Airfix C-47. Project scrapped!

Fuck it! Off to landfill it goes;

Airfix C-47

As I'm going to paint it (or try to) in a civvy scheme I needed to remove the long air intakes on top of the engine cowlings. Luckily I still had the smaller intakes supplied in the kit in the spares box so after cleaning up the chunks I've taken out of the wing (where the knife slipped) I will fit these.
I'm also hoping that when I spray the model with primer it does'nt lift the paint underneath otherwise this model will definitely be heading for landfill;

By the way this is the scheme I'm planning on doing;

The aircraft is registered as G-AMPY and ended up flying with Air Antlantique, ironically it was built for the USAAF originally before going into civilian service but apparently it is now back in military colours with the number KK116.

Airfix C-47

I built this a while back but the finish came out very poor as the paint went grainy during the spraying sessions. I persevered with it but it just went from bad to worse especially when the Kleer floor polish was still visible around the decals so I put it to one side and tried to forget about it.
Trouble is I spent a lot of time getting the wing roots to look good as the fit was pretty poor both sides and this fact alone has been niggling me so last night I sanded the whole model back and smoothed out the rough bits (of which there were many).
It is a shame as with the invasion stripes it did look well (apart from the gritty paint) however I'm planning on doing it in a completely different scheme so stay tuned!

Airfix C-47; Scratch another model and file under B (for bin)

I give up! The model has been niggling me since I started but after giving it a coat of matt varnish it has showed up just how rough the finish is, plus for some unexplained reason the areas that I used Johnsons Kleer for the decals are really prominent and something that has NEVER happened to me before;

So that's that! I don't intend to do anymore to the model other than use it as a test subject so sorry fans if you were looking forward to seeing it finished.
The other problem is that I am now reluctant to start another aircraft model due to the issues I'm having with finishing them.

Airfix C-47; Decals going on but.....

One of the problems with white decals is that they can be transparent and if I had remembered this I would have made a mask for the national insignia and painted the areas beforehand. Because I had forgot this happened;

You can clearly see the black of the invasion stripes showing through so the two options open to me were to make a mask and spray the white areas or put decals over the top (I chose the latter). The original decals came from an Xtradecal set printed by Hannants so I put the kit decals over the top and at the time of writing they appear to have bedded down well. There were quite a lot of little stencils on the Airfix decal sheet but I've only used those for the upper surfaces.
When I get the matt varnish on I can start weathering the model but I'll try to avoid too much 'post-shading' otherwise I'll just get a slagging for it :o)

Airfix C-47; Stripey!

The invasion stripes are now painted, all I have to do is mask them off again and respray the green base coat as the stripes on the top of the wings and upper fuselage on this particular aircraft were overpainted pretty soon after D-Day;

As with the white, the black (Tamiya XF-1) was toned down using a drop of Deck Tan otherwise it would be too stark.
The de-icing boots on the leading edges of the wings will be masked and painted next and then it'll be ready for glossing and decalling

Airfix C-47; Finally the base colours are on

After rubbing down the model with micromesh I resprayed it and this time put a couple of drops of acrylic retarder in the mix, after which the paint sprayed much better. Again I used a mix of Tamiya Olive Green and Flat Earth but don't ask me in what ratio as I just added brown to the green until I had a decent shade of Olive Drab (in my mind anyway).
Tonight I masked off the areas for the invasion stripes and painted these with Mr Hobby white with a dash of light grey to tone the white down;

On my next days off I'll paint the black stripes and de-icing boots on the wings and tail fin then get it gloss varnished ready for the decals.

Airfix C-47; Painting it (or attempting to)

Obviously it's going to be one of THOSE models. I sprayed the undersides without any issues, masked the model then applied the top colour. I was'nt happy with the mix of paint (Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-52 Flat Earth) plus the paint had gone grainy on the wing roots. I gave the model a quick rub down when dry and mixed up some XF-58 Olive Green and XF-52 with some X-22 Clear thrown in and I ended up with this;

Yep the paint is still grainy and it also highlighted the areas that had been rubbed down (badly by me) so it's going to be left alone while I think about it. Oddly enough after cleaning the airbrush of green paint I decided to matt varnish the Trumpeter E-25 with Mr Color and I had all sorts of issues in the past with frosting and grainy finishes however this time it sprayed perfectly. Weird!

