1:48 ICM Beechcraft C-45F

[shortCummins]

The kit I’m using is the ICM 1:48 C-45F/UC-34F, kit no. 48181


I’m building the kit straight out of the box, I’ve decided not to use any PE however I will be making some slight modifications myself, as these will be largely in the cockpit I doubt they’ll be visible on the finished model?
One major change from the kit options is that I’ve decided to use some Caracal Models decals no. CD48076 as I wanted a more colourful scheme than from the kits choices.


The scheme that takes my fancy is this one

The scheme is for a C-45G (longer nacelles which I’m going to ignore as I’m more interested in the overall scheme rather than absolute accuracy), early 1960’s Military Air Transport Service.
The scheme is mainly natural metal with flat black anti glare panels and flat white

I’ve not read/heard of any serious issues with this kit, the main problem is the attachment of thin parts to the main sprue causing snapping of the part(s), on inspection part of the rear landing gear has been broken before I removed it from the box so I’ll have to take extra care with these parts.


Next up I’ll be making a start on the cockpit and interior.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

I started the interior by assembling the crew and passenger seats in preparation for painting. Each passenger seat is made up four pieces, the ‘main’ seat, support frame, rear support and seat cushions. The fragility of the support frame(s) caused some issues, only one of the five didn’t break either when removing them from the sprue or whilst cleaning them.

Once all of the seat parts are assembled, I’ll paint the cushions separately, these do look really good.


Crew seats have different support frames, however these also broke when I removed them from the sprue. Once again the cushions will be added after painting.



The ‘glass’ was attached to the fuselage and masked, using a Montex set SM48421, to mask both the outside and inside.


To the Instrument panel assembly I added the foot-pedals and top instruments.

Here I’ll be adding some leavers and other bits'n'bobs. I’ll then have to raid the spare decal box to see if I can find some suitable instruments.

Here I would recommend using the Eduard PE set EDFE722 or perhaps the more expensive Metallic Details set MDMD4815 to enhance the detail of the instrument panel as this kit provides no decals and sparse detail.

Next up I’ll be spraying Ultimate/Stynylrez primer and painting the interior.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

To try and add some detail to the instrument panel I managed to find some PE leavers in the spares box and an air scale cockpit details set PE48DET that I used some PE equipment panels from.


I also found some spare placards, originally from an Eduard Mustang placards set, that I may add once the cockpit has been painted.

The seat frames and cushions were superglued to cocktail sticks to make handling and spraying easier.



Two bulkheads were added to one side if the interior fuselage


Everything was then given a coat of Ultimate/Stynylrez black primer





While I was using the primer I also sprayed various other parts that will also be painted in the “interior” colours.





If you’ve tried Ultimate/Stynylrez primer yet, give it a go, you’ll not be disappointed, over the years I’ve tried all-sorts from vallejo to Halfords to Humbrol, this primer is by far the best I’ve used.
The ONLY problem with Stynylrez was getting the stuff here in the UK however for the past couple of years Paul & Lee over at Ultimate* have been selling a re-branded version so getting it this side of the pond is now really straight forward.
I spray the primer ‘straight from the bottle’ using a .04 needle with my compressor is set to approx. 2 bar/30(ish) psi, however I’m not convinced my gauge gives a “true” reading!? So far I’ve had no issues

Next, after I’ve left the primer to fully cure, I read that it cures in a couple of hours however I normally leave mine for 48 hours, probably overkill as “touch wood” I’ve not had any issues with the Ultimate/Stynylrez primers, vallejo on the other hand… Anyhow next I’ll be spraying the interior colours and detail painting the seats and IP.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

*I have no affiliation with either Ultimate or Stynylrez, I just really like the product

[shortCummins]

So for the main cockpit/interior colour I decided to use Akan BS:283 aircraft grey/green


Akan (Akah) are really nice acrylic paints however they are difficult to get hold of, I sourced mine via Greece, they spray really smoothly using a .02 needle at approx 1 bar 15(ish) psi.

