Silverbird
1June 7, 2021Cockpit completed. Forward landing gear bay top must be filed.
2June 7, 2021Note the reinforcement for the instrument panel top shroud. I have added safety belts made from strips of masking tape.
3June 7, 2021Steering wheels are very flimsy. Instrument panels and side panels are represented in 3D decal form. Adhesive reacts instantaneously yet I suggest applying some decal glue or white glue, since these do not stay in place by themselves. Also side console decals are about 0,5 mm too long.
4June 7, 2021Note the sinkmark in the extreme nose.
5June 7, 2021Reinforcing tabs.
6June 7, 2021Side walls need to be thinned.
7June 7, 2021Polistyrene is flexible, so needs to be reinforced.
8June 7, 2021There are no locating tabs, so I glued pieces of square rod insides.
9June 7, 2021Constant fitting is necessary
10June 7, 2021Some force still will be needed (take a look at the starboard side).
11June 7, 2021Leading and trailing edges are appropriately sharp...
12June 7, 2021yet the inserts must be dilligently sanded.
13June 11, 2021Main undercarriage bays consist of four panels, level of detail (though totally speculative...) is satisfactory. Some flash must be removed beforehand.
14June 11, 2021Reinforced with pieces of L-shaped polistyrene beam. The model seems quite heavy, and the main undercarriage legs will be installed to the "ceiling" of these boxes.
15June 11, 2021I tried to make these surfaces flat, but some putty will be necessary here...
16June 11, 2021The nose section glued together, the resulting joint line needs to be puttied too - the polistyrene is quite soft, so the edges of the parts are soft too.
17June 13, 2021More locating tabs added. Vinyl masks applied. These are put on either flat surface or not very compound curvature, so should work well. Some attention is needed to keep them symmetrically. First layer of putty added too...
18June 14, 2021As much as 30 grams of weight seems necessary to avoid tailsitting. I suppose the front gear leg will need strenghtening..
19June 14, 2021The fuselage closed. You have guessed - some putty is necessary to keep the lines smooth...
20June 28, 2021Trying to sand the cockpit flush with the main body. In a hindsight it would be better to apply the cockpit masks after sanding. Much attention is necessary even if these are secured with a tape.
21June 28, 2021Bottom is not much better. Fortunately, it is supposed to be perfectly flat, with no complicated curvatures...
22June 28, 2021Yet there are some moulding "surprises" on the top of the main body
23June 28, 2021Same with respect to the leading edges of the wings. Many panel lines will need o be restored.
24June 28, 2021Location of the wings is a bit troublesome...
25June 28, 2021since these have a pronounced dihedral and are supposed to be joined by side surface and these locating tabs. Surely the joint needs to be reinforced, but there is not much space due to main wheel wells. I wonder where there would be main spars in the real thing...
26July 6, 2021Panel lines restored. I hope these pieces of wire will add enough strenght here.
27July 6, 2021Some filler will be necessary again
28July 6, 2021Keeping the symmetry of the dihedral of the wings.
29August 9, 2021Some progress here: installed the empennage reinforcing it with pieces of soft wire. In the kit these are designed to be butt-joined...
30August 16, 2021Underside sanded and rescribed - taking into account that it consists of flat surfaces the amount of putty is surprising (or have I done something wrong?...)
31August 16, 2021Due to my too enthusiastic sanding I had to reconstruct the fragment of one of the leading edges next to the fuselage - soft and flexible polistyrene made it quite a challenge...
32August 16, 2021Looks like the silverbird is ready for priming (metallic patches are the traces of my trials with AK "True metal" paints...
33September 16, 2021Priming and "preshading" done. This is my favourite method - gives subtle differences and lets to avoid masking metallizers...
34September 16, 2021Normally I would use light gray or white, but this time I used Tamiya silver leaf, since I want to mask off the control surfaces.
35September 22, 2021AK Extreme Metal steel applied, control surfaces and cockpit windows unmasked...
36September 22, 2021protective gloss varnish coat given...
37September 22, 2021the areas that are to remain black still masked - ready for decals
38September 23, 2021Quite a simplified decalling scheme and decals strip. Some are printed sparingly, what I find very useful.
39September 23, 2021Ready for decalling
40September 23, 2021Top surfaces and port side of the plane decalled
41September 30, 2021Decalling completed...
42September 30, 2021and the areas that are to remain black unmasked.
43September 30, 2021Perhaps it would be easier to go for the "in-flight" mode. I don't really understand the idea of undercarriage legs' parts breakdown here...
44September 30, 2021
45September 30, 2021
46October 7, 2021Panel lines highlighted with graphite pencil. Some dusted graphite rubbed to represent the surface exposed to high temperatures...
47October 7, 2021Rocket engines nozzles painted and installed
48October 14, 2021Since it was beyond my limits (and patience) to remove from the sprue and clean the polistyrene scissor links' parts as offered in the kit (did I mention that the polistyrene is soft?...) I just purchased the PE fret dedicated to Roden's Boeing 720 kit and installed the photo-etched links... and the rest of the fret will simply serve me (one day in the distant future) to spice up Roden's B-36 Peacemaker kit 😉
49October 20, 2021Some unexpected work on undercarriage parts - apart for PE scissor links I decided to add brake PE discs and lines (that I made from black coloured lead wire). Also I manufactured new doors' actuators from pieces of wire and adequately thick hypodermic needle (in the centre of photo). Insides of the doors there is perhaps too much dirt...
50October 20, 2021I decided NOT to add strenght to the undercarriage legs by drilling through them and inserting pieces of wire, because... I am too lazy 😉
51October 20, 2021At last on her own legs...
52October 20, 2021...wobbly a bit, but I presume these are strong enough.
53October 21, 2021Work on the underside completed.
54October 21, 2021I suppose after several landings on cement stripe there would be much dirt 😉
55October 21, 2021I call her finished (finally...)
56October 21, 2021
57October 21, 2021
58October 21, 2021
59October 21, 2021
60October 21, 2021
61October 21, 2021
62October 21, 2021Now I have to wait for better weather to take some better photos (here in Poland it may be like few months' waiting...)
Comments
10 July 2024, 17:39 -
Album info
Some final remarks: 30 grams of weight behind the cockpit seems too much - she is standing on her own legs but wobblying a bit when touched. IMHO she would look better in the "in-flight" mode, but the underside would need to be much more reinforced. The polistyrene is soft and flexible. Empennage joins need to be reinforced with pieces of wire, wings-to-fuselage similarly... The flat piece in the front of the instrument panel cover is ca. 3 mm too short - after unmasking the windshield, one can see the front undercarriage bay's top there... And be prepared for a lot of puttying and sanding... Happy modelling, Mates!
