Encore/Squadron 1/48 A-37B Dragonfly, Off to the Show!

Went poking around concerning the weapons loadout, and look what I found.  This exact aurcraft has flown over my house, many moons ago.  As I recall, they always flew with a couple of tanks on each wing.

John

Hey Jim and John, thanks for the comments. I've been fretting over the ordnance load and how to represent variation. A look on the net shows that there are apparently no rules when loading an A-37. Here's one with seven fuel tanks for long trips I suppose. The drawing shows an amazing array of armament including cannon pods, napalm, rockets and bomb variations. They look cool with lots of tanks, I think I'll go with four tanks, napalm and bombs.

Max

Looking good Max.  I've got one of these in the que, and the Air National Guard base I lived near used to fly them.  I'm following this build with great interest and a little nostaligia.

John

Outstanding work Max!  I've kept this bookmarked so I can jump to it when I start work on mine.

Jim  

Yikes, I'm on page three. I told you this would be a slow project and being a work in progress I thought I'd better check in with at least a minor report. Spring is not model building time for me with all kinds of post winter wildlife conservation projects happening on the farm. Serious stuff involving chain saws and tractors and things that are hard on old people. I'm almost caught up.

Back to the Super tweet. Bottom almost finished along with ordnance ready. It can now stand on it's own feet which is a milestone. Decal time and cockpit/canopy assembly next.

That's the minor report, should be ready for first flight soon with a report on build and what I would have done different. This is all practice for the next project, an expensive Phantom!

Max

Hey thanks Patrick! Everybodys encouragement really does help! I've always built models throughout my life without anybodys input. This is fun and the Forum gang has been great with encouragement and info. All good!

Max

Hey, Max - It's lookin' mighty nice. The canopy masking turned out just fine, I'd be happy with the model on my shelf. Great job.

Patrick

Hey John, thanks for the info on the Future/thinner mix. I'll give it a shot so to speak!

And Toshi, thanks for the encouragement!

And Bob, Got that A-37 started yet?  

Max 

This is looking awesome, keep it up!  You're on the homestretch!

Toshi

Get the finish as smooth as you can, whatever it takes.  I like Future thinned 50 50 with Tamiya thinner, put on in several thin coats until the gloss is right.

When you're on page two, it means it's time for a WIP report however minor. I usually hand paint canopies but due to not being as steady as in the past I opted for masking with my new-found Tamiya masking tape. That stuff works great!. I'm somewhat pleased with the multi-color rendition. The canopy will be displayed open so there is still work to do on both canopy and interior.

My freehand camo job left a somewhat rough surface in my to-be-gloss paint job but I've been lightly sanding the finish and applying thin clear coat layers. I guess this is how you get experience, lol.

Reporting and getting closer. Not perfect but I'm coming back up to speed after my two year absence. I'll keep after it!

Max

I'm calling in the experts before I make this big step. It's time for decals, always a serious time for me and I don't want anymore silvering decals. Final finish will be gloss as shown. Should I now spray the entire aircraft with Future, apply decals and apply a final coat of Future or a coat of clear?

Advice will be appreciated!

Max

Hey Chris, thanks for all the info. I think I've struggled through on this one but I'll try this on the next project which is a 1/48 Phantom. I'm re-learning and this all sounds like really  good advice. 

Thanks again!

Max

Hodakamax

A few more notes on the camo colors and painting. The tan is MM Acrylic Dark Tan and the green is MM Medium green. MM Dark green did not have enough seperation and I mixed MM Gloss Black in small amounts to get the desired effect.

I'm having trouble with paint build-up on the needle on my Badger 200G airbrush making for short spray times. This requires running lacquer thinner through it or even minor disassembly between each color change.

Part of my problem is that I haven't ran the airbrush for a few years and I'm starting a new learning curve. I probably should experiment with some enamels before the next project which is a 1/48 Academy F-4C Phantom. The A-37 is practice for this project which I'm starting to see to be a good idea. 

So that's my brief report on the project and my trials and tribulations after my two year hiatus from modeling. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it again and as always, thanks for your comments and advice!

Max

 

Max, spraying MM Acryl effectively without tip dry, especially tight demarcation lines, is nearly impossible. If that is the only paint choice you have access to,I recommend purchasing some blu-tak poster putty from Wally world and masking the edges of your cammo pattern with it. Roll it up and bend it following the cammo pattern you have above. Place the tape on top of the poster putty, not on the a/c surface to avoid hard lines. The larger the diameter of the rolled up poster putty, the softer the demarcation line will be. The only other recommendation would be to switch paint brands to Tamiya or Gunze and purchase some Mr. Leveling Thinner to thin it with. MLT has a retardant mixed in and Tamiya/Gunze paint thinned with this stuff 2 parts thinner to 1 part paint is simply dreamy. If you haven't tried Mr. Paint lacquers, they too are awesome right out of the bottle. I spray small, thin lines hours on end with no tip dry using the forumula I just described. If you are set in your ways and don't want to switch, The only way to get a quality, even coats of paint with MM Acryl is to soft mask when doing cammo such as what you are doing. Been there and done that. hobbyworldusa.com carries Mr. Paint here in America. Fantastic product.  

