Newsfeed

Andy Ball
Ah….it's started. Hello.

Łukasz Gliński
Yup, it has indeed 😁

Guy Rump
Hello, watching. 🙂

Andy Ball
I'd love to see it in Olympic - but I guess you have other ideas?…

Alex K
Following with great interest... Have it in my stash but not brave enough for it yet... (Also: I second Andy's comment - but I respect your choice!)

Łukasz Gliński
The original decals are far too yellow to use them, so neither Greek nor Oman version is planned.
The aim is to use 26decals set for the pink Barra visitor.
Perfect timing me thinks as magenta has been selected the colour of 2023 😋

Alex K
Just for the info: For anyone having trouble with the original Airfix, and by now yellowed, Olympic decals, LM decals has issued this set: Olympic Aviation Short SC.7 Skyvan (LM Decals LMX 0093, 1:72) . But a Barra visitor will be a nice companion to your Twin Otter - good idea! 👍

Robert Podkoński
Watching of course! 😉

Łukasz Gliński
Been waiting for you R. as a supplier of this kit 👍

Robert Podkoński
It is great to see it assembled finally - more so when it is such a good, dedicated modeller as you 🙂

Alec K
Taking a seat.

Gary Kitchen
Yes all aboard-can I have an aisle seat with leg room please 😄

Gary Kitchen
NIce pilots- is the cockpit all scratch?

Łukasz Gliński
Welcome mates!
Gary, you might be surprised, but it's all straight out of the box

Gary Kitchen
😄 looks very 1974 then 😄

Andy Ball
@Gary- they'd charge you a £25 supplement on Ryanair! 😂

Finn
Following

Łukasz Gliński
@Andy: Of course we would, with pleasure 😄

Cuajete
Łukasz, I'm sorry to tell you that that color looks horrible, but you can count on my axe 😄 😛

I can't miss this either. I'm sure you'll do a great job once again 😉

Bernd Grün
I'm in. Following with great interest.👍🏻

Łukasz Gliński
Welcome once again, quite an audience is gathering 😉
Currently considering how and when to rescribe and rerivet the flying shoebox, while working on the interior.
@Cuajete: Wasn't it the Barraigh visitor, I'd go for plan B: 😛
[img1]

Cuajete
😄 😄 😄

Mirko Römer
This is going to be a nice and colourful easter egg! ...errr...wait...December...

Łukasz Gliński
I won't be surprised if it takes till Easter 🙂

Łukasz Gliński
Small update - cabin and flight deck are ready. Mapped the rivets today just to sand smooth the fuselage and to find out the mapping is in the instructions too 😮 Well done, Airfix!
Next turn: adding the Skyliner door.

Andy Ball
Mapping and rescribing those rivets?- you suffer for this art Ł!

S M
Following!

Łukasz Gliński
Well, I played a bit with my Revell riveter on the Condor lately and really liked the way it works (though not the most pro riveter out there). My first kit to be re-riveted, hope it's gonna be fun. 🙂
PS. I'm gonna simplify the layout for sure 😄

David Taylor
Late to the party.

Alec K
With that boxy shape, riveting should be fun. I must admit, there is something cathartic about doing that… 😄

Juergen Klinglhuber
riveting a shoe box ?...perfect to calm down after christmas rush 😉
Nice build Lukasz - love the kit and aircraft (did mine without extra riventing operations once - but I am sure it's worth the extra efforts!)

Bernd Grün
Nice start, Lukasz! Following with interest. 👍

Cuajete
I agree with the mates 👌

Łukasz Gliński
Looks like you really like my shoebox already 😄
Alec I hope riveting will be more zen-ish than sanding and filling 😛
Juergen, yours and Roland's are my benchmark and reference 👍

Gordon Sørensen
Nice looking interior, Lucasz! Please show some detail photos of the riveter and how to use it. Interested in seeing your technique.

Łukasz Gliński
Welcome Gordon, I have no special tooling, just the simple Revell riveter:
Rivet Maker (Revell 39076, No)
Will report the riveting, once I start it, stay tuned.
Meanwhile it has been a productive weekend, I managed to start the shoebox assembly by forcing the parts to cooperate 😉
So far the fit is not bad, except for the rear loading ramp, but I had to reinforce the ceiling, so we'll see how it goes.

