Scale Aviation Modeller International — November 2017

and top engine panels could be

hinged open or left off; worth a try!

Before fitting the cowl panels,

I primed and painted both sides

with Mr Hobby H331 Dark Sea Grey

to represent the “Battleship Grey”

called for, recognising that some

paint removal and touching up

would be needed for gluing. The

cowl panels need some careful

fitting and positioning to make

sure they all align, and here one

discovers that not only does the

PE not take paint, it’s not too

friendly with superglue either.

Don’t expect to be able to close gaps

and let the glue take the strain!

Before closing the cowling,

the engine needs to be installed.

It builds up reasonably easily

from the individual resin parts,

but tolerances are tight and some

trimming may be necessary;

I had to virtually remove the

spark plug stubs to get the

cylinder jackets to fit together.

The PE rocker arms are a nice

touch but very fiddly to get on –

mine ended up a bit coggly (a local

West Cumbrian word) – and push

rods need to be made from wire or

plastic rod. There’s no wiring loom

to connect to the twin magnetos

at the front of the engine, so after

painting, I added the twelve spark

plug cables using 0.2mm lead wire.

I painted the engine with

Vallejo and Citadel metallic paints:

aluminium for the crankcase,

copper for the water jackets, and

brass for the plumbing. The engine

fits neatly onto the forward engine

bearers, but be careful to get it

centralised. With the astounding

metal exhaust fitted, I decided

the engine looked good enough to

warrant leaving off the top and one

side cowling panel to show it off.

With the cowling rear side

panels and floor in place, the

instructions suggest fitting the

undercarriage struts, sliding

pillars, and radiators, but I decided

to leave these off at this stage so

they could be painted before fitting.

The rest of the cowling can be

added incrementally, although

it’s important to keep on dry-

fitting the various parts to get the

alignment as accurate as possible;

in particular, take note of the

width of the forward fuselage

when constructing the nose section

of the cowling. I confess that I

chickened out of trying to use the

steel version of this part, going for

one of the brass “spares” instead

• careful bending and step-wise
  gluing using accelerator-enhanced
  cyanoacrylate are the order of
  the day. I think my results are
  certainly not brilliant, but not
  too bad, either. When I can find
  the time, that second “spare”
  might well be resurrected!
  With the joints filled with
  superglue and lightly sanded, the
  curved nose can be fitted to the

fuselage, taking care to align the

propeller shaft and the machine

gun blast tube. This also has

to be rolled from a flat etched

sheet, so again I used the brass

“spare” and found some plastic

tube of the right diameter to slide

inside and give some support.

The wings and horizontal

stabiliser can be mostly painted

before fitting. I cleaned up the

edges and used 400 and 600 grit

wet-and-dry paper wrapped

around a block to reduce the

height of the rib tape moulding

• the block helped to keep the
  moulding sharp and the height
  reduction uniform. After priming,
  I gave the undersides an initial
  coat of Tamiya XF-57 Buff.
  The ribs were masked using
  1mm tape and the centres of the

fabric panels were given a light

overspray of XF-57, lightened

with 20% white; the lines of

the ribs were subsequently

highlighted using XF-57 with a

touch of XF-52 Flat Earth. I gave

the underside of the wings and

fuselage a light coat of Citadel

Purity Seal varnish as a protection,

and masked them to make them

ready for the PC10 upper surface.

Painting the upper surfaces

and the fuselage sides followed the

same basic pattern: a home-mixed

version of PC10 made up of a 50:50

mix of Tamiya XF-51 Olive Drab

and XF-62 Khaki Drab, followed

by a patchy overcoat of PC10 plus

20% XF-57 Buff, and finally, rib

The wing tape detail is a bit overdone, but can

easily be reduced by careful sanding.

There’s a plastic engine included on the sprues

for the non-Premium editions.

The fuselage sides have stitching detail.

The replacement metal exhaust is the standout

detail item included in the Premium version

of the kit.

Fifteen resin parts make up the alternative

Beardmore engine. There are three etched metal frets included;

the main one, of nickel steel, proved difficult

to use.

36 • NOVEMBER 2017 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

F.K.8 (MID PRODUCTION)

034-41-FEAT-FK8-1117.indd 36 16/10/2017 15:37