BobM’s 1:72 RetroWings/AZmodel Curtis P-40E/VK 105 Two Seater - Build

[BobM]

Having completed my Bomber SIG build and while waiting for the WWI Build to start, I thought I’d jump into in on this SIG with a kit that I bought with the prize I was awarded from my first Egg SIG a couple of years back.



This kit from RetroWings (aka RetroKits) is a reboxing of 2012 kit from AZmodel/Legato Plastic Kit’s plus resin parts to convert it into a Russian two seater with a Klimov Engine. At 1:72 scale, this is, for me, a pretty small model. But having said that the casting Is pretty detailed, however it doesn’t seem to be the best molding I’ve seen. There is a bit of flash, warping, etc that will probably make the fit pretty difficult. That, plus the resin conersion will make this a bit challenging.

Here is an overview of the entire kit contents.



And the rather limited instruction sheet.




The cover art shows a winter camo scheme that I’ll probably take some liberties with since there are no detailed painting instructions.

Wish me luck!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Nice subject
I will follow along while I wait for WWI as well
Don’t want to start up anything new as I will be busy wrapping up the sig

[Tomcat64]

Great to see you dropping in Bob!

I'm intrigued on how this will go together as I've previously dithered over a couple of RetroWings kits and then decided against them.

[BobM]

Nice subject
I will follow along while I wait for WWI as well
Don’t want to start up anything new as I will be busy wrapping up the sig

Great to see you dropping in Bob!

I'm intrigued on how this will go together as I've previously dithered over a couple of RetroWings kits and then decided against them.

Thanks Gents! The plan was to be a bit relaxed and lick my wounds from the Bomber SIG build. Instead I think I'm pouring salt on them...

Update 1 - It starts.

The resin that comes with the kit requires some major modification in order to install it. For example, the engine cowling needs to be removed to make room for the Klimov cowling. So that's where I started. The instructions don't have a lot of detail about where to make the cuts, but it looked like following the existing panel lines would work. They were already pretty deep, so it was a simple matter of making them deeper with my scribing tool and following that with a Tamiya PE razor saw.



As you'll see in a later photo, I got the right place and the fit isn't too bad.

Next was removing the rear windows to make room for the second seat. The instructions were even worse here just drawing some vague lines where material was to be removed; you can see them in Step 10 of the instructions I posted above and below. For these I guessed at the cut lines and put down some scribing tape and Dymo tape to again follow with my scribing tool. This was of course followed with the razor saw. Before continuing, I test fit the two halves together along with the minimal cockpit all held together with bubble gum (aka blue tack).



The preliminary fit wasn't too bad, but there were a couple of issues. First the front and rear halves of the cockpit were separate which made positioning them challenging; but I got a first approximation.





However, I fortunately tried to test fit the rear instrument panel and found that the floor of the rear cockpit was way too high. There is no way to positively locate either front or rear cockpit. So after a bit a fussing, I got them both positioned better and installed two pieces of angled styrene so I'll be able to get the rear halve in place again later. At this point I also glued the front and rear halves together with CA and baking soda for a nice strong joint. Geez these things are small, but hopefully you can see some of the detail that is molded in.



Finally, just a side not on the instructions:



Have a look at Step 4... Umm install the tail wheel before fitting the fuselage halves together? Oh bother...

Oh, and before I forget. For this two seater version the canopy needs to be cut into pieces leaving... well not enough to cover the cockpit (see Step 12). I guess this will be open cockpit after all...

Later!

[Twokidsnosleep]

You guys smokey down there??
Man it is terrible here, most of BC is on fire!!
I hear if you put a box fan or five on your roof and point it back toward BC.....

[BobM]

Update 1A - Added Detail

Tonight I decided to play around a bit and added some details to the rear cockpit since the port side was looking bare. I made some good use of recently acquired styrene strips and some lead wire. I doubt there is any resemblance to the real thing, but since it will be open cockpit (see above) I figured it couldn't hurt.



