1/72 Italeri Hs 126 B1; MTO Group Build

[kgambit]

Well I build 1/48 scale, that may be the price difference.

Of course it is.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Very nice progress. What do you use to cut the hypodermic needles with?

 

[Airframes]

Nice work. Is that the colour of the plastic, or a colour cast (in the pic) due to artificial light?

 

[kgambit]

Nice work. Is that the colour of the plastic, or a colour cast (in the pic) due to artificial light?

Thanks. That's the color of the plastic - sort of a pale sand brown. The photo's were taken under indoor lighting with no flash so the color is coming out a LOT more orangish than it should. I'll try color editing the pics or retake the photos with the flash. Check out the first post with the parts on the sprue. That's a MUCH more accurate depiction of the true color of the plastic.

Very nice progress. What do you use to cut the hypodermic needles with?

I first measure the length need and marked the cut-point with a fine-line sharpie. Using the sharp edge of one of my small files, I made two or three careful passes at the cut line to score the metal tube. The first pass needs to score the metal deeply enough to be a guide for the next two or three passes which just deepen the scoring. Once I have the tube scored deeply enough, I use my razor saw to finish the cut. It doesn't take a lot of cuts to get thru the tubing. After the cut is finished, I use a small hemostat to hold the cut length of tube and ran the end over a piece of emery cloth to sand the end flat.

(Emery cloth is basically a sand paper with the paper backing replaced by cloth. It's used by plumbers to clean the end of tubing before soldering. I bought a 1.5" x 6 foot roll of 120 grit Emery cloth at Lowes for about 3.50$. It's way more than I'll ever use - I've cut about 15 different pieces so far and I'm still using the same 2 inch length that I cut off the entire roll.)

Here's the pic of the type of saw I used.

Squadron.com

I had tried cutting the tubing with a pair of sharp wire cutters and with a box-knife and then hand breaking, but I always ended up distorting the tubing. The razor saw gives me a very clean cut with minimal distortion and just needs a little bit of sanding afterwards.

 

[javlin]

Some nice work there Kgambit looking much the part Sir.Cheers Kevin

 

[kgambit]

Some nice work there Kgambit looking much the part Sir.Cheers Kevin

Thanks Kevin. I kind of wimped out on the interior a bit. Putting that scratch built instrument panel together was just a major pain in the you know what.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I had tried cutting the tubing with a pair of sharp wire cutters and with a box-knife and then hand breaking, but I always ended up distorting the tubing. The razor saw gives me a very clean cut with minimal distortion and just needs a little bit of sanding afterwards.

That's exactly what kept happening to me. Thanks for the education (and link)!!

 

[kgambit]

That's exactly what kept happening to me. Thanks for the education (and link)!!

You're welcome.

The hand bending didn't work too badly for me but I ended up having to file off a LOT of the tubing to correct for the crimps at the bend.

One more tip - Once you get the tubing scored with the file, brace the saw and then hold the tubing and run it over the saw blade instead of bracing the tubing and trying to saw it. That way you don't end up crimping the tubing with a brace or clamp. I braced the saw between my chest and my workbench (with a suitable amount of padding) and then held the tubing with both hands to run it up and down the blade. Sounds a bit uncomfortable (and it is) but the cutting doesn't take that long. I mean we're only talking about a fraction of a mm that needs to be cut.

 

[ozhawk40]

Great tips there Kgambit and great work on the hs126.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Airframes]

Good tips on the tube cutting, thanks! All I need now are some hypodermic tubes, a bit difficult to get easily in the UK. I can get brass tubing, although not quite small enough for 1/48th scale work, but it costs an arm and a leg, plus a keg of ale and your first born! It's easy to cut though!

 

[kgambit]

An updated shot of the cockpit, with lap belts added for to both the forward seat and the observer's seat. The forward seat is not glued in place yet, as I still need to add the shoulder belts:

After this shot was taken I started airbrushing the fuselage. Underside of the fuselage is finished, starting on the upper fuselage.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Beautifully done!

 

[lesofprimus]

Lookin good so far man...

 

[Wayne Little]

doin' good so far!8)

 

[Airframes]

Certainly does look nice Dwight.

 

[B-17engineer]

Cool! Great work so far!

 

[rochie]

very nice

 

[109ROAMING]

Great work

 

[Wurger]

With all here.

 

[kgambit]

Thanks everyone.

I've double checked the fit of the all the extraneous bits that still need to be added such as the rear MG mount, the landing gear struts, and starboard side bomb rack and bomb. (BTW, I'll post a pic of that bomb in a bit - i swear the shape of it, with a Kopfring at the tail, looks like a 500 kg bomb which is definitely beyond the payload capacity of this plane. Want to see what you guys think.)

Underside of the fuselage is painted. Found a couple of small areas at the seam that needed to be scrapped so took care of those. I was planning to do the upper part today to get the RLM 79 on.

Unfortunately, I had my monthly doctor's appointment yesterday and while I was there, the doctor asked if I wanted to have a flu shot (regular flu, not the swine flu). Figured I was already there, leaves are changing color and the weather has started turning cold, so what the heck.

Well the injection worked like a charm. I woke up this morning with a raging case of the flu.