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Airfix Gazelle (or why accept kit parts?)


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Good day peeps.

It has been quite a while since I posted anything on the forum and for that I apologise (unless you find my hamfisted attemds at modelling upsetting in which case I apologise for posting 😁).

There have been a number of reasons why I have been absent, among them the complete loss of modelling mojo.  However, I have restarted, done a few kits at the start of the year (I may post some retroperspective builds) and decided it is once again time to raise my head above the parapet.

 

The object of this build is the venerable Airfix Gazelle (kit A50084) n its starter set form.

20220620_112305

 

I have fond memories of building one of these from a blister pack when I was knee high to just about everthing and summers lasted forever.  A quick check on Scalemates has shown that this kit first saw the light of day in 1973.  The kit itself is remarkably free from flash on the sprues, has no obvious sink marks and, as was customary at the time, very little in the way of detail.

 

20220620_113343

 

20220620_113331

 

I looked at the parts and realised that there are no rudder pedals so I thought I can have a go at scratch building here and strech some sprue to make some simple pedals.  What a great idea, what can go wrong?  Then I looked again and realised that there are no control columns so maybe I can make them as well, nothing too difficult but dip my toe into the scratch building water as it were for my own learning.

Now, I suspect that this will not sit properly on the floor so needs a bit of weight but there is no where to put it.   So I decided that addind lead seat cushions could be a start, which means changing the seats to give me room, and while i am at it get the shape better. Is this how scratch building works? you change one thing, then think I could do this as well.

 

So, kit part on the left, plastic card frame centre and seat cusion on the right. 

20220606_192611

 

The plan will be to paint them approriately as is and then add some straps because, reasons.

 

I think that this may not be enough so need more space for weight. unfortunately there is no room under the floor.

2022-06-20_12-04-21

 

Yep, that is going to have to change as well.

 

20220612_134738

 

I now have some more space to get some lead strip under the floor.  Will it be enough?

So, now I have decided I don't like the centre console so,

20220617_143551

 

for the dials I added a thn veneer of plastic card with suitable holes cut into it.

20220617_174000

 

the effect is ok, but the exection is scruffy, so needs a better paint job.

 

Next up will be the main instrument panel followed by the central collective lever.  These also look to need changing but I have not yet decided on the method.  I may use lead covered in plastic card just to get a bit more weight in there.  Then there will be the rear seat, bulkhead, overhead panel andoh yes, rudder pedals and stick because I ca't miss off what started this.

 

Whoknows what else I can butcher.

 

There will be more at a later date.

 

Lemur ongoing.

 

 

 

 

 

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From what I remember, it's a neat little kit, that is probably showings it's age. I have a couple in the stash.

I recently built the Scout, which is seriously overdue for a retool and upscaling to 1/48th.

 

Never apologies for your efforts, a build shared is always worthwhile. Someone out there will take something away from it!

 

Colin

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1 hour ago, depressed lemur said:

Is this how scratch building works? you change one thing, then think I could do this as well.

Exactly how detailing works and is the reason why scratchbuilding begins..

 

Your 'toe in the water beginnings' are great, I will be watching too and yes I still have one of these to play with later this year.

 

Thanks for sharing the beginnings.

 

👍

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Yep, been there. "This bit looks too thick, I'll use brass rod. Now that bit looks wrong"...ad infinitum!

 

Nice start though, it looks promising!

 

Ian

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Can't say if this is going to help but here is a quick show of how I am progressing this build. I thought that I would move onto the instrument panel next. The starting point for me is to use plastic card to create a shape and thickness that looks about right. Next up a thin veneer of 10 thou with holes drilled to denote dials.

20220620_160539

Trimmed to size it looks about right.

20220620_160552

 

Moving on with my references it looks like there is an added panel to the right (probably a mid life update) which is added in the same way. I also found some reference to what looks like a touch screen navigation display so knocked that up as well

20220622_103846

 

Any comments welcome. 

Lemur out for now.

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As I had a bit of spare time today I thought that I would try to do a little more work.

Today I have knocked up the throttle housing and used the kit throttle as I couldn't find a way of doing it myself. Of course I thought it looked a bit bland so used some stretched sprue to add some switches. To give an idea of where I am at the moment I made the kit parts up to give a bit of comparison. 

20220624_155254

 

20220624_155234

 

Plus a couple in situ.

20220624_155154

 

20220624_155132

 

I still need rudder pedals and control columns.

I am now debating whether to try opening the doors at the back. The front ones should be fairly easy and will also move the CoG forwards as well.

