Danstream

Hi all, thanks for the likes! Few answers to some of you. Thanks Chris for the confidence, I hope to to fall now in a state of performance anxiety 😀 @popeye the sailor: cutting these small tubes is very easy. On a cutting mat I press gently the a #2 blade (the larger one) of a X-acto knive and keeping it perpendicular to the tube I let the tube roll under the blade moving the blade back and forth. Typically, within 4-5 strokes, the tube gets cleanly severed. You might need to press the tip of a steel needle inside the hole to clean up the remaing possible burrs. Kind regards, Dan.

Indeed Larry, I am going on without following the A.L. instructions improvising what I am doing at each step. This is also one of the reason why I am proceeding so slowly. Fortunately, I found and downloaded the instruction manual written by Chuck Passaro for the prototype of the Model Shipways Mayflower which is based on the existing replica and which I am using broadly as a reference guide. Best regards, Dan.

Hi all, some little progress on my build of the Sea Fury. The wheel bay got gloss clear coated, black panel liner applied and finally the satin finish was restored. This is the result with the bay piece glued inside the lower half wing: I also added two blisters (fairings of the fuel tank sumps) that Airfix forgot to add. I had removed the two oleos for the actuation of the central doors because they were all the time in the way. I will add them back later, after painting the belly and the doors. Before gluing the lower wing, I modified the parts holding the muzzles of the cannons to accept replacements made of portions of 1 mm dia. brass tube: However, I am not gluing the muzzles now. Instead, I will put them definitively in place only after having finished the leading edge of the wing and sanded the holes to get a nice round shape. This is a fit check to show how they will eventually appear (excuse the out of focus picture): The lower half wing could now be glued to the fuselage. This is the way indicated in the instruction, and it is also the way I normally follow in my builds to obtain a good joint between the wing root and the fillet avoiding the use of filler. After removing the centering pins, I can obtain a clean butt joint by matching the upper half wing edge with the edge of the fillet. However, in this case, it must be also said that the fit was anyway generally good. I am liking a lot this kit which is an accurate replica of the original, with nice surface details and, at the same time, it has a very good fit. In addition, I love the light blue color of the Airfix plastic 🙂. In my view, the few omissions of the kit (gunsight and compass in the cockpit and the blisters under the wing) do not detract much from the appearance of the model even if they are left out. That is all for now, Greetings, Dan.

Lovely model, wonderful finish. I would like to take a ride on that car. Best regards, Dan.

I am deeply moved by the story behind your build. I am also a father of a daughter and I cannot think of what you went and still going through. I wish you all the best for this build that I will be following surely. Warm greetings, Dan.

Good save on this model, Jack. Gloss colors are not easy, especially if applied by brush. Best regards, Dan.

The wing root filling looks fine. No surface details seem to be lost. Regards, Dan.

Hi all, going slowly on with my build. The cockpit posed with the left fuselage: As said, unfortunately little will be seen from the cockpit opening: I also added few details in the wheel bay which otherwise quite empty. The pictures of the real plane show a lot of components and an intricacy of pipelines. Clearly, it was not my intention to realistically replicate it, I just wanted to make the bay look busier and I used the tubing to hide some extractor marks that were not sanded satisfactorily: Once inside the wing, what remains visible seems OK to me: Finally, the wheel bay was primed and painted: That's all for now, until next time, Dan.

Nice and clean model. Well done! Regards, Dan.

Dear @Egilman, you are correct, however, the static balance of the surfaces was not introduced because of compressibility effects, but to avoid dynamic effects (dynamic couplings). You can see, f.i., balancing masses when mounted externally to the wing in aircraft as early as the Ju-87 or the Bf 109. It is true that I do not know the exact date for their introduction and I will see if I can find a more precise information. Greetings, Dan.

Hi all. just one little note in addition to the discussion above: Actually, hinged control surfaces (i.e. elevators, rudder and ailerons) are statically compensated. In other words, there are balancing masses - located inside or visible outside - that bring the center of mass ( or center of gravity if you want) of the surface to lay on the hinge line. (this is done to avoid that inertia forces trigger unwanted dynamic effects on the controls). Therefore, once left alone, control surfaces remain in their last position and are not influenced by gravity. Now, in most of cramped cockpits, before getting off, the pilot often pushes the stick forward to make room for his legs. This results in the elevators hanging down in most cases before the ground crew take the plane under their care. Other times, if a control locking device is not at hand, the control stick gets tied up using the seat belts and this might often results having in the elevators pointing up. I though you might have been interested about the above and it is not my intention to appear pedantic. Kind regards, Dan.

@Bedford, thanks for your comments. For your questions see also this discussion of Britmodeller: Gloss, Satin or Matt? - WWII - Britmodeller.com In general, during WWII, aircraft finish were matt to kill reflections of sun light beamed off along one narrow direction. A non-glossy surface reflects incoming light with a spread on all directions. (see what also @Egilman said above). However, it must be said that military matt finish in real size do not appear as dead matt as it is obtained on models with modelling paints. Often you find 'eggshell' as a comparative description. An eggshell looks smooth and satin and reflects light diffusely. On a model, I never use a dead matt finish, but rather a matt-satin one which in my eyes looks more realistic. RAF adopted true glossy paints for a period after the WWII. It is true that for aircraft which are already well aerodynamically designed, improving the overall surface smoothness results in an increase of max speed (i.e. a decrease of parasite drag). However, I do not know if this requires achieving a truly glossy finish for which the roughness needs to be really small (smaller than visible light wavelength). Best regards, Dan.

