turbo
Staff Sergeant
Nice work on the wheel wells Andy 
<-- **** DONE: 1/48 Beaufighter TF X - Twin Engined Aircraft of WWII
- Thread starter Crimea_River
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #402
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks very much gents. Not much to report, other than the fact that I jumped the gun on decal installation before I remembered that I need to get a healthy dose of red primer applied to various sections of the aircraft. I only got the port side roundel, fin flash and serial number in place and decided to stop as the extensive masking needed (see below) risks damaging the decals. The 404 Squadron maintenance crews rather liberally applied doped fabric over the MG's, cannon fairings, and wing roots. Apparently the screws holding the wing root fairings in place constantly shook loose when the cannons were fired so the cure was to apply the doped fabric over them. No effort was made to touch up the camo colours.
Below you can see the masking that I started in the wing roots. The tape has been deliberately frayed to simulate a rough, brushed on application of the primer over the fabric.
Below you can see the masking that I started in the wing roots. The tape has been deliberately frayed to simulate a rough, brushed on application of the primer over the fabric.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Good stuff - should look very authentic when it's done.
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
Man, what a beaut!
Nice
Lovely work so far Andy!
- Thread starter
- #408
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks all. Just shot on some of the primer colour and pulled the masks. Too lazy to get up again and take pics so will show more over the weekend.
fubar57
General
Fantastique
- Thread starter
- #410
Crimea_River
Marshal
Merci George.
turbo
Staff Sergeant
Looking real good Andy, look forward to the red primer pics
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Me too - lazy git !
- Thread starter
- #413
Crimea_River
Marshal
Sheesh! Can't I even cultivate some hemorrhoids without you getting on my case?!!!
Here's the red primer reveal after the masks were removed:
Reference pics also show a patch on the lower rudder, possibly from flak damage I'm guessing. In this pic you can also see red primer applied over the field-installed radio altimeter antenna. Also, a bit of paint repair is needed next to the AEAF stripe.
Today, I masked and painted the starboard side. Yes, I'm a cheap ba$tard and re-use my tape sometimes!
By the time I got to the bottom, I decided to just brush on the primer colour since it was roughly applied anyway. The little eyelets for the UBC are disappearing fast as the most innocent bump sends them off into the ether, never to be found. Since this pic was taken only a couple of hours ago, I lost another one so I'm down to just one left. I'll need to dream up a better solution as the PE parts that I found were limited to just those 4.
Here's how she currently sits. The "C" roundel on the main wing began to appear in January 1945 and at least one pic confirms that my rig sported one at this time so I went with that. The Aviaeology reference also points to the dinghy hatch being sealed and doped as well so you can see that I also brushed on the primer there.
Tomorrow's session will be devoted to adding the remaining decals and possibly some of the final fiddley bits. Then it will be on to the rockets.
Here's the red primer reveal after the masks were removed:
Reference pics also show a patch on the lower rudder, possibly from flak damage I'm guessing. In this pic you can also see red primer applied over the field-installed radio altimeter antenna. Also, a bit of paint repair is needed next to the AEAF stripe.
Today, I masked and painted the starboard side. Yes, I'm a cheap ba$tard and re-use my tape sometimes!
By the time I got to the bottom, I decided to just brush on the primer colour since it was roughly applied anyway. The little eyelets for the UBC are disappearing fast as the most innocent bump sends them off into the ether, never to be found. Since this pic was taken only a couple of hours ago, I lost another one so I'm down to just one left. I'll need to dream up a better solution as the PE parts that I found were limited to just those 4.
Here's how she currently sits. The "C" roundel on the main wing began to appear in January 1945 and at least one pic confirms that my rig sported one at this time so I went with that. The Aviaeology reference also points to the dinghy hatch being sealed and doped as well so you can see that I also brushed on the primer there.
Tomorrow's session will be devoted to adding the remaining decals and possibly some of the final fiddley bits. Then it will be on to the rockets.
turbo
Staff Sergeant
Looking good Andy, nice work. Would it be worth putting a piece of thin tape or something under the red primer on the rudder to replicate the patch?
- Thread starter
- #415
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks Kirby but I don't think so . The scale thickness of such a patch would be insignificant and hardly noticeable in my opinion.
Lookin' real good Andy.
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Looks the biz Andy.
- Thread starter
- #418
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks guys. Going a bit slower than expected as there are a lot of stencils but here's a bit of progress:
The code lettering turned out to be a bit of an episode as the first letter I put on, the "M" revealed a slight mis-register of the decals such that a very narrow band of the sky colour peaked out on the left vertical bars of the "M". This, of course, could not be seen until the decal was applied onto the dark background of the model. I quickly decided that this couldn't stand so I removed the decal while it was still wet and returned it to the backing paper. I then put in a fresh scalpel blade into the handle and, with a straight edge, cut the strips away and then managed to tear the upper left corner of the "M" away. I then gathered the decal up again, wet the paper again, reapplied it to the model and added the torn piece. Thankfully it turned out OK but not perfect as you can still see a sliver of the Sky on the left edge.
As a result, I trimmed all of the remaining decals (the letters and hyphen are all separate) before dipping them into the water and they came out alright, though the middle "E" is missing a bit of the reddish trim on the left edge.
The nose art is made up of 3 pieces. The main decal contains the Buffalo motif, part of the W/C pennant, and the white lettering and base for the strike tallies. The second piece contains the coloured strike tallies, which is applied over the white base. The third piece is the dark edge of the pennant. I like how this one came out.
In the above pic you can see the plastic disc that I applied just aft of the nose cone seam. This will serve as the flange for the whisker antennae that were present on both sides of the forward fuselage and these will be some of the last items to be added for obvious reasons.
Thanks again for stopping by.
The code lettering turned out to be a bit of an episode as the first letter I put on, the "M" revealed a slight mis-register of the decals such that a very narrow band of the sky colour peaked out on the left vertical bars of the "M". This, of course, could not be seen until the decal was applied onto the dark background of the model. I quickly decided that this couldn't stand so I removed the decal while it was still wet and returned it to the backing paper. I then put in a fresh scalpel blade into the handle and, with a straight edge, cut the strips away and then managed to tear the upper left corner of the "M" away. I then gathered the decal up again, wet the paper again, reapplied it to the model and added the torn piece. Thankfully it turned out OK but not perfect as you can still see a sliver of the Sky on the left edge.
As a result, I trimmed all of the remaining decals (the letters and hyphen are all separate) before dipping them into the water and they came out alright, though the middle "E" is missing a bit of the reddish trim on the left edge.
The nose art is made up of 3 pieces. The main decal contains the Buffalo motif, part of the W/C pennant, and the white lettering and base for the strike tallies. The second piece contains the coloured strike tallies, which is applied over the white base. The third piece is the dark edge of the pennant. I like how this one came out.
In the above pic you can see the plastic disc that I applied just aft of the nose cone seam. This will serve as the flange for the whisker antennae that were present on both sides of the forward fuselage and these will be some of the last items to be added for obvious reasons.
Thanks again for stopping by.
fubar57
General
Pretty finicky nose art but it looks great. Sucks about the codes
Robert Porter
Senior Master Sergeant
Dang! Very good job, sucks about the decals but hey, same thing happened in use so, more realism!
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