**** DONE: 1/48 Fiat G.55S Torpedo Fighter - Mediterranean Theater of Operations
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- Thread starter
- #42
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Plodding on with the build. Flying Machines provide p.e. mesh faces for the twin radiator intakes and chin intake... Good!
But the edges of the intakes are a bit blocky and in need of thinning... Bad!
Right radiator untreated, Left radiator filed and sanded...
A few detail parts have been painted. Inserts for the wheel wells...
Exhaust pipes...
I find it a bit ironic in light of my canopy that was snapped off its sprue and broken in transit but Flying Machines seems to over do the sprue connections. Each piece features 3-4 times the sprue connectors as I'm used to seeing. Sometimes in awkward places too. Check the landing gear. In addition to the four sprue stubs, prominent seam lines and flash, two of the sprue stubs are on the shiny part of the landing strut... the worst place!
The landing gear was a two-session job... one to clean the parts and the other to paint/weather. I have been using a drafting circle template to paint the wheel hubs. Not as exact as masks but it works pretty well.
Fit of the two fuselage sides is good but care must be taken since there are no locating pins. The cockpit tub is dropped in from the bottom opening. I've added a spreader bar to reduce the wing root gap.
The seat is dropped in from the top and the bulkhead is glued into the fuselage.
The tail stabs are a so-so fit that will require minor putty work. Notice the front fuselage assembly dry-fit with Tamiya tape.
The wing is attached to the fuselage with Tamiya Liquid Cement. I wasn't able to get rid of the wing root gap completely so there will be some putty work here and there.
I'm going to use Alberto's suggestion of Milliput to fill in the cowling gun troughs but I'll have to see if my local hobby shop has it. This is holding back my assembly of the forward fuselage but I'm not in a hurry. The forward fuse is very fiddly looking and is comprised of four parts (top, bottom, left exhaust backing, right exhaust backing). Based on the fit elsewhere, there will be even more putty work required on the front end.
But the edges of the intakes are a bit blocky and in need of thinning... Bad!
Right radiator untreated, Left radiator filed and sanded...
A few detail parts have been painted. Inserts for the wheel wells...
Exhaust pipes...
I find it a bit ironic in light of my canopy that was snapped off its sprue and broken in transit but Flying Machines seems to over do the sprue connections. Each piece features 3-4 times the sprue connectors as I'm used to seeing. Sometimes in awkward places too. Check the landing gear. In addition to the four sprue stubs, prominent seam lines and flash, two of the sprue stubs are on the shiny part of the landing strut... the worst place!
The landing gear was a two-session job... one to clean the parts and the other to paint/weather. I have been using a drafting circle template to paint the wheel hubs. Not as exact as masks but it works pretty well.
Fit of the two fuselage sides is good but care must be taken since there are no locating pins. The cockpit tub is dropped in from the bottom opening. I've added a spreader bar to reduce the wing root gap.
The seat is dropped in from the top and the bulkhead is glued into the fuselage.
The tail stabs are a so-so fit that will require minor putty work. Notice the front fuselage assembly dry-fit with Tamiya tape.
The wing is attached to the fuselage with Tamiya Liquid Cement. I wasn't able to get rid of the wing root gap completely so there will be some putty work here and there.
I'm going to use Alberto's suggestion of Milliput to fill in the cowling gun troughs but I'll have to see if my local hobby shop has it. This is holding back my assembly of the forward fuselage but I'm not in a hurry. The forward fuse is very fiddly looking and is comprised of four parts (top, bottom, left exhaust backing, right exhaust backing). Based on the fit elsewhere, there will be even more putty work required on the front end.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Coming along nicely John. Those small putty areas would be prime candidates for filling without sanding
Catch22
Major
Looking great John!
al49
Tech Sergeant
[QUOTE=
I'm going to use Alberto's suggestion of Milliput to fill in the cowling gun troughs but I'll have to see if my local hobby shop has it.
Quote
If your local shop doesn't have Nilliput, you can easily find it at Amazon or on e-bay.
My suggestion is to buy "white superfine" that works better in modelling aircraft.
