davec

Rob - your AEG came out great! I learned a lot from your log.

Looking forward to this build. Dave

Next up will be the Kotare Spitfire Mk.Ia. I usually build my world war 2 planes in 1/48, but have been really happy with the wingnut wings kits and wanted to try Kotare, which is the company that some of the WNW designers and engineers moved to when WNW folded. I got a good deal on it at the local IPMS show in February. I will build the AC Deere "Kiwi" plane because I like the kiwi on the side and the black and white underside. Given the quality of the kit, I don't plan much in the way of aftermarket. I got the HGW seatbelts because I like them a lot more than photoetch and eduard masks because trying to mask canopies drives me up a wall. I'm also going to try some camouflage masks. Will probably be a little time before I make any progress - I have some work and family stuff coming up and want to make some progress on the two boats I'm working on.

Paul and Chris - many thanks. I picked the scheme because of the bright colors. The other decal choices that came with the kit were all based around the standard British olive drab. This one was a lot more fun and looks good in the display case. I didn't take many pictures between the last ones and now, but it is finished. The rigging took a few evenings and painting was complete on the other parts, so it came together very quickly. I'm overall very pleased with how it came out, and learned a lot, especially with the decals. I really love these wingnut wings kits.

I can't remember what sized nut and bolt I used. I wanted a size with an available bolt long enough to go through a pedestal when the model was complete. I cut slots in the keel with my mill. I had to file down the sides of the nuts to fit in the slot and epoxied them in place. I thought about threading the wood, but didn't have a tap and die, and was worried that if I removed and reattached the model to the base too many times that the threads in the wood would wear out. I got a drill press for similar reasons this Christmas. I've used it a few times. It looks really nice in the shop. As long as I have the tools needed to meet my wife's around the house and craft needs she's pretty forgiving of my tool buying. I scored a lot of points cutting foam board for her this weekend. I think she thinks I used my entire workshop doing it - I won't tell her it was just a knife and straightedge. The cross section is a great project and builds into a beautiful model. I'm looking forward to following along.

That was a ton of little square notches - looks great!

I started with a unimat 3, which is an awesome lathe. I used it a lot when I first got it. I still have it, but rarely use it. Like a lot of others who have responded, I bought a used sherline mill on ebay. I added a used sherline lathe because I had some projects where I needed a longer distance between centers and because it is easier to add a duplicator (not sure it is even possible to add one to the unimat 3 as there doesn't seem to be a way to disengage the cross slide). I've accumulated a lot of sherline tools, so leave the mill and lathe set up and used them 99% of the time. The unimat sits on a shelf. It may get used if I ever need to do anything small with metric measurements. I will keep it because it was a gift and has a lot of sentimental value. I can't speak to the Taig. I looked at it when I was deciding which tools to buy, but had the opportunity to borrow sherline accessories if I needed them, which is what drove the final decision. The Sherline is small enough that it is easy to move. I only work in brass and wood and only make parts for 1/48 ships, so I don't need anything larger.

Druxey - thanks! I think boxwood is worth the extra effort in terms of how it looks, especially if leaving unstained or painted. I've been trying the techniques in the instructions to see which ones might work with it. Brushing the water on one side was intriguing. I haven't had any problems with clamps or rubber bands indenting the wood, even when wet. For the garboard, I'm soaking the entire piece, which was working great until I knocked the sternpost off. Work on hold until the glue dries.

OC - many thanks! Top wing is on. I cheated a little on rigging the interplane struts. I can never glue the ends of the rigging into the correct holes without making a mess once the upper wing is attached, so I attached the ends to the upper ends of the struts before gluing the wing on. Very hard to see once the wings are in place. I do OK when rigging with turnbuckles through eyelets, but not on british rigging where the line gets glued directly wo holes in the wing. Next plane I might use eyelets just for the interplane rigging on the upper wing so I have something easier to attach to. The rest of the rigging has been started on the lower wing. Later today I'll flip the model over and start attaching the other ends.

I'm looking forward to following along.

wow - looks fantastic! I agree with your comment about the detail on the gaspatch guns. The ones that come with the WNW kits are awesome - it is a real achievement for an aftermarket company to do even better.

Mike and Rob - many thanks! I've got the lower wing and stabilizer on, so the model is beginning to look vaguely like an airplane. I am pleased that the decals worked. This was my second attempt at the plane. I tried to do this with paint as a first effort with my new (at the time) stencil cutter. I had an even a harder time with paint bleeding under the masks at the surface irregularities than I did with the decals conforming. I also had problems with the bulldog paints I was trying at the time. I ended up so frustrated I threw the model away. That was back when the models were list price, had free shipping from new zealand, and we all thought WNW would be around forever. Thanks for the masking advice. I wasn't consistent on masking the strut mounting points, but should be OK here. This was not a place where the tolerances are incredibly tight and I think I have been able to get the surfaces adequately cleaned up.

Your making great progress and your model is coming out really well. As to "I didn't realize how time consuming cleaning up all the tiny parts would be," cleaning laser char seems to be an acquired skill. A lot of people here seem to have gotten really good at it (the logs of Chuck Passaro's new Speedwell kit are amazing). I've been working on the Dory, but cutting the parts out of a different kind of wood with the plan to not paint or stain. It hasn't been a time saver over cleaning up kit parts. Debonding is definitely a really important skill. I'll be following along. Dave

The frames are cut out, glued together, installed, and faired. I debonded and reglued the sternpost again after the picture was taken. When I dryfit the garboard strake, it was a little too short. I realized I had glued the sternpost a little too far out. I'm not using the kit parts, and without the laser marked guides, didn't get the post in the right place the first time. After regluing and refairing, it looks like the planks will fit correctly. I tried brushing water on the hull bottom as per the instructions. It looks like it works great on the kit wood, but not the boxwood I'm using. I didn't get an adequate bend, and there were some water stain marks (should have taken a picture, but didn't) on the other side of the wood at the margin of where the water soaked into the wood. I was able to sand most of the stain away. I got an adequate bend from fully soaking the wood (fortunately did not weaken the glue joints) and didn't have a problem with staining.

