Sunday 25 January 2015

Step-by-step Landing Flaps. Eduard 1:48 Spitfire Mk. IX Profipack / Royal Class.

Intro.

First of all I'm relatively new back in the hobby and absolutely loving how modeling has evolved to the detailed builds we have today. Part of achieving that detail is mastering the various photo-etch techniques required on some of the kits with the out of the box photo-etch (PE) or aftermarket sets that are available for a lot of kits.
One of those kits is the very popular and brilliant Eduard 1:48 Mk IX Spitfire in the profipack or Royal Class boxings. It comes with lots of extra detailed parts inside the box, including what I am going to cover here. The landing flaps.The reason I'm doing this is because, after my own research, I didn't find any step-by-step instruction on how to do it. (The instructions are pretty basic for such a daunting task!)
Here is a picture of the PE sprue:


If you have never used PE before I do suggest you do some research first as to how it all works. There are plenty of tutorials on youtube etc that cover the basics of PE. I have covered a bit on basics, but there is more out there than here.
I hope this step-by-step serves as a guide for anyone doing the same in future. 

Tools.

The tools I'll be using for this build are contained in the picture below. They include a PE folding jig, a 5 inch folding blade (optional but recommended if you are going to be doing a lot of PE), a pair of flat, square-nosed pliers (the very least you need to fold PE), a hobby knife and an emery board. I will also be using things like scribers, maybe a saw and various sanding grades for the removal of the plastic. As you will see.



The folding jig and 5 inch blade are specialised PE tools designed to facilitate the folding of the PE extremely precisely. Which is very handy for larger, and longer folds. If you don't have these tools I would recommend getting the flat, square-nosed pliers as a bare minimum. These will handle most PE folds quite nicely. The knife is used to remove the PE parts from the sprue. And the emery board for clean up of those parts. I will detail how I do that further on.

Extra parts.
You will need some 0.80mm rod, either plastic or steel. I chose Evergreen Scale Models plastic rod. My LHS only has the imperial stand (I'm lucky he has that) of Evergreen products so I settled for 0.75mm (0.030in). It will have to do. I do recommend using plastic as you will need to trim this in the fit stage, which will be a lot harder to do with metal rod.



First of all the instructions that are supplied with the kit. A copy can be found on the Eduard site here:
http://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/48765.pdf


Upon studying them I found them to be a little confusing, given my level of experience. So I will re-create the steps I take to build them here as, hopefully, a more concise reference for future builders of this particular piece of detail. Therefore, I will assume, if you are reading this blog, that you have a set of instructions in front of you to follow. 

After I checked all the parts off for the build. I decided to do a little test bend to see how complicated the folding part was going to be. I did this before I decided to write this blog so I only have the finished result. But it turned out to be relatively easy to get the flaps, to look like flaps at least. I will cover the steps taken further on.








The Build.

As with anything you build I would suggest going through the entire instructions, both what you have in front of you, and here on this blog, to determine if your skill level (and I have to say, courage!) to complete this job is up to it.
Fair to say I'm a little nervous about cutting out chunks of my model in the hope that nothing goes wrong further down the line I didn't foresee, and have to carry out major repairs to get things back as they were, if at all.
So that is very important.

And I will put a disclaimer in here that I am obviously not responsible if anything goes wrong after following these steps. If you are reading this. It worked in this case.

As I am doing this for the first time, more experienced modelers may have short cuts, or better ways of doing this. If so, I welcome any constructive comments for improvement of the process.

Let's get started.
The first step in the instructions require you to take the big leap. Cutting parts from your model. In order to do that they give you a template for both sides. So the first thing to do is remove and clean up the templates. I have shown the steps below how I remove and clean up parts. That's pretty much how I do it, edit: although I am trying out a rotary cutter now that looks like it does a great job. Still testing. ;)
The flat nosed pliers are very handy as a sanding jig here, it ensures there is no bend or over-sanding in the cleanup. And the emery board makes short work of the sprue attachment tab. Be sure to clean this up completely as you will need a nice smooth edge for the scriber/saw.






 Step 1. of the instructions The piece that has to be removed. 


 The two templates on the sprue to be removed.


 I use the folding jig as a solid base and a folding tool as a straight edge (so the PE doesn't bend in the cutting process) and simply run the exacto knife along the tab, getting as close as I can to the piece, without damaging it.


 Both templates are now removed but need cleaning up before use. 


 The sprue attachment tabs (marked x) will need to be sanded down along the edge to be scribed along (no need to clean up the others) so we have a nice clean edge.


 I simply clamp the piece in the pliers so that only the tab is sticking out and using the emery board, sand down the piece to the tip of the pliers. You should be able to run your finger along the etched line and not feel any bumps.


