Special Hobby 1/48 B-33- COMPLETED

[jonbius]

This is Special Hobby's B-33 in 1/48 scale. It's for a commission build. The customer has asked me to build it as an Il-10. As with any Special Hobby kit, it takes some patience, work , and planning to get built.

First order was to build the cockpit. It's actually a fairly detailed cockpit, with plastic, resin and photoetch. However, the canopy is cast as a single piece, so little of it will be visible. Accordingly, I did not make maximum use of the photoetch. (I loathe photoetch with a passion.)



The instrument panel is a plastic piece, with a single photoetch piece on top, then clear film for the instrument dials, then more photoetch over that. All told, it's 8 different pieces. It's a bit crooked, but as it won't be seen to any great degree, I didn't worry about it. (Did I mention I loathe photoetch?)





The instructions call for the cockpit module to be glued into one side of the fuselage, and then the fuselage glued together. With Special Hobby kits, I've found that rarely if ever works. Also, it calls for the instrument panel to be glued into one fuselage half also. However, once it is glued in there, and the cockpit module installed, you can't get to it to glue the other side. As this kit will have to be shipped, I needed a sturdier attachment. So I opted to glue the IP directly to a box of some sort on the cockpit floor. I don't know if that was the purpose of that part, but for my purposes, it worked. A large amount of CA glue tacked it firmly in place.



In addition to the cockpit, there is a tail wheel insert to glue in to one fuselage half, as well as the tail wheel strut. The tail wheel strut was two parts.... the horseshoe shaped part that holds the wheel, and an L-shaped strut. There were no attachment pints or pins, just poorly casts areas and a vague hint in the instructions to glue it in place, and then  just sort of glue it into the fuselage opening. It all looked very fragile, and would be entirely unsatisfactory for shipping or holding up the weight of the model when sitting.

So I took a piece of sprue, and drilled a small shaft through it. I then drilled a hole in the horseshoe shaped wheel strut, and joined the two together with a piece of wire. I then drilled a hole in the roof of the tailwheel housing (if you have this kit it's part #A7), and inserted the piece of wire protruding from the sprue strut part, and applied Tamiya Extra Thin cement, and after it dried, reinforced the whole structure with CA. This gave a very strong tail wheel, which is slightly out of scale. However, it will survive shipping and will last for years.

I glued this in place in one fuselage half, and then joined the fuselage halves (without the cockpit assembly), but I only joined them at the vertical stabilizer. I left the rest unglued, so I could fit the cockpit in place.





Here you can see the fuselage, with only the vertical stabilizer glued together.



Two small locator tabs are included on either fuselage side. By allowing the fuselage to split apart, I can now insert the cockpit assembly from below. Here it is without the assembly:



And here it is with the assembly in place, but no glue applied yet:



You have to flip the fuselage over and adjust it fore and aft by eye.





Note that at this point I have still not installed the gunner's seat... it's a "strap" that stretches from either side of the fuselage. Special Hobby's instructions would have you install it on one side before the fuselages are joined, then try to join the other side. That sounded like a recipe for disaster, so I decided to install it later. I also left out a horseshoe shaped ring in the opening of the gunners area. I'll add that after the fuselage seams have been sanded. (NOTE: I also forgot to mention that I left out the spinner backplate. This will allow the exhausts to be positioned after painting.)

Once in place, I then glued and clamped the lower fuselage join, and glued the cockpit in place.



After that dried for a while, I glued the upper seams together, and clamped it with a rubber band.



One note- I don't bother too much with seam cleanup prior to joining a Special Hobby kit. You never know how it will go together, so I just sand it all smooth after joining, because it usually takes A LOT of filler to bet a smooth contour. So lots of prior cleanup hasn't helped me.

Now the fuselage is together, and the cockpit in place:



Notice how one fuselage half is shorter than the other. I will address that later, with sanding sticks and rescribing. The panel lines line up across the rest of the fuselage, except for this forward half. This is one of the things I hate about Special Hobby kits- poor quality control and engineering on essential elements. Some people cut the cowl off on one side and then add a shim. I decided it would be easier to rescribe the panel line and sand the protruding part down.



