Airfix 1/48 tiger moth

Airfix 1/48 tiger moth

Author
Discussion

robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Monday 20th April 2020
quotequote all
Another build thread....

This time it’s the new tool tiger moth. Freshly delivered by the postman.


I had a quick look at the parts over lunch. It looks very nice I have to say. Work will begin properly this evening, but for now here are the sprues.




The decals look particularly nice.


I’m going to replicate the red and silver aircraft as shown on the box art.
The real version of this is at Shuttleworth in Bedfordshire and I took quite a few pictures back in February when I was there for the model show.

dr_gn

16,397 posts

191 months

Monday 20th April 2020
quotequote all
Looks nice - the Airfix biplanes are great - not too many panel lines.

I find silver is a very difficult colour to get looking right.

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

268 months

Monday 20th April 2020
quotequote all
Choice of three propellers?

dr_gn

16,397 posts

191 months

Monday 20th April 2020
quotequote all
Dr Jekyll said:
Choice of three propellers?
...and two tailplanes - one with anti-spin strakes, one without. Do you have to cut the fuselage to fit the latter, as per the 1:72 version?

robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Monday 20th April 2020
quotequote all
dr_gn said:
...and two tailplanes - one with anti-spin strakes, one without. Do you have to cut the fuselage to fit the latter, as per the 1:72 version?
A quick look in the instructions confirms minor surgery is required. The kit comes with a little fixture / jig that fits over the tail as a guide. Hopefully this should make the operation fairly easy.
As an interesting aside. Both schemes included I the kit have this feature. I would have thought it easier to include instructions to trim the anti-spin strakes off rather than add them.

dr_gn

16,397 posts

191 months

Monday 20th April 2020
quotequote all
robemcdonald said:
dr_gn said:
...and two tailplanes - one with anti-spin strakes, one without. Do you have to cut the fuselage to fit the latter, as per the 1:72 version?
A quick look in the instructions confirms minor surgery is required. The kit comes with a little fixture / jig that fits over the tail as a guide. Hopefully this should make the operation fairly easy.
As an interesting aside. Both schemes included I the kit have this feature. I would have thought it easier to include instructions to trim the anti-spin strakes off rather than add them.
Agreed, or at least pre-cut the fuselage and have two different inserts.

robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Monday 20th April 2020
quotequote all
I made a quick start after clocking off for the evening.

First up was removing the cockpit parts from the sprue and cleansing them up.


Assembly of the basic parts was next (a lot of dry fitting only at this stage.




I’m going to paint the cockpit and instrument panel this evening.

robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Tuesday 21st April 2020
quotequote all
I went a bit OTT on the cockpit (obviously)

Time to close up the fuselage. The fit around the bottom requires a little work.

I thought I’d tackle the surgery next


Not too ling later...


This is about as close as I’m going to be able to get.


Not to bad when the tail is in place, a small amount of filler will be needed though.


robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
quotequote all
I have made some progress this evening.

Starting with a little bit of work on the engine.


The engine cover is compromised of several parts and has the option of displaying the engine


It builds up niceLy to represent the various overlapping panels in a convincing way.
I used some silly putty for masking (probably a bit premature)


Then it’s simply a case of adding rest of the parts..






Tomorrow I’ll start on the painting.

It’s a pretty simple kit to be honest, but I’m gonna quite impressed so far.

robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Thursday 23rd April 2020
quotequote all
Got some paint on today.



No matter how hard I try I always mess up on masking...



I’ll make a start on decals tonight and hopefully it will start to look good.


robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Friday 24th April 2020
quotequote all
Last night I started with the decals. Once they are all on the fuselage I will add the windscreens and cushions at the front of the cockpits.

Then the dreaded rigging begins....


Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

268 months

Friday 24th April 2020
quotequote all
Once you've painted parts, how long do you leave them before you regard it as safe to handle them and glue them together? When I made models I tended to paint and assemble on alternate evenings which spread the build over a long period.

robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Friday 24th April 2020
quotequote all
So I’m getting a bit better at the patience thing.

I sprayed the silver yesterday morning AS-12 from the rattle can.

I left it until the afternoon (after I finished work at 5) to start the masking.

Painted the red around 6ish

Striped off the masking and started the decals at around 10.

The red is Tamiya lacquer through the airbrush and normally dries pretty well in 20 minutes or so, but I left it 4 hours, so it’s fine.

The longer you leave things the better though. I’m just impatient.

robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Friday 24th April 2020
quotequote all
Windscreens and cushions in, more decals and a start on rigging.

lufbramatt

5,425 posts

141 months

Friday 24th April 2020
quotequote all
Looks superb, really nice work on the paint. Glad you’re enjoying it thumbup


robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Friday 24th April 2020
quotequote all
Ta very much.

I might even submit it for the “my Airfix” section in the mag.

Providing I don’t cock it up.

robemcdonald

Original Poster:

9,127 posts

203 months

Friday 24th April 2020
quotequote all
Top wing on and rigging started (one side complete)


Yertis

18,644 posts

273 months

Saturday 25th April 2020
quotequote all
I though dr_gn was prolific – you're like a factory. smile

dr_gn

16,397 posts

191 months

Saturday 25th April 2020
quotequote all
Yertis said:
I though dr_gn was prolific – you're like a factory. smile
I get too easily bogged down in photo-etch and modifications to be prolific.

Tiger Moth looking great.

Yertis

18,644 posts

273 months

Saturday 25th April 2020
quotequote all
I get too bogged down in work/ family time/ house stuff/ car maintenance/ gardening/ cooking to even think about modelling.

That's why I enjoy watching your guy's work so much.