That's it. Just a quick one tonight.

[Tomcat64]

Nice work so far Bob - I hate those vague instructions/guidelines manufacturers use with replacement parts.

If last year was the year of the TET spillage then this surely has to be the summer of filler.

[BobM]

You guys smokey down there??
Man it is terrible here, most of BC is on fire!!
I hear if you put a box fan or five on your roof and point it back toward BC.....

There sure has been a lot of fires this year, but (touch wood) nothing close here lately. One day my wife complained about smoke from a fire about an hour or so east of here, but I didn’t notice it. I’ve only heard a little about fires north of the border, they aren’t reporting it much, if at all, here. Hopefully they get them under control soon; we’ve been through it enough to know what it’s like.

[BobM]

Update 2 - The Cockpit

Not a lot of drama today, just Stynylrez Black Primer:


Followed by Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green:


And some details:


Ummm. The instrument panels may need a little more work.

[Tomcat64]

Nice going so far Bob - looking forward to seeing how you progress with the interior details.

[BobM]

Update 3 - Fuselage Frustration

After some touch ups, heavy handed Ultimate weathering washes (Dark Dirt, Mud, Concrete) and Tamiya XF-86 Flat Clear, here is the final result:



With that done, it was time to install the cockpit and assemble the two fuselage halves. Based on some early trial fittings, I knew this would be easy, and boy was I right. There is no positive location pin for either the cockpit or the front instrument panel. After several false starts I was finally able to get the cockpit and two halves together, but with the instruments. During this the rear resin seat popped off, which was actuall a good thing since I don’t think it was situated quite right initially. A little CA glue fixed this. With the fuselage together, and with the help of some gobs of gap filling CA glue I was able to slip the instrument panel in through the cowling. Then it was a simple matter of a little more CA to install the cowling; this seems to fit pretty well.




Next the lower half of the wings needed to be attached. Ugh. Tons of flash, poor molds, etc. so for this I had to bring out the big guns!



This is currently curing on the bench over night.

[Tomcat64]

Nice work on the interior detailing Bob - hope the big guns sorted out that lower wing section.

[BobM]

Update 4 - Prime Time

Yep, the big guns held the lower wing section just fine. Then it was on to the upper wing halves; surprisingly, these went together much easier than expected. And just a few clamps to hold them in place:



Next, the horizontal stabilizers and rudder. Hmm. No positive locating pins, tabs, slots, etc. so it was a matter of some TET and holding them in place for a bit. Fortunately, this is soft plastic and the TET really makes it tacky. Here are all the flight surfaces in place:



The landing gear door have the same issue, no attachment points; TET does it again!



Now for my favorite part, Stynylrez (aka Ultimate) primer:



Of course, now you get to see all the imperfections; not too many. So a little Mr. Surfacer 1000; my first time trying it and it’s great!



This will take a little sanding and some primer touch up.

Now I need to figure out how I’m going to paint this. The cover shows a winter camo with what I suppose is the green from the a standard green/brown camo. I think I’ll paint a green/brown camo and cover that with a white coat. I’ll attempt to make it look like it is fading/coming off. I may even try some salt chipping. If you have any thoughts on this, I’d love to hear them.

Thanks!

[BobM]

Update 5 - Margaritas?

After a bit of googling, I didn’t find any good information about appropriate paint for this. So, i decided to go with a two-color USAAF scheme I found here: https://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/p ... le03.shtml over painted with white. That page calls for lower surfaces of Neutral Gray 43 which it approximates with Tamiya XF-54 Dark Sea Gray; I didn’t have that. But XF-77 IJN Gray, which I do have, is close; so I went with that.

The page suggests XF-81 RAF Dark Green 2 for the Olive Drab upper surfaces. Again, I didn’t have that on hand. However, using the iPhone app, iModelKit, I came up with a mix of roughly 50/50 XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-26 Deep Green plus a touch of XF-2 Flat White. Once mixed it looked, to my eye, like the perfect “Soviet Green”.



