realworkingsailor

There we go 😀 Thanks EG.
 

Macro is a little fuzzy. Probably from not holding my camera still enough. Need to add the harnesses.

Beautiful, with one exception, the front reduction gear cover should be grey... (your pics will give you the color) They were painted that way, (every single one) on the production line before they were ever shipped....

Hi all, 
 
So I've finished the engines, well almost, still the exhausts to add to the rear of them although I don't think they will be visible at all.
 
I'm pretty pleased with these though.
 

 
Shame that not too much is visible when built up... Dry fit test to see what they will look like reveals not much!
 

Looks great Dan! I’m glad the Yahu IP worked for you!
 
Andy

If you just want to replace the IP, try Yahu models. Here’s an example from a Canadian retailer:
 
https://thunderbirdmodels.com/en/132-aircraft-accessories/446-yma3210-yahu-models-132-mosquito-nf-iifb-vi-instrument-panel.html
 
They’re relatively inexpensive, and ready to use.
 
Andy

All the cockpit bulkheads have been prepped.
 

On the left is the assembled pilot seat, on the right, all the parts that make up the RIO seat.
These seats build up as well detailed as any aftermarket seats I’ve bought in the past.

I guess I stuck my foot in my mouth. I found this bag of seat harnesses buried inside the box along with everything else.

I am going to need to research reference material to determine an appropriate bomb cat load out. If any of you know about it or are aware of reference sources, please chime in.

As well detailed as this kit is, I am disappointed that seat harnesses were not included. Maybe I’ll rob the figures from my Tamiya tomcat in lieu of harnesses.

 

It required some very clever thinking to get all of this plastic organized into one smallish box. Once removed, it won’t be easy to get it all back inside if possible at all. I like the way they separately boxed up certain fragile pieces. There’s a ton of plastic trees in the box with much of it being ordnance.

Weathering  done,  but to  be honest  I am  self  critic-ing  it   -  not sure  if  I  have gone  over the  top?
 
OC.

Hi Lou, great to hear from you and thanks for the kind words.  I have the following book which has a lot of great pictures of both the civilian craft (including the Howard Hughes plane) and the military craft.  It's definitely worth buying if you're going to build this kit I think.  
 

Interestingly, the interior of the military craft looks very similar to that of the civilian craft, down to the interior curtains.  I decided not to open the model up in part because I wasn't too certain about whether the interior from the kit was accurate or not.  
 
For the wheel wells, the photo etch actually adds some nice detail like the rivets and the panels which seems very consistent with the pictures I've seen of the actual wells.  The PE is also really helpful to cover up that dreadful, hard to get to, ejector pin mark in the deep recess of the well.  Though, this is not an issue if you use the CMK wheel well replacement parts which actually fit better.
 
The kit is ok, and the CMK set is a nice add-on, but things like the need to clean up pretty much every piece, as well as the fit of the pieces, including the windows, the canopy, and the engine cowlings, make this a bit frustrating.  There's also the issue of no interlocking connecting points for the wing and tail struts (as well as a number of other detail parts) which is annoying.  Then there is the matter of certain details that are helpful to add, like the nose center rib in the book picture above, and the location and angle of the antenna mast in the center wing that is different from plane to plane.  Also, the tail wheel in the kit looks nothing like either of the two versions of the tail wheel on the real thing, so of course now that I've seen the actual pictures (the book above has great close-ups)  I feel obligated to scratch build a more accurate one, though not really looking forward to it.
 
I've started to lose interest in finishing the model, but am going to try to push through to get it finished by the beginning of June for the group build on LSM.  It didn't help that the model took a nose dive off the table last week and three of the interior windows fell off.  Thankfully the top two pieces of the fuselage had also loosened, so I was able to take them off and reinstall the windows.  If it was one of the windows further back I probably would have had to junk the model.  If you end up building the kit, I'd probably try not to be as OCD as I have been and just enjoy building it.
 
 

When this kit first arrived, I noticed that it is designed to use butt joints. I really dislike butt joints. Because it uses butt joints, no joiner strips are provided -- not even the sort that are typically used to close rings. Hmph.
 
Work proceeded on the first fuselage section. Regardless of what the kit designer intended, I simply made myself a joiner strip to close up the ring, which, as you can see in this first photo, is not entirely ring-shaped. It's a ring where it joins the cowl, but then flares to a flat bottom along the rest of the fuselage. The forward-most bulkhead is a simple circle, but the aft bulkhead has a cutout where cockpit elements will be located. I stiffened the entire flimsy-looking bulkhead with thin CA. I also painted the interior a sort-of canvas-colored tan, because I don't know how much of it will be visible once the fuselage and cockpit are assembled. (BTW, that's just an old, dried glue blob in the lower left corner.)

 
Both bulkheads required some sanding to get them to slip easily into the ring. Here's the completed fuselage section, now mated to the cowl assembly. The cowl has numerous blisters, which I will add later to avoid smooshing them while working on the fuselage.
 

 
That first butt joint turned out well. I'll be very happy if the rest turn out as nice. Moving to the next fuselage section, construction of the forward cockpit begins, so there will be a lot more elements.
 
Cheers!

The big bat is finished now, that I found the courage to paint the figures. The young boy with the broken toy plane is exclusively painted with Scale 75 acrylics. I had to strip the oil colors off his skin, because they never cured and I couldn´t touch the figure for further painting.

Thank you all again for participating in this log, which helped me a lot in form of encouragement and practical information.





































Cheers Rob

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.
 
  

Well, here are my feeble attempts in figure painting. I try to do one or two figures per build, but often shy away, because painting these is always like a burde for me. Nonetheless, i try to improve my skills and sometimes force myself to finish the figures.

The mechanic is painted with acrylic colors from Scale75, except for the skin, which was painted with oil colors.


 

 
Cheers Rob

Slow and steady progress. 
 
There are 72 parts per engine. You can't fault the detail. And that's before you put the exhaust stacks on.
 
If the rest of the kit has this much to it though, I'll finish sometime around Xmas....2026! 😁

Oooh, it's fiddly for my fat fingers! Adding the pipe work to the engines. 
 

 
 
And in other news the B-24's partner in the museum has arrived. 
 

 

First two cowl rings and radiator shutters completed.

 
Now I'm busy trying to make sense of the assembly instructions and diagrams, which leave a substantial portion of the build process to the imagination.

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.
 

The decal sheets included with the kit are extensive.
 
 

Coming Soon

Dry fit of engine number 1. Still needs a lot of work yet before fitting the other parts, there's some paint and filing to do so it fits together better, but I'm liking the look of it. 
 
 

First Cuts
 
Construction begins with the forward fuselage. One unusual feature of the Salmson was its powerplant -- a liquid-cooled, 9-cylinder Salmson 9Z radial producing 231 hp. The radiator layout featured shutters that looked rather like fan blades. You can easily see them in this photo:

from Wikimedia Commons
 
And here are the shutters as seen in the construction diagram:

 
The shutters are provided as a flat, printed part depicting the shutters closed, but the instructions say that experienced models may attempt to display them in the open position.
 
Challenge accepted:

 
That job took awhile, so that's all I got done this evening.