2 humps of a Camel - WnW

[Garion77]

Hello everyone !
and welcome back to another installment of a buddy build of two versions of the same WW I plane with my friend Digger. Last time we brought you two versions of the Pfalz D. IIIa. We loved the experience so much that we have been talking for a while to do another one. And now it will be the Sopwith F.1 Camel, Le Rhône for me, from Wingnut Wings.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Be sure to follow @digger303 build as soon as he starts posting it on the forum !

To start everything, here are a few pictures of what's inside the box :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
We'll see if I use the roundels or paint them. As my previous experience with the WnW was a love and hate one. The lozenge fabrics decals on the Pfalz were awful to work with and had to settle for the Avviattic instead through the build.

Being a WnW kit, only one extra was bought, the Wicker seat as the one included is not close to the level of details of the Barricudda one. I searched for the MG of my version but couldn't find them. And decided to try the WnW seatbelt this time.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

We'll see later a bit better the difference.
The box content is pretty small compare to the Pfalz. Half the sprues.

I have chosen a bit of different scheme :
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The engine being covered much will be detailed a bit but not as much as the Pfalz where I made spark plugs and all sorts of lines and wires. As for the dreaded rigging ! Well I think the task will be easier then the Pfalz and they will be not turnbuckles as they are none one the real thing except in a few areas with a flat end. I will use all sorts of wires for that and Prizm elastic wire to recreate the flat wires used.

OK !! Let's start ! not much was done as we were hit by 2 huge snow storms back to back. So I spent must of my time shoveling here and my mom's house. I started by removing parts that will be painted in aluminum and wood, and carefully cleaning them. And that's when the first problem occurred, and a big one.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

This is a picture of one of the wooden side walls. The part as the wooden struts that supports the top wing. And you can see, pointed by the file, a part was already broken. The part that goes into the wing !! I can not find it for now so I have to find a solution ! anyone as a suggestion ????

So moving on ! As I'm preparing the wooden parts, I had to already tackle the wicker seat.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Because the seat is supported by a wooden frame. So removing it carefully with razor saw. It will help to paint the wood area. As you can see, the new one is much better :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I will use the WnW to bend the PE belts.

So not much for now. I'll try advancing more and post again tomorrow. Thank you for reading. And hope someone can help me with my problem !

[RangerNeil]

Also following this one with interest!

[Stokesy44]

Nice start, count me in

[Garion77]

Hello everyone !
here's a small update on my part for the 2 versions of the Camel. Not much going on as I'm submerge by regular work. And like my other WnW build, you spent lots of time looking at the instructions, planning the steps ahead and cleaning small plastic parts !
I'm trying for this WnW kit, being a bit faster and going a few steps ahead as I do with other builds. What I did not do for my first kit as wanted to get experience. The instructions of WnW could be greatly simplified. Yes they are good but to much information cramp up and you risk of missing something.
So trying to make progress faster as I said, all the cockpit and engines pieces we're cute, cleaned and a few of them primed.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
(sorry for the bad picture)

Speaking of cleaning parts... a few gave me headaches with how small they are or with nice details near the attachment sprue. One piece that was quite hard to clean and quite fragile was the push rods and induction pipes
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I used the blue tack to hold it and solidify everything whilst doing so. But in the end I stopped because the end parts won't show because of the engine cowl.

Another problem I had while cleaning the parts was with the MG. I'm using the kit's ones and while cleaning one of the chute, it flew of in the air and never found it again.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I was starting to plan how I could scratch build the missing one when I had the idea to dry-fit everything to see how much would show.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
As you can see, almost nothing ! So the hell with it. may be I'll find it during the build.

Something I was quite surprise with the kit, was a few mistakes on WnW side ! You have to drill a few holes in the fuselage for the rigging. You have marks on the inside to show you where but must of them were misplace. So I had to carefully drill another one from the outside and fill the wrong ones.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
You can see the wrong one on the picture. They were in total 3 misplace holes. It was suppose to come out right out of the small thing you see right above it.

