Tsiolkovsky Moon Rocket Part 2

This session will be a short one.

It took a few rounds of filling and sanding, so now it was time to hit it with some primer to test the  fix. One line doesn't really matter as one of the 3 fins covers it. But the other needs to be as perfect as possible since the final finish with me a metal one. 

Then it was time to install the fins. I've been dealing with resin garage kits long enough so the idea of the fins fitting perfectly first time around would require a miracle.  And I was right. Running our of gel superglue, I was stuck with the fin stuff, and that meant that I had to go nice and slow to prevent runs.

They sort of fit together but there will again be a lot of filling. But nothing I couldn't handle. Once they were all on. I did a quick filling with the Vallejo putty. They spread pretty easily, but there will be a lot of cleaning taking the putty our of the grooves on the fins.  That will be for next time. Thanks for looking and check back.

 

The Tsiolkovsky Moon Rocket

 Years ago Fantastic Plastic started started a new genre in their store of the classic rockets from the movies, etc...  A number of kits from the line were produced and he manages to release new ones.

But this one I picked up from CultTVMan from Adam Johnson and AJAmodels. From their info sheet: In 1935, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky  was asked by Boris Shumyatsky to assist in writing and designing a moon rocket for a film called "Cosmic Voyage." The films depicts ut's (fromIMDB):  

... 1946, the Soviet space program is undergoing turmoil. Professor Sedikh, who is planning to lead the first manned exploration to the moon, is denounced by his rival Professor Karin as being too old and too mentally unstable for the mission. Professor Sedikh, aided by his assistant Marina and a youth named Andryusha, disregard Prof. Karin's authority and make a successful landing on the moon. Although a few problems occur at the moon, including the discovery of a damaged oxygen tank and Professor Sedikh's becoming trapped under a fallen boulder, the expedition is a success and the cosmonauts return to Moscow.  

\Tsiolkovsky died during the film's production, marking it as his last achievement in life, and his goal of the promise of manned space travel.

The kit is made up of 6 gray resin parts, plus a number (they are still wrapped up) clear acetate pices to make a display stand. Decals are also included.

Starting the build I noticed the first problem. The fuselage parts are well done, but they are mismatched. They are both the same length, but if you line up end to end the 4 circular windows don't match. So the thing to do here is make sure the windows are circles and worry about sanding both ends of the ship later.

With the fuselage fully super glued. It was now time to tackle the seam-line along the length of the craft. To keep things neat I laid down two rows of Tamiya tape and then applied Tamiya Putty to the seam. 

That's all the time I had for this session. Check back when the 3 fins get installed. Thanks for looking. 

Northrop XP-79B Finale

 For the finale, my main job was to paint the plane and then add the canopy. Websites were saying it was white, the instructions called the color linen. So I decided to split the difference in that I took Ivory, and add one drop of V's Iraqi Sand which is a light beige color.

Next was the canopy. I found that yes indeed, the canopy was split vertically down the middle. So I was just a matter of gluing the 2 halves together.  They are to be butt jointed together, and I had a piece of Tamiya tape at the ready. I had the two pieces and touched it with some Tamiya thin,seeing the glue run around the joint. I then added the tape to make sure they held until the weld was complete. Thinking so, I gently put it down on the tale and let go. Immediately I felt my finger slowly pull away! What?! Yep. Glue came out of the joint and ran to where my finger was, leaving this very nice finger print. Insert multiple cuss words here. 

While I was waiting for the canopy to dry, I created a little tarmac with the plan of gluing the plane to the ground to eliminate the tail sitting or the need for the little post to hold the plane up. 

After the glue was dry I sanded the sanding marathon, first with some 3M sanding sponges from fine to ultra fine. Then I went into the 1000ths grit. After hours with canopy was smooth again, but there was still a cloudy bit to it that wouldn't go away - even after a few dippings of Future. What I ended up doing was mixing Future with V's Smoke and created a window tinting. It ended up mostly making all the work I did to the interior moot, but the cloudy mark was covered up. 

Thanks for looking. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Northrop XP-79B

 I picked up this kit a while ago, just because it fit my  idea of an odd ball plane. It wasn't mentioned on the box that it was a Northrop design until I started to research. 

The military, toward the end of WW2 felt they needed a plane that could ram enemy planes similar to what Germany was rumored to be designing.  Northrop came up with this design complete with magnesium wings to help the plane survive the hit. 

