Seeing double!

 Its finished!

Is it really finished? That is not like me!

Rubbing my eyes in disbelief that it was finished I had to double take on the situation!

Then there were two!

No! I have not built a second one! Mr Beecham, he of cycling and model making prowess dropped off his build of the earlier Airfix kit of the P-40B which is an interesting comparison. Mr. B's model making skills exceed mine but Airfix have certainly provided a far more detailed kit in their revised model that I built. Most markedly are the panel lines that are recessed on my model whereas Mr. B's has the raised panel lines.

Mr. B's model looking good back it will have to go back to his display shelves!

A moment of panic!

Sometime you doubt yourself and a moment of panic struck me as I applied some panel line to the Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk. Basically panel line is an enamel based product that is thinned black paint. The idea, like my home made washes, is that the dilute colour collects in the recesses of the model to highlight the details, in this case the various panel lines that make up the aircrafts superstructure. The idea is that you paint your model in acrylic paints and apply the enamel panel line over it. Being a different product the enamel being oil based should not harm the acrylic water based paint and so you can use enamel thinners to clean off the excess panel line. It just looks horrible when you apply it first and so that moment of panic strikes as to what happens if the two products react or the enamel thinners don't clear the excess off!

However, calm was restored as I applied the thinners and it worked! Whats more is that it left a nice streaking weathered effect!

Having started on the underside, thinking if it goes wrong at least the underside is partly hidden, based upon it going well attention turned to the top side.

 

All that mess cleaned off laeving the panel lines highlighted and a nice weathering effect!

All I need to do know is fix that canopy permanently along with the side glass and things should be almost finished!

Almost finished! That is another moment of panic - I never finish things this quick!

Canopy capers!

As I said yesterday the canopy to the Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk needs fitting but before that can happen it also needs to have the frame parts painted. Now the last time I did one of these I probably painted the frame with what would have been like a tar brush as a young lad with lots of imagination and keenness but no skill or patience! Things haven't changed much then in the passing years as Mrs Woody would no doubt say!

However, with this caper I did take my time and thought about the issue of painting fine lines on a clear canopy moulding. You can, if you hunt about on the internet, find firms who sell self adhesive masks that you can mask up the clear parts of the canopy with and from what I have seen most are really good. However my wallet is empty, I am not patient enough to wait for delivery and in my typical way I am sure I can manage without. Hence the mass of masking tape in the picture below. I did the vertical lines first and then masked off the horizontal once the paint had dried and....

...it turned out quite well in my view for a first attempt. The good thing about clear parts on a model is that you can generally clean unwanted paint off them using a soft blunt instrument such as a cocktail stick which is what I did.

I trial fitted the canopy which seems to fit and just need to fit the two rear canopy side pieces that are in front of the model in the picture below.

In other news, and of interest to those loyal blog readers with an interest in canals, a bike ride past the recently dried out canal has revealed that it is full again! Not sure if this is down to storm Ashley and its rain or whether some flow stopping device has failed or if all the repair works that required the drained canal have now been finished? 

Today I haver mainly been doing the undercarriage!

After the excitement of the finishing the last event for this year at the Rocks by Rail Museum yesterday it was time to get back to trying finish the Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk kit. The decals have been applied so it was time to think about adding the parts that I would, through clumsy hands, break off whilst putting the decals in place had I of  already fitted them! These parts are mainly the undercarriage. I have been wise enough (can you use the word 'wise' and Woody in the same sentence?) to already have painted them so fitting would be easier.

With those fitted and the engine exhausts, pilots head rest and the pilot himself, the model took on a new look.

I just need to matt varnish the model, then do a bit of weathering and fit the canopy! Not too much if you say it quick!

More decals!

 Work on the Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk11B carries on with the last of the decals being applied to the undersides of the wings....

and the interesting mouth and eye markings around the front end. Yes, I have managed to break off one of the machine guns in the wings as predicted but it is safe ready to be glued back in place.

These last decals were not the easiest to fit as they had to meet in the middle. There is a bit of a gap but I should be able to hide that with some paint. I am somewhat in territory I have not been in before with aircraft so a lot of looking at pictures on the net has taken place to clarify details including that the wheel wells were painted greem so that is what I also did!

Reaching this stage means that the last few pieces can be fitted so hopefully that will be a job for the next day or so once I have sealed the decals with a coat of matt varnish.

Decal delight!

I don't normally get anywhere near this stage of a model build in such a short time so I was delighted to be decaling (is that a word???) on the Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk model  First off though a coating of gloss varnish was airbrushed all over the model. This gives a smooth surface that the decals can be applied to which avoids the possibility of 'silvering'. This is the phenomena where applying the decal to a rough matt surface traps air between the decal and the surface which results in the decal having a silver colour around its edges in certain light conditions.

There are a quite a number of decals for such a small model and it is worth taking time to position them correctly otherwise any imperfections stick out like a sore thumb. In addition there are a number of recessed panel lines on the model over which the decals go. Just leaving them flat would not look right as the decal should drop into the recess of the panel line. Luckily there are products (Micro Sol and Mirco Set are two such products) that assist in creating this by softening the decal so that it moulds its self to the surface over which t is placed. These are brushed on  and left to do their work with maybe a little encouragement from a moist cotton bud. Patience is the name of the game. 

