The Official 1943 70th Anniversary Group Build

Thats a nice looking Merlin P-40. I see these kits on ebay for cheap, and I'm real tempted to buy one, as I haven't built a Merlin P-40 yet. I like your desert camo colors. Congrats on finishing. Better late than never.

Here's my entry, better late than never.  This model has seen two changes of jobs, the holidays, and now the snow.  And, this is as about as done as I will get it.  When I get around to basing it, I'll post a picture in the aircraft forum.  This one fought me all the way.  As I wanted to build a P-40F, from the 324 fighter group, I had little choice.  I opted on an AMT/ERTL P-40F that I found on eBay.  It's definitely an older model and it had its ups and downs.

I really liked the cockpit, this cockpit has been most detailed I have built yet.  And, in doing so, I've challenged myself to build more complex models than I have previously built.  Fit on this model was exceptional with a few exceptions.

As for some issues:  First, I wasn't thrilled with how the landing gear doors attached, it seems that they could have been better thought out.  Secondly, I'm guessing this particular model is 15-20 years old.  Maybe older.  To that end, some of the plastic was a little more "brittle" than I would have guessed.  I can't tell you how many times the radio mast became violently detached.  And decals...well, some slid off perfectly where they belonged, others I had to wrestle with a bit.  There's a reason that pictures are from certain angles.

As for the subject, this is Lt. Richard Lander's "Gwenn."  The 315 Fighter Squadron was part of the 324th Fighter Group.  As a group, they participated in the invasion of Sicily in 1943.  The 324th provided tactical support for the troops during the invasion, and while my research couldn't conclusively prove if Lt. Lander was there, his squadron was.  

Incidently, I found that the plane was lost on June 9, 1944, though I don't know if Lander was in the plane or not.  

I enjoyed this build, and am looking forward to the 1944 group build.  Which I have ten-and-a-half months to complete.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...though some times I feel like it, especially when I can't get to the bench.  I'm almost done (really...) and I'll get pictures up shortly.

Bish,

Very nice. I like it.

Eric

Thanks a lot, Bill! I won't post any updates on her in this GB though. I found out the decals I want to use are for a 1945 machine, so It won't fit in here anymore...

Here's a link to the WIP thread: cs.finescale.com/.../157829.aspx

Bish ... Nice 109 !!   Your work always has that realistic used feel. I love it.

ajd3530 ...... Beautiful P-47. Panel lines or not she's perfect. I especially like the bottom weathering.

Clemens, man can we trade lives? Your working on how many 190s at once AND this GB too. I envy you, dude. And hey, don't sweat that paint snafu on your cobra. It's looking great. I don't know how you do it. Austrian you say? I think you're a robot.

So yea, models must not be my thing lately. My Val and Tiger took a dive off the shelf today.

I got a cold last week so I didn't get the pictures, I will try my best this week.

Great pictures.

Seeing the mask on the canopy makes me really want to get masks....I've always hand taped them off.

Thanks, Nathan!

Here's a link to the WIP thread: cs.finescale.com/.../157829.aspx

I'm still interested. I love the P-39 in any color. Nice paint so far. Don't worry about pre shading much. You can always add more fading later on.

Ok I got the problems sorted out. All the pics should be visible now

I know I'm over the time limit, but I still wanted to post progress pics here.

Well, I got good news and bad news...

First the good news:

I got my Cobra painted by now and she just got her gloss coat yesterday. The model itself is at my LHS (I left her there to dry because the shop is almost dust-free unlike my modelling area). I'll pick the Cobra up tomorrow and start decalling. Here are some pics:

Preshading (kinda heavy-handed as an attempt to make her look dirtier):

Lower surfaces painted with light coats of Gunze Neutral Gray:

Then I painted all the upper surfaces with Gunze Olive Drab 1:

I had to do some touch-up work on the nose and wing tips and kinda messed up. Here's the result (I have no idea how I managed to do that):

That meant that a few more coats of OD were necessary which partially killed the preshading effects.

After fixing my little paint-problem I decided to weather the paint a bit by applying different shades of OD and Gray to the model in very light coats staying at panel centers and highlighting access panels. I got a lot of inspiration from Aaron Skinner's P-39 painting tutorial in the december issue of FSM.

I sprayed some panels on the the nose in OD mixed with a bit of Chocolade Brown to add a bit more interest to the model:

My camera didn't pick up all the shades of OD, but here's a shot of the right wing:

There's more color variation visible on the real thing, but it doesn't show in the pics....

The lower surfaces got a similar treatment with Light gray (FS 36495) as the highlighting color:

The OD looks more brownish in person, but I can't get my damn camera to pick up the colors properly. The mediochre lighting doesn't help either...

Ok, now to the bad news: I got all the decals, but I made a terrible mistake: The decals I ordered only include markings for 2 1945 Airacobras. That means my Cobra won't fit this GB anymore I'm sorry. I'll just post a separate WIP thread in the aircraft section for those of you still interested in this build...

Cheers, Clemens

For some reason only a small section of my post showed up. Let me try again...

Nice looking dio, Bish!

I wasn't able to finish in time, but I got the AM decals yesterday and I'll try to finish her up this weekend...

Mine has been done for awhile, just haven't taken pictures, I will do that tomorrow.

Happy New Year all!

Regrettably, I'm not going to finish on time, life got in the way one too many times.  (I'm actually using this New Year's Eve night to get some bench time in.)

I'll post a picture when I'm done.  (Especially because I want to get moving on the '44 build.  I have a whole YEAR to get that one one done....)

Thanks Jack. You might well be right, I didn't actually think about checking the full width, I was just looking at the thinner white lines. The only pic I have showing the top of this aircraft, its on its nose and the photo is at an angle to the crosses. I just picked out decals that matched the AM ones but thinner white.

That will teach me to check references, I have plenty. I will have to mark that one down to experience.

It was a pretty simple dio anyway, so didn't take to long to put together.

hey Bish, wow!

This one came in roaring out of no where - I was aware you were cutting it close with the deadline, but did not expect a complete dio - well done!

The wing top crosses still look different to me, I thought they were usually narrower, but here look to be same dimension as those on the fuselage?

regards,

Jack

I decided to push on through and just get this one finished, and just about made it. I added metal gun barrels and pitot from master. The Begmont decals were nice, but the white in the upper wing crosses was to wide so I replaced those from the spares box. The Staffel badge under the cockpit was way to big, so I usethe one from the kit. That's still a bit to big, but not as bad.

Here's the finished pics.

Thanks for looking and its been another fun GB.

Now on to 1944. 

Sweet looking jug!

I am hopeing I can get my 109 in just under the wire. The decals are done and have added the exhaust staining. Going to matt coat tomorrow and will get some pics then before the final stages. I don't plan on doing much weathering on this one.

I too think the jug looks smart.  Panel lines tend to be exaggerated all too often, so a good move there on your part.

regards,

Jack

That's a great looking build, and I think your approach has worked nicely.

ajd3530,

That's a nice looking razorback.  I agree that accenting the panel lines on these is probably not necessary.  A nice "wear" is just as effective.

Gary

Hey nice work on the Jug! I like the chipping.

So far, it's planned to be serial #119988

315 Squadron, 324 FG, N. Africa.  From the research I'm doing, I believe this unit would have participated in the invasion of Sicily, my MO for the entry.

Nice looking P-40. What markings?