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DH Heron MKII + Douglas DB7Havoc Bare metal


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On 13/05/2022 at 23:55, The Spadgent said:

stick to find the edges of pesky clear parts before you use that new blade.

I did what I could in this respect, Johnny, but the etching and demarcation is very light on this, especially around the curvy side windows just where you really need it. 

Well, we'll see what happens when I paint and peel. I've done a few canopies where I've covered the whole thing in my Ali foil, found the framing as you say with a cocktail stick or similar, then cut and peeled the clear parts. More modern fighter types with horseshoe shaped front screens do well with this method. Maybe I should be using foil instead of masking tape 😅😎

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I got some primer on the top of the fuselage, 

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That was yesterday. So then it's time to have a go with the white gloss this evening... 

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And finally, peel off the tapes and see what I've got, 

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I'm not feeling too confident about that cockpit roof and my window masks 🤔And the crest piece on top. Gloss really picks up everything, doesn't it? 

Before un-tapeing I gave it a coat of clear lacquer. For one thing it might improve the gloss finish, and also while working with the Ali foil, a lot of black residue is produced, and it gets onto the paint. I'm hoping a lacquer coat will be an easy clean and some protection for the white. We'll see..... 

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The windows are revealed and it could be worse. Could be better as well of course, but at least I've got white framing between the screens and arched side windows. 

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Blue paint is done on the nose.... 

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I started with Mig acrylic Royal Blue but that was looking a bit too bright. My old tin of Revell enamel 54 is pretty empty and what is there is skinned, but I managed to get a white spirit wash mixed which is all I need. Washed over the acrylic as a glaze, it is looking about right. I'm referring to the previous advice that the original Airfix Decal sheet has the blue about right. 

This throws up a dilemma though. What about the fuselage lettering and the wing registration letters?? Should they be the same blue, or has Airfix simplified the printing of the original sheet by using the same blue for everything....?? 

Because the NEW sheet, the one that I have and I'm proposing to use , has them in black. I guess the restored G-AORG paint is black, I'd need to have another look to check that. If I want blue I'll have to print them along with the other wing decals. 

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Further to that observation, I've just noticed that the instructions decor sheet gives these items in blue, although the decals supply black.... 🙄

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Why....?! 

Only Airfix can answer THAT one...... 😎

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The jury is still out regarding what to do the lettering in, but I'm going with the supplied fuselage stripes. I have left the company name on the decal sheet for now. 

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I think if I'm going to be printing the extra wing writing, in blue, I may as well do other font sizes of "Jersey Airlines" and see if they look right. And the registration letters. I'm fairly happy with the look of the font I used for a trial. 

My current Decal sheet contains 3 panels outlined for emergency action, to go on the roof. I'm guessing that this is a modern safety regulation and they are not required for the aircraft operating at the time.....? 

I'd better get some blank clear Decal sheet organised 

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Pressing on with the airframe assembly, the wings and tailplanes were pretty much ready to go with the foil application already done. And I got to say the fit is as good as I had hoped. Impressive for a 1958 tooling. 

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There's a fair old bit of dihedral on the tailplanes, all built into the mouldings with the tabs set at an angle. With no other data available I took the kit as being the correct angle. 

At this stage, as you can see, the plane stands nicely on the 3 wheels, tail up. Unfortunately there's quite a bit of extra parts to add and most of them are behind the main wheels. I think the passenger stairs will be needed in the long run to keep the tail up 

I'm not too happy with the main gear assembly, to be honest. I think using the kit's retracting method might be a shortcut too far! They don't want to settle in the vertical position, but much rather be splayed out of vertical like a Me109! 

Glue and retaining thread is currently being deployed in the hope of resolving the issue 

The plane stands fairly level with the fuselage bottom parallel to the ground, but with that, the stairs are too tall. By quite a lot really. In the end I took the saw to the thing and basically cut the bottom off to include the whole bottom step. I'll take a picture of the situation to illustrate what I'm talking about. Suffice to say that they now fit the doorway and the entrance threshold is lined up with the top step. 

And it'll support the tail of the plane as required. 

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This is the stairs in place at the passenger door. It carries an arm with a lug that reaches inside and engages in a hole in the rear bulkhead. 

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In my enthusiasm to reduce the height of the stairs I actually cut off too much. It coincided with me adjusting the main gear legs and fixing them in a vertical position - this may have raised the tail end of the plane so that my stairs ended up too short 

Anyway, I built the assembly up in increments of 1mm with stock sheet strips. 2mm gave me the perfect height and all 3 tyres nicely on the ground. This is the piece I cut off.... 

