**** DONE: GB-48 1/48 Avia B-534 Series III - Military A/C before 1939 (incl Spanish Civil War)

Yep. I've tried twice to tape over clear-coated decals and failed twice

Thanks guys. I stuck it to my greasy palms a couple of times until it was barely sticking and then just gently pushed it onto the decal.

Good fix Andy.

Thanks Terry. Need to do the same with one of the roundels on the vertical stab. Pushing my luck maybe.

Maybe re-touch the affected areas, and then clear coat again ?
May be safer.

Already done and reglossed. Just one tiny lift on a patch of red.

Good to hear.

Well, I've worked through the touch ups as best as I could without going nuts. There's still a bit of silvering on the number 5 but it's not really visible to my failing eyes. You can also see the pin pricks where I perforated the film under decal solution but it's WAY better than it was when I took the earlier pics.



On the undercarriage, I simply over-sprayed the stains and decals and reapplied new ones as Eduard provided lots of spares.



With the final gloss coat sprayed on, I was able to peel the masks from the pit, add the tiny windscreen, and paint the leather padding on the sill.



And now it's on to the rigging and getting the upper wing on. The rigging between the cabane struts was cut and CA-glued at one end and I did the same for 4 of the interplane wires. For the latter, Eduard provides 4 PE parts with a hole in the center that are to be bent in half, glued to the fuselage at a best-guess angle, and then the wires are to be glued to the PE parts. After reading a review, I decided to go with a different approach that was suggested. I threaded the rigging material through the holes in the PE parts, which are supposed to represent leather boots, and CA-glued the ends directly into the holes I drilled earlier. The PE parts are left loose and will be slid into place and glued to the fuselage once the rigging is properly attached to the upper wing. This will guarantee that the right angle is achieved and will make for a more robust attachment point. The rigging material I'm using is that Prym Knit-in Elastic stuff that I used on my Gladiator.



Oh, you can also see that I masked and painted the bare metal panel around the exhaust stubs and installed the machine guns.

On the interplane struts, I noticed something that Eduard left off the starboard strut. The pitot tube is provided as flat PE part that is to be wrapped around the strut but the resulting detail looks wrong. Rather, the pitot tube is connected to an L-shaped support that sticks out of the side of the strut and points downward. Also, the tubing from the pitot runs down the front of the strut and is strapped to the strut. I replicated this with solder, aluminum foil, a piece of scrap PE, and stretched sprue. The result, before painting, can be seen below.



So, if the stars align, tomorrow I'll try and get the upper wing stuck on and everything will fit perfectly........

Good work on the setbacks Andy, with a good result in the end......just remember it could have been worse...!

True that Wayne thanks.

The re-touching worked out well, and i doubt ant blemishes can be seen by the naked eye.
Good work on the rigging and pitot etc so far, and good luck with the rest of it - I hate rigging !!!

Thanks Terry. Only got an hour at the bench today but passed the big milestone of setting the upper wing and struts in place. No jig, no drama.



On to the rigging....

Looking good, and after all these years, I've just realised it has the look of a Hawker Fury from some angles.

Airframes said:

Looking good, and after all these years, I've just realised it has the look of a Hawker Fury from some angles.

Click to expand...

It does. I've always found this plane to be attractive and am glad that I scratched the itch to build one. Who knows, maybe I'll do some of the British bi-planes one of these days.

If you do, then the old "Inpact" kits are still very good - way ahead of their time when they were first released in the late 1960's ( remember the Gladiator I showed you, in comparison to the Roden kit ? ).
The same kits have been re-boxed by Lindbergh, Pyro and Lifelike, and can be picked up at very reasonable prices.
From memory, there is the Gladiator, a Fairey Flycatcher, Bristol Bulldog and the Hawker Fury. I have the Bullldog as well as the Gladiator.

Thanks Terry. It will probably be some time before I tackle one of those. I need to work through my stash first.

Anyhoo, I spent 2 hours rigging this afternoon and need a break so an update is in order. The first step was to glue 8 of these goofy little fiddly f!cking PE attachment points in place. It was enough to test my patience, which I have lots of to a point, especially in the cramped space where the cabane struts attach. The first two are shown with the arrows below:



With all of them finally in place, the first wire was placed. One end is glued with CA to the attachment point. The other end is cut 1/4" short of the opposite attachment, then a spot of CA is applied to the attachment point, the elastic wire is pulled to the CA with tweezers and held while my other hand applies a dab of accelerator. Works quick and well - usually.



The PE leather boot, as described earlier, is then slid into place, pinched shut, and glued. This wasn't quite as easy as I though but it worked out OK in the end.



And here's how it stands now. Once side is finished except for paint and the tie rod between the interplane rigging.



I'll have a shot of cognac after this is done.

Finicky but looks the part

I agree looks very effective