Ah, thanks Patrick! I did figure out the Q-tip thinner thing yesterday. Also I may not be thinning my paint enough. I'm starting to get some experience on this device after that complicated camo job plus all mistakes and bumbles I've done, lol. Practice makes perfect they say.

Good to hear from you, 

Max

Max, nice paint work to date, lookin' good. Among my other AB's I also use the 200G, fantastic little work horse I think. I've experienced the paint buildup and spatter you described, here's what works for me to combat it.

I keep a supply of Q-tips handy and some lacquer thinner in a squeeze bottle. A couple of drops of thinner on the Q-tip and inserting it into the AB tip area, then a twirl around the needle and nozzle, will instantly remove the dried paint on the front bits of the AB. That takes care of the front of the AB.

Then I run the pressure up to about 25psi and spray out a short blast, to help purge any build up in back of the nozzle. I use very small paint loads in the AB cup, that way when I quickly run out I spray some lacquer thinner through it, then it's cleaned out well for another round of painting.

It doesn't take much time, well worth it in order to avoid the spattering you describe. Hope it helps. Thanks for all of the posts and photos.

Patrick 

Any weapon loaders out there? First, would bombs and napalm be on the same load? Secondly, would the fuel tanks be inboard or does it matter? If so are either of these two configurations OK? 

Max

PS--I think the outboard green things are multiple marking rockets always shown outboard.

Again thanks for the comments Gang. Yesterday was not the ideal modeling experience. Finishing up the camo went fairly smooth and I was somewhat pleased with the results at least for my skill level. The mounting of the seats was a different story.

The resin seats mount in a resin tub and require a lot of fitting in a small area to say the least. Finally I got them into position after cutting off all kinds of detail and plumbing that couldn't possibly be seen anyway. They still rocked a bit and needed some adhesive that you had time to work with and would be stiff enough to adjust them. This stuff is like trying to glue two bars of soap together. I had this problem when fitting the resin tub in the body. I finally got it secured with hot glue. Super glue works on glueing two flat parts together but not point areas.

First I tried setting the seats in a bed of silicone which would not adhere in any way to the resin. After cleaning up that mess, I tried to bed the seats in caulk and then contact cement each with its own mess and clean up to no avail.

Finally I applied a bed of Tamiya white putty which had the consistency to adjust the seats into their proper position. Whew, finally sucess. I'm certainly not impressed with resin on this kit. 

Well, thats my periodic report on this WIP adventure. I must admit that the seats finally look really cool sitting in the cockpit at least in my opinion! More to come.

Max

A few more notes on the camo colors and painting. The tan is MM Acrylic Dark Tan and the green is MM Medium green. MM Dark green did not have enough seperation and I mixed MM Gloss Black in small amounts to get the desired effect.

I'm having trouble with paint build-up on the needle on my Badger 200G airbrush making for short spray times. This requires running lacquer thinner through it or even minor disassembly between each color change.

Part of my problem is that I haven't ran the airbrush for a few years and I'm starting a new learning curve. I probably should experiment with some enamels before the next project which is a 1/48 Academy F-4C Phantom. The A-37 is practice for this project which I'm starting to see to be a good idea. 

So that's my brief report on the project and my trials and tribulations after my two year hiatus from modeling. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it again and as always, thanks for your comments and advice!

Max

Max, I like paper masks that are held on the model with tape stuck over windows cut in the interior of the masks, gives good control and a soft line.  All the experts say you are supposed to start spraying off the model and move on past it before letting off the trigger but I have never figured out how to make that work on schemes like the one you are doing.

Oops! Back to light gray again! Hey, thanks for the comments gang, you guys keep me on track!

Max

Wow!  Fantastic camoflauge work!!!

Toshi

When I was a kid, my dad had books of the different aircraft from WWII (one for allies and one for axis) and Vietnam. I'm not sure why, but I was always fascinated with this one plane. I've wanted to build one for years, but I've never come across a kit of it. Anyway, glad this thread caught my eye. The build is looking great!

Thanks for the encouragemt Mike and Bob! Every time I almost get it right I slip or the airbrush splatters and I have to keep going back with the adjoining color. Will this ever end? LOL!

Max

That is finally looking amazing with that camo on there, Max. This is looking really, really good!

OK, I'm back, don't give up on me. After all that masking I decided that the lines between the colors were too sharp and not like most of the examples I've seen. I've been working on my airbrushing technique and I'm improving slightly on freehand. I'm getting there I think. I'll wear this thing down yet.

Just a report in case you missed me. LOL!

Max

PS--I think I just set some sort of personal record for number of airbrush color changes on one model. lol.