453rd BG Museum Build - USAAF Boulton Paul Defiant TT Mk I (from the Airfix 1/48 Mk I) - FINISHED

[hendie]

I can't believe you even printed those little triangular infills at the corner and even matched the curve of the kit undercarriage stub. You're as bad as that Giorgio fella, making us all look bad. Dammit.

[Fritag]

Evening all.

 

So.  An excellent week was had in Scotland, walking and cycling mostly in the valleys and hills west of Pitlochry.  Some magnificent cycling to be had on very quiet roads:

 

 

 

Not to mention the walking.

 

For example this is Rannoch Station (which is at the end of a road about 16 miles past Kinnloch Rannoch) - and has a great tearoom!

 

 

From where you can get a train (on the Fort William Line) the 12 or 13 minutes to Corrour Station.

 

Corrour Station, as well as having the distinction of being the highest station in the UK, also boasts the distinction of not having a public road accessing it!

 

That's the station buildings in the bottom left of the photograph (it also - quite surprisingly - has a great tearoom!).

 

 

And from which there is an 11 mile walk along estate paths back to Rannoch Station -

 

The views on the walk make it all worthwhile (even the rain, which in time honored Scottish fashion, blew through regularly).

 

 

Anyway.  Enough of the travel blog.

 

Since I've been back the Defiant has sprouted its wings and horizontal fixed tail surfaces:

 

 

 

 

 

All fitted quite nicely and any small gaps were filled with liquid UV cure resin applied with a flexifile CA applicator.  I find this stuff brilliant for such a job, as it wicks along by capillary action and you can wipe it away and start again at anytime if it's not neat enough, prior to zapping it with the UV torch.

 

So the Defiant can now at least be whirled around the room accompanied by mock-merlin noises...

 

Oh, and another thank you to @AndyL who on this thread (which I found whilst idly googling):

 

Defiant Wheel Well Colours

 

Cleared up for me the tricky question of what was the most likely colour for the wheel wheels on a TT Mk I of the vintage of DR944/DR945.

 

(It's probably black)

 

Edited May 24 by Fritag

[RichieW]

What a great update, I'm almost tempted to dig my road bike out after seeing the travel pics. I used to race TTs until I ended up in one of those nice national health hotels for a week following a bit on an incident.

 

Your Defiant is looking rather splendid with its wings fully grown. Have you crept downstairs in the middle of the night to run around the house making aeroplane noises yet?

 

Richie

[bigbadbadge]

Lovely scenery and a nice bike too, Defiant is looking very nice indeed as well.

 

Great work

Chris

[perdu]

Let's oh that looks nice Steve, as did your holiday.

[Terry1954]

Great scenery pics there Steve. Scotland looks so appealing, yet in all my years on the planet, I've never actually been there .............. well I did do a touch and go at Kinloss in the back of a C-130 as a 16 year old cadet ...... does that count I wonder 🤔

 

The Defiant looks splendid with wings on, and those undercarriage bays (on that dead one above) look huge!😁

 

Terry

[CedB]

Looks like you had a great break Steve followed by some great modelling.

 

What's not to like?

[Serkan Sen]

Very beautiful landscape and model photos Steve!

Serkan

[Dunny]

15 hours ago, Fritag said:

Cleared up for me the tricky question of what was the most likely colour for the wheel wheels on a TT Mk I of the vintage of DR944/DR945.

Steve,

 

Looks like a lovely trip - I do miss the wilder parts of Scotland! A little too late for me on the wheel wells but I am not of a mind to change at this stage. Looking forward to some colour going down,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[AdrianMF]

Nice scenery and modelling!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[giemme]

Glad you had such a great time in Scotland, Steve

 

Excellent progress on the Defiant, too - how about some paint now?

 

   

 

Ciao

[Fritag]

1 hour ago, giemme said:

how about some paint now?

 

Not this week at any rate - too much real life work to do.  The price of being self-employed and taking a modest amount of time off for a holiday

 

But I have been thinking about paint-related matters... chiefly as a work avoidance activity.

 

So - here's - not so much an update - but more of an idle digression.

 

I was thinking about how to mask-off the rear cockpit, which with the cockpit door open is an odd and awkward shape.  And then I remembered that I already had all the necessary sketched profiles and cross sections in Fusuion - so why not print a masking 'plug'?

