Valom SE5a - Mannock and Lewis

[ShadowDragon]

Valom SE5a models - night fighter for Capt C. Lewis, 61 Home Defence Sqn, and Major E Mannock, 74 Sqn. Mannock decals are the ones supplied in the kit and the Lewis ones are homemade except for the underwing roundels. The most finnicky of the models I've done so far.

Not quite done - I need to touch up the wing edges (noticed this in the photos) and apply varnish.

[the black devil]

very nice what paints did you use? also what did you use for the struts

[ShadowDragon]

I use artist's acrylic paints - have for a long time. I'd probably use oil's if they didn't take so long to dry.

The struts are mostly the photo-etched ones supplied by Valom. There's a problem with this kit in that the cabane struts are too short. The back ones are longer so I used those for the front ones and made the rear ones from some hobby wire I had.

FYI - I use an acrylic matt varnish. At first I built the kit, painted it, applied decals and then varnished...but as you may have noticed in the Sept workbench post I'm now doing some painting, applying some decals with some varnishing prior to building. The glare in the picture is just bad lighting and not from a glossy finish on the plane - although acrylics aren't completely dull and do have a slight egg-shell shine to them. The other photos are more as the planes appear to the eye.

[the black devil]

thank you very much it helped a lot I am planning on doing some valom kits soon

[Flying Officer Kyte]

Very neat work Paul. those lozenge decals must have been quite a challenge to get aligned.

Rob.

[Hedeby]

The work on the Lewis plane is ridiculous, well done, it looks amazing

[ShadowDragon]

thank you very much it helped a lot I am planning on doing some valom kits soon

Good luck. Some on the forum wrote that the reason Valom has 2 planes in the kit is one to practice on and one to build for good. It does take patience and a good set of tweezers.

Here's a link to Florian's (Karo7) post on building the SE5a. He does a very good job - a lot cleaner than mine.

https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...-the-WGF-style

Here's my 1st Valom kit. I will let the catastrophe speak for itself except I will say that this is where I found out that old plastic cement doesn't work and I don't do rigging!

https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/sh...okker-EIII-set

Rob (Flying Officer Kyte) has some 'how to' posts on building Valom kits: (I only see a post on the Valom Sopwith Pup. I thought Rob had done others.)

https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/co...9-kit-building

[ShadowDragon]

The work on the Lewis plane is ridiculous, well done, it looks amazing

Thanks, Chris.

Very neat work Paul. those lozenge decals must have been quite a challenge to get aligned.

Rob.

Thanks, Rob. Aligning the decals was fairly easy as I paint and decal prior to building (mostly - I do build the fuselage before painting and applying fuselage decals). It's a lot easier. The only decals I put on are the one on the outer wing surfaces. These decals are full area (wing / fuselage) decals. The wings were easy to get the right size and shape as the wings are relatively flat surfaces. The fuselage decals are in 4 parts - 2 for the top of the fuselage front and back of the cockpit and 1 for each side of the fuselage. These are harder to get the right size - and this is when you find out that schematics and kits don't always agree. The top is particularly difficult due to the curved surfaces. Alignment meant applying the 2 top decals first, then the ones for the fuselage sides. This is when you find out the decals don't meet so I extended the top diamonds into a more elongated diamond to meet the ones on the fuselage side. It worked out better than I had feared.