Spitfire XIV collective hysteria - FF-B on the bench

[mark.au]

Yep, what Chris said.  Going back a few posts, I suspect you’re a master of understatement when describing the sanding efforts to arrive at such a convincing gullwing.

[Biggles87]

Looking good under the MSG.

 

John

[AdrianMF]

12 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

extra work and detail

...bringing it up to a level somewhere quite a way below any Spitfire kit produced in the lst twenty years or so 🙄

[AdrianMF]

6 hours ago, mark.au said:

sanding efforts

The tricky bit is the initial cutting down of the weird fairing behind the wing. After that the sanding is pretty straightforward once you have the right diameter paintbrush handle. I was pleasantly surprised!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[Galligraphics]

On 2/4/2023 at 12:18 PM, AdrianMF said:

(Well, almost foolproof:)

Reminds me of the quote by the wonderful Douglas Adams... "A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools"...

[Dunny]

Adrian,

 

All the extra work is paying off - looking good under the MSG!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[AdrianMF]

I have chopped up another Falcon canopy, this time from set #2 "RAF Fighters", and I have a windscreen and opening canopy part:

 

The rear section is simply some clear plastic heated over a flame and squished over the rear fuselage before trimming. Front and rear parts have been canopy glued down, and all gaps have been covered with a ridiculously thick coat of Humbrol 78 ready for a bit of sanding down.

[mark.au]

Looks really good!  Paint-as-filler is a solid approach killing two birds with one stone, I love the efficiency.

[AdrianMF]

41 minutes ago, mark.au said:

solid approach

Humbrol 78 (my goto RAF interior green) always ends up with the lid off on the bench for far too long when I'm doing cockpits so it ends up with the same sort of consistency as acrylic filler!

[Johnson]

11 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

The rear section is simply some clear plastic heated over a flame and squished over the rear fuselage before trimming.

An easy solution that I've used before. Nice Falcon canopy, very clear and sparkly. Have to tried the Rob Taurus canopies? Very nice but hell to cut out.

[Dave Slowbuild]

18 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

The rear section is simply some clear plastic heated over a flame and squished over the rear fuselage before trimming

Like it, neat!
So, naïve question; the heated clear plastic doesn’t tend to stick to the fuselage it’s been formed over?

[AdrianMF]

2 hours ago, Dave Slowbuild said:

So, naïve question; the heated clear plastic doesn’t tend to stick to the fuselage it’s been formed over?

There are only naïve answers!

 

No, it doesn't if you do it pull it over as soon as it starts to get floppy over a candle flame. There isn't enough heat to transfer to the fuselage from the thin plastic.

 

Regards,

Adrian

 

[edit] that said, I wouldn't ever build a vacform buck out of polystyrene. 

[Dave Slowbuild]

Thanks Adrian, I shall be giving that a go then!

[Zephyr91]

6 minutes ago, AdrianMF said:

 

No, it doesn't if you do it pull it over as soon as it starts to get floppy over a candle flame. There isn't enough heat to transfer to the former from the thin plastic.

 

Oh heavens.  That's another thing I'm going to have to practice! 

 

Looks great.

 

Rob

[Brandy]

21 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

soon as it starts to get floppy over a candle flame.

Blimey! You have to heat it over a candle flame to get it floppy???

 

You're a better man than I. Carry on Gunga Din!

 

Ian

 

 

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good Adrian, the heating of the rear section is a fantastic idea.  Will certainly have to remember that one. Thank you.

 

Chris

[opus999]

Oh, boy... new techniques for me to ponder! Well, I really like how things are turning out here, so it might be worth trying.

[AdrianMF]

Some micro-progress:

 

Tail wheel doors added.The kit tail wheel is too small so this one is cut out of the retracted outrigger wheel from the Airfix P1127 kit with a brass tube sleeve. Wheels are painted and the propeller is mounted up so that it can be pushed into the tube in the nose and spin freely.

All blessed relief from my NMCZ build!

[AdrianMF]

Getting a bit closer now. Undercarriage, tail band and MSG on:

[AdrianMF]

In another bout of displacement activity to avoid my NMCZ GB duty, I've more or less finished the painting:

 

Rather annoyingly, the undercarriage legs both snapped off while painting. I'm not sure whether I will mend them or use the spare ones from my wheels up build:

 

I will try lashings of thick CA first, and do the repair properly if that doesn't work.

[Johnson]

Wasn't sure if a like, sad or laugh was appropriate Adrian, so you have a laugh in an attempt to cheer you in adversity.

 

Best of luck with the u/c.

 

Nice painting!

[Dave Slowbuild]

Not sure that “rather annoyingly” is the phrase I would have used.  😟

Admirable restraint from your good self.

I guess the leg is too thin to get a brass pin in there?

[AdrianMF]

Here's the problem:

You can see that the legs have snapped in between the two large bushes. They have very sharp angles and take a lot of cleaning up, and the sideways stress of holding them for painting overcomes the cheesy plastic quite easily. Too thin to pin so I will try a blob of CA, and if that doesn't work I can replace the legs.

 

Also you can see my fun with the decals. I had two sets, one that wasn't yellowed with  white crescents poking out of each roundel, and one that was with horrible crinkly film at the edges. I've touched up the crescents on the fuselage but I think I need to replace the wing ones to match. The badge and lion have worked well, after some touching up with a brush.

[AdrianMF]

Replaced the wing decals, touched up the white crescents, repaired the undercarriage and footled with a seemingly endless snagging list:

Of course, where the legs broke was right above the first pin to the door, so max stress point. Confident that the blob of CA will do the trick from here on in.

 

Getting there slo-o-wly... 🐌

[bigbadbadge]

Good to see this backnon the go Adrian,  looking good with the paint, what a shame about the undercarriage legs snapping, but great to see repaired.  The overpainted roundels look good too.

Chris