Hi Folks - Some might have seen this on other forum, but I wanted to share my recent build with others.
This is my first attempt in building a civilian A/C. This is Academy/Minicraft’s old Bonanza V35 kit in 1/48 scale. It was a great experience as I have never done a gloss white finished model.
This is my 13th model for 1013 and I completed this project in 30 working hours over the course of 2-3 weeks. Hope you like it!
There were many fit problems, but I managed to fix that by using Tamiya epoxy putty. it saved me lots of working hours.
This is a real tail-sitter so I had to fit in as many fishing weights as possible in the engine compartment.
I made my own decals after finding this beautiful photo of this lovely A/C in Flickr.
Here’s a photo of the real A/C in Flickr (Photo by Stephen K. WIllard)
Looks very nice. A gloss paint job is definitely harder to do than a flat one, and yours looks great. I have built several of the minicraft 1:48 civil aircraft. Good news is that they are doing some new releases (sometimes of their older subjects) with better detail molding and more engine detail if you want to show off engine.
Really nice!! My old heart went pitty pitty pat when I saw that paint scheme. I owned N61JT for a number of years back in the late 70’s - it’s a B33-35. The pic will explain why perhaps –
I got to fly one once- the joke was on me. I made up one of a foursome flying from St Louis (St. Charles to be exact) to Oshkosh for the fly-in. Since I was a low time pilot, and the other three were ex-AF high time pilots, once we were in the air, the owner suggested I fly the rest of the way till we reached Oshkosh. There was some mild turbulence and I had a real hard time keeping all the tail-waggle out of it. The other guys really ribbed me on that flight. Someone else flew it back home, and I learned that the tail wiggle was characteristic of that aircraft. I think they had set that up in advance
Don, getting the wiggle out is a matter of the toes. Flying V-35B’s with yaw dampers taught me that, just like doing instrument approaches with a good autopilot taught me how little input was needed for a good ILS approach. The motion the tail makes is actually a figure 8, there is a pitch as well as a roll component if the motion is allowed to continue without correction. Very light pressure with just your big toes (hard to do but still possible with your shoes on) is enough to damp it out entirely. As usually in flying an airplane, it’s more a matter of pressure than movement.
Man, that looks great and brings back many great memories. I worked for a Beech dealer for 10 years and did lots of 50 and 100 hour inspections on V tail Bonanza’s. One thing I didn’t see, maybe to camera angle, was the addition to the V tail mod that kept the tail from coming off. I installed plenty of these modifications to the later models.
I’m really new to static plastic models, I fly Rc stuff, but I know detail is what modeling is all about. After they found out V tails went so fast the tails fell off, they came out with an AD to add a cuff to the leading edge at the fuselage to hold the tail still. I could see where that little detail could be a real points winner in a contest! Hope this helps someone.
Hi @DeafAviator - Hope yours will come up just as great. Perhaps I can share you a couple of photos from my WIP
Interior shots
Not much you can see after all the clear plastic windows go up.
Putty Galore
Some nasty gaps and steps to handle. Surface detail is great but fitting was rather a mix in the lower fuselage and nose section. Tamiya epoxy putty works wonders here.
Masking Mayhem
Lots of masking to do. Did everything with Tamiya masking tape. Really works like a charm
