Wingnuts 1/32 AMC DH-9 ** DNF -> A/C Forum **

[JohnRatzenberger]

That's a good idea, but won't solve the problem of the big pulley housings -- even if I pieced them on, I'd have touch-up.
I have had success in the past, but as they say in the financial disclaimers "past performance is not an indicator of growth ..."

I had similar problems with the RNAS Pup and I have two more WNW kits -- a FE.2b and an RE.8 -- in the stash. Usually the problem is the roundels, the rest are fine, and I am thinking that on my next one I should find masks and paint them on.

[TobyC]

Looking very good John. How do you rate WNW kits compared to others?

[JohnRatzenberger]

Looking very good John. How do you rate WNW kits compared to others?

They are a very high quality, highly researched and detailed kits, that are well-engineered and described to give you the best opportunity for a great looking and accurate model. They are greatly aided in this by being a self-funded "non-profit" organization and do not have to make shortcuts to keep the shareholders happy.

They are also aided by working in 1/32. Other companies can produce similar quality within the limits of scalability.

Their instructions are top-notch, clear, colored, logical -- and the parts have names. Well illustrated with period/museum pix and descriptions. Not without an occasional error, but the instructions are the tie-breaker for me -- unless you have something particular in mind, no other references are needed.

I like them, but am only going to do a few aircraft that really, really interest me.

Any rigged aeroplane modeler has to do at least one.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Well, here's the problem I described yesterday -- see the ratty looking decals at the aileron gap and around the aileron cable pulleys. I have pricked what look like some air bubbles along the stitching and liberally coated these with Micro-Sol in one more attempt to tighten things up.





The other problem is the fuselage. It may be hard to see but there are footsteps under the decals. I have gently sliced along the outlines with a sharp knife and laid on more Micro-Sol. Another problem not easy to see at this angle is due to the detail. The sides are plywood, nailed/screwed/bolted on to the frames/etc. The little nail heads didn't look very big on bare or painted plastic but standout under decals. I wish I had sanded them off before decaling, but now I'll just hope my final clear coat "hides" it ...



In the meantime, I am now going back through all the steps for the details and things I skipped over so I can get them all ready when I'm ready for the final assembly process.

[JohnRatzenberger]

I lost a bunch of time in the 'tween Wars GB -- see problems in my P-26 build there.

Anyway, here I decided best way to attack the wing/decal issue here was to get the ailerons mounted to the wings. Luckily I had predrilled all these for brass rod for strength of join, so it was a matter of fitting the rods and getting things aligned then gluing.

I also started adding all the remaining bits to the fuselage, which does make things a bit dicey while handling but I have to move along.



Tomorrow will be paint touch-up on fuselage where I've added parts and move on to more parts. I'll also start putting some PC10/CDL between flying & control surfaces and perhaps get a decent blue match selected - probably something in Vallejo is spot on. Then I can add the control horns and such.

[JohnRatzenberger]

The closest match to the blue turns out to be WEM roundel blue - which I think I knew from before - it's just flat not glossy - fixable.

Anyway, I have done the blue fixups and will start on white and red tomorrow, depending on the meeting and the P-26, else Thursday.

Did a couple other little things also. Starting to move a bit faster, but I know I've created a small problem by putting all that stuff atop the fuselage without having the lower wing & gear on, so I need to be very careful.

[JohnRatzenberger]

No pix, apparently my FTP server is down.

Still working but pix are better than words, so hopefully it'll be back soon..

[Titan]

I hope so too John this is looking great.

[JohnRatzenberger]

I am going to transfer the rest of the work to the Aircraft forum.

Here's the new thread.