Alberto
I'm going to use Alberto's suggestion of Milliput to fill in the cowling gun troughs but I'll have to see if my local hobby shop has it.
Quote
If your local shop doesn't have Nilliput, you can easily find it at Amazon or on e-bay.
My suggestion is to buy "white superfine" that works better in modelling aircraft.
Alberto
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
I've used Milliput for around 35 years or more, but tend to stay with the standard yellow-grey type. I found that the white version can crumble or lift easily when doing very small detail areas, and doesn't seem to work as well when used wet.
Un-related to modelling, I recently used some white Milliput, designed for repairs to porcelain, wash-basins etc, to try to plug a leak on a water tank. The water ate through it. I then used the standard yellow-grey, which set rock-hard without problems, and stopped the leak.
Un-related to modelling, I recently used some white Milliput, designed for repairs to porcelain, wash-basins etc, to try to plug a leak on a water tank. The water ate through it. I then used the standard yellow-grey, which set rock-hard without problems, and stopped the leak.
- Thread starter
- #48
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Forging on with the G.55S. Still feel a little uneasy without a canopy solution in place but I'm trusting something will come through soon. In the meantime, I worked a little on the torpedo.
The fins are thin and fragile and broke during sanding even though I had taken the precaution of reinforcing the thin connection points with tape.
The torpedo comes with a neat P.E. propeller. Notice how little material connects the blades to the shaft! I have to be VERY careful with this!
The fin assembly is cobbled together and the prop is attached to the end of the torpedo.
The fin assembly gains a little bit of rigidity once it is glued onto the torpedo body. It also acts as a guard around the delicate prop.
Two vertical tail strakes complete the torpedo. This is stashed away in a safe location far from my clumsy fingers. The less I touch it, the better!
Moving on to the modular front fuselage. Here are the pieces...
Before I put the pieces together, I want to fill in the cowl gun troughs since this looks to have been done on the photos of the Silurante I've seen. I picked up some Milliput White from my local hobby shop. The main thing one has to remember about Milliput is that it does not react(bond) with plastic and that it can be sculpted like modeling clay using water. It can get a little messy but this the excess will be easy to clean with a damp towel.
After initial application and shaping using water, fingers and pieces of wetted paper towel, I get this...
After three hours, the Milliput is hard enough to sand. The Milliput sands nicely but to to help blend in the underfilled edges, I applied some Mr Surfacer 1000 as a sealer...
After a bit of sanding using progressively finer sheets of sandpaper, the work on the troughs is finished until the primer coat.
The four forward fuselage pieces are glued together.
I add the various little bulges to the front fuselage. The sprue connections are on the attachment side of the small pieces, which are quite difficult to clean given how small the pieces are.
Dry fitting reveals some fit issues, most notably on the lower edge so I fabricated a shim using sheet styrene. It seems to help but there will still be some delicate putty work after it attaches to the fuselage.
Once the little scoops and bumps are added, the front piece is ready to be attached to the fuselage. As dry fitting indicated, the fit isn't perfect.
While I go through a process of sanding/puttying/sanding/puttying on the fuselage, I'm thinking about how to do the mottled finish. Light spots on a dark background? Or dark mottling on a light background? I do a test run using both techniques and I'm not completely happy with either. I'll have to refine one of these techniques before I start painting.
The fins are thin and fragile and broke during sanding even though I had taken the precaution of reinforcing the thin connection points with tape.
The torpedo comes with a neat P.E. propeller. Notice how little material connects the blades to the shaft! I have to be VERY careful with this!
The fin assembly is cobbled together and the prop is attached to the end of the torpedo.
The fin assembly gains a little bit of rigidity once it is glued onto the torpedo body. It also acts as a guard around the delicate prop.
Two vertical tail strakes complete the torpedo. This is stashed away in a safe location far from my clumsy fingers. The less I touch it, the better!
Moving on to the modular front fuselage. Here are the pieces...