 Next the piece has to be folded along the indicated fold line so it fits up against the wing where it's supposed to, nicely. It is important to get this fold absolutely correct as it determines the position of your template when you do the cutting. 


 A quick illustration of how to fold with a PE folding jig. Line the folding lines up as close as perfect. You can screw the jig down very close to the piece to be folded for better accuracy.


 Some jigs supply a solid backed blade for the folding process, mine came with the white plastic tools. I prefer just to use a safety blade as I had it here and it is much finer than the plastic tools. It doesn't really matter what you use as long as you can get right up to the clamp.


 Then simply fold the piece up to 90°, or whatever angle you desire. You can place a modelers square up against the fold to check if you wish (not really required in this case).


The templates are now ready to be masked into place to commence the cutting.

 Templates are now masked up, ready to start cutting.

 I chose to scribe all around the little tabs. You could drill them also. But I was trusting the scriber at this stage.

 All done. Patience is required, plenty of light strokes will get a much neater cut to clean up that a few heavy strokes. So take your time.

All unmasked. Just tidy up with some sanding and trimming with a knife.

 I only used a knife and a Citadel Seamline remover to clean up the scribe lines after the cuts. They cut through quite cleanly. I also gave a whole wound a wipe with Mr Cement S just to smooth out any remaining rough bits, but it wasn't too bad. 

 The other side all cleaned. Now time for some brass!

Oh yeah remember to trim the little tabs you made. I only did it a bit as I didn't want them disappearing. If they need more when the time comes, do so then. 

Brass Time.
 I looked at the instructions and it shows the model with and without the fuselage attached for the next few steps. So I did these 4 fuselage pieces with the wings and fuselage a dry fit only. So I wouldn't be gluing any major components just yet.

I don't have a PE roller, they are expensive and I found the closest round thing and rolled the piece on the round thing between my fingers and it worked a treat. These two pieces are the inner fuselage pieces that cover the plastic exposed by us cutting out flaps off. There are two lower pieces that attach to the fuselage, and two upper pieces that attach to the Wings.

 These pieces are a funny fit. Both sides. You have to trim them to fit, and make sure they don't interfere with the wing fit.

A little bit of trial and error here and make sure you're good to go before gluing. And even then I'd suggest you do what I didn't do and glue them with a PVA glue like Micro Crystal Clear or Gator Grip so you can move them around when you test fit the wings.Once you are happy you can firm them up with CA glue if you want. 

 That is the wrong fit, they have to go aft about a mm to meet the wings. I now have a couple of gaps to deal with, or I debond them. Which may be the case.

 Both pieces fitted to the fuselage. Now the wing pieces. 

 If you have a look at the instructions and see where these two pieces fit, you'll probably find they are longer than the gap they are supposed to fit in. Have a close look at your panel lines at the rear end of the gap and make sure you are hard up against it. Then you have to get a saw or your knife and cut behind the tab you scribed out at the other end of the gap so this piece slips in behind the tab. It might take a little bit of slicing but just take it easy. You don't want to cut too far. When you can slide the piece in it should just stay there, conveniently, for you to glue. I glued these pieces with CA, no problem. 

That piece is sitting there dry fit, you can nicely line it up and glue with minimal gaps. They went in rather well.

The other side done. Same process obviously.

 You may notice the piece this side appears lower than the other. You have to grind this down quite a bit to get the wings to seat on the fuselage again properly. I did it with a chinese Dremel, very carefully, but it took care of it in seconds. You can test fit as you grind and stop when it's all good.

 The 4 fuselage pieces in place. It looks quite good and will look better with a spray.Those gaps have been fixed by using CA glue debonder.



I folded one section of the upper flaps before calling it a day. It folded no problem, mostly without using the PE folding machine, but the 5 in blade came in handy because of its length. I glued the rear edge very carefully with CA glue and it's solid as a rock. It is just sitting there dry fit and looks pretty good.

 Just as an aside. I recommend if you are going to use CA glue (Superglue) a lot, to also get the matching debonder. It is extremely handy for those slight, or large, gluing mistakes. I used it this morning to remove the pieces that were creating the gap and reglue them.

 This lower flap has been folded and the struts twisted ready for a tack glue. Remembering there's still the 0.8mm rod to fit yet.
 The rod falls into position easily. I basically held it like this and tacked some glue where the three joins meet on each strut (the strut, the rod, and the base) If you glue all of them you should get a strong solid piece. Which I recommend.
 The finished main lower flap.

 The upper part also went together well. You have three hinges and two pieces that look like they make up a channel to fit in each piece. I forgot to take photos of this process I'll try to next side. You also have to complete the box by gluing a brace the length of the flap. I glued it one end first, then the other, then I put a dob of glue on each strut against the brace and the base to get a solid join. This piece will look excellent when painted.