I won't join the wings to fuselage until after I have sanded all the fuselage seams smooth. However, I did want to do a test fit of the wings, just to see how it looked initially. The fit of the lower wings was not too bad:



The upper wing parts are a different story. I'd already assembled the landing gear bay parts, as well as the bomb bay parts, and obviously they interfere with the fit, so some sanding will be required. Also, I'll have to deal with those wing root gaps.







More to come!

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Jon,
thank you for this work in process. This is an interesting model, but one that starts to build it without any suspect will meet difficulties, so this guide will be useful.
To tell the truth, I had a vague idea to buy this kit when it was released, but now I think to deal again with the old KP one that is in my favourite scale.
Regards
Massimo

[jonbius]

Thanks Massimo!

That is my hope, that someone who wants to build this kit can either get some help from my experience, or realize it may be more than they want to do, and not spend their money on it.

[Troy Smith]

Hi Jon

I have both the B-33 and IL-10 boxings.   Very interesting to see one getting built.

the Il-10 boxing comes with another sheet of etch to address the different wing hatches of the Il-10, and some other details.  Also has information on filling some panel lines.  

Would it not have been worth seeing about attaching the upper wings to the fusleage, and then adding the lower wings?

Regarding the fusleage length IIRC the discrepancy is near the tail [from your pics I see the mismatch is in the cockpit area too] , and possibly the way to deal with this is to cut off the tail unit and add a shim there on the short side.
[EDIT - to be clear, you only cut the short side , allowing you to match up the tailplane with the uncut side, which would make it easier to do.]

More work than you would want to bother with on a commision build, but maybe worth noting for other builders of this kit.


When I was researching the kit I saw a review which mentioned the good cockpit detail but one piece canopy.  
AFAIK no-one has yet done a vac canopy for this kit, surprised Rob Taurus has not done one.

HTH
T

[learstang]

Nice build thread, Jon!  If I did 1/48th scale, I'd probably buy this kit despite the difficulties.

Regards,

Jason

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Troy, hi all,

When I was researching the kit I saw a review which mentioned the good cockpit detail but one piece canopy. 
AFAIK no-one has yet done a vac canopy for this kit, surprised Rob Taurus has not done one.

probably one vacu canopy wouldn't be enough to reproduce the complex opening system. The piece of the turret should be made on its own. Besides the strut with the trasparent nail over it looks very frail if made in scale.

Regards
Massimo

[jonbius]

the Il-10 boxing comes with another sheet of etch to address the different wing hatches of the Il-10, and some other details.  Also has information on filling some panel lines. 

Would it not have been worth seeing about attaching the upper wings to the fusleage, and then adding the lower wings?

Regarding the fusleage length IIRC the discrpancy is near the tail [from your pics I see the mismatch is in the cockpit area too] , and possibly the way to deal with this is to cut off the tail unit and add a shim there on the short side.

Hey Troy,

I'd seen the Il-10 kit also, and I'm doing some minor sanding and filling to get rid of one of the sets of hatches. The wings aren't actually glued on yet, I'd just test fitted them. I do plan to see if gluing the upper wing parts to the fuselage will help. It will depend on the fit and what it does to the dihedral. I'd thought about cutting the fuselage, but as you noted, it's a bit much. Plus, I'm doing this one at a relatively bargain price, so I'm not hacking up fuselages.

Massimo, I'd seen how the canopy opened up, and immediately decided against trying to vacform my won. Too complicated for me!

[Troy Smith]

Hi Troy, hi all,

When I was researching the kit I saw a review which mentioned the good cockpit detail but one piece canopy.  
AFAIK no-one has yet done a vac canopy for this kit, surprised Rob Taurus has not done one.

probably one vacu canopy wouldn't be enough to reproduce the complex opening system. The piece of the turret should be made on its own. Besides the strut with the trasparent nail over it looks very frail if made in scale.

