Lancfan's Battling Buchon ***FINISHED***

[lancfan]

For my first build I'm going to make the special hobby Hispano HA1112 Buchon in BoB film colours.


David.

[DazDaMan]

I'll be paying particular attention to this one, as I have two in the stash!

[lancfan]

This kit will be the Special Hobby "movie star" boxing finished as "Yellow 5" from the film "Battle of Britain".


This kit includes both resin and etched brass parts, the resin isn't a problem but I really, really HATE etch.
The first thing is to make up the cockpit, fortunately this can be assembled without using the horrendously tiny etched details. the colour of the plastic is very close to the cockpit grey used on 109s so I just painted the details and left most of it in natural plastic, the seat was not to my liking so I checked the internet for pictures of the full size seat and found a suitable placement in the spares box, made a Miliput mould and then made a new seat from Das Clay.


The cockpit was next assembled and fitted to one side of the fuselage.


The fuselage was joined together and the basic wing was built up, both assemblies have been left to dry overnight.


David.

[DazDaMan]

I didn't realise the kit had etched brass in it.

As I've never worked with it, can it be left out?

[lancfan]

In this case yes Daren it can be left out bar one simple flat piece for the air intake grill (the standard spanish AF kit also needs the wing fences fitting but these are also simple flat parts) but there are other kits out there that need replacement IM or scratched cockpit parts to complete them.


David.

[DazDaMan]

Phew! For a minute there I thought I was going to have a major problem!

[lancfan]

This is how the model looked at lunch time with the wing glued to the fuselage and the engine cowlings completed.


David.

[Molly-new]

Seems to be a good fit all round David.

[DazDaMan]

Looks good so far!

One thing that's bugging me is clipping the wings on my 1/48th Buchon. Not looking forward to doing that!

[lancfan]

chip, even though it is a limited run affair without locating tags it is a good, easy build and the parts fit very well.
Daren, don't worry about it, just mark out the new wing tip in pencil and saw slightly outboard of the clipped wingspan, you can then sand the wing tips to shape with a sanding block.


David.

[DazDaMan]

I'll give that a bash.

[lancfan]

The model is now ready for painting, the only part which did not fit perfectly was the canopy which was slightly too long and needed sanding down at each end until it fitted properly. I was however very pleased with the separate radiator flaps which allowed me to fit these in the open position making this model just a little different from the other 109s in the collection.



David.

[DazDaMan]

It's looking really neat - can't wait to get stuck into my two now!

[lancfan]

Paint and decals came next, The blue was 50-50 Humbrol acrylic 34 and 65, I used acrylic Humbrol 224 for the grey and the green was Revell Aqua 40.
Most of the decals went on fine but the kit "split-stikas" proved troublesome and I replaced these with aftermarket swastikas.




During final assembly I had a few glitches, one of the the resin exhausts split when I tried to sand the joining face flat so I used a spare pair of exhausts from the Heller Spitfire 16, a resin gun barrel pinged off into space and I had to use stretched sprue for the guns and the wheels would not fit onto the locating pins on the undercarriage legs- these pins were then cut away and the wheels glued on flat against the legs.
Finished, Ex-spanish Air force Hispano Buchon "Yellow 5" used for the film Battle of Britain" c.1968




David.

[DazDaMan]

Very nice, David.

Can't wait to have a go at doing mine!