revell Spad VIII

[Guest]

Hi All,has anyone built this kit and could they tell what they thought of it, as I just bought one from modelzone in thier sale for£6.99.

thanks

colin

[stona]

Sorry,biplanes scare the bejasus out of me.All that rigging.

Steve

[Guest]

steve couldn't resist it, I've already done revell's victory and the rigging on that is a nightmare so this can't be that bad,I hope.

colin

[Guest]

I keep looking at a couple of biplanes but like Steve, they scare me a bit. Maybe you could share your build on here and show us how easy it is lol. Would be interested in following it though, good luck.

[stona]

steve couldn't resist it, I've already done revell's victory and the rigging on that is a nightmare so this can't be that bad,I hope.colin

I remember reading somewhere that there was over 3Km of rigging on a 18th/19th century man 'o war,probably more on HMS Victory. A biplane should be like falling of a log for you lol. Keep us posted.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Wow, a Bi-plane. Building my Mossie requires me to use my daughter's pampas on a regular basis. I would love to see the build Colin.

Cheers

Paul

[Guest]

Can anyone tell me how they get the rigging to stick. I mean i've tried glue but the lines go slack before the glue sets. Or am i doing this completely wrong. I have a very nice sopwith camel that only needs the rigging to be finished.

[Guest]

Depends what you use but if you use stretched sprue and glue it fairly taught, you can hold a gentle heat source near it when the glue as set and it will pull tight. I suggest you set up a little test jig and try it out before you commit it to the real thing. I have heard that a small soldering iron moved up and down the length of the piece of sprue but I am not sure, as it depends on temperature of heat source and thickness of stretched sprue. Might be an option.

There is also an 'elastic' wire like material that I have seen used for arial wire on aircraft which is stretched and glued and keeps itself taught. Also has the advantage of stretching if you accidentally knock it and springing back to shape. Not sure what it is called or if it is available in the right sort of thickness you would need.

[Guest]

"but if you use stretched sprue and glue it fairly taught". Sorry do you mean heat up the sprue untill it turns soft and then stretch it out into a long thread. That sounds like it could work. Cheers.

[Guest]

Yep, hold a piece of sprue over a candle flame until it starts to melt then remove from heat source and gently pull the ends apart. You can make amazingly fine plastic thread like this. Cut a piece off to the length you want and glue it in. Then very gently, not with a naked flame, reheat and it appears to shrink again. Stretched sprue is a very useful material for making aerials and other fine items.

Another useless tip with stretched sprue is that if you place a heat source at the very end of the stretched sprue, it will melt back into a dome shape. In very large scale you can cut these off to make rivet heads. On smaller scales, they can be used to create a domed 'lens' for a headlight/sidelight

[Guest]

I agree with Graham but watch your fingers as it really does give you one if the melting sprue gets on them.

Colin

[Guest]

paul, some of the comments I've read are making me nervous about building it lol, and being quite new to this not sure about posting photos, only just getting to terms with posting replies and threads.

Colin

[Guest]

hi I'm not sure if I can upload any photos of this build but they are in my gallery. Sorry if the quality is not to good as I took them with my phone. Would like to know what you feel about it so far and any tips. Cheers Colin

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[Guest]

Looks like it is coming on nicely Colin. Love the happy pilot.

[Guest]

Graham have now got most of the build done and paintwork have just applied first clear coat. To be honest revell supplied a cotton type thread for rigging and it was quite easy to do, not sure if you can see it in photos though. The hardest part was fixing the top wing a right pain in the! Will try and load some photos later.

Colin