ccoyle
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Everything posted by ccoyle
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Since I started collecting (hoarding?) Halinski kits, I have been completely turned off to kits with very basic graphics. I still have some of the latter, but I don't get excited about the prospect of building them. BTW, there were still some Halinski kits leftover at the sale going on over at papermodelers.com, so I picked up a Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless (with laser-cut frames), a Hawker Hurricane Mk. I with canopy, and a Macchi C.205 Veltro. The addiction is real. 😵 P.S. The Dauntless is a beast of a model -- just imagine Halinski's insane level of interior detail doubled for a two-seater aircraft. It can also be built with its split dive flaps deployed.- 130 replies
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Ch. 15 Small Triumphs You know us modelers -- we take pride in even the smallest of achievements, whether it's pulling off a difficult task or adding an extra little touch to our models. Remember the missing navigation light I mentioned earlier? Here's it's scratch-built replacement: Skills-wise, I wasn't particularly pleased with my work on the rudder. I got a little hasty and careless, and the rudder shows this (if you know where to look -- which I do). So, for the horizontal stabilizers, I told myself to slow down, work carefully, double-check all fits before gluing, and -- most importantly, don't use fingers to clamp flat surfaces glued over internal frames! 😬 And this is the result on the port-side horizontal stabilizer, shown with it's un-skinned starboard-side partner -- not a starving cow in sight. As my Hispano-Teutonic friends might say, "mucho besser!"
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Ch. 14 Rudder The rudder has been added. The Spitfire had only a single actuator for its rudder, mounted on the port side. On the starboard side is an actuator for the rudder trim tab. Also, the rudder should have a small navigation light; the kit has locator marks for it printed on the rudder, but provides no part for it. It is also shown on the diagrams, but without any part number. Next up will be the horizontal stabilizers and elevators -- parts galore! For anyone who is curious, the early marks of Spitfire differed primarily in their power plants, with newer marks of the Merlin providing increased horsepower resulting in greater aircraft performance. The three main variants of the Mk V were in turn based in the differences in their armament. The Mk Va kept the eight .303 Brownings of the earlier marks, the Mk Vb replaced four of the Brownings with a pair of 20 mm cannon whose size and ammunition drums necessitated some changes to the wing, and the Mk Vc introduced what was called the "universal wing", which could carry either combination of weapons. Both the Mk Vb and Mk Vc were produced in tropicalized versions, each characterized by having a prominent chin-mounted duct for the necessary dust filtration system. Cheers!
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Very convincing paint chipping!
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Hi, Arthur. For recommendations on tools, check out this link. Also, take a moment to introduce yourself in the new members section -- we'd enjoy learning something about you. Cheers!
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In California, where 99% of US walnuts are produced, English walnut scions are grafted onto black walnut root stock. My grandparents lived in San Joaquin county -- there were walnut orchards everywhere.
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Although the Spitfire was produced in about five bazillion different marks, this kit depicts a particular aircraft at a particular point in time, so no optional parts. Other kits do sometimes have such options. I have a Fokker E.V kit that has optional parts for four different liveries, and I also have a Sopwith Pup kit that has two different liveries, each with different armament.
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Ch. 13 Fuselage Meh. That was my feeling after completing this step. I got a bit too much of the starving cow effect for my liking, and my seams let me down a bit. It doesn't look too bad in the photo below, because I purposely showed only the better of the two sides. You may notice that the worst of the seam work appears near the bottom, and that's deliberate, for two reasons. First, the bottom -- obviously -- is the least-seen part of the aircraft. Second, some of the more unsightly parts will eventually disappear beneath the wing fairings. So, if any of the seams appeared to be a bit loose, I made the upper parts tight and let the lower sides be the victims. BTW, if we think of the British roundel as the letter 'O', then the identification letters spell out the word 'DORF', which is German for 'village'. I have no idea if that has any cosmic significance. 🤔
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That I can take no credit for -- it is entirely due to the skill of the graphic artist who colored the model. These nicely weathered models can ruin one's appetite for kits that aren't thusly rendered. Ask me how I know. 😬
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Greetings to MSW/NRG Members and All Ships at Sea
ccoyle replied to Michael Scarborough's topic in New member Introductions
Amazing craftsmanship, Michael! Love the Pup -- I have one in my stash. -
Ch. 12 Vertical Stabilizer Perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, following the construction sequence given in the instructions takes us next to the opposite end of the model. Unlike some other kits, this one has the aft-most fuselage section and vertical stabilizer as a single assembly rather than having a separate stabilizer. Parts . . . . . . and done.
