IADFAF Skyvan

[Pellson]

Looking very good indeed, I have to say. 

[Gondor]

Looking very good indeed, I have to say. 

Thanks, the real test of my skill will be when I glue the Port side to the rest of the fuselage as it has a slight bend along it's length and the nose has more of a bend. It will probably be a case of glue an inch or two at a time and clamp the he1l out of it except for the nose which will probably need held in place by hand.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Managed to finally get some more work done on this build

Started by curring the corner off the windscreen as it was short shot 



Managed a nice clean cut. The scrapped part is on the left, you can get a rough idea of what it should look like in the above picture but is should look more like this...



but I do have a plan and a choice of parts to try and replicate the above picture, at least as far as the windscreen.

I have modified the engine nasals to make life a little easier.



The parts on the left have not been modified while those on the right have. The idea being that the exhaust, in the middle of the picture, will be a push fit which enables me to get the nasals fitted together and finished without having to worry about the exhaust which pokes out of them getting in the way.

The test fit went well, but Gondor's Third Law will probably appy "Everything will fit until you apply glue"

Gondor

[Gondor]

A bit more progress. Finding this build, when I work on it, progresses quickly which for me is unusual.

However I thought a progress pic might be in order befor I do some more painting.



So far the only places I have bothered with filler is the main undercarriage sponsons as they had fairly large sink marks in the outer faces so had to be done. The front of the underside of the fuselage has a small plastic strip shim to deal with a get between the nose and the fuselage. Other than that I am not really worried about any gaps but of course we will see what shows up later.

Undercarriage painting next then glueing more parts together with gay abandon, a bit like my adding the first flap actuator? to the underside of the wing, only to find out that I was using the wrong part. The numbering of parts does leave a bit to be desired but the kit is fairly old.

Gondor

[Gondor]

     I decided to have a look at the wing struts, just as well as there are a couple of sink marks on each. where the strut flairs out to join with the wing and the main undercarriage sponson. Thank goodness for clothes pegs as the sink marks were on opposite sides of the strut   

The next question is what colour should I do the upper surface of the wing bracing strut? The same as the underside of the aircraft or the same as the upper surfaces? Considering that the upper side is going to be hardly visible I can't make up my mind although I am tempred to go with the same colour as the undersides. The same question would go for the main undercarriage sponson.

Gondor

[kitbasher]

Never had an Airfix Skyvan, despite Madame Temptation waving her bits at me whenever I've seen one for sale.  Will keep the crossables crossed that it appears in the Vintage Series at some point.

Hopefully with reworked clear parts.

[Gondor]

Been slowly plodding on with this build but tonight has been one step forward and two back.

First the forward step. This is how far it is





The step back is that I broke one of the hinges on the upper loading ramp door and ended up haveing to remove it from the kit   

That will have to be glued in place later. Main things to do are filling some joints that have just too big a gap to ignore, finish painting the wheel hubs and the tires so that I can fix the nose wheel in place and then the nose so I can easily get on with painting the majority of the kit which is quite large. I see a lot of painting in my future.

Gondor

[Weaver]

Re the transparencies, I'd give Airfix a try anyway. I managed to get a set for mine and the kit was out of production at that time too.

[zenrat]

Is this getting Sabres?   

[Gondor]

Is this getting Sabres?   

No, but I know a Lancaster that is 

Gondor

[Gondor]

Last of the control surfaces are on!



Also shows good use of an Hataka paint bottle as a vertical edge or the Port Rudder 

Undercarriage, Nose, Engines and aerials as well as the paint. Hope to get there in time.

Gondor

[Gondor]

Paint has eventually been applied to the tires though only on the outside of the main ones as they are sitting on doubled up tape to hold them in place while they get painted. Filler has been applied to the visible gaps so that will get sanded back tomorrow which means that the nose undercarriage being fitted so the nose can be put in place will be holding up the painting. Might look at pictures and draw the paint scheme onto the wings and fuselage in pencil. There is a problem with the underside of the tailplanes, I think Airfix transposed the part numbers as they didn't want to fit on the sides and the way up that was shown in the instructions so now the part numbers that I put onto what I expected to be the upper surfaces so I would not get the mixed up, and in felt pen too, are on the underside and will clearly show through the paint 

Gondor

[Pellson]

Just another coating, Alistair. You'll be fine!

[Gondor]

Just another coating, Alistair. You'll be fine!

It will get a very careful sanding to try and remove the pen as the underside is Duck Egg Blue and the Hataka paint is quite transparent. I could mask most of the aircraft and spray it with grey primer, I am just not keen on trying to mask the majority of the aircraft unless I use something like a bag my bread comes in to cover the majority of the aircraft, well the fuselage and interior anyway.

Gondor

[zenrat]

Acrylic paint thinner should remove felt tip pen.