The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Good luck with that I built an Admiral 190 years ago, quite a learning experience for me

Ratch wrote:Good luck with that I built an Admiral 190 years ago, quite a learning experience for me

Yes, I'm starting to see what you mean...

Well, as expected the cockpit went together almost without incident, except for the carpet monster eating one of the etched brass rudder pedals. I left the other off, as it was almost impossible to see that far into the cockpit with the fuselage closed up anyway. Here is state of play as of now:





Note the approximate fit between wing and fuselage sub-assemblies at the nose. I haven't seen a gap like that on a model in quite a while .

More updates soon, probably involving filler.

Ouch! That's quite a gap! Hope you have plenty of filler available.....

Some progress made:



This is a pretty rough kit, I'll make no bones about it. If there had been an appropriate decal sheet I would have bought that and perhaps got the excellent Eduard FW190A kit instead. However, there isn't and kits like this probably build character Just like Ratch warned, Admiral kits should not be undertaken lightly.

So: tail planes pinned on (no locating pins), rudder in place (needs filler), gaps under the fuselage filled and sanded, some panel lines rescribed and engine cowling, on which the fit is very approximate. Next: trying to get the flimsy vacform canopy onto the cockpit. Fun is promised.

Sounds like a laugh and certainly it looks to be a fillertastic experience. Building that will put hairs on your chest

Stick with it

It certainly looks like a Fokker Rob.

Now that the Scandinavian build is finished (for now), I've started a new Normandie-Niemen project - a Toko P-63 used by the NN in the early fifties over Vietnam.



I've built this one before, a long time ago, in its Red Air Force version. Toko kits are typical 'garage' kits of the nineties/ early 2000s - good shape, decent detail but rough to assemble. There are no location pins, there's a general warp through the length of the fuselage and the front clear portion of the cockpit has been lightly smoked by excess heat in the molding process. For all that, this is still the best Kingcobra on the market - not that there is a lot of choice.
As we stand in this picture, the fuselage is together and the office assembled. The cockpit is nicely detailed for an all plastic kit, but I'm unsure about the clear plastic 'car doors' which are a beast to blend in. Use of hot water and superglue has tamed the warp in the fuselage halves. The only real input from me has been adding Tamiya tape harnesses to the seat, so this one way be completed straight out of the box - it even has the right markings!

This is interesting Spaceowl not least because I never knew that the French employed the P-63 over Vietnam back in their struggles over the country in the 50's.

ShaunW wrote:This is interesting Spaceowl not least because I never knew that the French employed the P-63 over Vietnam back in their struggles over the country in the 50's.

It surprised me too, as I found out they were the second biggest user of the P-63 after the USSR. They only had a short service life over Indochina because of a lack of spare parts, and were replaced in just over a year.

The Kingcobra and the Cobra have always struck me as being the product of someone trying too hard to make a success of something doomed to failure.....I'm probably doing them both an injustice, but they have never appealed to me at all!

That said, I shall enjoy watching this progress (and the always informative narratives too!)

I always had a soft spot for the Cobras. They eventually found their niche. If the USAAC hadn't cheaped out on the turbosupercharger the aircraft might have been a real contender.

I really need to update more often. There's been a bit of progress since last time:



I can't say this has been a joy to build - the fit is imprecise and the plastic has a nasty oily film, even after washing down with detergent. Quite a lot of this kit is filler. On the other hand, the detail isn't bad, the shape is, well, Kingcobra-shaped, and the decal sheet is comprehensive and nicely printed. I reserve judgement on how it performs, though and I've got an old Carpena sheet standing by in case the worst happens.

This sounds like a lot of my classic kit builds A good bit of progress, Spaceowl and hopefully that oily feel to the plastic won't trouble your paintwork.

Looking good Rob but you do seem to have a knack for picking kits that are "interesting" to build.