Andy Ball
How many kg/sqcm did you raise the pressure to to get that lot to go together? Looks like you're putting down some strong foundations which will benefit you in the final article

Łukasz Gliński
I haven't measured the lbs/sqft, but a lot was needed. 😛
As you stated A., I hope it's gonna be a base robust enough to carry all the other parts attached later.

Bernd Grün
Nice progress, Lukasz. Looking for the final result. 👀

Łukasz Gliński
I started the cockpit and gosh what a terrible fit 😮
I managed to break the windshield (not such a big issue as I can add a flat ersatz. Still the corners had to be squeezed a lot (no idea how may pounds per sq foot 😉 )
The right part took some black glue, but I think I'll leave it as is, I have no glue, ekhm, clue how to make it not to touch the dashboard, tried couple of times and nothing helps 🙁

Andy Ball
"If you're going through Hell, don't stop"….😉

Juergen Klinglhuber
Patience and Valiant - keep going,....

Alec K
I agree, you can lick this one!

Łukasz Gliński
You seem to have a lot of faith in my skills 😄
I couldn't sleep soundly last night, so I had to remove the right side glazing and will redo it tonight, stay tuned.

Łukasz Gliński
Attempt 2 finished, pics uploaded. Middle part comes from RWD-5 spares 😄 Still not happy, got some damn bubbles inside, planning to cut it and correct once again.
Slowly a vacuform part production started popping up in my head 😉

Patryk S.
Following! Looks like a tough one but you will prewail as always. It's tough for me to judge without seeing the clear parts live but maybe an attempt at sanding the parts a bit thinner and treating them with tamiya compoud would improove the clarity somwewhat and reduce the visibility of the seams where You attached the RWD-5 parts? Oh no! Now I get it! You are preparing to tackle the Czapla, admit it! 😜

Bernd Grün
Oh Lukasz, Ithink it's a hard fight with that kit. But I think you will master this challenge too. 😉

Łukasz Gliński
It's a hard fight indeed, I started to bend various transparent plastic sheets 😉
@Patryk, Czapla's on my to-do-list of course. I even have one of the later editions stashed somewhere 😄

Cuajete
Łukasz, I know that in the end you will resort to the helpful UV glue 😉 😛
You can do it... Cheer up! 💪

Łukasz Gliński
Wish I could amigo, but the hole is waaaay too big 🙁
Wasn't it a gift, I'd already be considering flying it straight into the dustbin 😉

Ralf Topeters
That's quit a challenge. I'm looking forward to see the outcome. 👍

Gary Kitchen
This seems to be the very definition of perseverance to me. Admirable stuff Lukasz.

Cuajete
This could be a candidate for the relaunch program of the classic Airfix kits, like Heron, Basset, Beaver, and so on...

Łukasz Gliński
That would be nice indeed, then I could buy another one just to copy the canopy (oh no, I started to rhyme again) 😉
I think I need a break (e.g for a XXI century Airfix project)

Cuajete
That would be nice too, Łukasz

Łukasz Gliński
So, I went for the vacu option after all. The second attempt seems v.promising, now I need to find a strong glue.

Andy Ball
Industrious. As I said! 😉

Robert Podkoński
Good work! Keep it up, Łukasz!

Juergen Klinglhuber
good work Lukasz

S M
Lots of set backs, but now you have windshield in place. Was that uv-resin any good?

Juergen Klinglhuber
constantly moving forward.....👍

Łukasz Gliński
Very slowly, but onwards indeed 😄
I find that UV thing very interesting, probably it's a kind of nail hybrid, at least my wife says it's very similar 😄
It's thinner than CA glue, almost like a varnish. Dries quite quickly (1-2 mins in UV nail tool I've got). Afterwards it's hard and sandable.
If you're lazy (I definitely am!) you can add a thin layer on top after sanding and it's clear again 🙂
And if you screwed anything and the surface underneath was relatively smooth, you can lift a corner with a sharp knife and simply peel it off.
Then you're back to square one and can repeat.

Alec K
Good info on that resin. So it's hand and sandable when UV cured, and pliable (I.e. you can peel it off) when just air dried?

Łukasz Gliński
Not exactly - all 3 apply to UV cured resin (hardness, sandability & pliability).
When not cured, you can just wipe it off.

Michael Jonker
This looks almost like it will be easier to scratch build 🙂
Good luck, can't wait to see it reveal.

