1/72 Short Stirling BIII - Heavy Hitters II GB

[fubar57]

Coming along Glenn.

Geo

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Those vac form canopy parts have come out well Glenn.

 

[T Bolt]

Pattle, it's good to hear you're going to tackle this kit. I don't think you'll be able to save the top rivets no mater how hard you try to keep the top joint even. I spent a lot of time on mine and I don't think it could have been any better but I still lost the rivets when cleaning up the joint.

I've been working away it it but haven't posted since the forum came back up so here's some progress shots
1 2 The tail being assembled
3 4 Improvements to the tail wheel well
The sills I has to add to spread the canopy
6 7 The installed canopy after a lot of shimming, filling and sanding. Not really happy with the fit of the Squadron canopy, and they have been really good other times I have used them.
8 The kit part for the bomb aimers window. I couldn't make the vac part work so I used this and filed it down flush with the fuselage then buffed it clear again.

 

[pattle]

T Bolt you are probably right about the top joint of the fuselage being beyond redemption, but I feel cheated by this old kit and I don't want to let it beat me a second time. What we need is brand new tool Stirling! I notice that you still haven't put the fuselage windows in yet and I know that they are glued from the inside, so I assume you have plans other than using the ones supplied with the kit which are pretty crumby. It looks pretty good and I hope I have got your patience when I start my Stirling.

 

[T Bolt]

For the windows I'll be using Micro Kristal Klear. If you've never used it it's very like PVA or white glue. You wet the window frame with it using a toothpick, then use the toothpick to draw a bubble of it across the window. When dry you have a thin, very convincing looking window. It works well on windows up to about 1/4" square.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

You have been busy, looks good Glenn.

 

[Wurger]

 

[meatloaf109]

Looking good, Glenn, love that 'pit!

 

[Wayne Little]

Way to go Glenn!

 

[Catch22]

Looks great Glenn!

 

[Airframes]

That's looking the biz Glenn. Nice work on the canopy too - it'll really look part of the aircraft once everything is painted.

 

[Crimea_River]

Agree with Terry.

 

[woody]

Coming along nicely Glenn.

 

[T Bolt]

I used the above mentioned Krystal Klear for masking some of the windows so I took a couple of shots of it, before and after it dried. I'll paint the model then pop these out and replace them again with Krystal Klear.

I was not at all happy with the kit supplied landing light cover, or the Vac replacement so I made my one out of the protective cover of a disposable razor. Worked out pretty good.

Lastly I put on the wings and am now in the process of doing some filling at the wing roots using the Krystal Klear again. Never used it in an application like this before but I thought I'd give it a shot and try to save some rivet detail. If it doesn't work I can always dig it out and try something else. Shouldn't be too long before I start slapping on some paint!

 

[Gnomey]

Looking good so far Glenn!

 

[vikingBerserker]

Great job on the landing light!

 

[Airframes]

It's really taking shape nicely now Glenn - going to be an impressive model when done.

 

[Catch22]

Certainly will.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

This is looking impressive!

 

[pattle]

I hope these pictures are of interest to you, any idea what the black outlines around the canopy frames are? I assume the inside of the canopy was partially blacked out with paint.