Paul's Stringbag ** Project Scrapped**

[PaulBradley]

I'll be doing a floatplane, probably in pre-war colours, though not decided on an actual airframe as yet.

[PaulBradley]

Made a quick start this morning, mostly detail painting on the cockpit interior, but I did glue the floats together. Fit is excellent and kudos to Airfix for making these an easy three-part assembly that preserves the fine detail on the float decking. Photos later; I'm off to a fly-in at a local airport in a minute.

[PaulBradley]

An unexpected chance to work on the Stringbag today, as Robin is sick and I'm home keeping an eye on her.

The fuselage interior painted up over the weekend:




The cockpit framework made up and affixed to the port fuselage (sorry about the lack of focus..):



And I glued together the fuselage this moring:



I did have an issue with the cockpit floor - it was a little too low for the fuselage bottom plate to fit snugly, but some sanding down enabled it to fit properly.

[jssel]

Good progress Paul.

[PaulBradley]

Cheers, Jeff - she's coming along.

I added the lower wing/fuselage struts last night, and made up the engine and cowling assembly. I was surprised at how overly-complicated cowling construction - I had a little difficulty when the lower right part snapped in two....

I brought out my 1/48 Tamiya kit as well - it is interesting how similar the parts breakdown is in many cases.

Pics later

[PaulBradley]

So some progress today. The fuselage has had the tail added. The horizontal tail braces were odd - three were a little short, but the fourth was fine. Bizarre. In any case, the knobs didn't fit the holes, so I'd trimmed them off...



Here's the engine:



Looks nice, but I think the Frog kit engine actually has finer detail. The cowling assembly was a little fraught - I managed to snap the lower right piece, but it still fits fine.


And the progress so far, measured in sub-assemblies:




The fit of the wings looks to be almost perfect - but then I haven't applied any glue as yet....

I drilled out the main rigging holes - strange that Aifix doesn't mark where all of them are, only some of them. John's rigging diagram will be most useful.

Oh, and the little patches of yellow will give you a clue as to what scheme I've decided on.....

[Saxon]

Looks good, I struggled with the cockpit fit as well. And regards to the fuselage floor not fitting due to the cockpit had the same issue with the new tool Airfix BF-110.

[MDT]

Nice work Paul, pleased I wasn't the only one to have to the 'fight the floor section' part of this otherwise great kit! Love the engine detail you've captured there.

[PaulBradley]

Cheers guys.

[TomW]

Coming together nicely Paul, I had a bit of hassle with my engine construction too but it was fit issues with the engine pieces themselves rather than the cowling.

Regards

Tom

[PaulBradley]

Project scrapped.

I ended up with a number of issues, the final one being terminal.

Firstly, I noticed I'd attached the tailpanes on crookedly - just a degree or so, but it was really noticable from the front. This would have been very difficult to correct without breaking something.

Secondly, I was working on the cabane struts this morning and broke not one, but two, while cleaning up the sprue nubs. Fixed them, but they didn't look so good.

Thirdly, the funny strutty-thing that hangs down from the rear of the top wing center section? I broke one of the legs taking it off the sprue.

Fourthly, while fiddling with the wings, I realised I had forgotten to open up the strut attachment slots in the stub wing end plates.

Fifthly, while attempting a fix of the fourth problem, I broke one of the wing struts.

Sixthly, the wings shattered when I threw them against the wall......

I am not a happy camper at the moment. I hadn't attached the wings to the fuselage (that's what I was working on), so the fuselage survives, as well as the other parts, so I've put them in one of the other new Swordfish kits I have, for a later date. I am disappointed in myself for letting this get the better of me, but also disappointed at Airfix because this kit really does have some ill-conceived engineering, and the option to do folded wings, while commendable, needs the greatest attention to get it right whichever option you choose.

Luckily, this was the third of these kits I bought, from Airfix USA at a bargain price because the box had been dented, so it isn't a big loss monetarily. So I have another two I can work on at a later date, with the accumulated wisdom from this build. It is all rather annoying though.

[PaulBradley]

Is it just me, or is the plastic a little brittle? Too many breakages with this kit - I'm not usually so heavy-handed.

Back to Spitfires, I think....

[jssel]

My cabane struts all broke and the instructions really do not show the corect procedure. I mounted the wing with the main struts and used stretched.sprue for the breakage

Sorry you are dropping out of this one. But I understand.

[PaulBradley]

Cheers, Jeff - I'm still annoyed, as I think this would have been a nice looking model.

[splash]

Tough break Paul it was looking good up to that stage.

This kit is quite a challenge, since Airfix have started using the large sprue gates I have reverted to removing the parts with a razor saw, this has reduced the number of part brakages.

Regards Splash