Cuajete
Interesting, Łukasz 👍

Patryk S.
Nice work on the clear parts!

Łukasz Gliński
Welcome back - after multiple iterations of riveting and sanding and re-riveting I decided to take a different approach and use the rivet decals instead.
Yes, trying to rivet the thing took me all that time since the last update 🙂
Many thanks for your support 🙂 I might have given up otherwise 👍
Scratchbuilding might be even better as I lost the geometry a bit on the fuselage 🤔

Robert Podkoński
Good to see that this pretty thing landed back on your bench, Łukasz 😉 Keep it up!

Michael Kohl
I cross my fingers that this will be one of those models where you fight yourself through all the problems and through troughs of frustration to finally look at it in satisfaction.
Keep it going.

Michael Kohl
I embraced the rivet decals enthusiastically but found my experiences a bit sobering as the carrier film is quite visible and you cannot really hide it without hiding the details too.

Łukasz Gliński
Thx for the heads-up Michael, I'll cut them as closely as I can 👍

Łukasz Gliński
Started work on the tail and wings, so there was a first chance of some dry-fitting fun tonight 🙂
Actually it's a tad bigger than I thought

Robert Podkoński
Good to see her again on the bench!

Andy Ball
"it lives!!!!!....."

Łukasz Gliński
Well, it gets alive
sort of
around Halloween 😄

Cuajete
Looks great so far 👍

Łukasz Gliński
Currently looking for the right shade of pink - famous pink primer on top (benchmark) and my latest mix on the bottom. Not sure if it's still not too dark.

Greg Baker
You know I love the pink primer! Awesome. This will be epic!

Łukasz Gliński
You bet! Who do you think made me try it? 😄

Greg Baker
That's going to be my legacy contribution to Scalemates isn't it... 😄

Cuajete
Łukasz, I couldn't help but remember the Pink Panther biscuit to see that color tone on the fuselage:

[img1]

Looks so sweet 😋

Łukasz Gliński
It does indeed. Actually I'm looking for the shade between the latest mix and your cake 😛

Greg Baker
I will never be able to un-see that...

Cuajete
Łukasz, I think you are on the right track 👍

Łukasz Gliński
After couple of trials (and errors 😄) I decided to go for MrColor C63 Pink, including some shading of course.
In the meantime I had to strengthen the wings mounting using old airbrush needle.
I hope to finish spraying soon. Yes, I know "soon" is long in this project 🙂

Cuajete
Good idea to recycle a damaged airbrush needle 👌

Shar Dipree
Looks great so far. The pilot and copilot are fantastic. 👍

Zbynek Honzik
Taking a seat.

Alec K
Can't miss this one! Very nice start 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Good to see you, Alec. As you can guess, this is gonna be a big show. There's gonna be a lot of cutting, a lot of editing, and of course, I'll be scratching out new parts. At this point, I'm still planning the build process. But work on the model will soon be in full swing.

Pierre Pierre
very intersting transformation. Following

Ludvík Kružík
Welcome, Pierre, I'm very pleased to see your interest. I hope you find my rebuilding interesting.

The manufacturer of the Avia BH.9 model states 1/48 scale on the box. Actually the model is made in a slightly smaller scale 1/50. I don't mind that in this case. The Avia BH.10 is very similar to the Avia BH.9, but because it is a single-seat aircraft, it is smaller overall than the Avia BH.9. . So even if I build a single seat Avia BH.10 in 1/48 scale, I will be scaling down the fuselage and wing parts from the kit. I have been comparing the fuselage and wing parts to a 1/48 scale drawing of the Avia BH.10 and wondering how to scale the parts down to fit the desired shape and size.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course!

J35J
Great start! Following👍🏻

Villiers de Vos
A great project.

bughunter
Nice project! The BH-10 will fit nicely between your finished BH-9 and BH-11 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Frank, you make a good point. The Avia BH.10 will add to my collection of Avia BH series monoplanes from the 1920s. They are very interesting and modern aircraft for their time, if only because biplanes dominated the skies at that time.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished modifying the fuselage and wings to 1/48 scale.

Ludvík Kružík
I started making new parts for the model.

bughunter
Successful reshaping of kit parts 👍
Not very much left of the kit, but it looks like that way needs less work compared to a full scratch build.

