An old Walrus coming to life...Matchbox 1/72 kit.

[Lee Drennen]

Very impressive Rigging your doing this guy justice Richard

[rtfoe]

Thanks Lee and Jim, I'm glad you like the hinge and rigging progress.

Some extra detail went into the rear or gunners hatch. The kit part came solid so I cut it and added clear perspex for the window. It also had resting latch I made from thin copper wire.



I extended the back of the hatch with part of the slide rail mount. I created the continous lip on the perspex and masked it .



The hatch dry fitted onto the rail.



Earlier on I did the flap thinking it was a working part but found that it only had hinges to fold it up when the wings were folded for stowage. If it wasn't folded it would prevent the wing from closing. I punched the copper strips with a steel needle to simulate screws.



I cut the wing leading edge to make forward lights with a piece of clear sprue. Sanded it flush, polished and masked it. This step should have been done before assembling the wings so it wasn't an easy task cuttin and shaping.



The solid tail section of the rudder tail wheel was cut and replaced with sprue and plastic strip.



The clear canopy cut outs were replaced with clear perspex and masked. The corner guide rails were two equal length strips glued at right angles along the edge. You will notice a drilled hole on the wheel hub...this would be access to the tire nipple valve.



I think most of the exterior details are done apart from the wing lights that still needs sanding which we will now proceed to priming.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Hi, just before the priming, necessary masking of the individual areas of concern were done with masking tape and wet tissue.
A layer of interior green was applied to the clear parts to assimilate painted frame work in the cockpit.



Then Gunze 1200 grey primer was sprayed in one thin coat just enough to to get an all round even tone and for paint to bite in later.



I sprayed over the zinc chromate as the reference showed the lower wing root on the fuselage was the same color as the body.



Everything else was covered with primer





All was set aside as I mixed up a batch of extra thinned Gunze black for pre-shading. Basically 10 to 20 percent paint and the rest is thinner.

Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Pre-shading...boring...but necessary and more controllable than post shading.



Extra black remaining was used to paint the wheels, engine block and propeller hub.



The effests of the pre-shading is apparent and subtle under a coat of paint in this case I used thin layers of Tamiya Sky.



Cheers,
Richard

[rtfoe]

Blu tac masking like worms...Walrus mummy...



Cheers,
Richard

[Guest]

Doing a super job with this Richard :smiling3:.

[rtfoe]

Thanks Ralph, appreciate your comments. I believe the Walrus isn't a fast jet or the kit isn't the latest but it has its own character and the build challenging. I hope many would try these old kits as they're quite fun to build.

Cheers,
Richard

[Guest]

Beautiful !

[colin m]

Looking very nice Richard. I'm very interested in your rigging method. I've always rigged after spraying, which can cause problems as sometimes the CA glue can mark the paint. Your method avoids that problem nicely.

[rtfoe]

Thanks John and Colin,
The rigging process works best if you have wing halves...when you don't it's best to secure from the top down so you can touch up after it exits the bottom wing which is less visible and the paint is always one color.

With the wormy mask removed the camo is revealed. I must have mixed up the paint lids as I swore the green was supposed to be darker.



Anyway it's done...just checking the wing fold fit again



I also removed the masking for the canopy top which is posed sled back. The front canopy top had some paint creeping in but settled with a sharp tooth pick.



Fitted the radial engine and propeller. You can see the shade difference of the two blacks...gloss for the engine hub and matt for the propeller.



Everything looking good so far...at this point I wished It was a 1/48 scaled kit because the defence armament would have been more detailed.

Cheers,
Richard

[Guest]

Very nice camo Richard :smiling3:.

[rtfoe]

Thanks Ralph, the tricky part of the camo would later be for the lower wing. :smiling5:

The decals were old and cracked on contact with water so the roundels had to be pieced like a jigsaw.



Lucky for me some didn't shatter or crack. Matchbox gave the usual spartan of decals with no extra stencilling.



Cheers,
Richard

[scottie3158]

Richard,
Looking very good.

[rtfoe]

Thank you Scottie/Paul. :hugging-face:

[rtfoe]

Hi, the Lewis guns for both turret weren't that bad so I used them with a little enhancement added.

On the close up below you will see that I used wire to simulate the draped rope that is tied to the two fasteners on the nose and left hanging to the side. Just below that on the tip of the bow is a triangular bracket which acts as a tow hook. That was made from plastic strip drilled out and cut to shape.



They both had the solid handlebars drilled out, a sighting ring and barrel end sights added. I replaced the cradele mount with wire. Overall was painted matt black and dry brushed with silver.



Cheers,
Richard