airscale

mmmmm... bits to fondle.....

Hi Cees I wondered about this too, but I have pics of two Typhoon cockpits and in both the Artificial Horizon has 'toppled' like this. I have also seen it while researching the Spit, Mosquito and Hurricane so not sure if it is just what happens after sitting for a long time or why it might happen. A pilot chimed in on another thread where it came up and said whenever he takes his Cub for a spin it is like this so I thought thats how to leave it.. ..this is the 'pit I am mainly working from in Duxford.. ..the kit parts arrived today so I have scaled everything and the artwork is being finalised over the coming week - it's a stunning bit of engineering thats for sure, I have the tubular framework assembled as I need a 'vanilla' build to use in the instructions - it's quite wierd building something without adding anything at all to it.. TTFN Peter

..and hopefully a set of instrument & placard decals

thanks for dropping in Mike - yep everything you see is from our bezel or detail sets - I just use seconds that got bent or have something that means they are not good enough to retail hi Rick - thanks for asking - I have a little process as described below - helps with design & scaling if you have no accurate kit parts to go from.. Very kind! thanks Ralph - your '88 is looking mighty fine TTFN Peter

evening ladies... been a while since I have had any time at the bench (as I have been working on a real beauty decal set for the new 1/24 Airfix Typhoon..) but today got a little bit done.. ...can't believe it's a month since my last post - where does the time go? ...anyways..I had made some of the sidewall instrument panels and wanted to get the instruments kinda lined up now while they were still flat - so a scrap bit of card was used with the appropriate Luftwaffe 1/32 dials... ..then built it up into the console found in my references... ..also built up the sidewall and other areas... ..and a dry fit to get the depth right... ..I used some stiff brass as the basis for the upper panel above the pull-down seat... ..and again laid out the correct instruments to match my references.. ..after carefully glazing the panels I had an assembly I was happy with... ..and another dry-fit - still got more glazing & work to do.. ..next up the fold down seat... until then TTFN Peter

evening chaps ..got a few hours benchtime this weekend, so another small step forward... ..I cut out the kit weapons panel switch and fixed it to the cockpit false wall.. also added some switch gear from our PE.. ..the main sidewall is made from a scrap of thick card which needed some rectangular holes made in it.. ..the edges of these then needed bevelling as the real thing is some sort of pressing... ...scribed in some access doors, added handles and a hinge and started drilling out holes around the edges for the fixing screws... ..eventually had the false wall and pressed side panel finished up... ...checking layout with a little dry-fit.. ..thats it for now - back soon.. TTFN Peter

evening all ..managed to get a little bit done and maybe enough to be 'postworthy'... ..actually, I am embarking on my favourite part of any build - the cockpit. It seems no matter what the kit, I will always do my own thing - one day I will do a Tamiya Spitfire and part of me wonders even with something as good as that whether I will bin the instrument panel and start my own... ..anyways, after a lot of delving and rumaging on the web and in the manuals Matt sent I managed to sort of cobble together the detail on the fuselage wall on a print out. No special science, I just cut & pasted images together and shunk them to scale size & hit 'print'... ..this is then stuck with paper glue (Pritt-Stick in the UK) to thin card and used as a guide to punch out the dial apertures... ..I then needed some world class photo-etch instrument bezels and cockpit details - hmm, wonder who makes those.. ..started to add details to the main panel - all the other panels will be built seperately to sit slightly proud of this one as per the original.. ..the upper panel gets the same treatment.. ..and you get the idea.. ...lots (and lots) more to do but it's a start.. ..until next time my friends TTFN Peter

evening chaps ..thanks for such kind words - much appreciated ..I still feel a bit guilty for hacking the nose casting in half, but in my defence I hope to add a lot to the interior so hopefully John at AIMs will forgive me ..I want to add all the instrumentation and just wouldn't be able to do it any other way... ..anyways, this is what I had to destroy next - the forward fuselage interior... ..out with the dremel (and a mask) and I got rid of quite a bit of the structure to get back to skin level for the fold down second pilot's seat.. ..soon cleaned it up - I only went back as far as I needed as the door structure will create a new false wall to mount new panels to.. ..started to add the structure from card and fine brass channel.. ..good to get started, but have lots to do.. TTFN Peter

