General Rocket stretches the point

[general rocket]

Its at this point of building a kit that a model finally seems like its coming together, and progress seems to have been made. The Matt Red took between 3and 4 coats to get a decent result and has dried without the brush strokes being obvious. I could remove them fairly easily in a few minutes with 1400 wet'n'dry, but as previously stated, I want the same hand painted effect on the model as I've seen on the real(?) thing.


The body halves went together nicely, but when I took the model apart, I did spend quite some time cleaning up the mating surfaces. I fitted the halves together, then glued the front end in front of the wings. when it had cured properly, I then glued rear end which needed a little bit of forcing into position before gluing.
The wings did not go together quite so well, which is not really acceptable in a kit that aimed directly at the children's market. Not only was the top profile not correct, but a fairly large amount of plastic had to be removed from the upper fuselage before the wings would fit into the body, and the a lot of filler was needed to fill the gap between the underside of the wing and the body.


The seams on the body are just as bad as the seams on the head, and needed quite a bit of filing to remove them. The body halves needed filling to hide the considerable gap.

Next step, gloss red
Impressions so far, are that this kit is a bit advanced for children. I am bearing in mind that this was a second hand kit, and wonder if that is why it was in the charity shop in the first place.
Please feel free to comment.

[fredk]

Thats looking a real cracker there Gromit lad, errrr, General.
I must dig mine out and finish it. Mine too was second hand, partly built, badly.
I drilled holes in Gromits body and sticky out parts and put sprue in to make better joints.

[ShaunW]

Sterling work so far General. I would agree that this looks a bit complicated for youngsters and it's a pity about the poor fit.

[Ian]

Relax and have some Wensleydale!

[Zee28]

Looking good so far GR. I agree about it being a bit tough for youngsters. Airfix's marketing and box art would certainly help it sell to young fans of the characters but those little hands may be disappointed by the build challenge and the painting required.

Zee

[BlohmWolf]

*Eats cheese furiously*



Nice looking model. Sad to see the kit isn't that great for younger modellers. Except for me.

[general rocket]

At last, an update!
The trouble with singing in choirs (in my case two) at this time of year is that you tend to be quite busy, Everyone likes carols sung choir. You also get volunteered a lot if you're not careful.
So not that much work done on the model.

Having used ModelColor Matt Red as a base, with great success, I used the Humbrol Acrylic Gloss Red supplied with the kit. Not impressed. I had wanted a streaky paint finish, but not that bad! So out with the wet'n'dry to take out the ridges, repaint, and smooth out with Future. Less bad, but not really happy with the result, probably because I was to pedantic in my intended effect. I should have sprayed it.

But at least the above picture shows the colour rather better than those below.





Now that the thing is together, it's starting to look believable, having the look of a 1920s/30s home build aircraft. Originally It was the intention to build it with the suds gun in position, but on reaching that stage of the build, I realised that it would mean the panel left off, with the unconvincing interior on view. I didn't like this on the test build, it just looked empty and like Airfix where being cheap not including an optional panel.
Another detail I had thought of adding was the flaps on the tail assembly, but it occurred to me that an inventor like Wallace would probably build it as a fully moving unit, so it stayed like that.
The chrome strip around the body is painted in Humbrol 191 Chrome Silver, the fabric around the passenger aperture has so far been done only in Humbrol RC401 Steam Locomotive Dirty Black, this will receive a slight weathering with slate grey.
The "trench" around the flaps have been given a thin coat of Citadel Scorched Brown.

Grommit has been built badly, and though he is not as yet finished, painted even worse. My fault entirely I started badly and rushed, and as you see, have just made a pigs ear of it. I make no excuses, I just saw the finish line approaching and tried to be clever, and failed. Still there are a few days left to put it right.

Feel free to comment.

[Narayan]

I like the job you have done with that red paint. As you say a few days left so I'm sure grommet will look fine in the end.

_________________
Narayan

Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain.

A:B 2013 39:11 2012 20:05 2011 11:10 2010 44:12 2009 19:16 2008 16:03 Overall 232:62

[general rocket]

Relax and have some Wensleydale!

Yes we are having a dinner party tonight, with a cheese board .

The state of play with grommit. I'm still not satisfied with him, but apart from gluing on his ears, i'm calling him finished. The supplied paint is Matt 41 Cream, where as watching the films this week (purely for research purposes M'lud) he is more of a light grey colour. Also his helmet is black, but painted mine Matt Dark Green 149 for a bit of contrast. plus it shows up the varnish I've used for glass in his goggles.




During a test build, irritatingly, I managed snap the retaining lug on the stand. So it will be out with he glue.


As usual, comments welcome.

[Narayan]

Watching Wallace & Grommit purely for research eh? I've been doing some of that research myself this week!

_________________
Narayan

Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain.

A:B 2013 39:11 2012 20:05 2011 11:10 2010 44:12 2009 19:16 2008 16:03 Overall 232:62

[general rocket]

[quote="Narayan"]Watching Wallace & Grommit purely for research eh? I've been doing some of that research myself this week!

Damn right too!

[JohnRatzenberger]

I hate it when those stand tabs do that and there just aren't a lot of them laying around as replacements these days ....

[Sissel]

Coming along great!

That blue cheese I'll do without though. Instead of cheese board I prefer chess board.

[general rocket]

I'm calling this finished now.
The ears are now glued into position, the paint touched up where it was needed and plane glued to the stand. At least the pictures below show the red in its proper shade.
Conclusion. It is not a kit that is suitable for children, the fit of the sidecar/plane is not good but I enjoyed building it.
Grommit was a better fit, but I did not do a good job building or painting it, for the reasons stated in the thread.





I started by showing a disapproving picture of my daughter. I'll finish by showing a delighted picture of her, after all it was built for her.


Comments welcome.

[Sissel]

Happy to see it done. A great build!
Your daughter looks very pleased with it.