1/72 Avrocar

[frank2056]

Thanks guys. I'm done with this one. It was an OK kit, but I had a lot of problems with the paint (and decals):

The canopies are very thick and not very clear; I gave them a coat of Future inside and out. This improved the clarity, but didn't help with the coke bottle effect. I painted the mating edges with a dark color (to prevent internal reflections in the plastic) but it didn't work well - at least from the side:



I figured the tail might help a bit with the stability issues. It's just some styrene cut to shape, with a rod to act as a pitot tube:



The stabilizers/elevators move, with the orange red strip indicating the start of the moving sections:



As for the BMW autogiro, I may work on it tomorrow, but it's not looking good - it may end up in its box for another decade.

[NARSES2]

That's come out very well sir   

[Old Wombat]

Good finish, Frank! Even if the final stages did fight you a bit.   


Re: The Planet Models BMW Flügelrad V-1 - Come on, man! You beat a Gecko kit into submission, you can beat this, too! 

[zenrat]

Good job.  Turned out very well.     

[chrisonord]

Very nice indeed Frank 

[su27rules]

Nice work!!    

[Rick Lowe]

 

[Weaver]

Oh very nice!   

I like the skids and the tail: they give it a rakish, 1950s sci-fi look that's much better than the somewhat toy-like air of the actual vehicle.

The red warning circle around the central fan looks wonky - the decal is shown going just inside of the intake, but the decal wasn't cooperating. It was easier to cut it into segments and apply the segments along the intake's outer panel line:

Rivet Counters and Colour Police are often horrified to discover that markings on real aircraft are frequently wonky, misplaced, incomplete and/or badly touched up. It's almost as if ground crew chiefs are more concerned with getting serviceable aircraft on the flight line than they are with following official schemes precisely...

[PR19_Kit]

Rivet Counters and Colour Police are often horrified to discover that markings on real aircraft are frequently wonky, misplaced, incomplete and/or badly touched up. It's almost as if ground crew chiefs are more concerned with getting serviceable aircraft on the flight line than they are with following official schemes precisely...

Dad told me the story of a 47 Sqdn. Hastings that had been for some deep servicing at a maintenance depot, and came back to Topcliffe with DIFFERENT serials on each side! They didn't find the problem till the paperwork was being checked and the Topcliffe crews thought they were re-commissioning two different aircraft!   

[Weaver]

Rivet Counters and Colour Police are often horrified to discover that markings on real aircraft are frequently wonky, misplaced, incomplete and/or badly touched up. It's almost as if ground crew chiefs are more concerned with getting serviceable aircraft on the flight line than they are with following official schemes precisely...

Dad told me the story of a 47 Sqdn. Hastings that had been for some deep servicing at a maintenance depot, and came back to Topcliffe with DIFFERENT serials on each side! They didn't find the problem till the paperwork was being checked and the Topcliffe crews thought they were re-commissioning two different aircraft!   

I vaguely remember a story about a French general inspecting a line of Mysteres(?) and noticing that the roundels were differently placed on each side. Turned out the official scheme only showed one side of the aircraft and specified the position of the roundel relative to an inspection panel. However that panel was positioned differently on the other side of the aircraft but the 'geniuses' at The Ministry had never thought about that...

[frank2056]

Thanks, guys. I am working on the BMW beast.

Harold - this came to mind:

[Poz67]

Well done !

[Rheged]

Rivet Counters and Colour Police are often horrified to discover that markings on real aircraft are frequently wonky, misplaced, incomplete and/or badly touched up. It's almost as if ground crew chiefs are more concerned with getting serviceable aircraft on the flight line than they are with following official schemes precisely...

Dad told me the story of a 47 Sqdn. Hastings that had been for some deep servicing at a maintenance depot, and came back to Topcliffe with DIFFERENT serials on each side! They didn't find the problem till the paperwork was being checked and the Topcliffe crews thought they were re-commissioning two different aircraft! 

The Russians call it "maskirovka".  Regularly changing aircraft serials to  convince observers that they have more aircraft than the actual inventory

The British call it  "yet another administrative ****-up"  and assume some paper shuffler was distracted by the attractive  WRAF officer calling in the office.

[frank2056]

The BMW Flugelrad is on its way to the landfill; i think there was something going on with the resin, because even the 20+ year primer was coming off. I couldn't keep paint on it; acrylics that I know dry to the touch within a hour were still sticky the nex day. On top of that, the PE exhaust deflector popped off. It just wasn't worth the effort. I saved the cockpit and tossed the rest.

[kerick]

The final product looks really good. The work was worth it!
Sounds like the Fluge whatzit was having deep chemistry problems. No way to fix that. You made the right move there.