Dave Ward's Revell/ICM 1/48 Beech C-45F Expeditor

[Dave Ward]

Feeling a need for a bit of a break, I've been away from the bench for a while. I don't feel like messing with the unfinished Gangut ( yet ), so I looked in the stash for something not too complicated, and I came up with this [ATTACH]323964[/ATTACH]
Revell reboxing of ICM's 2014 Beech C-45F
A few sprue & detail shots
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Nice clean mouldings, no flash. One piece wings will take care of dihedral, but may give a nasty joint to clear up around the engine cowlings.[ATTACH]323960[/ATTACH][ATTACH]323965[/ATTACH]
Seats, in several pieces for each, and decals for belts - not sure about how much will be seen!
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Single piece engines[ATTACH]323963[/ATTACH]
Control panel - again not sure how much will be seen......................
Choice of two decal sets, a RN version from Malta in 1949, and a USAF from 1948. Only difference, colour wise is that the USAF version has yellow cowls - which I think I'll go for.
An all metal finish is always a challenge!
Dave

[minitnkr]

Made me think of the "Sky King" tv series, although that private plane was all white. PaulE

[PaulTRose]

this looks interesting, dont think ive seen one of these before, let alone one built

[Lee Drennen]

Very nice Dave

[Dave Ward]

Revell seem to have a habit of buying small batches from ICM & putting them out reboxed, often at a lesser cost than the original maker! I've picked up quite a few ICM beauties this way, the best being the 1/48 Mig-25RBT, which I blogged recently. - I have a 1/48 Dornier Do215B-5, by ICM, reboxed by Revell lurking in the stash - there are others too! You have to be quick, though, they don't seem to be on sale for long.
Dave

[boatman]

Hi Dave this should be a nice build an it makes me think of the plane in a mad mad mad world where mickey roony couldn't land the plane as pilot was drunk a very funny film. Anyway lookin forward to the build chris

[Guest]

An all metal finish is always a challenge!

Is it bare metal, or painted a metallic colour? The latter is much easier

[Dave Ward]

New scalpel blade in, and construction starts. I decided to start with the undercarriage - it looked the trickiest. It was!, not helped by an error in the instructions. [ATTACH]323976[/ATTACH]
Same numbers for the bottom two parts! Took a bit of figuring out, and I'm still not sure I've got the right parts in the right places, but it looks OK, if a bit fragile. I'll let it dry overnight, then maybe strengthen it with some CA
[ATTACH]323977[/ATTACH]
I think it was painted - the control surfaces were fabric coated - so it wasn't of an 'all metal' construction
Dave

[Dave Ward]

A little more assembly - I'll have to get the primer out, before the next stage - I'll have to detail paint the engines, before sandwiching everything between the wing halves
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I'll leave the mould seam on the engine, it'll be invisible when assembled.
Sadly, when you look from the underneath - even without the main undercarriage leg & doors - not a lot to be seen!
[ATTACH]324095[/ATTACH]
Dave

[boatman]

Hi Dave very neat build comin on great an there are no finger tip glue marks as I some times have on some of my builds as some times im in a hurry to join bits togeather hence glue marks but I gently sand them away with fine sand paper as im used to building a lot bigger models an it does not show chris

[Fernando N]

Nice start Dave:thumb2:, as I have this one too in the stash I'll follow along to see how you tackle it.

[Dave Ward]

I use Revell Contacta - with the fine metal tube, and Tamiya Extra Thin, with its' fine brush applicator - to put the glue where it's needed! Any mistakes, I let dry, and scrape off with a scalpel blade.
Dave

[Dave Ward]

Added bulkheads to fuselage, assembled all the seats - 5 x passenger ( 3 parts ), 2 x pilots (5 parts ), a bit over engineered! Added to the upper wing, then primed as much as I can at the moment....................
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The seats have decals for belts, lap for passengers, full harness for pilots, & the panel has a large decal...........[ATTACH]324269[/ATTACH]

I have to decide what colour to paint the interior - Revell have their usual crappy 'mix' instructions using their paint. I think that they have things wrong, they say the interior was similar to yellow zinc chromate, and the u/c bays and doors were grey-green. I would think it was the other way round! I've looked for pictures on the 'net, but can only find modernised & refurbished interiors ( giveaways are fancier seats! )
Fit so far has been very good, the instructions need careful study, as numbers are wrong, and some things are missed, but nothing a little commonsense can't solve
Dave

[Lee Drennen]

Looking good Dave wonder what those seat belts are going to look like are you going to use them?

[Dave Ward]

Lee,
oh yes - but I don't think they are going to be visible, when it's all closed up :sad:
Dave