One was built and on it's first trial the XP-79B made its first flight on September 12, 1945, however, 15 minutes into the flight control was lost for unknown reasons while performing a slow roll. The nose dropped, and the roll continued with the aircraft impacting the ground in a vertical spin. There are two accounts of the end. One that test pilot Harry Crosby attempted to bail out but was struck by the aircraft and died. The other that in the spin, with such forces, he was unable to open the door open to bail out. The problem was identified, and Northrop was ready for prototype #2, but they were told with the war over, there was no longer a need for a Flying Ram. 

RS Models, out of the Czech Republic offers the 1:72 scale kit on one sprue with another smaller sprue for the clear windscreen. Directions were exploded views and as I will find out a little vague on where parts actually go. The decals are well done.

 As part of the design, the pilot was to lie prone to better help him with the g-forces. The model comes top and bottom so part of the cockpit area attaches to the ceiling of the plane, the other part on the floor. A box forms the confines of the cockpit.

A bench for the pilot to lay on is to be painted a leather color, and the steering goes underneath the bench. The first vague part comes here. There's no real indication of how far out the wheel sits. So I made my best guess. The color calls for the interior to be "interior yellow." I never hear of this before and thought they meant the zinc chromate color. I only had the green zinc chromate which bears no resemblance to yellow so I painted it lime green (a color which will be changed in the 11th hour).

The tub with two sets of where instruments went. I painted instruments the best I could only to realize that once the halves are glued together no one will ever see them again.  Across the front part of the cockpit more instruments are on a flattened bar.

This let to the problem with the bar and the steering wheel. With no indication of where it went, I had it in my head that it seemed possible for the pilot to be stretched out with his arms holding the wheel on the "outside" of the instrument bar.  

That was until I found this image - - 

 So a little late but the mystery of where the steering wheel went was solved. This solved another mystery of WHY would they make the windscreen in two halves, split vertically down the middle??  Why when it's like that in real life.

But that will come next time after the glue dries and all the clamps come off the plane. Thanks for looking. 

 

The 1:144 Convair KingFish

 This latest kit is another to add to my prototypes/experimental/ or never was planes. It's the Convair KingFish in 1:144 scale from Fantastic Plastic. The kit comes in 29 resin parts, and is patterned and cast by Anigrand Craftwork[1]. Good to see they they are sort of still in business.

In 1957 there was a contest to replace the U2 spy plane. The contest came down to Convair's KingFish and Lockheed's A-12, which would eventually became the SR-71. Giving this little piece of the story away, you know how it ends up.  Work on the KingFish continued for a few more months, but when the money ran out, the project was cancelled. 

With no real cockpit, the work started with the two engine nozzles that were embedded in the fuselage. Since they will be buried deep in there, I got out the silver paint right away.

Next there was a "spacer" mid-fuselage that I had never seen on an Anigrand kit before. It fit in there perfectly, and yet still left enough room for me to add some "Liquid Gravity" on each side as close to the cockpit as I could get.  Nothing was mentioned in the instructions about adding weight, but anytime I do not have a wheel in the tail, I add weights. 

*A is that spacer.

 Then came what seems to be the typical Anigrand landing gear. The cockpit had a lot of room and only one  tiny seat. I would have thought The cockpit windows were small as well, but no, it was wide open. So I did the best I could to add instruments with paint. Oh well. Looking back I should have added more to make it look "busier."

 

The paint scheme is an overall black. But black leaves me no where to go if I wanted to add some shadows, so out came V's Black Gray. Having a second thought that the jet was never completed, so it never did anything to get weathered. The decision was that except for a few chips (because I couldn't resist) I left it alone.  The decals went over the dark paint with not problems and with a layer of satin poly over the decals I was done... Or maybe at this scale a coat of matte is needed.  Anyway, thanks for looking. 

 

[1] I've included Anigrand's website for reference. It seems the site has not been updated since 2019, and emails bounce back.

RS Models Heinkel 112v3

 As I make it plain, I love the prototype, or never made if off the drawing board type plane models. This one was almost the case. Needing a fast plane this He112v3 lost out to the Bf-109s. Not because it was fast enough, but because they were too expensive. You see, the plane had a jet rocket in the tail. While the German's said no, a few were made for other countries. 

This is a resin kit from RS Models and is in my usual 1:72 scale. 

 

The one dislike I had for the model was most of the parts were put right on the pour block. You had to be REALLY careful when cutting parts off the block.