Here you can see more of it and with one hole in the right place.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Also took care of a few ejection pin marks as I wasn't sure they would show or not
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So I'm about to ready to prime more parts and afterward paint the wood effect. But I have to take care first of my broken piece and I had shown in my previous post
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Dryfitted it again to try to get an idea on how to
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Even try the wing on it. I see it doesn't to be solid but it has to look a minimum decent. @digger303 suggested PE. It think for now it's a good idea as it would bend the correct way easily.

Speaking of him ! don't forget to follow his build also !

Cheers !

[digger303]

Loads of progress in many area's. One part that amused me in looking at your engine part with the push rods/ induction pipes. Academy just gave up and gave me a part with no induction piping, but extra push rods
Your going well Francis keep up the good work.

[aur0ra145]

Nice looking kit. The after market wicker chair looks very good!

[Garion77]

Well seems I'm having a string of bad lucks with WnW kits ! Had a few with my Pfalz (decals, varnish, broken pieces, etc.) and it seems to have follow on that build that I've just started !! So last night, I started priming all what would be wooden areas with Tamiya's white primer decanted from a rattle can. I think white works better for wood and fabrics area. And Tamiya's is great, love it much more then the white from Ultimate. So everything was going well

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

After all those small pieces, it was time for the interior of the fuselage halves... when I tried to took on that was sitting on top the paper towel laid onnthe desk, it lifted it up and at the same time, made a cup spilled on everything that had lacquer thinner in it...

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

You can't see on the picture, but the front end of one of the halves looks exactly like that... and they're tone of details there. The only solution I can think of is carefully sand everything... boy ! lets hope it comes back ok and that I don't loose any details. That will put me back on the build taking care of that and still have to repair the broken part.

[Garion77]

Hello everyone ! welcome back !
Having the coldest weekend of the winter (lower then -30 C with the wind), we all stayed inside to get warm

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I took advantage of new free time to go back to the bench... and finish repairing my previous lacquer thinner spill on parts.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So after careful sanding and polishing then priming ; and again sanding and polishing and priming, it came to a satisfying point ; except for the interior for which I don't care much as we don't see a thing in WW I planes.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So now, I could start painting !

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
In the above pictures you can see the main parts. Allclad aluminum for the metal parts. In prevision of a "dark wood" on the struts, sidewalls and cockpit frame I used Vallejo Model Color German Came Beige. Had problem spraying that one and I think I didn't shake the bottle enough. So it layed down a bit funny but I'm thinking about leaving it as it will add to effect of wood once I use oil paints. For the "light wood" effect on the instrument panel and feet resting place, I used Vallejo Model Color Desert Yellow. By the way, spraying Vallejo's Model range is quite easy when using VMS thinner. No dry tip at all. For the fabric area inside the fuselage, I used AK's 3rd gen Buff. And finally for the first part of the wicker seat I used Vallejo Model Color tan yellow.

Here are the metal parts for the engine and the rest of the cockpit.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I used Allclad's aluminum and steel for the cylinders. And Tamiya lacquer silver for the other parts.

But, I forgot spraying a gloss black for the cylinders...as the other parts don't really need it in my opinion.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
What do you think about the cylinders ?? I'm thinking of starting over to add the gloss back. But as all engines...not much will show !

Next up, still have to figure out a way to repair my broken strut I showed in my first post and I hope to find time to start the oil paints for the wooden parts and leave that drying for the weekend while I leave for a few days on a blackjack trip. But first, I have the brush paint all the small details.

Take care everyone one !

[digger303]

Making some good progress.

[aur0ra145]

That is cold! The dog staring the the fire is funny, my golden will do the same thing.

Metal parts look like they're coming along well!

[digger303]

That is cold! The dog staring the the fire is funny, my golden will do the same thing.

Metal parts look like they're coming along well!

Got a scottish terrier and he will lay in front of the electric fire even when the heat is off and there is just the image....Mind over matter I guess.

[Garion77]

Hello ! time for a much needed update !