evening ladies so today was all about butchery - taking your nice new kit, thinking you know best, and taking a saw to it to cut it in half... ..I love the one-piece nose that come is the kit and I have spent some time admiring it as a casting achievement - however, I thought I needed to get in and work on the space in the cockpit and thought I would get frustrated trying to shoe horn things in - for example, I want to fully detail the side walls and add the pull down seat and all the other gubbins.. ..at this point I want to offer a public and very big thank you to Matt Low who shared a full set of Ju188 Tech Manuals which means I have much more of an idea of what I want to do - I post elements of these at my risk and hope Erhard Milch doesn't sue me.. ..here is the sidewall with the pull down seat illustrated - I love this sort of info... ..other drawings call out the station points (ringed in red), or bulkheads so positions can be seen.. ..and with a factory plan of the station points I can calculate what goes where - for example the seat goes between bulkhead 3 and 4a.. ..I also found some other pics after many hours on the net that show the seat location and details... ..so, it's one thing to know what stuff looks like and where it goes (and for me sometimes that takes longer than making it), but the challenge is how to integrate this into the model via this beautiful casting... ..ummm - I thought I would cut it in half... ..before I completed the surgery, I measured a number of datum points so I can get the nose back how it should be once I have detailed it - I will shim about 0.60 of card to make back the material lost through sawing it when the time comes.. ..now I have some space to work and two large bits of resin... ..this is where I will probably grind out everything and start to scratch the seat & side-wall details (sorry Pastor John..) ..and sooner or later (likely much later) these bits will end up as a Ju188.. ..thats all for now TTFN Peter

thanks Jim - interesting you say that as my first thought when I saw the one-piece nose section was to cut it in half laterally (sacrilege?) as I didn't think I would get the access to detail it as I wanted - now you rightly call out it is tricky to paint too I think my mind is made up - out with the micro saw... ..afterall there are no cahunas like the ones you use when sawing your new kits into bits and think you know better right... prolly back with the band-aids and filler pretty soon Peter

evening chaps got home to find the postman had been yippee ..now I have what I need to get started so thought I would share some pics for those that haven't seen the AIMs Ju188 resin kit before - top, top quality, I am really impressed.. before that, some other goodies - I got a 1975 edition of Scale Models as it has some good plans in it, I got the Wurth book and the ebay Fw190 arrived squashed from Korea - not that I care, I only want the BMW801 engine... ..these are the engine parts I will work with - the AIMs kit has engine fronts, but I want cowlings open so thought this would be the easiest way... ..so onto the Ju188 - some great instructions and comprehensive decals from Fantasy Printshop (who we use at airscale, they are second to none...).. ...this is the PE and a small selection of bags of smaller bits - there are bombs & ETC racks etc I won't be using.. ..beautifully cast tail, rudder & wheels... ..engines, nacelles etc - these are really cool one piece castings... ..the bit I was most worried about was the glazing - having just learnt to vacform on my Sea Fury I was dreading having to maybe replace the glazing on a 188, it would be a whole new ballgame, but here you get two sets like this... ...and just to prove how optically clear they are I put the Sea Hornet instrument panel behind one to see how good they were - I think the result speaks for itself, they are superb... ...the last and most significant part is the one piece nose section - another work of art.. ..I expect I will play around with this and maybe make false walls so I can do my thing with the detail - as a canvas to work from it is exceptional and I suspect built out of the box would be more than enough for most, but with my 'illness' I expect to spend a few months on detailing ..thats it for now folks - next time will be some actual building ... TTFN Peter