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The little wheels are included in this, so I scratched a couple of replacement wheels in black sprue. 

I gave the hostess a makeover with tilting her feet and adding high heels, and a paper addon to her skirt to give some movement in the breeze. Plus a ponytail.. Here she is with a couple of crew.... 

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I'll see what I can do with this lot. 

Propellers have received brass rod shafts at maximum length to contribute to forward mass but I don't think I can solve this without the stairs as a prop. 

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Never mind, all part of the fun.... 😇

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On 06/05/2022 at 00:45, rob Lyttle said:

It's odd sometimes how you select the next project to work on, isn't it?!? 

You may recall the opening sentence of this WIP thread. Well, I'm at it again! 

There's a bit of a lull in this Heron build while I sort out the decals, ie. order some clear sheets online and get the graphics sorted. So I'm looking around for something to fiddle with. 

I said I'd just received an auction bundle of 5 kits. The LEAST likely candidate of the 5, an old kit bundled with the one I wanted and bid for, is this quirky item .... 

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It's kind of interesting from an Airfix history point of view. USAirfix was a short lived business venture set up by AVA Inc. to market Airfix kits in North America. 1979 - 81.

The plastic inside is indeed the old Airfix Boston tooled in 1963, the same year they produced the Lockheed Hudson. Now there's a warning for you..! 

And just a few years after the tooling of the Heron. 

Sure enough, the Boston - or Havoc - features moving control surfaces, retracting undercarriage and a 1000 raised rivets all over the surfaces. 

AVA though, have marketed it as an early Havoc giving an aluminium finish over all and these "meatball" markings, 

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So that's a bare metal, prewar, 1st edition DB7 Douglas product, the sort of thing the French and British purchasing teams would have been looking at on their emergency shopping trips to the States. 

A bare metal Havoc....! 

My interest piqued, I had a bit of a look around the Web. Sure enough, there it is! Not so many pictures for reference, but a couple of nice photos. 

And there are a few of these old warbirds, A20s, 26s etc in private hands, lovingly restored and flown. 

So while I'm in the zone for ancient Airfix, natural metal finishes and taming rivets and toy parts, I've started fiddling around with this. 

Just to keep me out of trouble while I'm waiting for Heron things..... 😇😎

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Short on modelling time but what time I have is mostly spent on getting to grips with the ancient Havoc from USAirfix, and reading up on the type. Medium bombers, and bombers of any type, don't really fit in with my modelling trends, but NMF and polished bare metal suits me 😍😎

This is one of the few references that I have found.... 

Douglas_BD-1

One of the first items on the agenda then, was the removal of the big gun blisters on each side of the forward fuselage. These are moulded in and I took the saw to them. This leaves gaping holes by the front landing gear mounting. Skinny styrene was glued inside and later some milliput outside, and eventually sanded back. 

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There's been some effort to arrange the internals, without going into the finer details. 

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While this old gunbus is a long way from the purpose and style of the DH Heron, the building requires several of the same processes. I can see just from looking that this will be another heavy tail sitter with a lot of thick plastic out the back end. I'm loading lengths of 3mm solder wire where it will fit, several behind the cockpit bulkhead, and under the floor. Also in the last picture is one of the engine cowlings with a ring of solder fitted right inside behind "the engine". 

Here it is again along with the two nacelle assemblies.... 

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These have the cooling flaps moulded onto them in the closed position. What I'm doing is adding a little strip of my favourite plastic source - the Muller Corner Yoghurt pot - to give open flaps. Cut from one of the corners of the tub, it's already got the curve built into the shape. I think I can foil these and make some cooling flaps. 

Gotta be tried.... 😊

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  • rob Lyttle changed the title to DH Heron MKII + Douglas DB7Havoc Bare metal

I'm pleased to say that the pack of waterslide transfer paper has arrived already, so I'm out of excuses now for delay with the Heron! 

Meanwhile the old Havoc has been the subject of progress and assembly. Tailplanes went on fine, 

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Those elevators need some more attention to tame the bulging shape and reduce the ribbing. 

 

Wings are foiled along with the nacelles and they are on too. I wanted to get an airframe with 3 legs just to see where I'm at with balance. 

