I have been on vacation for a week but my models don't have a lot to show for it. Particularly given how cold it has been. There has certainly been effort. Just not much for physical results to show for it. I will explain...
Dakota
Lots of work but not much to show. The wings are now fully installed and all edges and gaps are smooth. The engines, engine mounts, and cowlings have been assembled and painted. Again, all gaps are filled and smoothed. Somehow I lost the starboard engine prop mounting pin. It was there one second and then it wasn't. The bench and floor got a good clean but nothing was found. A replacement was made out of stretched sprue.
An anecdote about the importance of reading the instructions. I very carefully dry fit the engine mounts, cowlings, and engines to ensure that everything fit. Dry fit everything separately. Only to realize as I tried to assemble that the assembled cowlings don't fit over the assembled engines. A short debate ensure regarding splitting the cowlings but that didn't last as they required some effort to fill and smooth the seams. Some fiddling proved that the engines could be inserted into the cowlings and then everything carefully attached to the engine mounts. Three hands would have been beneficial but soon enough everything was in place.
RCAF Jeep
The picture below is apparently the only know photo of this specific jeep. The photo was taken in Denmark in July 1945. The markings show it to be part of 39 Reconnaissance Wing, part of No 83 Group, RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force. At the time, it would have consisted of RCAF 400, 414 and 430 Squadrons. The photo is over exposed, making it hard to tell how "dirty" the jeep is, but it doesn't appear to exhibit any shine.
A google search found a very nice colour picture of a RAF jeep that looked about right. My assumption is that the jeeps were used around the airfield, including as crew transports. I assumed that there wouldn't have been much asphalt but the jeeps wouldn't have been off roading. A light coating of dust, as shown in the picture below, seemed appropriate.
The initial attempt at weathering the jeep and trailer was done using a very, very, very old bottle of Floquil Mud. The paint was thinned about 3:1 thinner to paint and a light coating was attempted. For reasons I can't explain, the airbrush became digital, either on or off. A second airbrush was tried, and it did the same thing. Both were thoroughly cleaned, and tried again, only to do the same thing. I still don't know why they behaved this way but I was eventually able to get a coat of dust sprayed.
The results were a little heavy in places, so a paint brush damped with lacquer thinner was used to gently remove some of the Floquil mud. This worked relatively well, thanks to the layer of acrylic gloss used to seal the paint. Rather than risk any more of the Floquil colours, a heavily thinned Tamiya buff was used to even out the overall tone and fill in a couple bare spots. The final results are shown below.
Ground pastels were then used to add a little texture. This included "mud" on the floor, dirt on the seats, and mud in the wheel wells and car body sides. The tire treads were given special attention, before the bearing surfaces were scrubbed with a wet finger. With the weathering complete, it was time to install the canopy.
With the canopy installed, some darker pastel chauk was used to weather the top. Some jerry cans and a box were painted up and placed into the trailer to finish the model off. I will need to get some pictures in natural light, but here is the finished jeep.
CL-52
Its a good thing I find sanding to be relaxing because there was a lot of it.
The CL-52 was a B-47 B model, while the kit I was using was an E model. The major difference was the tail radar and tail cone, with the E model having a larger radar fairing and remotely operated tail guns. The necessary conversion consisted of removing the existing radar fairing with a motor tool, inserting a horizontal piece of plastic to transition the horizontal stabilizer fairing into the vertical stabilizer, adding a small rounded plastic extension, and then blending it all with putty. At least that was the plan.
Cutting out the radar fairing created a gap that was initially filled with putty, This proved too large for the putty to bridge, and the trailing edge kept breaking away. It was reinforced with gap filling superglue, creating a stronger surface that could be carefully rescribed to restore the surface detail. In the process of rescribing, I broke thru the bottom of the vertical stabilizer trim tab and couldn't restore the resulting gap. The trim tab was dutifully cut out and replaced with plastic card cut to shape, restoring the tab and creating a sharp edge.
Photos of the actual plan showed a much larger rear fuselage fairing than was on the model. My friend Dave found a very useful resource about the Iroquois engine and the installation on the B-47. You can find a copy at the link included below. It indicated that the Canadair engineers indeed added a new tail fairing, and so the kit fairing was build up with putty. A lot of putty as it turns out, but the result was satisfactory.
Photo 1 - the kit tail
Photo 2 - the radome has been removed and the plastic shim added.
Photo 3 - the gap created as the putty breaks away during sanding.
Photo 4 - the gap has been filled with gap filling superglue
Photo 5 - super glue sanded and Mr Surfacer applied to test all the sanding
Photo 6 - trim tab cut out and replaced
Photo 7 - tail cone added and buried in putty
Photo 8- The final result.
Photo 9 - the real thing for comparison
With the tail in place, it was time to figure out the Iroquois installation. My friend Dave had 3D printed several engines for me, including a version with the intake clam shell closed. This was selected as most of the pictures of the plane on the ground show the closed clamshell.
The 3D printed engine had some minor damage to the front intake, and appeared to have some distortion at the connection of the engine pod to the mounting. The kit includes 2 drop tanks that conveniently have a similar nose transition as the engine intake. A little surgery removed 2 mm from the front of the engine, replaced by a section cut from the drop tank, and some putty and sanding addressed the distortion.
That feels like a good place to end. Merry Christmas everyone!
Comments