Fairing complete (I think). The supports worked. I was able to sand without anything coming loose, which was great as the boxwood was harder to sand than basswood would have been. I'm ready to start marking out the strakes and starting planking. The kit instructions use 1/8x1/32 basswood planks and edge bend them into place. Not sure whether this is going to work with boxwood. I'll give it a try, but cut the planks from 1/32" sheet so that if I need to spile some of the planks from sheet stock, the grain will all look the same.

Hi Tim- Your model is coming along beautifully. You’ve done a great job with all your joinery. Placement of those two carlings so the pump shafts run correctly was challenging. I got stuck there and page 3 of my log has a bunch of posts about how I worked through it, as well as Greg’s approach. I ended up without enough room between the well wall and the inner carling. As I look back on my model, I ended up not installing the inner carling which allowed enough room for the shafts to run right. Between the deck and mast partners, it isn’t visible at all on one side (unless you look underneath) and only a corner of the notch is visible on the unplanked side. I can't remember if I did this deliberately. I don't remember doing it, and just noticed when I went back to my pictures. As I remember working on the lower deck, 80% of the work was individually shaping the knees and waterway. If you used a glue that isn’t hard to debond, it might be worth considering redoing the lower deck. You will be able to reuse the knees and waterway which will save you a ton of time, and this will let you fix both the pump shaft placement and the size of the hatch. If you redo the deck, make sure the space between the well wall and the inner carling is wide enough for a pump shaft and that the width of the carling is narrow enough that the other pump shaft that runs on the other side of it also ends up in the right place. Only one edge of the carling will be visible on the unplanked side, so you can modify as necessary. Your other solution with debonding the carlings and attached ledges, and moving the carlings to the correct location might be something to try first, but however you patch the current notches will likely be visible (probably a small piece of carefully cut boxwood would work) and it wouldn’t address the hatch size. You could try this first and if it doesn’t work, then replace the entire deck. I'm looking forward to seeing how you proceed. I'm sure the end result will be great. Please let me know if I can clarify anything. Dave

Rob - your rigging (and the entire model) look awesome. I'm particularly appreciative of the tip about deburring with the .5 bit. I've always struggled with threading the line through the tubing. I've run a .3 bit through the hole, but clearly not the same as deburring. I'm hoping changing approaches (or doing both) fixes one of the things I've always been really frustrated by. The DH-9 is British (no turnbuckles) so I will be CA'ing the two ends of elastic rigging. I will try your way next time I build one of the German planes in my stash. thanks!! Dave

Great start! I will be following along. Dave

Mike - I am really enjoying these kits. I have vivid memories of building kits in the 70's and 90's and spending a lot of time and frustration trying to get things together. I've been watching your builds and have been really impressed with how you solve whatever building issues come up with your kits. There are a few downsides to the great engineering. The tight tolerances make cleaning paint off joints really important, and I have created my own gaps and filling by not doing this well enough. The other big gap is between my skills and getting the full potential out of the kit, but I'm getting better with each one I build. Some more progress on the DH9. This model has a lot of decals. Not as many as DocRob's AEG, but still a lot. I've been plugging away and have most of the applied except for one side of the fuselage. Overall, they have been going on well. There have been a few challenges, especially the roundels where there are some ~5x5x4 mm small nacelles sticking up under the edge of the decal, which I've had a really hard time getting the decals to settle over. They seem too big for the decal to fully conform to. I've got some splits in the decals and a few place where I cut them and am touching up with paint. The tamiya blue matches well and I'm pleased with the lower ones after touch up. The upper roundel has a white stripe around it. I'm going to try to touch that up tonight. There was a gas cap on the side of the fuselage that was almost as big, and I was able to get the decal to settle over it with 6-7 applications of softener and heat. Not sure it would have worked with the bigger bumps.

I spent some time travelling and work got busy, but I've been cutting out and sanding pieces. I made the jig support pieces in basswood. They are thick enough that I think they will support the sanding and bending even thought the boxwood frames and planking may exert more force than the kit basswood during the sanding and gluing. I made new parts and didn't use the kit ones as it looks like these get sacrificed when the model is cut from the jig and I wanted to leave the original kit buildable.

I decided to add some support prior to fairing. The basswood pieces will get removed after. It has been a while of gluing, debonding, and regluing, but I think I am in a good place. The frames are symmetric and look in the right place related to the bearding line. Took longer than planned, but hopefully sets me up for success for the rest of the build.

Tim - Great to see your progress. The deck framing looks excellent.

really impressive!!

Impressive work on the covering boards. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress pictures. Dave

James - I think your work looks great, and the photoetch you have used, especially the instruments, really add to the model. I also agree with CDW that a lot of the photoetch in the sets isn't very helpful. Some of the prepainted instruments are way better than paint and decal and some of the folded metal looks way better than thick molded plastic. Some definitely doesn't. Picking and choosing which to use definitely makes sense. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the model come together.