 

Lemur out for the moment.

 

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Hi Lemur, 

Thanks for sharing this build with us. Like so many of us, we will have memories of this kit. Seeing what you are doing to it, can only lead us to be inspired in our own builds 

Nice work so far, like the lead sheet cushions, now why have I never thought of that! 

Keep at it, will be watching and following with interest. 

Kevin 

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That interior is looking fab.
 

When you start changing one piece at a time it’s not until you step back at the end you realise you’ve rebuilt the bloomin’ lot!

 

Looking forward to more.

 

Regards,

Adrian

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A little further work in the cockpit this morning but up on the cockpit roof this time.  I have not seen many good photos of this area but piecing together there appears to be a radio unit above the rear seat and a switch set above the driver. So, once again I have to dig out some plastic card and stretch some sprue to mimic the cabling seen going into the rear bulkhead.

20220625_132343

 

And with a little more fettling it looks a little better.

20220626_112907

 

i apologise for the blurriness and over exposure but I only have access to my phone camera to takethese.

 

20220626_113400

 

Finally the unit is installed.

This willneed masking before adding somepaint to it.

 

Further work to be continued.

 

Lemur.

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Hi Lemur, 

Nice to see that you have taken time for a little research in the cockpit. 

The overhead equipment will 'busy' up the interior. Nice to see simple plastic card and wire additions making things more interesting. 

Following with interest. 

Kevin 

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Hi All,

 

Progressing the build has gone a little further over the last  couple of days.

First of all i decided that ta little light masking was in order before adding some paint to the upper canopy piece.

20220626_202421

I do enjoy masking as it is a quiet reflective point of modelling, Quite simply covering up thebit you don't want to getpaint on,no worries about anything being the right way round and a time to think about the next bit.

 

20220626_202357

 

Oh yes, I also made the control columns out of fuse wire and the rudder pedals from streched sprue.

 

20220629_201035

And some belts for the rear seat from 5 thou card.

 

Sorry about the photo quality I am using my Samsung S9 for these shots.

 

And that's about it for the moment.

 

I think the cockpit is where i want it to be bar a little painting.

 

What next?

we shall see.

 

Lemur out.

 

 

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I always liked the Airfix  Gazelle. It did lack finesse though. It's  a pity Heller  didn't do a 1/72 Gazelle. Their Alouette III is a neat little  kit. 

 

I'm  following this build with  interest.

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A little further work has now been carried out and I think that the cockpit is just about finished.

2022-07-02_04-02-09

 

The overhead panel is painted with the radio? panel picked out in silver as per the photos I have. My streched sprue switches did not last so have been replaced by ones made from guitar strings which should be a little more permanent.

 

20220702_155908

 

The seats have been added along with straps the rear bulkhead is still not attached but propped up for the photo.

20220702_155922

 

And a view from the back.

 

Next problem is going to relate to the clear parts.

 

20220702_143637

 

This is one of the cabin doors and, as you can see, it has a flipping great mould release mark across the inside.  I have removed seams on blown canopies before but this looks to be a whole new ball game of sanding and polishing but it will have to be done. On the plus side, this may result in a thinner piece which may not look out of place in the open position 🤔. I may leave this until later on.

 

20220702_150958

 

The other problem it that the front glazing has a hole in it which needs to be remedied.I could try to fill this but.......

 

It does appear to be at the bottom of a hinged panel, is there any mileage in opening this up as well?

 

Any thoughts, suggestions or comments would be welcome on this.

 

Lemur out for the moment. 

 

 

 

Edited by depressed lemur
spelling corrections
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10 hours ago, depressed lemur said:

A little further work has now been carried out and I think that the cockpit is just about finished.

2022-07-02_04-02-09

 

The overhead panel is painted with the radio? panel picked out in silver as per the photos I have. My streched sprue switches did not last so have been replaced by ones made from guitar strings which should be a little more permanent.

 

20220702_155908

 

The seats have been added along with straps the rear bulkhead is still not attached but propped up for the photo.

20220702_155922

 

And a view from the back.

 

Next problem is going to relate to the clear parts.

 

20220702_143637

 

This is one of the cabin doors and, as you can see, it has a flipping great mould release mark across the inside.  I have removed seams on blown canopies before but this looks to be a whole new ball game of sanding and polishing but it will have to be done. On the plus side, this may result in a thinner piece which may not look out of place in the open position 🤔. I may leave this until later on.