So, while I also have a DH Hornet on the go, my discipline has weakened and I am starting another project.. I figure all this stuff is in for the long haul so I need to just do my thing and enjoy building things I am a big fan of the airframes the Luftwaffe created in the heat of battle and of those I figure the Ju88 was one of those white-hot designs that held a purity and level of adaptability that was rarely matched.. ..but it was developed... so I have been collecting parts to build a Ju188 – not the peak of development (and I itch to do a Ju388) but even so the 188 is a proper aeroplane, a multi-tasked fighter/bomber so count me in... ..just to build the aeroplane has been a mission of collecting and accumulating (aren’t they all ) – so far I am at: Revell 1/32 Ju88 A4 AIMs 1/32 Ju188E conversion (on it’s way) G-Factor Ju88 U/C legs Eduard Brassin Early Ju88 Wheels RB Productions PE Luftwaffe Rudder Pedals Revell 1/32 Fw190 A5 Everything airscale does Slightly unusually there is a Revell 1/32 Fw 190. I have no intention of building a ‘what-if’ Mistel, but rather I read the early Hasegawa (& Revell re-pop) of the Fw190 has a full BMW801 engine which I intend to have opened up and on display. Anyways, it got here from Korea and for the £20 I paid I am happy it will be the basis for some magic I need to work on it Enough preamble - I like unusual colour schemes, so have decided to model a French Aeronavále E2 version that was used for post war Missile testing of German designs like the FX 1400 "Fritz X" and Henschel Hs293. Escadrille (Squadron) 10.S. received four aircraft that were basically built from parts found in factories in France, Belgium and Germany by SNCASE. Registered 10.S.10 to 10.S.13 there is still debate about the colours used, with 10.S.10 thought to be Blue and 10.S.12 green. The same post war scenarios abound as with Czech He219’s in that the suspicion is local (i.e. German spec) paint was used, however at the same time Aeronavále Hellcats & F4Us were in Glossy Sea Blue so that’s the way I am leaning for now... ..I have this magnificent book and fully credit it for anything I give as fact and maybe a few illustrations on the way – i only hope I can reflect the efforts made to record Ju188 history in my own way – thank you Pierre Dumollard Here is the only picture I have found of 10.S.10... Collection A Bissol ..and what may be the same aircraft, but crucially this time carrying an Hs293 (does anyone make a 1/32 Hs293, or is it included in any kits you know of – it seems not??) ... Just like the DH Hornet, there are no survivors to crawl all over or even find walkaround shots for, so my obsession with detailing is going to be a bit of a challenge... Fortunately, a lot of the aircraft is common to the much better documented Ju88 so it is really just in the cockpit I need to unravel the mystery, though I have found some period Technical Manual pictures which will help.. ..will likely take me a bit of time to get organised, but hey I think this is going to be fun.. Until next time... TTFN Peter

evening folks.. it's been a while so I thought I had better drop in with a little update.. ..this is more about what remains to be done, rather than what has been done, although small progress has been made. I have been distractingly busy in the real world lately - so trying to add the finishing touches and get G-AKRY into the RFI section ..got the U/C doors finished and have part built the jacks to mount them.. ..added some rather crass weathering (hey, I am still learning..) but then looking at the original the streaking is a bit dirty & random so I guess it passes.. ....also this is where the gear doors will mount.. ..added the oil streaks found on the gear doors - I really need to master the 'Haggo' way of doing things.. ..I need to add the rudder - it's finished but I keep knocking it off! so for now it is one of those final placement things.. ..have also worked out the cowl panel mounts - can't really see it here, but when fitted the hinge points and retaining cable all fit in this space.. ..I carelessly dipped the canopy in hot water to widen it for a better fit...... it turned white in my hands and a significant nervous breakdown was only avoided by re-dipping in future (miracle juice..) which thankfully restored clarity.... that said, there is a nasty kink in the lower frame now so I need to re-skin it.. ...so, after all that the old girl is not quite finished, but then there is not far to go now, and I know what I need to do... ..onwards & upwards.. ..I just need to avoid natural distractions like working on airscale's next little sojourn into 1/24 aftermarket modelling heaven... ..who would have thought we would have a Tiffie to play with TTFN Peter