Last time, everything was prepared for the upcoming wood painting. But I first had to repair one bracket of the struts that was broken and had showed in previous update. So I decided to use a plastic sheet. Cutting it and filing to be about the same form and size. After a few attempts, that was the best I could come up with

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

As you can see, the part being so small, it was a bit damaged in the process... so I use Vallejo putty to smooth it a bit and come out ok to me.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
That's considering the fact that it's just beneath the top wing and won't show much.

So you can see a bit of preview also of my wood treatment on the previous picture and on the following one...
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
which I'm happy with but not fully. You see, the difference is oil paint quality plays a big factor when doing it. The colors I needed, and had already with me, are a generic brand from a chain of art supply store here. And it does a much more "grainy" finish then let's say a Windsor and newton or other known brand. So even, it's all been done, I haven't put a varnish on yet because I'm still thinking may be trying to wipe more a bit with a brush and white spirit. So that's also why the parts are still missing a wash to finish them off.

In choosing the colors I needed, I compared the reference photos I stick too for this build and a color palette of all sorts of wood colors I had made in my previous WW I plane. Pretty useful to use even it took me lots of time to do.

So first off the "dark" wood. I used Vallejo Model Color German Camo. beige as a base and burnt Sienna on top of it.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
All the wing struts are the same color also.

For the "pale" wood, I used Vallejo Model Color Desert Yellow and raw Sienna on top of it. (bad quality pictures, sorry)
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I remove a bit more on this one to simulate more used of the part as it's the floor.
Small editor note... WnW should have really made the instrument in two parts that go one over the other to allow a much easier painting process for the instruments versus the wood panel.

You can see the difference in the two in the following 2 pictures
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

LEt me know what you think about my wood effects ?

I've also started working on the seat. I first had painted it with Vallejo Model Color tan yellow but directly on the resin... not a good idea...as only by having it in my hands the paint wipe away. Which in the hand was a good thing as I had put the paint too thick on. So I primed it back and sprayed the same color over it but this time it has darken it a bit too much too my taste...
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
It's not as bright and yellowish\orange as it originally was.
What do you think ?

I used the kit's seat to form the very large and big seatbelt
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I also did the cushion. Now that I'm pretty happy with !! Thanks to YouTube LPJ models. Did the same as he does in his instructional video about leather.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Vallejo Model Color Leather brown sprayed thin layers over Ultimate Black primer. Used a sponge to simulate wear with AK 3rd gen Buff and a few scratches with Vallejo Model Color tan yellow. Put a burnt umber wash (a bit thicker of a mix) all over it. Let the thinner evaporate. Smoothen everything with a soft brush. Darken the same wash and thinned down a put it only in the crevasses. Again let evaporate and the brush. And finish it yellow ochre oil paint dry brushed gently over the raised areas.

Any comments are welcome and appreciated.
Take care everyone.

[DRUMS01]

I like this so far, neat build. Looking at yours and diggers humps (smile), the WnW mold seems to have more detail OOB.

Keep building it as many of us are watching.....

[digger303]

Looking good.
Intrigued with the huge seat belts ?
Maybe it's the camera playing tricks , but the seat colours I really liked.
Keep up the stirling work, I'm trying to catch up

[Stokesy44]

Lovely wood effects and I love that seat cushion

[Garion77]

Looking good.
Intrigued with the huge seat belts ?
Maybe it's the camera playing tricks , but the seat colours I really liked.
Keep up the stirling work, I'm trying to catch up

what is it your intrigued about the seat belt ?

[digger303]

Looking good.
Intrigued with the huge seat belts ?
Maybe it's the camera playing tricks , but the seat colours I really liked.
Keep up the stirling work, I'm trying to catch up

what is it your intrigued about the seat belt ?

They make the seat seem so small.

[Garion77]

Hello everyone ! time for an update on one of the Camels. Hope everyone looks at the really hard work @digger303 is putting in with his with all the PE involved.

Work continued on my side on all the pieces of the interior. First the seat. I had showed it with the base color on. First off, a recommendation for wicker seat, do the color over white primer and not black. The color will pop more. Did it over black. Being disappointed a bit with it, I decided to try the same technic for the wood effect, being to drag oil paint over it. the goal was to show the kind of orange/yellow color wicker as.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Now I had some problem doing it and it was now too orange. So, after putting on a brown wash, I dried brush the base color over it. Better now. I would surely do the same technic again but need some practice.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And with the leather cushion in place
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I think the leather seat is too glossy... I putted semi gloss varnish on it. I'll have to find a way to tone it down a bit.

