Justin Davenport Posted January 29, 2006 Share Posted January 29, 2006 Well....this weekend I ran into a roadblock on my Eagle, so I've decided to start something else, a bird that I will work on indoors with just Polly brush paints. It's the "Stringbag", and I'll build it in the colors of the boxtop plane, one that flew off HMS Illustrious in 1940. (I like the color scheme and I have the paints for it already). And I will try to rig it, but I'll see if I can get a good start on that. I have never rigged a biplane before. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted January 30, 2006 Author Share Posted January 30, 2006 Today I've painted the pilots, engine, gun, cockpit, and I've built the fuselage and tail. Here are the painted pilots, as per Matchbox instructions: Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted January 30, 2006 Author Share Posted January 30, 2006 Here's the glued fuselage and tail section. Next up: bottom wings. I'm going to leave the engine bits till the very last, though the instructions say to glue the engine next. I may alternate between this and the Katrina build but I do believe I will have this finished before April 1st. (And maybe another Matchbox kit as well). Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted January 30, 2006 Share Posted January 30, 2006 looking good from where I sit. Now I'm dieing to know...is it better than the airfix or not? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted January 30, 2006 Author Share Posted January 30, 2006 Thanks Ralph. As for the Airfix kit, I've never built it. But this kit is all right, and it looks the part, though the interior is sparse. (The pilot figures can cure that though, and if you glue them in you really don't see much else). Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 11, 2006 Author Share Posted February 11, 2006 It's official...I am GOING to rig this bird! I've used a pin vise to put some holes in both wings and I'll have some more pics up when I get home from work. The bottom wings are glued to the bird, and the next step will probably be to paint the aircraft before gluing the wings on and breaking out the fishing line. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 11, 2006 Author Share Posted February 11, 2006 Okay...as promised some pics. Here's the wing halves just before I started drilling with the pin vise. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 11, 2006 Author Share Posted February 11, 2006 (edited) Here's the wings after I got to work with the pin vise. I drilled five holes in each lower wing and four holes in the bottom half of each upper wing. (I did not drill all the way through on the upper wing, but I did go all the way through on the lower wing. I intend to super glue each fishing line into the holes on the upper wing and let them dry solid and well, then glue the wing halves together and thread the line into the lower holes. This way the only extensive sanding and filling is on the lower wing half). Wish me luck! Like I have said I have never rigged a biplane before. This will be a first....if I get this mastered, Frank Luke's Spad XIII in 1/48 or 1/28 will be coming down the pike. Justin Edited February 11, 2006 by Justin Davenport Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 11, 2006 Author Share Posted February 11, 2006 Here's the Stringbag with its lower wings attached. Tonight I'm going to brush Sky onto the fuselage and let dry. The next step will be painting and decaling the fuselage/lower wings and the upper wings as separate units. I've already assembled the upper wings and smoothed out the leading edge fit. I've also done some seam work and will have them good to go by the end of the weekend. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bennygmanuk Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 Watching this one with interest - good luck with the rigging. Steve. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted February 11, 2006 Share Posted February 11, 2006 you're going to BRUSH sky onto that? You're a braver man than I. back before I got the AB I always cheated and got spray cans for my white and off-white colors. good luck with the rigging. You're kind of inspiring me to give it a go... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 Thanks guys. I've done a lot of work today on the bird. I brushed Polly Scale Sky....after a few coats it settled down well. I also used Alclad Copper in my Badger 150 for the cowling. Alclad is great stuff....and so is Polly Scale, their colors brush great. Here's the String bag in Extra Dark Sea Gray and Sky. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 Here's the painted sprues with Alclad Copper on the cowling. I don't know if I'll be able to get to the rigging this weekend, but I will see. I may do added work on some other builds to help get me the courage. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 Finally, here's a closeup of the Stringbag with the windshield attached. The windshield and the pilot are very close, in fact touching. Ah well. These Matchbox builds have been just what I needed to try to work up the courage for more complex projects. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
