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Post by Calum on Apr 18, 2015 14:58:05 GMT 12
After wrestling with the Classic Airframes Defiant ( see here) I figured it was time something simpler,. And what could be simpler than a limited run resin kit :-) I have soft spot for the Andover, it was the first aircraft I worked on when I joined the RNZAF, plus it was the aircraft that picked me up and took me away to recruit course. I have stocked up on putty. I've got all types, Tamiya grey, Gunze White, Tamiya Polyester, Perfect Plastic Putty, Magi Scuplt, and Vallejo putty, plus all the Mr Surfacers - I'm in filler heaven  . Anyway onto the photos Here's all the bits, Not that many so how hard could this be, really.  First step was to fit the 20 windows - I lost one so had to make a replacement from plastic. This tool a bit longer than I'd expected  Cockpit is pretty sparse, but not much will be seen anyway, I threw on some paint and made some belts from tape  Spent a bit of time doing the instrument panel, it's rough but no one will see it   |
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Post by baz62 on Apr 18, 2015 18:31:20 GMT 12
Have you decided which one you are going to do? (Yes I know you've hardly started ha ha) The one that picked you up for your recruit course perhaps?
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Post by shorty on Apr 18, 2015 18:58:17 GMT 12
You got flown to your recruit course? I had to go by overnight train from Auckland, fill in a day in Wellington then overnight ferry to Lyttleton ,train to Christchurch before back of a RL Bedford to Wigram!
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Post by camtech on Apr 18, 2015 20:34:05 GMT 12
I look forward to this build - having trained on Andovers in the UK and spent 4 years working on them on 1 Sqdn.
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Post by Calum on Apr 18, 2015 20:59:10 GMT 12
Have you decided which one you are going to do? (Yes I know you've hardly started ha ha) The one that picked you up for your recruit course perhaps? I'm doing a SEA Camo one. No idea what serial number. I can't even remember if was a SEA Camo or VIP one that picked us up... It was 28 years ago |
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Post by Calum on Apr 18, 2015 21:01:09 GMT 12
You got flown to your recruit course? I had to go by overnight train from Auckland, fill in a day in Wellington then overnight ferry to Lyttleton ,train to Christchurch before back of a RL Bedford to Wigram! You must be old The Andover pciked people up from Auckland, Hamilton (me) Ohakea and IIRC we even stopped at Wellington before flying over to Woodbourne. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 19, 2015 0:59:38 GMT 12
The Air Force didn't have aeroplanes in Shorty's days..
When i joined I went by Air New Zealand Friendship.
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Post by lesterpk on Apr 19, 2015 1:25:25 GMT 12
My flight to recruit course was on a Mount Cook HS748, Hamilton to Wellington, one last beer in the airport with 5-6 other guys obviously waiting as well, then a short hop in a Metroliner (or a Banderainte)
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 19, 2015 16:09:22 GMT 12
Was the SEA scheme the one with two greens and brown? Or was it the one with just two greens? Both schemes were worn on Andovers.
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Post by raymond on Apr 19, 2015 18:41:58 GMT 12
Ha we flew down to Wigram in a Herc the Andovers were just being obtained at the time Still had B170's and Daks.
