Tanker 74

Yeah, it's lookin' good! Very cool paint scheme! The closest thing to it that I did was a rescue chopper, HH-1N. Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Looks like you are over the hard part, and it looks wonderful.  Nice contrast between the red and white.  This type of color scheme always has intimidated me.  I will keep you build log a reference when I start my tanker project.

Scott

Bill,

Here you go.  Work has been stalled for awhile as the nosegear was broke in BOTH my kits. Was looking at the SAC metal gear, but it's for the Italeri/Revell kit and the mounting is totally different.  The kit gear should still be usuable, I just don't know how much weight it will take.  I really need to get back and finish her.

Buddie, when you can, would you please post the previous photos on your current share site?

No need to go back and switch them, but one dump would be super for the record.

Bill

I've always wanted to do the A-26 from the Richard Dreyfuss/Holly Hunter movie "Always".
Totally soppy....great air sequences....John Goodman with his Catalina on fire.....and Holly Hunter looked AWESOME in that white dress in that dive bar.
Like I said...soppy....but I'd watch it again in a heartbeat.

Just a quick check in.  I haven't abandoned this build, just recovering from a case of the annual mad rush to get my club group builds before the Nationals and a case of the building blahs.  I had a setback before concentrating on my Nats builds.  Somehow one of the thin mounts for the nose gear got broken on the kit I was building. No problem, I have a spare kit.  Opened up the spare kit, the nose gear was broken in the same place while still on the sprue.  Maybe for that one I'll build a plane on a stick and hide the stick with a slurry drop.

Thanks for the tip on how you masked your edges.  I cut with a straitedge, but I never thought to do it in consideration of also eliminating the micro dust and debris that collects along the edge.  

Thanks Pawel, Pat, and Scottrc.

Getting a sharp demarcation between colors isn't that hard on a smooth surface.  If you look at the edges of your roll of tape, you'll see that it's picked up pieces of dust and debris from being exposed to air, paint, etc.  Before I put it on the model, I put the piece of tape I'm going to use on a piece of tile, take a straight edge and a knife, and cut the edge with the dust bunnies off. This gives you a nice clean edge, and then I burnish the heck out of it to make sure no paint seeps underneath. I try to remove the tape after the paint has set so that it doesn't form a ridge as it dries. I usually do this within a couple of hours of painting,  depending on the type of paint used.

Thta came out really good.  Its hard to get a good demarcation between red and white without showing any little minute mistake.  Can't wait to see it all fitted out.  

Hi,

That's looking great.

Pat

Hello!

It's lookin' really sharp! Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Decals are on, except for the two that go on the nose gear doors.  Just need to finish the engines, paint the cowlings, props, and install the nose gear and wheels.

Gloss coated and ready for decals!

Thanks Pat and Scott!

Now that is looking sweet Lewbud.

Hi, I really like that color scheme. Can't wait to see your final build.

Pat

Thanks Pat, it's coming together slowly.  Tanker 74 is now two tone.  Going to let her dry overnight, then start with the gloss.

Hi,

It looks like its really coming together.

Pat

Sorry for the delay between posts, but the work schedule has been crazy. Before I could paint, I had to fill two pin holes in the nose where the gunports were.  I had puttied the nose for the third time, and yet I still had holes after sanding.  I was about to say the heck with it, when I remembered my super glue.  I hit the holes with some super glue, then the accelerator.  Let everything set for about 10 minutes, then hit it with a sanding stick. Holes filled, problem solved.  She is now one color.  Normally I would have painted her with Tamiya's gloss white out of the rattle can.  However, since I wasn't sure how the Tamiya would react to Testors Gloss, I went with Model Master flat white.  The red I'll be using is Testor's flat red from the square bottle.  Here she is at the moment.

Those colors will really make it stand out.  I like it.  

Sorry for the lack of progress.  To be honest, just haven't felt like doing anything after getting home from work this past week.  Got the control surfaces put on and she is now in primer.  Bad news is I found a couple of pinholes in the nose where a couple of the gunports were that need to be filled.

This is what she'll look like when she's done.

I'll be waiting for your first court of paint.  This should look reeally exciting.

Toshi

Thanks Scottrc, work kind of got in the way.  Hoping it will go into the paint shop tomorrow.

Hi Lewbud,

Hows the sanding and filling going?  So far it looks great.  

Time for an update​.  The fit of the nacelles is pretty bad, probably the worst of the kit so far.  There's no bay detail, and you have to add the mains before gluing the nacelle halves together.  However, you have to glue the engine mount to one of the nacelle halves first.  This gives you a better gluing surface and better purchase when holding them together.  The result is a nacelle that will go on the wing, but one with a good sized gap.  I didn't have any strip stock to provide a back to the gap so I used thick super glue to partially fill the gap from the back, hopefully providing a base for the putty that was used to fill it. The gaps on top of the wing are atrocious.  May need to hit the local beauty supply store and get some new sanding sticks.  Got the nose on and it's full of lead.  The Italeri kit calls for 20 grams of weight.  Using it as my guide, I used 3 quarter ounce bullet nosed sinkers. Had to cut a little off the noses, and cut one in half to get them to fit.  Hopefully the bomber nose on the Airspray aircraft will give me enough room for all three without cutting them.  I think I will be okay as I left everything aft of the cockpit out.  I need to order some resin wheels as the kit wheels are horrible. It may seem like I'm complaining about the fit of a kit that's almost as old as I am. I am, but I anticipated it.  This is for your benefit, as the Airfix kit is the most common. It​ was originally popped around 1970.  The kit in this build was popped in 1975, and the USAirfix kit I have for the bomber nosed Airspray Tanker 11 was popped in 1979.  It's been rereleased several times by Airfix since then, and was also imported by MPC for awhile. Italeri has done an A, a B, and a K, and Revell Germany has an A, and B.  I don't know if the RG kits are their tooling or are the Italeri kits in different boxes.  It's been a couple of days so the putty should be good and dry.  The next pics should be of a plane ready for paint.

"Always" trivia.

Audrey Hepburn's last movie.

scottrc

I do like the looks of the Turbo Tracker.  Hmmmmm, how about a "what if" turbo A-26?

 

Scottrc,

Your post post got me to thinking.  Since the turbines are so much lighter than the radials they replace, a fuselage extension is usually necessary to keep the cg the same.  While it would be easier to do to an A-26, I was thinking more along the lines of the F7F Tigercat.  The trick would be adding the extension without destroying the lines of such a beautiful aircraft.  That's a project for another day.  

Kg,

Your Tanker 59 looks great.  Should you decide to do another tanker, Monogram has the answer.  If you can find it, Monogram released a version of their A-26 in Airspray's colors.  You can't​ miss it, it's got a big yellow A-26 on the box.  

Keavdog, 

I look forward to pics when your conversion comes in.

lewbud

Keavdog,

I look forward to your build.  Wolf Models out of Germany offers the turbine conversion.

 

I did some modeling work with a fellow who did the models for always.  The A-26 definitely had leading edge cuffs to improve low speed handling.