Some thin delicate wood in this kit and a few things need to be slightly sanded to fit, especially the alignment blocks for the fuselage and floats. I am using Elmer's carpenter's glue to assemble. A few places on the fuselage needed a little putty to fill a slight gap or two where sanding would have brought things down to much. The rear aileron appears slightly cocked to one side which with a little hot tap water I can correct. Danged floats so far have 7 pieces apiece before I even get to the struts for them. And before I get into those I need to let the glue have a few hours to set and do some serious sanding to get the profiles on the floats. This is one of those kits where if the folks have two sets of five thumbs on each hand and a penchant to break and destroy handrails and details on locos it is best to stay away from. It is though one of the few N scale aircraft out there and the kit has another kit available that has regular landing gear. Up until now I have been using 1:144 scale and cutting them down to 1:160.
Nice work so far John. Can't wait to see the finished product. I'm working on this Wheeling and Lake Erie GP35 High Hood conversion. Specifically, it's #200, which was done up for the Ohio Bicentennial celebration in 2003. Still roaming their system in this paint scheme and still looks good after 11 years of wear and tear. Still have some additional details to add and then weather the unit. Goal is to have it done by this weekend. Cheers, Brian
Nice unit. Custom decals? After a senior citizen PM nap went back to work on the float plane. Each float is seven pieces and counting the two cross connecting braces a total of 16 pieces, 14 laminated and 2 glued into slots. I sanded the floats and it is a good thing I keep all my wood sprues because a small thin outer lamination piece broke after decided it wasn't going to hold and managed to make it to the carpet. Not to worry though I just picked up the sprue it came out of and cut a fill in piece. Lightly sanded the plane body with fine grit and then I have coated the entire plane, body and wings with a coat of Plastruct to help seal the wood grain. I could have used very thin ACC if I had any but the Plastruct is thin and quick drying. This evening after supper I will apply a coat of primer to the plane body and wings, thinned slightly. I will also seal and prime the floats and let everything set over night.
Yes, printed them out this evening after makng sure they were about the right size. Just used Testors white decal paper for the Ohio logo and flag. The others are Microscale decals. Cheers, Brian
Last night I applied some putty to a few small areas that the primer had reveal some blemishes. This AM I sanded the putty and lightly sanded a few other areas. Attached the floats and the support struts to the fuselage and I used ACC this time instead of the Elmer's to get a quicker set. The struts and the floats were a difficult fit and I had to break out some more tools to adjust the slots to get the right angle and fit. Once the ACC has set I will then apply a 2nd light primer coat. I did some research on the DHC-2 Beaver last night and found it will be a perfect fit for my era having been introduced in 1947. A lot are still flying in service today and I watched a video of them operating out of Vancouver harbor last night in 2011 so they will fit in the modern era also. The photo of it sitting on the cutting mat shows that it is about 2.5 inches long which means it is a fairly large single engine craft. Two crew and six passengers plus about 3/4ths ton of cargo. The aircraft is a STOL type aircraft meaning short takeoff and landing. So it will fit appropriately on a small airfield or lake on a layout. In my case the harbor area.
After what seems an eternity of sanding, puttying, sanding and priming, and doing it again, I have finally applied a coat of Testor's Gloss White enamel. This now gets set aside to dry good before I decide what to do with it. Other than some type of stickers for the windows and the De Havilland Logo that is it for any markings included with this kit. I am also thinking about trying to come up with the front part of a radial Wasp engine. Propeller will be the last thing applied since it can be easily broken. Probably going back into my train decal box again for some stripes and the engine cowling may get a coat of black.
That is an awesome job. If I had gotten that kit, seeing the contents, I think I would have said" no way ". The beaver is a beast of a float plane too. Should look right at home with the kits you have been doing lately. Thanks for sharing. Trey
Thanks all for the comments. The kit just takes time and patience, plus a bit of sanding. Some small tools and files help a lot. Instructions aren't bad but the order in which parts go on left or right definitely need to be followed to the letter and force nothing. Some of the wood is very thin. I did manage to fill in that ugly gap in the engine housing by creating my own 9 cylinder radial Wasp engine to fit using a left over tire from the tug boat kit that was used for the ferry and some .035 styrene rod. Found some decals that will do nicely so tomorrow I will start the decaling.
Slow going today on the decals because of the small size. Because of that I have to let some decals completely dry before I even attempt the next. Visible in the photo is the radial Wasp engine that I fabricated to fit in the engine cowling. Note still no propeller since if it was there I would have broke it by now. I did coat it with some ACC to strengthen it some.
