VNAF "Dirty Thirty" C-47B
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December 16, 2023What the spares box yielded after some judicial disassembly.2
December 16, 2023One issue though: I need to replace the kit’s nose, which btw is totally inaccurate for an R4D-5L. Luckily I have another ESCI C-47 in the spares box.3
December 16, 2023I vacformed a replacement nose using my other C-47 as master. Built a square mold to cast a vacform mold using plaster, with vaseline as release agent. First try did not work so well…4
December 16, 2023But the second try with brand new plaster went much better. Here it is still hardening, I am amazed at the detail. Kind of sorry I plugged the window openings with tape…5
December 16, 2023In the meantime I gave the kit parts a nice bath of oven cleaner to get rid of the paint.6
December 16, 2023The parts came out nicely. And unbelievably, when digging through my spares I found the original unused parts which I now need, such as the carburator intake hump and the nacelle fronts with oil cooler in the six o’clock position. That’s why we never throw away parts!7
December 16, 2023The moment of truth. Fired up the homemade vacuum former, sheet of plastic in the oven and down she goes, motivated some more with a heat gun.8
December 16, 2023And it worked! An amazing first time right.9
December 16, 2023Cut out the nose halves and now I just have to graft them on. How hard could that be?10
December 16, 2023Cut off the nose cone and glued the replacement to shelves I glued inside the nose. Just a dab of filler and we’re good to go…11
December 16, 2023While filling and sanding the nose halves I reassembled the interior. Hardly anything will be visible so I did not spent much time there. Substituted the aft bulkhead so that I can save it for the rebuild of my other C-47.12
December 16, 2023Preparing the lower fuselage. This area is difficult to get right during assembly.13
December 16, 2023The windows are pretty hopeless. Decided to cut them out and sand them flat before reinstalling them with UV glue and sanding and polishing them smooth.14
December 16, 2023Finishing off with a coat of HG51, worked out nicely.15
December 16, 2023Ready for closing up the fuselage16
December 16, 2023Wrestling everything in place17
December 16, 2023WIth the fuselage together I can continue with the nose. Also still lots of filling required on the underside.18
December 16, 2023Also started on the wings. By chance I learnt on the Internet that the ESCI kit has an issue with too little wing dihedral. I stiffened the lower center section to prevent it from adding to that problem19
December 16, 2023The wheel wells are awfully bare. Added bulkheads and lined them with thin sheet.20
December 16, 2023Main parts of the wheel wells ready for assembly…21
December 16, 2023… and further detailing.22
December 16, 2023Adding the lower center wing. In the meantime kept on struggling to get the nose nice and smooth. And of course sanded through the thin plastic. Sigh…Windscreens also installed by now. Fit is pretty bad.23
December 16, 2023I lost the exhaust pipes but luckily could copy them from my other C-47.24
December 16, 2023Added sprue behind the leading edge landing light hole to create a cavity.25
December 16, 2023I tackled the dihedral issue by cutting through the leading edge and adding strips of styrene in the lower seam. Had to force apart the wing surfaces with pieces of sprue to make them fit again.26
December 16, 2023Adding the wings and stabilizers. Fit was not so great anymore due to the disassembly.27
December 16, 2023More filling and sanding, especially at the wing root.28
December 16, 2023Front part of nacelles added and cleaning up the lower wing joints.29
December 16, 2023Added a replacement astrodome which is too big. Frustratingly I still had the original but lost it in the sink while polishing it. Duh…30
December 16, 2023The nose was still not smooth enough so still more filling and sanding. Reinstalled the engines and cowlings.31
December 16, 2023Another coat of primer sanded down to a smooth finish and we’re ready for painting!32
December 16, 2023Decision time: do I go with an orange nose and wing tips or follow the Blackbird Decals instructions which are based on a Squadron Signal reference? Tough choice since I the single photo I know of my subject shows a dark nose and I also stumbled on an Internet photograph of a VNAF C-47 in 1962 with an orange nose. I put two and two together and went for a more colorful scheme than the Blackbird Decals instructions suggest.33
December 16, 2023I deviated from my initial plan and started with Humbrol gloss white for the fuselage top and as a base for the dayglo orange areas. Stupid me …34
December 16, 2023I then masked the white and masked and sprayed the black areas with Humbrol matt black. During masking I noticed that the white pulled-off very easily from the primer. Uh oh…35
December 16, 2023Some more masking and off with the main coat, Tamiya Aluminium from a spray can. OMG, how can I be so stupid. Of course the enamel white overspray started crinkling on me immediately. Rats… Luckily I had only done the lower surface and could sand away the damage.36
December 16, 2023Over to plan B, first airbrush the control surface Humbrol silver and then masking them. Again pulled the silver off easily. Wtf? Was sanding the primer smooth a bad idea??37
December 16, 2023Ploughing on with Vallejo duralumin. I did not achieve a very good finish, the surface was not smooth enough and I had lots of overspray to cover. Oh well, I will have to hide it with weathering…38
December 16, 2023Before the insignia red I first had to touch-up the white areas. I then isolated the white with a clear HG51 coat as my MRP insignia red was in lacquer form. Duh… Afterwards I sprayed the insignia red (which is more orange than red) but still had wrinkling in two places that I could only partly fix.39
December 16, 2023The insignia red went on well, but adding insult to injury I discovered that I had missed removing a thin strip of masking tape used for the black area. That’s what you get for a too complex masking and painting schedule. This kit is rapidly becoming an awful mess…40
December 16, 2023More touch-up of the flight controls and aluminium areas from which paint had lifted. Miraculously the white top came out almost undamaged, with only minor damage. Pfff, almost there.41
December 16, 2023Next up: decals. Oh, and spraying the wing root walkways that I totally forgot. The squadron logo’s were copied from Internet images and printed om decal paper. Of course they need a white backing.42
December 16, 2023Decals done, the Blackbird decals proved vulnerable again and the fin flashes came off later, but they do look nice.43
December 16, 2023Weathering in progress, mainly to break up the monotony of the airframe…44
December 16, 2023… followed by matt coat to take of the shine and pull things together. Unmasked the windows, with the windscreen coming out so-so, mainly due to the lousy fit.45
December 16, 2023The tailwheel fork was damaged but luckily this particular plane has some sort of shroud around the tailwheel also seen on other VNAF C-47s. Fabricated one from plastic sheet.46
December 16, 2023Installing the landing gear. Bit of a struggle since the parts were not pristine anymore.47
December 16, 2023And ready after adding antennas and some detail painting. Finally! What a struggle...48
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Hozzászólások
15 16 December 2023, 15:14
Project info
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