April 2010 Ping

[lastvautour]

No April fool's joke!
Activity in the shop is fairly high but little has been completed since the new year. However some projects are nearing completion.

http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4125
Left to right, top to bottom
1. 1/32 Cessna O-2B has top priority. 2. Skunkwork sci-fi. 3. 1/48 Canadair Argus has second priority. The wing was contoured this past week and the engines received some final sanding. 4/5/6 1/32 Bolingbroke received a propeller and some main wing to fuselage fillets. 7 The Bonnie had little done to it. I did shape a tool to gouge out some materiel from the side ports. Work is slow since the strike and management has to do it all. 8. Sorry a plastic 1/144 Super Guppy but the hangar underconstruction below it will hold many a solid in the future. I am currently shaping lighting attachments. I hope to use flashlight bulb to give some realistic effect. and 9. Sorry again, 3 1/48 F-16 from Tamiya, Hobbycraft and Monogram. All require extensive rework to get them to this stage. Other  than that I made a 1/144 scale hangar to display small aircraft.

[Balsabasher]

Well April is here and my first model this month is something a little unusual,probably the only Flying boat glider ever built and flown ? the Slingsby Falcon was modified with a flying boat keel to be towed behind a speed boat for operation off Lake Windermere in the Lake District,UK in 1941.
And the reason ? well the Air Training Corps had few airfields in that area to fly their gliders so W.W.Wakefield the then director of the ATC suggested this unique idea which was successfully put into practise with this glider.

Project number two this month is a brace of early Taylorcraft Auster 5 aircraft,one will be finished as an early RAF spotter aircraft and the other a civilian aircraft that I once rebuilt.

Lots of other exciting stuff in the wings so watch this space !



http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/albums/userpics/SLINGSBY_FALCON_TOGETHER.JPG

[lastvautour]

PING

Pretty quiet out there!!!!!!!!!

Lou
P.S. I see many people on line but no input. Just a word in the general comment areas or this post to let us know what's happening with you all. Even if you are not carving at the time, just let us know you are still with the living and that the names I see logged on are not just ghost images!!!

[Ken Pugh]

Still working on the XL5.  All this time has been spent on seemingly endless loops of sand, fill, seal, repeat.  I finally got the body smooth enough to start adding details around the fins and engines.

Ken Pugh

[JeffH]

It's been a while since I posted a picture of my unfinished works-in-progress, so attached is a photo of my current workshop backlog.  All models are 1/32 scale (3/8" = 1'), most have been posted before.  They have all been sealed and primed now and need to be finished.  I hope to have the DeHavilland DH88 completed by the end of this year; the landing gear is mostly done and I'm currently working on the propellors.

The one that seems out of place is supposed to be an F9F Cougar and is based on Grumman plans published in a 1996 issue of the American Aviation Historical Society journal.  As soon as I saw those drawings, I knew I had to build one of those!  Others can probably relate.  Lots of work still to do on it though.

The Cessna 310 in back has been a disappointment in that the vertical stabilizer has warped badly.  I believe that's because the piece of wood I used had the grain running parrallel to the attachment surface (front to back, rather than diagonally or up/down).  I'm undecided whether to chop off the vertical tail and make a new one, or use the model as a paint test hulk, or just give it a Viking funeral.  When working with wood you always need to pay attention to the grain direction!

Last Fall, I purchased a cheap router and have been using it to try to make some more presentable looking display stands.  The results can be seen holding up the models.

Keep building,

Jeff 

[dave_t]

What a great group.

If the Cessna were mine, I would just make a new part.

[lastvautour]

As per Dave's comment, excellent work Ken. Your stands are great also. I like the Cougar and I have been toying with the idea of doing a Panther in 1/32 scale. Again, excellent work and I look forward to the finished models.

Lou
P.S. Are those drawings on line?

[Boomerang]

 Greetings all,

                Miles M20/2 - 1/48th - At the finishing stage

                Miles Hawk Speed Six 1/32 - Blanks cut out

                Hammod Model Y - Blanks cut out, wings and tail shaped and sanded

                Curtiss XP- 55 1/48 -  Working on fillets.

