LDM 1:48 Mew Gull, Christen Eagle, ASK13 (white metal)

[Malc2]

Wow, super! A great addition to the fleet.

Dont leave it on its wheels, the legs will splay out over time under its own weight!

Your wish is my command😁

My 1/32 Mew Gull is the Aerotech kit, long ago I decided on a common air race scale to fit in with the Williams Bros kits, plus they are generally tiny so a larger scale is a good compromise between shelf size and detail.

 

Malc.

Edited June 3, 2022 by Malc2

[Farmer matt]

Thanks Malc, she will look great and like you say these craft are so tiny a larger scale is  still shelf friendly.

After all the excitement of decalling the CE, I did add a slither of black strip on the rear face of the cowlings which are gills, the blank white wall was made more obvious by the colours and looked poor.

 

And now a further distraction from actually building anything, some more aggregated masters for your enjoyment.

mastersb by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mastersa by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Fournier RF4, Cosmic Wind, Walter Extra, and Deperdussin.

The Fournier enploys the same wing join method as the ASK, with interlocking forks creating a centre section spar.

rf4wing by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

This is the Magister, and I had not appreciated before quite how the wings were modelled, as can be seen in the pic of the underside. I believe this was necessary due to the sheer bulk of metal that would have otherwise formed the cast items.

 

Edit: photos moved to resources thread

 

You can perhaps understand my frustration at what is missing, but even what you have seen was nearly weighed in.

However the selection that survives at least recalls Brian's talent for capturing the subject. 

 

Matt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Farmer matt
Moved pics

[Farmer matt]

Last one of these then I really will have to get on and glue something together, even if its just my fingers.

Edit photo moved to resources thread.

 

Again, big bits are there but no struttery or anything.

 

Matt.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Farmer matt
Moved pic

[Farmer matt]

Here we go with the Mew Gull then...

mg1 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

The first task is to drill out a hole in the centre-section if we intend to use a display stand. This is facilitated by a robust barrel which only needs drilling through at the end. Oddly, however, there is no mention of this in the instructions.

Next, the locating holes in the undercarriage legs were drilled deeper ready to accept the spats at a later stage. These have been fettled to fit, and although the parts themselves are not handed the fit now is, so they are labelled because I will forget otherwise.

Also the locating holes for the mass balances were opened up a bit.

mg2 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg3 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Turning to the upper fuselage, I am aiming for option A of those previously discussed, ie as originally built and first restored. This requires the least surgery - removing a section from in front of the cockpit, and the raised part of the bulkhead at the rear of the cockpit. This latter took some effort, and it was quite hard to avoid damaging the cockpit walls. Luckily, only a couple of file strokes went astray, so a dab of filler to the rescue.

mg4 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

At this early stage, I then had a determined effort to cut the vacform canopy, because of the work above we now need the longer of the two provided. It still needs some minor fettling, but its nearly there and not lost yet (!) 

mg5 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg6 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

 

Next we have to choose whether to fit Johnny pilot or not. Although better modelled than as provided with the ASK or CE, here we just get a bust on a plinth. Whilst that does appeal to my lazy approach to interior detailing, it is probably a step too far, so I will use the empty seat for now and hope to drop in a substitute pilot later. If the kit figure were used, it appears some surgery may be required to his plinth to clear the instrument binnacle.

The binnacle locates onto by a peg in the upper fuselage, the seat sits in the lower part. Plenty of glue was used as the fit is a bit vague more in terms of mating surfaces than location.

Of note is the spade grip control column which has cast surprisingly cleanly.

mg7 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Thats the interior done.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Farmer matt
Spelling

[Farmer matt]

The two main pieces were now mated, and firmly strapped with tape as the lower part kept wanting to slide forward.

mg8 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg9 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Then we come to an oddly designed part, comprising the underside of the rear fuselage and ×most× of the fin/rudder. A pleasant discovery is the neatly engraved description, which I do not recall on other issues. The part fits well enough, with a prominent keel to help, but I am puzzled as to why it has been approached this way. It would seem more logical to have the ×entire× fin/rudder as one piece so avoiding a join on the fin, and the underside as another.

mg10 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Next we come to the front cowl, this the shorter of the two, and before attachment the opportunity should be taken to test fit the prop. The prop and spinner were quite poorly cast with a prominent seam and feed, luckily I had cleaned up the worst of it, because the test fit proved a bit too snug, and there it has stayed. A bit inconvenient, but never mind.

mg11 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg12 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

So now she looks like an aeroplane already, although in reality there is a fair bit of blending and filling to do still.

