Airfix Devastator - wings and cowling

Had a 'can't think of anything to do around the house' time this afternoon, and got a couple of hours in on it.

And I was devastated when I clamped the fuselage together, one of the clamps slipped and took the rear guys arm and the DF loop with its base off. The arm I recovered, the smallest bit knocked off, but the DF lop and base have been digested by the carpet monster..

so made a new loop and base.

Finished up the engine and got it in the cowling..


Modified the cowling as the cooling flaps (to me) are not very well defined and they are moulded open..

So using my newest favourite tool a tamiya etch razor saw, I circled around the front edge of the cowl flaps and then cut down each one, and sanded the 'openess' off. Its meant I've had to sand the fuselage a bit as it took on a decided bulged look with the cowl flaps closed looking.

Also attacked the wings, now why did they attach the wings like this..

sprue gate and a long one right on the leading edge with that lovely ridged detail.

So I was puzzled what to do about when I thought of my new favourite tool (I did mention my new favourite tool didn't I?)..

sliced off the sprue gate, the fine teeth means there is no pressure on the joint and doesn't distort the plastic.

Sanded along the length of the wing..

until level with the existing ridges and..

gently trimmed the excess out with a sharp knife. Repeated for all four outer wings sections.

There is a folded option, which means each wing is in fours pieces, and it looks to me, to have them spread its a butt joint. So I attached the outer and inner quarters of each wing together and have reinforced the joints with sections of plasticard.

So we've managed to keep the top and bottom surface level, and hopefully won't have to sand the joints and loose wing ribs.

Airfix Devastator - innards

Hi folks,

I've decided to do a quickish OOB Devastator, and intending to do the blue over grey scheme, I have another Devastator for the cool yellow wing scheme.




So a couple of nights work on the innards and she's ready to button up..

Ditched the middle crew man, I read somewhere they didn't always fly with him when they torpedo on board. Animated the rear guy a bit, reaching for the radios, which I've added and raised the DF loop a bit, just to add something to the decking, and made a new ring for his seat. I keep wanting to add bits, but restrain myself as you can't see too much through the canopies.

Biggles - Revell 1/72 Camel - On patrol

Finished..

Came across a bit of trouble on patrol..

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - Finished

Well she be done, XX179 Red 4

I don't like the kit, mainly due to the new kit hype and the online builds that skip the warts. Which for me were...

- Inlets don't fit well
- The undercarriage interfering with the doors for gear up,
- Those trenches,
- Undersized pilots,
- That jet nozzle why is it so small?
- The decals need to be a bit more opaque.
- Decal placement guide.

There's lots of my fat finger oops, I destroyed a couple of the decal stripes on the tank under the fuselage so there a couple short, canopy masking around the windscreen, and decal creases etc.

I replaced the pilot and the pitot is a broken 80 gauge drill bit.

I'm glad its done.

Biggles - Revell 1/72 Camel - rigging started

Well after the wing is algned a bit better, though I've found out the top wing show be flat, and not have any droop, but I'll live with it. I filled the interplane strut slots int he lower wing and painted her.

Assembled the landing gear frame, which was a three handed afair, as the two side frame both snapped at the axle hole, so they were quickly tacked together and then super glued to the fuselage to hold its angle.

I dug out my 80 gauge drill bits and drilled some holes for the invisble mending thread rigging. I'm not planning to do all the rigging just a representive few.

Did the right wing last night, which was quite relaxing, I find the rigging quite fun.

Airfix Red Arrows Hawk - paint and decals started

Well let the primer harden up and gave it a light sand, then on with some Tamiya gloss red acrylic, and started the decalling..

put on the large and some small of the white decals.

They are thin, and I found slightly brittle, the opacity could be better, as they look a bit pink close up, but not bad at arms length, they went down well and the Klear I used on them pulled them in to the trenches.

I did cut the big side fuselage swoop decal, which includes the Royal Air Force text, into two, to make it easier to apply. I worked from the tail to the nose, to get it all sort of lined up.

There are two rectangular white decals that are not mentioned on the decal placement guide, I think 47 and 48, which I think are for the inside of the jet intakes.

The arrow decals are a bit of a puzzle, and I started with the wing corner pieces as I could line them up with the undercarriage doors.

So onto the stencils and other little tiny decals.