Bishop Hobbies

9/11/2010  Wow it’s been a long time since my last entry. But this is a good one.  This is the 1/48 scale model by Planet Models of the BT-13.  This aircraft was used extensively in WWII to train thousands of pilots – my dad was one of them.  You can check out his story on his page right HERE.

This is my first all resin kit – it’s a limited run model and comes with a vacuformed canopy.  That was a first too.  The wing comes in one piece which is beautiful.  The horizontal and vertical stabilizers have no tabs to locate them – that makes attachment and lining them up very difficult since all gluing has to be done using superglue.  I tried several ways to mask off the canopy frames – I tried everything and ended up masking it just like I would a full scale canopy.  I used very small thin strips of Tamiya masking tape.  Then the canopy was sprayed first with iinterior green then the blue exterior color.  I then diped the canopy in Future and set it aside to dry.  I used Micro Scale white glue to attach the canopy and Tamiya paints for everything except the interior green which was Model Master.  I finished the a/c with a coat of Future with Windex added to improve flow and a couple of drops of Tamiya flat base to reduce the sheen.

I drilled out the landing lights and painted the recess chrome silver then when that was dry added a drop of 5 minute epoxy for lenses.  Instead of the vacuformed light covers I used clear celophane tape carefully trimmed.  The landing gear had brake hoses added and were attached with 5 minute epoxy.  The engine also had the push rods and ignition wiring added.

This model took me about 6 weeks to build and all in all was a pleasant experience.  I learned a lot about resin models.

Now on to the pictures….

9/12/2010 This is my next build.  As you can see I've assembled some aftermarket bits produced by Roy Sutherland (BarracudaCals and BarracudaCast) who is in the model club I attend.  These include decals with corrected colors for the roundels, resin seat, cockpit door and enhanced parts for the cockpit. I also purchased the Tamiya book on this a/c build – it has such great pictures and a lot of helpful information. 10/2/2010 ok – I'm about done with the dashboard – here is a pic (I gotta get a close up lens):

Ok – I've just received a nice set of closeup lenses (the screw on filter type) for my camera.  This is the first pics with them.  The first one is the control panel close up.  I've added 18 extra decals which include the black backing decals which go on first.  This stuff is all from BarracudaCast and are really great.  The set also includes the control stick and the gear retract and throttle guadrants as well as decals for them along with a lot of other bits.  This really enhances the already fantastic cockpit.  The second picture is the partially finished cockpit showing the resin seat.  I've done a oil wash to show some wear and tear.

Below are pictures of the cockpit sidewalls. Normally you glue the sidewalls to the control panel – seat assembly, but I wanted to add some extra wiring to the sidewalls – this necessitated gluing them to the fuselage sides instead of the seat structure.

I used as a reference the nice pictures that came with the BarracudaCast cockpit set as well as the Tamiya book on assembling the 1/32 Spitfire.  The cockpit set also included a great set of decals to enhance the cockpit – you can notice many of them on the sidewalls.  In order to replicate the fine stripes or brackets on the air tanks – I used clear tape (Scotch Tape).  The tape was laid down on the cutting mat then painted Tamiya XF-71 – the cockpit interior green.  When that was dry I cut some strips of tape using a new X-Acto knife and attached the strips to the pre-painted tanks.

The oxygen hose on the starboard side is a resin part included in the cockpit set.  I have also added two pictures of the cockpit with the seatbelts installed.

 10/27/2010 I've added pictures of the Rolls Royce engine – and a very nice engine it is!!! I painted it semi gloss black, oversprayed with semi gloss laquer and then used Tamiya weathering sets to add a little oil and grime.  I've also taken a few more pictures of the cockpit…

The engine is finished and as the following pictures show – enclosed in the engine framework this is a real gem.  Looking at the picture the exhaust seem a little too rusty so I will be toning that down.

 11/7/2010 I've glued the fuselage halves together – the fit is very good but I had to do a bit extra adjusting here and there as I had glued the cockpit sides to the fuselage halves.  I had to do just a little sanding on the seams but no putty will be needed.  And here are some pics:

12/31/2010 I've finished the fuselage and the wings.  The following pictures show the joining of these two sections as as well as the first coat spray of primer.  For the first time I'm using Mr Surfacer 1000.  I sprayed it outdoors where the temperature was 52 deg F.  It worked pretty good. 

 1/23/2011 I've painted the camo.  In the first picture you see my first take on this.  I took the model to the SVSM meeting last Friday and Ben mentioned that the camo demarcation was a little soft – I agreed, so yesterday I redid it and you can see in the following pic that effect.  It does look a lot better.  I have also dipped the clear parts in Future Floor Polish to improve the clarity.  I've also included a pic of the landing gear.

1/30/2011

More pics – I've finished the camo added the landing gear and painted the prop.

2/13/2011 I'm almost finished.  All that's left is adding the pitot tube and an underwing antenna plus the radio wiring – here are the latest: