Brickie's Svenska Hampden

[Brickie]

Fair point - I just know that a brushed finish looks different from a sprayed finish (I have rattlecans for the two main colours) and didn't want it to stick out too much.

[Brickie]

Got a little more done last night but not a huge amount. The fit was generally pretty good so I simply used some Tipp-Ex to fill the narrow seams (kudos to whoever thought of this - it works brilliantly). When I came to puttying the ventral turret, I had a near disaster in that I touched one of the side-panel windows and it immediately came free on three sides and started swinging inwards like a door. After some puzzling about how to access it to push it back into place, I carefully prised off the ventral glass (luckily just held in place by a couple of dabs of CA) and managed to get it back into place. I may have managed to frost the window with cement in the process, unfortunately.

Getting the ventral glassware off also involved snapping the barrel off one of those ridiculously fragile Vickers K guns (good job I missed the dorsal mount off - I snapped two barrels just getting them off the sprue) but luckily I found it before the carpet monster could claim it and managed to get it to cement back on.

After all the drama, I did manage to add some putty, but I think it's going to want a little more work.

[Brickie]

Managed to snap that Vickers again when remounting the glassware, by means of touching it, this time it's staying lost, I think. Ah well.

Reassembled it, more putty, primed it.



The glassware on the ventral and dorsal positions is just not quite right. The dorsal one sits a bit too low and the ventral is a touch too wide.



Still, the frontal aspect which is the main angle from which people will be viewing it is pleasing.



Stoopid autofocus. But I think that's the best I'm going to get from that ventral position.

Right, now to attach kibbles and bits and paint the copper rings on the cowlings. Then I can attach the cowlings and spray the upper green. Hopefully this afternoon.

[Jagewa]

Those transparencies are a trial, I do wish Airfix would revisit some of the older kits, and replace just few parts, like the transparencies for this one, the cowlings, engines and exhausts on the Beaufighter...

Looking forward to the colour on it. Mind you the grey does look good..

Cheers
Jim

[Brickie]

The green is on, I just need to source an appropriate light grey for the underside. It's a rattlecan job, this one - though I'm hoping to organise an airbrush for Christmas or in the January sales.

Citadel Colour Dwarf Bronze goes on quite nicely for the cowling rings, by the way.

[Brickie]

The good news is that I've now sprayed the grey underside as well.

The bad news is, now I'm coming to paint in the wavy-line bit, that Humbrol Acrylic 88 out of a spraycan seems to be an entirely different colour to Humbrol Acrylic 88 out of a paint pot. this is vexing, and means I'm probably going to have to go the Cut Masking Tape into Wavy Lines route instead.

[bluesteel]

The good news is that I've now sprayed the grey underside as well.

The bad news is, now I'm coming to paint in the wavy-line bit, that Humbrol Acrylic 88 out of a spraycan seems to be an entirely different colour to Humbrol Acrylic 88 out of a paint pot. this is vexing, and means I'm probably going to have to go the Cut Masking Tape into Wavy Lines route instead.

Yes, Humbrol shade mismatch between spay can and pot is something I usually find. I overcome it for touch up purposes by spraying a few shots from the can into a sealable glass airbrush jar, adding a little white spirit, then using it to paint with, the shade is then exactly the same. I'm assuming it's the solvent in the spray cans that somehow changes the shade.

[Brickie]

Here's my problem, anyway. I wonder which green is actually more accurate?

[Brickie]

I decided in the end to simply brush on the paint, as I thought the rattlecan finish looked a bit washed-out. I've attached the cowlings now and need to do some work on the grey underside before I can start looking at detailing and decalling. But it's at least a nice simple scheme so it's cracking on...

[Brickie]

We're about ready for decals, I think.

I've also realised I've put the loop aerial on the top at 90 degrees to what it should be, but I think it's a bit late to fix it now...

[JohnRatzenberger]

We're about ready for decals, I think.

I've also realised I've put the loop aerial on the top at 90 degrees to what it should be, but I think it's a bit late to fix it now...

Oh, the humanity ....

[Brickie]

Well, quite. Unless I clip it off and replace it with part 119, which baffled me for a while as it's not mentioned anywhere in the instructions but goes in the same place according to this picture:

[bluesteel]

We're about ready for decals, I think.

I've also realised I've put the loop aerial on the top at 90 degrees to what it should be, but I think it's a bit late to fix it now...

I thought the idea behind exposed loop aerials was that they can be swivelled around from inside the fuselage, so technically any angle would be correct...

Edit: It also retracts, so clipping it off completely would be correct too

[Brickie]

Oh, well if it could go any way round, that's fine. It was just that a couple of the other builders on here both have them at fore-and-aft so I thought I'd put it on wrong...

[bluesteel]

Oh, well if it could go any way round, that's fine. It was just that a couple of the other builders on here both have them at fore-and-aft so I thought I'd put it on wrong...

I suspect that's the most common orientation to find the loop in, as it has to be fore-aft aligned to be extended and retracted. But once up it can be in any orientation as the Navigator twiddles it for direction finding. To give them their due, Airfix have actually got it right as far as the loop is concerned, with a thicker part at the top, which then retracts flush with the fuselage. Most drawings have an even thickness loop which I think is incorrect.

Edit: Actually 'as you were' on that. It appears on closer inspection, the curvature of the top thicker part is the same as the Hampton top fuselage where it is located, which makes me think it retracts 90 degrees to the fore-aft, ie cross ways. So across the fuselage ought to be a more common orientation than fore-aft I would have thought...