Airframe 1/72 Vacuum-formed Heston Napier

 (This is the building article, the completed model is here):
http://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2014/06/airframe-172-vacuum-formed-heston.html


Since we are at it with the vacuum-formed kits, I extricated from the closet this one that a fellow modeler sent me time ago (Thanks, Keith!)
The same caveats regarding criticism apply here the same way they were outlined in the Formaplane Stinson A posting (that preceded this one, immediately bellow).

It is an Airframe kit I believe made in Canada, date unknown, but long time ago. I am not really impressed by any aspect of this kit. The plastic is too thin and flimsy. For what I can tell, the kit came with decals (now absent) but no wheels, prop, or spinner. Of course not even a trace of cockpit detail, or even an interior drawing. The engineering is indifferent, especially regarding how to match the wings and fuselage. The instructions are quite general, and a "note" advising to cut the carrier film off the wing decals with an Xacto after applying them to the model -painted aluminum/silver, mind you- left me in a state of wonder.
The kit does come with a 4-view, that appeared on -and is credited to- Aeroplane Monthly.
When the kit got in my hands, there was no clear canopy, but I assume one was there before.

This fellow modeler had already started to cut out the parts, and was perhaps a bit enthusiastic sanding the fuselage halves, so I had to devise some remediation. There are limits to the improvements you can perform on a kit, especially one of this nature, but I aimed to obtain the most decent possible model with what I had.

Prop and wheels were quickly found among the spares and aftermarket parts, but the spinner that the manufacturer -oh, so very optimistically- tells you to get somewhere, was a different story. 

The kit as I got it. I already started to mark around the remaining parts on the sheet:

 Most parts out:

 Some halves already glued, prop and wheels self-provided, some supplementary and substitution parts are crafted. A bit of generic detail was done inside the wells:

A sort of keel comes with the kit to reinforce the fuselage and serve as anchor for cockpit floor and bulkheads. I added some strips to it, and before mounting it glued some stringers on the fuselage sides. Notice that the fuselage "tube" aft end is open, as was the original, to discharge the hot air from the radiator located inside the fuselage, fed in turn by an air intake in the belly:

Floor, front and back of the cockpit are patterned, cut, made to fit and glued:

The cockpit elements in place:

Inst. panel, seat belts, some coloring:

The ducting walls are added inside the fuselage, since they will be partially visible:

 The interior is painted black, so the ducting will be obscured and have a sense of depth:

Metal tubes are inserted in the wing leading edge to simulate the air intakes:
The fuselage halves are glued, leaving the necessary gap to restore proper width -they were a bit oversanded by the previous owner-. Some backing structure is in place to receive the fillers later on:

The gaps are filled-in with styrene sheet cut to size:

 and at the bottom:

A master is created and a vacuformed part made for the canopy. The prop blades are prepared, still looking for a suitable spinner:

The stab halves in place, a tricky fit. The seams are blended with Tamiya putty:

A spinner is fashioned from a wood dowel:

 A vacuformed part is produced in the Matel Psychedelic Apparatus:

 The fit is good laterally:

 and vertically:

Options for the landing gear are explored and and a pair of legs are made:

The spinner and prop blades are put together:

 The exhausts follow:

The not so good kit engineering determined that the wheel well internal wall be left inconcluse in the mold, so a supplement had to be fashioned:

 A support piece was also glued:

The cockpit opening was a bit large on the kit, so it was made smaller. The components are laid down:

Wings are attached to the fuselage and small triangular filets added:

 Decals are printed (the ones for the Potez 621 are also included):

Primer is sprayed on:

The primer is light-sanded, remaining blemishes puttied again:

The gloss black base is applied:

A coat of aluminum is airbrushed -but the spinner is given a polished aluminum paint-....

 ...which in turn revealed some other blemishes:

 All details are added at this point: the auxiliary doors of the landing gear mechanism and the Pitot tube:

And another coat of gloss black is airbrushed:

After the final aluminum coat and gloss acrylic coat, decals are being applied: