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CANicoll

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  1. CANicoll
    Did a quick test-fit and am very happy to say that the fit of the landing gear doors is very good. Tight even. That being said I can see the potential for two issues: 1. For the entire center fuselage section there are only two locating pins, both on the same end (just top and bottom). Alignment will need to be done very carefully. 2. The join of the nose section to the center section may show a pretty significant fuselage line, but a larger issue may be that the two cylindrical pieces may be of different sizes. I think the nose section is smaller than the fuselage section. Will cross that bridge when I get there. But being able to close up the wheel wells is really good news as the plane will be hung from the ceiling with the bomb bay doors open.
  2. CANicoll
    The assembly continues, with some major fit issues. I'm sure some of the issues I created, and some by the lack of clear assembly instructions. So double whammy. This is how the cockpit is supposed to fit into the nose of the fuselage. There is ONE locator pin in the nose, which if you are going to have ONE, that is place you want it. I used the IP tub to determine where the cockpit should be located. Pushing the tub forward split the nose pieces. Uh oh... This gives you an idea of the challenge ahead... Here is where I created part of the problem not pushing the floor up onto the bulkhead, but doing so created other fit problems... The other area to determine the proper fit is the entry door: After clipping off the corners of the cockpit floor, here are the areas I had to sand down to get a decent fit. Same on both sides After some judicious sanding, and lots of test fitting, am able to close up the fuselage without a whole lot of pressure. Making progress, but this is not a shake and bake kit by any means. It is not horribly fitting as I think a lot of these fit problems could be fixed with better instructions. Just a shame nearly ALL of this can't be seen once the fuselage halves are closed up. Working on the bomb bay in parallel but also realized that I'm not sure how well the landing gear doors fit into their openings. Stay tuned!
  3. CANicoll
    Mark, What is that and where did you get it? Looks like something I need!
  4. CANicoll
    You need that up there!!
  5. CANicoll
    Thanks Martin, It is sooo smooth and, well, grown up. Pretty comfy...
  6. CANicoll
    Got tired of shifting (kinda) but mostly just the boy-racer thing with the WRX so traded it in. Got this 2021 A4 with only 24k miles on it. $10k + the WRX. Here's the thing, it is nearly half a second quicker 0-60 and has about the same top-end as the Subie. SOO much more comfortable and has all the modern car features (Apple Carplay and Android Auto) including excellent lane control and adaptive cruise control. On the highway and even around town I get in the mid-30s MPG. It is what Audi call a Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle with a 12V electric system to assist the engine at starting, low speeds and cruising. From last winter...
  7. CANicoll
    Pulled together the cockpit and again, the fit is interesting. Not a lot of locating help. But seems to be working out. Cleaned up some of the detail in the cockpit. The cockpit tub looks pretty good and the tub concept fits much better than the Italeri cockpit, which has more detail at the rear of the cockpit. These are supposedly the same size. Also the Italeri kit does not show the second level of the cockpit at all. NONE of that detail will be seen, but cool to know it is there! These guys didn't' have a lot of headroom! I'd have spent more time on this but... Some of the pour gates are really big, but all are on back surfaces (so far anyway). I did finally find some pictures of this area. Would have been cool to detail. Working on the bomb bay we again get to strange misses on the part of the instructions: it doesn't show the assembly of the bomb racks! Part A6 is shown completed, but nowhere in the instructions is how to put it together. It will not be hard to figure out, however. Base coat is completed on the bombs. Will do a top coat of darker green, then some color bands. The plane will be suspended from the ceiling so will be paying some special attention here That's it for now! Thanks for hanging in with me. Keeps me motivated to keep working on this beast.
  8. CANicoll
    Quick update. Painted and did some dry brushing and some detail painting of the PE panels. It is not accurate, but this will not be seen anyway. Hate doing it this way...There is a lot of detail there, but more could easily have been added with some decals.
  9. CANicoll
    I'm diligent about cleaning my Iwata, but apparently much less so on my Grex. Ugh...
  10. CANicoll
    Amazing, isn't it? With all of the solvents and cleaners, sometimes you still have to use a brush or toothpick to scrape out the mess.
  11. CANicoll
    This is soo embarrassing. My usually trusty GREX Tritium airbrush was barely putting any paint out. Spitting and sputtering. I ran cleaner through it, lacquer thinner, etc. That seemed to work so started back painting and back to the spitting and sputtering. Even back flushing didn't do much. I thought there must be a clog. Little did I know... Took the needle out and saw that it was kind of gunky. Then took the nozzle protector off and realized I would have to take the nozzle off - something I have done thousands of times with my HP-CS. However, I had never taken the tool out of the GREX case to take off the nozzle. I figured back washing and using lacquer thinner probably took care of the mess in the nozzle. Not so much. This is what I cleaned out behind the nozzle. That is a standard toothpick which I used to help dig out the mess. How it the world so much paint built-up behind the nozzle is beyond me. Clearly I was not cleaning very well at all. Ugh. I figured I'd share to remind especially the Grex users that the nozzle needs to be removed periodically to facilitate proper cleaning.
