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- #41
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks guys. Gotta admit Kirby that resupplying myself with oil based products doesn't turn my crank as I switched to exclusively acrylics years ago due to smell and ease of clean up. I think the oil washes can give a superior effect but I'm not keen on using them. When washing, I've been using either paint or pastels diluted with water and dish soap but it can leave unsightly high water marks if not wiped away. Fine for panel lines but not so much for highlighting raised detail.
Anyway, as promised, here are some pics. The below shot of the instructions shows the limited info you are given to locate the pilot and gunner tubs:
Note that, if one were to believe the positioning for the pilot's tub, the seat position would be such that the pilot's back would hit the rear sill of the opening. Dry fitting the seat seems to put it too far back in any case so I will defer installation of the seat until after the tub is installed.
Using the above and having read some reviews, I decided to glue the gunner's tub, complete with shelf, to the turtleback such that the shelf was flush with the sill.
The pilot's tub was then assembled. It wasn't necessary to separate the bulkheads from the casting blocks as these won't foul anything. The tub is ever so slightly cockeyed as the bottom of the sides have a moulded angle to follow the curvature of the wing. These had to be filed a bit to fit and, as a result, the ends are just slightly off square. All this will be unnoticed once the shelf is installed anyway.
Here are the interior surfaces. There are huge ejector pins that need to be cut off. The edges of the openings have to be thinned as well.
Seen here is the work needed to make the rear tub fit. There is a moulded rim designed to align the edges of the turtleback but part of this needs to be removed. The reason for this is that the tub sides need to butt up to the fuselage wall as much as possible so that they don't stand proud and look too thick. Less obvious in the pic is the substantial removal of plastic from the fuselage sides where the bottom of the tub needs to fit.
With all that done, the rear tub now fits, more or less. There is a slight twist in the parts but things are flexible enough that I should be able to straighten this out at the glue stage provided that I work in stages to align the edges bit by bit. The short shot edge at the back has been filed square to receive a styrene plug.
Thanks for looking in.
Anyway, as promised, here are some pics. The below shot of the instructions shows the limited info you are given to locate the pilot and gunner tubs:
Note that, if one were to believe the positioning for the pilot's tub, the seat position would be such that the pilot's back would hit the rear sill of the opening. Dry fitting the seat seems to put it too far back in any case so I will defer installation of the seat until after the tub is installed.
Using the above and having read some reviews, I decided to glue the gunner's tub, complete with shelf, to the turtleback such that the shelf was flush with the sill.
The pilot's tub was then assembled. It wasn't necessary to separate the bulkheads from the casting blocks as these won't foul anything. The tub is ever so slightly cockeyed as the bottom of the sides have a moulded angle to follow the curvature of the wing. These had to be filed a bit to fit and, as a result, the ends are just slightly off square. All this will be unnoticed once the shelf is installed anyway.
Here are the interior surfaces. There are huge ejector pins that need to be cut off. The edges of the openings have to be thinned as well.
Seen here is the work needed to make the rear tub fit. There is a moulded rim designed to align the edges of the turtleback but part of this needs to be removed. The reason for this is that the tub sides need to butt up to the fuselage wall as much as possible so that they don't stand proud and look too thick. Less obvious in the pic is the substantial removal of plastic from the fuselage sides where the bottom of the tub needs to fit.
With all that done, the rear tub now fits, more or less. There is a slight twist in the parts but things are flexible enough that I should be able to straighten this out at the glue stage provided that I work in stages to align the edges bit by bit. The short shot edge at the back has been filed square to receive a styrene plug.
Thanks for looking in.