The engine bay and wheel wells were painted with Tamiya XF-4 yellow green, when sprayed over black primer I think it gives a good approximation of chromate.


Seat cushions were painted with Hobby Color H302 green FS34092


I’m undecided about this colour, I had hoped that it would be a darker colour giving more contrast between the cushions and seat frames, I’ll sleep on it and decide weather or not to change the colour.

The IP was left black with the foot wells given a coat of the Akan grey/green


I used Tamiya XF-68 NATO brown for the cabin floor.



Next up I’ll be .

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Detail painting the IP’s I started by first dry brushing vallejo 71.065 steel, and then picked out various buttons and levers with yellow, green, red and brown.

I also added some PE placards, you can see some of the superglue will need to be “dulled down”


I managed to find some decals for the instruments, spares from various Eduard kits and most from airscale’s generic WW2 RAF instrument dial decal set AS48RAF



I’ll add a drop of Micro Kristal Klear to each dial to give a ‘glass’ effect and then the IP will be complete.


Next up I’ll be adding a bit of light weathering to the interior, making some seat-belts an closing the fuselage.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Micro Kristal Klear was used to create “glass” for the instruments



Once dried this is what they look like…



The seat cushions were then added to the crew and passenger seats



Before I attached the seat belts I used Tamiya dark brown panel line accent to add a bit of wear and tear


Seat belts were fashioned from some old wine bottle/cork label

As most of the wine I get these days has either plastic “corks” or have screw tops so getting hold of this material is proving difficult, I guess I’ll just have to buy more expensive wine whenever I need to make some seat belts in the future. If thats not a “good excuse” then I don’t know what is.
Strips were cut using a ruler and knife, I made the lap belts wider.

These were then cut to length, note that one of the lap belts is slightly longer.


These were then sprayed with Ultimate/Stynylrez primer and then spayed with Tamiya XF-55 deck tan.
Buckles and strap adjusters were depicted with vallejo acrylic 71.065 steel


The belts were then attached to the seats


This is the first time I’ve tried to make seat-belts and I’m really pleased with the way they’ve come out, their not as detailed as a set of Eduard PE belts however, I’ve managed to make each seat slightly different, as they would be “in real life”?


Next up I’ll be installing the interior and closing the fuselage.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

Before the fuselage halves can be joined the instrument panels are fixed to one side





One of the passenger seats is also attached to the rear of the cabin


There is only location points at the front and approx 2/3rds the way down the fuselage so I glued the fuselage “in stages” to ensure as clean a fit as I could


The cockpit windscreen was a really tight fit



Next up I’ll be fitting the engines, landing gear frames and glueing the wings together.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

ENGINE & STUFF

The manual would have you paint the engine/landing gear support chromate however, on photographs I’ve seen these were aluminium, so I’ve over-sprayed them with vallejo acrylic metal colour 77.717 dull aluminium


The frameworks were then assembled and attached to their bulkheads


The main landing struts were given a coat of vallejo 77.717 dull aluminium and I used some thin wire to represent break leads


I had planned to leave the landing struts until after paint, unfortunately these can’t be fitted easily afterwards so I’ve had to fit these now.


I’ve also given the engine a coat of dull aluminium, the manual suggests the engines should be black but I think that would make them too dark.

The engine cover was then painted medium blue grey Akan FS:35237

and the pushrods black XXX


small holes were drilled to accept some thin lead wire which I gave an ORANGE 80% - DARK RED 20% mix, Tamiya X-6 orange, vallejo 70.814 burnt red

I know that these ignition leads? would probably have been black but adding a small touch of colour is me using my ‘artistic license’
Both engines were attached to their firewalls(?)


Tamiya black panel line was used to give the engines a bit of depth


The carburettor intakes(?) were painted black and then dry-brushed to give a slightly worn look.


