75th Anniversary of 1943 (World at War)

Andy, excellent office, and the cooling vents are a nice upgrade on the kit.

Steve that ship and base came out awesome!

Eric, interested to see how the final weathering turns out on your T-34.

Mark, that Corsair pit looks great, especially for 1/72!

Outstanding Scharnhorst Steve, it's an eye catcher. Inspirational to us would be ship modellers.

Cheers

Tony

Thanks again guys. The plaque should be ready in a couple of days, then I'll get better pics.

Back in business.

Scott:  that's a boxful of parts!  I always like watching you build carriers!

Steve:  by the look of things, you'll do really well at EagleQuest!

Hello everyone, just a quick update on the little progress I have done this weekend, on and off, whilst watching the World Cup! The Tamiya 1/72 F4U-1 has started to take shape.

Wings have been added to the fuselage, and the horizontal stabilisers. Also added the engine to the cowling and cowling flaps in the open position. A little filler has been added to both wing roots and along the nose. There have been no fit issues and it has so far been a real joy to build.

I have also drilled out the formation lights, and will add the fairing over the unused bottom window. I have in isolation also assembled the undercarriage, and sprayed Zinc Chromate to the wing air/oil coolers and will fit when I get back to some building next weekend.

Thanks for looking.

Looks good Mark and nice to hear it builds up as nicley as everyone says.

Excellent work, Mark; looking good!  I always liked the lines of the Corsair. 

Check,

Here are the final pics of the Scharnhorst. I have some 1/72 armor to do for this GB next.

Pick which ever pic you want.

Steve, really outstanding work here, and great display. 

Good luck at the show, all the best.

regards,

Jack

Excellent work, Steve.  The quality of your work and the sea-base presentation is exceptionally effective.  It truly is outstanding!

I will pick a photo that shows the whole ship, even at the risk of not being able to see some of the incredible detail you've put into it; but I think the overall accomplishment needs to be on display.

And--I look very much forward to seeing what you come up with next.  Thanks for your contribution to the GB.    

The finished-build photo is posted.

Wow, that is stunning Steve. It's just about the best I've seen.

Regards

Tony

Steve, I concur with all the comments, that is truly stunning, well done.

Steve,

Excellent work on the translucent colors and the effects of the wave pattern.  The whole presentation has good balance.  

Jack, Check, Tony, Mark, Scott, thank you for the high praise.

Totally stunning Steve, done yourself proud again.

Cheers Bish.

For my 1943 project, I chose PT 109, in 1/700 scale.

This is a resin casting from White Ensign Models.  When WEM stopped production, the stock was acquired by Atlantic Models in the UK, owned by Peter Hall.  He was a pleasure to deal with; very prompt with communications and delivery.

The kit consists of two resin PT boats and two frets of nice, petite PE parts.  That might make you think you could build two PT boats; you can't.  WEM only included six torpedos with each two boats.  I ordered two of the kits, so the final product will be three PT boats: 109, along with 157 and 162, both present in Blackett Strait when 109 was sunk on 2 August, 1943.

WEM's packaging left something to be desired.  All the ventilator tubes were broken or damaged on all the boats, due to them knocking around in the bag.  At this scale, I figured it didn't matter, so I removed all of the remaining ones, and sanded the area smooth.

Tiny resin depth charges were also included, but the casting was not very crisp, so I decided to replace them with styrene plastic rod.

That said, the boats themselves are very well done, with sufficient detail.  Shapes look good and they are nice representations of the Elco 80' boat.

PT 109 was the seventh boat build in the 80' class, and delivered to the US Navy on 10 July, 1942.  She reached the Pacific in August, 1942, and was assigned to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Number 2, based at Tulagi, in the Solomon Islands.  She participated in combat assignments around Guadalcanal.

On 23 April, 1943, PT 109 was assigned to the command of Lt. (j.g.) John F. Kennedy.

It is believed that the boat was painted in a dark green color once she arrived at Noumea, New Caledonia.  Sovereign's Colourcoats paint (formerly WEM paints) offered two options in their range:  "MTB Green" and "Tropical Green."  Instructions in the kit specified "Tropical Green," but I bought "MTB Green," too, and painted two of the boats in that color.  I started off painting the bottom in Colourcoats "Antifouling Red," then applied the upper surface greens.

Thanks for looking in.

Very cool Check. Perhaps I need to send you my Aoba or Chokai to go with them.

Only if you promise not to cut one of the PT's in half, Steve.

I probably should have mentioned that the boats on the left are painted in "Tropical Green" and the two on the right are "MTB Green."

I didn't realise that Check. I thought all the WEM stuff other than paint had gone over to the US. Interesting to know. I have to gtet a couple of their PE sets for Steves British ships build. So i'll be looking forwardto seeing what the PE is like to work with.

Bish:  the PE frets are labeled from WEM dated from the year 2000, and they performed like other WEM PE I've used, so there shouldn't be a problem.  WEM is my first choice for US Navy radar for bigger ships.

There isn't much PE to be used on each boat.

Each boat has a PE windscreen, a two-part mast, a pair of twin .50's, a one-piece guard for the 20mm and the 20mm itself, which sits on a pedestal cast into the deck.

The fret also contains the 37mm anti-tank gun Kennedy had strapped down to the bow.  It comes in three pieces.  I painted it in "MTB Green," to contrast with the "Tropical Green."

The oval blank spots held Blue Ridge's 3-D printed life rafts, which are going to go on the 157 and 162 boats in place of 109's artillery piece.

LOL Check, that's tiny. Just be happy they aren't having you put on the dipoles on the radars. 

Wow that stuff is tiny! Is it going to be a diorama or just the one boat? I thought that WEM was based right here is sunny Southern California? IDK

Steve:  dipoles are a pleasure that has been denied me on this build; when my vision returns, I might give it a try. . .later; much, much.

Griffin:  I plan to put all three on an ocean base made from aluminum foil, as described here:  

http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=2527

I don't trust myself with gels and liquids.

I think the PE from WEM does come from sunny CA, but the resin ships stayed in the UK.  

Oh, and I forgot:  PE life rings.

The instructions say it is not known if PT 109 carried them, but I figured they would add some color to the monochrome paint scheme.

I painted them in MM's "Radom Tan," then gave them a wash of Vallejo's Khaki.

They had a long way to swim if they didn't have any.