Dragon Natter

[HOG]

Hi All,
Well they`ve finished me new surfaces and I`m now back in production.
Some time ago I got this far on a Dragon 1;48 Natter

And have resumed working on it. Now for some reason I have two of these kits, one with an engine and one with a big stick for launching, but no bottle to put it in. Anyway I`m going the dio`route (suprise suprise) and have found lots of bits to add as details.  



Cockpit



Engine


Nose


And tail

This one will be displayed `open`and the other complete, along with men in white coats and maniacal laughs.

Regards All
Gary

[BlackOps]

I like your subtle contrasting metal colors. Looks like your off to a great start.

[ysi_maniac]

     
Absolutely WOW
     

[lancer]

Damm, this guy is good!!

[GTX]

Pulling up a comfy chair and pouring a drink to sit in and watch this develop!

Regards,

Greg

[HOG]

Thanks for the kind words but Lancer, language!
Would you text your Mum with that typing finger
 

[lancer]

Thanks for the kind words but Lancer, language!
Would you text your Mum with that typing finger

Of course..      

[HOG]

Hi Agin,
Been thinking about the dio` aspect of the build and I knew I had an old dio from when I used to be able to see without glasses and a headband magnifier, and altho in 72nd I dug this out of the loft as an aid memoir to the feel I wanted in the new build.












Its 8x6 inches and I want somthing like this but on my standard 9x9 base for 1:48.
While looking for this I found around 20 of my old diddydio`s and wish I could still work in this scale to this level of detail if only because of the cost. How come a 1/48 model is only half as big again as a 1/72 but costs three times as much? But age forces me into biggger and hopefully better things and at least the old saying of `it takes you all night to do what you used to do all night` dosn`t apply to modelling. (except finding the bits that I`ve dropped)
regards Gary

[BlackOps]

WOW! that is a way cool dio! great way to display that's for sure!    

[HOG]

Heyo All,
Working on the two kits today and was at the stage of the first (hereby khown as M52) slightly more advanced than as shown above while the other now known as M55 was fully assembled with the cockpit done, canopy masked fitted and soso`d in place. Waiting for paint to dry, so went on the net to see if I could find out some info on trolleys etc for these kits. Found a copy of Luftfahrt 14 with a Natter on the cover so after a 3 1/2 hour download time (dial up SUCKS) set to for a good peruse. Found a profile on M52 which confirmed the yellow markings as given in the Revell version of the Dragon kit. Then suddenly the crap hit the fan when I noticed that the illustration gave square tips to the tail planes.



A bell went ding and I remeber`d that the decal diagrams in the Revell kit had also square tailplanes which I had put down to timesaving in the drawing dept as the kit had rounded tailplanes, every Natter pic I seen seemed to have rounded tailplanes. Even the Heller 1:72 and the Fiddlers Green paperkit had rounded tailplanes. So back to the ref file on the Natter and yes they all had rounded tailplanes. Except the one I was modelling





Now what...do I do-ignore it..... I`ve done all that work on the tail with the control rods etc and it had been painted so without stripping the whole thing I was going to have probs with feathering the new bits in when painting. Any way to cut a short story long I decided to cut the tail of the assembled M55 and fix the finished M52 tail on the M55 and cheat slightly by giving a slightly different finish to the paint on the front half so as to look like the parts seperated on the real thing (see photo 2). As I hadn`t fitted the tail cone exhuast  this came off the sprue and was painted up like the engine above. Then the assembled M55 model was sawn in half, the tail tips sawn off and suitable plastic glued on to set ready for soso. The new engine bit was glued into the rear of the finished half and set aside to dry.
So to recap
M52 Finished forward half.  Rear half with plastic drying on tail for modification
M55  Unpainted front half.   Rear half fully finished WITH MISSING CONTROL RODS THAT I MUST HAVE BROKEN OF WHEN FITTING THE ENGINE MOULDING!  "*%@@%£#+ !" I said.


Like GTX I am pulling up a comfy chair with a LARGE drink to see how this one develops

ps If I can get anoth cheap kit the top profile of the 349B=0 looks different

[GTX]

Well, I'm pulling out my copy of Projekt Natter to be able to nitpick (just kidding   ):



Regards,

Greg

[HOG]

Hi All,
Well I`ve started the mod`s to the tail and no doubt will be spending the festive season singing that old modellers battle hymn
Putty sand repeat,
Putty sand repeat,
I`l spend the hols, as I putty sand repeat....etc   I think the original involved collecting sheep.



Pretty it aint.
Greg, if you find faults please let me know, all info is always gratefully received even the medically impossible.
Seasons Greetings to all
Gary    

[HOG]

Greetings of the Season,

Due to a remarkable amount of comestibles consumed, I have been rather lax on the modelling front but have done some work as below:-

The M52 tail has been sanded and the flaps drooped and quite pleased with the result



Some work and decals added to the M52 front half. The trolley/trestle is provided with the Dragon kit with engine and I just shortened the legs and added some castor type wheels and sticky out handles like I have seen on a V1 trolley


I needed a trailer to hold the complete M55 build for this dio` but I think I might have got carried away. Photos of the real thing show a trailer/trestle similar to the above and the only other pic I can find of a real one looks like a medieval cart.

Incidently the picture of the tail is on the Revell instruction for the M55 scheme and although not really prototypical has taken my fancy so the M55 model was masked up and I thought I would use Humbrol Maskol for the wobbly division in camo` colours. My bottle had dried to a solid lump and my friendly model shop owner gave me a bottle of Amberoid EZ Mask that he had been given as a sample to try.
Well I used as said on the bottle and painted it on over Revell enamel silver around the tail and Tamiya RLM 22 on the body and airbrushed some dark green ,sortof RLM 82/83ish, enamel as it says on the bottle "can be used with solvent & water based paints" and left to dry. Well with Maskol I used to use masking tape to unstik the mask, nogo. The bottle suggests hard to remove mask may work if dampened so of I set to. Lifting carefully with the tip of a scalpel all of the masked peeled away but took the acrylic with it. The silver enamel, which can be a bugger at the best of times to mask had partialy disolved and came away very blotchily, not something I had encountered before and the paints under the tape stayed on fine. Now  it`s not to much of a problem and just needs rubbing down with some toothpaste/powder a a toothbrush but has any one else had this problem as my friendly retailer has some on order andis now worried.

All comments etc,
regards
Gary

[Brian da Basher]

I love the trailer and the yellow crosses, HOG! Excellent work as always!

Brian da Basher

[HOG]

Hi All
Progress continues, all be it slowly












Not much to show for a weeks work.
Quite pleased with the tail trestle at only 1 1/2 inches long for the `wood` bit its almost square . Now the engines in I suppose it`s time to start plumbing. The other airframe has now been started in the paint shop.
regards Gary