Martin's Bit O' Lace

[Ian]

However, we'll see where I get to by the end of tomorrow evening.

We'll see? You might.....

[Martin R]

And the winner is . . . Ian!

regards,

Martin

[Martin R]

OK, so I owe all 1 of you some photos. After a bit more work this evening splitting the waist guns and installing the breeches with white glue , also adding some token detailing to the radio op's compartment, I got to here:







Then - big psychological point in the build - I got the fuselage together. Here in festoons of tape:



And then, because I was too excited to sensibly let things dry, I ended up with this:



Cowlings just blu-tacked on for effect. Look closely and you can see that the joins are pretty ropey. This nearly always happens to me when I build some interior structure. I must do better, glue in stages, and use plastic-weld or equivalent. However, that's for the future. Immediately before me, though, there's a fair bit of filling and sanding, and I'm going to lose a lot of the nicely refined raised panel lines.

Still, looking on the bright side: did I mention that I got the fuselage together?

regards,

Martin

[Jagewa]

Cool, it'll look good with the fuselage together...

I think you need to carry on unsensibly, seems to be working fine for you

Glad to see the restrained carried awayness in the radio op compartment.

Cheers
Jim

[Ratch]

Coming along nicely

[Martin R]

It's slowed down quite a lot since my last update: life has partly got in the way, but the main reason is I'm struggling with what to do next. The extensive glazing on the '17 has got me worried. I'm aware of the need for masking, but I rarely do that well.

However, when in doubt re what to do, at least do something is usually a reasonable course to follow in modelling, so I masked the windows I had already installed. Easy, as they're all oblong. I then laid some tape down beside every join line and proceeded to start filling. I am now half-way through sanding back (I've done the top surfaces). I've given the top seams a reveal coat in olive drab (I was painting the IP coaming ahead of installing the cockpit glazing. I'll ovviously lose some panel line detail but, hopefully not that much. Here's how the beast looked before I broke to watch Top Gear:





Tonight I installed the cheek gunner's, bombardier's and rear gunner's windows. I'm mulling over how to mask these non-'square' shapes when they've dried. I also painted the prop blades satin black. Here are some photos with engines and props blu-tacked in place, to give an idea of what she'll end up like.







regards,

Martin

[Titan]

Looking good Martin.
I think the way I am going to do the windscreen frames would be to use decal paper, for the square windows I am going to use Tamiya tape as masking, for the dome and oval windows I will use Maskol and for the cheek windows I will use a square piece of Tamiya tape just behind the gun and also down the front of the gun area and then when the paint has dried use thin decal strips to go across that area to form the little windows if you follow what I mean.

Regards
Mark

[Martin R]

Looking good Martin.
I think the way I am going to do the windscreen frames would be to use decal paper, for the square windows I am going to use Tamiya tape as masking, for the dome and oval windows I will use Maskol and for the cheek windows I will use a square piece of Tamiya tape just behind the gun and also down the front of the gun area and then when the paint has dried use thin decal strips to go across that area to form the little windows if you follow what I mean.

Regards
Mark

Thank you, Mark. I see exactly what you mean! I will copy you on your idea for the cheek glazing areas, if I may?

regards,

Martin

[Gregers]

Great work. I'm looking forward to seeing this one built.

All the best.

Greg

[Martin R]

Folks,

Sorry about the lack of updates. I'm afraid I've 'hit the wall' with this kit. Having put on some more of the glazing, I couldn't see how I was going to get it masked anything like neatly (particularly the ball turret), so I've wimped out of doing anything else with it apart from sanding all the seams. (Work / home life has also been somewhat manic!)

Anyway, I bit the bullet this evening and purchased an Eduard set of masks for the handsome price of £3.10. Having done that, I can do some more detail painting until they arrive.

regards.

Martin

[Martin R]

Well, no doubt to the surprise of some, I'm still working on the old Fort. Here's the progress on the detailed bits:



The masks arrived and I've spent some time over the past couple of days applying them. I have to say that in terms of fit and ease of application, these were great. Time will tell what they're like as masks. You can see that I'm pre-shading the framework. You can also see that the PVA I'm using to seal the window surrounds is cr*p!





Oh yes, the bombardier's glazing isn't there. I got some glue on it. It's been sanded and polished back as well as I can, and it's currently luxuriating in a bath of Klear.

Next step is to redo the canopy surrounds in PVA and then give it an overall shot of primer.

regards,

Martin

[Narayan]

It's really taking shape now Martin. Hopefully the masking will work out well.

_________________
Narayan

Knock-out Dropper!

A:B
2013 06:01 2010 44:12
2012 20:05 2009 19:16
2011 11:10 2008 16:03

Overall 199:52

[JohnRatzenberger]

Martin, I thought there was some new box-art with a Fort coming apart in mid-air

[Martin R]

Martin, I thought there was some new box-art with a Fort coming apart in mid-air

Afraid not, John.

I got home from work this afternoon, masked off all the turret holes and shot a coat of primer on. Of course, the primer, being acrylic, has crazed over the brushed on enamel interior colour <sigh>

regards,

Martin

[Dirkpitt289]

Over all how do you find the Hasegawa kit?