 

Hence:

 

 

Which fits thus:

 

 

 

Should work ok me thinks.

 

BTW, I didn't bother with any supports for the print.  Just printed it upside down straight onto the build plate.  Hence the visible 'elephant's foot' on the top.

 

[PeteH1969]

The painting plug is a great idea Steve that should help with the painting are you going to produce one for the cockpit as well?

 

Pete

[Terry1954]

32 minutes ago, Fritag said:

and taking a modest amount of time off for a holiday

 

 

...... give me a moment to compose myself...........

 

That's better ......... so a masking plug,how ingenious! 

 

Oh, and I may have missed something in previous episodes (everyone sighs cos I probably did), but is that a 3D printed jig I spy in these latest pics, and would that be home grown?

 

Terry

 

 

[Fritag]

1 hour ago, PeteH1969 said:

are you going to produce one for the cockpit as well?

 

I hadn’t thought to, Pete; as I didn’t want to start doing any more CAD.  But on reflection I could easily just (more or less) extrude a body forward for the relevant distance from my rear fuselage insert.  I doubt it would take much work.  Might be worth giving it a go.  Thanks for the idea 👍

 

1 hour ago, Terry1954 said:

but is that a 3D printed jig I spy in these latest pics, and would that be home grown?

 

Yes, I think it’s printed.  But no, not me.  It’s not resin printed - I think it’s a filament printed gizmo.   I purchased it on ebay for £24.50 a little while back; it’s nice and sturdy.  Me likes it. 

[giemme]

2 hours ago, Fritag said:

why not print a masking 'plug'

Ingenious!  

 

Ciao 

[Navy Bird]

Brilliant idea. Patent it quickly and set up a new business printing masking plugs on demand. First, though, you'll need to laser scan every cavity on every model that needs to be masked. Jolly good fun!    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[RichieW]

Oh now that is a clever masking plug! 

 

Richie

[Dave Slowbuild]

On 23/05/2023 at 18:40, Fritag said:

Corrour Station, as well as having the distinction of being the highest station in the UK, also boasts the distinction of not having a public road accessing it!

Bit behind here, on hols myself, catching up…. Corrour Station, what a fantastic place!  A few years we stayed in a cottage with friends right next to Tulloch station, we took the train down to Corrour, climbed a Munro from there, then a great meal back at the tea room before the return train.  One of the best day’s walking we’ve ever had!

[hendie]

I can't help but think that the Airfix plastic looks sheepish and slightly embarrassed being seen in such proximity to the delicate and refined printed artwork... rather like the curly red haired stepchild being asked to step in to the family photograph at those formal occasions.  

 

 

 

 

[CedB]

Cunning!

[perdu]

16 hours ago, Fritag said:

 Hence the visible 'elephant's foot' on the top.

'Manual grip for easy extraction', my god do we have to tell you everything?

 

Just quietly joining in the chorus of raised wows for the rapidly improving progress we've seen

 

And pleased that you had a wonderful time using up spare energy   

[Fritag]

In a further brief avoidance of earning enough money to be able to consider stopping earning money I followed pete @PeteH1969's nudge and produced a front cockpit masking plug.

 

T'was very quick and easy, consisting simply of an extrude from an existing cross section sketch with an added extension at the back to cover the already painted (interior green) bulkhead/armour and an extension downwards to provide a structure to slot neatly into the cockpit.  It's very slightly wider (c. 0.4mm) than the cockpit opening at the bottom, so when squeezed slightly and popped into place the natural springiness of the resin holds it in position:

 

 

This too was printed upside down directly onto the build plate so also has a elephant's foot

 

3 hours ago, perdu said:

'Manual grip for easy extraction',

 

 (always best to defer to Bill).

 

As a handy bonus it provides a useful jig to help fix the position of the windscreen for gluing (windscreen just dry fitted here):

 

 

 

So that’s the cockpit masking more or less sorted then.

 

 

Edited May 25 by Fritag
typp

[Dave Slowbuild]

My impression is that both those masks will be easily extracted by a simple manual intervention to affect a disassembly from the kit parts.  Fine work.   

[81-er]

That's a great idea on the masks, Steve, I might have to try something similar myself in future

 

James