Here we go on another build, Hawegawa Mavis.
The cockpit is typical 1970s, so with a dishearteningly small amount of reference available I altered the floor to match reference of the Emily made by Kawanishi. Added radio as well from card.
The seats were very thick and clunky, so using the Aero Details book on the Emily as a guide I retained the basic shape and thinned them out considerably.
Seatbelts are lead foil flattened by rolling with my knife handle and cut to fit ..



The control panel was also made from cardstock...(primed only here guys) and would not have happened without assistance from the fellows on J-aircraft.com....I had a link to a flight simulator panel that is 100 per cent accurate in 3 hours! MANY thanks!


The top of the panel will be trimmed to conform to the dashboard contours once it is installed.
The kit panel will be used as backing for structural support. The things that look like cupholders are to be compasses..

The next thing on the list is to put in the fuselage stiffeners and stringers...I have to wait until my vac canopy comes though ....I hate losing momentum on a build...

the stringer locations are pencilled in using an oil pastel artists pencil(white)
Ill post more pics and a summary as I make more progress guys...hope you enjoy!

Jim,

I'm in the middle of doing something very similar to the Hasegawa Emily. It's a long process, but I think both of our builds will be well worth the time. I'd love to see more of your progress. Keep up the great work!

Ill definitely keep posting progress shots ......I think doing a simultaneous build is a great Idea ...we can assist one another possibly.. Im still waiting for my Falcon set to come....but he says the order came yesterday and he just has to go through the boxes ...so....(wringing my hands )

Wow, a dual build would be great. The Mavis is one of my favorite flying boats.

Mark

I have so many fav flying boats I cant pick one!.Have you seen the Mavis that Steve Hustad did? Exquisite paint....
Heres another of my flying boats....I just repaired it today after CATASTROPHIC failure...(took me 8 months to relax enough to fix her ..)

Wow! What a grea Doppeldecker! The wood looks great. You fixed it very well, has it been broke?! I don't see anything

Hi Jim -

Yes, Steve Hustad is a friend and also a member in the local club I belong to (Twin City Aero Historians). His Mavis was an eye opener, but he's getting even more daring as of late. He's taken a lot of old black & white photos and used those as a reference to re-create some real eye catching diorama's. Here's one for example -

http://www.aerohistorians.org/album/main.php?cmd=imageorig&var1=Meetings%2F2009%2F02%2F026.jpg

And keep in mind - he did this in 1/72 scale...!

Having said that, your Mavis W.I.P. as well as your Doppledecker prove you are no slouch yourself! Excellent job!

Glad to see back into the building and posting your work Jim . It has been along time since the last time . Looking forward to seeing more .

well.....its been a long time between posts ,but that doesnt mean i havent been building my Mavis...I have the fuselage closed and sanded ....and my replacement resin engines arrived in the mail today...all 4 of them!...thanks Roll Models!.....What i plan on is to post pics on the project once its actually complete to avoid all of these time-delays in the project line....but I have lots of pics and am trying some neat stuff in this project, vac canopies,scribing,etc..and I havent even gotten to the WING yet .....aiii...

Work is progressing...but this I must say now is a much bigger project than I first anticipated...here is a teaser pic

the bulkheads, steering column,and some of the seats are kit...everything else ,including panel is scratchbuilt..
Im still doing bodywork on the fuselage,then I add the glazings & mask, then on to the wing....
As far as intirior colour goes, I know that the debate continues as to what exactly does AOTAKE look like in service aircraft? The paint I chose is actually WEM deck blue, and I must say I love WEM paints....I could have gone with a "Mitsubishi green", but I am still of two minds as to the overall outer shade of the aircraft. Aircraft stationed around the Marianas Islands had a form of "sea blue",yet all others were typical JN green.... I figured this shade would compliment/contrast the final colour of the aircraft whichever shade I choose....( leaning toward an extremely weathered green right now)

I have decided to begin riveting the hull.so far I have done up to the cockpit..this is my first attempt so we shall see how it goes. Im hoping this works, because i have a Butcherbird "yellow 10" Id like to rivet up when I start her..
BTW as far as exterior colour is concerned,someone has informed me that the no japanese service aircraft were painted in the blue colour,so green it is....but it will be heavily weathered paint

my first attempt at riveting is complete,I have riveted the entire fuselage and I think it looks pretty good. On to the glazings and spot checking the wing for sinkmarks. I will have to re-rivet and re-scribe the wing ..all 640 lines worth...thats counting chordwise not spanwise ....Im looking at the simulated fabric areas to see what must be done..once my fuselage is entirely complete(minus painting) I will begin downloading pics of the project in its entirety (theres alot of em..)

Cool Jim , looking forward to the pic's . What did you use for making the rivets ?

Hi Terri...and so we begin with the pics ......I used an excel ponce wheel I picked up at Curries Art supplies for about 6 bucks...
Here is the cockpit painted ..the seats were painted using artists oils..

stringers were added to the intirior walls using 020X020 stripstock and fishing line ...then painted over and highlighted (to my horror I DONT have a pic of this)
The kit insturment panel was sanded smooth and used as a backing plate for the new panel. The new panel was left off until much later in construction(but I test -fitted to ensure I wasnt painting myself into a corner)
some of the smaller fuselage windows were added and the fuselage was closed up. I found alot of sink marks all over the fuselage and hated the look of the raised rivet detail,so she got a full sanding job.
Once I picked up the Falcon set of Vacu-form canopies I had my contours for the fuselage blister windows so I was able to trace them onto the fuselage using the sharp tip of a hobby knife and then carve away the excess..

there is alot of bodywork and sanding involved in building this kit. I think Iv opened a bit of a Pandoras box with this build ..lol
I will post more pics tommorrow guys.