Now the damn harness/seatbelt.... I want everyone to be honest as I asked Digger to also be. My goal was to obtain that kink of look and effect :
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
this was taken for one of the WnW books.
Not knowing at all how to obtain that kind of look I decided to start with an ochre base. Lighten certain areas with Buff and darken other places with desert yellow and 2 kinds of browns (Vallejo English Uniform and don't remember the other one). Going back to it several times not being happy with the result, I decided to let it the way it is now :

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I would gladly like to hear everyone's opinion on those. Only thing left is to varnish them (Matt I presume ?...) and a pin wash for the details.

Work carried on the wooden parts ; painting the details and putting on wash for the wood effect.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Decals should be put on today. Anyone know how to simulate transparent glass only with paint ? for the little pulsometer attached to the dashboard... (the little bulbs thing on the left side (top in the picture)

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I did the wash for the wood effect with tamiya panel line accent dark brown...out of laziness. Not a thing to do as it does more of a dirty look instead of accentuating the look of varnish wood. So use an oil wash instead as I done with my Pfalz. Still need to dry brush the metal brackets. And internal rigging. I'll see if I had more stuff after that.

Here are a few other parts that are ready for weathering :
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Yes my MGs are painted ! My scheme calls for them to be what is called Battleship Grey (BSG). Used AK's 3rg gen for it from a kit of paints of WW I British planes. Love those paints. I chipped it a bit to show the gun metal show through (and the aluminum for the gun mounts) and will pass over the paint with graphite.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Next up will be the decals for the dashboard and weathering all the pieces before going to the rigging.

Take care everyone.

[Stokesy44]

Beautiful effects and paintwork

[RangerNeil]

Beautiful job so far!!
Would PVA do the job for simulating glass as it dries clear??

[digger303]

Lovely work.
Seatbelt is beautiful so weathered and aged.
For the pulso-meter could you just snip the bulb off and replace it with a bit of properly shaped and polished clear sprue waste.
The inter-wing struts have great looking wood patterns. However they do have maybe too much texture as they are usually very smooth Once sprayed with varnish will probably fix that so maybe nothing to worry about. I had that issue with my prop. I brush painted clear on it and it didn't cover so I sanded the high points off very lightly with some 4000 micro mesh, not removing any paint except a tiny bit on a edge. Now it looks great and I just have to spray a finial coat of gloss to finish it.
Love that galvanised steel look that you achieved for the forward flooring in front of the joystick.How did you do that ?
To tone down the gloss on the seat cushion. You could try lightly sanding it with 4000 grit, but this would maybe dull it too much.
Looking terrific.

[DRUMS01]

Looking wonderful

[Stokesy44]

Stop telling the man how good it all looks, his head will explode at this rate!

[Garion77]

Beautiful job so far!!
Would PVA do the job for simulating glass as it dries clear??

didn't think of that one ! I tried that technic before but with nothing under it. So may be if I paint the little part aluminum first or silver. then put a small quantity to keep in scale and paint it with a thinned smoke color....

[Garion77]

Lovely work.
Seatbelt is beautiful so weathered and aged.
For the pulso-meter could you just snip the bulb off and replace it with a bit of properly shaped and polished clear sprue waste.
The inter-wing struts have great looking wood patterns. However they do have maybe too much texture as they are usually very smooth Once sprayed with varnish will probably fix that so maybe nothing to worry about. I had that issue with my prop. I brush painted clear on it and it didn't cover so I sanded the high points off very lightly with some 4000 micro mesh, not removing any paint except a tiny bit on a edge. Now it looks great and I just have to spray a finial coat of gloss to finish it.
Love that galvanised steel look that you achieved for the forward flooring in front of the joystick.How did you do that ?
To tone down the gloss on the seat cushion. You could try lightly sanding it with 4000 grit, but this would maybe dull it too much.
Looking terrific.

