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Trey asked me to post pictures of a 1/48 Halifax vacuform kit i built last year.It was the first full vacuum form kit i have built.There were loads of problems to overcome as the parts didnt exactly fall together.I used nearly a third of a tube of squadron green filler on it.Mostly because when i joined the fuselage halves i used too much liquid glue and the joins sagged.So there was a depression to fill in along the top and bottom fuselage seams.The fuselage was quite flimsy so i had to make up 6 bulkheads to stiffen it up.No parts or templates are provided so i had to make them from scratch out of 2mm plastic card.I originally intended to build a Mk1 with nose turret which is why i picked the Merlin engined kit.When i cut the transparency out for the turret i found it was too wide for the opening in the nose.Maybe i sanded too much off the fuselage halves in the nose area.But the cockpit transparency fitted ok (after lots of trimming!).Luckily you get two bomber noses in the kit.So i had a look through my books and found i could build a Mk2 series 1 by fitting the later nose to the Mk1 airframe.So thats what i did.Good job i wasnt doing the group build or i would have been disqualified!.I had to make a metal spar for the wings which runs almost from wingtip to wingtip.Thankfully a template is supplied for this in the kit drawings.The engine nacelles and their fairings had to be cut out and glued on.This was the most difficult part of the build.There were no location marks on the wings so i had to work this out from the drawings.I used lots of scraps of plastic card and gallons of filler on these assemblies.The props are white metal and come as seperate blades and hubs in two parts.The spinners were missing from the kit.But after an email to the kit maker,these turned up in the post.I forgot to mention the kit is made by a small company called 'Sanger'.If you fancy doing a vacuform (there name for it) have a look at their web site.You will see a picture of my model on there looking a bit glossy!I have since given it a coat of matt varnish.They do a 1\48 Vickers Vildebeast.How about that?,a vacuform biplane!.Have to pretty masochistic to build that!.My model isnt perfect and not 100% accurate but im very pleased with it.After this i built the Trumpeter 1\48 Wellington for a bit of therapy.It was so easy and only needed two smears of filler!.
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Trey asked me to post pictures of a 1/48 Halifax vacuform kit i built last year.It was the first full vacuum form kit i have built.There were loads of problems to overcome as the parts didnt exactly fall together.I used nearly a third of a tube of squadron green filler on it.Mostly because when i joined the fuselage halves i used too much liquid glue and the joins sagged.So there was a depression to fill in along the top and bottom fuselage seams.The fuselage was quite flimsy so i had to make up 6 bulkheads to stiffen it up.No parts or templates are provided so i had to make them from scratch out of 2mm plastic card.I originally intended to build a Mk1 with nose turret which is why i picked the Merlin engined kit.When i cut the transparency out for the turret i found it was too wide for the opening in the nose.Maybe i sanded too much off the fuselage halves in the nose area.But the cockpit transparency fitted ok (after lots of trimming!).Luckily you get two bomber noses in the kit.So i had a look through my books and found i could build a Mk2 series 1 by fitting the later nose to the Mk1 airframe.So thats what i did.Good job i wasnt doing the group build or i would have been disqualified!.I had to make a metal spar for the wings which runs almost from wingtip to wingtip.Thankfully a template is supplied for this in the kit drawings.The engine nacelles and their fairings had to be cut out and glued on.This was the most difficult part of the build.There were no location marks on the wings so i had to work this out from the drawings.I used lots of scraps of plastic card and gallons of filler on these assemblies.The props are white metal and come as seperate blades and hubs in two parts.The spinners were missing from the kit.But after an email to the kit maker,these turned up in the post.I forgot to mention the kit is made by a small company called 'Sanger'.If you fancy doing a vacuform (there name for it) have a look at their web site.You will see a picture of my model on there looking a bit glossy!I have since given it a coat of matt varnish.They do a 1\48 Vickers Vildebeast.How about that?,a vacuform biplane!.Have to pretty masochistic to build that!.My model isnt perfect and not 100% accurate but im very pleased with it.After this i built the Trumpeter 1\48 Wellington for a bit of therapy.It was so easy and only needed two smears of filler!.
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