African Group Build - The Official Thread

I said before that it's not worth a photo, and this will prove it. Just clearing out the chutes and lining the inside of the wing with plastic card has tripled the depth of them, and will enable them to look sufficiently deep.

Cheers

Tony

Sounds like my process for clearing out various chutes & holes, classic woodworking technique. I generally try to do as much as I can with the Exacto knife & don't go too heavy with the sandpaper - at some point (in 1/72 anyway), only you will know how much work has happened in there!

Alrighty Vance, I'll bite...

I am building the Italeri 1/72 F4U-7 for this GB, in French Suez Crisis markings. Tonight I've clipped all the parts off the sprues and done the basic cleanup or mold lines, ejection pin marks and sink marks. I've also drilled out the attachment holes for the ten rockets that mount under the wing, and drilled out the spent cartridge ejection chutes which are molded very shallow.

To clear out the ejection chutes, I usually drill out as much as I can, then use an Exacto knofe to cut out in between the drill holes. Final clean up is with a strip of wet and dry paper cut and folded to shape.

I'd be interested to hear how others do it, especially the final sanding.Do you have files that fit the chutes ? I have a lot of small files, but nothing suitable for this.

Not worth a pic tonight, maybe next time though.

Cheers

Tony

~insert shameless BUMP here!~

Thanx guys. I am a selfemployed aircraft rebuilder and sometimes I have allot of time imbetween contracts so then I build like mad to keep me from thinking that there is no $ comming in till the next job :-(

Here is the latest on my Puma. The cowls inside are very crudely painted, but very little will be visable anyway.

My first ever helo flight was in the back of one of these during my basic airforce training ,so I have a special place for it. Also O fhing the French got the look of this one just right!

Theuns

I love the not-so-typical machines as well. Nice-looking seat in that Mirage Theuns!

Geez Theuns, you get through them quick. I find your choices of subject interesting.

Cheers

Tony

Here is my Mil 24 in Angolan AF sceeme. I am just waiting on AM decals for it

I also need to do some painting of things like antenas radar and exhausts.

I will also enter these other builds.

a.1/48 Hobbyboss Mirage 3cz in SAAF early deliviry sceeme.

Cockpit of Mirage with resin MB Mk.4 bang seat

b. 1/72 Airfix AS 330 Puma also in SAAF sceeme

And although this next MiG 17 is not part of the GB you might be interested in the build.

1/32 MiG od Lt. Adreano Bomba who defected to the RSA with it in the 80's, also awaiting decals.

Theuns

hmmmm - Just realized this one is on the go until October. Meaning I could double up with the French GB, I've got a couple of Heller kits that can be built up with yellow+red Vichy French striping.

Nice job on the Shackleton. Either FlyPast or Classic Aviation had a feature on SAAF Shackletons within the past year I think. Very nice looking markings.

Great job from an ancient kit, Needbeer. That must have taken a lot of effort to get it up to that standard. It looks good on the stand too.

Cheers

Tony

Good call VC - I'm keen to rejuvinate this GB - have lots of subject matter in my stash as I'm sure Theuns has!

I'm in same paint scenario VC taxtp - although just picked up pile of Testors/MM enamels at half price - like Vellejo but difficult getting these & AB thinners / cleaner locally at decent prices

Here's some pics of my latest SAAF effort - Avro Shackleton 1/72 from Chematic/Frog mould - pretty old & worn but fairly accurate - required some scratch building - still some finishing touches required, mainly the clear parts

i1234.photobucket.com/.../DSC_0793.jpg

i1234.photobucket.com/.../DSC_0777.jpg

i1234.photobucket.com/.../DSC_0765.jpg

Theuns - love the look of the Hind, and looking forward to seeing it in African colours. I'm generally not a helicopter builder, but had a shot at picking up Italeri's kit, regretted not doing it, went back & she was already gone. Ahhh well, next time! (I did pick up their Mi-8 / Mi-17 Hip though)

taxtp - let us know how you like the Gunze stuff after switching from enamels. I'm in "no moans land" with my paint right now. Traditionally used ModelMaster & Humbrol enamels but had just started switching to Tamiya acrylics when the LHS I was buying them from closed up. Love the Tamiya in an airbrush, despise brushing it by hand. Trying out some Vallejo now, brushes quite well but have yet to run it through an airbrush.

MilitaryAircraft101 - in keeping with the tradition of many African conflicts over the years… I declare a coup!  No problem to take up the reins on this one for you. Make sure you keep an eye on us from time to time.

I'll be keen to see that Theuns.

I just bought some glossy sea blue and interior green for my Corsair today, so that I'm ready once I start. has anyone had a look at Gunze Interior Green (H58). It doesn't look right to me. I'll try it and if I don't like, I'll rinse it off and paint it with trusty old Humbrol.

I usually go for MM Glossy Sea blue, which has a colour that I like, however, in keeping with my general trend towards acrylics, I've bought the same in Gunze. I'll let you know what I think.

Cheers

Tony

Here is my Hobbyboss 1/72 MiL 25Hind. It will be Angolan or Mozambique AF collours.

Cockpit....

Starting to look almost like a MiL....

Theuns

Well it's not really "going again" - it just kinda slipped off the active topics list. The original post advertised "Runs October 1st 2011 - October 1st (ish) 2012", so, uhh, I guess it is still going!

Since it's going again I will post pix of my 1/72 Hobbyboss MiL 24 Hind I am doing in either Angolan or Mozambique AF sceeme.  :-)

Might even add a 1/72 Italeri SAAF grippen crossover from another GB.

Theuns

taxtp

Hi,

Is the Suez campaign African enough ?

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

Cheers

Tony

It's Aliiiiiiiiiive!! This hasn't been bouncing around the first page in so long I'd forgotten it was still active. Can we somehow find a way to blame that on the site re-organization??

Suez Crisis is certainly African enough for me. GO!!!

Hi,

Is the Suez campaign African enough ?

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

Cheers

Tony

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

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?

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

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?

Beautiful F1 Vance! My favourite SAAF fighter

Theuns thanks for colour approval

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

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!

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

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

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.