The Black Island (DHC Chipmunk T.10)

Uwe Kaeding
Looking good Greg.

Greg Baker
It should be, I stole all my ideas from you! Including (temporarily) the project header image...😉

Ekki
Following

Rex
I have one of these itty bitty models,,,,,,,,and I have a question about your cockpit floor. Did you Dremel out that large rectangle and then add your scribed floor afterwards? Or does the floor sit on top of the Rectangle? (itty bitty is not a slam, I also have a 1/72 Pitts, lol)

Rex
ohh, call me the village idiot,,,,,,,that image is from Uwe's kit, not the Airfix.

Greg Baker
I originally was going to just cut down the seat holders and use some plasticard to make a flat floor (image 1) but then I got my hands on some of Evergreen's patterned styrene sheets and just used a bit of the plain plasticard as a shim under the patterned floor. It is itty bitty though. I was trying to build the cockpit sidewall detail and realized the small styrene strips I was using were too big. I had to go and get some REALLY small strips.

Dave Flitton
Nice start! Keep going!

Clifford Keesler
I agree, nice start.

Greg Baker
After seeing Uwe's completed project, I decided to go back and redo the interior without the second console as the plane is in the books. I'm hoping to get the interior buttoned up soon.

John Thomas
Greg, nice work. I am glad to see lots of home made styrene parts. Keep up the good work

Glenn
I think it's time to get out the angle grinder and knock down those rivets! 🙂

Greg Baker
No kidding, Glenn. They're massive. They also make it difficult to scribe lines unless you completely sand them off.

Glenn
Yea i plan on sanding all of them off the ones i have. They make it look like a steam train! 🙂

Greg Baker
Sanding the rivets was a chore, but I think it looks more subtle and better now.

Edgars Bizūns
Did you sand off the rivets completely? And what did you do with the raised panel lines?
I have this kit in my stash (veeery old boxing) but I'm a bit afraid of starting it, because of all the rivets.. Don't want ro lose them completely.

Greg Baker
Edgars, you should try it, it's a fun little kit! At first I sanded all the rivets off completely and then scribed new panel lines, but I didn't like the result. The rivet lines make a bit of a dimple, so sanding them off completely gives you a small valley. Scribing new lines just makes it worse (especially if you do them too big like I did!). So to fix it, I filled them all in with putty.. and then went to the store and got a new box.😉

Greg Baker
The second time I just sanded the rivets down, but not off and left the raised detailing (I believe it's relatively accurate). It was tricky to sand them all evenly though, and I don't think I was quite successful. Some are sanded a bit more than others, but overall it's more subtle and I like it.

Greg Baker
I heard one good way to do it is just spray the whole thing black and then when you sand you can see the light grey circles form... as long as they're all about the same size, it's all good.

Edgars Bizūns
Thank you mate! I will propably try the black paint method, because I want mine as even as possible. It is such a small plane that you really need to pay attention to the rivets tought.
Or I will just sand everything off completely and scribe the lines, no rivets at all..

Greg Baker
yeah, you do need to do something about the rivets... otherwise, as Glenn said... it looks like a steam train. 🙂 I'd start by sanding them down a bit and see how you like it. If you do scribe though, be very gentle. It's easy to gouge out some trenches because any residue rivets will cause the scriber to jump around. I'm trying to copy the plane from the Tintin comic, so you can see from the pic, I only scribed the one panel line behind the canopy and a couple of straight lines on the wings/undercarriage.

Uwe Kaeding
Coming along nicely Greg. Looks a million times better as soon as you take those rivets off, doesn't it!

Greg Baker
Yeah Uwe, it sure does. I'm going to have to pay close attention to how you masked the white stripe, 'cause that's more or less the next thing on the list to do.

Clifford Keesler
Looking very nice.

Greg Baker
Thanks Clifford!

Greg Baker
I think i'm developing a soft spot for this crazy little rivet-monster kit. Now i'm just waiting until I can safely mask off the white striping and lay down some red.

Julian Herrero aka Yuri
Good progess ... Like it ! Go on !

