R17 - Ro.43
Completed: Jan 2018
My rating: 9/10
Therapy ratting: 9/10
I couldn’t resist getting my hands on one of these after seeing the lovely build by Roland Sachsenhofer . Such a lovely looking plane and superbly executed by Roland.
This is my first time building a Special Hobby kit. They are a Czech based company originally set up by enthusiast Mr Jiří Šilhánek. He started producing his own custom models in the former totalitarian Czechoslovakia days, as it was impossible to obtain any imported models.
The kit comes with resin parts, photo etched parts and a superb set of cartograf decals. A serious kit.
Bitten off......
Well ive been looking into this kit a bit more and there is a lot more to this build than first meets the eye. And its gonna involve a certain amount of experimentation which will, hopefully, be interesting or at least instructive.
First up is the rigging. Looking at the few original photos you can see that this aircraft was pretty much made from sheet metal throughout. It kinda bolts together.
The main rigging is also metal and the main ties are really quite thick. Following on from Rolands example I have decided to use wire for these. Its actually striped back garden wire ( I cant afford the good stuff) but it seems to hold its shape fairly well. This will mean drilling right through the wing surfaces in order to fit them. Gulp! (This model aint cheap!).
This is a first for me, but it does seem to produce the best results I have seen for rigging so a very worthwhile technique to master. This does mean filling in the holes with putty, which could look a bit shit, but I am optimistic you wont be able to tell.
I had some good results on the Jet Provo using filler and then fine grain sanding paper. Basic stuff really.
Getting stuck in
build by Roland Sachsenhofer
Tacked up...
The PE parts are particularly nice with some raised edges. The instructions are a bit vague at Step.13 and this is my solution. Getting the angle correct on the base bracket is key to the whole front cockpit!!
Commentary continues on Scalemates (such as it is).
A couple of ideas
1. Using coal dust for soot detail. If applied a little wet and worked in using my fingers.
2. Using water-colour/acrylics worked into varnish for coloured oil/water effects. As they are water based they might work into the varnish ok. Worth a shot.