thanks guys - very kind of you to drop in and leave me pearls of inspiration ..still edging towards the finish - sorted out a few more bits & bobs... ..I got a little more done on getting the cowl panels sorted out - the real aircraft has quite distinctive staining on the inside face of the panels where they closely cowl the cylinder heads - it's a sort of diamond shape... ..I tried making a mask from tape and adding some strip spacers at the back, but this didn't really work, so I cut it from thin card... also added some stencilling.... ..bad pic, but here is a shot of the home mix being sprayed on... ..seemed to work out ok.. ..then really abused them... ..and dry fit to check how it looks... ..then masked up the walkways on the wings.... ..and weathered them by chipping the edges with a blade and then using wet micro mesh to just ease some of the rivet detail through the paint... ..also masked up the interior of the canopy and gave it a blast... ..still needs cleaning & detailing, but getting there... ..lastly masked out the part of the fuselage spine that is under the canopy, up to and including the canvas sealing strip... ..need to clean some of the dirt wash off, but again with some gentle 'stressing' it is starting to look used & dusty... ...and all of it together... ..still more to do, so she is not done yet :ninja: TTFN Peter

wow thank you guys - you all say such nice things ...so, the Fury finally has an identity - now it has the registration marks on. I had some ad astra masks made about a year ago and they are totally amazing - easy to use and spot on for dimensions.. ..this is the underwing half of G-AKRY... ..and the best bit... peeling off the mask... ..turned out nicely - a testament to ad astra... ..and the other side... ..same process with the fuselage - here the extra masking has been removed just leaving the vinyl one... ..happy with this too ..I tried some Vallejo Satin on a test model but had uneven finishes so I tried thinning alclad satin kote with mr colour levelling thinners and it went on easily and nice and smooth.. ..so, bit between the teeth off I went to ruin my model... ...actually, it turned out pretty good - I sprayed it all over having masked some parts and left it to dry. Then it was covered in flory dark dirt wash and left again... ..after a while i took a damp cloth and cleaned as much off as I could, hoping really to just accentuate the panel lines & rivets.. ..put it together for a little photoshoot and this is where I am at... ..next step is to try and do some light weathering - I have a lot to learn (again..) so better see if I can find anything on youtube.. ..until next time TTFN Peter

I was a reluctant optivisor customer thinking, well, they will be clunky and if anyone walks into my office I will look like a right eejit.. ..then I bought some... ..changed my life completely - they are brilliant and I wonder now how I ever did anything without them highly recommended - think I got mine on ebay for about £30 and they are the most essential tool I own.. Peter

thanks for the encouragement Cees ..well, what a weekend - I think it has gone pretty well considering last week I was terrified of painting, and now I feel like I am getting the better of it (a bit...).. ..we have stripes! ..I masked everything up and am pleased to say the alclad held out perfectly - the only bit that didn't was on the brass panels over the exhausts... I must have forgotten to prime these... ..no matter, I think I can sort them out.. ..anyways, here it is all masked - and I mean all... ..after a coat of paint - I darkened tamiya red a bit, mixed it 1:2 with thinners and sprayed very lightly - the first coat went a very fetching metallic pink... ..also did the cowling panels... ..I think they came out pretty good and am very happy I didn't have any disasters... ...and some porno shots just for me to enjoy... ..well that's it - a fear conquered and now well on the way to the finish - this is the first ever airbrush paint job I have ever done after getting back into modelling in 2010 and is also the 1,000th WIP picture so quite a high in the little old airscale household ..until next time folks... TTFN Peter

