1/144 Mauritania EMB 314 Super Tucano

[spejic]

I really like the Super Tucano, but there really isn't much in the way of kits for them in the smaller scales. I heard about this 1/144 model (of sorts) made by Small Scale Shop at the Shapeways site (a service for 3D printing designs that people submit). I bought it when it was first available a few years ago using the Frosted Ultra Detail (the most expensive but the one to chose for modelers). Here is what you get:

Six parts in a semi-clear strong but brittle material. Care has to be taken removing parts from sprues. I believe the current "Frosted Ultra Detail" material is clearer and smoother.

There is a surface roughness that is a byproduct of the printing.

It has to be sanded off. When you sand it it smells like headache. Water doesn't help much - you probably want to be in a big room with a slight breeze going. The model is strong and can handle quite a bit of manhandling. Panel lines are deep so you won't be sanding them out. Trailing edges are very thick (a limit of the printing process) so they need to be thinned.

When I first got it I did a round of sanding and a first attempt to fix a printing error (one of wings has been bumped when soft, so it has a bent trailing edge and bent panel lines around the area). I got frustrated doing that and, as is my style, that is the point at which I put the model away for a later time.

This is the later time.

[spejic]

I picked Mauritania because it's pretty much the only national scheme that can be done with home printed decals (and even then it won't be easy). Mauritania has two Super Tucanos, so I will be modeling half it's armed air force.

If Senegal gets their Super Tucanos before the group thread is over and has an easier to model scheme, I might switch to that.

[Kingoalie]

This is very cool! I've got the Shapeways AMX in the stash. Will you be scratch building anything in the cockpit?

[ChernayaAkula]

Mauritania? With the "smiling cyclops" roundel (don't remember who coined that, but it's funny as heck)? Love the colours of their Tucanos!

[spejic]

This is very cool! I've got the Shapeways AMX in the stash. Will you be scratch building anything in the cockpit?

Yes. I believe I can get the canopy somewhat transparent with enough sanding. You won't see any detail, but you should be able to see the seat headrests and instrument panel tops, so I will be putting those in.

Mauritania? With the "smiling cyclops" roundel (don't remember who coined that, but it's funny as heck)? Love the colours of their Tucanos!

Now I just have to figure out what those colors are.

[spejic]

It took a lot of work to sand it. The material is tough. I had to do a lot of scraping with an X-Acto blade. The weird thing is the material wants to be smooth. Once you get the ridges off, you get a slick, shiny surface without needing fine sandpaper. It took even more work to sand down the wing, stabilizer, and rudder trailing edges. I wore out a couple sanding sticks on that.

I epoxied a fitted piece of styrene in the bottom of the cockpit to have something to glue the seats and stuff to.

[Wege]

Now I just have to figure out what those colors are.

Hmmm. Using Scale Model paint Database..

I get that darker colour out as RAL 1002 Sand yellow, RAL 1001 Beige or maybe FS10260?

The lighter colour maybe Humbrol 71 Satin Oak. Maybe Model Master 2709 Light Ivory I wonder if the Humbrol Radome Tan could be used as well? maybe a fraction too yellow.

(using http://media.defenceindustrydaily.com/images/AIR_EMB-314_Super_Tucano_Mauritania_Embraer_lg.jpg as picture and http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/3/1/2/2273213.jpg as a picture)

I look forward to seeing the end result :)

[ChernayaAkula]

Wow! Looks really great now that it's sanded!

Seeing the main landing gear wells through the translucent wings... potential tailsitter?

[spejic]

Seeing the main landing gear wells through the translucent wings... potential tailsitter?

Yes, the cg is definitely behind the main gear position. The material is dense and thick with very little hollow space aft of the cockpit. The Airfix 1/72 Shorts Tucano requires an insane amount of weight in the nose to balance - the Super Tucano has a longer tail and the only useful empty space is the front half of the cockpit.

I'm going to have to take full advantage of the not-very-clear canopy.

Hmmm. Using Scale Model paint Database..

I get that darker colour out as RAL 1002 Sand yellow, RAL 1001 Beige or maybe FS10260?

The lighter colour maybe Humbrol 71 Satin Oak. Maybe Model Master 2709 Light Ivory I wonder if the Humbrol Radome Tan could be used as well? maybe a fraction too yellow.

This will help a lot. Thanks.

[ChernayaAkula]

Could you maybe hollow out the tailboom a bit with a drill to lighten the tail? And hollow out the nose through the cockpit to store some lead? Although I'm afraid it might not be enough anyhow.

You could also pin it to a small piece of tarmac.

[spejic]

Could you maybe hollow out the tailboom a bit with a drill to lighten the tail? And hollow out the nose through the cockpit to store some lead? Although I'm afraid it might not be enough anyhow.

The rear section is hollow back to almost the start of the tail, but not by much. The wall around there is a very thick 2mm. If the aircraft came as two halves I could do something back there, but as it is not really. The material is tough to drill and sand, and cutting with blades is unpredictable. I might thin down the stabilizers to a more scale thickness but there just isn't a lot of weight to save there.

The nose gear well goes all the way to the roof, so I was able to fill it in with a big piece of cuttable tungsten weight. I also filled in the front half of the cockpit. Unfortunately it wasn't quite enough. There are a few more steps to take, but without depleted uranium it doesn't look good.

You could also pin it to a small piece of tarmac.

Looks like that is what I will have to do.

[vince14]

Wow, it's looking pretty good once you've burnt through a couple of sanding sticks!