To cover that, I’ll do some light coats of white with some salt in place for chipping. Margaritas anyone?



I’ll let this dry overnight before the white coat tomorrow.

[Twokidsnosleep]

Darn it, you beat me to the margarita comment
Keep at it, looks like a challenging build

[Tomcat64]

Nice progress Bob - I've never tried the salt chipping technique so will be interested to see how that works out.

[pourquoi61]

Wow just caught up with this build and boy have you put a lot of time and effort into this one.
Fantastic so far.

[BobM]

Update 6 - Salty Results

It's been a while. Two things came up since the last update. First, my wife and I spent a week in France! She had a three day meeting in Toulouse, so I had some time to explore a little there while she worked, although I wasn't 100%. Neat city, not at all what I'm used to. I must say; I fell in love with real baguette sandwiches! Then we took the TGV to Paris for two nights, that's all the time we had (due to her travel arrangements we had to return to Toulouse in order to fly home). So we had one day for a whirlwind walking tour of the major Paris highlights! Upon return, we were both exhausted so I didn't get any modeling in.

Then, after a fairly routine Dr's visit, I had a bit of a health scare when the blood test showed some "anomalies". While final test results are still two weeks away, the specialist is optimistic that it is a treatable condition. Until those results are in, I'm not ready to "talk" about it too much, other than to say I'm feeling pretty normal. The few days between the time of the initial "scare" and I was able to consult a specialist were pretty anxious. So, again, I've stayed away from the bench; until today. I did a little bit of weathering and detailing. Not much progress and no pictures, but its a start back...

However, before all of this I did finish up my attempt at salt chipping, but did not have time to post. So here it is.

After the salt dried over night, I applied a coat of Tamiya XF-2 Flat White. I kept it a light coat trying to allow the base coat to peek through a bit; I'm not sure how successful I was.



After this dried, again overnight as I recall, I removed the salt. I was a bit disappointed with the results.



First, since I used mostly table salt with just a little flake salt mixed in, the patterns seem very square due to the fairly square grains of table salt. I think this also resulted is the line between the top and bottom coats to be very soft. Finally, the salt coverage was not as dense as I was hoping in a few places allowing the top coat to reach in between the grains. I fixed some of this by brushing the bottom color over areas that I wanted less of the top coat. I also did some "scraping" with sandpaper and a brass brush; I'm not sure that helped much... Oh well, live and learn. It's not that bad for a first attempt, so I'm not putting any more effort into it.

But, then it was on to decals and weathering. There are only 6 decal, no real drama there (and no pictures to show). For weathering I slopped on a variety of Ultimate Washes, Light Dirt, Dark Dirt, and Mud.



After drying these were wiped away using a damp cotton bud.



At this point all that is left is some final detailing, assembly and a final flat coat (not necessarily in that order)

Thanks,
Bob

[Tomcat64]

Great to see you back at the bench again Bob and this is coming along really nicely - very subtle result considering how messy it looked with all the washes on top

Needless to say I hope the health issue works out ok too.

[BobM]

Great to see you back at the bench again Bob and this is coming along really nicely - very subtle result considering how messy it looked with all the washes on top

Needless to say I hope the health issue works out ok too.

Thanks Neil...

Update 7 - It's done!

Well, just a few coats of XF-86 Flat Clear, some last minute assembly/painting (including the aerial and pitot tube, both of which I always for get about). The only drama was that my bottle of Medium CA Glue went off. This may have been for the best, the landing gear was a pain to install and I surely would have made a bit mess with CA. Instead I have some UV glue that is pretty thick and strong when set. It also dries clear. So a couple of globs in the corners of the wheel bays, hold the land gear in place and set with the UV light. Since it's tucked away in a corner, you can barely see it.

While I mostly had fun with this build, it mainly turned into an experiment/learning opportunity. The kit is pluses and minuses, mostly minuses. I would not recommend this, unless your into a challenge.

Well, I'm off to do the reveal thread, should be up soon, but in the meantime....