Vickers Bullet with skis - 1/48 kit bash

[lone modeller]

Martin has written it all - what else can I add?.

Stephen.

[Dirigible-Al]

Hi All

Sorry for the long delay for the update but I have done very little modelling in the last few months due to work commitments, this is very slow progress even by my standards.

I have got the fuselage parts together, I always consider this a milestone and feel it is nearly half finished at this stage. The fire wall is in and fits the front of the middle section, the rear fits perfectly. I have run copper wire over the curved rear part and filled between them with tons of silver acrylic paint, this will be lightly sanded. The turtle deck was made from the left overs from a botched attempt to heat form the whole section earlier. I kept the two wrongly sized halves knowing that they would probably work well for the turtle deck – and they did! For the gun housing I just slid a 10 thou piece of plastic card thru the inside between the outer wall and the formers, on the outside I cut the section out and built up the box section around it. I will now put strips of copper wire along the sides and fill them with paint the same way as the rear.

For the wings I copied LM’s method and glued 10 thou strips of plastic card along where the ribs should be. I did not bother sanding them down as I wanted the wings to be scalloped, Russian archive photos show these things to be a bit ropey. The top was built up with tons of silver acrylic paint then lightly sanded, this worked very well. For the underside I glued strips of silver foil over the ribs and painted over them. The next step will be to paint the ribs white on the top, black on the underside (I’m sure you know the routine) and paint over them again.

Other than it taking forever it is going OK and looks like it will all come together.

Thanks for looking in, Alan.

[Des]

Great to see you back onto this one Alan, looking forward to following progress.

Des.

[coyotemagic]

So glad to see you back to work on this one, Alan!  I'm following closely as this is a project I'd like to tackle one day.
Cheers,
Bud

[lone modeller]

Great news that you are back and making progress again. This is an unusual subject and thus for me even more interesting. What you have shown in the photos looks really good.

Stephen.

[RAGIII]

Alan,
Like the others I am glad to see you are back on this project! As always with your work it is looking great!
RAGIII

[radio]

Very wonderful work, Alan.
Cheers
Martin

[Dirigible-Al]

Cheers Des, Bud, Stephen, Rick and Martin

I have started on the struts, the four interplane ones are finished. I used cocktail sticks, drilled into the ends and superglued copper wire into the holes. They were then sanded flat each side on a flat board then sanded to shape. I used oak stain wood varnish on them then, the great thing about doing it this way is it saves time painting wood effect on them.

Thanks for looking in, Alan.

[lone modeller]

That is a great idea for getting a genuine wood look - so much better than paint.

Stephen.

[Des]

Great idea using the cocktail sticks for your struts, they are easy to work and are strong, I have used them many times in my scratch builds.

Des.

[Dirigible-Al]

Hi All

Most parts are now made for this even though they are not joined together yet so now the scratch building is nearly at an end it feels more like a regular kit. I always thought the hardest bit would be the middle section and other than a few minor things that is now together. To do the linen parts I spun some copper wire straight and bent them around the fuselage sides. Next I bunged in some car body filler and used a curved blade to scrape it out so it would leave a slight scalloped effect. To make it all smooth I went over it 4 times with thick white acrylic paint and wet’n’dried over it. I made a mistake with the wooden runners on the starboard side. I assumed they would span from the engine cowl at equal distances, they do at the bottom but there is an extra one I missed that runs just below the turtle deck making the top runners somewhat randomly spaced. This would not be noticed on the port side because of the gun trough. If I was at this stage four months ago I would have taken the top runners out and re done them but because I am so far behind I will leave it as it is, I think it is highly unlikely anyone will notice – other than you guys because I have just told you.

Thanks for looking in, Alan

[lone modeller]

It is a real shame that this will not be finished by the deadline, but I do hope that you will continue to post until it is complete. It is a really interesting build and fascinating how you have been using a variety of non-standard resources to solve different problems. A lot of ideas here which I will be tucking away for future reference or use.

[Dirigible-Al]

Cheers Stephen

I will be on this one until its completion, it will not be shelved. It is a shame but I chose this project over other ones mainly because I thought it would be the one I would most likely finish the quickest. It should move on with a little more pace now because work is quieter during the winter months and it simply has been work that has taken me from this. The only other hobby I have is making booze and that does not take up much time.

Alan.

[radio]

Very good build Alan.
Cheers
Martin

[Des]

I'm so glad you had this build moved Alan, I will be looking forward to seeing more progress on this excellent build.

Des.