Hi All,
Just back from visiting the Shuttleworth Collection and seeing the Proms Night, aerial displays to orchestral music.........Fantastic.
I was taken by the beauty of some of the Biplanes on site and displaying and thought back to my Bristol Bulldog in 1/48th by Inpact/Pyro.
It suffered from some poor decals, especially on the wing uppers, and a little damage has occurred, so a little repair and paint job ahead.
As a result I intend to repair the wing and bracing and repaint the whole upper wing including the markings.
So far I have copied the blue chevroned bar on the upper wing and made copies of the roundels, sizes, colours, etc.
The wing tanks are in natural metal and these were painted in Alclad II in the first instance so I have masked these prior to stripping the upper wing with some Expo Stripper.
I have done a test with some Tamiya AS-12 Silver from a spray can and I am reasonably confident that I can get a close match to the original 'Silver' and other colours as I go along. I have tested it on some scrap and against the current paintwork, as can be seen in one of the photo's.
The model will be rigged using 'infinity' rigging thread, and some of the missing control wires added at the same time, fingers crossed.
Some pictures of the above :-
Good luck with your rebuild.
I was last at The Shuttleworth Collection 25 years ago, how time flies (pun intended?).
They were probably 'New' aircraft then.........hohohoho
Looks good Kevin.
Quote from: Bigkev on August 19, 2025, 06:12:25 PMThey were probably 'New' aircraft then.........hohohoho
I shall refrain from any comments!
Very commendable on many fronts Kev, environmental, resource conservation, and most of all it's a nice kit.
A note to Dave; Time flies like an arrow however fruit flies like a banana.
Quote from: kiwichappers on August 21, 2025, 10:37:15 AMVery commendable on many fronts Kev, environmental, resource conservation, and most of all it's a nice kit.
A note to Dave; Time flies like an arrow however fruit flies like a banana.
Thanks for that Francis, my wife spent some of her time in the 6th form at school experimenting on fruit flies, thankfully the experiments did not involve me.
Quote from: zak on August 20, 2025, 05:42:36 PMQuote from: Bigkev on August 19, 2025, 06:12:25 PMThey were probably 'New' aircraft then.........hohohoho
I shall refrain from any comments!
Sorry I couldn't resist, cheeky of me I know, I'll try to behave in future
I've never seen that paint remover before Kev, will have to look on the internet for it. Another of your little gems of a tip.
Quote from: cph64 on August 21, 2025, 12:16:25 PMI've never seen that paint remover before Kev, will have to look on the internet for it. Another of your little gems of a tip.
Hi Chris,
Got it off Ebay, I think it was £4.99 a bottle.
Hi All,
Have now managed to strip the wing surfaces using the Expo stripper. It took a couple of applications to get everything off. The Chrome fuel tanks have been masked to help keep them bright, but may need a quick re-coat once masking removed.
There were a few sinkage gaps in the filler applied during first build and as a result of vigorous rubbing during the stripping process.
I have used some thin masking tape strips to limit the amount of filler to be applied to these gaps/lines. Luckily they fall on 'ribs' so I can blend in the filler to represent these once the filler has dried.
Thanks for looking.
You are a glutton for punishment.
Quote from: zak ;) on August 23, 2025, 06:22:01 PMYou are a glutton for punishment.
One of my many traits...........
Keeps me out of trouble though. ;)
Thanks for the shopping location Kev. Looks like you and I are busy using lots of filler on our builds?
We will not ask what the others are Kevin hohoho
Model looking good
Plenty of work to do Kevin.
A little bit more done.
Filler now rubbed down and an undercoat of Mr.Surfacer 1200 to level everything out.
Now just trying to think in what order to paint the wing, roundels and unit markings..............
Hi All,
Back to the paintshop, decided to repaint the fuel tanks on the undersides as these had got marked and chipped, see previous photo's. So I masked them off and gave them a coat of Tamiya Gloss Black with some Mr. Hobby self levelling thinner. Once dry, I then used some AK interactive Aluminum sprayed on to replicate the polished metal surface.
Next up will be an overall coat of Tamiya AS-12 from a rattle can, followed by a coat of Kleer before painting the roundels and unit markings which will need to be painted using homemade masks.
Hi All,
Quick update. Wing now painted in AS-12 Silver and given 2 coats of Kleer each surface to prepare for masking out markings. I have so far masked the unit marking chevrons on upper wing and painted Tamiya Flat White in readiness for the Blue to follow. Note:- The masking discs in the first picture, are the size of the clearance between the unit marking and roundels. Once dry I masked these off and applied the roundel masks, applying the circles first, then the surrounding masks, then remove the circles. These will then be painted Tamiya Flat White again in readiness for roundel colouring the white forming the basis for the blue. All the blue will be painted at once before the central Red 'boss' of the roundels will be masked and painted.
Great work, you like to suffer for your art!
Quote from: zak on August 30, 2025, 12:55:59 PMGreat work, you like to suffer for your art!
Sometimes it doesn't always go to plan first time. The roundels were duly painted white, once dry masked and the blue applied. Then the blue and white portions masked and the Tamiya Red for the centre applied. Once dry masking removed, and I had a few points were I got some seepage. On the Silver areas they were easily cleaned up with a sharpened coffee stirrer, the Kleer allowing me to scrape off the offending paint. The White on the roundels suffered worst, the Blue seeped onto the white. On reflection my fault I probably rushed the masking too much and didn't pay enough attention to the edges to ensure a good contact. Also I think the Blue which was a first for me spraying Vallejo Blue with their own thinners. I think my mix was too thin and I applied too many coats too quickly.
Ah well, we live and learn. Repair now underway, The white has been carefully masked again, but this time a couple of coats of Kleer to 'seal' any potential seepage hopefully. Also when I respray the white I shall use a slightly thicker mix of paint through the airbrush, and do 2 or 3 coats with plenty of time in between to ensure prior coat is fully dry before applying the next.
Another learning curve Kevin.
Hi All,
repair successfully carried out. Masking removed and wing in place. Still to rig, but that's for another day.
Couple of pictures:-
Thanks for looking.
Get rigging, it looks very nice, a good repair job.
Thanks Dave.
Very nice Kevin.
A colourful silverbird, well done.
Another great neat model how do you do it
Hi All,
Thanks for your kind comments.
I have now managed to get the Bulldog rigged. I have used EZ-Line, Infinity Rigging and stretched Sprue to complete the job. I found the EZ-Line easier to manage on the interplane rigging, though I had a couple of sections that just wouldn't glue in place, so I had to revert to very thin Black stretched sprue to complete these.
The Infinity rigging thread was used to do the aerials. Superglue and accelerator was mainly used, and Kristal Kleer for the stretched sprue. An extra pair of hands would have helped!
Once dry the paintwork was touched in with some silver paint at some of the anchor points. Navigation lights added to top wing from scraps of sprue sanded to shape and painted accordingly.
Some pictures follow of the finished (repaired) model. Thanks for looking.
Looks a great re-vamp.
Great restoration and some good tips. I may get brave enough to try a biplane one of these days.
Excellent Kevin.
It looked really good 'in the flesh' at Lincoln and drew lots of viewers and positive comments.