Fairey Barracuda Mk.II (FROG\NOVO\ARK)

Sergio Ordonez
I will follow with great interest: I screwed this model many years ago.

Duster_d
Sergio, don't expect too much, it's going to be mostly OOB with a few tweaks. Besides, I'm quite a beginner, my skills are at a fairly low level.

Sergio Ordonez
I am totally sure you will solve it in a fine and accurate manner. Many years ago I was a young one with no hability. Now I am an old Man with no good hands and eyesight. Trust yourself, you will do fine.

Duster_d
Thank you for the kind words, Sergio!

Nicolas
I'm following.

Duster_d
Damn, every time I take an old FROG-type model and say to myself, "So, now it's definitely going to be an assembly out of the box," and every time some kind of revision begins with the words "no, well, I can't keep it like this" 🙂

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Finn
I'm in

NLAWScametovisit
a deeply relatable experience, Duster.

Duster_d
I used two types of liquid masks: liquid latex for the hood of the cabin and the lower flat windows, and the legendary Soviet glue BF-6, tinted with ink from a ballpoint pen, for the lower convex windows.

NLAWScametovisit
The liquid mask goes over the tape?

Duster_d
NLAWScametovisit, liquid mask on the cockpit hood is only in the area with a large curvature, in the tail, I marked the clear boundaries with blue thin tape, and filled the rest with latex. The rest is either a tape or a liquid mask. Sorry for my "powerful" English 🙂

NLAWScametovisit
oooh! That makes a lot more sense! Thank you!

Duster_d
Regarding the situation with the side window, can we leave things as they are? I don't want to cut into the fuselage too much. I can't reach it from above, even if you removed the cabin roof, because I installed a horizontal partition there.

Matti Thomaes
can't you catch the window through the opening with a toothpick and some sticky stuff and pull it back into place?

Duster_d
Matti Thomaes, thanks for the advice! It may help when i install the glass back in place. I managed to get the glass out with tweezers only. Inside the fuselage, it was necessary to fix the platform on which the gunner's seat stood and glue it. And then somehow install the glass from the outside through the hole to the inside. I'll try to do it in the evening after work.

Guy Rump
What I have done in the past is use canopy glue to cover the whole hole i.e. create a window. When it dries it looks like a window. Different canopy glues produce different results. I then use Klear to provide a shiny cover on the "window".

Duster_d
Guy Rump, oh, yes, when I started this "Barracuda", I had the idea to use a similar technique to simulate a flat window. However, I decided that I would try it on another model in the future, so I'll start by trying to insert a complete window.

Duster_d
In short, I had to open the "barracuda's" belly. The glass had fallen in again, and there was no way to retrieve it. Plus, the glass had become completely clouded from glue when I tried to glue it from the inside. I cut a new piece of glass out of a very thin piece of plastic and glued it using cyanoacrylate adhesive. When everything dried and hardened, the window frame would need putty and repainted. I would also need to deal with the barracuda's belly - sanding, putty and painting it.

ps: It was just necessary to install new glass from the outside without opening the fuselage. This would have been more accurate and with fewer losses. "In hindsight, we are all wise," as we say. 🙂

Nicolas
Congrats, the model looks realy nice.

Duster_d
Thanks, mates, for your likes and comments. I really appreciate it!

Guy Rump
Very nice build. 👍

Łukasz Gliński
Nice job on this oldie 👍