PaperModelers.com

Go Back   PaperModelers.com > Card Models > Model Builds > Aviation

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 06-12-2023, 04:31 AM
Siwi Siwi is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Southampton, birthplace of the Spitfire
Posts: 1,191
Total Downloaded: 134.16 MB
Detailing S&P models - my builds

Hello folks,
I intentionally made the title of this thread a little different from the long-running ones from gomidafilho and Bruno himself to avoid confusion. The purpose is to put all the documentation of my Scissors and Planes and S&P repaints and such like into one thread for ease of reference rather than clutter the forum with individual ones, and in particular to focus on how these great simple models can be further enhanced with some scratchbuild techniques. There may be a few non-S&P models in here too, such as TSMC ones and from the downloads section here.



First of all, a short discussion on how I pick what to build. I think all of us aspire to have a core set of the 'greats' in whatever genre we like, so in the aircraft world it is hardly necessary to list the famous fighters, bombers and so on we have on the wish list and display shelf respectively. However, it still leaves the question of what exact variant to make, and other options. With that aside, rarer types present themselves that I will discover and want to build too. The nice thing about these kits is that there is almost always a decent range of paint schemes to choose from and that's before doing any DIY repaints or alterations to colours. I do not really want an entire shelf of brown and olive camo machines so I lean towards those that have some interesting colours and also a range of paint schemes across the whole collection. In addition to this from time to time I like to choose something on which I can try a new technique, so last year I expanded how much I painted the machine, and with weathering, and in future I intend to try using alu foil on an unpainted metal surface.



We will start with a Yak-9K fighter, which is part of a 2-aircraft kit repainted by Brent and available at ecards. This is a popular plane in the game War Thunder as it has a huge 45mm cannon for anti-bomber sorties. In real life this caused quite a few issues and was hardly needed by the end of the war so few were built, but it's a cool plane anyway and has an interesting set of decorations painted, including what I guess are two Order of Lenin medals. I will be doing some standard enhancements, namely:


- opening and detailing the landing gear wells
- making more realistic wheels and tyres
- opening up the cockpit and adding detail
- making a clear canopy
- adding skin texture and rivets
- adding weathering
- painting at least some of the model
- likely making a display base
__________________
Currently in the hanger: Thaipaperwork Martin B-26 'Flak-Bait'
In the shipyard: JSC barkentine 'Pogoria'
Recently completed: TSMC F-16, S&P Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu diorama
Reply With Quote
Google Adsense
  #2  
Old 06-12-2023, 05:00 AM
Siwi Siwi is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Southampton, birthplace of the Spitfire
Posts: 1,191
Total Downloaded: 134.16 MB
Most of the time I start with the wings on an aircraft. I have a few ideal objectives with these:

- accurate and symmetrical dihedral
- avoid warping and have the wingtips correct for the chord
- ideally an accurate wing profile
- score the gaps around the control surfaces and possibly have them as seperate movable pieces
- possibility to drop/extend the flaps and add the visible details to these
- fit in LG bays/weapons detail without causing problems for any of the above
- make sure the LG is sturdy and correctly posed
- depict any fabric texture


To cut a long story short, this turned out to be a fantastic kit to get the fit right and add the gear bays, and the wingtips were perfect. Let's go into some more details.

Firstly I cut out the parts. I did initially leave the glue tabs on but then cut them off and made internal tabs. This is not such an obvious choice as it might seem, because the advantage of internal tabs giving a smooth edge is negating by it being very difficult to avoid a gap on the leading edge and a too-thick trailing edge when the skin is in final shape and closed up. I think I should probably have used thinner paper but again that can be a compromise to accuracy in holding the final shape and general durability. These are going to be handled quite a lot.

As you can see from the first picture I also cut out the gear bays, carefully as the printed surface will be re-used as the roof of the recessed bays; and also the small intakes at the wing root. You want to be careful with small openings like these as they can cause a weak point, especially as the paper must be bent and glued in this area (also, these are an example of differences in sub-types - most Yak-9s had much larger oval openings here). The next step was more experimental: I decided to try making some glue tabs to fit around the outside of the gear bays, as the previous method of having these on the bay and gluing those to the skin was a bit risky: it can cause warping, weakness and also cause the bay to be pushed up too far inside the wing. All that was needed was to stick another piece of 160gsm paper over and around the opening, then carefully cut parallel to the outside and bend the segments up. In the end this turned out to be at least satisfactory. You can see I added the kit supplied wing formers at this stage too, not very neatly but it did not cause a problem for the finished result.