  12. CANicoll
    Made a LITTLE progress mostly because I ran into major airbrush issues (please see my message "Well, THIS is embarrassing"). Have most of the two-tier cockpit (I didn't know the cockpit was two levels! The Italeri kit doesn't show this level of detail) in Light Gray and the Instrument racks and PE instrument panels in black. All the black areas and the seats have a gloss coat getting ready for washes and detail painting. The bombs have an initial coat of Green but not full coverage yet. Here is my motivation for the bombs. They are greener than I thought they would be. Notice how high up the side of the fuselage the black comes on the plane: And my first coat of green. Had airbrush issues so this was the best I could lay down. The issue is fixed now, so hope to make more progress tomorrow. Will be layering a few colors.
  13. CANicoll
    Super job!! Not an easy kit and the finishes are amazing. I cheated and did mine in SEA camo...
  14. CANicoll
    Rob, AWESOME build! I've missed a lot, but glad I found this beauty. Love it!
  15. CANicoll
    Beautiful work, John!!
  16. CANicoll
    Looking good John!
  17. CANicoll
    Making progress and showing some of the peculiarities of this kit: Many parts have no locating pins. Such as the cockpit instrument panel tub: The instruction sheet shows this as 1 piece. Took me a long time to realize this is actually two pieces. Very cool that there are PE instrument panels. Not cool that there are no decals to go over the panels. Going to paint the tub gray, then the PE panels Black and see what I can do from there. The PE fret has plastic over both sides. Interesting. Good detail but wish I had decals to go over them. Some really nice detail on the cockpit walls for the various stations. I probably should have painted these before assembling. Hmmm Location information from the instruction sheet means dry fitting is mandatory There is some minor flash to address and I've already figured out there is a fit problem with this next step. The floor is too long to fit the next step. More on that later.
  18. CANicoll
    Hi Mike! This one is going to a friend. He has maybe 200 diecast planes in his house. No B-52's however. He's already cleared out a space to hang this from the ceiling. I'm keeping in mind where to hang the monofilament line. At least this kit has a full bomb bay of bombs to show off.
  19. CANicoll
    You mean these ones? Even how grainy enlarging the picture is, I think Carl is right. Hmmm....
  20. CANicoll
    Don't tell me that Carl!!!
  21. CANicoll
    This kit is interesting. After assembling the 54 pieces to create the 27 bombs, started working on the cockpit. The seat detail is impressive, for 1/72 scale. But literally none of this will be visible once the plane is assembled. I guess that is the case with all of the bombers. More on that later. Put the seats together, and there are no placement pins on the seats. Just have to eyeball it. Again, the sprue attachment points are on the join surfaces. The instructions give you an IDEA of where things go, but not much in the way of actual placement detail. Four square divots are for the seat frame to fit into - not that the instructions show that to you. But the detail on the side of the seats is pretty impressive, I think. I'll detail this as much as I can, just because... Now I need to find some reference photos!! Honestly, I did try and find 1/72 resin or 3D printed seats and bombs. Couldn't find any.
  22. CANicoll
    Oh. I didn't think about that. 😢
  23. CANicoll
    Made progress last night on the bombs. 54 pieces but the nice thing is the seam is on the horizontal so when the bombs are loaded, they won't be seen. Smart! What is interesting is how the sprue gates attach to each piece. It is off-set and on the join. Once I figured out how to cut the piece loose, clean up became much easier and faster. Sorry for the out of focus picture. The trick is to cut basically at a shallow angle from the join-side of the part. It comes away cleanly with minimal clean up needed. Helpful when you have 54 pieces to do! And done! Now to put them together
  24. CANicoll
    More from the kit. The instruction booklet is small (measuring a little over 5x8 inches) so the diagrams are, as well. Here are some sample pages. I have them all if anyone wants to see them.
  25. CANicoll
    Having given up on the Italeri kit, am moving over try out the MC kit. For one thing, the MC kit has a full bomb bay, with bombs, but NOT the ones depicted on the box art. Go figure... Also has PE panels for the cockpit, which really makes no sense as there is no way to see that level of detail, through the small windshield and windows of the cockpit. Also a pretty full interior - again, which will not be seen. At least the bomb bay detail is pretty good. Not sure why they bothered with the PE for the cockpit and sidepanels: LOTS of styrene: The fuselage pieces but not the nose: The fuselage is in four pieces; here is the center section with the bomb bay. The instruction sheet is disappointing. Will post pictures of that tomorrow, For a box of this size, the instruction booklet is very small, with no paint callouts for anything. Which also means the decal placement will require some work (and a huge magnifying glass). Will most likely simply enlarge them and hope the detail is there. Started on the bombs. Separated and cleaned up all 54 pieces. There is a slight trick to separating them cleanly from the sprues. More on that to come!
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