I still have the underside wing roundels and the Tomahawk bird teeth and eyes to fit  but in the picture below the effect of the decal moulding itself to the underlying surface is clear to see.

Hopefully getting the last of the decals applied will also be a delight!

Lots of Wows!

Mrs. Woody and me had a day out - it was her birthday after all! We ended up at Burghley House just outside Stamford in Lincolnshire. We had never been before and it was to say the least a Wow property. You jus kept saying Wow! 

First thing that made me go Wow was the house itself.

Second Wow was the arrival of the chimney sweeps! Looking at all those chimneys on the house these guys must have at least a months worth of work ahead of them!

Going inside the kitchen is another Wow with all the copper pots.

Theses were just some of the bells that would ring in the servants area when assistance was required - Wow!

Before being queen, Victoria slept in this so called 'Travelling' bed!

There are around 350 paintings on display.

It was not just paintings on display but entire rooms painted like this.

The rooms were all painted in a 3D manner - very deceptive to the eye.

More Wow moments n the huge gardens with the Garden of Surprises being particularly interesting with a variety of water features.

The day really was a Wow day and after a birthday meal out it was back to WMD HQ where I was onto more painting of the  Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk. This time the underside using the provided paint which looks like that classic duck egg green that was used during WW2. First off though was a bit of masking.

With that applied the paint was airbrushed on.

Then it was that precarious moment as I removed the masking tape hoping it would not pull the paint under it off the model. Wow! I was lucky or should that be skillful? 

It needs some varnish next to allow the decals to be applied but all in all, so far a quick and easy build as Mr. Beecham said it would be when I started. Wow!

Seat goes up, seat goes down! Or how to amuse a simple mind!

Following on from the kitchen rebuild, Mrs. Woody has decided that the 1993 bathroom needs updating. For an easy life I have agreed (I am learning in old age!) so we are now touring bathroom showrooms. Surprisingly I was informed that bathroom suites in those old favorite colours of yellow, chocolate brown, burgundy and powder blue are no longer available with white being the in colour! Apparently it has been the in colour for some years now. Mrs. W is not surprised that fact bypassed me noting my fashion sense over the years!!

Now the choice of bathroom suites is enormous and you become blind to the differences after seeing several dozen of the things but occasionally something stands out and for me it was this automated toilet seat! Now as Mrs. W would tell you simple things amuse my simple mind and this is just one such thing! Had to video it and love the way it rises as you approach. 

As Homer Simpson would say, Seat goes up, seat goes down! 

This bathroom perusal is going to take some time so I hope there are more items like this to amuse my simple mind!

Back at WMD HQ the Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk is progressing with the second part of the camouflage now applied - almost the same colour as those chocolate brown bath suites of old! I did manage to break one of the machine gun barrels off the wing but luckily found it and reaffixed it. Somehow I think I might be having to do that again with my clumsiness in painting the model!

Gravy or paint?

Time for some painting which seems a common theme of my life as of late! However in this case a more pleasurable painting operation involving the Airfix Curtiss Tomahawk. Having got to the stage where the main parts had been assembled it was prudent to give the model a coat of primer. In this case a light grey which just happened to be to hand which was handy! There are not a lot of places to hold this small model when airbrushing it so a cocktail stick was carefully inserted where the propeller will eventually fit - oh nasty!

That cocktail stick did its job though and all the model got a good coating of primer.

Whilst the primer was drying I was looking at top coat options. I could search through the WMD HQ paint store to find suitable colours or I could use what was supplied in the kit. The supplied paint did not exactly look inspiring, in fact it looked more lumpy than any gravy I have ever made without the close supervision of Mrs. Woody. However, I decided it was worth a go to see if I could thin it out and actually have something workable unlike my gravy! Mixing some of the lumps with some thinners and stirring like mad for some time actually produced a paint like substance so it was time to see if it actually would come out of the airbrush or just clog it.

Pleasantly surprisingly it did actually spray well! So the first part of the paint scheme is now applied. I just need to let that dry thoroughly and then see if I can get the darker brown lumpy gravy paint to thin out suitably to airbrush or even brush paint. Now did Mrs. W want gravy with her dinner......

 

In the flying seat!

 Just a finishing touch to the cockpit with the application of some panel line wash to highlight the detail. It probably will be unseen but it was something I thought worthwhile doing as I would know it was done!

In preparation for the placement of other parts of the fuselage I had to smooth the joint between the two halves. Doing this obliterated part of a recessed panel line so I had to reinstate it. A piece of masking tape highlights where it should be and the very thin razor saw was used to 'cut' in a new panel line along the edge of the tape.

  

The beauty of this kit is that it is relatively simple with only a few parts so you see some results fairly quickly. It already looks like a plane! That model pilot is probably hoping he will be flying something other than what I have built! No such luck for him though. He just needs a bit more painting and he will be in the flying seat!