Solving Problems Of My Own Making! Drat It!
Here We Go Again, Sigh…
Just a very quick update of what I have done about the accidental breaking of my current Sopwith Pup model. As you may know, I had an instance of my ‘shaky hand’ problem which resulted in crushed and broken spars and tangled and ruined rigging. I was a ‘bit upset’. 😫
Anyway, I picked myself - had a cup of tea (of course) - and started to plan how I would recover my broken model. I should add that I got some wonderful support and encouragement from THE AIRFIX FACEBOOK GROUP - a fantastic set of chaps, who have gone though this sort of thing before.
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| Above: Having removed all the snapped parts and ruined rigging I then had to begin the renovation work. This entailed sanding back any remaining remnants of broken attachments and scratched paint work. |
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| Above: In the process of ‘repairing’ I actually made things a little worse and ended up having to repair my repairs! Here I used some Green Stuff putty to smooth off a nick I made in the cowling. Note new drilled holes in the top of the ‘nose’ so I could securely reattach the broken nose spars.I also had to drill and inset some wire rods into the spars themselves to add anchors. |
Basically, I had to strip back and remove the broken parts and snapped rigging threads before rebuilding and repairing the model once again.
One thing I want to highlight is that - as a mediocre model maker on a good day - any ‘messing around’ to repair breakages only seems to make a ‘passable’ job a bit more tatty. I *never* seem to be able to get a model looking as good once I have to do a repair as it was the first time I make and paint a kit.
This was the case with my Sopwith, the more tinkering I did the more flaws appeared. Of particular note is my experimentation using super glue instead of poly glue, while this seemed to be a good idea and solved one problem (that I needed instantaneous bonds) it created other issues…
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| Above: Back to square one. Repairs done and paintwork touched up I was now sorta back to where I was before my accident. Boo-hoo - all that meticulously and time consuming rigging work gone! |
The knack of using CA super glue is definitely: ‘Less is more!’ I see less and less as I progressed and ended up applying it using a pin to apply the tiniest ‘pearl’ of super glue. It’s tricky.
Still, long story short (too late LOL) - I managed to get the model - more or less - back to the state it was the day before I had my tragic mishap with the model. 😊
…SO… Taking up where I left off, I now have to continue with the rigging, using my AK ultra-thin elasticated thread. Wish me luck (next time I post it should be the completed model.) Phew!
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| Above: Start again! The first couple of replacement threads of rigging in place… A LOT more to add. |
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