SPA Modeler

Stuart wrote:That looks like a very nicely detailed cockpit, if somewhat fiddley. I agree that it looks harder work than the Airfix, their cockpit was a lot of fun to make.

The wooden floor is an interesting one - I've never really figured out what colour it was supposed to be. Obviously all the period photos are black and white.

Thanks Stuart, indeed, Airfix cockpit was much more fun !
Regarding the wooden floor, this I used as reference:



- Kari

Those are great reference pics - thanks Kari!

Wooden floor? Who knew?

BlackSheep214 wrote:Wooden floor? Who knew?

Indeed, it is some sort of plywood, painted black but the paint usually is worn off ( as in the reference pic)

Read somewhere that sand (or similar) was mixed in the black paint, to make it non-slippery

- Kari

Correct. The floorboard was plywood and painted with non skid, the same stuff used for wing walkways - flat black paint with sand mixed in.

I continued the build with the instrument panel, had decided not to use the PE set (which I find quite bad) at all in this build, except the belts that Clint also suggested.

I was so satisfied with the similar process with the Airfix, so my expectations were high as well to succeed.


But unfortunately, things did not go so well. While the decal setting did work slowly but surely with the Airfix decal, meaning I had well time to adjust and put the decal precisely (or almost) in the correct place, with the Eduard decal things started to happen very quickly.
It started to break down almost immediately. Not only is the decal slightly off because of this, but actually the detail level is not even close to the decal of Airfix. Simply, this does not look good, more sloppy than crispy.

Oh well, it is what it is, will not make a big fuzz of this but will continue the build.



So, let's see what next!

- Kari

I'm sorry to hear about that decal. A one piece IP decal I always cut into multiple parts, maybe two or three, to be able to line it up better.

Surprising that that decal didn't work out well - but then one of the best things about Airfix since the Hornby take over was the decals from Cartograf.

I would imagine that Eduard don't put a lot of effort into them as they expect people to use the PE.

Floki wrote:I'm sorry to hear about that decal. A one piece IP decal I always cut into multiple parts, maybe two or three, to be able to line it up better.

You’re right Clint, I should have been more patient and cut the decal in smaller pieces. But as I did not really expect this to happen, I took the calculated risk.
Must take this into consideration when attaching the main decals, to perhaps use another decal setting.

- Kari

Stuart wrote:Surprising that that decal didn't work out well - but then one of the best things about Airfix since the Hornby take over was the decals from Cartograf.

I would imagine that Eduard don't put a lot of effort into them as they expect people to use the PE.

True Stuart!

- Kari