Airfix 1/72 Lockheed Hudson I

Started by Carl Smoot · 272 · 9 months ago
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    Carl Smoot said 1 year ago:

    Here are a few updated pictures of the wing as I work my way through the detailing. I want to glue the wing halves together before I start adding the rectangular slots, so that means any interior work on the wing halves needs to be accomplished first.

    The two areas needing work have been identified as the aileron recess which replaces the original kit's solid wall. I will add a bull nose to the aileron at a later date and the bull nose will fit into this recess.

    The landing gear wells are going to get some detailing as well. I only have a couple of images of this, but it is enough to see that the roof of the well has something similar to the detailing I am adding here. These rods will be trimmed for width after the glue dries and I will add some sidewalls and a bulkhead. Fortunately so as not to delay work on the slots, some of this can be performed later because the nacelles are separate and there is room to add the other details. But there will be a bit more detail added here before gluing the wing halves together.

    And here is an updated picture of the wing slots area. I made a better rectangle by lightly slicing a strip at several measurements and then folding away from the slices to form the rectangle. This was then reinforced with extra thin cement. The white strips along the wing are shims (and mounting points) for the rectangles and will determine the fore and aft distance of the slots. Any gaps will be dealt with later after the leading edge is grafted back in place.

    Fun stuff doing this scratchbuilding. I usually reserve this for 1/48 scale models and doing on this 1/72 kit is straining my eyes, but it is still fun.

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year ago:

    Great progress, Carl @clipper

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 year ago:

    You have already done a lot of work on the wing, Carl (@clipper). Looks great. You might try going to Scalemates.com and download the instructions for the MPM Hudson. For the areas with few photos, you could see what the shape of the parts were that they used in an area like the wheel wells. Might help with the detailing in areas where the photos are scarce.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year ago:

    Awesome job so far in improving the elderly Airfix, my friend @clipper!

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    Carl Smoot said 1 year ago:

    Thanks John (@johnb), George (@gblair) and Spiros (@fiveten). This has been an interesting little side project.

    George, the image I have of the landing gear well is good enough for my purposes, but I know what you mean about using whatever resources you might have. I've done this before. Even other modeler's builds can serve as a resource because sometimes what they've done can clarify some aspect of a detail that isn't clear in a photo or drawing.

    And here are some more updated photos.

    First adding the rectangles.

    Then re-fitting the cut off leading edges.

    Rectangles trimmed down and sanded to the surface. Then sprue goo to fill in the gaps

    Sanded down the sprue goo and use CA to fill any remaining minor issues. Compared to the original wing. Note that the hole in the original was my first attempt at this and this will go away when I do this other wing.

    The two inboard slots have splitters which are being added here.

    And in between sessions with the slots I am gradually working on the main landing gear wells (as well as the other wing)

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year ago:

    Those are superb upgrades, Carl @clipper
    Excellent scratch building.

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 year ago:

    Great job on the slots, Carl (@clipper). This should improve the appearance of the Airfix wing considerably.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year ago:

    Really amazing job there, my friend @clipper! what a departure from the original kit wings!

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    Carl Smoot said 1 year ago:

    Thanks John (@johnb), George (@gblair), and Spiros (@fiveten). I'm a firm believer in these sorts of details which can add a lot to a build if they can be done without too much trouble. In this case, even though it is more trouble, I wanted to go the extra effort to push my skills envelope and see what I could do with this model and in this scale. I only have one other built model (a B-17), in this scale, but I have made the decision to do most of my larger aircraft builds in smaller scales, (mainly to save room). I wanted to make sure I could still add an acceptable amount of detail.

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    George R Blair Jr said 1 year ago:

    Hi Carl (@clipper): I mostly build 1/48 now, mainly so I can actually see the parts that I am building. I have all of the old Monogram 1/48 bombers, but I have also chosen to model most of these bombers in 1/72.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year ago:

    Nothing better than to expand your (already superb) skills envelope, my friend @clipper! And I agree, all added details make a model stand out.

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    Carl Smoot said 1 year ago:

    I've mostly finished the slots in the wings. I may do a bit of shaping still on the aft edge of the top slots (where there's still plastic I can shape). The forward edge on the lower surface slots is far too thin to shape. If this were a larger scale model, I would have probably looked at doing this slightly differently, but in this scale, I think it will be okay.

    I have two main things left to do to the wings , detail the upper portion of the landing gear wells and do the panel lines / riveting. I may install the engine nacelles prior to doing that so I figured I had better get the detailing of the gear wells to a point where I can live with it. Imagineering is your friend in this scale. Make it look busy.

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    Carl Smoot said 1 year ago:

    I'm probably crazy, but I am going to try something new for me, namely, scratchbuilding the main gear struts for this kit. The kit struts are very crude and basic and will be out of place. I've been looking over some photos I have of the struts as well the materials I have on hand and I think I can manage it. A few parts will need to be soldered together for strength, but the remaining can be attached using CA glue. I'll have more details as I get into this.

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    Spiros Pendedekas said 1 year ago:

    To say that this is a vast departure from the original kit would be an understatement, my friend @clipper! Looking absolutely superb! Standing in awe for your decision to scratch build the landing gear! Looking forward to your next steps!

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    John vd Biggelaar said 1 year ago:

    Very impressive, Carl @clipper
    You are definitely challenging yourself with this build, especially with scratch building the landing gear.
    Looking forward to your approach on this.