I looked at the fuselage and saw that this was where alot of time was going to be spent.
I sanded away all ofthe detail so I could spot the defects and correct them using Tamiya Putty. I prefer Tamiya stuff as it spreads like butter and sands quick and easily...
The windows are a problem also, so I used Milliput and then washed away the excess using water on a Q-tip.
Smaller windows will be fixed using Clear-fix ( I hope)
I was not shy in sanding the entire fuselage....right over the windows ...buffing and polishing later would restore clarity.

Here you can see the waist positions I referred to earlier ..these were sized up according to the blisters provided in the FALCON set.


panel lines were re-established using DYMO tape and a scriber. There are lots of scribing tools and on this project im using 3 different types. This line was done using a pin in a pin vise (this was experimental)..for a line such as this I have my OLFA P-cutter..
All panel lines get the brush from my Tamiya ultra thin liquid cement run down them to take care of grains and dust left over. I like to brush down any excavations/modifications/changes in this way

You can barely make out the stringers inside the fuselage in this pic. Stringer locations were first measured and drawn on the inside of the fuselage using a white PRISMACOLOUR pencil. Fishing line was cut and crazy glued in place running front to back(or back to front).
020"X020" EVERGREEN plastic was glued in place in the upright locations..

Heres a pic for Terri ......my first rivet attempt....not bad I guess..
Dymo tape as a guide is HIGHLY recommended ...I was told of a 3M automotive pinstriping product that is flexible on all 4 planes instead of just 2 like DYMO tape. I havent tried it yet,but its supposed to be great....(about $10.00 CAD)

What tools did you use for the riveting? I can never get a good line
with a wheel. Thinking of cutting a slit in a piece of dymo to use
as a guide. Yours look fairly straight.

Excel makes a pounce wheel. I bought it as an experiment because the price was right ..($6.00CAD).....product # 30606 1/4" swivel punce wheel .Dymo tape works really well as a guide. I flush up the tool against the tape..press..(not too firmly..practice first)...and travel 1 cog at a time(youll feel it )..going around compound curves is tricky ..I push the tool instead of pull..so going slow and careful is mandetory or youll have a runaway ponce tool making wild tracks across your fuselage!

Not bad at all there Jim on the riveting , turned out really well ! I have never tried that before but would like to do it on the fuselage of an Albatros D.III to replicate the nail heads .

She will look fantastic when she's done Jim . A lot of time has been put into so far making worht the wait on the fianl progress pic's

Thanks Terri...yeah I know I waited a long time to post pics but I didnt want to have extended gaps in the posting ..My lack of work situation required me to really think about that..Iv got the center part of the wings glued up, panel lines are mostly cut, and rivets sanded off... ready for seam cleaning..My problem now is the Nacelles....how do I properly cut panel lines around all those compound curves?

Have you tried using strips of alum/can for this . The strips can be cut to any size you need .
just tape down the none scrib edge and can be flip for the other side .

capital idea Terri ! Ill use popcan instead of beercan..drinking beer thats been in aluminum just isnt civilized..lol
I am currently masking off my glazings.using Bare metal adhesive foil...its like watching hair grow...borrrr-ring..

Hi Guys ...heres more pics ...
the riveting was done over the fuselage following the lines that existed before sanding, and adding a row down along the edge of the hull. I added a fairing with rivets around where the undercarriage will be located.

Panel lines were added to the wingpost roost. This area required ALOT of sanding,priming,resanding. Once I was done there was NO detail left,so out came the Baremetal Scriber and DYMO tape was used to guide my path..(somewhat wobbly at times as you see....well repair that ..remember this is my first time scribing and riveting here guys
The overhead console is to be attached to the inside of the canopy between the pilot and co-pilot. I added throttle levers to the quadrants using speaker wire with blobs of 3-minute epoxy on the tips. This was CA glued into place in the canopy.(All glazings recieved a dip in FUTURE floor polish, and were allowed to dry in a dust free location overnight)



the glazings were fixed in place using CA applied on the end of a burned out incence stick. This is very fine splinters of Bamboo. I shave the end to a chisel point. Its ideal for applying glue etc in tight places..
White glue filled the gaps and was smoothed out with a wet Q-tip.

Well...back to the bench i go to finish masking, and to look at that nasty wing again...

I have used the vacu-form canopies from the FALCON set throught the build, however, since I was unable to locate any information on the inner workings of the tail position, I opted for the kit piece. The idea was to protray a clear glazing yet not to showcase an empty area (I put in the wall structure but thats all)

The glazing was scraped and sanded and polished to conform to the fuselage.

Here we see the metal supports being re-applied. In order to have structure to guide my blade when cutting the Baremetal Foil,I applied TAMIYA tape and foiled overtop(looking back on it I probably should have foiled THEN taped..

Im very happy with the side blisters,they look good. As I said earlier I positioned them on the fuselage,and using the tip of my knife I gently scribed their outline on the fuselage and removed enough material from the body to get a perfect fit. CA was applied spot by spot to get a positive join. Any gaps will be filled with Carpenters glue.

Masking is the name of the game, and there IS ALOT on this airplane. Its not a hard job,just one I find tedious..I much prefer Rigging biplanes really...I do...
Thats all Iv got for now, Iv almost caught up with myself here ..Im working on that wing and finishing off the masking getting ready for primercoat today..well see...
I have a build for a freind that is taking me away from this labour of love ..lol
HAPPY Canada Day everyone..enjoy the rain..

Great work, Jim. I've always liked the Japanese "Mavis" and "Emily" floatplanes. I'd love to see them in 1/48 but they would be huge. I can't wait to see more.

Mark