The engine and landing gear sub-assembles were then attached to the nacelles




And finally the top and bottom of the wings were fixed together


Next up I’ll be joining the wings to the fuselage.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

I started by joining the two halves of the rear wing

which was then fixed to the fuselage

I’ll be painting the twin vertical stabilisers and rudders separately

The control yokes, crew and passenger seats were then fixed to the cabin floor


There was an issue when I tried to join the wings to the fuselage, they didn’t ‘sit’ together however this was easily remedied by shaving a little off the bottom of the forward bulkhead


The fit was then really quite good, I’ll check for any gaps, once its dried, but I’m guessing they’ll be small if there are any.



There are a couple of obvious gaps, easily remedied



There is also a couple of ‘sink marks’ that’ll need some attention


To check the ‘main seams’ I used a black sharpie…




…and filled the gaps with some sprue-goo, Tamiya Extra Thin with old sprue(s) dissolved in it making basically some molten plastic that can be sanded and re-scribed once cured.







Now I’ll leave the sprue-goo set over 24-48 hours before I can sand and re-scribe and then I can prepare for primer and paint.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

So after letting the sprue-goo fully cure I had to apply more to the sink marks in order to build them up to the correct height. I also notice that I’d missed the corresponding sink marks on the top of the fuselage.


Now that the sprue-goo has cured I can sand and polish it

A little re-scribing was needed, I used an ALEC Holly t0.2 line engraver


I've decided to add some rivet detail, I used a ‘Rosie the Riveter’ to create the rivets





The wheel wells and engines were masked with sponge and everything was cleaned with some isopropyl to remove any oil and dirt from my fingers, and then everything was given a coat of black Ultimate/Stynylrez.


laying down the primer shows I’ve still got some work to do on the seams.

Next up I’ll be painting the white fuselage top, anti-glare panels and fabric covered control surfaces.


until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Kevthemodeller]

Coming along nicely, great work those seems mate

[shortCummins]

Coming along nicely, great work those seems mate

thanks Kev

in truth I think I've made the seams worse but I'm getting there!

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

So I needed to do some more work on the fuselage seams, more sanding and re-scribing, then re-spraying some primer I could then start on masking for the paint for white top of the fuselage.



Ultimate/Stynylrez primer is a fantastic primer, it allows you to ‘feather’ the edges by using a sanding stick, therefore allowing you to make ‘patch’ repairs, every time I’ve tried that with vallejo primer it comes off in stripes.

The anti-glare and de-icing boots were then given a coat of Tamiya XF-85 rubber black and slightly faded with a thinned, 80% thinner - 20% paint, with Tamiya XF-69 NATO black


The fabric covered control surfaces were then masked and Tamiya XF-16 flat aluminium was sprayed.




I used Alkan MK7 white for the white top, the colour was built up slowly using thin coats.

the overspray looks far worse in this photo that it does in real life?

Yellow tips were then painted on the vertical stabilisers using Hobby Color H329 FS13538, I had previously given them a ‘base’ of white


All of these painted surfaces were then given a protective coat of aqua-gloss and masked with Tamiya tape in preparation for the polished aluminium effect.



Next up I’ll be spraying the polished aluminium.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[Kevthemodeller]

As I thought you've made a real good job of those seems mate

[shortCummins]

As I thought you've made a real good job of those seems mate

thanks Kev although I think I made harder work of it than necessary

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

As this is going to be an early 60’s aircraft and therefore wouldn’t have been subjected to the riggers of ‘combat maintenance’ I’m going for a ‘clean’ aircraft that will have been more carefully looked after.
So I’m going to try for a polished aluminium look, I’m going to use a new (to me) paint, K-Colors.
The first coat is their XW100 black metal base




For the polished aluminium I’m going to use K-Colors 61 shine chrome, the instructions on the bottle recommend that the black metal base should be allowed to fully cure for at least 8 hours.

