QCA Supermarine Stranraer by gnomemeansgnome **DNF**

[gnomemeansgnome]

Tail gunner and dorsal position faired over with scrap sheet styrene and putty



engines and rebuilt airscrews getting all did

[59North]

I learned something here; the blue tack mask idea is a good one. Thanks.
The model looks like it's coming right along. Well done.

[gnomemeansgnome]

Thanks. It's really actually puttering along at a crawl as I have those real life things to attend to as well and the weather looks like it may be warm soon enough for me to shoot the Stran and the Tempest with black primer. I have resorted to blutak for the hull windows as it is easier to remove than masks where I run the risk of loosening the transparencies. I did that with my old Airfix B-24 and it worked out all right.

[gnomemeansgnome]

Pursuant to further picking away at this magnificent beast, now that it is warm enough outside to rattlecan some Tamiya Black on cowlings and engines....



....aaaaand some pontoon assembly,



but have fallen a bit behind on the hull, though putty is now drying on the installed dorsal fairing and the tail has been faired over as well.

[MarkyM607]

They're not pontoons they're floats!!. . Looking good too.

[Migrant]

Looking good GMG, such a beautiful aircraft. Are Whiskey Jack decals still going? Haven't seen any of their stuff for ages.

[ShaunW]

Excellent work so far GMG. This looks to be a large and quite complicated biplane to me and I would imagine fitting the top wing and doing the rigging will be quite tough jobs!

[gnomemeansgnome]

Thanks Mike and yes I agree the Stran is a pretty nifty looking boat. I read in an 'Aeroplane' magazine article a while back that although it looked more antiquated than the Canso/Catalina it behaved a lot better in and out of the water. Not sure if Whiskey Jack is still with us. I purchased the decal set several years ago from Burnaby Hobbies, a local suburban supplier and purveyor of kits and aftermarket stuff for about $15 CDN. They had some great decal sets though.

[gnomemeansgnome]

Got the last of the necessary spraypainting done before another bout of weather at which Vancouver fails in a consistently comical way year after year. Snow, I am told. That puts a dent in any more spraying, as there are gloss black panels on those great big yellow wings, and the yellow has gone down like cottage cheese, same problem as the aluminum for the Tempest. Ah well, at least the major components are done, and if the weather doesn't cooperate i can at least employ the hairy stick and Tamiya tape where still needed.




And here, the hull at last painted in that very sexy black. Just finished the last coat on the keel....

[gnomemeansgnome]

Not happy at all with whatever the problem is with either my paint or the airbrush, so I think I am going to have to sand or rub off all the yellow paint on the wings with isopropynol and get me a rattlecan of yellow. So not cool, grrr........

[ShaunW]

Yellow can be a tough shade to get right in my experience GMG - nowadays I would airbrush matt yellow over a matt white undercoat, having more or less given up on gloss paints, I rely on clear coats to achieve a shiny finish if required. Cold temperatures probably won't help either.

[gnomemeansgnome]

Yeah that's what I should have done but I reached for the grey primer/surface instead of digging deeper in the paint box and getting flat white out. Ah well, the wings are now all basted liberally with chrome yellow. We will see how that turns out when it's time put the struts on and start mating the wings to the hull in a day or two.

[splash]

That's going to be impressive in those bright colours.

[gnomemeansgnome]

Yes. I have finally finished spraybombing the wings and they just need a bit of touchup. If I weren't busy with other commitments today I would be getting on with decaling them and the hull, but that will have to wait till probably tomorrow. I will be lucky to finish assembling it, and the rigging may have to wait till after the Build deadline.

[gnomemeansgnome]

Well, I can safely say there is no way I will have this finished by tomorrow. I have had to take a break after attempting to decal the hull. The decals are way too thin and curl at every opportunity, that is when they aren't breaking up at the slightest provocation. I think now I should have just done it as an RAF machine. After some choice Anglo Saxon invective I will wait to get my nerve back before finishing the decaling, and try to remediate the broken bits of decal. ARGH. Rigging? That's gonna take a while......