Vince

[spejic]

The canopy is done. The ridges were first scraped off with an X-Acto blade on the outside and a needle file on the inside until I got to smooth plastic. I used 280 and 320 sandpaper until all the white marks (the leftovers of the ridges) were gone. Then some 12000 sanding and a layer of Future made it clear.

There is lots of distortion because it is so thick, but it actually looks like a canopy (better in real life than this super closeup picture). I've seen worse in styrene kits. Until the very end I thought it would look fogged or toylike, but I think this confirms you can make a real model out of these printed kits without needing to fabricate clear parts.

--

I think I have gotten used to the smell. It's kind of a waxy coconut. I tried to look up toxicity information on the material, but it only gives information as it is before printing and doesn't say anything about fumes or sanding dust (which is so fine you literally cannot see it unless you sand wet). I'd follow the rules for sanding resin parts when dealing with this just to be safe.

[spejic]

I put in enough of a cockpit to be seen through the canopy. The seat heights and cowling shape were a little limited by the inside shape of the canopy.

You can see how much weight I put in the aircraft - the front seat and the solid white section in the nose are full of weights. The plastic rod is the center of gravity, about 3mm behind the main gear. That's a lot. Looks like I will be gluing it down.

[von Glehn]

Hi,

This looks really fantastic so far. It gives me great joy to see my model being assembled. :)

When you finish your model, would you mind sharing some pictures of the finished model with me? I would love to add them to my Shapeways shop!

Regards!

Glehn

[spejic]

Sure. I usually post 640x480 pictures here, and you can take and use those freely. If you want a higher resolution picture, just send a private message with your email address and I will send some.

I can't promise it will be done quickly. I have some non-modeling projects on the table.

[spejic]

I finished the (simplified) cockpit interior and painted it all black to limit the confusion when seen through the thick canopy. I epoxied on the main gear so I can rest the model without bumping where the antennas go. After a few day I fabricated and glued on the antennas and fins on the tail. Holes have been drilled for the guns, but they are not installed yet. Otherwise it's ready for primer. I'm undecided on adding pylons.

That large pine car weight in the picture is the minimum you need to get it to balance correctly beyond all the tungsten I crammed in there already. It is a powerful tail-sitter. The only way you can get this thing to balance naturally is to fill the front with pure osmium and fill the tail with Avatar-style unobtanium.

I think if I were to make these 3D printed designs for the purpose of making detailed models, I would put slots where antennas and any other tiny scratchbuilt items would go. It's hard to glue directly onto the slick surface. Even tape doesn't stick to it well. The only reason it's staying on the canopy is the Future the canopy was dipped in.

[Wege]

Is it hollow at the front/engine area?

(apart from where the propeller goes).

If it were, would lead be able to be slowly squeezed/crammed into it....

Dude that is looking fine anyways!

[Kingoalie]

Coming along nicely. Based off of your experience, the 3D printing still has a little ways to go to become a viable model making alternative.

[spejic]

Is it hollow at the front/engine area?

(apart from where the propeller goes).

If it were, would lead be able to be slowly squeezed/crammed into it....

It is hollow, and it's already full of tungsten. It isn't a matter of finding space to put weight - you need the whole front section to be made of dense metal for it not to be a tail sitter. By its very nature the Super Tucano has a very long tail, and by the nature of the 3d printing process you can't make the tail section of any aircraft light.

Based off of your experience, the 3D printing still has a little ways to go to become a viable model making alternative.

It's roughly similar to building a full resin model.

[spejic]

I added the machine guns (copper wire to withstand a little handling) and nose gear. I had to redo the antennas - gluing onto the smooth surface makes a weak bond so I carved in a slot with a panel line tool and glued the antenna into that. I used two coats of Tamiya white primer.

The repairs I did to the panel lines on the wing look great. It wasn't possible to tell until now because of the transparent nature of the material. The primer also revealed a few rough places, so it will need a little bit more sanding and primering. But the primer also showed some holes in the gear well where the main gear retraction arms are supposed to go. Thanks to designer Glehn for thinking about that. I'll add those soon - it will be an easy addition.

[Kingoalie]

Just FYI (and potentially some motivation). There was a Mauritania Super Tucano at this year's Paris Air Show. I saw a picture in the most recent issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology.

[spejic]

I took a bunch of different light tan paints and made some test cards. I wasn't looking for exact matches to each color, but 2 colors that had the right contrast between them. I eventually went with Model Master Flesh Base as the light color and Tamiya Flat Flesh as the dark one. I actually painted the dark color first, then masked it and painted the light one. It took quite a while to figure out how the wings were painted as there are no pictures of these aircraft taken from above or below.

Here it is with the masks:

and here it is with the masks taken off (leaving the tape on the tail to paint those little fins):

Right now it is masked up again to paint the black leading edges of all the control surfaces.

[Clare]

Looks great. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I am going to have to check some of their products out.

One way to avoid the model being a tail setter is to glue a pin into the bottom of the front wheel. Then glue it into a simple base.

Clare

[spejic]

I broke the nose gear and I haven't yet figured out how to reattach it. But that isn't the stupidest thing I did - when I was cutting tape for masking, through a bizarre accident I ended up sending my scissors quite deep into my thigh. So that put me off building for a while.

But I've done some work: I painted the black parts and the exhausts. I did some work on the dorsal area: I moved the intake forward, added a small antenna, and added the flat base where some white bits will get added later (those are already formed and painted, but will be added last thing). I also carved a simple representation of the camera turret, again to be added after everything else is done.

After touch up painting on the spine and doing the tires on the main landing gear, it will be ready for the gloss coat and decaling.