Reflections

I would like to thank my wife for her forbearance and support over the four years of off-and-on construction. She’s genuinely interested in history and family history so her enthusiasm for the project never lagged despite the various mishaps along the way.

I also want to thank my son, now a teenager, who put up with Dad building some unheralded plastic plane kit out in the garage. Over the years, he came to appreciate the level of effort it takes to do something with great care, precision, and fidelity.  My son was especially helpful at the end as he’s a superb photographer, actually read and learned from the How to photograph your models in the digital age (Fine Scale Modeler) and took the final pictures.  You can see our setup below – two lights (one out of frame), Savage background paper 53″ wide roll and Sharpics mounting system.

Photos of Albemarle Number Two were taken with Canon EOS 7D, F/20, ISO 100, 4 second exposure as raw files and converted to JPG for the blog.

You would think I would be exultant when the project was finished. But, oddly enough, I was raring to go on the next project – the Heller HMS Illustrious 1/400 – another kit with lots of problems.  Perhaps my non-exuberance was all the errors in construction and set backs. Perhaps it was, after all, only plastic.  Perhaps it was the gross error in the landing gear that I didn’t realize until after I had placed the plane on the diorama base (go back and look at the pictures to see if you can figure it out). The finished product wasn’t going into a museum and it certainly wasn’t a full-scale restoration that actually could fly. Instead, it was a journey where some skills were learned along the way.   The Valom short-run kit and I battled against each other, each side scoring some blows.  A more skilled modeler could have done better but I’m not unsatisfied.

But, on a positive side, I work with computers all day long so constructing something with my hands is satisfying – even though at 1/72, I wish I had smaller and steadier hands.  Although the whole project was expensive – books, two kits, innumerable aftermarket accessories, endless orders to Micromark or UMM-USA seeking a magic tool, a new air compressor, the vacu-form table, picture frames, a plaque, decal/dry transfer sheets for the vehicles, a whole range of paints of every type, and the photo rig, I got plenty of entertainment value and don’t regret one bit of spend.

Thanks for reading.

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End of the road

Returning to diorama base number two, I used the same matte board as on Albemarle number one. This time, I decided to use an asphalt color seen in The Royal Air Force of World War Two in Colour.  Many variations of paint colors were used to simulate dirt, wear, and asphalt.I threw in some Mig Pigments as well.

The ground work was Celluclay, the grass came from the local hobby store, and the terrain came from sifted dirt out of the garden. A few airbrushed coats of greens and browns toned down the artificial grass and blended in the colors. The workbench is still really messy and I should do something about this!

I did some sketches of how I wanted all the figures, vehicles, and equipment to try and tell little stories but all in the context of the center piece – a plane being prepared for flight. Then I placed the elements on the base without gluing, carefully (oh, so carefully) deposited the now venerable Albemarle, and then made some adjustments to improve composition.  Positions were marked for gluing or drilling. The plane was delicately and cautiously removed for the last time.

I drilled holes for the figures (who had steel wire pins on a left or right foot).  This wasn’t possible in all cases and epoxy was used on the white metal figures.  The trolleys, tractor, MG, and fuel tender were mounted using Newton’s gravity.  Now I could finally place the plane down one more time (fearing I would drop it again at the eleventh hour). A little final gluing of the ladder and figure against the starboard cowling and done.

Whew.

Once the photos were taken, the display went on to the display shelf.  Some final remarks follow next.

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Concrete Matters

Favor me with a context switch as I return to Albemarle number one’s diorama.  Since this Albemarle was going to my wife’s uncle, the display would be simpler, featuring the plane and uncluttered by airfield apparatus.  I used the guidelines in Sheperd Paine’s How to Build Dioramas and purchased a simple picture frame and pebble matte board.

I scribed sections with a hobby knife, then primed and painted what turned out to be a pretty good concrete color.  I made a trip to the art supply store and returned with syringes and thick Liquitex Payne’s Gray acrylic paint.  This was fun to apply and  with a little sculpting/smoothing, looks like tar placed within the expansion joints.

Final touches included tire residue, concrete cracks, oil spatters, and a whole lot of dot filters to blend the colors together.  As this was a gift, I added a small brass tribute from  http://www.plaquemaker.com/.

With diorama number one completed, it was time for wrapping up diorama number two.

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Lawrence of Hucclecote

My wife’s uncle built the tooling for Albemarle assembly at the Gloster Aircraft factory in Hucclecote, near Gloucester England.  Turns out he never actually saw the Albemarle or even the assembly work-in-process. ‘Need to know’ and all that.