Airfix C-47; Priming the thing

As I predicted in the earlier post the wing roots look a mess after priming the model so I'm going to have to think about how to rectify them without destroying the surface detail;

Fortunately the fuselage joints are better;

 The favourite solution (at the moment) is to mask off the wings and fuselage but leave the wing roots exposed and basically fill the areas in with paint, cheating I know but needs must and all that however that plan may change. More later folks!

Airfix C-47; Build complete!

A big update tonight as I was without any internet for two days (the horror) then back in work.
First of all I masked the fuselage and cabin windows and windscreen before I glued them into place then Tamiya masking tape was applied to the glazing;

Then using a sharpened cocktail stick the tape was worked into the frames;

The fun bit! Using a new scalpel blade the tape was scored along the frame;

With great skill (well a lot of luck really) you *should* get a neatly masked windscreen like this;

A word of warning using this method; I have totally buggered up a canopy and windscreen before now as sometimes the framing is that finely moulded the tape hides it so if you have any doubts use pre-cut masks such as Eduard or Montex ones.
Next we have the undercarriage which can be removed before painting fortunately. The gear legs were glued together but I also used cyano glue to give some added strength as I can foresee some problems with the model standing on it's own two feet (so to speak);

The windscreen and side windows were (surprisingly) a decent fit however there was a gap between the bottom of the screen and fuselage as demonstrated by the tip of the scalpel;

This was filled using black Milliput and while still wet it was smoothed out with an old paint brush moistened with water. Black Milliput was used as you have less chance of the filler showing on the inside;

The vent on the fuselage side was drilled out;

Finally the engines and cowling were glued on and I was concerned that after all the chopping and changing they received they would'nt fit properly, luckily I've got away with it and the Quickboost engines look FAR better than the kit ones;

And that's that! The final bits were glued on and it just requires a clean in warm soapy water before undercoating. Of course it could still all go horribly wrong as I'm still not sure about the wing roots and I can see them being problematic but we'll worry about that later.

Airfix C-47; It's exhausting work!

Just a small update as the rudder now fits better and I took the opportunity to save myself some money on aftermarket exhausts by drilling out the kit supplied ones. Approximately 10 minutes work with a drill and dentists burrs and here you are;

The model is actually near completion as the undercarriage is next to be assembled and the glazing just needs to be put in.
It might seem unusual to add the glazing now but previous experience means it's an ideal time as no doubt the fit of parts, especially the landing lights, will need some filling, sanding and polishing to make them look like part of the wing rather than added extras and the windscreen will probably fit where it touches too.

Airfix C-47

 This model was supposed to be just an Out-Of-The-Box build but it's proving to be anything but, mainly due to the poor fit of parts. Whether it's just me or not I don't know as I have seen a couple of reviews praising it, however here's where I am at the moment.
The cabin door needed a strip of 0.010" (0.25mm) styrene adding around the edge due to the poor fit and but even after gluing the doors in place there is still a large gap;

 The engine nacelles need the rectangular locating tab removing and some material removing from the oil cooler fairings underneath (shown by arrows) to get them to fit otherwise you will have a step between the nacelle and wing;

I was particularly suprised by the rudder as it fits where it touches and has some HUGE gaps at the top and bottom, once again styrene strip was added to the bottom of the rudder and to the inside of the top of the fin.
When dry I'll sand them flush and try and fit the rudder;

At least the elevators fitted without any problems...
It IS getting there but it's not filling me with joy at the moment and not exactly a quick build either.

