My next victim....1/72 Special Hobby DH. 103 Sea Hornet F. Mk.20

[Guest]

This is the last short run in my stash (unless you count xtrakits) and despite having vowed to never go near them again, I can't help but feel drawn to the Mosquito-esque charm of this aircraft.

I will be building the Mk. 20 from HMS Implacable in standard Navy colours.

So, on with the shots!

The box depicts the Malta based PR squadron, which would be an interesting subject. Maybe one for the future.




A bag of resin containing pretty much the entire cockpit, the cannon housing, wheels and engine exhausts.






There is even some PE for the cockpit. Not that you'll be able to see it...



After the issues I had with the AZ Attacker, the first job will be to evaluate the wing fitment and add some kind of mounting to make sure that they align before closing up the fuselage.

[Guest]

Having thrown the Chinese impaler drill bits away I needed to source new ones to continue working on this, so nipped down to my local model & tool supplies and picked up a set of silverline micro drill bits. The case is a clever thing, requiring you to slide the lid so a hole in the side lines up with the corresponding bit, releasing it.

First I had to clear off a couple of injector pins that would obstruct the cockpit. It's a little ugly but won't be visible.



The wings were marked out and a number of 1.2mm holes were drilled to match the internal profile and 1.3mm holes drilled out for the elevators. The elevators were then match drilled with a 1.2mm bit and short lengths of 1.2mm rod were glued in to place.




Once it's dry I'll test and adjust as necessary and then start to sort out the resin parts for inside the wings and the fuselage.

[yak face]

Beautiful aircraft chris , looking forward to this one . Having built a few Amodel kits and a good few other , random eastern bloc dogs I know the problems associated with limited run stuff. I got one of those drill sets too , amazing how small they go , some of them are almost hair thickness , in fact that small the pin vise wont grip them !!! Cheers tony

[Guest]

It's definitely a looker this one, and I'm surprised at how small it is.

I have the opposite problem with the bits because I use my scalpel handle which closes up completely, meaning I struggle to get the larger bits in.

I have discovered the same 'feature' with this as I did with the AZ Attacker, namely the non-handed elevators!




I think I'm going to have to attempt a bit of scratching on those!

[papa 695]

Very interesting I'm in.

[Guest]

I took a small block of plasticard and fashioned it in to something like the elevator controller.



Not a bad effort if I do say so myself.

And next on the sh*tlist (yes, I'm there already!) are the radiators (?) in the wings. These are made of resin and as far as I can tell sit inside the wing, away from the lip of the intake opening.
Either way, it doesn't fit, so I'm going to have to get the card out again and look up some more references.



I'm actually enjoying having to correct the kit, so far. After all, that's what scale modelling is all about.

[Guest]

Sorted out the resin parts for the wings.
First, I sized a backing piece of styrene and thinned down the resin part as much as I dared. I then glued the two together and positioned with a couple of rib stiffeners. The I put a closure on the engine side with the thinnest sheet I have just in case there might be a gap after I put the nacelles on.




The instructions give no information on colours for this area, so I am going to assume sky to match the external surface and the radiator in bare metal.

I also prepared all the resin for the cockpit and inevitably I broke the most delicate part, the control stick, losing the handle completely. The only solution was to scratch a new one, which was extremely fiddly! It was made of three parts.



Here's a shot of the rest of the cockpit components.




The cockpit colour is listed as BLACK GREY, so nice and specific.

[Guest]

Small update.

I've been decorating the hall stairs and landings the last couple of days so progress slowed.

I have finished all the pre assembly work on the fuselage interior, which included drilling out the observers portholes with a 4mm bit. When I test fitted the clear parts they sat quite a long way back from the fuselage due to the casting being thick, so I counterbored from the inside with a 6.5mm bit to improve the fit, which helped.
I also had some work to do on the little resin rear wheel well to get it to fit, both narrowing it's width and sraping the inside of the fuselage to make some room.

I laid down some newly acquired black vallejo primer, which I found flowed a lot easier than my white stynylrez and the application was also better with less spluttering.



I then went over the wing intake bits with sky and the cockpit interior with dark sea grey.



The control panel is white as there is a film overlay for this and then the PE part on top of that.

For the cockpit I have been looking all over the internet for some references and all the other scale model references that are returned show either interior green or dark grey.
The only "real" example I can find is a repro cockpit, which shows grey and black.
On the basis that this is a late post war mark I am going to go with the grey colour. I realised after I had applied the grey that the IP should remain black, so I'll be rectifying this.

Thanks for looking in.

[Guest]

A bit of detail painting and drybrushing this morning.

The close ups do nothing for these small scale projects, they look much better to the eye!




Here's an umagnified shot.



I realised looking at these that the little bottle is most likely oxygen and not CO2, so I'll be changing that.

[yak face]

Nice work chris , cheers tony

[Guest]

Thanks for stopping by Tony!

Sometimes I wonder why I bother with the cockpits. I really enjoy the painting and bringing it to life, only for it to be closed in and visible only through a teeny hole, if at all, and this one is a classic case of wasted effort!

I repainted the tank, which based on the PR version I assumed would be oxygen. I also added the PE belts.

Once all the sidewalls and IP are in pace, the bottle is totally obscured and the IP is virtually invisible! Oh well, at least I know it's there and it was fun to do.



So once I took these assembly photos the horror show began and the short run reared it's poorly engineered head.
I offered the cockpit up to the fuselage and it was as though the two halves were magnetically polarised. They would not meet, no matter what I tried. The whole cockpit assembly was too wide and because it was only perceptible when the fuselage was placed the obstruction was not at all visible. The only answer was to guess.
So I cut and sanded away at the cockpit for ages and had to put it down before doing something regrettable. It just would not fit snugly. It appeared to be the IP and when I took it off the fit was fine, so I sanded as much as I dared off it and settled for a small gap.



I then glued the wings together and will begin the fitting after I have taken care of the seams in the fuselage.

[Jack L]

A good one for cockpits especially, when things don't fit, is paint any surfaces that you think might be the culprit. Dry fit, and then when you pull it apart the paint should reveal where the obstructions are.

Looks good though!

[Guest]

A good one for cockpits especially, when things don't fit, is paint any surfaces that you think might be the culprit. Dry fit, and then when you pull it apart the paint should reveal where the obstructions are.

I was trying to think of a way to determine the contact points and I was thinking along the lines of impression, it didn't occur to me to use paint!

Great tip, thanks Jack.

[Steven000]

Nice progress Chris, looks great :thumb2:
Steven

[colin m]

It seems a bit of a battle, but you're winning.