 

 

[Farmer matt]

Not so pretty now with a full mudpack on..

mg13 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Then once that little lot was cleaned up, on with the undercarriage spats, propped up with tac so they should be straight.

mg14 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

The instructions call out removing 1.5 mm of the legs to allow for the compressed oleos if modelling a grounded aircraft. That's about 3 inches, so I was a bit worried in not doing so that she would look a bit tip-toed, but looks OK I think.

mg15 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg16 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg17 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Ready now for an exploratary shot of primer, which can be a reality check, but I am optomistic that she is looking well so far.

 

 

 

 

[Malc2]

Thats looking really good.

Its one of those planes that looks like its going really fast even when its parked!

 

Malc.

[Farmer matt]

Luckily nothing too dramatic revealed,

mg18 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg19 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

So just a bit more prep then hopefully ready for a proper prime and paint. And the mass balances. If I write it here I might remember, thats what the holes are for.

[Farmer matt]

mg20 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

After the obligatory discussion with the carpet monster, the mass balances are duly attached. They are clunky, to the extent that a note added to the instructions reccomends replacing them with wire, but I thought I would see. Those on the rudder really did not want to stay put, and I am not wholly convinced that even the location holes are vertically aligned, let alone the result. 

But for now they are there.

 

[Farmer matt]

No model update, but whilst trawling the internet, having jumped down the rabbit hole marked 'Mew Gull' I turned up one of those odd coincidences that happen in life.

One of the Mew Gulls, G-AEKL, was owned by a CE Gardner, who had a private aerodrome at Kingswood Lane, Hamsey Green, from where he operated that machine pre-war.

When we lived in Crewes Avenue, Warlingham, the garden backed straight on to fields, which run across to Kingswood Lane, and as it turns out, were that very airstrip.

Wholly unknown to me at the time, and I presume unknown by Dad as he would have been more than interested. Unusually for these days they are at least still fields, being the Royal Mail sports ground, and a council recreation ground.

 

Matt.

 

[Fastcat]

Charles Gardner won the 1937 King's Cup Air Race with G-AEKL. It was rebuilt after its tragic accident, originally being built for the Schlesinger race and designated "Miss Liverpool" and painted black and white.

When owned by Gardner, I think it was dark blue with light blue trim.

 

Dave 

[Farmer matt]

Hi Dave,

I am thinking that would make a nice change from all the white with green  G-AEXF s, any aftermarket light blue lettering out there? I can make some decals, but I struggle with density to get light colours applied to dark.

Thanks,

Matt

[Fastcat]

Hi Matt

             I don't know of any decals for civil aviation registration letters now that Aeroclub have sadly ceased trading. I also think the nose and particularly the air intake, were not standard. The current copy of G-AEKL is in the wrong scheme for 1937 but right for when it was owned by Giles Guthrie the next year.

I made a 1/72 model of Gardner's plane from a vac-form kit over 30 years ago and used the Aeroclub decals of the day but I think later Aeroclub decals were made by Fantasy Printshop.

 

Dave

[Farmer matt]

mg22 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Its far too windy to even try spraying anything outdoors, so I had a go at painting the canopy frame, which went better than anticipated. 

Although G-AEXF currently has white framing, it appears from photos that all the machines originally had metal as does the new build G-HEKL.

 

[Farmer matt]

Now the wind has abated enough to get some white sprayed, she now looks much nicer..

mg23 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg24 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Just got to decide what to do about the wingtips, there are decals, which obviously match the lettering but would need touching up on the edges, or hand paint the lot, or indeed just leave them!

Matt.

[Farmer matt]

Spray painted decals, is this a thing?

So, either I have just had a good idea or I am trying to re-invent a square wheel. Or its just been done before so often that noone takes any notice. Feel free to shoot me down in flames, but for the moment I'm blisfully ignorant so here goes.

This is a very quick and crude effort simply to see if something would work, so no skill  judgement or precision involved.