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I should add that confidence is high at the moment. My last Halinski effort, the Brewster B-239, never got past the cockpit stage, so this is already a big improvement.
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Ch. 11 Forward Fuselage This next shot doesn't convey how much work went in to getting this section done. The upper forward fuselage is wrapped in three separate sections, two sides and a top. Before adding these, the sub-structure needed to be sanded, and although the frames did have laser-etched fairing marks on them, there was still some guesswork involved in getting the shape correct (and I won't know if I got everything truly correct until the lower skins are added). The real problem, though, is that the very first frame, the round one to which the propeller will eventually be fitted, was revealed during dry-fitting to stick out about 1 mm too far. I double-checked the diagrams and part numbers to make sure I hadn't gotten something wrong (I hadn't), then removed the offending frame. After removing most of its material, I glued it into the topside skin, then glued that down to the frames, followed by the two sides. I had to do some very slight trimming and filling, but overall I think the finished structure is okay.
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Ch. 10 Cockpit Exterior Skins The first two exterior skins are on, though not without some issues. The aft section would simply not fit all the way 'round the fuselage, even though there were no gaps between the inner panels. Sanding the inner skins helped some, but did not completely alleviate the problem. I ended up with about a 1 mm gap along the underside that I had to fill in with some colored card stock. The glazing in the aft section is made from an overhead transparency sheet and glued in with canopy glue (yes, I got hold of some and, yes, it seems to bond paper and plastic tightly). Sadly, I got some glue where it shouldn't have gone and wasn't able to clean it up entirely, but it looks okay from a distance, and it will be somewhat hidden by the Malcolm hood when that is eventually added. After that bit was done, I glued the forward sub-structure together, here seen test-fitted to the cockpit section. You can see that it is quite robust. 'Till later!
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Ch. 9, Cockpit -- The Final Chapter After a week of work, the cockpit is finally completed. Here are the final interior photos -- the next step will be to zip the two sides together, after which much of this will be very, very inconspicuous At this point, it's still not too late to open up the port-side cockpit door. I haven't decided on that bit yet. EDIT: Okay, made my mind up. After perusing some photos, I find that displaying the door open would require some additional scratch-building (hinges, latching mechanism) that I don't feel up for.
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Some of the finest modelers I have known built their models in this style. Welcome aboard!
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BTW, Santa brought a very important part of my-probably-next-project (we do gifts on Christmas Eve -- long story). You'll have to stay tuned to find out what it is! 😮
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From what I read online, I gather that the inertia cable passed to a frame farther back in the fuselage. For the kit, the cable terminates two frames back from the seat. The harness actually has two sets of shoulder straps. The two in front are attached to the inertia system, and the two behind them are part of a yoke that goes over the back of the seat, down between the seat and armor, and fastens to a crossbar beneath the seat. All of these were fastened by a single pin at the pilot's midriff, so that in the event of a needfully speedy exit, the pilot could undo the single pin to release all of the straps simultaneously.
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Ch. 8 Seat, Pt. III The seat is finished up with the addition of its Sutton harness. There's a slight mistake in the way it's installed, which is due to a combination of my ignorance about the harness coupled with some slight ambiguity in the diagrams. I won't tell you what the mistake is. 😁 The seat and its bulkhead are now installed in the cockpit and the transfer linkage to the control yoke is added. The straps that extend aft through the bulkhead are part of a tensioning system that allowed the pilot to lean forward in his seat while still being adequately restrained in the event of a hard landing. The cables for the system will be installed later.
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Outstanding work and a fine birthday accomplishment!
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Congratulations, Andrew -- well done!
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Ch. 7 Seat, Pt. II The frame upon which the seat hangs first had to have some interior bits removed. To strengthen what was left, I wicked thin CA into the cut edges before edge coloring them. The head armor was then added. Next, the seat frame was constructed from styrene rod -- not the hardest piece I have ever built, thanks to all of the parts being thankfully straight. Finally, the back armor and seat were added, bringing the total number of parts in this sub-assembly to eighteen. A really, really nice little detail is that, where required, the printed parts in this sub-assembly have tick marks to indicate both where other parts attach and at what angle they should be attached. P.S. I also just now noticed that I glued the head armor on upside down. Fortunately, the mistake is merely annoying, not structurally significant.
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