Scale aviation modeller international

everything up, including the nose

camera bays, as well as to add

as much detail as my fat fingers

would accommodate. My decision-

making rested mainly with what

references I could find for detailing.

I started by taping the fuselage

halves together, then, using the

cut-off wheel in my cordless

Dremel, I roughly cut out the

camera bay covers, followed by

a hobby knife and sanding stick

to make them neat. For those

wanting to open up the bays, the

two open covers are moulded

separately, which is very handy.

With the surgery out of the

way, next up was fitment of the

resin cockpit and corrected ejector

(Republic’s term for the tailpipe),

by AMS Resin. These parts were

created several years earlier by

AMS and used for my RF-84F

kit-bash (these plus many more

parts for the F-84 family can be

seen on their website at http://www.

amsresin.com). These fit the new

Tan kit with just some minor

reworking of the resin or plastic.

THE CAMERAS AND BAYS

The cameras and related bulkheads,

camera mounts, nose gear well,

and camera glazing doors are

all interrelated and become a kit

within a kit. The process of fitment

and detailing the cameras and bays

is not straightforward and required

much back and forth dry-fitting,

painting, assembling, and adding

details, one step at a time.

Based on photos of

cameras in my stash, I felt

the kit cameras needed

some TLC. I used the film

canister parts but replaced

all the lenses with brass

and aluminium tubing.

Colour photos showed the

lenses had what appeared to

be an amber coating, so I found

amber rhinestones at a craft store,

attached them to an aluminium

rod inserted into an electric drill,

and at low speed, sanded them to

shape and finish-polished them

with Micro Mesh 12000 grit.

I had some photos showing

the control wiring to the cameras,

so I added these from wire and

reproduced the attachment fittings

with jewellery bead spacers. The

cameras and lens barrels were

painted off-white and satin black.

I had struggled with fitting

the TriMetrogen cameras in the

forward bay during the OOB build,

so I used what was essentially a

reverse approach to fitting this

set of three cameras. First, I dry-

fitted the bulkhead to each half

of the fuselage halves, along with

the relevant camera, to establish

the correct location and angle for

each one. I then drilled a small

hole in the back of each camera,

inserted a plastic rod, then cut it

back until it was just long enough

to extend through the bulkhead.

I applied a dab of black paint on

the end of the rod, then held it to

the bulkhead, so the painted end

left a mark to show where I would

drill a locating hole. After painting

the bulkhead and cameras, I glued

the two oblique cameras in place. I

placed the two hoop mounts, Parts

32 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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