The gear bays themselves: we have the 'roof' which was cut out and has some nice printed details already. This was stuck to a rectangle of card, and the reverse method to the opening glue tabs is used - cut parallel to the outside edge, make cuts to creat tabs and bend these upwards. After this comes a sightly fiddly part, gluing a long strip to the inside of these to form the walls. In general this involves sticking it in stages and pre-bending the angles with tweezers before gluing the next section. I intentionally make the piece deeper than needed and then cut them both to the same height when done. This is of course all an educated guess based on the wing thickness and the size of the tyres. A small hole is punched with a push pin to take the wire that will support the gear. These are then glued inside the wells and happily it all fitted with not too much effort and no damage. The wire is bent twice to discourage movement in all directions and attached to the top with CA glue.


Two final steps before folding over the skin: we make a spar to fix the dihedral and add general strength by cutting a shape and gluing about six layers of card to it. This sits inside the kit wing formers. Note that I would do this differently if the spar went through the fuselage of a larger aircraft. Some stacks of card layers (2-3) were glued at the wingtips to add strength, the wing tips were burnished around these before gluing shut.








__________________
Currently in the hanger: Thaipaperwork Martin B-26 'Flak-Bait'
In the shipyard: JSC barkentine 'Pogoria'
Recently completed: TSMC F-16, S&P Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu diorama
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 06-12-2023, 11:23 AM
scissorsandplanes's Avatar
scissorsandplanes scissorsandplanes is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Posts: 5,230
Total Downloaded: 751.01 MB
Looking forward to all the modification you are going to add. I'm sure you are going to make my simple models stand out.
Just wondering, given the size of the wing, do you build them in 1/100 scale or is it 1/72?
__________________
<< Century Scale Rocks, no... Scissors... no, Papers >>
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 06-12-2023, 11:58 AM
gomidefilho's Avatar
gomidefilho gomidefilho is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Porto Alegre - Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil
Posts: 6,321
Total Downloaded: 2.02 GB
Smile

Interesting thread I follow with great interest.
__________________
DESIGN GROUP ALPHA - DGA
1/100 Fanatic!
https://hangar1972.blogspot.com/
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 06-12-2023, 12:12 PM
Don Boose's Avatar
Don Boose Don Boose is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Posts: 20,702
Total Downloaded: 424.90 MB
I am very glad to see this thread. I am sure that, although I do not have the ability to emulate all of your modifications, I will learn a great deal from it and will be inspired to try my hand.

Many thanks for the well crafted narrative explanation and good images.

Don
Reply With Quote
Google Adsense
  #6  
Old 06-12-2023, 01:30 PM
rmks2000 rmks2000 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,204
Total Downloaded: 1.27 GB
This will be a very thread useful Siwi. Thanks.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 06-12-2023, 03:57 PM
Rata's Avatar
Rata Rata is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posts: 4,803
Total Downloaded: 871.99 MB
Set a challenging bar for yourself Siwi! Good luck with the project.
__________________
''Oh, stop whining! Can't you just print off another one?''- my wife ca 2018
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 06-13-2023, 03:00 AM
Siwi Siwi is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Southampton, birthplace of the Spitfire
Posts: 1,191
Total Downloaded: 134.16 MB
Wow, I was not expecting that response! I am far from mastering these skills, they have gradually improved over 10-15 builds in the last year, and welcome any other tips the coummnity has to offer.

I should have stated that the model here is in 1/72, I don't think I could do much of this kind of thing in a smaller scale, at least not on fighters. I have made two 1/48 kits this year with a similar process and unsuprisingly it was easier to add smaller details to those.

Yesterday I did the rudder and vertical stabiliser. The aim here is to make a realistic join between the two parts and have the option to pose the control surfaces if desired. The other aim is to have a strong fix and correct angles.

To that end our first task is to carefully cut some slots into the fuselage section to accept tabs, and to work out how the three pieces (four on a few aircraft such as the Hurricane or MiG-21 that have a lower fin or fairing) can all be locked into position. The usual placement of horizontal stabs on a single-tail design is through the fuselage just forward of the rudder, but there are some exceptions: the Bf109 has them on the fin itself, whilst the Zero and Fulmar have them much further forward. In the case of the Yak, all three are quite close together, so we will have to pay attention to how we plan to fit them in.

