Hi Gentlemen, back from my travels, I thought that I'd better resume this thread but it hasn't been made easier that I've come back to probably the best Summer weather here in a decade, Temps in the high twenties, so the inclination is; beers in the garden rather than continuing with the build in a hot sticky room.
However I had made some more progress before I left and I thought if I at least got that finished I would have something to show. as I said in my last post, some painting mistakes slowed things down. This project is going to take buckets of paint so I thought I'd found a short cut with the new Humbrol beige green rattle cans but I was disappointed when I saw the result as it was mostly beige with very little green.
Photos 1 2.
I decided to use this as a base coat and checked what other greens I had against interior photos. I then tried a mix of Humbrol 90 (this is the magazine recommended colour but to my eye it's still too light) and 120 but when I sprayed that, it dried out too green. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph that result. My next mix was Humbrol 78, lightened with a little 90 and that gave me the result I ended up going with. I was aiming for an uneven finish to suggest fading, which could be accentuated with dirty washes. It took me three days to sort it, though.
Photo 3.
Photo 4. So with that mix I sprayed the fuselage section containing the flare chute/step adding the small brass instructions plaque before positioning the step. I had painted the floor non-slip grey and masked it before the green was applied.
Following the sequence from the magazine, the next assembly was 8 flares and flare racks in the section of the fuselage directly behind the rear main spar cover. The instructions suggest that you first mount the racks then individually add each flare separately. This struck me as unnecessarily fiddly.
Photo 5.
Photo 6. This is a reference I have for the flares and I wanted to scratch-build and add the restraining straps which meant pre-asembling each rack before positioning them in the fuselage.
Photos 7 8.The flares are die cast metal and the racks plywood. Both initially got a base coat of black before being positioned on the racks. The space between the racks were carefully measured to match the formers they will be attached to. When each assembly was complete they got a final spray of black to cover any scratches during assembly. I had gone to the trouble of printing some decals for the stenciling on the flares - I was feeling really chuffed with myself. Unfortunately they didn't work!!! Because I couldn't under-print white, the red just totally disappeared into the black. The decal paper was also very obvious in such a small size. Had they been applied to a light colour background they would have been fine but against dark colors - disaster. I ended up simulating lettering with red paint applied with the tip of a fresh cocktail stick. Not great but in actual size in the fuselage not too bad.
Photo 9. The flares have the restraining straps, made from metal strip, added and painted. Metal worked best here because it held the curves better when bent around a spare flare before being added.
Photos 10 11. All that needed to be done now was for the assemblies to be installed into the fuselage. Not as easy as I thought! In the confined space lining them up for glueing was a nightmare, It took the guts of two hours to position them, with much profanity. Holding them in position while the superglue cured was a further nightmare. Eventually, as you can see below, I succeeded. I am now convinced that, for the sake of sanity, in future assembly, it may be easier to cut away the tops of the formers and reinstate them after all the detailing is installed. We'll see as we progress.
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That brings me up to issue No 33. I started this build about 14 weeks ago now, so I'm still ahead of the schedule of an issue a week. The next few sections are wing parts, including the starboard wing inner trailing edge which contains the compartment for the life raft. But that's pretty much the same as the assembly I completed for the port wing a couple of posts ago, so I'll probably break the monotony by doing some out-of-sync interior detailing as well.
Finally, while I was waiting for something to dry, I went back to the cabin section and added the head padding on the former over the end of the navigator's table. This was a piece of twin core telephone cable sheathing, with the cable removed for increased flexibility, which was glued in stages to follow the curve of the former.
Back again soon, weather permitting.
Sláinte,
Gerry