How to get started?

[looney]

Woooot I started painting... got some color on the cockpit and headrest (used wood-brown on seatcushion , and headrest) looks nice IMHO.

And for the very 1st time did me a decal 2mm wide and 5mm long... damn tiny but its on.

I got the old fotocam from my parent (As being single foto's don't mean a thing to me) I will put up my workspace and progress (or rather lack of) on here.

Keep in mind this is model NO1... be gentle

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Not to worry. No one has ever been thrown out because they were learning a new hobby. We all make mistakes and even the master builders had to start somewhere. Everyone here is very friendly and helpful as you probably have guessed by now.

 

[Airframes]

Sounds good mate, looking orward to the pics.
Mike, I use the X-Acto for saw blades and chisel blades, but the Swann Morton for around 98% of other work. As mentioned, they are extremely strong, the handle being solid steel, and I've only ever broken a blade maybe twice in over forty years. And that was trying to do a job requiring a different tool, when the scalpel blade was blunt and crusted with burnt plastic !

 

[mikewint]

airframe, i looked these up and those are the types i used though i not sure who made them any more. initially these were solid steel and had to be hand sharpened and stropped, toward the end of the '60s we were getting more of the disposable kind and i remember the plastic wearing, of course we really didn't dispose of them after one use. i'm going to order a set and we'll see. thanks for the advice

 

[Wayne Little]

Keep in mind this is model NO1... be gentle

Oh, we will be gentle, one big happy family....look forward to some pics...

 

[Airframes]

Mike - no plastic in the Swann Morton knives. They've been around since, I think, the late 1940s. I've certainly used them since the very early 60's, and my older brother did so in the 1950s. I can post a pic of mine, and the manufacturers details if it will help. There are some plastic / nylon handles around, which look the same style, but aren't the genuine article.

 

[mikewint]

the plastic/nylon handles were meant to be disposable. since supples were almost always short we just used them over and over so it was our fault not the scalpel. as to the brand? i have no idea but these look pretty much the same

 

[Airframes]

Ah, now I understand. I thought you meant you'd seen some today which were plastic. We used to have disposable ones in our medic packs too, again by Swann Morton.

 

[looney]

Made some progress.. Bought me a cheap €20,- dremel lookalike (it works so I'm happy enough) with some drills (0,6 till 2.3mm) drilled the holes in the wing for the MK 108 covers, and the hole for the SC50 wing bomracks. I glued the cockpit together. Drifitted fuselage and cockpit (seems to fit ok), added wings.... fits worse. Now I got to find some filler, haven't found a good cheap replacement yet. Any help on putty I'd apreciate.

P.s. about the pictures, my parents forgot to give me the cable to connect it to the PC .
And I have no idea how the pictures I took came out.

Found a cheap cutting mat with a knife so swan morton lost a customer for now. Kepe discussing them. I found I like this hobby, so I will invest more time and money into it.

 

[mikewint]

Testors makes a fast drying contour putty which can be sanded or shaved with a knife

 

[looney]

On a dutch forum they use the following: Carputty (alabastine brandname, water dilutable) and white woodglue. I think I'm goin to try that as it's much cheaper and easer to get than the miliput or revell putty

 

[looney]

Bohoooo when trying to fit the fuselage to the wing assembly there is a gap of 1mm at the joints Also cowling doesn't fit as good as it should be. A well need to practise filling also

 

[mikewint]

looney, try to determine why there is such a gap. sometimes irregularities like flash are not all that apparent. also plastic parts can warp slightly out of shape. airframes has an excellent header pic showing a model being glued together fuselage and wings. note the tape. you may have to force the halves together and tape or rubber band them together until the glue dries. don't expect a precise fit from plastic. wings often have to be taped up or down to get the correct fit. again note airframes header pic. there are times when i've had to shave tabs or open holes to allow for a fit. plastic is plastic and shifts a bit as it forms. use putty only if all else fails

 

[looney]

Checked the fit again, the wing consists of 3 pieces the complete lower section and the 2 top halves.. The shape from the front looks about correct (at least not wrong enough to account for the 1mm gap). So I sanded the fuselage to precise, or the kit has a flaw... in any case just place the wing and fill the gap is prolly the best fix.

My 1st piece broke one of the cooling fan blades broke.. No idea how to repair that, plus its behind a prop blade so i wont twell if you guys dont tell

Also noticed that when I close the canopy nothing of the instrument panel can be seen . To bad cause it looks ok (if you can look past that small part which hasn't been painted)

 

[mikewint]

looney, as i had posted to you earlier, some modeler go to extreme lengths to have precisely detailed models. there is a thread here where several people debated on the precise look and placement of the rudder pedals on a German plane. all of which gets buried as soon as you put the fuselage together and the canopy on. i just spent a month building the interior of a 1/48 B-29, interior seats, tables, gage faces, bunks, bomb racks, rear gunner compartment, etc. soon as i but the fuselage together, all gone, never to be seen again.
as to the little broken piece a tooth pick and a bit of putty, and super glue. if you cab see it you can reach it

 

[Njaco]

If you don't have the putty, gather some plastic shavings from the sprue and add a little glue to make a mash. I've used that a few times. Practice first before using.

 

[looney]

I'm using correcting fluid, works liek a charm on small holes I hope it will work on bigger gaps also.

I'm gonna try to add the missing cooling fan.. no idea how to though.

 

[mikewint]

there are very fine nosed tweezers available or as i suggested, use a toothpick and on one end put a small dab of putty, like plumbers putty. it will stick to the toothpick and the part. anything that is mildly sticky can be used. if gaps are small i've used paint to fill the gap. just touch the gap and capillary action will draw the paint into the gap. just don't glob the paint on. Gap-filling super glues also work, just be very careful not to get them on anything other than the gap

Njaco, interesting, i've done that with sawdust and wood glue, never thought it would work with plastic

 

[Airframes]

Looney, take a bit of time to read through some of the threads posted over the last couple of years. Virtually all aspects of filling gaps, what types of filler can be used, or made, how to do this, how to do that, have been covered at some time.
It's not a problem asking questions, we'll all help if we can - but the answers may already be here.

 

[looney]

Tnx for the hint, only checked out the build threads. Will check the hint pages.
Didn't want to ask my questions double, I was trying to convey my thoughts here. I did check out other sites hints and tips