Airix C-47; Milliput-not just for gir...erm... figure modellers :o)

Before the lower wings were fixed into place I glued a length of 4mm square styrene inside between the top and bottom joints to give extra strength and prevent any flexing of the wing roots.
Once everything had set firmly Milliput epoxy putty (I use the white stuff) was mixed together, rolled into a 'sausage' then worked into the wing joints;

Using an old paint brush the Milliput was worked into the joints and smoothed out;

Finally any excess putty that had gone into the panel lines was just scooped out with a needle and there you have it! The joints made good without losing any detail through sanding if regular model filler had been used;

Using this method of filling a joint is only possible if you have a firm area to work with, any flexing will just crack Milliput as it does'nt bond to the plastic unlike Humbrol or Revell plastic filler so it's a good idea to strengthen joints like this.
By the way I got this tip from Brett Green, editor of Hyperscale and Model Military Int'l so I take no credit for the idea, just passing it along to you lot out there :o)

Airfix C-47; wings glued together

I glued the lower wings today but after a dry fit of parts there were a couple of minor issues to deal with before they would join together properly. The first one is the raised locating strips on the insides of the wings near the landing light as this prevented a good join, once removed the joint was much better;

The second one are the small locating pins on the insides near the wing tisp as these prevented the wing halves from joining so they were removed too, lastly there are a couple of raised mould-pin marks on the inside trailing edge and these were rubbed down just in case;

Once all these items were removed the wings were glued together, taped firmly and left to set;

The join between the lower wings was actually very good and just needed some liquid glue along the joint and more tape just to stop them springing apart.

Airfix C-47; Winging it

To cover the gap between the wings and wing-roots I've glued a strip of sheet styrene on the inside edge of the wing-roots then glued the upper wings in place, making sure they were glued to the styrene strip as well.
The idea is to use Milliput rather than body filler as I can shape it with water, that way I won't destroy any surface detail plus with the styrene sheet underneath both sides it *should* stop any flexing which would crack the Miliput.
I also took the opportunity to fix the tailplanes in place so by the time I can work on the model again the glue would have set firmly and all the joints can be done at the same time.

At least it's starting to look more Dakota shaped :o)
In case you are wondering I'll be painting the gear bays before I stick the cowlings on as I worked out that I could still get in the areas with an airbrush.

Airfix C-47; Wing roots

I dry fitted the upper wings tonight and oh dear...

The gaps at the wing roots are horrendous, particularly on the port side. I did think that the wing root inserts were the problem as I fitted them flush to the fuselage by mistake and they need to protude a bit but not to that extent.
Admittedly its just a dry fit of parts but that must be the worst fitting wing joint I have ever seen in over 40 years of modelling...wow! Hopefully when I glue and tape the wings to the fuselage it will improve but initial thoughts are that it's going to need a LOT of filling. Hmmm.....

Airfix C-47; Putting the wings on...sort of.

While the fuselage was drying I thought I would begin fixing the wings. The lower fuselage and wing section was glued into place although the fit at the front was'nt brilliant and had to be shimmed to avoid a step between the forward lower fuselage and wing.
There are inserts for the wing roots and it's quite tricky here as the cabin floor pushes them out too far. I scraped some material from the backs of the inserts and the fit was a lot better but I may have lost the slight steps where the wing roots meet the fuselage but I'll worry about that later as detail is going to be lost when the gaps are filled (and there will be a few gaps surprisingly).
I've taped it up and again it will be left to set so there won't be any updates for a couple of days as I'm back to work this weekend.

Airfix C-47 fuselage buttoned up

The cockpit has been painted and although it does'nt look much it will be adequate for what you can see through the cabin windows. Now that's done I glued the fuselage halves together so once it's set I can clean it up.

I tend to use Humbrol Liquid Poly for this as I want the glue to ooze out a bit because when it sets it can be sanded without using filler (most of the time anyway). It may take longer to set than Mr Hobby or Tamiya stuff but it works for me and I ain't in any rush.
If anybody is interested I sprayed Tamiya matt black first then did the cockpit in XF-5 green, lightly dry-brushed (yes I said dry-brushed lol) with a lighter green by Vallejo. The seats were painted with Vallejo Cavalry Brown and the seatbelts with Iraqi Sand.