thank you chaps - very kind of you to drop in and leave me some encouragement woohooo - today is the day! finally, 18 months after starting this build it has been painted - I have been beside myself with worry thinking I would balls it up, but I am pleased to say it seems to have worked out ok ..I masked up all the bits that needed protecting with tamiya tape and tinfoil around the exhausts so as not to have the tape damage the paint & weathering finish... ..then after a final wipe down and a lot of surface prep I coloured it in using alclad white aluminium - great stuff to use and very forgiving when the village idiot is doing the painting.... ...need to calm down, settle down, and have a look at the masks I had made ages ago to start on the final finish - luckily there is just a cheatline and the registration... ..I am off for a long lie down and a cigar... TTFN Peter

so, the old girl is back ..a few friendly nudges over on LSP got me started where I left off on the Sea Fury back in November - basically it needs paint... ..anyone who has followed this build will know how terrified of painting I am so I guess the next few weeks are going to be some of those 'kill or cure' moments.. ..I have just started using alclad and I have to say I think it is pretty forgiving to a bad painter, so I am building up experience and practice before doing the airframe itself.. ..I started with some of the sub-components - cowl panels, gear & doors and the canopy... ..thankfully nothing ruined ..I masked the legs and added some steel to the aluminium colour to try and get some contrast... ..gave the parts a going over with Flory dark wash - very easy to use and effective... ..will add more weathering later - the inside of the cowl panels will have quite distinctive burn marks from the diamond shapes on each cylinder head.. ..canopy needs the inside weathering (and a good clean..)... ..doors will need angled oil streaks from crap spilling out of the engine - anyone know how you do that? ...I think the legs may be a different colour if you look hard enough.. ..nearly finished.. it was only when I looked at these while posting I realised I was a bit too keen to paint as I forgot I hadn't done the brake lines yet... doh ..good to be back in the groove on this build... TTFN Peter

Hi Jim - I have only roughly cut out the parts so it wouldn't be fair to say its crap, but at the mo it looks like it will need a bit (lot?) of work... it's going to be a long while before I find out... >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ..been enjoying myself with a dremel and bits of plastic card lately - I needed to add cockpit walls, so thinned all the interior walls with a burr and sandpaper and marked out where the floor sits against the fuselage halves... ...then I was ready to separate the fuselage halves after earlier adding the rear cockpit area to correct the kit shape - used one of Radu's micro saws for a super clean cut.. ..soon I had the two halves again and was checking how thick the canopy sills would be after adding the skin of the walls. I found the answer was too thick... While I was checking reference pictures, I also found the cockpit sill is actually outside the fuselage on the the canopy rails that run all the way along the outside edges of the cockpit and down the fuselage ..this meant the cockpit sills needed lowering so I chopped out a bit more of the fuselage... ..here a brass strip shows how the rail is on the outside of the fuselage, and how the internal sill is lowered to the bottom of the rail as on the real aircraft... ...after a few hours of fiddling about with templates, and a failed attempt to make the walls by plunge moulding, I finally had the shapes I wanted. I am in huge debt to David Collins again for help figuring out the shapes & proportions - particularly the curved spar cover area.. ..they were CA'd to the fuselage, very carefully so as not to crack or distort the top of the fuselage halves which by now were pretty thin... ..lots of dry fitting to make sure everything checks out... ..here you can see how the side walls run up to the spar and how much they cover the hole where the kit wing would slot through... ..I am hoping I can just slot the wings in later on - will have to figure out how... ..lastly, I made a template to start making the rear deck that covers the spar - this will later have the ammo bins etc.. ..essentially this is the layout of the internal structure of a Hornet cockpit - the kit has a full bulkhead where the seat goes which is not right so I would have had to change this area anyway... ..it's now a blank canvas where I expect to spend may happy months fiddling about - tune in if you can stay awake... ..until next time folks TTFN Peter