 

20220702_150958

 

The other problem it that the front glazing has a hole in it which needs to be remedied.I could try to fill this but.......

 

It does appear to be at the bottom of a hinged panel, is there any mileage in opening this up as well?

 

Any thoughts, suggestions or comments would be welcome on this.

 

Lemur out for the moment. 

 

 

 

The hole at the front I’ve no idea, but the panel on the nose is where the battery goes. It’s a flip down panel and the battery slides out on a tray. The battery retract into that centre console with the holes you made earlier. 
 

can’t believe this is 1/72, how on earth do you see it?. It’ll probably all disappear once you put the Airfix double glassing on.

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Speedey is probably right, I just opened the gazelle in my cupboard and this thing's seriously little.

 

 

Anyway how about a down and dirty quick fix for the door? (Mine's canopy has not got yours's hole)

 

I popped my errant door, yes it has a humungeous ejector mark, onto a blob of BluTak  on top of an Airfix paint bottle

 

P1010162.jpg

 

And using a spare sliver of acetate from some old packaging or other and a penny tea light for warmth gently pull moulded a new door panel.

P1010164.jpg

 

This is only a quick pull for demonstration, a little more care will result in all the rivets and openable windows showing up as on the original.

 

It has to be worth a try, no?

 

Everybody must have discarded acetate packaging lying around, huh?

 

Use thin stuff and you will be able to avoid hurting the kit moulding, don't get it too hot.

 

 

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On 6/26/2022 at 11:46 AM, depressed lemur said:

A little further work in the cockpit this morning but up on the cockpit roof this time.  I have not seen many good photos of this area but piecing together there appears to be a radio unit above the rear seat and a switch set above the driver. So, once again I have to dig out some plastic card and stretch some sprue to mimic the cabling seen going into the rear bulkhead.

20220625_132343

 

And with a little more fettling it looks a little better.

20220626_112907

 

i apologise for the blurriness and over exposure but I only have access to my phone camera to takethese.

 

20220626_113400

 

Finally the unit is installed.

This willneed masking before adding somepaint to it.

 

Further work to be continued.

 

Lemur.

Surprised you didn't make this out of lead as well!

 

Selwyn

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2 hours ago, perdu said:

 

 

Anyway how about a down and dirty quick fix for the door? (Mine's canopy has not got yours's hole)

 

I popped my errant door, yes it has a humungeous ejector mark, onto a blob of BluTak  on top of an Airfix paint bottle

 

P1010162.jpg

 

And using a spare sliver of acetate from some old packaging or other and a penny tea light for warmth gently pull moulded a new door panel.

P1010164.jpg

 

This is only a quick pull for demonstration, a little more care will result in all the rivets and openable windows showing up as on the original.

 

Hi Perdu.

Thanks for the idea and photos. I have not tried this method before but it looks to be interesting and worth a shot. It has also given me another idea which may improve the chance of a good look.

 

I thought that this would be a simple little kit.

2 hours ago, Selwyn said:

Surprised you didn't make this out of lead as well!

 

Selwyn

Damn Selwyn, now you are making me realise I missed a trick there 🤣😂

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How to improve a door?

 

Well, i have tried Perdu's idea and crsah moulded a few doors. using the clear sheet from a packet of bulbs.

 

20220703_161809

 

These were the failures either because the detail was too soft or my attempts to apply pressure to give better definition left a horrible surface finish.

 

Eventually I managed to get a reasonable compromise between the right shape, surface finish and detail.  

However, I couldn't leave it there as it looked too thin (yes I know it is probably scale thickness but it is the look of the thing).

So I thought I would need to beef it up a bit.

10 thou card, super glue (Loctite), magnifying glass and some trepidation created this.

20220703_161910

I am 70% happy with the result, but I am worried about managing to paint thison the outside so I might repeat the task with some 5 thou card I have lying aroundas that may give me sufficient definition for applying masking tape and paint.

 

Further updates will be made either as a success or epic fail dependent how thisgoes.

 

Lemur out (of his mind).

 

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I have managed to get a 5 thou skin on the outside and have added some sprue goo to the joints. These will need to set before I sand them back after masking the windows for protection.

20220705_213900

 

I am now toying with the idea of opening the door so I will need to thin down the fuselage edges to a more suitable thickness and also add a lip to represent the bit that stops the door falling through. I may also consider adding the door handle. 
I have also found some references for the bay at the front which means I can open this and make a battery out of lead for more weight.

 

You never know, I may even consider building the actual kit at some point 😅🤣😂.

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