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Digs · Posted: Wed 09 Jul 2008 21:28 pm Post subject:

I'm glad people are liking it!

I've made a little more progress on the catapult base - it needs angle section adding on the tub alongside the triangular bracing now, but I've run out.

Digs · Posted: Sat 12 Jul 2008 13:19 pm Post subject:

More work on the catapult:

Photos of the real thing show a control console off to one side on the turntable deck with a lever or two to actually fire the thing. My interpretation of this is a cut-down chunk of a curtain track bracket, paneled in with plasticard and with the surplus kit Arado instrument panel providing some dials!

Progress on the seaplane itself has been rather stalled while I play with its mounting. One thing that has been done however -

[a long gap in typing this sentence while I nipped outside with the binocs to watch eight, yes 8, piston engined WWII fighters circle overhead]

- with all the work I've ended up putting into the build, the rather toylike slots for the moveable control surfaces were starting to really grate. So I've filled them in on the topside with bits of plasticard:

feanor · Posted: Sat 12 Jul 2008 13:22 pm Post subject:

Ayup Digs...

Good work that man...
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dancho · Posted: Sat 12 Jul 2008 14:17 pm Post subject:

Wow!
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Digs · Posted: Sun 13 Jul 2008 18:15 pm Post subject:

Well, I finished the catapult itself today (bar for one last bit of weathering). I enjoyed making this - a kit in itself, not just a base for the seaplane.

The basic WEM etch is OK but looking at photos and thrying to conjecture some sort of actual mechanism for the beast, I ended up adding quite a few extras:

A turntable base (from a spray can lid, as previously described, along with plasticard and plastruct girders).

A console - out of a curtain rail bracket, plasticard, a spare Arado instrument panel and some bits of wire.

An access ladder - plastruct again.

Plumbing for the compressed gas cylinders and the console - copper and brass wire.

Wires for the catapult trolley - thread. This is where the guessing really came in. WEM supply double pulleys so there must have been some sort of wires to make the trolley move, but were they entirely inside the catapult girder or did the upper set run along the topside (as implied by the single pair of holes WEM put in the internal bracing)? In the end I went with the latter, because (a) it's visually more interesting and (b) there's all sorts of damaged cables visible on a photo of the wrecked Graf Spee catapult. I had to drill a couple of extra hole in the catapult deck for this arrangement though.

So here are the photos - I'm pleased! I hope I can finish the Ar 196 to match...

XN923 · Bronze Star Joined: 16 May 2008 Posts: 1176

Incredible workmanship

(That's my first 'notworthy' emoticon - you should be very proud

)

Ratch · Posted: Sun 13 Jul 2008 22:15 pm Post subject:

Excellent

Super workmanship

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Redders · Posted: Mon 14 Jul 2008 06:58 am Post subject:

Please remind me never to join one of these group builds.................I feel my old inferiority complex emerging again and I'm suitably humbled by the sheer qaulity and skill of workmanship in these pictures...........

I am sir, in awe.
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hewman100 · Posted: Mon 14 Jul 2008 11:10 am Post subject:

Fantastic job Digs.

Don't let it discourage you Redders, the idea of a GB is that everyone builds a particular kit or to a particular theme together.

The most important thing is you have fun whilst building.
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Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Mon 14 Jul 2008 17:45 pm Post subject:

Top stuff!

All the best
PS - I dont think this is Digs first model somehow.....Or his second either!

Digs · Posted: Mon 14 Jul 2008 18:27 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the comments everybody!

Sarge - about the 20th since I started gluing plastic together again two or three years ago!

Redders - I reckon trying the group build thing has really pushed my ability on from what I would ever have achieved in isolation. Seriously, give it a go! Having the sense of collective effort pushes me on to not rush, to do that little bit extra, and sometimes it all seems to come together! And of course, the group builds make me read more of how others approach their subjects and I've learned a huge amount from that.

Paul

Heinkel51 · Posted: Tue 15 Jul 2008 03:07 am Post subject:

Very well done.