I would recommend that you have really good light to spray as you’re spraying a reflective surface over black, it becomes difficult to see were you have sprayed very quickly as you can see(?) from the above photo, the photos below are after a 2nd coat…

After a few touch-ups, I then removed the masks and gave everything a coat of K-Colors XW100 super gloss



This is the first time I used the K-Colors paint and I must say I’m very, very impressed, I’ll certainly be getting more from their range.
My ‘natural metal’ colours of choice so far have been vallejo metal colour range, I don’t have a spray booth therefore I’m restricted to acrylics, for example I’ve not used Alclad lacquers so I can’t comment on how K-Colors compare.
Would I choose K-Colors over vallejo, yes I would depending on what effect I’m after, if I want a ‘clean’ aircraft then defiantly however, if I want a ‘well used’ aircraft then it has to be vallejo. The ‘current’ big plus for vallejo is the choice of colours/metals and availability, I bought the K-Colors at Telford, I’m guessing you can buy them online?

Next up I’ll be adding the decals.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

I’m using Caracal Models C-45 Expeditor set CD48076, the version I’ve chosen is 51-11446 USAF Military Air Transport Service from approx. 1961


overall I really like these Caracal decals, a couple of them broke-up however I think that was probably my fault, water too warm, the ‘stars and bars’ on the wing broke and also you have to add the ‘red bar’ separately.



the thin black line separating the white from NMF also broke, but didn’t come out too bad


The yellow tips will need correcting, I used the wrong colour and need to be slightly more orange

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ahAW6v]

All of the decals were sealed using K-Colors XW100 Super Gloss


Next up I’ll be fixing bits that have fallen off and then gently weathering her.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

I’ve used Ultimate clay washes to accentuate the panel lines and rivets, Dark Dirt was used on the airframe…



the excess was cleaned off with some kitchen towel



For the anti-glare panels I used Ultimate Concrete wash




Some very slight chipping was done on the anti-glare panels on the engine nacelles


Exhaust stains were added using Tamiya X-19 smoke


The exhaust were first painted with Ultimate/Stynylrez primer black primer and then dry-brushed with Tamiya XF-68 NATO brown

…and then dry-brushed with vallejo 70.814 burnt red


The propellors had the tips painted yellow and the centres Tamiya aluminium

the centre was ‘chromed’ using a Molotow liquid chrome pen

…and ‘chipping’ was added with a sponge and some Tamiya aluminium


I’ve managed to stuff-up the decals on the horizontal stabilisers, I thought that I had ‘protected’ the decals with some ‘clear’ but I obviously hadn’t, so when I removed the masking tape after I sprayed the yellow tips…

Unfortunately Hannants have the Caracal decals on back-order so it’ll be a while before I can replace these damaged ones.


While I’m waiting for the replacement decals I’ll be adding all the final bits’n’pices as well as some of the bits that have been knocked off and then take the final reveal photos.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

I’d knocked off the two ariels that are moulded onto the fuselage however I wasn’t too bothered as I wanted to represent a more modern style of antenna.


This was painted white and nailed to the top of the fuselage, it isn’t meant to be 100% accurate, its just a representation of an early 1960s type antenna.




I’d also knocked off the lower antenna, and to ‘rub salt into the wound’ the carpet monster ate it so, I fashioned a replacement out of some stretched sprue…


The excellent Montex masks were removed and much to my surprise I didn’t leave any of the internal ones on! You really can't see much of the interior, such a shame that they’ve put so much work into the seats.


I pieced together the rear landing gear, this was incredibly fragile and broke into at least 5 parts! and fitted it onto the airframe. I’m not sure how strong it will be in the long run?


After stuffing-up the tail decals I painted them using Alkan BS:356 yellow and vallejo 71.087 steel blue.



Next I’ll wait for every thing to dry, fix the tail(s) on and then take some ‘reveal’ photos.

until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)

[shortCummins]

So I’m calling her done


you can see the reveal photos here…
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=25771


until next time
as always, any suggestions or comments will be gratefully received.
rgds
John(shortCummins)