great work

Thanks Steve. Glad you like it. I think it will build up into a good looking model. Well the method is mostly from your Mig build albeit skinned with molded plastic and with the wooden cores in the wings, booms and fuselage it’s actually more wood than plastic  

Edited September 23, 2021 by Marklo

[exdraken]

Wow, interesting great work!