The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Have to agree, this is looking really impressive.

Regards
Tom

Managed to find an hour to actually model and then spent it all masking the glazing. Doesn't look complex but it took a lot of time getting the framing equal widths.

Things learnt from today; no matter how sharp you think your knife is only a fresh blade will do when trimming masking tape around windows.

In general you do some exceptional work but what has me in awe is your work on the pilots and the custom canopy work. I got all caught up in people vacu-forming their canopys to the point I went out and bought one off Evil Bay. Once I got it the excitement faded like a one hit wonders fame. The results you are achieving are exceptional.

Thank you Dirk. Vacform canopies just take a lot of patience and constant dry fitting. I haven't done any crash moulding for a while and it took four attempts to get this one right. I had a an idea to build my own vacform machine a few years back but still haven't found the time.

JamesPerrin wrote:Thank you Dirk. Vacform canopies just take a lot of patience and constant dry fitting. I haven't done any crash moulding for a while and it took four attempts to get this one right. I had a an idea to build my own vacform machine a few years back but still haven't found the time.

I don't mean to get off topic but what do you use to make your canopies? Home made machine, the old Mattel toy?

This canopy is crash moulded you could check out Circuits and Bumps in the may issue of SAMI Basically a piece of clear plastic (from packaging) is held in bulldog clips and then heated over the stove. When soft it is pulled over the mould, in this case the original canopy part, that has been mounted vertically on a stick.

JamesPerrin wrote:This canopy is crash moulded you could check out Circuits and Bumps in the may issue of SAMI Basically a piece of clear plastic (from packaging) is held in bulldog clips and then heated over the stove. When soft it is pulled over the mould, in this case the original canopy part, that has been mounted vertically on a stick.

Very interesting, what kind of clear plastic do you use?

Dirkpitt289 wrote:Very interesting, what kind of clear plastic do you use?

As I said it's usually scrounged from packaging. I think it's described as acetate sheet, be I don't know if that technically correct. It's maybe a .3mm thick, though I've bought some thicker sheet as I've got a Hiller UH-12 bubble canopy to do when I build that vacform box.

A few years ago I did experiment with a "cheap as chips" version:
http://gregers.7.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=5290;
A few other ideas for sources:
http://gregers.7.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=9467;

I've been basically doing a lot of painting and masking to get the Firefly done with it stripes. There seems to be a lot of variation in the Sky/EDSG demarcations, so I've tried to pick the references that match the Airfix artwork the closest. For some reason it appears I decided to do the stripes between applying the Sky and EDSG



... and here it is freshly unwrapped, a few touch ups requires but it's looking good.

Absolutely superb work James.
The paint job looks bang tidy!

Looking good...but then Fireflys always look good.

Jim

that looks good james; nice job on the masking

That looks sharp as heck all unwrapped. The decals will put it over the top!

That looks the mutt's nutts...spot on,James.

Regards,
Bruce

Been easing myself back into my modelling shoes the last week. Decalling and sorting out the final details, very close now.

I used the kits serial code for the rear fuselage and tail. Note there are no underwing serials, which given the overlapping undercarriage doors moulded as one is a small mercy. To be honest I not convinced the markings are correct as I've not found this a/c or another with similarly positioned stripes and roundels. Anyway I'm building to the box art so don't need to worry about such things. Roundels came from a Finescale Modellers freebe as I thought the duller roundels were more suitable than then usual bright post-war D types I have on my Xtradecals sheet.

When I first started adding details to my kits it was quite often caused by looking at the box art and noticing details that are not in the kit. I added the distinctive rearview mirror from wine bottle foil, the mirror part made by folding a strip over a couple of times. I then simply left the shinny rear side unpainted. There is also a small arial under the starboard wing near the undercarriage. The small pitot was replaced with a finer wire one.

The main aerial mast caused me some issues. The Airfix part is made to be canted over to starboard and the original hole for it was also off centre. I couldn't find any clear shots of this but the ones I had did suggest some lean. I then pulled out some pictures of FAA flying Firefly and this was dead straight and centre! I also came to realise the kit part was far too stubby so I pulled it off and went to bed.

Today I had time to search online and found that the mast did seem to vary but Airfix was perfectly right in it's positioning. I made a new longer one from stretched sprue and added it this evening.



Just the doors to add and aerial wire.