Once the cockpit was installed and painted (those tiny resin foot pedals were a bear to keep from losing) the fuselage was glued together.

Then came lots of filling and sanding!

I was so afraid I would break the landing gear before getting it off the block!

Then came the primer, and then more filling and sanding. Then tragedy struck. Despite it being a partial jet plane, it only had a wind screen. (?) Somewhere along the lines it was eaten by the dreaded carpet monster!!  Grrr!!

 I tried using the only other vac canopy I had. Wasn't the right shape, but at least there's something there, and I can say it's finished.  

The decals were ok, but needed a long soak to get off the backing paper. I keep complaining about my camera on the phone but this makes me really want to solve the problem. The instructions call for it to be RLM 02. But the phone had other ideas. Edit: I saw a video by ISM and gave hints on improving pics with your phone. So I retook. Anyway, thanks for looking. 

 

Lenticular ReEntry Vehicle (LRV) Finale

 To see the previous entry, go here: http://kevtk.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2020-08-13T21:59:00-04:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false

 I had nothing but bad luck with the paint job on this model. Yes, it's simply white on top and black on the bottom, but I would paint the bottom the black. Let it dry. Turn it over and paint the white top. Let that dry. And when I went to move on there would be some scratch or nick in the bottom's paint. Re-paint the black and then there would be something wrong with the white paint. I must have at least 1000 layers of each color on this model! Grrr.  So I just left it for nearly 2 months!

When I looked at it again, all looked OK. So I proceeded with decals. Hoping I didn't have the same results as the Nuclear Wing, I started working the decals. These went on like a dream. I guess the model gods were giving me a break after their paint fiasco. There weren't may decals - just 4, and in no time, I was done. Thanks for looking.  

 

Northrup Nuclear Powered Flying Wing Finale

 To see part 2 look here: http://kevtk.blogspot.com/2020/08/small-updates-nuclear-powered-bomber.html 

 When I left off all I had left was to add the decals, smoke the canopy (so you couldn't see there was nothing inside) and I was done.  Easier said than done. The smoking of the canopy was no problem, but the decals were a nightmare. No matter how much water I flooded over the area, as soon as the decal hit the model, it stuck on, and could not be moved. After ruining one decal that goes along the cockpit, I left well enough alone and didn't bother with any markings on the bottom. 

But all in all it was a very nice model to build. 

 

Small Updates: Nuclear Powered Bomber

 As the title says, small updates. I can't seem to get my act together, and time at the hobby bench has been minimal. In my latest session, I taped up the Bomber to paint different panels on the fuselage and the rear of the pilot pod. 

The entirety of the ship was painted in V's aluminum, and these sections were painted with Steel. I plan another larger area which I will hit with a slightly less dark Duraluminum.  But that's for next time.

After painting the real of the flight deck with Steel, I realized that I have to put on a black decal. So the Steel most likely is too dark.  It will be re-masked and painted over with duraluminum - dark but not that dark.

Northrup Nuclear Powered Flying Wing.

 Another oldie but goodie is Fantastic Plastic's Northrup Nuclear Powered Flying Wing.

From their site:

In the mid-1950s, the U.S. Air Force flirted seriously with the idea of producing long-range strategic bombers powered by atomic energy.  The main advantage of such a weapon would be its ability to stay aloft for weeks at a time, thus serving as the aerial counterpart to the Navy's fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

Jack Northrop, America's number-one proponent of "flying wing" aircraft, proposed several configurations for such an atomic-powered bomber.  The most exotic of these was an asymmetrical design that positioned the cockpit at the end of the port wing.  (German engineers had proved that asymmetrical designs were  completely airworthy more than a decade before.)  This configuration, while highly unconventional, had the advantage of putting the flight crew as far away from the nuclear reactor as possible while minimizing weight. 

None of Northrop's concepts got farther than the concept stage.

The kit comes in  15 white resin parts and a clear resin canopy. A nice set of decals is also included. 

This kit came deep out of the stash as the date on the instructions says 2007! The first thing I noticed was that one side of the wing was warped.  So after it received its wash, I boiled a pot of water, took it off the heat and dipped the wing. I only took a few seconds for the wing to become pliable and what I do is press it to the flat bottom of the sink and then turn on the cold water.  Now we're back in action.