Undaunted by this news, I rounded out the airfield scene with:

• A couple of motorcycles from Scalelink along with two standing and seated figures.  The motorcycles were Brough Superiors, a marque favored by T.E. Lawrence.
• Some tools and toolboxes from Brengun.
• A bicycle from Brengun
• A windsock from Flightpath
• Tulips growing next to the windsock
• Chocks from Flightpath

The motorcycles were fully assembled. No parts to add, just paint. Hardly modeling at all.

The tools are really small but well-detailed. The buckets/pails were hard to get shaped correctly so the rationalization god imagined them being banged up from careless use.

Here you can see the tools, motorcycles, and riders.

The bicycle was a project in itself. I started with Flightpath’s PE kit but this was too difficult to assemble with tiny attachment points for fenders, wheels, forks, and frame.  Fragility prevented adding part X+1 after installing part X.  I probably should have tried soldering. Fortunately, Brengun had a PE set that was easier to build (or maybe I just thought through the assembly sequence with more skill).

I couldn’t resist adding a sports car, driven by the group commander and parked at the edge of the tarmac. Lots of detail work here including instrument panel, tail light, and chrome exterior bits. A bit incongruous for the Albemarle scene where maybe Austins are more appropriate. With a bit of cheek, the squadron leader leans his bicycle up against the group commander’s MG – perhaps a foretaste of Britain’s  post-war social class upheaval. You’ll note the WAAF standing behind the group commander exchanging glances with the squadron leader as they consider a rendezvous later that day at the NAAFI.

The windsock frame was a matter of PE folding and CA gluing. The windsock itself was tricky as it is made from orange plastic sheet and needs to be rolled, glued, and wilted to look like wind is blowing through it. The wilting was done by (very) careful placement above a candle flame. Guy wires were added after installation of the frame into the base. Of course there should be three wires but I ran out of room on the base. Wires were made from Uni-Thread fly tying thread.

Back to Albemarle number one with a much simpler diorama.

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Roll call

One of the last things I like to do are the figures.  There is something therapeutic about painting 1/72 people.  I wanted a dog but couldn’t find one in time. I suppose if I were a young girl, there would be a pony in the diorama.

Flightpath’s and Scalelink’s  white metal figures were well detailed and sturdy.  The CMK resin figures were very well detailed with poseable arms. The Revell injection plastic figures were also well detailed and poseable. The Airfix vinyl figures are to be avoided at all costs but there were three figures I needed for their poses:

• Accumulator puller
• Petrol hose hauler
• WAAF to catch the eye of the senior pilot

The vinyl is next to impossible to work with – much flash that is hard to trim, sanding doesn’t work, primer doesn’t stick and to top it off, the figures are on the malnourished, stunted growth side (parents who drank their wages rather than feeding the kids?).

Painting was done with the superb Vallejo Lifecolor acrylics.  Holes were drilled in the figures’ feet for insertion of a wire rod that would become the mounting post on the diorama tarmac. Here is work in progress, some touch-up is required.

Final diorama bits and then ready for display.

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Tender Mercies

Who could resist constructing the three-wheel Thompson fuel tender? I fell in love with the picture in the Flightpath catalog as I felt it would add some drama to the diorama with the fuel pumping up to the wing. This kit, like the Fordson, was mostly white metal with some PE thrown in for detail and a length of rubber to use as the fuel hose.

These were typically painted / camouflaged in something called the Mickey Mouse pattern.  Using photos of extant Thompsons, I used my Waldron punch to cut out overlapping semi circles in frisket that was then used to mask.

The Flightpath kit does not come with any decals so I used dry transfer letters. The Flightpath proprietor (D.J. Parkins) suggested I freehand the lettering but I’d need the hands of an eye surgeon to pull that off.

Here’s the finished  item including mechanic pulling the hose to get up to the plane’s petrol tank.

Smart modellers will realize that the ‘F/11’ serial on the front meant it was assigned to Fighter Command, not ‘B/11’ for Bomber Command.  Of course I realized this too late and rationalized a story of enterprising ground support personnel ‘nicking’ a tender from a nearby airfield after an all-night drinking competition at the local pub.

Bring on the Lilliputians!

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Tractor Pull

Bomb trolleys don’t get to the airfield on their own, they need something to pull them from the ordinance bunkers. Enter the Fordson tractor.

This little gem from Flightpath was actually fun to build, paint, and weather. Mostly white metal, it took a couple of rounds with the right amount of epoxy to keep the pieces from falling apart, probably because the first time I was impatient and didn’t let the epoxy set long enough (another opportunity for white metal soldering). The other great thing about the Fordson was that it came in multiple variants so some of the really hard pieces to affix (headlamps) could be omitted and none would be the wiser.

I was particularly happy with the exhaust stack, showing how the paint had peeled from the hot gases.  Done with dot filters.  Last picture shows that maybe it would be time to clean up the workbench!

