Airfix 1:72 Grumman Widgeon: Completing the Project

So here I sit looking at the gap between engine nacelle and wing contemplating the best way to fix this.

I decide to glue the halves of the nacelle to the edges of the wing and then angle them in to meet at the front. This of course left me with huge gaps to fill and I decided to experiment with two types of gap filling. One being pasticard and super glue and the other being just super glue.

Now with the nacelles glued in place and angled in I realized that the propellers would provide me with another problem namely how do I glue the nacelles without gluing them solid when gluing in the nacelles and filling them?

So I left them off and used brass and aluminium tubing; one running in the other as a kind of bush. The smaller brass tube was glued to the propeller after removing the original plastic shaft and drilling out the correct size hole. The larger aluminum tubing was inserted into the engine nacelle and super glued in place. The brass tube fitting nicely on the inside allowing the propeller to spin freely. With this sorted out the rest of the model was constructed pretty quickly.

I glued the wings to the fuselage first, after removing the obstructing rows of rivets, then I glued the nacelles to the wing and left it to dry over night.

The next morning I filled one side with plasticard and then filled in what little gap that remained with super glue and on the other side I just filled in the gap with super glue medium thick mix. I found however that the super glue settled into the gap before I could set it with accelerator and therefore required a second dosing. Now the plasticard and super glue was very easy to file and sand down while just the super glue was quite a bit harder to sand. Both provided excellent fills but the plasticard super glue gave the best finish with the quickest time. I then realized that there was some detail on the tops of the nacelles and that I now had a two millimeter gap between them! I sawed them off and glued them together and then glued them in the correct position.

I flowed super glue into to all of the seams that needed filling and set it with accelerator (also known as kicker, I LOVE this product!). Then filed and sanded the seams and viola One aircraft ready for painting! I painted the undersides first and then masked off the area and then airbrushed free hand the top coats. Now the camouflage is usually hard edged but I like the look of softly feathered edges. So I chose to free hand it. I like the resultant finish however I realized that I had the camouflage slightly wrong. I wasn’t too worried as this kit wasn’t a commission piece and it’s just to hone my skills.

I then proceeded to spray a gloss coat over the top to ensure the decals snugged down nicely. I did find however that the Airfix decals are a little thick and reluctant to snug down with out some aid from decal softening and Setting solutions. As a further experiment I used a little Future (Johnson’s Klear) under the decal and I found this pulled the decal down very nicely as it dried! Excellent to know when you have complex curves or raised surface detail. I then airbrushed some weathering on the model, exhaust staining and the like, then I airbrushed it with some flat varnish to seal the decals and return the model to how it would have looked with flat camouflage paint.

So there we have it another finished model to add to the growing collection!  And speaking of the growing collection anyone interested in purchasing any of the completed models leave me a  message and I’ll get back to you and we can sort out the details!

by

Avid WW2 aviation enthusiast and modeller. Been making model kits since age nine and I now model mostly ww2 model airplanes. (my wife is an understanding one!)

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