Military trainer aircraft Group build 2020

The Talon is on it's wheels!

I changed the build plan for the -38. I decided to build it with the rear canopy closed instead of open. As if it was going out on a solo flight.

I'm waiting on one thing from Amazon, a poster. It was shipped weeks ago and they just notified me that its lost in the mail!

The anti glare paint is on.

Your T-38 is getting close!

I'd like to add a Monogram 1/48 T-6 to the GB, I'll be building it as an SNJ-4.

I went ahead and started the Monogram SNJ.  The kit of course is not new and some of the detail is not as sharp as the latest kits, but it fits pretty well.  There has been no filler used so far.  I removed the tail wheel, it was eay to saw into the fuselage half it was molded to which left a good shaft to slip in the resulting hole in the fuselage.  The cockpit is a pretty tight fit in the fuselage and next time I will remove some material from the cockpit upper sill to get things to fit with less pressure.  I made some decals for the instruments and added Eduard seat belts. It was easy to pose the elevators in the down postion dut to the elevator being part of the upper half but not the lower, not much plastic to cut through with the JLC saw.  I have also already made masks for the canopy sections and applied them, but I'll probably also use some sections from a vac canopy to pose the sliding sections open.

I'm going to do VN-3 markings.

Fast work!

And nice work also. Great modifications.

I added it to the front page.

Looks really good John.  I couldn't find the standard T-6 monogram kit so I ended up with the Miss Behavin Reno Racer version which is molded in red... that will present a few problems.  I figure I'll go through some primer 

Thanks, John, and yeah, that's not gonna be fun.  I have the Reno Racer set which I think is red.  Also one by Necomisa (Monogram mold) from the Miller aerobatic team molded in an almost transparent white, and a Revell Germany T-6G kit which is in yellow.  But what's good about that one is they added to the clear sprue to provide the G windows that don't have the knockout bars in them.  That's the only kit I've seen of these molds or the Modelcraft ones that have that option.

Edit:

I checked one of my Modelcraft kits, the one that comes with the Goldilocks decals.  It has both styles of sliding canopies.  It's a Harvard IV.

More progress on the SNJ.  Paint. paint, and more paint.  Lots of masking.

The SNJ is all together.  I found it is not necessary to glue the cowl to the engine, since the prop is removable the cowl can be posed on or off.  The engine molding is just soft enough to make it difficult to paint but it doesn't look too bad.  I made a new pitot tube from music wire, with a shark fin soldered on from a scrap of PE.  Unbelievably I never broke off the wing machine gun.  Star, US NAVY, and tail buno and type marking decals were drawn up and printed on an ALPS printer.  The antenna wire is the Fine grade from Uschi, I used Super Fine on a G4M Betty I built earlier and it is almost impossible to see even in an enlarged photo.  The kit landing light covers wouldn't fit over the landing light detail in the wing so new clear covers were made from thin acetate.  The first photos revealed a few touchups to do as usual so that was done. 

I used Alclad II polished aluminum for the nmf areas to begin with, and I am not that happy with it, it seems more fragile than the ALC 101 aluminum in that line.  After all the painting was done, I masked off all the colored areas and rubbed in SNJ aluminum powder and overcoated that with ALC 101.

With the Revell PT-13 and Planet PT-19.  The Navy didn't use the Fairchild, the Stearman was an N2S to the Navy.

With the Tamiya F4U-1 and Hasegawa F6F3.

Nice masking there.  I can never get silver, red and yellow to play nice.  Here I thought I was the only guy left with the SNJ powder

I wish I had bought more SNJ powder, John, but the one bottle seems to last.  As to the Yellow, go to Gunze paints, their yellow has amazing coverage, gloss, and dries fast.  The number is 329, they call it Blue Angels Yellow.  The red is Model Master Italian Red and it has nice coverage too.  I did spray a light coat of Model Master Flat White in the yellow areas for a base. 

Thanks for the tips John - I'll look for those paints.

Starting the Mentor.  I'm doing the yellow navy 130 BUNO 140706 built in 1955.  The instructions call for interior green OR flat medium gray for the interior.  Wondering what would be period correct.

Nice, fast work!

What photo do you want up?

Good to know about the Gunze yellow, I need to paint some yellow on a moon buggie.

keavdog, I'm not sure about the Navy but the Airforce would be grey.

mach71

Nice, fast work!

What photo do you want up?

Good to know about the Gunze yellow, I need to paint some yellow on a moon buggie.

Thanks!  How about this picture for the front page:

Little work on the Mentor.  Pit done (may look at it tomorrow) but mostly done

Next up - closing the fuselage.

Looking like an airplane.  Kit is going together well, better than average Minicraft kit.

I'm pleased to hear it's going well, it looks good so far too.  Definitely on my list to do.  I only rode in a T-34 once and flew it a little, but l flew almost all of it's civilian brothers and sisters.

keavdog

  Here I thought I was the only guy left with the SNJ powder

 

Nice work so far keavdog!

With the refit Enterprise finally done for the lockdown GB I've been able to get back to the T-38. Decaling has begun!

Decaling is done on the T-38.

I have to seal it and then glue the canopy on. Then some last min touch up paint.

I'm waiting on Some decals for the T-37. 

The ground equipment is ready.

Just a few more things....

Looks great.  Hope mine turns out as well

Put a bit of paint down.  First time using MRP paint and I really liked the way it sprayed right out of the bottle.  I've got some cleanup to do (no canopy masks available) but making progress!

A bit more progress

I love the paint! The yellow looks perfect!

I've never painted with Mr. Paint, I'll have to start now!

My Talon is basicly done. All I have left is to paint the nav lights. 

But, I've decided on one more minor modification.

I'm still waiting on decals for my 1/72 T-37. Mail from the Ukraine takes a while I guess.

My end plan is coming together, and I hope will look good.

The T-38 is done!

The forward windscreen fit is poor, thats my fault. I put too much primer/paint

trying to fix the one issue I had with this kit. The fit of the wings on the bottom. 

I had a bad time getting them smooth. 

That's my only real gripe with this kit. The rest went together well. The cockpit is detailed enough that I did not use the resin aftermarket I bought. The decals are not for the aircraft that I wanted, so I went with Caracal decals. They were a joy to use, something I needed after the decal issues I had with the Star Trek Movie Enterprise I built for another GB.

While the T-38 is done, I'm not finished with it yet. Once I get some decals for my T-37 I'll have another update.

The T-34 looks very sharp, John.  It's so nice to have a good kit of it in 1/48 finally.

In my best John Wayne imitation:  "We'ell, it looks done ta me!"

Very nice.  White can be a very unforgiving color.

Man that T-38 looks good!

Calling the mentor done.  Despite putting a bunch of weight in the nose, she's still a tail sitter :/  Really nice kit - probably the best Minicraft kit I've done.  I wanted to do the canopy open but the kit just didn't really allow for it.

And the Flory wash :)

Looks great!

The wash really takes it up a notch!

Great job.