1945 GB

Thanks guys...Jack, you'd be pleased with the Airfix Tiffie...desperately small cockpit opening, though, but, that was the design. NOT much going on in there and I wouldn't really want to 'overdress' it as the opening is extremely small and you can't see a thing inside, really.

Thanks Checkmateking: Looks like your making some good progress on your carrier, I would have trouble with those tiny parts.

Thanks Jgeratic: Great job on your little ship, those are some tiny details.

Thanks Joe Rix: Nice work on the P-47, looks good. Getting to the prep stage for painting is always exciting.

Rob S: Great work on your Typhoon, nice detail in the machine gun compartment.

Think I'm calling my two builds done, I'll add the figures at a later day. With the Sherman I added spare tracks to the front, two crates, three spare wheels & four fuel cans. Had to glue the .50 cal to the mounting pole. After I glued on the extra's, I airbrushed Tamiya XF-57 Buff in a mist. The spare wheels came from a Dragon M4 kit. With the Hetzer I dried brushed on Tamiya XF-1 Flat Black, along with XF-52 Flat Earth, and XF-56 Metallic Grey for the tracks. Then airbrushed XF-57 Buff in a mist. Yesterday I sprayed on Testors Dullcote and let both sit over night to dry. Building Tamiya's reboxing of Tasca's M4A3E8 “Easy Eight” was very enjoyable, and the kit goes together perfectly.

Nice work, Dan.  Very realistic dusty and worn look to both vehicles.  Looks like they've been around the block a few times.

Everything's done and finished now with Shangri-la, including the photos.

First up is a photo of the island, both sides, with the types of radar indicated, as far as I can tell.  I couldn't find any information for the ones marked with "?"--so I don't know what they did.  

And, as for the "coffee can on a pole," I'm at a loss.  But so was some of the Navy, it looks like.

Next, the ship itself.

Thanks to you, Bish and stikpusher, for hosting the group build.  It was terrifically enjoyable being part of it, and I sure got a lot of learning out of it.  I will enjoy looking in on everyone's progress while it continues.

I'd like to dedicate the model to Ivan P., a 17-year-old who enlisted in the US Navy in '43 or '44, and served aboard CV-38 from her commissioning through the end of the war.  He was an electrician on board, till he managed to raid the captain's liquor stash.  From then on, he found himself in the boiler room for the duration.  Ivan has been a friend for over twenty years, and celebrated his 89th birthday on 27 November this year.

For the front page, I think the last photo above would be good.  I wanted to capture the same angle as the picture of the real ship.  A year after the war, she hadn't changed very much.

Thanks again, everyone!

Very nice indeed. Good job with Measure 21 which is not loveable - but definitely closer to gray than blue. But no airplanes perfectly weathered and mounting decals? Are you sane or something.

Eric

Thanks, Eric.  Planes in the future; the ones in the kit were shabby.

EBergerud

Very nice indeed. Good job with Measure 21 which is not loveable - but definitely closer to gray than blue. But no airplanes perfectly weathered and mounting decals? Are you sane or something.

Eric

He's waiting for the photo-etch assembled crewmen figures like in the photo before he places the aircraft!  Isn't that right, CMK02? 

You're right, Gary.  But I'm waiting until they make one that looks like John Wayne.

I see you live in Longview.  Wife and I lived in Tyler for a year, back in the '80's.  We'd drive over to Longview every now and then.  Y'all had a better mall.

Dan: Your Sherman and Hetzer are fantastic. The weathering you have done is really exceptional and definitely captures the realism of heavy use in the field. The extra gear is nicely done on the Sherman. Thank you for sharing your armor skills with us.

Check: Simply outstanding. Although, like Eric pointed out, the measure 21 is not the most eye catching scheme, you have done a stellar job of capturing the look of Shangi-La. You sure don't give yourself enough credit for your ship building skills as they are first rate. Your PE work on the antennas and radar sure paid off in spades. Stunning carrier indeed. I want to thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and techniques. I sure hope I'm able to translate a fraction of what you've taught me into my boat. Sure looking forward to seeing this in the future with a "busy" flight deck.

Congratulations to you both for your GB completions!

