Bulldog - Interior painted

 I've just about finished painting the interior surfaces of the fuselage.

First of all, I did a coat of Vallejo white primer for the canvas areas.

 Then I had to decide what colour to use. On the original, the canvas covering was apparently treated with a red oxide primer, and this would have soaked through, to be visible on the inside. The instructions for the Airfix 1:48 scale model say to use Humbrol 100 to represent this effect, and I happened to have a tin of it, which I've had for years and which was still usable! But it looked too orangey to me. Instead, I followed the lead of this feature, by Chris Jones, who suggests that it should be more of a brick red. I tried Vallejo Fire Red alone, but this was too red, so I mixed in a drop of black and did another coat.

Then some masking was called for. I have never tried masking over water-based acrylics before, and was slightly worried that the tape might pull away the paint on removal, so to be safe I left it overnight to cure thoroughly. After this, there was nothing for it but to grasp the nettle and to apply the tape. As usual, this turned out to be more fiddly and time-consuming than I expected, so it was just as well that I was starting out fresh from my morning coffee.

 

I applied a coat of SMS black to the aluminium areas and then more masking was needed, for the black-painted area around the cockpit opening. I didn't want to leave all the tape on too long, but I wanted the black undercoat to dry properly. I left it two hours, then did the little bit of extra masking, followed by a coat of SMS aluminium:

I left it to dry for the time it took to clean the airbrush, and then very carefully peeled off all the tape, and the results were not too bad:

I was slightly concerned at first because somehow a few flecks of aluminium lacquer had got onto the canvas areas; but luckily most of these brushed off. Also, I had been a bit careless about keeping it all dust-free, so there were a few little specks of dust on the aluminium surfaces. I might try removing these with some very fine wet and dry. Then, again following the example of the Chris Jones feature, I will do a coat of SMS flat clear lacquer.

Finally for today, a test fit of the interior framework:

More soon.
 

 

Bulldog - Louvres gone

 I've got rid of the louvres. I hesitated a bit before doing this, because I didn't want to ruin the fuselage halves after all the work I've done on them. But it turned out OK.

To start with, I pared them down with a curved blade, cut a slot in what was left with a scriber (which I find is good for removing material) and then carved away either side with a straight blade, before neatening up with with wet-and-dry. Here, I've finished the starboard side and have started work on the port side:

 After this, I cemented little fillets of Evergreen 2.5mm half-round onto the inside:

While the glue was setting, I went and mowed the lawn. Then, when I got down to work again, all I had to do was to carve the little fillets of plastic to match the existing troughs. I alternated between a rat-tail file, a 1.2mm drill bit, different knife blades, and whatever came to hand. I found that once I was almost at the right depth, I could use the blunt end of the drill bit to chase away what was left a small amount at a time. In the end, I got quite a neat result. I gave it a preliminary bit of sanding with fine wet-and-dry, then smeared on a bit of Milliput to fill the gap between the old and new. I also took the opportunity to test one of the gun barrels for fit. Not bad at all!

Tomorrow, I just need to do some cleaning up and then at last I can start painting the inside of the fuselage.

Bulldog - Interior almost finished

 The interior is almost finished:

 

Just the head rest and seatbelts to add. And the turn-and-bank indicator, which I forgot to add before gluing the instrument panel in place.

I've just spent a couple of days trying to make seatbelts, but I can't get them right. The details like the buckles are too fine to do properly, but it doesn't look right if I leave them off. So I've ordered an etched set (Eduard  EDSS581 - RAF seatbelts early version). This set makes three complete seatbelts, so I can use it for the Gloster Gladiator that is on my pile. I am also toying with the idea of doing another interwar fighter - maybe the Gloster Gamecock - and that will take care of the remaining one.

While I wait for the seatbelts to arrive, I might make a start on the further work that is needed for the guns. I need to remove the louvres and then somehow extend the gun troughs. I will probably glue some half-round moulding into place on the inside and then just carve it out.

I might even do something about the turn-and-bank indicator. 

Oh - and while doing the order, I threw in the extra set of Browning gun barrels that I wanted for the Gladiator. But now I'll need two more for the Gamecock. So it goes.

More soon.

Bulldog - Instrument panel finished

 I've finished the instrument panel. The type P3 compass was made by carving a piece of 0.75mm plastic rod to a ball shape and inserting into a length of 1.2mm brass tube. The cranking handle is 0.3mm brass tube bent into shape.

It's all a bit less exact than I was hoping for: the starboard magneto switch seems to overlap the oil pressure gauge, and the Gloss Cote I used for the dial faces has spilled over a bit. But it just about passes muster I think.

I've just remembered that I still have to add the turn and bank indicator. Tomorrow.
 

Bulldog - Guns revisited

 Between coats of paint, I have started rethinking the guns. It seems that a factory-fresh Bulldog would have louvred covers over the gun barrels, but I'm not sure whether these were retained in service, or in deliveries of the Mk IIA for that matter. The reconstructed Bulldog at Hendon certainly doesn't have them.