Somewhere along the way there is an engine section that needs to be glued on. Being that was already done way back whenever, it was time to look at the jet nozzles. Eight need to be glued on and FP gives you another 3 in case of mistakes. I like that. ;) They come individual and you need to sand a small tab off the bottom. After, they they were just butt jointed to the fuselage. the next was the two vertical wings. They will also need a little sanding so they will mate up nicely. Finally, the cockpit pod needed to be attached. I dremeled out the slot a little bit so the tab went all the way, and a little Vallejo putty made a nice join. That was it, the model was built.

 

The jet is featured in it's wheels up position with no landing gear, so that's one less thing to worry about. There is also no features in the cockpit so I will tint the glass and just glue it in place. Since the jet never existed in real life the two color options mentioned was for a metalized body, or the typical gray upper and white lower color as the bombers of the day had.  But that's for next time. Thanks for looking.

Ae 607 and LRV Update

Wow, what a few weeks it's been Between the incoming Tropical storm coming up the east coast and then after the storm had gone by, we THEN had on and off brown and black outs for days. Ugh.  But in between I did make it to the hobby desk. 

The Ae607 continued to fight me to the very end but I declared victory.  This is the last time I quickly look that the parts fit - paint both halves -  only to find out that when the times comes, they really don't. Turns out the front needed just as much sanding down as did the cockpit area and the rear by the exhaust. 

Once the parts fit and glued down, then it came time to repair the paint job.  I think in the end it became a decent 3ft. model. 

Another one that turned into a fight was the LRV. In the end I had to rip the entire interior out. I was just tied of having to sand away most of it because the fit was perfect - no one will see inside anyway. 

I got the two  halves together after sanding away a bit of where the fuselage meets the wings. Then the slot where the starboard vertical fin goes was about 1/2 the size of the port one (which fit perfectly) and I needed to take a dremel and then some files to it to get the opening to accept the fin. 

The top and the bottom are together but you can see I'm still having problem with the g d white color. I needed to sand out a spot visible in the middle of the top and after 3 or 4 coats it's still visible! I think I'm about to go to the hardware store and get some serious can of white paint!  But at least the fins are on and the small gaps filled in nicely. Check back to see if I get this painted or does it get bounced off the wall.  Thanks for looking.

 

 

Ae 607 part 2

All big plans to make head way on this kit, until I got stopped dead. But first the good news.  I picked a color pattern using RLM 81 and 82.

I painted the entire topside in a lightened 82. Then it took some silly putty to create the thin lines. I had my first bit of trouble here. I made all the silly putty "islands", and then evened the out the spaces in between with a coffee stirrer. Once I started painting on the 81, I noticed that the paint was moving away from the edges! One coat...two coats... three coats. WTF. Finally it looked not bad. Was it the Silly Putty? I never saw that reaction before.

After the 81 dried I took some RLM 65 and free handed the stripes wither side of the 81. This by the way was the same color I painted the underside.

I sprayed on some V gloss, and then without thinking and letting the gloss dry, I started washing the very well done panel lines with V's dark gray wash - - which immediately made the gloss to start coming up.  I bit the bullet and just wiped off what I could. It's only the one color - I would have been throwing it off the wall if I did that to the topside - and decided to call it a day. 

Somewhere in between those steps I free handed canopy.  Here's a pic of the topside and the canopy. Thanks for looking.

Blohm & Voss Ae 607

After working on the Sam-13, I was in the mood for another prototype vehicle.

The Ae 607 was a jet-powered flying wing design conceived by Blohm & Voss in 1945. As it was conceived only shortly before the end of World War II there is not a great deal of available information on it, and for many years it was not included in the known list of late-war Luftwaffe development projects.

This was another of my

All the parts comes on 2 gray sprues, plus one clear one for the canopy. It's very well detailed.

Like most planes this kit also starts with the  cockpit and the intake and exhaust ports. 

  The cockpit gets installed along with the ports and the landing gear bays. Just to be on the safe side I added some Liquid Gravity pellets.

Finally, a small size cockpit that actually fits in it's intended spot...

Trying the top of the fuselage on for size I noticed one big problem. Gluing everything into the bottom, you noticed a curve in the parts. Only when I tried the top on and things not fitting that I realized, yes the interior is curved, but the top is flat!  A lot of dremeling ensued.  The plastic need to be taken down - a lot, and I went thru in two spots, but thankfully the cockpit tub was thick enough that nothing was seen.

After the dremeling, I took a break and assembled and painted the landing gear and wheels. 

The top goes on and the painting starts next time. Thanks for looking.