Dan, thanks, and those are some great finished armour builds you have presented here.    Although the Hezter scheme is more interesting, I'm unable to pick a favourite as they are both equally well done.

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Check, congrats on the completetion, and nice tribute to your friend and the ship itself.   Great job too on updating her to her final layout of the war, really admire how committed you were to this.

regards,
Jack

WOW, i go to bed for one night an dthis is what i wake up to, 3 really nice completed builds.

Dan, i love the finish you have got with both os those. Great dust effect on the Sherman and the hetzer looks nice a gruby but really not over done, awsome builds.

Check, i am still amazed at your work on these ships in this scale, some amazing detail, and thanks for labelling all those antenna's.

Brilliant work guys, and thanks for sharing them all with us. I'll get some pics up later. 

I've got a couple weeks with almost zero to do. Going to try to get one more in. I was thinking an IL2 but can't rush something like that. Instead we're going to try a Bego Kubelwagen. Nope, not from the Ukraine. Bego was/is Japanese - became Tasca a few years back, and now is Asuka. Anyway, it looks like a really sweet kit. As you can see, it's already got dark primer on it.

Eric

Right, we are all updated, thanks guys.

Quick update, just sprayed a satin finsih overall, so tomorrow can add a little weathering to the hull.  With the photo close up, can see some dust requires knocking down too.

Still need to add the flag, but have to print my own as the supplied decal has the red out of register.

regards,

Jack

Hi Bish,

I'm hoping I can sneak into this GB late with this thing

It's from Berna Decals sheet 72-45 German Aircraft in French Service. I reckon I can just about get her done by 31st December, in line with the GB finish date. I'll use the Hasegawa 1/72 190A-5 for it.

Hope it's ok.

Cheers

Tony

It sure is ok Tony, got you added to the roster. And of course you don't have to stress to much by finishing at the end of the month just to rush it.

Jack: Whoa! That is outstanding.

Tony: Glad to have you join us. That will be a sweet subject. Those Hasegawa 1/72 190's are nice kits. I finished one of their F-8's not to long ago.

Fantastic work guys!! Well done...

Some progress on the Typhoon. Got the landing gear installed, canopy intalled and masked and the pre-shading done. 

Rob, looking forward to the paint on the Tiffie.  Not too often I see pre-shading with solid blocks filled in  like that, but should be great.
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Thanks Bish, Joe, Check and Rob.
I understand now (or maybe I had forgotten), the woes of knocking PE bits off a ship model.  Not much room to hold while adding the finishing touches.  So about half the bench time put in today was re-affixing both rails on port side, a couple AA mounts, and a crew figure.
Should of done more research on the Kriegsmarine flag.  Copying the dimensions provided in the kit results in one way too large.  I endeded up shrinking the artwork down 50% after reading this forum thread:

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267846&highlight=large+rkf

Based on ship tonnage, flag size as follows:

#3 (50x85cm), and #5 (80x135cm), both used on vessels up to 500 tons, such U/E-boats.

#6 (100x170cm), and #7 (150x250cm), used on ships between 500 to 1500 tons.

#8 (200x335cm), and #10 (300x500cm), for ships over 1500 tons, like the cruiser Leipzig (8,380 tons).

#11 (400x670cm), and #12 (450x750cm), used on ships over 10,000 tons, like the battleships Graf Spea (12K-16K tons), and the Bismarck (50,405 tons).

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Anyhow, here is the original one I put together (600 dpi) if anyone wants to save for a future project.  The size is likely good for a destroyer size vessel at 1/700 scale.

regards,
Jack

Jack, ye,i can imagine trying to handle that and add the PE would not be easy.

Now thats useful info. I didn't know the flags size depended on the size of the ship. I got some fabric ones for my 72nd U-boats and thoguht i could use those for my E-Boat as well, going to have to check that. Thanks, thats really useful.

More off topic stuff about airbrush cleaning, but I was wondering which direction I should use the reamer from, in other words do I need to take the nozzle off and clean from the direction of airflow, or can I just stick the reamer through the tip of the airbrush/nozzle? 

Another thing is, part of the reason the moisture trap may not be working for me is that I've been using it horizontally, not vertically. 

Also, I basically finished the JS-3 last weekend, so I'll be uploading my final build update in a few days.