I wouldn't dare to snip it off at this stage... since the dashboard is almost finish now (the decals are even on it since I posted). And even at the beginning, the way it's made I would have to be able to do a perfect cut has it would have been almost impossible to clean the part afterward without damaging other areas. You know how small the damn thing is !! May be Neil solution is the way to go...should have bought the same Taurus part as you.
I think the same about my wood patterns... it all comes down to when I applied it. As I had it said the mix was bit too thick and used a generic brand instead of quality one. And it does make a huge difference. I'll try to do what you say on the struts not attached to the side walls first. It's still needs also the final varnish.
As for the flooring, I just used allclad's aluminum over regular black but with a pressure just a little bit on the low side then recommended and sprayed a bit further then regurly

[Garion77]

Quick update as I have weathered a few parts and I'm getting almost to the point of rigging and assembling the interior.

The finished seat with the harness

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The petrol tank

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Weathered with oil paints (had a bit of trouble for this one)

The floor

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Weathered with AK's earth effects and pigments

the engine backplate
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Weathered with oil paints and Vallejo engine soot and grime

MG's magazine
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Weathered with oil paints

The MG's (without the barrel yet)
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Painted gun metal than the color callout, scratch to show a bit of the gun metal. Pass over again with gun metal pigments and AK's streaking grime

So now, I'm almost at the point of assembling everything. All varnishes are on everywhere. Used @digger303 advice about sanding my wood effect and although not perfect to my taste much better. As he had said, it was too thick (mistake on my side).

So I was planning the internal rigging and did a test fit... realize that I had to do the wood effect behind the dashboard as it will show a bit through the covers. WnW calls for 0,10 mm rigging for the sidewalls... I have 2 products at hand. One metal rigging that is exactly 0,10 mm and an elastic wires that is 0,092 mm... what's funny is that you can see by eye the latest to be bigger then the first one.... I'll may be use the elastic wire instead to at least show a bit.

Take care everyone

[digger303]

Lovey work.

[aur0ra145]

Looking great!

[Garion77]

Hello everyone!
a quick update again...

first off, after all the weathered pieces shown last time, here's a test fit of a few of them

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Looking quite good to my taste

So what's new with this little update is that is started the interior rigging on each sidewalls for the bracing wires.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And yes, you're are seeing right ! they are wires hanging and that's because I Realize at the end that they are also bracing wires, between each wall on the floor.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
you can see the end of them pointed by the arrows.

that's going to be lots of fun to fit with the rigging for the different control cables Even fitting those wires I still have to figure out an easy way with how your suppose to fit every part.

Here's a test fit of each walls. Not much is going to show... so I didn't bother with turnbuckles this time or detail with missing piping

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
(realized while doing the rigging that my fabric color is way too yellow. It's AK's 3rd gen buff... supposedly... I put a drop yesterday on plastic and it's not the same color well it's just the interior that won't be seen so no problem but I'll be careful when painting the underside of the wings.

Take care everyone

Take care everyone

[DRUMS01]

IF your not happy with the yellow perhaps a light wash would tone down the cockpit just s little? Actually, I think your work on the kit is looking dandy.

[digger303]

Those struts have come up Trumps in a big way....very very nice.
That floor bracing is a bit of a curve ball I didn't realise there was any....
I'm going to have to figure out the floor control cables too. It's the centre one's I'm unsure of.

[Stokesy44]

It looks great. Its certainly making you work for it!

[Garion77]

Hello everyone and welcome back !

First up, the engine

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Only thing left for it is a small decal then a varnish, and finally the wires. All the work was done with pale burnt metal and clear orange. A bit of brown and black wash also.

But the work was mostly spent on the interior. As both sidewalls had been rigged, it was now time for the rigging for the control cables. Since WnW only gives you a diagram and not much pointers on when to do each part, I carefully studied each pieces, where they go and same for the wires.
So not to make a too long of an update, here are pictures of each steps I've taken.