By now, I've decided I will probably make a Bulldog from No. 32 Squadron, for a few reasons:

1. It will be fun to do a colour scheme other than the one provided for in the kit
2. An aircraft from this squadron, K2481, is shown in a reference book I've just received from Amazon: Single No. 52 from MMP Books, by Mariusz Kubryn and Krzysztof Wolowski.
3. It will be fun to make a tailwheel, which deliveries to this squadron seemed to have

David Luff has two photos of aircraft in this squadron. Unfortunately it's difficult to make out from these whether the louvred panels are in place or not, but the area where these would be is certainly darker in these photos than the surrounding cowling, and this suggests that the panels were not there. Also, the drawings in Kubryn and Wolowski don't show panels. And neither does the reconstruction at Hendon, as I mentioned.

There is one other factor. If I build this Bulldog without the panels, then the guns I have made, with the plain brass barrels, won't do. The Bulldog had a pair of Vickers Mk. 2 guns, and the barrels had a distinctive set of perforations which would be noticeable by their absence if the barrels were exposed to public view.

I had a look at what Hannants had available: no Vickers Mk. 2 at this scale; but they did have brass barrels for Browning machine guns with the same calibre (0.303"). I decided to order some and wait to see whether they would do the job before doing anything drastic. (I ordered two sets; partly to fulfil the minimum order and partly because I have a Gloster Gladiator to make. But I forgot that the Gladiator had four guns: two in the fuselage and two in wing pods (this arrangement calls to mind the field mods made by No. 87 Squadron to their Sopwith Dolphins). So I will have to order more at some point. By then, I will have thought of something else to make up the minimum order.)

They arrived today and they are absolutely beautiful:

 They certainly knock the spots off the brass cylinders of my home-made Vickers, and - perhaps more importantly - I think they will be fairly convincing. It's difficult to imagine someone saying, "that's a pretty good build of a Bristol Bulldog, but hang on a second: why has it got Browning guns?"

In short, there's no way I'm not going to use these. Now I just need some kind of louvre remover.
 

Bulldog - Framework coming together

 At last, I've started putting all the bits of the fuselage interior together. But before doing that, I had to decide about the finish of the bits I had painted. As I said, the semi-gloss finish that I had achieved was nice, but perhaps a bit too hard at this scale; a bit too specular, I think you could say: you got pronounced highlights where it caught the light.

I decided to try a coat of flat clear on some scrap I had already painted, and the results were very encouraging: pretty much matt, but with a subtle sheen. So I went ahead and gave all the black-painted parts the same treatment. I hesitated for a day over doing the framework itself, because it would be such a lot of work to replace if anything went wrong. But in the end there was no problem. SMS lacquers are prethinned for airbrush use (like so many paints these days), and are child's play to use. The flat lacquer in particular is pretty miraculous: you get a matt finish almost instantly (but with a subtle sheen, as noted).

While everything was drying, I went to get some more bits and pieces (from Jadlam Models in Glastonbury. They have very extensive stocks of paints and  various supplies, and they are very helpful. It certainly beats ordering online, even though I had to navigate two road closures to get there and back).

 Then, when I got home, I started putting the pieces together. I hadn't been looking forward to getting the ammo boxes into place, because I knew it would be a bit intricate and fiddly, a bit like one of those metal puzzles. But in the end, it wasn't too bad. And while I was at it, I added the heel troughs. Here is the result so far. You will see I've done a bit of highlighting in Ammo Light Metal where the paint might be worn off; and some rather heavy-handed mud where the pilot might put his feet, in a mix of Humbrol enamels, just because that's what I had.

 More soon.

Bulldog - paint!

 I've finally got round to doing some painting. This was something of a psychological hurdle, for three main reasons:

1. It was going to involve a lot of airbrushing, which is not my strong point
2. It would involve using brands of paint that I haven't used before
3. Nameless fears
   

At last, I made a start by getting the compressor out to see if it still worked. And this is where the nameless fears started to take a more definite shape. It was more than twelve years since I had last used the compressor, and in that time, as I immediately found out, the air hose had perished. My immediate thought was to get a new compressor; but I 've already spent quite a lot of money on this project, and so I decided it would be better to try to and replace the hose, though obviously it wouldn't be quite as enjoyable. So I went to my local car parts shop and got some fuel hose, and as it turned out this did the job quite well. Those circlips really make the new hose look as though it's meant to be there.

 I was going to start with the interior framework and associated parts (the fuselage might still need a bit more work before painting, but more on that later). According to David Luff, all steel fittings were protected from corrosion by a paint-dipping and stove enamelling process. And there were also a few brass bits to be painted at this stage.

These are the paints I decided on. I would give all parts a coat or two of SMS Black, and then give the brass parts a further coat of AK Extreme Metal Brass.

This is the bits after painting:

And this is what they look like after they have dried for a while:

 Not a bad result, but I'm not completely sure about the finish I've got. You would expect it to be fairly glossy, but I'm not sure this is exactly right. I might do a coat of half-gloss clear lacquer to see if that improves things, but I won't rush into it.

Anyway, this amounts to real progress, and the nameless fears did not amount to much in the end. More soon!