Absurdly pleased with small progress...

Hi all,

I’m working on one of those kits. It’s a 1/74 scale Martin MB-2 biplane bomber; a Glencoe reissue of an older kit made by, I think, ITC.

So I’ve been working on it since May, but there’ve been a lot of breaks during that time. After getting frustrated with the time away from modeling, and the lack of real progress on the bird, I’ve buckled down and have been able to spend as many as three to four hours a week on the kit.

This may not sound like much, but it’s about my normal pace. My ideal is to do an hour a night, but some nights, that’s just not possible.

Anyway, I’m absurdly pleased that I’ll be able to put down the primer coat on my wings tonight! This is a major accomplishment because of the amount of cleanup I’ve had to do on the wings, and their method of construction. The lower wing parts fit into the upper wing parts like a picture in a frame – thus leaving one big seam all the way around the bottom of the wing.

For starters though, there were some strange bumps on the top of the top wing from a mold flaw. There were three of them, and I had to carve, and then sand them off without ruining the wing rib detail. That went pretty well.

Then I had to sand off four raised ejector pin pillars from the bottom wing’s bottom part, and six from the top wing’s bottom part. These pillars were about a 1/4 inch in diameter and maybe a 1/16th inch high. I finally broke down and bought some Squadron sanding sticks, and they made short work of the ejector pin marks.

They also made surprisingly short work of the long seams on the bottom of the wings. Each wing is approximately 10 inches long, which makes for 22 inches of seam to sand on each wing!

To top it all off, this plastic is very hard and not easily sanded. In fact, it’s the hardest plastic I’ve ever worked with.

All of the above is not a complaint because, strangely, I’m very satisfied with my progress. This kit has turned out to be more challenging than I thought, but I’m also mastering the challenges as they come along. That’s a great feeling.

My next step, after painting and decaling the wings, is to work on the engines and the complicated struts that surround them. I’ll also try my hand at drilling tiny holes in those struts and rigging them with invisible thread. [:D]

There’s really not much point to this post other than sharing my experience with this particular kit.

Regards,

yup. i agree with you.

Sometimes the more challenging kit gives more satisfaction when it turns out well. Glad yours is coming out OK.

Regards, Rick

Sounds like a tough build, Lufbery.
It would help us follow it if you were to post pics though [:)].

Anyway, good luck with it…

Drew
I think your post and others like it is the whole point of this forum…“Sharing your interests and trading information with other modelers.”
I’ve had that old Glencoe kit for about 10 years, have looked at it fairly often, too.
But, I still haven’t gathered up the nerve to start it .
Ray

Thanks for the responses, guys.

I wish I could post photos, but I don’t have a digital camera, and using the film camera can get a little complicated. Never fear, though, I’ll post photos of the finished product.

I sprayed primer on the undersides of the wings last night. Naturally, I found some small seams that still need to be filled. But, that’s why I spray a primer coat in the first place – to catch areas that still need work.

The other thing I did last night was work in Photoshop to do the artwork for the wooden floor decals I’m going to use in the cockpit and gunners’ stations. I can post a few pictures of that artwork later today. I’ll be using the Testors Decal System, so we’ll see how that goes. [:)]

The last thing I did last night was try out my new pin vice. I plan on drilling holes in the wings and fuselage for the rigging wires. I’ve never done this before, and was worried that I’d break something while drilling the holes. With that in mind, I drilled a hole through the sprue, and it worked fine! I was very pleased at this.

Regards,