Felixstowe F.2A early (1/72, Roden)

PrzemoL · 10 February 2010, 02:22 PM

I have a feeling that starting this topic now at the Aerodrome, when everybody is so impressed with scalephantomphixer's build of late version of Felixstowe, is a suicidal attempt. Yet, I dare to do this and dare to start and hopefully finish this build without resorting to the out-of-this-world modelling skills. I am sorry to bring you back to the Earth.
So, after three years of my debut in the modelling related to the 1WW aviation I decided to come back to the source. Then I built the model of Curtiss H.16 flying boat and now I undertook a build of its predecessor - Felixstowe F.2A. Again, it is a Christmas gift from my Wife but this time it is ordered with a paint scheme – I am supposed to finish it as the most fantastic of those fantastic paint schemes applied in RNAS to F.2As, i.e. the 4512 boat with white curls on the red background fuselage!
Traditionally, I have decided to add PE Part elements. I have also read an encouraging review by Jamo of the AIMS decals and luckily I managed to grab the last piece at the Aviation Megastore!
Contrary to the kit instructions, which start with the engines I commenced with the hull interior. I decided to focus mainly on the fragments, which will be visible after the hull is closed, i.e. the front gunner opening, cockpit and the back gunners compartment, where the opening hatches expose quite a lot. The Part's set comprises several nicely prepared elements, though they are not perfect. The only source of knowledge on Felixstowe flying boats that I have, i.e. the Windsock Datafile 82, features only a couple of photos of the large interior, some amendments are still possible.
I have changed the layout in the front part, where no floor suggested by Part was present in reality but just a narrow board leaving some structural elements of the hull exposed. I have made these elements from the Evergreen profiles.
In the cockpit I have modified the seats for the pilots. The photo in WD82 presents the left-hand side seat just as a cushion and no armrests are visible in the right-hand side seat. I have also added some control cables with pulleys. Behind the pilot seats, besides the first aid kit provided by Part I added a mysterious box visible in the photo and invented a navigator table.
In the rear zone I have added a transverse structural element with rigging.

In the Roden’s model the hull cannot be closed without attaching the Lower wings...

PrzemoL · 10 February 2010, 02:23 PM

... and also, due to the presence of struts supporting the centre piece of the wing I decided that it would be more convenient to bring the fragment of the hull below it to its final look. Furthermore, to simplify the masking of the hull openings I have painted their neighbourhood. Here one can see how much of the interior will be truly visible afterwards.

To simplify the masking and painting even more I decided to bring the lower wing to the final look, too. I have drilled the holes for the rigging, preshaded the ribs on the underside with a black permanent pen and after the application of the basic CDL colour I postshaded the surroundings of the ribs with a mix of brown and clear gloss paint. On the upper side after the basic dark green finish I have postshaded the ribs surroundings using a mix of black and clear gloss paints after application of Aizu tape strips (0.4mm wide).

PrzemoL · 10 February 2010, 02:25 PM

I have also prepared a simplified structure of profiling longerons on the hull ceiling. They will be visible partly behind the cockpit and in the rear gunner zone. I have also painted a post with a fire extinguisher which will find its place under the rear lower wig spar, prepared the instrument panel and assembled and painted the beaching trolley.

Finishing of the lower wings and the hull under it required an application of some decals. The Roden's roundels behaved as usual - were stiff like a metal plate and had a tendency of silvering. However, the wing underside was quite flat anf the carrier film around it could be trimmed, so the problems disappeared. I have also added some dark wash around the service decks under the engines. Afterwards both sides of the wing were varnished with a mix of clear gloss an matt paints.

PrzemoL · 10 February 2010, 02:25 PM

Also the first curls from the AIMS set were placed. This first contact with these decals was a full success! They are absolutely opaque and are very nice reacting to the Microsol adhering to all surface details on the hull. So far so good, the size fit was also very fine.

After varnishing of the hull the lower wing was finally attached and the post with the fire extinguisher found its destination together with some rigging under the rear spar.

PrzemoL · 10 February 2010, 02:26 PM

The centre piece struts were attached to and they made the entire structure much stiffer, the lower wing lost the negative dihedral keeping to the horizon!

I have also let my fantasy work and led some control cables in the rear gunner zone. Unfortunately I have not found any photo which would show the real layout of these cables.

PrzemoL · 10 February 2010, 02:27 PM

Then the hull ceiling was dry-fitted several times ..

before the final hull closing. After that quite a time was devoted to filling, sanding and polishing of the hull. Special care was required at the rear end where instead of a smooth surface a quite significant step was formed. I have also filled some funny engraved lines where rather risen lines pointing the location of the profiling longerons should be present.

PrzemoL · 10 February 2010, 02:28 PM

Some filling was also necessary at the nose and quite a lot at the bottom steps. I decided to skip the Part elements there and just fitted the kit parts which required some trimming and filling.
Also the first fit of the windscreen was done and it showed that just a delicate trimming of the rear edges was necessary. Unfortunately my sample had a horrible scratch running across three glass panes. Luckily it disappeared after some sanding and polishing with Tamiya paste.

After a little tricky masking under the lower wing the rest of the hull was painted red (together with the tail piece and the stabilising floats)...