                Supermarine Type 224 1/48 - Finishing touches to the propeller ,make up a tail skid .
                               
                Various drawings acquired and enlarged up to 1/48 and 1/32.
                The 'to do" list modified. Modified again but thats part of the fun of it.
               
                Cheers

                Gordon

[lastvautour]

Mid month already. A work slow down due to Canada Post hampered the completion of the Skymaster. I ordered paint and ask for "Expedited" shipment. The parcel left the store last month and is not here yet. I sent a parcel to my son in Korea and he got it in 4 days. What gives? Other than that, a new Air-Toon F-101B is in the making and some progress in sanding the Argus has been made. The Bolingbroke is also moving along slowly. I have been putting a fair amount of time on my plastic collection and construction of a 1/144 scale hangar and some Aircraft Maintenance Support Equipment for my 1/48 scale display hangar. Hopefully the paint will arrive on Monday and I can start the paint job on the Skymaster.

Keep your blade sharp!
Lou

[dave_t]

I don't actually build plastic models anymore, but I bought two 1/72 Kaman Seasprite helicopter kits. One by MPC (Airfix?) and the other by Fujimi. They were like new in the shrink-wrap since 1979-1980. Surprising to see the difference in scale and shape between the two. Which one is more correct? Haven't a clue.

[lastvautour]

I don't build as many plastics as I used to. Now it varies but in the last 5 years I may have assembled 20 or so. Before it would be 20 a years at least. Moving from base to base caused some damage which in many cases could not be repaired with my skills, hence the spares box or the garbage bag. My best wood years have been in the last 5 years since joining SMM and most of those were the result of group builds. I call the old stuff pre-smm builds. It's a cool Sunday morning here on the east coast. The outlook is not good until Wed so a few more days in the basement should move some projects along. I will be cutting the Argus wing dihedral shortly as the wing is shaped and sanded enough to proceed.

Lou

[scottzepher]

Afternoon all!

Love your hangar, Lou.  The can made excellent scale corregations!

Crazy as the weather has been, it's actually been condusive to catching up!  All that snow that was dumped on us in February allowed me to finish a special window sill for the cats.  Now both of them can look out the attic window together, or just sit in the sun. I also got more space via another rolling shelf unit (bought the wood and had it cut, so it was a quick build),  All the high tempertures this month has given me more extended time in the shop, so I started cleaning up a lot of repair work that's been sitting around. 
I've gotten to paint that Vickers MG I built, and once that's in place, I need only get all the cockpit parts in place, finish the radiator and replace the stringers. 
The airbrush is up and running, so I got some acrylics (wife's preference), and the Type BB's wings have their first coat of Buff. Photos to come.

Tom

[lastvautour]

I finally received the paint today and started to spray the Skymaster. Photos to come.

Lou

[lastvautour]

Update
The Skymaster had the final coat of Aircraft grey applied this morning. I will wait a few days before starting the cockpit windscreen and windows. Sanding the Bolingbroke is finally done and the last coat of primer is drying as I type. Now for a colour. We have a bright yellow with black stripes or the standard green/brown cam schemes. I would love to tackle the yellow version, but yellow is a terrible colour to apply. A coat of white primer underneath works sometimes. Three of the Argus nacelle are ready to mount and the wing just needs a few more strokes of sandpaper to accept the nacelles. The Voodoo Air-Toon is primed and awaits the templates for the colour scheme. I have the image in my flash drive and I will transfer it to my downstairs PC this afternoon. Other than that, my 3 1/48 F-16 models are done and on the shelf. Photos are in my flickr account. To keep up the activity level, I also started 4 1/48 F-18s

[Balsabasher]

Lou excellent progress,did you know that the best colour to be used as an undercoat for yellow is pink,whenever we sprayed real aircraft and needed a yellow finish out came the pink primer,apparently it has something to do with the reflective qualities underneath which makes sense,I have used white as a base coat before for yellow with poor results,the only problem is that as far as I know there is no standard rattle can colour shaded pink ! so a trip to the mixing department is needed to get some made up as a small batch,the Bolingbroke would look stunning in that black/yellow scheme,incidently my father flew Bolingbrokes in Canada during his training.
Barry.