Greg Baker
Well, she's red! It was a bit frustrating because I snapped those silly little wheels off AGAIN... and I uncovered some masking errors. I still need to add a black stripe, so maybe I can touch up the white a bit before. Not sure what to do about the wheels. Do I just glue them on again and pray? Or do I drill them out and try to retro-build in supports?

Dave Flitton
Drill!!!

Greg Baker
I KNEW someone was going to tell me to do the extra work....😉

Dave Flitton
Better safe than sorry!

Robert Podkoński
A new Chipmunk is coming 😉

Greg Baker
That's the kit I got from you, so I hope I can do it justice. The plastic gave me a lot of trouble to cement though. It's a bit soft, so it would bind well. I had to clamp the fuselage into submission.

Robert Podkoński
👍

Cuajete
Well done with the old Chipmunk, Greg. These old kits are quite a challenge. I'm still stuck with my old DH.88 Comet because of the horrible canopy and up to that point it's been too much work.
Waiting to see the results of the AZ kit 👍

Clifford Keesler
Very nice.

Greg Baker
Updated with a few pics. It was a bit cozy to stuff Tintin, Snowy and "quintessential British pilot" into the cockpit, but I got it done. Elbows in! I dipped the canopy in Future and it seems to have helped the clarity of the still-thicker-than-I-expected piece. Given how hard it seems to get the soft plastic to bind with cement, there were a few gaps in the fit, but I used my new best friend, Tamiya liquid surface primer to fill them. I haven't used it long, but so far it seems to be the missing link with the Tamiya putty. For a very small gap like this one, it's easier and less messy to use than the putty.

I also 3D printed up a new set of landing gear. They're a bit thicker than they probably should be, and I'm still a bit unsure about the size of the spats. I'm used to seeing my first model, so the smaller size looks odd to me. That might go away in time though, I guess we'll see.

Greg Baker
Why is it, no matter how carefully I mask, there's always some paint that makes it through. Sigh…

Nicolas
I missed this one. Looking realy good so far. 👍

Robert Podkoński
Yet the next "Murphy's law", Greg 😉

Greg Baker
It does seem to be that way, Robert. Oh well, if it was easy, anyone could do it... 😉

Lochsa River
have you tried the tape burnishing tools out there for snugging up the tape edge before painting?

Greg Baker
I have not. Usually I just use the back edge of my blade. Does it make a difference?

Anyway, nearly done with this one, but I may have goofed up. I've decided I wanted to keep a matt finish on most of my Tintin projects - I think it reflects the "comic book" style better. However, I didn't seal the paint with Future before applying the decals, and the water has discoloured the surrounding paint job. I'm not quite sure what to do about that now. I'm kind of hoping that maybe a coat of Future and then a coat of matt spray will fix it... but I'm not sure. I did try to sand down the paintjob earlier but ended up getting a "reddish glow" mixed up in the white parts. My attempts to fix that resulted in me having to strip both white and red paint coats back down to bare plastic and try again. I'm not sure I'm up for another do-over, so however I fix the water stain... it'll have to be good enough.

Greg Baker
After reviewing the Tintin album, I decided my square stone wall was too… square. So, instead I rolled a bunch of stones out of "angel clay" and assembled the wall myself. Hopefully one the glue dries it'll look okay.

Matthew A
Are you coming to the UK to do a dry stone walling course in preparation? 😉

Greg Baker
I put a bunch of stones around my flower bed this past weekend... and propped up the hanging planter stand... I think I've learned everything I need to know~ 🙂

Lochsa River
yes....the burnishing tools really do help......they have little ball tips that lay the tape down and come in various sizes....

example micromark.com/5-piece-Burnishing-Set

Greg Baker
I'll have to look into that Lochsa. Thanks!

Cuajete
Looks so great, Greg. Congrats!
They have those tools with spherical tips in Asian bazaars at cheap prices. They usually include sets with various ball sizes.

Nicolas
Great result Grag, Congrats. the new wall looks much better than the old one.

Robert Podkoński
Looks great!

Greg Baker
Thanks Nicolas!

Thanks Robert - hopefully you're glad to see I gave the kit you sent me a satisfactory build! 😉

Robert Podkoński
Of course I am, Greg! 🙂

Clifford Keesler
Very nice.