madmike Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 Nice work Justin! I must get me a Matchbox Stringbag That Italeri Hornet looks very famiiar. Mine is destined to be a RAAF F/A-18B <_< MikeJ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 Thanks Mike! I'm done with the Stringbag for tonight, I'll see how I do on the rigging or other parts tomorrow. The Italeri Hornet I have isn't going to look too bad, if you get enough filler in the right spots it can come out looking OK. I had a bad experience with the Italeri F-14 and JSF, but other Italeri kits have been good to me and I've been able to "cut my teeth" on these and R-M kits to give me more confidence and skill to tackle kits like the Hase F-14 (GULP.). And the Hornet has decals for an USN bird as well as Spanish, Aussie, Canadian, Swiss birds - one other thing I like about Italeri kits. One of these days I'll do an Australian bird. (Hopefully I'll VISIT Australia someday, but I don't know when this will be). Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Henrik B Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 The windshield and the pilot are very close, in fact touching. Glad to hear that! I thought I had done something wrong... I have to get mine finished soon. Started when the GB started and I got stuck when it came to attaching the upper wing and finishing the rigging. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 13, 2006 Author Share Posted February 13, 2006 (edited) Well....I can no longer say that I haven't rigged a biplane! Yesterday and last night I assembled the wings and rigged them. The rigging was a partial success.....I started on the left wing by trying to get all of the threads through the holes all at once and ended up tangling a few threads (Yikes!). I got the side to side rigging on the wings (the rigging you see when you're looking at the bird's nose) done OK but the rigging from front to back ended up having to be cut off because it either went too slack or it got too tangled up. So on the right wing, I threaded a couple of lines at a time, keeping them untangled from all other lines, putting in all the lines that would go into a given hole, and then pulling it as taut as I could, and then covering the hole with 20 second CA and zapping it with accelerator. The rigging of the right wing went much more smoothly, though for some reason the rigging from front to back on one of the strut areas went too slack again and I had to cut it off. I used fishing line for the rigging. Now the rigging that is on the bird isn't perfect....not only do the holes where the line went through look ragged (and there are some small clumps of CA), but the lines got a little slack after I finished up, though not as slack as the lines that got cut off. Maybe next time I'll glue the lines not at the holes but at a spot a little beyond, or I'll use a different material. Any hints appreciated. More pics will follow when I get home. Justin Edited February 14, 2006 by Justin Davenport Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 13, 2006 Author Share Posted February 13, 2006 Good luck Henrik! Which Stringbag are you building? I'm doing the one on the cover of the box, the one based on HMS Eagle. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 14, 2006 Author Share Posted February 14, 2006 Well....I'm almost finished with the Stringbag now. I'll have pics of the finished product hopefully by tomorrow night or Wednesday. But for now.....here's the rigging superglued onto the bottom wing. Somewhat hard to deal with, I had to be careful when supergluing the wings. I started out by gluing the wings to the inboard struts and fuselage strut. After the rigging was done I used 20 second CA on the outboard struts and zapped with accelerator. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 14, 2006 Author Share Posted February 14, 2006 Here's the rigged bird. Notice the rigging is a little slack. (I used the wrong word earlier when I said it was too taut....I guess I was still sleepy from lunch!!) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 14, 2006 Author Share Posted February 14, 2006 Here she is with the landing gear struts and engine on. I've progressed a lot further since then, all I need to do now is the torpedo and the decals. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Justin Davenport Posted February 15, 2006 Author Share Posted February 15, 2006 I am done....I'll show off the bird in the Completed Entries section. Justin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Henrik B Posted February 16, 2006 Share Posted February 16, 2006 It looks nice! I should really really really get a move on and finish mine. Mine is in the pre-wing attachment stage. I'm doing it in a four-tone gray over white scheme, from a later boxing I think (decals by Revell in my box). Lots of white on mine... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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