African Group Build - The Official Thread

MilitaryAircraft101

"Made in France GB"

HELP!!! I'm being distracted!!

lol, I haven't worked on my P-40 for three months

MilitaryAircraft101

lol, I haven't worked on my P-40 for three months

Well what are you waiting for?!?!

Alright, I've got a new bottle of liquid decal film that seems much thicker than what I used before - I'm hoping this will make the difference on my cranky decals. (After looking at shipping options, I'd rather avoid ordering aftermarket from another continent!!!) Stay tuned for the wrapup of my Mirage on this coming weekend.(hopefully!)

I got the cannards on and fared in aswell as the windshield. The big cut/paste work is now done and detail stuff only remains.

I managed to get a 1/72 Italeri Lockheed Hudson and C-47 today for a giv away price and depending on how I feel after this Cheetah build I might do either the Hudson and mod it to a SAAF Loadstar or maybe the C-47 as a SAAF Casavac Dakota.

Theuns

Theuns your Cheetah is looking great! Looking forward to seeing the final product

My progress on RZ has been slow, have done the camo,and now just doing some customisation / scratch building ....... Will send pics soon

On the subject of future projects for this GB I have been in the market accumulating some lately, most of which are out of production & difficult to get at a fair price eg Harvard, Impala mk1,Shackleton have now got these but the ESCI Impala Mk 2 is proving to be a challenge to get at a decent price

Otherwise I still have the C130 to finish, then theres a Hunter, Sabre, Vampire,Gripen,.........

Yea that Imp2 will be a problem.

My resin guy makes a convex set for the Italeri 1/72 and 1/48 Imp1 kits if all else fails.

I manage to lay my hands on a 1/72 Italeri C-47 Dakota and might do it as a SAAF "line Dak" if there is time left. I was luck to get it for about 35% of retail value as the box only was damaged :-)

Theuns

I am basically done with the build and ready for painting. The last bits (eccept for the UC doors) are on - IFR probe,UC, fences and air scoops. I found it very difficult to work with the tiny PE parts , it's been a steep learning curve for me!

The canopy has been fliied and sanded to shape, masked and ready for the two tone grey sceeme. It was an experimental colour similar to the USN F-21 the SAAF tried out but never used.

I really hope to get this build done now, it has been hard work, yet very satisfying.

Theuns

I think I have good news on the Mirage F1 decal front! I tried a new batch of liquid decal film on my old oob Airfix decals. I applied the stuff, let it sit for a week, then tried one of the tail badges last night. It still took forever to soak off the backing paper, but I was able to float it into place on the model, pressed it down fine with my trusty lint-free cloth and.... no curling/flaking this time. So, if all goes as planned, I should have the remaining decals on this evening, sealed up tomorrow, undercarriage & weathering taken care of by the end of the week!

It's BaaAAaaaAAaaaAACK!

Decals have responded well to the liquid film fix-up + MicroSet... Still a little silvering to take care of, but I'm almost there - "no step" warnings are next up.

Very nice on the F-1 !

I will stick with the results I got on the Cheetah now, spray,touch-up, re-spray, touch-up that overspray...................you get the idea!

The feathered edge is to big but the best I can get it freehand. I was not in the mood to mask the fragile resin parts.

Gloss tomorrow followed by decals.

Theuns

Theuns - I'm not usually big on gray-over-gray, but that is a sharp-looking pattern!

Yea it's a pitty the SAAF only did one CheetahE in it, they tried the idea off the USN F-21 Kfirs.

The rest of the Cheetahs were either a dark overall grey or a lighter grey with a dark grey diamond ontop.

After I put on the decals I still need to "ghost" the whole thing to tone it down a tad.

Theuns

No pics today, but progress last night. The last of the "no step" decals were placed (actually, 2 nights ago for those) but are still showing some silvering on the green areas. I'll try poking at the decals a little & adding some more micro-set. Undercarriage is now installed - need to add airbrakes, drop tanks, missiles, pitot tube and mix up some paint for the rudder striping.

Had to shut down earlier than planned last night as I managed to plunge an Xacto blade into a finger while cleaning up the landing gear. If you haven't drawn blood, you're not a real modeler, right?!?!

 I managed to plunge an Xacto blade into a finger while cleaning up the landing gear.

Oh yeah, model and modeler are both alright. I just took it as a sign that I was done for the evening once I got that last piece into place.

A drop of thin cyno in the cut works wonders to join the wound. I have done it and it works great!

T

Hi guys, I don't want to double post. Go check out my completed Cheetah in the general aircraft section under "SAAF Cheetah E"

Theuns

I'll have a look shortly! I should have the Mirage completed this weekend.

Hi Guys

It looks like I'm back in action again

Finally got around to taking some pics & resolving my airbrush malfunction so hopefully have some progress & finish the RZ over next week or so

Also have managed to track down a Shackleton for a reasonable price from Poland, so that should be here any day (have lots of builds for this GB just not enough time)

Heres the RZ pics. Couple of blemishes from masking the camo but hoping to hide this when I do the final weathering/wash. Have stuck a blob of styrene & white glue on fuselage under side beneath the cockpit (not sure what it is, but it is on the craft I'm replicating) which needs to be sanded ,tidyed up & painted (the teeth decals will cover most of this). Also scratch building a couple of pilot tube/ antenae things to stick on nose in front of cockpit canopy. The camera holes in the nose have been filled with white glue & I'll finish them with a clear paint at the end

NeedBeer - the RZ is shaping up nicely. I think the colours are pretty close to my F1c as well, although I think my green isn't as dark. If nothing else we're consistent, right!? I still need to paint the orange/blue stripes on the rudder - those were lost in my first attempt to use the oob decals.

