1/48 Eduard Nie.11 N1135 by speedgraflex

[speedgraflex]

Fitted plastic card. Slightly proud of the cockpit rim in order to faciliate any adjustments. Now all that is needed will be a leather padded cushion.

[BorgR3mc0]

That is definitely going to look the the part. What are you planning to use to simulate padded leather?

[Medicman71]

Very nice work!

[Stikpusher]

I’d say that you took care of that detail

[speedgraflex]

Thanks so much, Remco, Mike and Carlos! I truly appreciate that you are following along. I know I’m going about this slowly, but I truly appreciate the encouragement; it means a lot to me. To answer Remco, I’m going to sculpt a seat cushion from Milliput, again using the CSM kit as a guide because I have only seen the cushion piece itself in profile views from the actual builder photos.

It’s labeled as 11103 and it looks a bit fatter than the version depicted by CSM; you can see it does follow the contours of the wood panel.



The slanted box for the seat looks slightly higher in that reference photo than as depicted in the model. I’m going to slightly adjust this by adding a piece of card to the top of the box itself.

[Stikpusher]

Yes, the seat looks quite a bit higher than Eduard has it. But, I wonder if there were various sizes of mounts to account for pilots of different heights.

[speedgraflex]

Good point, Carlos. That’s probably where there was modification.

Okaaaay. I think I may add a little more putty once this cures just to plump up the cushion a bit, but let's see how this initial piece cures first before that decision is made. If you look closely at the builder's photo, there's definitely padding there to make entry and exit easier. Here's where things stand:





The top edge is still a little wet. I’m using gravity to pull down and soften the edge. I’ve also reworked the throttle assembly on the inside a bit but I have to keep the cockpit sealed tight for the next three hours to let the putty harden, so I can’t show you what I did yet.

[speedgraflex]

I did a second round, but I over did it, so I’ll have to carve back to fix my zealousness.

[BlackSheep214]

You're absolutely right. there's really no rush. I think there's just the external idea that the process should come more quickly but each step has been a bit of a reaquiring process of skills. I'm also missing my sandpaper. I have high grit only. On one hand that's a bit of a pain because I'm used to shaping the plastic the way you would sand and shape wood, but here I'm trying to use a very sharp knife to whittle, which reminds me of cub scouts when we had to carve an Indian totem pole; it takes a certain specific set of skills to pull it off.

If you have a few extra bucks, check out the cosmetics area of your local store and look at the emery boards & files in the nail care aisle. They come in various grits, are fairly inexpensive, and work as a suitable replacement for hobby sandpaper/sanding sticks. I’m all about improvisation like that…

I get mine from my workplace. The BOCES Science Center dept has tons of them for their various kits. Free is good, too!

[speedgraflex]

Very cool, Tom!