Just checking down the line for accuracy. When I was gluing I made sure the strut was against the brass hinge strip on the base, as it should be. If you can achieve this your spacing everywhere else will be correct.



 One complete side with the lower flap extension in place with some thin copper wire. This has taken about 6 hours to do these 2 parts. It is fairly intense, close in work, but I think the results are worth it. I will take a few pictures that I missed from this side next then we'll look at installing them on the plane.
Just note the plastic rod will have to be trimmed between where the two flaps are joined, at each end and where the opposite piece has that hinge part just left of centre. You'll see all of that when you get to fit it. It's no problem, takes two seconds.


 I ended up making a glue applicator out of scrap PE. This helped a lot in placing glue more precisely. 

 The copper wire I used to join the two flap parts together. Just a strand from most domestic wiring will do the job.

 The wire is in place ready to glue. 

 The support brace is easiest fixed by tacking both ends first then when they are firm running glue down the length of the brace, all this can be done from the outside where it won't be seen. The glue should also fill any gaps that occur. These pieces are very hard to keep straight when cleaning the tabs off so be careful here.

 The upper part of the flap completed with the brackets (parts 7,8,9) fitted as well as the 2 (it looks like) double angle parts for strengthening (parts 10,11). They are fiddly and time consuming to fit, but worth the extra detail they provide. 

There they are. All done. I'm going to paint the inner surfaces off the plane. Then decide whether to fit them and do some tricky masking, or leave them off and paint the outer surfaces independently. Probably the latter.
NOTE:  During the fit stage, when you dry fit these you'll see it is better to chop out the plastic where there are the little tabs (hinges) on the wings. You will see what I mean when you dry fit them. This includes the ends.

Painting, weathering and final fit.
How you paint and weather your flaps is entirely up to you. I will show you what I did just for continuity's sake. You may do things differently here.

 I primed the pieces with black primer as a nice base for the Alclad Aluminium base coat. 

After the Alclad has been applied. Nothing special needs to be done here really. 

The finished result, well almost. I added some Tamiya Smoke (X19) to give it a bit of a grimy look. I will also give it a wash with oils later, or choose your poison. Here I just sat it (in the wrong position) on the wing just for interest sake. There's a bit to do before gluing in place.


 You'll need to chop out a fair amount of plastic in the marked area to allow for the thickness of the brass flaps, there is no other way around this in order for everything to fit right. 

The top one has been thinned. The more you go, the better the fit. It will eventually fit nicely.

I just used a good PVA. You could also superglue it in place. PVA allowed me time to position the flaps as necessary.

I also had to chop out some of the lower wing to fit. Remember to dry fit lots. Adjust as you go. There will be little areas that need attention, a corner here or there, and it will all go together. 

The lower flaps are dry fitted into position as the wings are clamped after gluing. As you can see it's not a bad fit.

You can see there's a bit of a gap to sort on the trailing edge. And there's a significant gap at the wing root. These were sorted using superglue as a filler for a strong, smooth result. You may want to try something else, but remember there will be bare metal exposed, so something that dries clear is a safer option. 



 Here you can see the gap left after fitting the wings at the root. I filled with superglue (several times) until it was able to be sanded smooth. It does knock out a bit of panel line detail, you may choose to rescribe but I left it as is. You don't really notice it on the finished product.

 I did experiment using some thick putty to start with, but wasn't keen on the possible finish. So I switched to the superglue. Glad I did.


I chose to mask the upper flaps with masking fluid for the painting process. I will place the lower flaps flat (held in with blu-tak) for the final camo coats and invasion stripes so they match perfectly when finally fitted.

Here you can see, the underside colour has been applied. The plane is masked out for the painting of the invasion stripes with the lower flaps in place. They are a very nice fit here.

Getting close now, you can see I also placed the landing gear covers (don't forget if you are doing the stripes too. lol) I will decal the flaps seperately and leave fitting them until the very last minute, even then you will probably reglue them several times as you do your weathering. They are very fragile. 

There we have it. The flaps in their final position. Was it worth the extra work? It really depends on what you want, if you want the nice, clean lines of the wings without them, then obviously this isn't for you. But if you like to add that extra bit of detail. Then I think it's worth the effort. I would do it again, now I know how to.

And here it is, all done. I love the final result. The flaps don't dominate the build, they just add that little bit to it. Like I said at the start, being new back at the hobby I was looking for a resource to show me how these flaps are fitted. I couldn't find one. If you are reading this for the same reason I hope this has been of use to you. 

Thank you.
Simon D.