SPA Modeler

This made my eyes bug out of my skull. I love the subject. I have a kit, Tamiya’s 1:72 Hien. It’s one subject I’ve always wanted to do, but I don’t think I could do 1:72. Anyway, I’m loving what you e done with this so far. It’s fantastic. That color you’ve achieved in the cockpit is gorgeous.

Hey Spammers!

I've taken a few months break from modeling but am ready to start doing it again. For whatever reason, I feel it more difficult to re-start on the P-47D Eileen build since it is in the advanced painting stage. I wanted to get my hands on unpainted plastic to transition me back to building so I'm jumping back onto this Hien build. It's been boxed up for a few months now and it's time to take a peek to see where we are at.



Ahhh... now I remember. The resin cockpit has been completed but before I glue the fuselage halves together, I wanted to apply rivets to the fuselage parts. I got as far as drawing some lines on the port fuselage.


I finished sketching the rivet lines on both fuselage parts using a soft leaded pencil. I didn't have the patience to capture all of the rivet lines but put enough to add some needed surface detail to the model.


The rivets were made using a Galaxy Tools riveter in the 1.00mm size. Hard to see but this right after the rivets have been applied and the pencil markings washed off.


Using 600# sandpaper, I rubbed down the rivet lines to remove the raised plastic around each hole. I then applied a temporary brown wash to check the surface detail. Any rivets or panel lines that aren't holding the wash can be touched up now.


Here are the fuselage parts after the rivet job. After the touch-ups are complete, I'll scrub the wash off prior to gluing the fuselage halves together.

Why scrub the wash off, John? Adhesion issues? Good to see you back at it.

Thank you John! It's just a precaution. The rivet holes are very fine and can get plugged up by the subsequent painting stages. So I like to remove as much of the wash particulates out of the rivets and panel lines.

Since the fuselage riveting is finished, I can now insert the resin cockpit tub and glue the fuselage sides together. I am using JB KwikWeld two-part epoxy to attach the resin sidewalls to the fuselage interior. It cures in about five minutes, giving me time to push the cockpit tub into the correct position. Note the small rectangular piece in the upper left... it is an insert for the horizontal tailplanes that needs to be sandwiched between the fuselage sides.



Once the cockpit tub is secured in place, I used Tamiya Extra Thin to cement the fuselage parts together.


A pre-fit of the Wolfpack resin nose...

Glad to see you working on this one again!

Floki wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 9:14 pm Glad to see you working on this one again!

Thanks guys!

Playing with the parts revealed something that isn't explained in the Wolf Pak resin instructions... there is a little bit of overlap between the kit fuselage bottom and the resin nose.


The front end of the fuselage bottom needs to be trimmed off. Luckily, the trim point is right at the panel line, which makes for an easy cut.


Another round of dry-fitting with the fuselage bottom part in place...




This is a good time to make a preliminary check of the wing fit...





Yes, there are gaps but I'm hopeful that these can be minimized. I'll also look at alternative ways to attach the wings like perhaps gluing the wing tops on first.

The horizontal stabs have been riveted. The tail plane spar ensures the correct mounting angle for the stabs.



Here are the landing gear parts freshly cut from the sprues. Lots of time is spent between photos to clean up parts... trimming the sprue gates and getting rid of mold lines. The tires are weighted, which is very rare on injection molded kit parts.


The lightening holes in the oleo scissors have been drilled out.



The brake lines were added using copper and lead wire. I took some extra time to scribe around the bands on the landing gear legs for better definition.


Some ejector pin marks in obviously visible areas of the landing gear covers were filled in with Mr Surfacer 1000.


The exterior surfaces of the landing gear covers are plain and riveting gives some added detail to these parts.

Incredible work! The before and after photos of everything is really nice to see

Wow John the rivets add so much. Seems like quite the omission.