On the basis that an inkjet printer sprays paper with ink, why not spray the paper with paint? Lets see...

dec1 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Clear decal sheet masked to leave required image,

Then primed,

dec2 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Then painted, I know you can get white decal sheet but this is just testing the theory and white has really poor opacity so if its going to look bad it will be obvious.

dec3 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Then remove the masking tape

dec4 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Then clear varnish and we should have some decals.

Cut out, soak in water, apply to shelf of doom resident.

dec5 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

So there is some primer edge, but I could have used white primer and you can get grey red or black primer so probably not a deal breaker. I do suspect the primer is needed though.

Where I am thinking this would be really useful is for silver or gold that you really cannot print. Also as you can see the opacity is better than certainly my printer could ever manage.

 

As I say, please shoot me down if neccesary, but any comments or input welcome. To me it looks that if done properly with care and attention, it should work.

Matt.

 

 

 

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Thought about this thread on Saturday- there was an LDM TSR2 kit for sale boxed at Newark aero jumble - but at £110 I left it there! 🙂

[Farmer matt]

TT, I don't blame you, though if it was at the end of a slow day you could have punted a lot less probably. You have got to really want a small box of unicorn droppings to start forking out that kind of sum. 

Matt.

[Farmer matt]

After some minimal daubing, now we are ready for decals so nearly done hopefully.

mg25 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg26 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg27 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Although I had noticed that the instrument panel decal was black on clear, and remembered to leave the panel white, what I hadn't noticed until it was too late was it was oversized. Being 40 years old it didn't want to cooperate with last minute removal and snipping and flaked a bit. I hope that the remainder behave better.

 

 

 

[Farmer matt]

As I discovered with the ASK, it is one thing resting the canopy near enough in place and thinking it looks OK, and quite another commiting to attachment, but here goes.

mg28 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

I loosely placed the tape on the canopy before running some gluenglaze round its inside edge, positioned and dropped the 'straps'. Then just hoped that a) there was enough contact for the glue, and b) it was actually in the right place.

mg30 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Luckily ok on both counts I think. There was a tiny vertical. gap at the top of the hump, so I ran some more glue in and painted to match the frame.

You may notice the Mew Gull symbols on the tail. That is as far as decalling got, because it turned out that the wingtip shapes really really did not want to conform to the section of the wing. I am now seeing how close a green I can get to paint them. 

[k5054nz]

Gorgeous work Matt, she's shaping up very nicely!

[Farmer matt]

Thankyou Zac, she is rather pretty I think.

 

Now we come to the wingtips, so obviously the first task was to place the pitot on temporary loan to the carpet monster. Then masking, and the tailpane was a real faff, it would probably have been as well  just to trust to a swift brushstroke for the tiny bit needing paint. At least I didnt knock any of the mass balances off.

mg31 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

For starters a coat of black to give the green some body. Don't worry, I tried this on the Gnat's wing first.

mg32 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Then two coats of Revell 62 mossy green.

mg33 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

What could possibly go wrong?

Fortunately, actually very little...

mg34 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

Thank goodness for that. Big sigh of relief.

So now just reattach pitot, decals - fingers crossed, and then hopefully RFI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AdrianMF]

That is looking gorgeous.

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Malc2]

Looks great!

Looking forward to seeing it with the decals on.

 

Malc.

[Farmer matt]

Now to the decals. They are 43 years old, so I am not expecting miracles. A bit of yellowing to the varnish but I will live with that. Less pleasant is that 43 years of detritus seems to have worked its way into the varnish. The wing decals were in truth probably unusable, and the photos flatter the result. I was reluctant to trim closer to the characters because that would almost guaranteee splitting, but I did on the port upper.

On the plus side the decals did actually smooth down and adhere nicely.

So, underneath

mg35 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

And the regular views.

mg36 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

 

mg37 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

mg38 by Matt Farmer, on Flickr

The race number is homemade. There are a couple of period photos online showing G-AEXF with this number and  early appearance, one with Alex Henshaw taxiing by walking alongside the aircraft and reaching through the open canopy to operate the throttle. Obviously in the time before health and safety.

 

So thats pretty much it for this thread for now I suppose, thankyou all very much for your support and encouragement,

Matt.