The first step is to cut out the fin and rudder, and then carefully seperate them, following the line around the hinges. Next we want to do two things: depict the slight warping of the fabric-covered rudder skin, and add internal strength and form (plus more glue surface) by making an internal block. I usually have to make an educated guess exactly how thick based on pictures and drawings, but four layers of cardstock looked about the right thickness here. Note that the block is offset internally so that the skin can be folded around it, and is given a small amount of curve at the edges with the knife. Once the skin is glued around in we carefully cut this to match the profile of it, taking special care with the hinge slots.

A similar process is followed with the rudder, with the addition of making the fabric bumps. This is done by marking as best as can be the position of the printed ribs on the reverse side, then drawing them using a pencil over a soft surface - I use a beer mat. This gives subtle raised detail. Then another internal block was shaped and glued inside. With the handling and gluing the rib effect has been lost somewhat so when dry we then go over the outside, this time pushing inwards in the dips. This was done both with the pencil and then with the edge of the tweezers.
After colouring the join edge with an aluminium pen, the parts are then glued together and make a realistic gap. We are not going to attach it to the fuselage yet, not until the horizontal stabs have been made and positioned.

You can see that with all this there is some damage to the print toner. On one hand this is 'free weathering' and Soviet planes were hardly kept in showroom condition, but on the other we can fix this when we add paint - given that we will have to paint over the white edges, the same shade can be used to cover any other areas, and will enhance the realism by creating subtle colour variation.






__________________
Currently in the hanger: Thaipaperwork Martin B-26 'Flak-Bait'
In the shipyard: JSC barkentine 'Pogoria'
Recently completed: TSMC F-16, S&P Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu diorama
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 06-16-2023, 09:25 AM
Siwi Siwi is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Southampton, birthplace of the Spitfire
Posts: 1,191
Total Downloaded: 134.16 MB
Let's complete (sorta) the tailplane section by doing the horizontal stabs.
A few builds ago I hit upon the idea of making interlocking internal spars for these. (A word of caution, the method I am about to detail does involve a bit of guestimating but could likely be improved with the help of some blueprints and photos). The port and starboard stabs will be given a 4-layer internal former in the same way as the vertical fin and rudder. However, there will be a male and female tab and slot which will run through a cutout in the fuselage and allow the builder to fix firmly in place straight and level.

Where this gets a bit fiddly is figuring out a) how wide the aft fuselage section will be and thus b) how far apart and at what angle the spars need to connect. To this end, I usually cut out the whole centre of the female former in order to provide adjustment before commiting to glue everything. You can see in the pictures how the male former was also cut smaller and smaller to get this correct too.
The formers themselves are made by tracing round the skin parts, insetting by around 3-4mm and then chamfering the edges. When the skin parts are burnished it gives a great fit of a curved leading and trailing edge. The male part's surface skin is glued on first, with the control surfaces separated and glued on to make the hinge join. If viable I try to pinch the section to emulate the way elevators and rudders are tapered on real aircraft so the aerodynamics work when moved to an angle. At this scale it is hardly noticible. The female part is glued on on one side only, as we need to then push the male tab through the fuselage and locate it in the female slot before everything is glued closed.
Another consideration, especially on the kit was how to fit the horizontal and the vertical tabs inside a small space - after a bit of trimming they sat nice and snug and actually help keep each other in place. White PVA and then some superglue was used to ensure the 90 deg angles would hold.
The eagle-eyed will notice I made a howler by gluing the skin upside down, so the colours are wrong and also the chamfered fit doesn't work. This will be retcified by making some fairing pieces for the inboard joins, and when the model is painted.






__________________
Currently in the hanger: Thaipaperwork Martin B-26 'Flak-Bait'
In the shipyard: JSC barkentine 'Pogoria'
Recently completed: TSMC F-16, S&P Kawanishi N1K1 Kyofu diorama
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 06-16-2023, 06:14 PM
Butelczynski's Avatar
Butelczynski Butelczynski is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Brampton ,Ontario
Posts: 3,148
Total Downloaded: 322.93 MB
Interesting take on separating control surfaces. I tried doing something like that once but I went a bit different way about it. I failed,not so much because it didn't work but because I tried I found another way of assembling wings and control surfaces so much easier to keep them straight without twisting and much faster. I'm a fan of water based carpenter glue so time management is essential .

It's good to see someone else succeeding
Reply With Quote
Google Adsense
Reply

Tags
scissors and planes, scratch build

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:35 PM.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

Parts of this site powered by vBulletin Mods & Addons from DragonByte Technologies Ltd. (Details)
Copyright © 2007-2023, PaperModelers.com