Very nice work, Bob. Dan.

Dear all, a small update on my Sea Fury interiors. I completed the cockpit bathtub with the still missing photoetched parts and added some more wear on the floor below the pedals, as suggested above by Ken: The seat was completed with the Eduard seatbelts: The gunsight was added to the instrument panel. As I said before, the gunsight was not included in the parts of the kit and the compass was missing as well. These are some of the few omissions in this otherwise very good kit. Finally, the cockpit is assembled: Clearly, the Eduard set adds another level of detail, at the cost of a bit of time (quite a bit) to be spent in folding and assembling the various components. The drawback is that all that work will be hardly seen from the rather small cockpit opening. 😒 This is the last work done on this model for now. I still want to do some more work on my ship before the close of the year. I wish you all a great and more 'normal' new year. Best regards, Dan.

Hi all, visiting this part of the forum stimulated my appetite for aircraft modelling, so I decided to start this little beauty that landed on my desk for Christmas: I always wanted to have a model of this handsome aircraft which was one of the pinnacles of piston, propeller driven fighter development. Unluckily, it appeared at a time when the era of piston engine fighters was at a close and jets were starting to dominate. It was, however, one of the fastest propeller driven plane ever, had outstanding handling qualities and flighted effectively against MiG-15 jets. It was exported with some success to other navies and air forces and, indeed, the version I would like to build is the one of the Dutch Royal Navy which is included among the options of the kit: I started, as you can easily guess, from the cockpit. I knew that for some reasons, Airfix did not include the gunsight in the kit, so I outsourced a Eduard detail set that included it. Assembling the photoetched details implied that the molded in details, had to be completely removed. Although a bit soft, the original details are quite alight. These are the concerned pieces, filed, painted and ready to accept the Eduard parts: The cockpit, being painted black, presents a small challenge because there is the risk that it will appear just as a black hole. A true black color does not have a place in my models, hence I painted all the parts with NATO black. To highlight some details and add a bit of a 'lived' look, I brushed some pastel powder on the more exposed parts. I also added footstraps to the rudder pedals that looked a bit basic otherwise. Then, I started to add the photoetched parts getting this intermediate result: Indeed, the instrument panel looks quite well detailed and I am pleased with the outcome so far. At the moment, there are still a large number of parts still to be added and it is not advisable to rush with them, so I will need some more days to complete this work. That is all for now, to the next time, Dan.

@Javlin, indeed. The only limit that I keep, as far as possible, is the observation of period pictures. For example, I saw on a picture showing the underwing of a Spitfire, that the panels below the guns had a slightly different shade than the rest. 😉 Dan.

Hi Mike, surely you can try different colors. Just as an example, for the white part of my Spitfire this is what I started with: ... and this is what I ended up with, before weathering: There is no limit to creativity and experimentation. 🙂 Greetings, Dan.

For a naval plane, the black basing can give very appropriate and interesting paint effects. Especially if you apply light mottles before the final paint. It might result in a non uniform top color that is seen often in period pictures. I did that on my Arado build and I was satisfied with the results. About chipping, I would not be too obsessed about that. Even if you can see some chipping in pictures, there must have been a time when the plane did not have that. If you want to depict a worn and beaten plane, you can always add some later. I have the impression that if you apply the black, followed by whatever else treatments then you deny its effects if you cover it with metallic paint. Of course, the model is yours and yours is the choice. Greetings, Dan.

Great, better than before. Waiting for seeing it completed. Greetings, Dan.

Tamiya panel accent liner (I assume this is the wash you refer to) goes over the Tamiya gloss. If you apply it on matt finish, it will not run and it will get absorbed by the roughness of the paint and it will not get removed anymore. But note that it is not acrylic solvent based (otherwise it would dissolve the base color). It can be removed by its specific solvent or turpentine (white spirit). Basically, it works as an oil color wash. Please try it out on a sample before. Dan.

Nice job on the instrument panel. Greetings, Dan.

Hi, I glued a small wale (I do not know the term for it) on top of the upper edge of the planking that I recreated as shown in my post above: Then, I went up with few strakes to form the bulwarks. I had to shape the planks quite precisely because I do not have any bulkhead extensions to support them. I interposed pieces of tape between the planks for those parts that I will remove later. Inside, I prepared the capstan and glued additional strips along the borders of the deck. Work proceeded very slowly, but I hope to speed it up during the festivity break. Until next time, Dan.

I have done it in reverse, i.e. gluing the lower part first and then, after removing the centering pins, the two upper halves making sure that the junction at the root is tight and nice. Certainly, you might have a small mismatch between the parts of some fraction of mm. At the tips, it is not a problem because few strokes of a sanding stick will solve the issue. The most visible drawback is the alignment of the panel lines at the leading edge and the holes of the guns. For the panel lines, I anyway end up with rescribing them because I putty and sand the junction at the leading edge. The holes of the guns should not be a problem in your case because I understand that they are located on separate parts to be glued in place afterwards. Good luck, Dan.

I like how you managed to highlight details on the otherwise dark colored surfaces. Very nice build! Greetings, Dan.

Nice to have the hand grip carved out. If you leave it open, you might want later to extend also the footstep located on the underside of the wing root. The two were mechanically linked (the hand grip opened when the footstep was extended). Best regards, Dan.