Hi Mal - thanks for stopping by yes - have chosen TT202 I chose this one as there are a series of colour pictures taken on an air-to-air sortie on the South Coast with de Havilland test pilot Pat Fillingham at the controls. I like the simplicity of the scheme and the fact that the surface finish even on an all silver aircraft has many hues and tones. will be needing roundels & serial masks in about two years time

evening all and Happy New Year so... it's been a good 3 weeks away from the bench what with spending the holidays in the US - wild weather too, 80 degrees one day 40 degrees the next...still a great time had by all but now I am back I need to re-orientate myself with what I was doing on the Hornet.... ..I was trying to work out how to do the cockpit as HpH have not chosen the traditional route - you have to assemble the fuselage sides, put the cockpit in from the top and slide the wings through the slot in the middle... ..this doesn't suit what I want to do as I have lots of detail to add to the cockpit so want full and easy access to it in both fuselage halves before assembly - I needed to work out if I can insert the wings afterwards from each side and whether the geometry stacks up.. ..first a look at the wings taped up with the spar parts - these ensure correct dihedral so I will have to watch out in the future when I get to that.. ...this is how it should be assembled... ..the spar position is where it should be in real life when slipped through the fuselage... ..I mocked up where the headrest goes - this is not a full bulkhead, it is half the depth of the fuselage and sort of hangs in the air so the cockpit is all pretty open around the seat... (this is not how HpH have it though...) ...I added a floor and now I can see how it all goes together I will probably put false walls on the fuselage halves covering the front of the wing slots so I can assemble the fuselage in two halves - then I can insert the wings separately later...(much later...) ...I see lots of complicated cockpit scratchbuilding in my future and apologise in advance to anyone tuning in for an HpH Hornet build all the best everyone.. TTFN Peter

oh man... I just love tuning in to see the master at work.. ..another case where you make it look so easy Tom... simply beautiful - I can't wait to see this in the paintshop Peter

..bit peeved actually as the the ignition leads I made don't fit Cees and not only that, they are buried under and behind the exhaust pipes... so, never mind I can either rob the bits back, or use them in other places around the engine.. anyways ladies.. ..bit more done before we leave for the US for Christmas.. ..I started by making the ignition conduit and just added the ignition leads to this... carefully drilled the holes at an angle & threaded lead wire into them... ..also cast all the exhaust pipes for one side of the merlin, and the same side for the nacelle that won't have an exposed engine...these were sprayed with alclad and then a mix made up to discolour the pipe tips.. ..a bit of sooty weathering and I dry fitted them to the cylinder head - as you can see the ignition wires are now barely visible... ..the weld beads became visible with some careful painting... ..and dry fitted to the engine... ..pretty happy how they turned out, but then they do represent about 8 hours at the bench... ..just need to repeat the whole process to make the pipes for the other cylinder bank - jeesh will do that when I am back after New Year thats it for now my friends.. TTFN Peter

evening folks & thanks for stopping by ..been going slowly nuts here trying to sort the Merlin ingnition harness and the exhaust pipes... repetitive and tiny microscopic stuff.. ..first up the spark plug leads that feed into the ignition conduit - you can see they are an angled assembly with hexagonal fastenings and a ball shape at the axis... ..I bent some micro tube and made the ball from a drop of thick CA - micro nuts from scale hardware act as the fastenings... ..with some lead wire and assembled.. ..I added some Taurus spark plugs and laft the finish apart from painting the balls - have done 12 thinking the ones on the inner faces of the 'V' cylinder banks would be hidden - no such luck, I will need to make 12 more sometime... ..I also made a mould to cast the R/H exhaust pipes from resin... ..I had refined the master and re-did the weld beads - I was worried the tube end would be too fragile, but they turned out ok.. ..then I needed to make the 'siamese' rear pipe - I used the base of a failed casting and made the rest with card and big blobs of CA to fair it in - after quite a bit of shaping I had one finished... this one is in a mould now and it may be a problem getting it out due to the bridge between the pipes.. ..this is how they look with a dry fit.. ..thats all for now.. TTFN Peter