First up was putting the wires to all the small pieces that would be difficult to get access too once in place

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Then, by the studies I've done, I decided the order of each pieces I inserted in one sidewalls, carefully gluing it and waiting for it to dry properly.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
(you can see above that the dasboard was glued on the magazine previously seen with wires)
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
you can see above that each wires was carefully past through a sidebar that will go under the seat later on
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
the side bar finally glued with pva glue to make sure it stays "flexible" when putting the other sidewall
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Now ready for the other sidewalls
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The other wall carefully putted on all pieces being fragile to my taste. But the fit wasn't bad
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And finally the work is done !!
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Feel free to comment good or bad.
Now the question is will it fit properly ??...not sure as I can see may be some issues.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Jepers how have I missed all of this wonderful work…very late to your party
It looks fantastic so far in every respect: cockpit, wood effects, engine and that seat, oh that seat
Nothing like the idea of flopping around in the sky, being shot at in a freaking wicker basket

I loved the WNW plastic to work with, hope you are enjoying the kit

[digger303]

Marvellous Francis.

[Stokesy44]

Beautiful work, well worth the effort

[Garion77]

Hello everyone and Happy Easter to all of you and your family. Hope everyone takes time to spend time in family with this long weekend.

So time for a long coming update as I haven't done one in quite a while.. may be bit of a boring one as must of the time was spent trying to fit everything. I knew they would be a few problems by seing other builds on You Tube that problems with the top structure seam.

The first thing I did was lots of test fitting... and if some of you remember, I had spilled lots of lacquer thinner on my fuselage parts. And I Had the feeling it had distorted them...
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
And my fears were true ! So I realized that I could force on of the halves carefully only by hand, so after lots of testing I decided to glue the interior structure in that part.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

But you can see there still lots of problem
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

But when testing I realized that when putting the bottom wing in, it resolves lot of it !
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I also realized that I had to glue the cockpit decking at the same moment...
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Gluing all of that was done in different steps using clamps each time, carefully helping each time a better fit.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Did a bit of cleaning of the primer I had put in place when repairing my lacquer thinner spill, to see better the seam I had on top.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Forgot to take pictures of the bottom but it wasn't that bad. Unfortunately still working to repair the top as I did a method I've never done before...and will never do anymore ! I used CA glue but started sanding before it was dry (as seen on a YT channel) but it made it worst.
So that's where it is as today.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
I think it's ok now. I'll see when putting primer on. And as you can see, we don't see sh... of the interior !!! so quite glad I didn't detail more ! I can't even see the dashboard except with the light of my phone ! all that work for really nothing !

In the meantime, work started on the other wings
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Black primer and white preshading

As for the fabric color, I thought that my interior was way too yellow to my taste... And when seeing the same plane in a museum recently, I knew I was right.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So I went for another color much more to my liking. Unfortunately, My preshading doesn't show much. I'll have to make the contrast show better.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And if some of you remember, my scheme is blue
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

I mixed the callout for the paint as per the instructions and really wasn't sure at first ! It seems more lilac the light blue in the pot. Did a spray test and still was a bit lilac... but after drying a day it was light blue. So painting of the top wing was done..
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

The last pictures, I started to repair the finger prints I left unfortunately the picture isn't good but again, the preshading was lost a bit.

So that's it ! a long and boring update. Hope to have more interesting to show in a near future as will be less occupied in the upcoming weeks. A few blackjack trip tired the hell out of me and was stuck 2 times in huge snow storms while traveling.

Take care everyone.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Happy Easter Francis to you and yours… and puppy
Good to see you still building this kit and she is coming along nicely

[digger303]

Going well despite the hiccups.

[aur0ra145]

Great update! It's nice to see I'm not the only one that takes notes on the instructions. The blue came out really well!

[Garion77]

Hello everyone !
yes this project is still alive !! although it's been a while, lots of work was put in it, for little progress....

If some of you remember, I had, what seemed to be a distorsion in the fuselage halves because of a lacquer thinner spill. You could see the effect in my last post. And see all the clamps needed to glue it to best fit possible...

After all that, the plane was partly primed to see how everything had went together.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

At first glance, it seemed to have fitted ok. But needed a bit more of filling. But that's when all the problems started to show more. A bit of that on my part.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So after lots of hours spent on sanding, filling and priming I had enough ! I think I did it at least 10 times. The mojo was starting to leave my body slowly. I then decided to get the big guns out by doing a drywall job on the plane !

FIRST COAT :
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

SECOND COAT :
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

THIRD COAT :
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

FINAL PRIMER COAT :
by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

AT the top, it was repaired and scribed again. (no pictures)

Boring update ! Real boring !! at least it helped get my mojo back. As soon as I have time at hand, I'll start the paint job !

Take care everyone !

[digger303]

Every project has it's boring bits , but you stuck with it and got the job done.

[Garion77]

Hello everyone ! so it's been more then a month since my last update on this project. Let's just say that the problems I had and shown previously just killed lots of my mojo. And let's say also lots of laziness on my part ! Getting older, even if I still consider myself young, let's say that the lack of sunshine in our long winters get a told on me more and more. And this year, we didn't had a winter to enjoy the outside and get a bit more energy.

The way I decided to give me a little boost was just to spray back primer on the fuselage. That gave me the little boost I needed to get back in the project Remembering how I wasn't happy with how the top wing had turned out for the fabric color and the main color (we'll get back to that later on), I took greater care this time to paint the fabric color of the bottom wing spraying more white this time on the ribs.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And being more careful with the fabric color to let show through the rest this time (AK's 3rd gen Grimy grey or Bleached linen)
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Compared to the real thing on the same plane in a museum
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Pretty happy with that. And you also see in the previous pictures that all the work I had putted in to repair the bottom seam paid off.

Now back to the top wing... As I said, I wasn't happy with either the top or bottom color ; but mostly the top color (blue)

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

So I decided to remove all the paint
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And start over using a different approach.
And by doing that, it would be a good practice for the rest of the process on the fuselage. Because I want to have a bit more color variation on the blue then on the fabric color. I took out different airbrush stencils from Uschi and sprayed the same fabric color, white and blue
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Then masked all the ribs
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And sprayed the fabric color more heavy
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

All the same process was used on the ailerons and tailplane. Then on with the mix of light blue (2 : XF-2 white and 1 : XF8 blue) and sprayed lightly and carefully on top of everything.

Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Pretty happy with the end result even if I still need to spray a bit more of a few areas and should have put may be a bit more white in the preshading. But still happy and will do the same on the fuselage. Hope to finish the painting on the fuselage (blue, wood effect and metal) and the bottom of the top wing before our holidays in a month (Barcelona with the kids for 10 days)

Take care everyone !

Take care everyone.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Some nice paint work there

[digger303]

That's come out very well. I like the subtler change of colour over the ribs you nailed that.

[Stokesy44]

A lot of work but well worth it for the result.

[RangerNeil]

I love the finish on that upper wing - well done!!

[Garion77]

Hello and welcome back !

This update didn't take more then a month like the last one ! This progress is really helping me getting the mojo back and trying to the most as possible on the project before the 7th of July.

This update is a quick one. The main blue color was done on the rest of the plane. So the same process as before...

A mix of white, grimy grey (linen color used) and a darker blue all over Ultimate black primer.
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
My goal, at the start of the project, was to do it on top of white to show more of bleach effect on the blue. But all the problems that occurred had me to spray another coat of primer but use black this time to help more on the repairs.

After all that was done, again the ribs where masked off
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And then painted with the chosen fabric color (AK's 3rd gen Grimy grey)
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

And then for the main color
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr
Sans titre by Francis Pare, sur Flickr

Lost a bit too much of the preshading to my taste (except on the ribs). I'll have to come back later may be with oil paints. Doing a touch up with the remaining paint in the airbrush to the top wing, I realize I had completed forgotten to paint the underside of it as well as the ailerons. So that will be next task as well as finishing the propeller (already started) and the undercarriage (also already started)

Have a great weekend everyone !

[digger303]

Great to see the Mojo is back. Mine is limping along.
Blue being a darkish colour it is so easy to cover any pre shading. Looks good to me though.

[Stokesy44]

I think the finish looks great and as you say, you can upgrade the tonal differences with oils if you want to.