Karl's Polish Elk **FINISHED**

[Martin R]

Carlos,

I haven't previously posted on your thread. Apologies.

I think you're doing a great job on what looks like a fairly uncooperative kit, so kudos to you. Keep the faith!

regards,

Martin

[carlos]

Thanks for the encouragement guys - It's been.... 'interesting'....
Smaller parts finally beaten into submission, most are now painted, and the airframe is almost ready for the paint-job.

As well as just about everything needing to have the edges trimmed and sanded, the prop spinner was standing proud of the fairing it's supposed to flush with.

So... I countersunk the spindle hole....

And now it sits flush, like it's supposed to.


Wings and tail attached.
You can see where the nacelle fronts don't quite match up if the wing halves are aligned at the leading edge. The whole kit has been one misalignment like this after another, I've spent easily twice as much time trimming and sanding, as everything else put together. I would strongly recommend anyone thinking of buying this kit to open the box and check to see if it too suffers from a misaligned moulding.
Maybe mine was a one-off.... maybe the misalignment was spotted before too many left the factory.... Or does the problem affect a whole batch..??

As you can see though, there was very little filler needed on the uppers, the fuselage halves in particular were a very good fit.
Just a little filler in the tail to fuselage join, and a smidgin to fair in the wing.


The underside.... well that's another story entirely....


Paint on U/C parts is drying as I type this, and I'm expecting to be up VERY late tonight, so I'm gonna sit and mask the canopies while watching TV.
Oh, and while on the subject of the canopies.... that's another area which has needed sanding to fit - they were all standing more than 1mm higher than the fuselage - they do fit reasonably well now though...

Fingers crossed for a start on the main paintwork tomorrow.

[DavidWomby]

A lot of hard work is really paying off on this unusual subject. I look forward to seeing the paint on.

David

[TomW]

Well it looks brilliant Carlos, a testament to the hard work that you've put into her I really fancy getting one as well now, maybe build it next to a Karas and a P.11c.

Regards

Tom

[Kitaholic]

Great work getting her to look like that. Far more patience than me, mine took an early test flight

[despondman]

Looking good, your effort is paying off. Never seen one of these before so looking forward to seeing her finished.

[Martin R]

Carlos,

Well that's what 40 years of progress in plastic moulding does for you. My Hampden exhibited much the same fit and mould misalignment!

It looks like you're winning, and I like how you solved the sit of your spinners.

regards,

Martin

[fredk]

Well, you've certainly worked wonders on this kit. Its looking very well indeed.

[carlos]

Didn't quite get the canopy masking finished until Monday night... then left overnight for the glue to dry.




Finally had time to do some spraying tonight, and decided to have my first try at pre-shading.
Not sure how it's gonna turn out, but here we go anyway.


And as it dried, I realised I've used Tamiya X-1 (gloss) when I meant to use XF-1 (matt) - shouldn't make much diference though.... should it...?


And after leaving it to dry for an hour, got a good coat of light blue on the underside.



Looking at that, the pre-shading seems to be working, though I reckon I need another thin coat of light blue to make it a bit more subtle. I'll do that before I go to bed.

Most of the smaller peripheral parts are already painted, though the engines still need some work, and the way the part is moulded, I need to get the Khaki upper colour on before I can pick out the cylinders in silver/black.

Khaki on tomorrow, after masking - then it'll just be a matter of decals, adding the peripherals, and touching up. (He says with crossed fingers/toes/eyes/etc.... )


edited to add:
I've never used 'ZTS Plastyk' decals before - anyone know what they're like? Any little foibles I should beware of?

[Kitaholic]

Looking really good there

[PaulBradley]

Almost done - should look really nice, Karl.

[Molly-new]

Looking good Karl, and the pre-shading has come out well.

[fredk]

That pre-shading looks good. Something I've never tried on an aeroplane.

[carlos]

Thanks chaps!
Well, a coupla days down the line, and I'm just about to commence the final push.

Thursday and Friday evenings, I spent spraying another thin coat of blue on the undersides, and a coupla coats of Khaki on the uppers.
A lot of Elk models I've seen have been done in what looks to me like an 'olive' colour, but the ZTS instructions call for Khaki, and so does nearly every bit of info I've seen on the subject - so I went with Tamiya XF-49.

Pic taken after first coat of Khaki


A couple of thin coats of Klear, and on with the decals.
The decals in this kit have quite thick carrier film, which also extends quite a way outside the extent of the actual design. So I cut them in closer to the design, and covered with another two thin coats of Klear.
This has helped a lot, and the edges have blended in fairly well. I did notice though, that all the red on the decal sheet is slightly out of register.
Not much I could do though, as I don't have anything else suitable, but if you don't look too closely, they don't look too bad.



(The change in colour between pics is partly due to the deep gloss finish, but mainly to the first pic being taken under natural light through the window - and the second one being taken under tungsten light later in the evening, hence the yellow/orange colour-caste)

One thing I did like on the decal sheet, were the extra numerals in the same font as the serial number - allowing several different aircraft to be modelled if you so wish.
It would be nice to see extra letters/numbers on decal sheets from other manufacturers, and I can't see it costing all that much extra to produce.... just a thought.

Anyhoo!
I have the evening to myself, with nothing else to do, and a coupla bottles of Marston's 'Owd Rodger' in the fridge, so...

Expect 'finished' pics either later tonight, or maybe in the morning.

[Kitaholic]

That is looking beautiful