The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Houston we have a problem!

What the heck happened?

That looks pretty catastrophic!

Ouch, the last time I saw something like that was when I used too much tube cement.

Is it fixable?

Regards Splash

Old_Tonto wrote:Houston we have a problem!

Oh dear, that looks painful.. Any idea what happened? The previous pictures show what appears to be a puddle of glue/resin keeping the ballast in place. Was this familiar material that had unexpected effects of this particular plastic?

More importantly, is the nose just deformed, or still soft and malleable? If it's a hard mess, I suppose a decent sized blob of Milliput on each side followed by careful and precise sanding ought to get you back in the clear. If you're looking at a runny nose, you're in real trouble until the gunk solidifies..

Did you use five min epoxy resin to hold the ballast in place, if so it gives off a lot of heat as it sets.

Ouch, yes, looks like the glue or the glue plus the weight of the ballast.

I have gone to PVA for things like this -- once hardened, it does a decent job holding things in place without the adverse impacts reactions.

How about upsetting another bunch of collectors, and buying another copy, from which to copy the nose section? They can be found for non-silly money with some digging..

I guess it was the glue although I had noticed how thin the plastic was at those points before hand & I have used that glue previously without issue.

Anyway, it's too nice a kit to ditch so I have gone down the filler route and liberally applied Squadron Green putty into the depressions. I've left it overnight to dry and plan to start sanding this evening. So this is where I'm at:



I should be able to restore the nose shape without too much trouble.

Must remember the seat belts.

Great to see you carrying on with this on.

Old_Tonto wrote:Must remember the seat belts.

And the airbags, and anything else you can find. The driver has a record of crumpling the nose

Seriously, glad to hear it's not a write-off.

rob_van_riel wrote:

Old_Tonto wrote:Must remember the seat belts.

And the airbags, and anything else you can find. The driver has a record of crumpling the nose

Seriously, glad to hear it's not a write-off.

Zing !!

Glad you have a plan to rescue it .... on the bright side, with that much filler you won't need the nose weight any longer ...

JRatz wrote:

rob_van_riel wrote:

Old_Tonto wrote:Must remember the seat belts.

And the airbags, and anything else you can find. The driver has a record of crumpling the nose

on the bright side, with that much filler you won't need the nose weight any longer ...

Great news; it would have been a shame if this had stopped your build

jRatz wrote: on the bright side, with that much filler you won't need the nose weight any longer ...

it is definately nose heavy.

Just a quick update. After filling the nose I gave it a coat of black to check for imperfections before adding the canopy.
Still a little sanding required.



The canopy was an odd thing, not like any clear plastic that I had ever worked with before. It was in two parts so I masked off the panels & a test fit revealed it to be much too big even taking into account that it bulges out at the sides to give an improved view to the rear. So I had to sand the flat side that makes the middle of the windscreen and remove about 2mm of plastic from each piece! Finally it fit the gap, I lined it up with the side bulges on the front fuselages and glued it with Mr. Cement just as I have done with many models. Unfortunately it seems to have reacted badly with the plastic but its difficult to tell with the masking on.

It will at least be misted up.Maybe I will end up painting the windows black. After that I gave the fuselage a coat of primer to see how she looked.



Not too bad considering. The canopy still needs some filler and blending in. As the last image shows I have started work on the wings which are a different much harder plastic than the fuselage. Plenty of flash and undershot in a couple of places. More work on those tomorrow.