"Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:57 am

A block of 2mm styrene was added to the bottom of the cockpit floor of the Catalina, for mounting the new nose wheel and tow bar assembly.

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The fuselage was held together with elastic bands while solvent glue was run around the joints.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:59 am

The tailplane halves were glued and held in place with bluetack. Another lump of blue tack was attached to the bottom of the fuselage to hold it level until all the glue dried.

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Because the model will move, the plastic landing gear wasn't considered strong enough, so the parts were replaced with brass wire. The bracing struts were bent into a V shape, and a blob of solder added into the corner of the V. This was then filed down and drilled for the main leg.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:01 am

The main landing gear dry assembled. The axle would be filed down at a later date.

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To avoid melting the solder, the landing gear parts were joined with cyano before being glued into the fuselage. A little over scale, but strong enough for the job it needed to do.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:03 am

The nose wheel was also replaced. The leg was cut away and the wheel drilled for the new brass axle.

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This was fitted to the fuselage with another brass rod sticking forwards from the aircraft as a tow bar. A towing vehicle will be connected to this wire so the vehicle and plane move together out of the hangar.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:57 pm

This picture now shows it with the wing and struts attached and in its white top coat, but the canopy still masked.

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The next step was to spray the gloss coat ready for decal application, then apply the decals and remaining small details. The model was then sprayed in a matt coat before fitting the rear fuselage glazed blisters, wheels and propellers.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Mar 12, 2021 1:01 pm

The C-47 Skytrain was the next build. Fuselage and wings joined. Because the wings are quite thin, they were taped to two blocks of wood while the solvent glue dried, holding them nice and flat.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Apr 21, 2021 2:18 am

I've been a bit distracted by my house move, but back now to carry on with the updates.

Engine cowlings fitted to the wings, wings fitted to fuselage and horizontal stabilizers fitted, plus a little filler here and there. Then a coat of neutral grey on the underside.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Apr 21, 2021 2:19 am

Olive drab was sprayed on the top side once the grey had cured, and then the medium green blotching around the edge of the wings, tail and fin.

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After that had dried, the whole model was sprayed with 'Future' to give a nice smooth gloss coat for the decals to be applied on to.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Wed Apr 21, 2021 2:20 am

With the decals on, the landing gear and props were fitted, the model given a matt coat, and then the cockpit glazing and astro-dome were fitted. The tailwheel just needs painting here.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Apr 23, 2021 4:21 am

After the Dakota was done, it was time for the B-17's. This is the un-powered version from a 1/144 scale Minicraft kit. I think Minicraft was a reboxing of a much earlier Crown kit. The kits do show their age and there are some shapes that aren't correct, but overall, it was close enough to be B-17 shaped.

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Rather than use the kit plastic landing gear, I soldered up some brass legs to which the wheels were glued. The extended pins will go down into the baseboard to hold the aircraft in place.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Apr 23, 2021 4:23 am

A small brass pin was fitted just ahead of the tail wheel. The various guns were replaced with brass rod instead of the plastic kit parts.

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The bottom sprayed neutral grey.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Apr 23, 2021 4:30 am

The first complete B-17 and a B-17 "Hangar Queen" with paint and decals on. A Hangar Queen was a wrecked or badly damaged airframe that was uneconomical to repair, butthat has been kept so it can be stripped for useful spares. During WW2, spares for the bombers became hard to find, simply due to demand, so badly damaged and crash landed aircraft were stripped of any useable parts.

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The first kit B-17 finished.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon Apr 26, 2021 10:19 am

The Hangar Queen along with several other resin cast parts for the scrap yard. Even badly damaged airframes had parts or sections of skin that could be cut out and used to repair other aircraft.

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Here's another of the Minicraft kits. All that's missing from the sprues are the engine cowlings which must have already been cut free to work on. This kit would be modified to have four electric motors to drive the propellers. The cowlings have probably been removed to drill them out to a diameter suitable for fitting the electric motors.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon Apr 26, 2021 10:25 am

Here's one of the micro motors along side an AA battery. Not only are the motors tiny, they are also geared!

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The motors were wrapped in masking tape so that they matched the diameter of the engine nacelles in the wings and were glued in place. The motors all shared a common negative wire, but each had its own positive wire, allowing each engine to run independantly.

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The engine cowlings were drilled out to clear the motors, allowing just the spindle sticking out for the prop to be attached to.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Tue Apr 27, 2021 6:46 am

The three B-17's complete. One hangar queen, one static model and one motorised.

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Now it was time to make a start on the airfield section. I'd planned it out on paper, but often find I need to shuffle things around a little once I start working at real size. Some scrap ply and MDF was laid out to the same 8ft x 2ft6in baseboard size of the new section and pieces of track, buildings and aircraft set out.

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On my computer, I lined in the dispersal area, a hangar, tunnels and hillsides to get a better feel at how it should look.

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