Digs · Posted: Sun 20 Jul 2008 11:00 am Post subject:

So, back to the aeroplane and the choices of colours to represent RLM 65, 72 and 73.

I bought the WEM paints, but I thought it would be interesting to compare the various alternatives people suggested and/or were listed on the IPMS site - here's the result. The paints used were: WEM RLM 65, RLM 72 and RLM 73, Hu65, Hu27, Hu30, Hu149 and Hu91. I didn't bother making up the mix Fredricksson suggests for RLM 72, but at heart it's Hu91, hence its inclusion.

All are painted on plasticard undercoated with Hu64 acrylic spray.

I've blinded the code and I'll leave the pic up for a few days without the answers in case anyone wants to take a guess at which colours are which! I was surprised at some of the outcomes and it will influence what I put on the model.

Paul

Ratch · Posted: Sun 20 Jul 2008 11:30 am Post subject:

Is this a guessing game to identify the colours or are you asking which we think looks most like the real thing

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Digs · Posted: Sun 20 Jul 2008 11:35 am Post subject:

Both - guess the paints and tell me which you think are the best matches!

Sorry for the unclear wording.

Paul

Ratch · Posted: Sun 20 Jul 2008 11:49 am Post subject:

OK, here's my guess

1 = Hu: 65
2 = WEM RLM65
3 = WEM RLM72
4 = Hu:27
5 = Hu:30
6 = Hu:91
7 = Hu:149
8 = WEM RLM73

The WEM RLM65 looks good for the undersurfaces (Hu:65 looks too bright)

As for the others, none look like the Xtracolor RLM72/73 that I use

I reckon you could get away with Hu:91 (although your sample doesn't seem to be mixed properly)

not sure about the other splinter colour though

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IPMS 10983

hewman100 · Posted: Sun 20 Jul 2008 13:45 pm Post subject:

I'm in the process of building an MPM Arado Ar95. They list Hu67 and Hu75 for 72/73. I don't think they quite work together, but with something else from your selection they might.
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Digs · Posted: Sun 20 Jul 2008 18:41 pm Post subject:

Well, minimal visible progress, but I'll stick a couple of photos up anyway as the time it's taken is out of all proportion to the visible effects!

I've cut out a vacform canopy but the angle of the slope up to the front of the cockpit was wrong - cue a slow process of gluing in slivers of plasticard, sanding, filling, sanding etc until the fuselage now matches the canopy profile. I've done it this way so I can glue the canopy in place last of all - I really don't trust my ability to glue a large vacform greenhouse in place firmly enough to withstand masking and handling.

The rotary engine has been painted and installed, along with a PE extra (pushrods I believe, from reading the post of someone more knowledgeable about this sort of thing?).

The floats have had the PE struts put in place - god this was a pain! As you can see from the photo, I've left a bar of sprue in place across the top of the Airfix struts - this was to keep the floats together at the correct angle while the plastic struts were cut away and the very very fragile PE ones put in their place. Unfortunately the bottom rungs of the PE struts were fractionally too short. After many hours of swearing, dropping them, hunting on the workshop floor (half hoping I'd actually lost one so I could give up with good conscience), more swearing, bending the PE, swearing, beer, straightening the PE, more beer etc, I cut small sections of plastic tube and superglued them to the floats to make up the missing distance and provide a more positive lock for the PE. Now all they have to survive is the cutting away of the top sections of the sprue. I think I'll use a slitting disc.

Like the floats, the plane has been primed, filled and sanded a bit more and a few bits of underside PE put in place. More visible, the SMAKR review of the Heller Ar196 pointed out that both this and the Airfix kits missed off the exhausts. Looking at photos, most 196s seem to have them, but they're not always visible. Not really understanding engines I don't know if this could perhaps be a variation? But then where do the exhaust gases go? Whatever, I sliced some more bits of plastic tube at angles to provide something akin to what's on some of the real aircraft.

Now for lots more masking and painting. The end is nearing though, I think!

Paul