Building the Skytrex Short Bomber.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Building the Skytrex Short Bomber.

This one needed very little cleaning up but did have a fault with the shape of the bottom wing which I remedied by producing a new one in plasticard from a scale drawing.

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1. Clean up cast lines on metal parts.
2. Clear out all holes with a No 62 drill or similar.
3. Shape new bottom wing.

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4. Glue on bottom wing.

5. Position struts and glue in using top wing as a jig. Cut locating dowels on top
outboard wing short to allow for V struts later. Wings on this build are vertically above each other.

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6. File down projecting struts.

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7. Fill holes from struts except the outboard top ones with your favourite filler.

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8. Position and glue tail section. The locating pin helps, but check for horizontal and vertical alignment as there is a slight amount of play.
9. Turn plane over and position the undercart. Ensure struts are the right way round.

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10. Glue undercart and tailskid in place.

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11. Turn plane over and fit V struts in holes left in outboard upper wings.
12. Fit prop temporally.
13. Spray coat undercoat.
14. Remove prop and paint aircraft.
15. Paint prop and crew.
16. Position and glue prop and crew in place.
17. Using micro set to help you, place decals onto model
18. Micro sol over decals and allow to dry over night.
19. Varnish to taste.
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Discounting the correcting of the wings, I found this one of the easier models for all its size. Most parts fit well and using the correct drill ensured a tight fit of the struts and undercart. This made the assembly much easier.
A good starter if you want to progress onto the big bombers.
Rob.

[Boney10]

I bow before the Master wingco another excellent walk through

[Stormkahn]

That Testors Dullcoat really is the business, bring up a great model an absolute treat,

bravo,

Dave.

[Linz]

Beautiful work well done.
Linz

[David Manley]

Great stuff! :clap:Remind me again why I didn't have my chums bring back one of these from Salute? :dazed:

[Niclas]

Great stuff! Build, paint job, walk through - all of it!
I also enjoy the added variety that non-official aircraft adds. And I think the Short bomber is a particularly nice one. Have you also made cards for it?

[Guntruck]

Nice one Rob! Your ribwork seems less pronounced that the Skytrex effort, in a good way. What gauge plastic rod did you use for the ribs?

Given that the lower wing as provided is the Short Seaplane wing, I'm thinking that it won't take a lot to make the seaplane out of it - new top wing, shorten the fuselage, a couple of floats, new radiator.


Great stuff! :clap:Remind me again why I didn't have my chums bring back one of these from Salute? :dazed:

Because the wings are crap and the bottom one's the wrong shape? :lol:

[Rabbit 3]

This one needed very little cleaning up but did have a fault with the shape of the bottom wing which I remedied by producing a new one in plasticard from a scale drawing.
The Skytrex model is supposed to be an early version of the plane.
Didn`t Short Bros make a number of modifications to the basic design during its development to correct stability problems?

Wouldn`t surprise me though if Skytrex eventually releases the seaplane version, it just needs a shorter fuselage and floats.
Anybody built the Sram model for comparison purposes?

[Guntruck]

The Skytrex model is supposed to be an early version of the plane.
Didn`t Short Bros make a number of modifications to the basic design during its development to correct stability problems?

Wouldn`t surprise me though if Skytrex eventually releases the seaplane version, it just needs a shorter fuselage and floats.
Anybody built the Sram model for comparison purposes?

Yes it's an early version but I have yet to see any evidence that the seaplane lower wing was used on the bomber version - certainly not on any service version. I think it a certainty that Skytrex will produce a Short Seaplane, but given their track record, my fear is that they will just try to marry a set of floats to the existing kit.

I did consider the SRAM Seaplane some time ago, but given that it is £22 before you start replacing all the struts with something less fragile, I'll either convert the Bomber or see what Skytrex come out with.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Great stuff! Build, paint job, walk through - all of it!
I also enjoy the added variety that non-official aircraft adds. And I think the Short bomber is a particularly nice one. Have you also made cards for it?

The cards were made for me by Max. I can do cards myself that already have the base cards on file but am not good enough to put a totally new top view onto the layers.
Rob.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Nice one Rob! Your ribwork seems less pronounced that the Skytrex effort, in a good way. What gauge plastic rod did you use for the ribs?

Given that the lower wing as provided is the Short Seaplane wing, I'm thinking that it won't take a lot to make the seaplane out of it - new top wing, shorten the fuselage, a couple of floats, new radiator.


The ribs were made by filing down the spaces between with a Swiss file, unlike the last one which was done by gluing cotton thread onto the plasticard.
Rob.

[Guntruck]

Blimey, that must have been a bit of hard work getting it all straight and parallel.

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Blimey, that must have been a bit of hard work getting it all straight and parallel.
Even with my experience as an engineer, it was suprisingly quick. Parallel is easy, and the actual material only took about five strokes for each one. As I am used to working on metal, this was a no brainer once I had tried it. Much faster than the cotton method and more predictable.

Rob.

[Linz]

Your the Man !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Filing down between the ribs must give it a try have thought about but considered it to be to time consuming.
Awesome result.
Linz

[Guntruck]

Here's my theory (and this isn't knocking Rob's or anyone else's efforts at reproducing rib detail on wings) - given the accentuated rib detail produced either by using plastic rod or cotton, or filing down between where the ribs are, on a real aircraft this would mean the fabric was very loose on the aircraft's wing, not an ideal situation. Therefore I'm going to try another method, based on my view that at 1/144 scale sufficient detail can be had by scribing on a flat surface, no matter how big the plane.

So, Mr Short bomber top wing, meet Mr mini-sander, Mr file and Mr scriber (and obviously Mr face mask 'cos of the powdered resin). The mini-sander took down the ribbing a treat in no time at all, and after din-dins I'll scribe on the detail to see how it looks.

I'm hoping this will work OK, as I got a bit carried away and sanded down the wings of an 0/400 as well. :eek2:

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Here's my theory (and this isn't knocking Rob's or anyone else's efforts at reproducing rib detail on wings) - given the accentuated rib detail produced either by using plastic rod or cotton, or filing down between where the ribs are, on a real aircraft this would mean the fabric was very loose on the aircraft's wing, not an ideal situation. Therefore I'm going to try another method, based on my view that at 1/144 scale sufficient detail can be had by scribing on a flat surface, no matter how big the plane.

So, Mr Short bomber top wing, meet Mr mini-sander, Mr file and Mr scriber (and obviously Mr face mask 'cos of the powdered resin). The mini-sander took down the ribbing a treat in no time at all, and after din-dins I'll scribe on the detail to see how it looks.

I'm hoping this will work OK, as I got a bit carried away and sanded down the wings of an 0/400 as well. :eek2:

Go Gunners go.:thumbsup:
Rob.

[fist]

nice job

[Von Schlepp]

Big and Beautiful