Tutorial Novice - Convair Charger -A guide to solid models - Convair Charger

[lastvautour]

My Charger will be used for Canadian East Coast Surveillance hence the dark grey colour. I have the decals drying from the first coat of sealer so no picture till late tomorrow night. I have some minor putty/sanding work to do but it can be repaired without repainting the entire aircraft. I am preparing a "Search Light/Fuel Tank" for one of the sponsoons and an "Infrared Sensor/Fuel Tank" for the other. I am trying to make them removable for transporting.

[lastvautour]

A couple of shots before decals and repair to the rear canopy/wing area.


Under repair.

Decals are ready but I have darts again tonight, so tomorrow before any new photos.

Lou

[Oceaneer99]

Those canopy frames really came out nice, Lou.

[Rafael]

Superb, Sir!!!!

I'm still working on mine

Rafa

[lastvautour]

My Convair Charger 1/72 is finished as well as the tutorial. My Charger represents a fictitious Canadian Forces Maritime Surveillance craft with an infra red pod/fuel tank on the port fuselage pylon and a search light/fuel tank on the starboard side. Each wing tip pylon carries a long range fuel tank. I figured with the lenght of our coast line, extra fuel was a necessity.

http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-2193
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-2192

Krylon grey primer is the main colour covered in a light coat of future wax applied with a brush. Decals were placed on and sealed with another light coat of future. The model was a fun group build with Rafa.

I wish to thank Rafa for the inspiration to build this model.

Lou

[Rafael]

And I wish to thank you, Lou, for your teaching me the basic skills to make a solid-model and all the other members of this forum for their inspirational work. I definitely wouldn't have made it without you. This is a great success for me.

Now for the pics of my finished Charger. It represents a future (year 2019) Marine Corps bird, used in armed patrol in the Caribbean against drug smugglers and pirates.


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=180&pos=42


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=180&pos=43


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=180&pos=45


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=180&pos=48


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=180&pos=49

Saludos y gracias,

Rafa

[lastvautour]

Rafa, you are very welcomed and you should be very proud of your first solid wood model. This was not a simple aircraft to make with twin booms and some pretty delicate fuselage carving. Now you are ready to carve anything you want using the technique you have learned and with the help of the other members. Don't be afraid to ask. This was my first tutorial of this depth and you were an apt student. Thank you for the inspiration on this joint cross-continental project.

[Oceaneer99]

Rafael,

Great work on that plane!  It was really neat to see two of them being built at the same time in different parts of the world.

Garet

[Rafael]

There are no borders for fun, Garet. That's what I like the most of our hobby, be it wood, plastic, junk. Specially when, in my particular case I know no other modelers in my country (I know they're out there, but hidden). Besides, not having model hobby stores here anymore is a perfect excuse for making more solid models.

Rafa

[Oceaneer99]

Rafa,

I certainly enjoy making models out of materials on-hand and salvaged, even though I have two fine hobby stores about 10 miles from my house.  That's a lot further than when I was a boy and would ride my bicycle to the hobby store, but at least I can go to one if I really need to.  But I have heard from many members who don't have a hobby store anywhere near them, including Lou in Canada.

My son and I found a beautiful 1x4 (actual size is 19 mm x 90 mm, almost 2 meters long) at the lumber yard a few nights ago.  It was with a lot of knot-filled yellow pine boards, but this was definitely not yellow pine.  The grain was nearly the same white color as the rest of the wood, very light in weight as well.  It feels almost like a sugar pine or some other nice carving pine.  We couldn't resist buying it for future models!

I have made a number of airplanes with scrap spruce that a contractor gave us at a construction site.  He wanted us to take more, but our arms were full and we had another mile to walk before we got home.

Ray has gotten me into handmade tools as well, and I made a 3 mm chisel from music wire that I used in making the I-16 model.  And of course, there are always the substitutions, like when you were using automotive resins.  I discovered that the automotive putty used for scratch-filling is nearly identical to the expensive model putty I used to buy, but costs $1 instead of $8.  I still buy those expensive model acrylic paints from time to time, but have been experimenting with okay-quality non-model acrylic paints, which are less expensive than the model versions, though they need some thinning and flow-improvement.

I've been really impressed to see the creative materials and techniques the members here use.  And speaking of no borders, right after we heard from you in Venezuela, a model builder in Iran sent us comments via the gallery.  I've invited him to join our discussion here as well, so hopefully he will become a member and let us know what he is working on.  We're a little under-represented from Asia, but we know there are solid model builders in Osaka, Japan and have tried to let them know about our site.

With the price of plastic models higher than ever, friends of mine who built them as boys are worried that they are pricing out younger modelers (if they aren't just playing video games).  But as long as a modeler is willing to work on carving skills, they could make solid models at very low cost.  That was part of the idea behind the simple scale models that we built a few years back, to have a simple model for beginners to try, but we found them to be enjoyable in their own right, even discovering that Gorrit in the Netherlands had developed them independently.

I just bought from an on-line bookstore an old copy of a book of simple submarine models that I used to check out from the library as a boy (Model Submarines for Beginners by H.H. Gilmore).  My first solid model came from that book: a tiny balsa model of the submarine "Turtle" from the American Revolutionary War.  The same author was the one who made the PT-10 plans that I built and sent to Lou for duty.

Garet

[cliff strachan]

Rafa, your Convair Charger is, without a doubt, a fine model in its own right. A model displaying so great initiative and skill, especially with regard to the choice of materials, that as a primary attempt it becomes an exceptionally noteworthy contribution to the group, to the hobby and to the whole idea of the importance of the individual as opposed to the commercialization of just about everything.

You also deserve, as I think Ray will agree, recognition for your determination, dedication and participation in the group. Especially given that a challenge was accepted to participate in such an open and public forum not knowing, I suspect, ahead of time what the outcome might be.

Your comments, along with those of Garet, concerning employing discarded materials, paints and fillers make up another contribution not only to this hobby but also to the more general idea of recycling and reuse.

A very fine model.

Muchas gracias otra vez,

Cliff.

[R.F.Bennett]

Great Job Guys, A difficult subject too.     

[Flying T]

I just finished going through this guide,i learned a lot,going step by step made it very easy to understand,also I get encouragement from this too, one key I remember is wood is forgiving and u can always start over if u want