Postcard from the edge

[The Wooksta!]

Apart from cutting out and sanding the bits down, which can be tedious, vacforms are no less different or difficult to your average kit.
This one requires a lot of filling before any sanding, as the panel lines are so crude.  Next to sort on the fuselage are the portholes.  I'll make a template from a copy of the plans.

[The Wooksta!]

The almost Sisiphian psr on the fuselage halves continues, not helped by the filler primer cracking.

I may have made a mistake in cutting out the wings, but these need looking at sooner or later with regard to spar placement.  At this point, I find that Contrail buggered the wing leading edge, by adding a step between the outboard engine and the wing tip when it's a straight line.  Solution?  Fill the interior with P38 and sand back when the wing is assembled.

Having had a look at the Revell tail planes, there is a mismatch.  It's hard to explain, but the dorsal rear fuselage of the 290 leading to the tail widens.  No such feature on either the Contrail or indeed Planet 390s.  A dig through the 290 references is needed.

But there is some good news.  It appears that the Revell 290 canopy is a good fit on the Contrail fuselage.  Which is nice.

[buzzbomb]

You sir are doing excellent work. As a Vacform builder of days gone by, with many under the belt, I agree, they are really not that much more difficult than say, some Mach 2 injection kits, often needing the same amount of care and attention.

Great subject .

Now where is my Contrail Blackburn Blackburn 

[The Wooksta!]

I have had a thought as to an easier fix for the outer wing leading edge - use a Revell 290 outer wing that will be spare when I chop it to create a third 390.

Why a third 390?  Well, after deciding to scavenge a 290 for bits, I realised that I had the relevant structural components left over.  There are photos elsewhere on t'interweb of creations of others, so it can't be that hard to do.

 I also considered using the upper rear fuselage too but I think that could well be surgery too far.  I think I can build it up with scrap plastic and P38.

[The Wooksta!]

The fuselage is progressing.

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Starboard side is just about done, but more filler on the underneath, largely to fill the awful surface but also the supposed bomb bay outline. The tape is to protect the door position.

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Various shots of the wings.

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Just cut out, time for some sanding.

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Filler into the yawning chasms.

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Not sure where in the process this is.  It's going on far too seriously long enough by half, okay?

[Gondor]

It will take as long as it takes Lee, especially as you are trying to fill in trenches that would not look out of place in the Somme.

Gondor

[The Wooksta!]

IIRC, OGL also has this...kit, but paid a fraction that I did.

[The Wooksta!]

Having had a look through the Karl Regnat book on the Ju 290, it appears that the flared out upper fuselage is a feature of the Ju 90/290/390.  You can just make it out in one of the few Ju 390 photos. 

How the hell do I do it, short of a fuselage transplant?  Well, I nabbed a decent size tin of P38 yesterday.  I need some to sort out the front and back ends for the turret based, the inside of the wingtips, the wing leading edges, the engine mounts, and now the rear fuselage.

Having decided that the Special Hobby Ju 388 BMW801TJs are overscale - they're bigger than a standard 801 cowl all round when they should just be longer - I dug out a load of Toad Resins Ju 388 ones, which look about right.

The starboard wing has now had it's first coat of filler.  Need to sand back the port one later.  The fuselage is just about there.  I hope.

Then I can start cutting chunks out.

[The Wooksta!]

Second coat of filler on the starboard wing, plus what I think is the final lot on the port.

Having measured the depth with the plans and the possibly more accurate Planet kit, I need to take another MM off the leading edge.

Looking ahead to the undercarriage, Revell have nothing above the legs in the well, so some blocking between the leg and any potential wing spar is in order.
I'll have to do something similar when I do the cut and shut 390 from the two Revell 290s, so it makes sense to look at this problem early.

[NARSES2]

Toad Resins, now there's a name from the past.

[The Wooksta!]

His last kits, mastered and cast by the shady Dennis Ives came out in 1996.

They had some good stuff, but the later Ju 388Js had a twist in the fuselage that was baked in at the master stage and thus unfixable.
Their Fw Ta 283 was a copy of a Japanese resin kit that was also copied by Vami.

[The Wooksta!]

Another day, yet more sanding.  However, the wings are not from being... No, there's still a huge amount of work to be done, but the surface is about as tidy as I can get it.


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Having broken out the P38 to start sorting out the turret mounts, it made sense to use the excess to fill the yawning chasms that mark the control surfaces.  I have the Revell 290 to use as a pattern and they're just straight lines, so I'd much rather have a tidy wing for now and worry about the control surfaces later.
They're also now the right depth, approx 12mm, so other than fixing the leading edge and filling the engine mounts, the bulk of the wing sanding is done.

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Nose and tail filled with P38 so the turrets have a decent base.  Also helps stiffen up the fuselage.  I may put some plastic rod in to aid alignment.  Note that I couldn't help myself and cut out the starboard one.

Next task is to sort out the portholes, the fuselage door and the cutouts for the canopy, tailwheel and tail planes.  Then perhaps I can start thinking about the interior.

[The Wooksta!]

The wings are just another brief sanding away from being good enough.

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Compare and contrast with what I started with...

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Whilst the filler was curing, I turned my attention to the fuselage, deciding to use Contrail's laughable attempt at bulkheads, as patterns if nowt else.  Think I need about three for the fuselage, plus a pair to stiffen up the back end around the tailwheel bay.

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The round ones will be for the engine mounts. The radial front is the right diameter for the outer, whilst the others are the crude engine faces that Contrail gave.  Again, the right diameter for building up the engine mounts.

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And I've actually started some gluing!  First to secure the P38 in the fuselage and then to assemble the cockpit interior enough so it can be used to determine a mounting lug.  I've done one for each side.

Next task is to sort out the cut outs for the tailwheel bay and the tailplane.

[The Wooksta!]

A lot of measuring later, we now have some cut outs...

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Tailwheel.  The Revell piece has the outer edge as part of the fuselage with no upper support.  I'll add a ledge in the fuselage inside, add a crossbeam and fill it with P38 to stiffen it all up.

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The tailplane goes here.  I doubt it'll need it, but I'll add a reinforcement underneath inside the fuselage.

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Fuselage taped up with the tailplane in place, you may be able to see the huge gaps betwixt the two.  A lot of P38 and sanding will be needed here.

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Better shot.  The fuselage should flare out, so I'll need to build it all up.  Could be interesting.

[NARSES2]

Coming along nicely