Subject: Re: Gallery Submission
From: "Steve Bamford ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Lehman, Shaun" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 12:59:18 -0800

Hi Shaun,
Thanks for sending in your Piper Cherokee article.  I'll e-mail you when your article goes on ARC in about 3 weeks.

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com
 
Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lehman, Shaun 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 12:50 PM
  Subject: Gallery Submission

    
  "1/72 Airfix Piper Cherokee Arrow III" 

  by "JR SLim"
  --------------------

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 01.jpg here 

  This is really a fun kit and makes a good looking model of the Piper Arrow.  All the parts fit well and it has nice  detail - especially since I think the mold is probaly 30 years old.  The downside is the clear parts.  In my kit all the  side  windows had  sink holes and the   windshield was warped.  Airfix has  super customer service and had a replacement windshield sent over the pond in 2 weeks. For the side  windows I used Future (Klear) to fill in the  sink holes and  this ended up  filling in the gaps to the fuselage too.  I kept adding layers of  future - allowing each to dry for about 4 -8 hours and  'hanging' the  fuselage  sides horizontally so  gravity  would  tend to  make  the the future form a convex curve  resembling the  actuall windows.  It worked great - a long process but very nice results. Then I glued the fuselage together and wrapped it with a  rubber band - which caused big marks in my future windows - even though I had  waited a  week.  More  future  fixed that.  I painted the  plane  and  used liquid mask for the windows,  but removing the mask left them disfigured -- once again, some more future fixed it up.

        Click on images below to see larger images
       
        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 03.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 03.jpg 

        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 04.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 04.jpg 

  The  detail in the kit is nice, including all the little bits - Pitot mast, flap hinges and even fuel drains, filler caps, cooling/exhaust holes and accurate lights. The  aileron/flap/rudder joints  could be a  little  crisper but  aren't  too bad.  If you wanted to  put a little effort into it - you could have a highly detailed model of the Arrow - it  even measures up  to the  correct dimensions.  The parts all fit great and Airfix even had the wing dihedral correct (which I messed up and under did a bit- but still looks  close).  The  kit includes optional parts to have the landing gear up or down, and a figure in a smart  commercial pilot suit with wings and cap - ready to fly you to that meeting up North.  

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 02.jpg here 

  The plane was painted with Polly S Acrylic flat white and then a couple of coats of  future  which yellowed it just a bit. 
  Decals include registation for a U.S. or British plane.  I  started  with the fuselage  stripes and ended up getting that all balled up - but luckily the decal was sturdy enough  not  to  rip and  was not impossible  to  unwrap like some  decals. Was a little more  careful with the  rest and had no pronblems.   They really stick great  too -  although I used, yes thats right - Future - which helps.

  Definately a fun build and a good one too, considering how few GA kits are available.  

        Click on images below to see larger images
       
        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 05.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 05.jpg 

        Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 06.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 06.jpg 

  Photos and text © 2003 by "Shaun Lehman"