ESCI 1/48 Cessna 172

[Cap'n Wannabe]

G'day All..

It has been a loooooooong time since I actually finished a model. Closest I've come lately is the ARII 1/72 Beechcraft Bonanza. A crap kit - nothing fit, one of the gear legs was short-shot, the prop was missing a blade....it basically sucked. It now sits in the back of my cabinet where hopefully nobody will ever notice it.
Anyhow, last year was a prick of a year for me (and for everyone else..). One of the worst things to happen was the passing of my dad on May 2nd. We have been unable to have a funeral due to COVID, but that's being taken care of later this year. His ashes are going to be scattered from the air over his old property, approximately 5NM west of Kyneton. I'll be taking part in that - I've organised a formation of 3 Piper Warriors to do the deed, with me flying Number 2 and breaking off at the moment his ashes are released, to be the "Missing Man".
So what does all this have to do with building something? Well, the title says most of it.
My dad got his PPL in the mid-60's. He did his last flight on February 11, 1990, in a Cessna 172M VH-ABW, having amassed around 450 hours. At that time, I was in Cessnock NSW, at the Civil Air Training Academy, however, I had initially learnt to fly in the same aircraft. This build will hopefully be a fitting tribute to him, and to the aircraft.
The kit I'm using is the ESCI 1/48 Cessna 172. I have a heap of them in the stash, so I might look through all of them to find one with as little flash as possible - the kit on the top of the pile has a whole lot of it!
I'm intending to build it as it was in the late 80's, which is when I started flying. To that end, it will be slightly different to any photos on the internet. I know the interior had been refitted the last time I saw it in around 2011, and the words "Kyneton Aero Club" were yet to be applied to the sides of the aircraft.
I do recall it had a baby-shit brown interior, with off-white sheepskin covers on the front seats....pretty much standard for a 1976 C172.
So without further ado, here's the standard kit photo..

[Cap'n Wannabe]

So the first thing I've done, apart from finding a less "flashy" kit, is to slightly modify one of the seat backs by removing the headrest. This was not present in ABW in the late 80's. Then I glued the modified part to a rail, and glued that into the bottom of a plastic cup. Reason being, I'll be casting more than a few resin copies to experiment with applying a sheepskin cover to the seat. I want to see how embossing powder goes - hopefully I won't have to fill in the detail on the seat back.

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Not much to report today...
I did manage to cast 2 seat backs, however I learnt a bit of a lesson. The less resin you mix, the easier it is to completely stuff the ratio of Part A to Part B. The one on the left is useless - it's still tacky after 24 hours. Might have to use syringes to get a more precise mix..

[Cap'n Wannabe]

I really should have cast the seat base at the same time as the back....silly me! Oh well, more casting to be done today..

[Cap'n Wannabe]

After a few - quite a few - failed attempts, I think I've come up with a solution to the casting issues I was having. The first seat back I cast came out almost perfect, but then I found that no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to cast properly. The solution was to force the resin into the mould using a pipette. Same story with the seat base. I'll have to re-do the mould for the seat base, but that's a pretty simple task.

[VH-WAL]

I squish the mold to remove most the air and then pour in the resin, squish again and top up

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Tried that, Wal...doesn't always work for me!

So now I have two complete sets, with a third on the way.  That should do for the moment....I'm waiting on some embossing powder to arrive so I can move to Phase 2.

I will be using the original plastic parts for the model - these resin copies are just for practice.

[VH-WAL]

Tried that, Wal...doesn't always work for me!

So now I have two complete sets, with a third on the way.  That should do for the moment....I'm waiting on some embossing powder to arrive so I can move to Phase 2.

I will be using the original plastic parts for the model - these resin copies are just for practice.

I didnt say it worked! LOL

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Just out of interest, here are some photos of the various 1/48 Cessna 172 fuselage sides.

First is Nichimo.  Note the sidewall/door details:


And here are the ESCI/Modelcraft (top) and Minicraft examples:


Note the Minicraft kit has no detail at all.  That's mainly why I don't like that kit - the detail is very important as you can clearly see the sides through the windows.  Also, the prop just looks wrong to me.  Mind you, I haven't had a really good look at the kit yet..

So, what I have been toying with is casting either the ESCI or Nichimo sides and putting them into the Minicraft kit.  Not sure if it would work or not, but I'll give it a crack..

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Well the embossing powder arrived the other day, and after watching a coupe of youtube videos, I applied it to one of the resin parts.
Looks ok, I reckon..

The next thing is to make a full seat, including painting it the baby shit brown first..