Sword 1:72nd Fairey Gannet AEW.3

[heloman1]

On 2/7/2022 at 12:52 AM, 71chally said:

Looks good to me Al, but very dark in there when closed up anyway.

 

Gannet AEW.3 XL472 044 observers cabin 4 Sep 13 by James Thomas, on Flickr

It was not called, 'the coal hole' for nothing...

 

Colin

[alhenderson]

7 hours ago, 825 said:

Great work, and well done.  Mine was a tail sitter despite a load of liquid lead filling the front end.  Hence the little bit of green tack on the nose wheel in my photos. I built a Trumpeter Gannet a while ago and again despite my best effort it was a tail sitter. I think Gannets are really challenging as models don't have a double Mambo up front. 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing - that engine must be quite a beast!!

 

Al.

[mike romeo]

A bit late, I'm afraid, but re the wing an- / di-hedral, this photo may be of interest.

 

I think what you've done looks good, but I wonder if the kit wing should have a bit more angle change between inner and outer sections . . .

 

https://www.dumfriesaviationmuseum.com/the-collection/aircraft/fairey-gannet/

 

Rgds

 

Martin

[alhenderson]

6 minutes ago, mike romeo said:

A bit late, I'm afraid, but re the wing an- / di-hedral, this photo may be of interest.

 

I think what you've done looks good, but I wonder if the kit wing should have a bit more angle change between inner and outer sections . . .

 

https://www.dumfriesaviationmuseum.com/the-collection/aircraft/fairey-gannet/

 

Rgds

 

Martin

 

The angles on that wing are so hard to judge - every time I look I get a different impression.  Sometimes I think I've got it reasonably close, other times I think it needs more downwards angle.  However, what I've got doesn't look wrong, and she sits prett ynicely on her wheels, so I'm hoping that's enough to pass muster - esp as I'm likely the only person who's ever going to look at it 😂

 

Al

[mark.au]

Another Gannet coming close to painting, so far so good, I'm looking forward to following this one.

[alhenderson]

Been a while with no updates..  Mainly because I've not done a great deal.  With painting fast approaching I've been devoting more time to practising airbrushing on my hurricane.  I'm getting better, esp now I've abandoned any attempts to spray humbrol!  The Tamiya Sky goes on lovely - a joy to do.  The Vallejo air is also pretty good, although I'm still a little undecided about the thinning of it.  When I first got it it looked too thick to be sprayed neat (although I think you're supposed to be able to).  So I thinned it a fair bit, sprayed nicely but colour was very weak.  I then tried it almost neat with a drop of Vallejo flow improver and that seemed to be a lot better.  My current issue is the putty leaving residue:

 

 

I had this problem with the white tac I used first time round, so I stripped it back and got some mig putty as it was supposed to be better.  Sadly, no joy 😞 Its been suggested that I need to roll it on some paper to get rid of the worst of the residue so I might try that since I have some touch up to do (which is not nearly as straightforward as touching up when you brush paint!).  Might just be a fact of life with putty and I need to man up and do it freehand..

 

Anyway, back to the Gannet.  I attached the front of the engine cowling.  Not a great fit, I was left with a sizeable step on one side which I'm trying to sort out with filler, although its a challenge to try not to take out too much detail at the same time.

 

 

 

You can also see the results of my conundrum this week.  I had the prop tips all painted yellow and ready to go when I started noticing on pictures that yellow tips were probably not entirely accurate.  That said, there appear to be a great variety of schemes for gannet props.  Some have all white tips on both sides, some have white tips on one side, yellow on the other.  The one I have plumped for is a white stripe on the front facing side and a very small yellow tip on the back facing side.  This seems to be the most common.  Have seen a couple of period pictures of XL471 which seem to support this.  So I sprayed one side of the props white and duly masked them up.  Bit of touch up needed, but happy with that - something different as well!

 

And that's about it for now.  Need to crack on as there are domestic rumblings about decorating the spare room which is where I model 😞  At least there's no camo on the Gannet so my putty troubles can be put to one side.

 

Al.

[71chally]

7 minutes ago, alhenderson said:

...some have white tips on one side, yellow on the other.  The one I have plumped for is a white stripe on the front facing side and a very small yellow tip on the back facing side.

That is correct for your build period, but note that the white strips vary between prop blades which gives an eccentric effect when running.

 

The yellow forward facing tips were mandated to be replaced, late 1960s I think, and there was another style of a white tips with a small black band through the middle.

 

Your build is coming along very nicely there!

 

[alhenderson]

1 minute ago, 71chally said:

That is correct for your build period, but note that the white strips vary between prop blades which gives an eccentric effect when running.

 

The yellow forward facing tips were mandated to be replaced, late 1960s I think, and there was another style of a white tips with a small black band through the middle.

 

Your build is coming along very nicely there!

 

 

So the white stripes are not in the same place on each blade?  Bet that's headache inducing for the ground crews! 🤣  

 

Al.

[71chally]

...bugger for painting! This illustrates it quite well,

 

 

Edited March 7, 2022 by 71chally

[alhenderson]

Just now, 71chally said:

...bugger for painting! This illustrate it quite well,

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/545780048576711628/

Ah, so on two of the blades, the white goes all the way to the tip, and starts a little further out?  That explains what I kept seeing where I thought white all the way to the tip was another variation..  That picture is perfect, might try for that..

 

Al.

[71chally]

yes essentially, should be straightforward to change.  When the props were running it created a sort of wobble effect so I guess more noticeable, hopefully not too mesmerising!

Edited March 7, 2022 by 71chally

[alhenderson]

Quick change to the whites on the props, and some stripyness on the tail hook:

 

 

Meanwhile the old lady herself had made it to the paint shop and has had a coat of Mr Surfacer 1500 which I got the other day. Have used Tamiya primers up till now, but the local model shop had Mr Surfacer so I went with that. Has the choice of Mr Surfacer 1000 and 1500. They were both the same price so of course I went for the 1500 - more "things" for my money, right? 🤣

 

Masking the prop for painting the black stripes has proved harder than I thought. Bought some Tamiya tape for curves thinking that'd do it, but it can't seem to cope with the convex nature of the prop. Going to see if I can get hold of some really small O rings...

 

Onwards and upwards..

 

Al

[bigbadbadge]

Good luck with painting the prop spinner rings , I use fineline tape which is great for curves but that will struggle on that.  If you have the circular templates for scribing , that can be used for a straight edge to the rings but not sure if you would get both edges of each ring.

Prop blades look great too.

Chris

[alhenderson]

Two updates in the space of a couple of hours! What is the world coming to??!  Brought the old girl in from the garage to see what the priming revealed. Overall not too bad, few little bits I'll try and improve.

 

 

The step where the nose joins the fuselage is horribly obvious in this view. However, not sure what I can really do about it, have already lost some detail from sanding, and it doesn't look quite as bad out of the harsh desk lamp. Might just have to be careful which way round I display her 😬

 

Al.

[alhenderson]

Getting to the business end now.  Some extra sanding and now time for painting.  I've been putting this off for a few days as I'm still practising airbrushing, but I bit the bullet tonight and did the first coat of Sky.

 

 

Didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped, got a few splatters and it looks a bit blotchy, but hopefully nothing too bad.  Also looks very washed out in that picture, might just be the lighting.  

 

Meanwhile at airbrush school I'm trying to work out the best putty to use for masking camo. I have some white tac and mig putty.  Used them both previously on this hurricane and they left residue behind but I'm wondering if that was due to not letting the Vallejo dry enough before I put it on.  I sprayed a coat of brown last night and put the two types of putty on tonight.  I'll see what tomorrow brings.  Have put the putty where I'm going to be painting green so not a problem if it does leave a residue.

 

Thinking ahead a bit, has anyone sprayed pledge?  It certainly seems thin enough - just not sure what I'd clean the airbrush with afterwards?

 

Cheers,

Al.

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good great work looking forward to seeing the paint go on the Gannet.

 

I don't airbrush myself but do use pledge, I casay in thin enough or not, but you can thin with water and I clean out my brushes with water too.  

 

Great work 

Chris

[alhenderson]

2 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

Looking good great work looking forward to seeing the paint go on the Gannet.

 

I don't airbrush myself but do use pledge, I casay in thin enough or not, but you can thin with water and I clean out my brushes with water too.  

 

Great work 

Chris

Good point, forgot that I also brushed pledge and cleaned my brush in water 🤦

[Mr T]

Just caught up with this and you are doing a good job. 

Regarding making axles etc. I have acquired a lot of assorted sizes of brass, nickel silver and plastic rod over the years. But when a lot younger and poorer I used a technique that is probably a dying art these days and culled from the first modelling magazine I bought (Airfix Magazine, my first one bought when I was 12 in October 1966).

At that time a lot of modelling aids we take for granted didn't exist and a way of getting of getting thin plastic rod was to take a some plastic runner and and hold it over a candle flame until it started to sag slightly and then pull. In theory you could get a range of thicknesses down to hair size, that was used to rig biplanes. I haven't done it for a while, and with what passes for kit plastic these days, I am not sure how well it would work. It takes a bit of practice, but great fun  (shows I didn't get out much when I was younger). 

Another and cheaper source for weights are plants weight available in aquarium shops, either as srips in boxes are in a roll, which is much better value. 

[alhenderson]

On 18/03/2022 at 21:07, Mr T said:

Just caught up with this and you are doing a good job. 

Regarding making axles etc. I have acquired a lot of assorted sizes of brass, nickel silver and plastic rod over the years. But when a lot younger and poorer I used a technique that is probably a dying art these days and culled from the first modelling magazine I bought (Airfix Magazine, my first one bought when I was 12 in October 1966).

At that time a lot of modelling aids we take for granted didn't exist and a way of getting of getting thin plastic rod was to take a some plastic runner and and hold it over a candle flame until it started to sag slightly and then pull. In theory you could get a range of thicknesses down to hair size, that was used to rig biplanes. I haven't done it for a while, and with what passes for kit plastic these days, I am not sure how well it would work. It takes a bit of practice, but great fun  (shows I didn't get out much when I was younger). 