Ludvík Kružík
That's right. Due to the great similarity of the fuselage and wings of both Avia's, it is easier to modify these parts than to produce completely new ones. Still, there will be a lot of work involved in building the model.
At the moment I have the basic parts roughly ready. I still have to work on them. I will have to do some puttying and sanding. And then fill in all the details.

Alec K
Nice progress. Watch, KP will release their 1/72 kit in 48 just as you finish… 😉 😄

Ludvík Kružík
I'm not really worried about that. Even if it happens, I'm fine with it. Avia BH.10 in 1/72 scale is not very accurate. And if KP goes the route of enlarging parts of the 1/72nd scale model while making a 1/48th scale model (which I think is very likely), it will transfer all the errors of the original model to the new one. Plus, I really like these "crazy" rebuilds. It's a lot of fun for me. 😉

Alec K
I fully agree, scratch builds and conversions are a lot of fun. I'll have to compare the KP kit to drawings before starting mine 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Alec, before building a model you have to choose which machine you want to build. I'm building a first production run machine, but KP's 1/72 scale kit is a second production run machine. Otherwise there were machines with special modifications. And be careful which drawing you want to use. Some drawings are not very accurate (for example the drawing from Modeler 7/1986).
I have described the basic differences between the first and second production series machines in the attached photo.

Alec K
Great, thank you! Do you have a drawing recommendation?

Ludvík Kružík
Alec, you can find a lot of useful information about Avia BH.10 on Czech Modelforum in Pavel Kloucek's overviews.
Information about machines from the first production run can be found here: modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=310&t=143236
And information about the machines of the second production series is here: modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=310&t=143254
A lot of interesting information about the Avia aircraft designed by Benes and Hajn is in this book: nasevojsko.eu/nasevo..onstrukce-Benes-Hajn

I sent you a PM about the drawings.

Alec K
Super, thank you very much.

Ludvík Kružík
I am continuing to build the model by making a new cockpit.

Ludvík Kružík
Unfortunately I only have one period photo of the cockpit, which shows the instrument panel and the right side of the cockpit.
I'm working from the drawing to create the controls and instruments on the left side of the cockpit and floor, with the help of photos of the Avie BH.11 cockpit.
Since the Avie BH.9, 10 and 11 have the same engine and very similar construction, I think most of the cockpit controls were designed very similarly, if not identically.

gorby
Very impressive work so far.

Alec K
Cockpit looks great, those instruments are superb 👍

bughunter
... and the wood looks good too!

Ludvík Kružík
Welcome my friends! Thank you for your interest and popdoru. I really appreciate it.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished the cockpit. After gluing the starboard side to the cockpit, I'll mount the cockpit to the fuselage.

Alec K
Your prop effort beats mine. I tried with sandwitched colored paper infused with resin but needed a painted color overlay. I need to try with correct colored card stock next time.

Ludvík Kružík
Making a propeller out of coloured cardboard was an experiment for me. I wondered if it would work.

Ludvík Kružík
I finished making the cockpit. Now I'm going to glue the bottom of the fuselage and then putty and sand the fuselage.

Ludvík Kružík
It was time to puttying and sanding. We'll see how many times I have to repeat this cycle.

Villiers de Vos
A lot of attention to detail. It will pay off in the end.

bughunter
I will buy shares of putty manufacturers. 😉

Ludvík Kružík
Villiers, welcome! Good to see you again.

This aeroplane is very simple and there are very few small details on it. But the few that are on it, I'll be sure to pay attention to. 😉

Bughunter,
maybe your plan to buy shares in the putty maker will pay off. At least in my case the putty maker made a profit 😄.

I know the fuselage doesn't look good with a heavy coat of putty. But the hull needed that layer of putty on the bow. I had to fill in all the joints and minor unevenness. There won't be much putty left on the hull after sanding, but since the putty shrinks as it dries, it's hard to tell ahead of time where more putty is needed and where maybe not. In this case, more is better.

Ludvík Kružík
The fuselage, wings and tail surfaces are ready for minor detailing. In the end I just needed one rough puttying, sanding, spraying surfacer, one fine puttying of minor defects, sanding again and final surfacer.

Jakub Fiala
Super! 👍

Alec K
Very nice progress 👍

bughunter
The polished surfaces looks great! 👍

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
Amazing how this turnded out till now Ludvik! Biggest respect for this special project and efforts you make on it. Looking forward to the next steps 🤩

Ludvík Kružík
Mates, thank you all!
It's great to have you on board. Your support means a lot to me.

