Revell 1/32 Grumman Martlet V

[yak face]

Well its been a while since ive been able to get in the shed but ive managed to get a few days in recently. Further to the last post I had the tricky problem of trying to scratch the intercooler radiators. These are square but have prominent louvres /ridges see pic.of actual thing.[ATTACH]292343[/ATTACH]
This pic showing the rear of the engine also shows the triangular oil tank that fits between the top two bearers (more on that later). I thunked long and hard about how to fabricate the intercooler faces and eventually came upon the idea of using an old CD case . The edges of these are a ridged moulding perfect for the intercooler face , so off i went chopping up a CD case . The lower part was made by stretching some square section sprue from the spares box. I also had to cut out a hole for the intercooler exhaust in between the engine exhausts and make the connecting pipe and exhaust from styrene tube. heres the pics , thanks for looking in cheers tony[ATTACH]292344[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292345[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292346[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292347[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292348[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292349[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292350[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292351[/ATTACH]

[papa 695]

Just caught up on this one Tony, some outstanding work going int this.

[yak face]

Bit more done today . The scoop on top of the intake hasbeen drilled out and had an air inlet made from plastic card and fitted to the mouth of the intake.It just needs a little bit more smoothing round the edges with some vallejo putty. This will sit above the engine cylinders once the cowling is fitted.[ATTACH]292447[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292448[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292449[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292450[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]292451[/ATTACH]
I next had the problem of making the triangular oil tank , a rounded shape not easy to fabricate from any sort of plastic . I didnt have anything big enough in the spares box to make it from solid plastic so came up with the idea of cutting it out of a wine cork . The one I used was quite dense and cut to shape and sanded up very easily. Any holes or cracks were filled with vallejo putty and wet sanded when dry before it received a few coats of halfords spray primer. Its now had the retaining straps and filler cap added from painted strips of tamiya tape and styrene rod . The feed pipe that will sit above the engine rear was made from fuse wire. Speaking of the rear of the engine I jazzed up this with various bits and fuse wire to give a rough impression of this area.[ATTACH]292452[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292453[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292454[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292455[/ATTACH][ATTACH]292456[/ATTACH]

[flyjoe180]

A resourceful solution Tony, using the spoils of Christmas

[yak face]

Well I've finally got back into the shed again , the cold weather and work keeping me out for what seems like ages. I've been working on the cockpit , adding lots of detail to the side consoles and general painting. Ive used the nail art caviar coloured balls from poundland for the various knobs to be found and plastic rod ,card and fuse wire and guitar string etc for the pipes and wires . The instrument panel has just had a careful paint job and was surprisingly accurate. The seat belts were an old MDC unpainted brass set I had so these were annealed ,primed and painted, the shoulder straps having to be cut to the top of the seat to give the impression they overlap and go behind. Ive shaded the area to the side of the seat to give the illusion that its not flat sided but once the fuselage is together this area cant be seen anyway. The top scoop on the cowling is done now also ,and the intercoolers and intercooler exhaust are finished. The undercarriage mechanism has been attached to the firewall and just needs a wash then the next step is fastening the fuselage halves together with all this lot inside. Then its the tricky job of sanding the seam without losing the rivets![ATTACH]296228[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296229[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296230[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296231[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296232[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296233[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296234[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296235[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296236[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296237[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296238[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296239[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296240[/ATTACH]

[papa 695]

Very nice work Tony looking good.

[colin m]

A return to the shed. Did the spiders miss you ?
Anyway, all looking very nice. That cockpit has a nice 'old' look about it.

[flyjoe180]

Great to see this one back on the menu Tony, looking good

[stillp]

Very nice Tony!

Pete

[Ian M]

I was wondering what had happened to this. Glad to see it back on the bench.

[yak face]

Fuselage is now together , now theres the problem of treating the seams without losing the raised detail. Ive done this in the past by carefully sanding up to the raised line and reinstating the rivets but this time I think im going to use a different approach (one ive also used before) . This second method involves sanding the seam as normal then using a sharp blade (not a scriber) marking the line back on . This creates a groove yes ,but it also raises the plastic either side and once painted gives the impression the raised line carries on over the seam. The rivets are also treated in the same way ,a sharp point being used to mark them which raises the plastic . The large screw heads on the engine cowling have been reinstated by using blobs of filler which will be sanded back a bit later . Heres the pics to show what i mean[ATTACH]296483[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296484[/ATTACH][ATTACH]296485[/ATTACH]

[papa 695]

Nice work Tony

[flyjoe180]

Looks good Tony, and good work preserving those lines and rivet details

[yak face]

Little bit more progress on this yesterday. Ive sanded the bottom seam but still need to re-instate the rivets. I'm going have the wings folded on this one but obviously the working hinges and much simplified wing fold need attention. Thanks to some excellent walkarounds on the web ,pictures are plentiful so off I went drilling holes, chopping bits off and adding bits. I originally planned to use the kit hinges to get the right angle and thin them down and disguise them but they just looked rubbish so I had to think of something else. The mounting points for the kit hinges could be used to slot in a section of plastic strip attached to the outer wing,meaning I can leave off the wings for painting and just slot them on last off. I found a couple of suitably sized pylons in the spares box and cut them to size , but how to fasten them to the outer wing strongly enough? I resorted to screwing them with tiny screws which will be hidden once its assembled. Theres still the hinges plus a lot of cables ,rods etc to be added .Ive also cut off and edged the ailerons , when the wings were folded on the Wildcat the control cables tightened and deflected the ailerons upwards , so these will be portrayed as such , while I was at it with the wings Ive scribed the flap line -it was a raised line on the kit. heres some pics[ATTACH]297115[/ATTACH][ATTACH]297116[/ATTACH][ATTACH]297117[/ATTACH][ATTACH]297118[/ATTACH][ATTACH]297119[/ATTACH][ATTACH]297120[/ATTACH][ATTACH]297121[/ATTACH][ATTACH]297122[/ATTACH]

[papa 695]

Nice work Tony there looking loads better.