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Post by Calum on Apr 19, 2015 19:31:58 GMT 12
Was the SEA scheme the one with two greens and brown? Or was it the one with just two greens? Both schemes were worn on Andovers. 2 greens and brown is teh SEA scheme Dave. The Euro 1 one scheme was 2 greens and a grey. I'd like to do 3 more Andovers, 1 in RAF desert deilver scheme, one in VIP and one in Euro 1, but not at $250 a kit. Perhaps someone would do one in 1/144 one day (yeah I'm dreaming I know) |
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Post by Calum on Apr 19, 2015 19:33:57 GMT 12
Here's the fuselage together. It went together reasonably easily but there were some gaps. I used slow setting superglue for the join and as it's thick it also acted as a bit as a gap filler. This was were I made my first big mistake with this kit  Here is the clear cockpit piece fitted. I’d first dipped this in floor polish and left it few days to set Not dry fitting the cockpit piece before joining the fuselage halves was the mistake as the cockpit piece is slightly taller and wider than the fuselage piece. This is an issue because of the cargo door on the left, and the windows in the cockpit piece are nice and clear so I want to avoid damaging them. I did sand the cockpit piece a bit before gluing it to try and get a better fit but you can't really make something liek that narrower than it is without losing detail. So if you build this kit I’d advise making sure the canopy piece fits the fuselage before joining the halves, I’d glue it to 1 half first then glue to the other half, then join the fuselage pieces as it’s simpler to fill a small gap long the length of the fuselage than build up the circumference around the rear of the cockpit. Anyway I considered a couple of options to fix this. 1. Crack the superglue join and spreading the fuselage – dismissed because the join was long set. 2. Cut the cockpit piece down the centre and and reglue – dismissed as it seemed way to risky. In the end I went for the conventional approach of putty. I used mainly Perfect Plastic Putty on the right side. I like this stuff as it dries quickly (within 5-10 mins) and sands easily. If you start wet sanding you only need fine paper (I used 600) and it smooths down with just a few swipes, and finishes really smooth. You just have to be careful not to be to aggressive when it’s wet. I finish off with some dry sanding. I also find it doesn't seem to shrink.  The tail had a few issues. These being: 1. The fuselage pieces were different in length, by about 3 mm. The issue appeared to be at the rear as the things lined up to the rear of the centre insert. This meant the panel lines for the cargo door didn't line up. 2. One piece was missing about 2 mm in width along about ½ length of the bottom. This was filled with CA and sanded .I still haven’t got rid it nailed yet  The centre insert needs some adjusting to get a good flush fit. Unfortunately I didn't do as go a job as I could.  |
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Post by general on Apr 20, 2015 12:41:27 GMT 12
Dang, Calum.
Wish I'd caught you before you'd buttoned things up!
I have the ID models vac 748. Thing has the civil 'sausage' tail.
I've been pondering ways to scratch the Andover tail profile and empenange.
Would have loved to get a traced outline of your fuselage half.
But, there ya go.
I'm leaning toward a grey/white scheme, though possibly the grey/greens.
Great to see an Andover.
Regards
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Post by Calum on Apr 20, 2015 23:19:15 GMT 12
Putty time I had to build up the left side to get a nice flush join between the clear resin canopy piece and the side. I used Magi scuplt for this because I need to eventually re-scribe the forward cargo door. The advantage of Magi Sculpt is twofold, takes hours to harden so you get heaps of working time, and it's easily shaped with a wet finger or hand. The disadvantage it it dries harder than rock so you need the rough sanding sticks In the following images the darker white is magi sculpt, the brighter light white is Perfect Plastic Putty  Right hand side, I spread the left over magi sculpt over to the right.  Before I put putty over the door I cut out a template with plastic tape so I can re-scribe later.  Here is it with the worst of shaping completed.   To retierate, all this could have been avoided if I'd dry fitted the clear piece before gluing the fuselage..... :oops: So if you're doing this or the HS 748 in the future learn form my miastake.  And there's worse to follow (I'm a bit further on than this installment) ... I've made another major stuff up that will bite me further on :x |
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Post by dewobz on Apr 21, 2015 15:11:27 GMT 12
Bravo Calum! Good stuff. Hang in there.
Incidentally, the BP Defiant is brilliant!
They sure are testing some of those Classic Airframes kits eh?
Cheers
Wally.
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Post by Calum on Apr 22, 2015 14:17:29 GMT 12
Bravo Calum! Good stuff. Hang in there. Incidentally, the BP Defiant is brilliant! They sure are testing some of those Classic Airframes kits eh? Cheers Wally. Thanks Wally, The Defiant was quite a simple build, but I didn't help myself by going down the vacuform path |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 15:42:48 GMT 12
The Defiant was a beautiful build Calum, I've never really cared much but yours has turned me around somewhat. I'm excited to follow this build too  |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 22, 2015 17:57:04 GMT 12
Where is the Defiant thread? I cannot recall if I have seen it.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2015 20:35:06 GMT 12
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Post by Calum on Apr 22, 2015 22:03:33 GMT 12
More putty and reshaping I've re-scribed the cargo door and used Perfect Plastic Putty (PPP) to touch up some of the slips of the scriber. I used the plastic template to draw an outline with a pencil and used templates to scribe the lines  More PPP required to get the contours right  And it most of it removed  Whilst waiting for putty to dry I worked on the engines. The fit of these parts isn't the best and the panel lines were quite shallow and need deepening. I also don't think they've ended up with the intakes on the top at the 12 o'clock position, but it's going to have to do. Rather than use the white metal vents on both sides of each engine, as these were pretty crude, I used some bits from the spares box, these were the tails of some drop tanks from the Tamiya 1/48 P-47M kit.  |
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