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

[lastvautour]

Looking good Rafa. You are a very good student. I will continue with pictures shortly.

Lou

[lastvautour]

This post will deal with shaping the canopy. Make the vertical cuts to isolate the canopy from the fuselage pod.

Now run lines on top and sides of the canopy to provide you with guidance with cutting wood away.

Remove small amounts at a time and refer to the frontal drawing of the Charger.

Sand everything nice and smooth. Flat sections can be filled with putty and resanded, but if you work slow that should not happen.

Repeat for other side. Got to go take the dog out.

More to come

Lou

[lastvautour]

Now that both sides are sanded, make sure your canopy frame lines are replaced.

You basically remove the wood from the rear canopy frame line to the base of the fuselage and sand smooth


Mark off the shape of the front and rear fuselage viewing from the top

Again, using a vertical cut remove the excess wood.


Next installment will be rounding the fuselage pod. But that is another day. I have darts tonight.

More to come
Lou

[Rafael]

What can I say. It's 10:30pm local, the day was long, my ISP is acting up like crazy due to the power generation failures in my country, made a couple mistakes, cut a little too much wood, cut a finger, but I got there!!!

Pics tomorrow, Lou. Have a nice one, be safe.

Rafa

[lastvautour]

Mark off an area approx lined up with the centre canopy pane.

Remove the excess wood starting at the base of the windscreen drawing the blade forward. This will prevent you taking too much off.

Once you have lined off the area, continue until the nose area is beveled as shown.

Smooth out the top forward fuselage with medium grit sandpaper

Keep checking with the drawing so you don.t remove too much materiel. You can always sand a bit more off here and there at a later stage.

Mark off the rear pod edges and remove the wood. Do the same for the bottom areas

note that the bottom centre area is only approx 1mm from the edge so careful not to take too much off.

Taking your time, sand the entire fuselage pod using medium grit sandpaper. Take care along the centre bottom area as we will be hanging the sponsons from the edge of the pod.

That completes the fuselage for today.

[Rafael]

Here's what I've got to show so far. It's amazing the resemblance to the original bird even in this far from finished state. I have to putty it a lot, for my rough cutting, but it will get there to the display shelf.

Thanks, Lou!!

Rafa


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=180&pos=28


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=180&pos=30

[lastvautour]

Looks great Rafa. You carved out the canopy from the fuselage which adds greatly to the model . Keep up the good work.

Place the fuselage on the drawing and mark the location of the sponsoon

More lines to ensure the sponsons are aligned.

Make two sponsoons or more as I usually need a few tries before I get them right.

Mark and bevel the area where the sponson will be attached. This is not quite scale, but will be easier to do for an ID model


Attach the sponsoon and sand the side vertically aligned with the fuselage. Once done, you can place the assembly on sandpaper and flatten out the bottom a bit.

For whatever reason I negleted to take a picture of the finished sponsoon. You will see it later in the build.
More to come.

[lastvautour]

I made a template to cut out the engine exhaust.

I used 2.5 round stock but any stick cut down to that measurement will do.

I cut out a few spares but will place them later.

[lastvautour]

A bit of putty to clean things up.

Look at the drawing and make two gun pods.

Once cut and smooth a bit, add the gun barrels. You can use pins, wire or whatever will look like a barrel

You can now attach the gun pod to the fuselage. You will notice on the drawing that they are not symmetrical in their location with the right one being slightly forward of the left.

[lastvautour]

Getting down to the bits and pieces. The prop spinner can be fashioned from any round stock approx 6.25mm in diameter. I carved my own as I did not have any round stock that actually fit. Carve half then smooth to a nice curved surface. The attaching pin is a round toothpick that will also hold the prop disc.

[lastvautour]

More bits and pieces. I used round toothpicks to simulate the stab counterweights. Notch the stab and glue the counterweights. I screwed up a bit and my weights are slightly out of alignment with the vertical fins.

Next are the oil coolers(?). Use scraps and make two. I could not get any decent look at the coolers on the aircraft so I just took a guess.

I next started to cut out the outer wing pylon. I am not sure what I will hang from there if anything. I don't like to put too much stuff that will fall off  when i move them.

Finally, in this post, canopy framing. I used green masking tape then changed it to electrical tape. I does not make any difference what you use as long as it thick enough to see under the paint.

Once the background paint is on, you only need to colour your favorite colour to the glass. I prefer black or gray depending on the model basic colour.

[lastvautour]

The display stand is four for a dollar wooden plaques at the craft store and soft wire.

Fully assemble she looks pretty neat.

She is now sitting in the paint booth awaiting the first coat of primer.

[Rafael]

Well, made more progress.

Here you can see I made the error of tilting up too much the engine booms. I already corrected that. Tomorrow, I will sand  a little more for the finish, fill the big gaps I left, and mark the canopy framing.


http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?album=180&pos=38

Saludos,

Rafa

[lastvautour]

I looked at the primer coat and I need some filling and sanding also. But for a first wood model you are doing very well. Things get easier with more models.

Lou

[Rafael]

Heh!!! I ran out of Tamiya Putty. Had to take out the auto body repair putty. More to come.....

Rafa