David's 1/72 Airframe Martin-Baker MB2 **FINISHED**

[DavidWomby]

I have only ever built one vacform before, about 20 years ago: a Rareplanes Beechcraft C-45. It turned out OK. I have several vacs in the stash and so I need some practice. Andrew's MB5 inspired me to choose this very simple one of its grandfather, the MB2.



The kit was from a company called Airframe in Burnaby, BC, Canada and I picked it up years ago at a show. It's formed over a male mould so there's really no surface detail showing except the control surfaces. It also has a nice and simple all-over one colour paint scheme!



I've marked the parts with a felt pen.



David

[fearless frankie]

Alway liked the look of this aircraft,what are you planning on using for the fiddley bits?

[DavidWomby]

I have tons of unused wheels so I should be OK for those. I'll have to search harder for a tailwheel and probably make up a rough interior from plastic card and maybe some rods to make the framing that shows in the rear canopy. I'll have to find something I can steal blades from to make the two-blade prop - the kit just provides the unusually shaped spinner.

My biggest challenge will be finding white numbering for the underwing serials without resorting to buying another decal sheet!.

David

[TomW]

The new tool Airfix Gladiator might provide a suitable prop, if you have one of the Mk.II/J-8 boxings then you have both two and three bladed props in there.

Regards

Tom

[DavidWomby]

Thanks for the tip, Tom, but I'll try to make do with parts that I have.

It's all cut out now and sanded down. Well, as sanded as I could get it in an hour. Then I ran out of patience. Trial fitting looks pretty good but the tail planes would be rather tubby if I use top and bottom halves so I may fill the concave surface on the bottom of the top half and then scribe in the elevators.



I am away tomorrow morning to Thursday so there will be no more progress until the end of the week.

Does anybody have a suggestion for a common paint colour that is close to NIVO? I will never use NIVO again, so it's not worth buying it. I've seen some suggested mixes but they all look very complex. How about IJN Green? I have a bottle of that for some reason.

David

[AndrewR]

I've seen Tamiya IJN green recommmended and Humbrol Bronze Green! Also RLM 83...

[DavidWomby]

Thanks, Andrew. I'm going to go with the IJN Green since I have a bottle of it.

First challenge ahead: I was playing around with the fuselage and fin parts against the plans. Some surgery will be needed as I can line up the fuselage with the plan or I can line up the fin/rudder with the plan but not both of them.



The fuselage is too high at the rear end. I think the way to proceed will be to cut down the top of the rear fuselage, fit the fin and then blend it all in with putty.

David

[DavidWomby]

This one has been on the back burner but I started making an office for it.



David

[lancfan]

Good start on an unusual subject.

David.

[DavidWomby]

Second problem. The vac canopy provided will be too shallow if I cut it as intended. I can't find a suitable one in the spares box so I haven't decided what to do yet. It may just have to be used as provided and look shallow.

David

[DavidWomby]

Does anybody have a thought about the thin rectangular opening in the front of the port spat? I can't think what it's for.





David

[lancfan]

David, it' the air intake for the oil cooler.
David.

[DavidWomby]

I have to confess that I am not enjoying this much. In fact, I keep avoiding working on it.

Most major parts are together - wings, tail, fin, spats and fuselage - but remain to be assembled. The halves of things were pretty mis-matched. Just 0.5 to 1.0 mm or so but enough to make exactly aligning the fuselage halves or the fin halves impossible. I have to decide whether to sand down the larger halves to fit the smaller or add filler to the smaller halves to match the larger!!! I also opened up the nose intakes and then realised they are too big - duh.



I have some ideas on using card and sprue as spars etc to ensure the sub-assemblies line up where I want them and to add some robustness as this plastic is very thin in places.

David

[DavidWomby]

Today went better than expected. The tailplanes and fin are on and puttied but not sanded. I found some old Spitfire wheels and put them in the undercarriage spats and then filled the spats with epoxy to strengthen them. The cocktail sticks will be cut short and used as pegs to mount the spats to the wings. I plan to fill the wings with epoxy too but first I need to add the machine gun barrels and decide on what to use as a wing spar.



David

[AndrewR]

That's moving along well. These vacforms do need a bit of getting used to. Certainly takes longer to get that "I can see the light at the end of the tunnel" moment!