Ludvík Kružík
After a short vacation I returned to building the Avia. I haven't had much time to build it yet.

I taped the tail surfaces with masking tape so I could spray thin strips of surfacer on the ribs.
To indicate the slight sagging of the canvas on the wing surfaces that were only covered with canvas, I started scraping these surfaces very gently with a round-bladed scalpel. Once I had completed this operation on both wings, it was my turn to cover them with masking tape so that I could spray strips of surfacer on the wing ribs.

I'll add photos of the work in progress next time.

Ludvík Kružík
I started adding details to the fuselage, wings and tail surfaces.

Ludvík Kružík
I'm slowly resuming my work. I've sprayed the rib bands on the wings and added some minor detailing to the left side of the fuselage.

Ludvík Kružík
The top and side surfaces of the Avia are sprayed with the first of three camouflage colours.

Moreno Baruffini
WOOOOOOOWWW! Super!

Alec K
This will be another beauty 👍

Ludvík Kružík
Moreno Baruffini, thank you, I appreciate it.

Alec, when this Avia is finished, it will complete my collection of Avia BH-3, Avia BH-9 and Avia BH-11 monoplanes from Benes and Hajn constructors.

Villiers de Vos
Still nailed to my chair.

Ludvík Kružík
Villiers thank you for your interest.

Due to the summer season and its associated activities and the occasional babysitting of my 15 month old grandson, I have less time to build the model. Progress will be slower.

Ludvík Kružík
The upper surfaces of the Avia are already covered with tri-colour camouflage. There was no time to spraying silver paint on the lower surfaces today. At least I know what I will do next time 😄.

Villiers de Vos
Coming together nicely.

Alec K
The colors look great 👍

bughunter
The colours bring it to life!
And no worry about slower progress - family and life is very important.

Moreno Baruffini
I totally agree with Bughunter!

Ludvík Kružík
@ Villiers and Alec
Thank you for your support, it is very much appreciated.

@ bughunter and Moreno
You are right, family is important and has a higher priority than building models. Don't worry, I'm clear on this point. 😉

Ludvík Kružík
Today I had time and also the daytime temperatures dropped to a bearable limit so I took advantage of it and moved the construction a little bit again.

Ludvík Kružík
I continue building the model by making parts for the landing gear, propeller and wings. I also printed the decals with the serial numbers.

Villiers de Vos
Fantastic skills.

Robert Podkoński
Presumably, you're approaching the finish line, Ludviku 🙂

Ludvík Kružík
Mates, thank you!

Robert, it's true. Once I finish the individual assemblies, the model building and completion of the model will move forward quickly. 🙂

bughunter
Nice details on the undercarriage - the kit seem to be short run.

Guy Rump
Looking great! 👍

Curatorm
This model seems to be workable ^_^

Ludvík Kružík
@ Bughunter,
you're not far from the truth. During the building of my Avia BH - 9 and Avia BH - 11 kits, I received quite a lot of inquiries from Czech modellers asking if I was thinking about releasing the kit in a short run.
Unfortunately I don't have the equipment or experience to produce these kits. That is why I am sticking with my rebuilds and builds from scratch. But they say "never say never". So who knows, maybe someday... 😉

@ Guy Rump, Curatorm
Thanks for the kind words, it's a great inspiration for me to continue working on this project 🙂.

Skyhiker
Your hard work is paying off. Looking forward to seeing it all come together.

Ludvík Kružík
Skyhiker, thank you for your contribution.
And I can at least partially satisfy your curiosity. I've attached the wings with struts and horizontal tail surfaces to the fuselage.

Alec K
… and it has wings! Looking awesome 👍

Villiers de Vos
Very nice progress.

Ludvík Kružík
Summer weather and holidays are not very good for modelling, but I have noticed some progress. I am gradually making small parts. Most of them are in the semi-finished stage.

Ludvík Kružík
Tomorrow (if nothing goes wrong) I will spray the Avia with glossy clear coat. Then all that's left to do is add the last few parts and indicate a bit of operational wear... and we'll be done. If there are no complications, it could be done in three days.

Dietmar Bogatzki
Awesome build 🙂

bughunter
I really like the well presented open engine at the front 👍