3RD ANNUAL SECRET SANTA GROUP BUILD FOR AIRCRAFT

Hey guys, Im still here plugging away at my JU-88. Broke the box open 3 weeks ago and making progress. All the PE is slowing me down( first time using this much) but I will have pics of progress soon. Heading over to #4 now

Steve

im still plugging away, slowly but surely. ready to get main parts put together.

have most of the interior pe done and there is lots of it.

Looks good so far, Steve.

Thanks Klaus, I migh get a chance to actually do a lot of building this week and weekend. I have finally figured out most of this PE stuff. All of the interior can be substituted with PE and man is that a lot of work. I have the major assemblies built so when the cockpit is done the rest should go faster.

Steve

P.S. Hey Klaus, guess the draw in Ireland means that we have to go the way of the playoffs. You darn Italians

Another update from the lone builder. Spent the weekend building, filling and sanding, filling and sanding but all the major assemblies are complete. Most of the cockpit work is done and being assembled. Heres the stuff ready to go together.

The PE slowed me down a lot and I just found out my superglue has gone bad and wasent gluing anything so some new glue and im in business. The IP

Getting it al crammed into a small space and the flyght deck.

On a bad note just found out I am missing a whole clear parts sprue of small parts that has small fuselage windows that I dont understand, never seen them before on any other kit. Thanks for looking

Steve

Hey Steve your Ju-88 is proceeding very well. That packed "office" sure look like the real thing!

As for the draw IMHO Ireand sould have won the game. As per usual Italy got lucky.

Steve,

That is some impressive interior detail.  Looks GREAT !

Chris 

Thanks for the comments guys, it much appreciated. I am now doing the wiring on the back of the radios and ip. Son I hope to have the cockpit put together.

Steve

Well, as I'm sitting here at the computer waiting for the little ghouls to show up at the door for trick-or-treating I figured I'd give an update on the second of the two kits that Secret Santa Zip sent me ten months ago.  Yikes - time flies !  I've cleared the workbench - so I'm hoping to complete this one before Christmas 2009.

Here is the 1/72 scale Hasegawa Intruder in the beginning stages.  Man this is a big aircraft !  In 1/72 scale it's as big as some 1/48 single engine prop fighters.

< Break for a Vampiress, a Deer, and a Ninja Warrior >

First some detail shots of the cockpit.  I'm not going crazy with the scratch building on this one.  The cockpit detail is pretty basic.  I've painted some of the seat detail and I will be putting in the crew figures eventually. 

And here's an overall shot of the assembled fuselage.  The fit isn't perfect - but gaps should be easily corrected with a small amount of filler.  There are all kinds of curved/bulged surfaces on the Intruder, including some concave ones.

< Break for a pumpkin and a butterfly > 

This should be a challenging kit - but it's one of my favorite jet aircraft.  I can't say I've seen many of these built up - especially in 1/72.  More to come....

Chris

Still making progress on my JU-88. Got the front cockpit put together finally and all the main assemblies done.

Hope for some building time tonight during the game.

Looks great Bossman

Steve

Great work Chris and Steve!
Your pit is just awesome, Steve!

Here's s'more progress shots.

Got the main colors down.  I decided to go with the Hi-Vis scheme - and on a Hi-Vis Christmas-ish background !

Chris

Ok people, remember way back when like last Christmas when I received a Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat?  Well, I have FINALLY gotten around to starting it.  It's been a busy year to say the least.  This cat will be only the second completed build of the year.  Probably 2 of 3..maybe 4.  We shall see.  Well, I guess you want to see some pics, right?

Why two pits you ask?  I decided that I'm going to finish a build that I started last year and just unearthed in my modelling room renovation.  The other kit is a Hobby Boss F4F-4.  I figured what the hey, they've each got markings for Guadalcanal, so I'll build them as a pair.  I will say that the Tamiya kit is beautiful.  The Hobby Boss kit isn't bad, it's just that the Tamiya kit is awesome.

I know, it's a tease.  Just two pictures.  Well, I'm used to teases.  I'm married now.    It's ok, I'll post more progress when I get going more.

Mike

Looks good!

Nothing compares to Tamiya ... 

Good to see a lot of good work going on in here. Guess the deadline of Christmas has us all building. Here is my latest progress. Have all the main components built and I will be hopefully heading for the spray booth soon. Only obstacle right now is getting the canopies all masked up.

Here it is with the cockpit all together and all that PE crammed in there. Lost about 4 PE parts during the joining process

I did get the ose part masked tonight and over the next few days hope to get the rest done. Did I mention how much glass there is on this sucker.

Hope to have more to report soon.

Steve

Mike and Steve,

Very nice work in the cockpits.  All three are coming together well.  Those radios are incredible Steve.

Here's the latest Intruder update.  The main body is all painted so I tried some weathering.  To me it looks too aggressive.  I Think I'm gonna try and tone it down a bit with a really light coat of flat gull gray over the weathered grey.  I've seen some dirty birds before - but this is a little over the top (and too much of it has that brushed on look - as it was).

