I’m not much of a figure modeler but the kit comes with a nice resin figure so I thought I’d have a go at the bloke. The SE-5A is pretty much done and I thought you’d like to have a look at it. The rigging was tough especially the rear struts as they are deep under the wing and tough to reach. Just realized I still need to put in the connecting aileron wirss. Oh well perhaps they are never really done.
Very nice work.
Mark
Thank you. The limited edition plastic is difficult in this kit. Lot’s of injection points from the sprues to the parts make lots of clean up work. The PE set is very complete and involved hours of search time from the carpet monster. He only got one or two non critical parts from me but I spent quite a bit of time on my knees with a flashlight.
What can I say? She looks great! The pilot looks good too.
The prop really came out well, I’ve tried the same technique before and never had nearly as good luck with it.
I like biplanes but the rigging always scares me off.
Nicely done. Thanks for sharing.
Regards, Rick
With regards to the prop. I think the trick consisted of two different things. The first was to use a small fan brush and essentially dry brush the oil-based Burnt Umbra over the top of the base coat of enamel Wood paint. The second thing was to feather the resulting oil streaks with a cotton swab lightly brushed along the grain. Seemed to work really well. Then a clear semi-gloss lacquer to seal the whole mess and give it that wooden look. I’ve been fiddling with wood grain for a while and I will admit to having had my share of crappy looking results in the past too. This technique worked on both sides of four blades so it’s fairly repeatable. I found the rigging especially tough in 1/32 scale. All the structures are heavier and more prone to flexing. I’ve had to redo the landing gear three times before I got it attached strongly enough to handle the difference between the model being on the gear and then off the gear in the shipping cradle. I have to be careful not to pick the model up by the top wing or it flexes enough to disturb the rigging as well. This flexing has never been a problem in 1/48 for me before.
Flexing in 1/32nd is both the beauty of the scale and the curse. That is how real airplanes are, so you have to use good rigging. Wingnut Wings has not only the thin rigging for the ailerons, rudder, etc, but the British flat rigging for the spars. It is strong and will not snap like stretched sprue. Just google the name. It is a great site to dream.
nery nice