Regards
Massimo

Hi Massimo

I was very puzzled by what you meant by 'nail' until after  looking at the photos here
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il10/details/cockpit/cockpit.htm
[I was thinking 'nail' as 'bit of metal for holding wood togther']


I realised that you meant as in 'fingernail', a little transparent roof structure over the rear turret.
better seen here


and here


Even a 1 piece vac canopy would allow the opening up of the windows, to show the detail, but a multi part set would be really good.

this is a link to IL-10 detail section here on the site
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/il10/details/details-il10.htm

has sections on
Structure,    Engine and auxiliaries, Armament, Cockpit, Landing gear.

for anyone who has not found it yet or wants info after reading this thread.

T
   

  

[Troy Smith]

the Il-10 boxing comes with another sheet of etch to address the different wing hatches of the Il-10, and some other details.  Also has information on filling some panel lines.  

Would it not have been worth seeing about attaching the upper wings to the fusleage, and then adding the lower wings?

Regarding the fusleage length IIRC the discrpancy is near the tail [from your pics I see the mismatch is in the cockpit area too] , and possibly the way to deal with this is to cut off the tail unit and add a shim there on the short side.

Hey Troy,

I'd seen the Il-10 kit also, and I'm doing some minor sanding and filling to get rid of one of the sets of hatches. The wings aren't actually glued on yet, I'd just test fitted them. I do plan to see if gluing the upper wing parts to the fuselage will help. It will depend on the fit and what it does to the dihedral. I'd thought about cutting the fuselage, but as you noted, it's a bit much. Plus, I'm doing this one at a relatively bargain price, so I'm not hacking up fuselages.

Massimo, I'd seen how the canopy opened up, and immediately decided against trying to vacform my won. Too complicated for me!

Hi Jon

Dug out my Il-10 kit, and cut off fusleage halves and lower wing.  No proper tools to had, but on basic test fitting, I note the lower wing  slot in the fusleage would benefit from some careful filing with a flat file of the mating edge.  Didn't try the upper wings as yet.

They may have retooled the fuselage a bit in the IL-10 kit vs the B-33, [now where did i put the B-33 kit?] but with some holding togther and lining up as many panel lines as possible, i think the length 'problem' might be a thickness of one fusleage half, and some careful flat sanding of the port tail half would help, as would removing  the rudder, aligning the traling edge and adjusting the front.

It could  be instead due to the need to flat sand or carfefuly scrape the fuselage halves matings surfaces, which are a bit 'lumpy' .
I also noted the fuselage halves are very bendy, and adding some interlocking locating tabs could help here.

This is from a quick dry fit.  From my experiene of these kits, an hour or so dry fitting the major parts and scrapng and sanding them to fit can save a lot of bother later.
I'm sure you know this Jon, but as this will end up as a reference build for others i thought these may be of use, not as a criticism of you, as here you are building it, as opposed to me looking at it!

cheers
Troy

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Troy

I realised that you meant as in 'fingernail', a little transparent roof structure over the rear turret.

yes, I meant this. Note that it's not rotating, but sustained by a thin strut and overposed to a rotating turret that extends under the canopy. This would be the most difficult part to do.
Anyway, a vacuformed kit would improve the look of the canopy, even if closed, if it reproduces the turret as a separate part.
Hi Jon,

Massimo, I'd seen how the canopy opened up, and immediately decided against trying to vacform my won. Too complicated for me!

I fully agree, the turret in particular.
Regards
Massimo

[jonbius]

I've done some more work on the Il-10.

To close up the seams along the fuselage, I added a heavy dose of Tamiya Basic Putty. I like using this, as opposed to other putties, CA, etc., because it has worked very well for me, is easy to sand, and doesn't shrink. I put on a lot, so I have some room to work. Here are the before and after pics.