VB we're pretty close. I still think the Buff is too dark but it might just be the weathering? only have pictures of the museum craft taken some 30 years later - I used the official colors Deep Buff & Olive Drab 

I weathered the Buff but not the OD(?) maybe why it's darker?

Am leaving it as is

I have quite a few rudder decals but all 1/48

Lads I had a look in some of my books to gauge you colours and I must say you are both as close as you can get. The F-1's Tan is very acurate but the green is a little to light, whereas the 3R's green is perfect and the tan is slightly light.

Between the two of you you have the absolute perfect colour match!

Here is a little 1/72 Heller DH-89 Rapide I am doing for a SAAF Forum GB. I am having a hard time with the thing, the plastic is soft and warped. Not very hight in detail but it has damn elegant lined to it!

The plans call for the rigging to be "built in" but this is close to imposable without them breaking so I just removed it and will complete all filling/sanding and then figure out the rigging before final painting.

Theuns

PS. SAAF 60 Sqn used them as VIP transport during WW2

Theuns - thanks for the colour approval! Considering it looks like nothing else on my shelf, and I mixed with what I had on hand, I'm happy with it. Final pics (well, almost final, I just realized I still have a blade antenna to add underneath the cockpit!).

I haven't built many modern jets until recently, but Dassault & Co. got the lines right on this one, a very good-looking a/c in my opinion. Airfix kit, built mostly OOB, including the decals. (Decals were mostly saved by Micrscale liquid decal film). Control surfaces were deflected. (I've left the canopy loose so I can peek inside from time to time - the canopy glass is, uhh, Airfix-thick!) Wire loop ejection handle & masking tape belts added to the cockpit. I added a laser-printed cardboard disc inside the tail to provide some engine detail. Painted with Tamiya acrylics (topside green) and Humbrol enamels (everything else). Some panel lines have been highlighted with a pencil.

Everything went together well except (no big surprise) the main landing gear. They had a pretty large flat mating surface to mount them against the inside of the gear bay - so I glued them in place expecting a good alignment, then added the wheels after. Big mistake, as can be seen in some of the pics. Doing it again I'd dry-fit the gear into the gear bays while the wheels were being glued to the gear to try & get them square to the ground.

Overall very enjoyable, apart from my decal challenge & the landing gear.

And my good buddy Fuji approves, despite being in the wrong time period & country!

Very cool man, all thumbs way up!

For Mk1 eyeball mix you gat ot as close as anything. Just as a matter of interest, the colours of the flightsuites we wore was a lightish olive drab/green.

I like the F-1 but for my own preferance I think Mr. Dassault got the perfect lines when he came up with the Mirage 3 series. I was lucky to get hold of the Hobbyboss 1/48 3c and will be doing it in the delivery sceeme of NMF with red trim.

Theuns

Beautiful F1 Vance! My favourite SAAF fighter

Theuns thanks for colour approval

NeedBeer - thanks, the F1 is growing on me too, very nice lines. So you still have the RZ to finish up, theuns is working on a DH89... who else is in progress right now?

Yea I'mm actually trying to pluck up the will to work on that darn DH-89!

Not part of the GB, but I was given  get a set of resin tiptanks by John of "Scaleworx" for my built and painted Atlas Impala Mk1 and will re-vamp is a bit. Might put on the colours of the aerobatic team (massive amount of very fine masking though) or in the cammo of the Mk2's as a few were used as "Telstar" comunication relay aircraft in SWA/ Angola by the SAAF.

Theuns

Finally - am putting this one to bed!

This was a cheap Academy kit - it started off badly & did not get much better - lacking detail bad fits etc & was missing a few things on the SAAF one I was trying to replicate seen here

Not much experience with scratch building but gave it a shot on this one eg

- the bulge under the cockpit, not sure what this is but improvised with styrene part from another kit, lots of sanding & filling, not quite perfect but covered with decal which is not exactly the same as pictured (no black outline & different eyes but the effect is the same)

- the pilot tube (used a pin),

- the thingies(?) on top of the nose in front of cockpit, (improvised from another kit but dont think they are too scale?), 

- the camera housings under the nose (no clear parts provided, so used white glue and painted with black gloss)

First time using Mav Decals - cut away most of the white borders on the castles, didnt realise they were so evident - print quaity could have been better on these

Decided against undercarriage because the poor detail & quality of that provided

Added the drop tanks from the Hobby Boss Mirage kit, also used cockpit details from HB kit

Havn't bothered to weather this one although I could give it a final wash & bring out what little detail there is on this frame

Could have doen a better job but ran out of patience

The better the pics the more imperfections you will see here. Also the paint job & gloss coat attracted a lot of dust!

Mirage III RZ flying over my house yesterday

Evidence of my scratch building eforts around the nose here

Some paint imperfecions behind cockpit & on fuselage & wing (leaking mask) could be considered weathering effect?

Now on to some better kits - where do I start?

 - Have a C-130 already built but undecided whether RAAF or SAAF colours / markings

- If I can get the conversion kits Mirage F1AZ or Cheetah E

- Impalas Mk 1 & 2

- Harvard

- Canadair Sabre

- Vampire & Hunter in Rhodesian markings?

Looks good to me!

The buldge under the nose is the Dopler unit ( remember these guys had to fly at an exact hignt to be able to give the photo interpreters something to scale to) and the things infront of the cockpit are pitot systems

Theuns

Hi,

Is the Suez campaign African enough ?

If so, F4U-7, 1/72 in French Suez markings.

Cheers

Tony