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The answer is, it's getting there. Main gears are propped up in lieu of wheels and tyres, there's tail feathers to add, and only one cowling is dry fitted, and she's very definite about standing on the nose wheel 👍

I got to say, the fit of the wings to the fuselage is as good as it gets. It's perfect. I'll tell you, Tamiya or Wingnuts are NOT better than this!! This was tooled by hand by Grade I craftsmanship 

From a foiling point of view, it's usually advantageous to cover the parts separately and then assemble. So a dodgy fit of the major components throws up some challenges. Not so in this case. No steps, no gaps no alignment issues..... 😇

Probably not many of these medium bombers get done in NMF. I'm liking the look of it 

 

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These are going well.

 

I know what you mean about the wing/tailplane fits on these old Airfix kits. Three of the best I have ever encountered were with the Heron (as you have found out!), the Fokker Friendship and the Bristil Superfreighter. The fits were absolutely stunning for kits tooled so long ago.

 

Can you please tell me what you use as the adhesive for the foil? This is a process I have considered doing for quite some time and you may well have given me the impetus to have a go, if I can find an aircraft with not too many curves...

 

Ray

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8 hours ago, Ray S said:

adhesive for the foil?

Well Ray, this is the sticky backed aluminium foil tape as used by plumbers and the building trade for many applications. Much, much tougher than kitchen foil types and the adhesive is already applied. . It's a process I've been working with for a long time. Because it is a real-world product it's very cheap - a couple of pounds gets a roll that's enough for, I dunno, 50 planes? Only a guess 😅

Best thing I can do is find a couple of links to builds that describe the process and put them on here. 

I always say try it out on a kit you don't care about rather than starting into your current pride and joy. 

Ah here we are, 

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That's a roll of the tape that the Heron wing is sitting on. 

I'll have a look for some links for your recreational reading 😎

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@Ray S there's a bit of a run down on the process on this build, probably starting around page 3.

Also a fair bit included in the Beech 18 build here, 

You'll see the totally clapped out manicure sticks etc, so "exhausted" that I can polish transparencies with them 😎

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I have a decal sheet... (1st effort... 😀) printed for the Heron. 

Heron graphics print 2

Included in the print is a copy of the original Airfix sheet, sized to give 14cm fuselage stripes which should be in the right area. This is going to have a little bit of colour included on the background, but let's have a go 

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The Havoc is coming on steady, very happy to stand tail up I'm pleased to say 

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Wheels and tyres are fitted. They are still retractable which is handy as they can be pushed up out of harms way while I'm working on the airframe. 

Canopy is fitted and being given frames with strips of the foil. 

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And the rudder is decorated.... 

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Minor disaster...... I've bought white decal paper..... 

Maybe it'll be useful one day. 

I've reordered CLEAR sheets. 

On the upside, they worked very well. No running etc. I tried one on the white fuselage but the difference is noticeable. Slid on nicely though. 

Nother couple of days I guess..... 

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Yup! Both looking great. 😀 excellent foil work as always. The cockpit masking turned out well in the end too. I thought the paint looked a bit heavy and was ready for disaster but you managed it perfectly. 
Really enjoying watching these old kits come together.

 

 Johnny.

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1 hour ago, The Spadgent said:

The cockpit masking turned out well in the end too

Must say I was relieved when I peeled them and got what I got. I guess rattle can spray looks, and is, heavy handed compared to an airbrush job. I keep looking at the side window arches and wondering if they're a bit too high, but I don't fancy my chances at trying to modify them. 

White decal paper 🗿⚠️⁉️

And I didn't even twig until I slid the first one off... 🙄

Did I tell you about the time I ordered "The Mosquito Log" book on Amazon?!? What am I like with the Touchscreen chaos...... 😛🥳

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17 minutes ago, rob Lyttle said:

Must say I was relieved when I peeled them and got what I got. I guess rattle can spray looks, and is, heavy handed compared to an airbrush job. I keep looking at the side window arches and wondering if they're a bit too high, but I don't fancy my chances at trying to modify them. 

White decal paper 🗿⚠️⁉️

And I didn't even twig until I slid the first one off... 🙄

Did I tell you about the time I ordered "The Mosquito Log" book on Amazon?!? What am I like with the Touchscreen chaos...... 😛🥳

you might be able to do some mods with a decal. At least it will be easy to take it off again if it looks bobbins.  The time you ordered a book? I can feel a story coming. 😁

 

 Jont

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