I am convinced that these two small resin parts were an afterthought. It almost appears that Special Hobby included them because the injection molded parts did not fully close off the air intakes at each wing root. In any event- don't forget these!



On to the wings.

Test fitting showed the wings did not fit together well, and left large gaps at the wing root. So I tested several methods. I tried to see if the upper wing parts could be glued directly to the fuselage. However, testing of this method showed that later lining up the gear covers on the leading edges of the wings would be a problem. Gluing the lower wing on first, and then the uppers, didn't seem to work well either, and could make sanding a problem.

I finally settled on a rather unorthodox method. Testing showed that if I glued the outer wing parts in first, and let that set, I could then glue the forward edge of the inner part of the wing next, getting that as tight as possible. Once that dried, I could glue the aft portion. I've used this method on several builds, and I've found that with ill-fitting kits, this "progressive assembly" can work quite well.

I started by lining up the outer panels and gluing and clamping them. (I use Tamiya Extra Thin Cement throughout.)



After that dried, I pushed the forward inner parts down, and pushed it up against the gear fairing as tightly as possible. Using a good amount of Tamiya Extra Thin, I set that in place, and let it dry.



You can see in this photo how tightly I had to clamp the forward wing parts down. By doing the wings in this progressive manner, I was able to avoid the different sides of the wings pulling against each other.



While waiting for that to dry, I did some work on the landing gear. The upper wing parts have small holes to mount the gear struts in, but the fit was poor, and they were so shallow that the join would have been weak. I grabbed a small drill bit, and drilled out a hole in the gear leg, and glued in a small piece of styrene rod, leaving enough sticking out to insert in a corresponding hole in the upper wing, drilled all the way through. Once I mount the gear leg, I can cut off the part of the rod that sticks out the top, and sand it smooth. This will give a good strong join.



Next I clamped the rear parts of the wing and glued them. I have some monkey clamps that are actually hair barrets, but they're really strong. To get a better grip and keep them from sliding off, I used some rolled up pieces of masking tape.



Here you can see the work still to be done on the forward part of the gear fairing. I'll cover that with Tamiya Putty. You can also see the holes in the top of the wing that I drilled for the gear. (Drilled from underneath, of course.)

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Jon,
I am more and more impressed for this work. The model looks really hard to build.
Regards
Massimo

[jonbius]

Construction continues....

I added Tamiya Basic Putty to the fairings, and Mr. Surfacer 500 to the wing edges elsewhere.



I sanded and sanded....



Special Hobby engineering at it's best.... 



Of course, the fit was awful.



And there was no dihedral.



So I used a rubber band and a small box to pull them up. Then I hit it with Tamiya Extra Thin Cement.





This improved things a bit.





But the gap was still pretty hefty.



So I loaded it up with Tamiya Basic Putty.



And then applied nail polish remover with a cotton bud to smooth things out.





Then I sanded it down. I'll rescribe it later.



Now a question. There is an indent under the wings, but they only give you a cover for 2/3 of it. The instructions show it this way- partially covering the recess. Is this right? Why is it that way?





I must say I am growing quite sick of this kit. If it were not a commission build, I'd probably just throw it away. It is build-able, but it's just not worth the time.

[Tyronesdaddy]

Jon Bius wrote "I must say I am growing quite sick of this kit. If it were not a commission build, I'd probably just throw it away. It is build-able, but it's just not worth the time."


That's about the way I felt after I finished my B.33.  I was ecstatic when the kit came out.  I had been wanting a 1/48 scale Il10/B.33 for the longest time. I bought 3 kits, built one, and have had no desire to build another. 

[JP]

Wow, this is up there with my attempts to beat that AMT P-40 into shape.  Only this seems worse.  As you may have noticed, that kit (and some life events) defeated me and I haven't touched an aircraft since.  If I had this kit in the stash, I'd be logging into eBay about now.     Matter of fact, I may just unload all my kits from Special Hobby since I think I've reached the point in life where I'd rather not have to go through that kind of pain.