Flightpath provides a driver whom you’ll see later in the diorama.

While we’re at it, the Flightpath accumulator was also constructed. No drama here. Photo is before final painting and weathering.

The Albemarle wasn’t going to get off the ground without fuel so fuel it will get.

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I Bombed

The Flightpath set included white metal 250 and 500 lb bombs plus PE bomb fins, nose ring, and arming point.

These were challenging.  After some false attempts, I realized I needed to prime the bombs, then paint the nose, then mask the nose using tiny width masking tape, then assemble and mount the fins, then paint and finally remove the masking tape to get my nice red nose ring.  And do this four times.

The fins were troublesome. The fins needed to be at ninety degrees to each other with equal distance from the rear so an annealed rolled photo etch piece could slide snugly over.  Needless to say my first few attempts got one or more of these wrong. The cylinder would either slide over and hang off-kilter or wouldn’t fit at all and one or more of the fins would break off. The picture shows some of the construction results – bombs look that they were made by covert saboteurs in the factory.  More experienced modelers could do better, I’m sure.

The final results were fair and I put them away in a safe place until the final diorama as these were additional parts that, if looked at askance, would fall apart.

Here’s the final result including straps. Others, I’m sure could have done better.

Next, we go down on the farm.

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Off My Trolley

Bomb trolleys were next. These were really also challenging. A mix of white metal and photo etch with precise attachment points. The white metal carriage has to be handled carefully as it is inherently soft and can bend or warp.

 

There were two trolleys. It didn’t help that I broke off at least one of the attachment points for the axle to the longitudinal carriage. Try re-epoxying a broken bit of white metal to its former home and having it be strong enough to bear the weight of the front axle and wheels.

I used epoxy but had I more (or any) experience with white metal soldering, better and stronger results may have ensued.

Now for the bomb payload.

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Stairway to Heaven

What could be harder than building a photo etch work ladder in 1/72? Only eleven (11) steps plus platform, a couple of wheels, braces. Just looking at the photo etch fret and you knew it would go together tickety-boo.

Allow me to quote from Flightpath’s web site:

An ideal user of Flightpath sets and kits is, we feel, the kind of person who likes to choose a project, do his own additional research on the subject, and get right inside the construction process, with no thought of how long it might take, or when it might be finished. He takes the view that the longer it takes him, the more value he’s had from his purchase.

Think about it – you need to build a 3D ladder from entirely flat parts. Four legs have to be touching the ground. The steps all have to be parallel to the ground. The ladder sides need to slope inwards as the lower steps are wider than the top steps. The side braces need to fit the two legs at the same angle to the ground.  One piece out of alignment and the whole ladder would be balanced on three legs , slope sideways and be damned dangerous for a 1/72 scale guy to climb in anything but the driest weather!

This called for a jig.

Eleven steps later, I had a ladder that tilted sideways, with non-parallel steps and balanced on three legs.

This called for a different jig.

Jig #2 was superior in that I could more -or-less assure myself that all four legs touched the surface while I gently inserted one step at a time and affixed with 5 minute epoxy.  I bought a second ladder to experiment with soldering in lieu of epoxy but it was hard not to unsolder a step or other piece while soldering the next piece.  Flightpath pointed out to me later that better results would accrue from a 1/64″ soldering tip (rather than the 1/32″ tip that I used). Flightpath also suggested that I should have used model engineering techniques rather than adapted plastic model techniques for the photo-etch. Much later, I discovered this useful set of suggestions.

Finished effort (before painting). You can see the epoxy in the background.

A bit crooked and the steps aren’t perfectly parallel but I had spent 4 weeks on this ladder including investments in soldering irons and the magnetic gluing jig tool from Micromark. Time to move onto even smaller ladders.

We start with a new jig so I could solder the the top piece to the sides. This little ladder needed strength to prevent the insertion of the brass rungs from bursting the sides.  My technique squeezed the rungs (held by pliers) inside tiny circular indents within the inside of the legs.   Somewhere in here, I left my nice Xuron pliers next to the magnets – leaving them, guess what? magnetized forever. New Xuron pliers were purchased after repeated failed demagnetization attempts.

You can see the rungs being added. The kit doesn’t come with rungs; you have to chop them yourself and the length and diameter has to be just right. I probably chopped 2X the rungs that I needed as I couldn’t always get the lengths correct down to the half millimeter. Strong lighting and my friend the Optivisor were employed to useful effect.  The side braces took a couple of attempts. I realized they needed to be installed early because otherwise the whole assembly was too weak for rung insertion. The side braces fit over tiny pins you have to make from wire rod.  My work area has a large collection of Nitinol wire rods in various diameters, courtesy of Small Parts (now part of Amazon ).

Not your neighborhood trolley park is next.

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