A new book!

I got this to review recently for Model Military Int'l and although I can't say much here what I CAN tell you is that if you have any interest in Soviet period armour then I can wholeheartedly recommend this book;

Available from;

Inside The Armour

To be honest I was a bit sceptical as some books I have with builds in them tend to be spoiled by sub-standard models however this is CERTAINLY not the case with this one, plus the addition of photo's of actual armour I personally found inspiring. Good stuff and well worth a read!

S-3 Viking

When I fitted the Wolfpack inner wings there was a slight step between them and the wing roots on the fuselage so after some filling and sanding they look a bit more acceptable. The engraved panel lines did'nt quite match between the resin wings and fuselage so the upshot of all the sanding was their removal so these were re-scribed and liquid glue was then run into the lines to clean them out;

I'm waiting on some styrene tube so that I can line that hole in the base of the fin but the build is'nt THAT far away from completion...I think....then again I'm still pondering on those sonobuoy tubes.

S-3 Viking

I've had enough of detailing the main gear bays and it's time to get moving with this build so tonight I've started to glue the inner Wolfpack wings to the fuselage. As they are quite a big chunk of resin I'm using a two-part epoxy resin glue for strength as for something this heavy I do not trust cyanoacrylate;

It's a five-minute epoxy resin glue but it won't be fully cured for at least 24 hours so I'll repeat the process tomorrow night. Although I've had enough of detailing the gear bays those sonobuoy tubes underneath are still bothering me so I need to have a think about them :o)

S-3 Viking

I've done a bit more to the bays, this time I've added hinges to the upper gear bay doors;

They hang a LOT better than if I had glued the doors directly to the fuselage. I drilled holes into the roof of the gear bays and although it looks a bit naff you won't see them unless you turn the model upside down.
All that is needed is connecting rods from the doors to those white round bits with sticky out bits attached to it during the final assembly after painting.
Trouble is I keep looking at those sonobuoy tubes as they are starting to bug me....hmmmm.....

S-3 Viking

I added a bit of detail to the main gear bays as there is'nt any in the kit apart from the fictional lumps of plastic either side that are supposed to represent part of the retraction system. So a few happy hours have been spent cutting styrene rod, tube and strip to jazz them up a bit and 5 amp fuse wire will be used for the hydraulic piping, some of which has already been fixed in place;

When cutting the main gear legs from the sprue I managed to break one of the legs, not a problem as it was easy enough to drill a couple of holes, insert a length of brass wire and glue it together again. While I was doing this it occured to me to do the same to the other gear leg as the weight of the resin wings is giving me cause for concern as to whether the undercarriage will be strong enough so a bit of metal in them will help (hopefully).
The nose gear bay won't be getting any superdetailing as you can't see it but the nose gear leg will get some hydraulic piping added where necessary.

Fokker E.V/ D.VIII

The wing has been stripped, start again I s'pose;

It took a LOT of sanding to get it down to virtually bare plastic but at least the trailing edge is thinner so every cloud has its silver lining really :o)
All I have to do now is figure another way of getting the effect I was after the first time.

Fokker E.V/ D.VIII

I masked off the wing last night so that I could spray the white band around the leading and trailing edges and wing tips. I had a sneaking suspicion that all would not be well as even after a month or so the varnish was still susceptible to finger prints, anyway after spraying the white I removed the masking tape;

Unfortunately the masking tape pulled up the wood grain decal underneath the paint....BUGGER!!!
This means I now have to strip the wing entirely and start again from scratch.
Analysing it now the first mistake was to use Johnsons Kleer as a way of getting the decals to stick. Secondly the use of Winsor and Newton gloss varnish over the top of the paint as I should have known the stuff stays tacky forever.
So I'll strip the wing entirely and recover it with the woodgrain decal, however I'll use an acrylic paint instead of oils for the streaky effect as I can use varnishes that don't take long to dry.
I can't say I'm pissed off as I'm used to making mistakes these days, it's just the time factor and keeping the motivation in projects when things like this happen. Live and learn I s'pose....