OTDAEABT Contest - Maly Modelarz Handley Page Hampden

[CharlieC]

Originally Posted by dansls1

. I've found pictures from the cover of the kit and it appears to be marked as MW-P, with a dark / lighter brown camo patter on the upper surfaces and a sky blue bottom. Without getting too off topic in your build thread, maybe once I post up my build thread you guys with the handy book references can help hook me up with some info on the plane that's modeled - where it was stationed, correctness of colors, etc. One thing I have to my advantage is that the Beaufort really looks like a Frankenstein airplane - so if I don't do a great job it may just look like the plane anyway (Although the more I search out pictures, the more I think it's one of those 'so ugly it's cool' things).

Sounds like 217 Sqdn - http://www.rafcommands.com/Coastal/217C.html
and http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Regime...onRAF1942.html for a short history. The 217 Beauforts were retained in the Mediterranean and the squadron flew Hudsons from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from 1942 so I guess you're looking at an early/mid 1942 camouflage scheme - the official scheme was mentioned earlier in relation to the Hampden. The wikipedia article on the Beaufort is worth a look. The Beaufort might be "frankenplane" but it was one of the first aircraft built in Australia and served throughout WW2. If you really want a horrible looking torpedo bomber try the Blackburn Botha - ugly, underpowered and unstable.

Regards,

Charlie
Regards,

Charlie

[rlwhitt]

I think that was CmdrTed. I have a few older AH kits that are designed this way and if/when I guild them, I might give that a try. The P-38 is one of these...

Originally Posted by dansls1

I saw a build thread where somebody mentioned putting the frames like 0.1-0.2mm inside the edge, allowing there to be an edge-glue between the skins, as well as allowing the bulkheads to be glued together. IIRC it was on cm.net from one of the plane 'masters'.
With my growing collection of Halinski's, I'd say I'm not likely to build a plane with this construction method in the near future (I've done enough research into the MM Beaufort to know it has joining strips), but if I did - I'd attempt that method.

[dansls1]

Originally Posted by rlwhitt

I think that was CmdrTed. I have a few older AH kits that are designed this way and if/when I guild them, I might give that a try. The P-38 is one of these...

I was thinking either you, GB or CmdrTed - so that'd make sense

I missed that on the P38. For some reason I thought there was a page with a bunch of joining strips on it. Now I'm gonna have to pull that book out and study it some tonight :D

[Gharbad]

Originally Posted by dansls1

I saw a build thread where somebody mentioned putting the frames like 0.1-0.2mm inside the edge, allowing there to be an edge-glue between the skins, as well as allowing the bulkheads to be glued together. IIRC it was on cm.net from one of the plane 'masters'.

Doesn't that mean you have to resize all the frames, and then its even more sanding?

[CMDRTED]

I think it was me, during the dual me-109 build I discussed one method I developed. You do have a little more sanding to do, just a little though, you inseert the bulkhead a tiny bit deeper than flush. I do this because it usually isn't flush when you try. The other benefit was when you apply glue to the bulkheads any excess usually squirted to the surface and spread to the skins instead of the hole you put in the centres. Having a little skin show above the former allows a little sanding an "squish" factor to push and fuse the segments allowing a bit smoother join. In my mind at least. Take a look at the old cardmodelers.net site and the twin build particularly the Maly 109 and see what I mean. Good luck guys, Don etc.

[Gharbad]

Can you give a link?
I dont have a cm.net account or any familiarity with it.

[dansls1]

http://forum.zealot.com/t145323/ - I didn't search for the specific post, but here's the thread he's referencing

[Don Boose]

Ted and Dan -- I gave some serious thought to both the techniques that you mention, since I anticipated gaps between the fuselage sections. In the end, I decided against insetting the formers, because they mostly fit almost perfectly, and I was able to jiggle them roughly into place and then tamp them down with a long piece of dowel to make them come out flush (or, at least, they would have been flush if I did not have slight irregularities on the edges of the fuselage skins). If I had inset them, I would have had to enlarge the formers. Since I had opted for flush-fitting formers, I had pretty much ruled out connecting tabs.

If I were doing this again, or under other circumstances, I would definitely reconsider both options. Frankly, I am taking advantage of the fun and friendly nature of this contest to push myself to finish a model pretty much out of the box. If I begin making modifications, then my progress is going to slow down and I risk getting OldTrolled, as has happened with most of my previous models.

Furthermore, although I have about 60 years of model building behind me, that time has been very spread out as other commitments and requirements have interrupted my model building, sometimes for months and years at a time. So in many respects, I remain a perpetual beginner. I hope, by taking this one step at a time, with a minimum number of modifications, to get my hand skills up to speed and to learn how to build one of these things with enough pressure to keep me going (the contest) and a requirement to do the best I can (putting the results of my work out there in front of all of you), but in a non-threatening environment (I have been in the company of all of you long enough now to know that you will be supportive, understanding, and helpful).

And I have checked the rules very throughly and determined that nowhere is "museum quality," or even "clean build," specified as a requirement.

A long-winded explanation. Hope I can get the tail booms assembled tonight after I return from an evening lecture.

Cheers!

Don

PS: Dan! Frankenplane? The beautiful Bristol Beaufort? It may not look like a Corsair, but it definitely ain't a Botha!

[member_3]

I just realized that you have identified my modeling malady spot on - perpetual beginner! From my humble beginnings as a tyke in 1947 with a Comet stick and tissue Piper Cub through solid wood, plastics, miniatures painting, model railroading (HO and N), paper modeling, scratch-built small craft, sailing ship kits, radio controlled airplanes, and a number of others I apparently get fairly competent at something, get bored and move on. It's probably a syndrome of some kind, probably environmentally related (smoke, smog, asbestos, paint fumes, sucking paint brushes, cyanoacrylate exposure, lead, Chinese seafood) and I'm sure it's incurable. How fortunate that while in this paper-modeling phase of the illness I have fallen in with a friendly bunch of fellow patients. I raise my glass to you all. Hmmmm...now I forgot what I was doing - time to begin again.

[Gharbad]

Thanks for the link Dan, and CMD for the good looking thread. Now I just need to make an account to see the pictures...

As for being a beginner, I can claim I've been building since I was 6, but that still only leaves me with only 14 years... and from that, maybe 3 since I've been trying to improve my models, rather than merely assemble them