Another and cheaper source for weights are plants weight available in aquarium shops, either as srips in boxes are in a roll, which is much better value. 

Thanks for your kind words!  I know what you mean about the tools available these days, its amazing the amount of money I've spent on modelling in the last year - none of which went towards buying actual kits!

 

Al.

[alhenderson]

Got a bit of work done on the Gannet this weekend.  Finished with the Sky undersides, ready to mask up and get the EDSG on

 

 

Not sure why I sprayed the tops of the wings on my first coat - its going to be grey, hence I left it at one coat.  I got hold of some O rings to see if they would help me mask the spinner and drop tanks for the yellow and black stripes.  Unfortunately not, the 'sloping' nature of them meant that they just fell off.  Have some some special masks coming from Hannants.  Always found Hannants service to be a bit slow, so I forked out for the 1st class postage this time, but 3 days after having been told it had been dispatched there's still no sign, so that seems to have been a waste of money 😞

 

Meanwhile, in the garage, I'm done with airbrushing the camouflage on my hurricane mule.

 

 

 

I'm not entirely happy with it, the edges aren't great and there's some blotchiness, but I need to get on and practise with varnishes so I'm going to move on.  Hopefully with the varnish, decals and weathering it won't be too bad..

 

Al.

 

 

[trikke11]

I may have missed this above, Al, but I assume your pistol is double action ? Maybe you make blotches, because you release pressure when not spraying. When you push you get airflow and when you pull you spray. When you want to pause spraying, but haven't finished with the colour you are using, the trick is to keep the airflow going, so your paint residu doesn't dry on the tip of the needle. Which means: stop pulling, but keep pushing. When you also stop pushing = stop the airflow = your paint dries on the tip. When you push again, the airflow has to blow away the dried up paint first. That's how you may get blotches.
I never thin Vallejo Air. Just a few drops of flow improver. The trick is also to not pull too much. Build up with fine layers. The finer, the better. When it's too fine, nothing's lost. Just build up again. When it's too much, you're in trouble.

It's a question of coordination, like learning to drive: you have to control and dose two pedals at the same time.

Hope I'm not kicking in open doors here. If so: ignore me ! 😉

[alhenderson]

28 minutes ago, trikke11 said:

I may have missed this above, Al, but I assume your pistol is double action ? Maybe you make blotches, because you release pressure when not spraying. When you push you get airflow and when you pull you spray. When you want to pause spraying, but haven't finished with the colour you are using, the trick is to keep the airflow going, so your paint residu doesn't dry on the tip of the needle. Which means: stop pulling, but keep pushing. When you also stop pushing = stop the airflow = your paint dries on the tip. When you push again, the airflow has to blow away the dried up paint first. That's how you may get blotches.
I never thin Vallejo Air. Just a few drops of flow improver. The trick is also to not pull too much. Build up with fine layers. The finer, the better. When it's too fine, nothing's lost. Just build up again. When it's too much, you're in trouble.

It's a question of coordination, like learning to drive: you have to control and dose two pedals at the same time.

Hope I'm not kicking in open doors here. If so: ignore me ! 😉

You're right, it is a double action airbrush and I do struggle with that a bit - like when I had to learnt to use a clutch and the accelerator when learning to drive 🙂  Thanks for the tip about keeping the airflow going - I'm almost certainly letting go completely at various points as I inspect where I am and where I need to go.  Find it quite difficult to know where I've been and where I haven't.  Its a learning curve, but at least I have the hurricane to learn these lessons on!

 

Al.

[Learstang]

Nice work so far on this Gannet! I have this kit, so I'm watching carefully to see how you do it. By the way, your Hurricane 'mule' looks better than some of my finished models.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[trikke11]

1 hour ago, alhenderson said:

Its a learning curve, but at least I have the hurricane to learn these lessons on!

That's good thinking, Al. What I also do: I have a crappy big wreck of a model I don't want the world to see and that I keep close when I airbrush. Every time when I paused, even when I'm sure I didn't stop airflow, I start again over the crappy model just to be sure. When I see it still works the way I want it, I maintain pushing and pulling and move over to the model I'm working on.

When I see I get blotches on the wreck, I release push and pull and clean the nozzle with a cotton swab I have ready and drowning in thinner/cleaner. I clean the nozzle without pulling. Without push !!! And then repeat with pull. Try again on the wreck and repeat until it sprays again like you want it to.

When the wreck gets too thick with layers of paint, I clean it to the bone and use it again. Easy as singing out of key ! 😉

Edited March 24, 2022 by trikke11

[Plasticbasher]

Klear sprays fine, no need to dilute but keep the air pressure low. In terms of cleaning, any brand of airbrush thinner will clean it out well in my experience. To stop the residue from the putty you could try a light coat of klear between colours, being glossy it is less likely to be affected than a matt finish. As you mentioned letting the surface dry properly is important. I’ve had issues with residue from white tac, much less so with the Mig stuff although it doesn’t stay in place as easily.