dogbrush Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 On to the wheel bay doors! Looking at the reference picture, there is kind of a corrugated surface on the inside & a few struts that I could add. After pondering for a while over the internal corrugating I tried scoring some aluminium tape with a cocktail stick. Not particularly accurate but it should give an overall impression of the surface on the inside! I stuck the aluminium to the inside of the wheel bay & scored around it with the hobby knife! Simple! (just got three more to do now!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 (edited) I'm storming today! Got the wheel bay doors sorted more or less, ready for painting! I've not started on the sprue-stretching cross-bracing yet - still thinking about that one! Edit: The braces here are made from garden twine. It comes in rolls of "as much as you like" from garden centres - just strip the plastic off & you have bendable but very solid rods - just cut with some pliers & you're away! Edited April 15, 2012 by dogbrush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Great work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 Great work. Thanks Jim Finished the bay doors now & painted up. Installed with no problems. Stretched a bit of sprue with a candle to get a reasonable diameter for the door cross-braces. Made collars for the centres of the braces by drilling through another bit of sprue, threading it through & giving it a bit of a bend to make it look like two separate parts. The fiddly bit was glueing them in! Will let this whole fragile contraption set for a bit before I handle it further! Got some MDF today - it's quite big though so may need to cut it down a bit. Really struggling to find any evidence that Molotov & Stalin were ever on the Pe-8 on a diplomatic mission so not entirely sure what setting to give this... I'll have a good think & keep reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Fantastic, love the effect of that aluminium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 Fantastic, love the effect of that aluminium It's cracking stuff Woody! And to think they waste whole rolls of it on A/C units & radiators!! Time for some thought on to the diorama side of things. I've got some MDF about 2' x 3' - it's only 3mm thin though so will probably cut it in half & glue the halves together. Looking at the box art (below) it looks like a paved apron with a grass surround and a "ZIS-110" or "ZIS-115" armoured car (probably) with a couple of russians stood next to it. This car was produced after the war so won't be bothering to search for a 1:72 scale model of that! Stalin, Molotov & Beria were never at the same diplomatic conference so I'm not sure why they're all standing here in front of the plane. Maybe they were here to wave Stalin off? The box description centres around this being "Stalin's plane" which he used to attend the "big three" conference in Tehran in November 1943. This did happen and the "big three" were Stalin, Roosevelt & Churchill. I've decided then that Molotov & Beria are there to either wave Stalin off or look after his things while he's in Tehran and it's November 1943 ahead of the "big three conference" in Tehran & this is Moscow. Not sure of a title yet, maybe "Stalin said he would wait all night if he had to unless somebody owned up the the whoopie cushion on his seat.." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozzy Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 Great work on the undercart Mark! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 14, 2012 Author Share Posted April 14, 2012 (edited) Great work on the undercart Mark! Thanks Fozzy Just wrestling with the twelve separate pieces that make up the rear gunner then time to add some radio wire & I think I'm done. Must really add the props - keep forgetting to do that! Saw a post in the tips section on the forum about making paving slabs out of filler, not sure how to make grass - may have to buy some of the hornby stuff that comes in a bag. Stalin & molotov are on standby to be painted! edit: added images of rough-looking nose & tail section! Edited April 14, 2012 by dogbrush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 It's getting better and better. Looks like you have some dust on the inside of the glass. While you still have the astrodome off on the nose, one of those keyboard cleaning aerosols works well for removing dust as you can get the straw through the hole and give it a squirt of fresh air Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 14, 2012 Author Share Posted April 14, 2012 (edited) Yes, it's all a bit of a dogs dinner in the nose at the moment! I'll give it a blast with the airbrush at35psi in the morning! Good thinking (I would have just closed it up & told people never to look at the windows because they're cursed ) Edit: I didn't know it was called an astrodome! To be honest I'd completely forgotten to add it like the propellors! Edited April 14, 2012 by dogbrush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 Looking great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 (edited) Looking great. Thanks Jim! Slight diversion from the plane at the moment while I distract myself with the diorama! I've got hold of some thin MDF which I've cut in half & glued together to make a strongish base. The plan is to follow the box art reasonably closely although I've got issues with the car I've seen some 1940's russian 1:72 fuel bowsers on fleabay which I could add instead. I've never made a diorama before so I'm at the head-scratching stage at the moment. I want to do a paved apron for the most part which I was thinking of laying down some tile adhesive nice & smooth, letting it set then scoring out the edges of the paving which I can then paint. For the grass, I've been saving up sawdust which I can just paint different shades of green hopefully. Here I am anyway, at the design stage. Any tips or advice at this stage is extremely appreciated!! Edit: ignore the scale of my "car" - it would be huge! One option would be to cut down the board to the size of the plane & have the vehicle under the nose (as it would have ample room!) Edited April 18, 2012 by dogbrush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flankerman Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Dogbrush, ACE model do a couple of Soviet staff cars that might be suitable..... GAZ 61-73..... GAZ M1..... Hannants have them in stock.... Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zimmermaniac Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 I'm new here, just ran through your build, amazing, great work. bout your dio : for the apron you can use sandpaper grain 120 cut in pieces then glued on the MDF, and I ( but who am I then ) would NOT use sawdust for the grass, that'll tear your dio down... here's a pic of what I once made ( kinda the same set-up, but different aircraft ), hope ya don't mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killingholme Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Of all the 'instant' grass matts I've used, the 'gaugemaster' brand are the most realistic. No faff either. http://www.gaugemaster.com/index.html Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 Dogbrush,ACE model do a couple of Soviet staff cars that might be suitable..... GAZ 61-73..... GAZ M1..... Ken That's brilliant Ken - right sort of cars used in the right era - I'll get on to that much appreciated! I'm new here, just ran through your build, amazing, great work.bout your dio : for the apron you can use sandpaper grain 120 cut in pieces then glued on the MDF, and I ( but who am I then ) would NOT use sawdust for the grass, that'll tear your dio down... here's a pic of what I once made ( kinda the same set-up, but different aircraft ), hope ya don't mind Hi Zimmermaniac - Thanks for the great tips there. I've got plenty of cheap 100 grit which should do the job. Do you varnish the MDF before you start adding things to it? Of all the 'instant' grass matts I've used, the 'gaugemaster' brand are the most realistic. No faff either.http://www.gaugemaster.com/index.html Will Thanks Will - a grass mat sounds like a great idea! I'm guessing that "OO" scale is closest to 1:72? cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 20, 2012 Author Share Posted April 20, 2012 Spent the evening attempting to cut similar-sized strips of sandpaper. Had a thought half-way through that it might have been easier to draw out the paving slaps on the back of the sandpaper, number the squares, then cut with a hobby-knife before glueing back in on the same order. Not to worry, I'm sure my method of cutting strips then somehow cutting them into equal lengths will work. To avoid going all askew when I'm glueing these slabs in I've marked out as many parallel & perpendicular lines as possible to act as guides. Tomorrow I will be individually glueing tiny rectangular sections of sandpaper to MDF - should be interesting! Lord knows what my wife will make of all this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zimmermaniac Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Do you varnish the MDF before you start adding things to it? not at all, in my opinion, varnish and glue don't go together very well. I glue the sandpaperstrips onto the bare MDF with woodglue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozzy Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 not at all, in my opinion, varnish and glue don't go together very well. I glue the sandpaperstrips onto the bare MDF with woodglue I also agree with the above Mark!....looking great BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 21, 2012 Author Share Posted April 21, 2012 not at all, in my opinion, varnish and glue don't go together very well. I glue the sandpaperstrips onto the bare MDF with woodglue Thanks Zimmermaniac - decided not to go with the varnish in the end (phew!). Did add a border though after l saw your dio! I also agree with the above Mark!....looking great BTW. Thanks Fozzy - it's been an interesting day but I think I've got somewhere! Spent the past seven hours (I only thought it would take a couple) laying down strips of sandpaper in parallel, then trimming them off at 56mm (no particular reason - that's just the length of the first "slab" I made!), then laying down more strips. Once I got into a routine it wasn't too bad, just time consuming trying to get all the slabs in parallel! Anyway, all done now - very pleased with the result. Next I'll give it a blast with the airbrush and see what happens from there! Might even finish off the plane Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zimmermaniac Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 glad I could be of any help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 22, 2012 Author Share Posted April 22, 2012 Well, the plane is "finished" insofar as I've come to the end of glueing bits together... The next bits to add are the dio-specific parts from the kit (stalin, molotov, plane crew etc.) and the Soviet staff car as kindly suggested by Ken. Not added decals or radio-wire and haven't attempted any weathering apart from the natural bumps & scrapes from handling the plane every day which is giving a surprising good effect! Still got loads to do but I think think I've crossed one milestone. This dio will take a little while longer I suspect! Thanks for watching, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbuna Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Coming along nicely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fozzy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 On wards and upwards Mark!...looking good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogbrush Posted April 25, 2012 Author Share Posted April 25, 2012 Coming along nicely. Thanks Jim On wards and upwards Mark!...looking good and thankyou Fozzy for the kind words...still learning but hope people are enjoying the fun as much as I am! I've spent the past few days studying portraits of stalin to get an idea of the kind of uniform colours. I've not painted figures before and 1:72 is a bit fiddly but I do have a decent couple of brushes I've been looking after (the first set I bought now look fit for cleaning chimneys with - another lesson learned there!). Anyway, did a base-coat of the skintone on all the faces of the figures but then decided that I would have to do them individually as they all have quite different clothes so picked Stalin to begin with. I've got the main colours on & the face is starting to come through slowly with gentle teasing of shadows & highlights but this really is a steep learning curve at the moment! Will order the car tomorrow & will post a hopefully finished Stalin in a couple of days! Thanks for watching Comrades, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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