Kitty Hawk Bronco

[Roger]

So here is today's progress - precisely none!  After horse riding and tennis I fell asleep on the sofa.  I think i am identifying why it takes me so long to make models!
Hey ho, tomorrow is another day.
Hope you were all more productive than me - what did you all make today?

Cheers
Roger

[Roger]

Back with the programme, and the Bronco is now primed.  Then various bits and bobs attended to then reprimed and so on until I was happy with it.
The first part to be painted is the white wing.  Although both the kit and the Caracal instruction sheet show just the top being white, with the bottom in pale grey, all the photos of VMO6 Broncos I can find suggest white top and bottom surfaces so that is what mine is getting.
First a slightly patchy coat of white primer.  Then a very pale mix of 1 part light aircraft grey to 2 parts white for some shading, then a couple of overall coats of Tamiya XF2 white.  Looks OK under the lights, but I'll check it in the daylight tomorrow morning before moving on.
Happy airbrushing,
Roger

[Roger]

After painting the undersurfaces a very pale grey , I was going to start masking when I spotted another little thing missing from the kit.
Kitty Hawk have moulded the footsteps on the starboard fuselage so they can be opened.  However they have moulded four, whereas the real beasty has five.  The rear two are only opened when someone needs to climb onto the wing for refuelling, so the simplest solution was to add the top one in the closed position (green arrow in the picture) and add a new lower one from 5thou plasticard with a stretched sprue hinge (red arrow).  The other three will be left open and fixed in position after the painting is finished.
On with the painting then, happy modelling!
Roger

[Kiteman]

Well spotted Roger....nice attention to detail!

[Roger]

Just taken the masking off and found this - I love this hobby!

Roger

PS Angela says the Bronco is ugly - is she right?

R

[bridlufc]

An ugly airplane??? The Bronco??? That's got to be a woman thing surely.

Bridlufc

[Kiteman]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder............so they say. Nice work Roger.

[Roger]

A bit more progress.  On to all the detail stuff next.
Hopefully see some of you at tomorrow's meeting.
Happy modelling,
Roger

[Kiteman]

Very nice!

[Roger]

A few engine pics for you.

Roger

[zak]

Nice detail, great looking.

[MSea]

Great work Roger - you are about ready to move onto ships.

[Kiteman]

Fantastic work Roger....stay with aircraft, the engines on ships are never seen!!!

[Roger]

Excellent point Kiteman on the engines on ships.  Each to their own of course!

Bit more progress, quite a few bits stuck on this weekend.  The undercarriage is the white metal stuff by Scale Aircraft Conversions.  It is not as bendy as the original plastic stuff and the kit now stands nice and firmly on it's wheels.  At first I used plastic kit parts for the nose wheel leg, as they are so much easier to use and reshape as necessary.  However once on all three wheels - well it turned out it wasn't on all three wheels, it was a tailsitter.  The kit supplies a nose weight - see previous instalments, but this turns out to be not heavy enough.  My guess is this is because of the short nose on the A model compared to the D, which with all it's sensors etc should be a bit more front heavy. So out with the razor saw to cut the plastic leg off, cleaned up and painted the white metal parts and installed the new leg. And as you see from the photos, Robert is your avuncular relation, all three wheels on the deck.
I wouldn't bother with the white metal undercarriage normally, however in this case, due to the weakness of the plastic parts and the tailsitting it has done the job.  More soon, happy modelling,
Roger

[Bigkev]

Hi Roger,

That is one beautiful and ugly bird!
It looks brilliant, can't wait until its fully done and see it in the flesh.
Cheers,
Bigkev