Before I put the pieces together, I want to fill in the cowl gun troughs since this looks to have been done on the photos of the Silurante I've seen. I picked up some Milliput White from my local hobby shop. The main thing one has to remember about Milliput is that it does not react(bond) with plastic and that it can be sculpted like modeling clay using water. It can get a little messy but this the excess will be easy to clean with a damp towel.
After initial application and shaping using water, fingers and pieces of wetted paper towel, I get this...
After three hours, the Milliput is hard enough to sand. The Milliput sands nicely but to to help blend in the underfilled edges, I applied some Mr Surfacer 1000 as a sealer...
After a bit of sanding using progressively finer sheets of sandpaper, the work on the troughs is finished until the primer coat.
The four forward fuselage pieces are glued together.
I add the various little bulges to the front fuselage. The sprue connections are on the attachment side of the small pieces, which are quite difficult to clean given how small the pieces are.
Dry fitting reveals some fit issues, most notably on the lower edge so I fabricated a shim using sheet styrene. It seems to help but there will still be some delicate putty work after it attaches to the fuselage.
Once the little scoops and bumps are added, the front piece is ready to be attached to the fuselage. As dry fitting indicated, the fit isn't perfect.
While I go through a process of sanding/puttying/sanding/puttying on the fuselage, I'm thinking about how to do the mottled finish. Light spots on a dark background? Or dark mottling on a light background? I do a test run using both techniques and I'm not completely happy with either. I'll have to refine one of these techniques before I start painting.
Catch22
Major
Neat!
Well done so far.
Jeff Hunt
1st Lieutenant
OOH baby, another excellent bird from your bench.
Cheers,
Jeff
Cheers,
Jeff
Love using the inside of the wing to test painting the camo. Simple yet brilliant.
Lovely work so far!
fubar57
General
Coming along nicely John.
Geo
Geo
- Thread starter
- #56
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Thanks everyone! I am deliberately taking things slow until a new canopy arrives. This has been a blessing in disguise as it has given me time to address the seam issues in a more complete manner than I am normally used to doing.
Crimea_River
Marshal
Great work John. The trough filling turned out nice. The camo scheme will give you plenty of entertainment I'm sure.
- Thread starter
- #58
JKim
Senior Master Sergeant
Yes, I am looking forward to a lot of fun when I have to commit to mottle painting.
I've tried another round of testing on the spare wing and I'm getting closer to an acceptable finish. I'm leaning toward the dark mottling on the lighter background. Light spots on the dark ground is a little easier but I'm having trouble getting an even coat on the spots. Still haven't decided on the exact colors. Toying with the (a) RLM scheme that Alberto was kind enough to dig up for me or (b) a hybrid of the standard Italian tri-color scheme: grey overall and a dark green mottle, leaving out the sandy color as hypothesized by some as a possibility for maritime aircraft. There does not seem to be a line of demarcation between the upper and lower surfaces, which are making me consider (b).I've been cleaning up the joints as nicely as possible prior to painting.
Moistened tissue has been stuffed into the wheel wells in preparation for painting. When dry, it hardens and stays put nicely.
The wing radiators and oil cooler are added.
During fuselage assembly, I must've snipped off the antenna support on top of the tail, mistaking it for one of the many sprue connections. As I was contemplating a way to scratch new support, I remembered that I had a spare fuselage...
It's a simple matter of slicing it off and mounting it on my model. I drilled a small hole in the front of the support to accept the aerial when it comes time for that.
The antenna mast on the fuselage spine is a surprisingly CLUNKY piece of plastic. That will not do!
I gave it a diet using a sanding stick and exacto blade. A little more svelte now. I'm going to hold off on gluing it on because I know I'll snap it off.
The wing cannons are not a great fit so I'll have to do some careful puttying and sanding at the bases.
No replacement canopy yet but I'm going to plod on. I've taped the broken canopy together and will use it as a mask for the cockpit opening. The prop spinner is temporarily tacked on using Silly Putty.
Painting is imminent!
Crimea_River
Marshal
Looking forward to it.
Jeff Hunt
1st Lieutenant
I am glad I got my ticket early for this show. Front row centre....now where is the beer girl?
Cheers,
Jeff
Cheers,
Jeff
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