Alot of the detail on the underside was lost with sanding and a coat of spray can white.  I tried to restore as much as I could with a very sharp pencil... 

Still hoping to get this one done before Christmas.

Chris

swingr1121 wrote:

I know, it's a tease.  Just two pictures.  Well, I'm used to teases.  I'm married now.    It's ok, I'll post more progress when I get going more.

LOL too funny, Mike. Cockpits looks great, you're making good progress.

Chris, the Intruder looks great! Make sure if you do decide to tone down the weathering use very light coats of highly thinned paint. Perhaps you could make it a patchy coat as well, to sort of randomize the weathering and make it lesss uiniform.

Thanks Max.  I have to say that this Wildcat kit is one of the best I've ever done.  It's awesome.  I've been doing some work and not keeping everyone in the loop so I decided to stop and snap a few pictures.

Where the cats sit currently.  The landing gear is just placed in for a fitting..

Had some white paint leftover so I decided to use it to check some seams.  A small amount of sanding to do, but nothing major..  This kit just falls together.  Guess I'll get another..

Quick shot showing some more white paint.  Wonder where I had the tape holding the wings together while glue was curing?  Also notice my handy dandy parts holder.. A clay pigeon.  Cheap, effective, and about $8 for 90.  Can't beat that.

Not terribly thrilled with the Hobby Boss kit, but it does have some nice detail.  After joining the wing structure to the fuselage on the Tamiya kit, the HB kit just sat while I pondered how to attack this thing..

That's all for now, Hopefully I'll be done before Christmas.  Enjoy.

Mike

Chris, the Intruder is looking great, how is the tone down job going.

Mike, nice wor on the Wildcats. Looks like you will be ready for paint soon.

Who knows we might just make it by the deadline. I have just finished doing the underside colour after a long battle with the canopies. Heres a few pics of the pre paint stage

Tred a bit of pre shading on this one

If all goes to plan I hope to get the RLM 71 put down either tomorrow or Sunday. Keep the good work up boys and cant wait to see them finished

Steve

Mike and Steve, great looking work!

I missed out on this years SSGB. I had been gone for a while and when I came in for a visit I find that the date to enter the GB had past already, about two weeks after it was announced. Poo on me for missing it, as I've made every one up till this year. Oh well. I still hold the record for the fastest SSGB completion in history. LMAO!!

Mike - The cats are looking nice. 

Steve - From here it looks like you won the canopy battle - I guess you'll find out after you remove the masking - there's sure alot of it !

The tone-down effort worked.  I can still see the weathering, but it doesn't look so stark.  Thanks for the tip Max - I thinned the gull gray down quite a bit and it felt like I could control it quite well.  It got a little more opaque after drying - but it still looks OK to my eyes.

Here's an overall above shot

I put on the main decals you see - none of the small stuff yet.  The only decals that I had problems with were the whoppers on either side of the tail.  They're one solid circle of decal film.  I had to slice them in a few spots near the really high bumps.  The part of the black circle around 2:00 was lost - no saving it.  I think I'll be able to paint it in using guidelines from a compass or an appropriate sized disk.  A smaller section was lost on the other side of the tail.

A closer detailed shot of the wing surface

Do those decals for the walk areas look right to you guys ?  They really are that grey/green color.  The photos show the color accurately.  I don't know if that's right or not (?)  Any walk area I can remember seeing in photos is either grey or black.

And here's a shot of the underside again - I didn't do anything to tone down the weathering there. 

That's all for now.  Maybe more decaling tonight if I can get to it.

Chris

Hey Chris, the tone down ooks spot on to me, well done. On the wing walks they do lok a little on the green side. I was stationed with a few A-6s and EA-6B squadrons in the Corps and from memory they do start off looking on the dark side but they fade rapidly with time and crews walking all over them. You would be surprised how many different shades they become in time. It dosent look too off but maybe a little drybrushing with different shades would blend it in a bit.

Hey Troy, good to see ya old buddie. was wondering where youve been these days. By the way great looking CR42 you did over at the Reggie GB. So no speed build on this years GB eh.

On my front, I have the underside done and just finished the RLM 71 on the top. The underside felt a little tacky when I masked it so I hope some paint dosent lift when I take the tape off.

I like the way the pre shading came out, cant see it too much in the pics though.

Still wet after the paint session

Another quick Wildcat update..  Color!  After preshading a bit, I splashed a bit of blue-gray onto the surface of each cat.

I need to say here that I do not like the way the new image insert is...but that's just me. 

Almost done guys!  Keep it up!

Mike

Another update for you guys. This is as of 5 days ago, just now getting around to posting the pics. Finally got the splinter work done and then a few days later the decals except for the swastikas. OOOPPPSSS forgot them, try to get them on tonight.

Now for some weathering and see if I can assemble the balloon cutter thingy. It looks awfull fidgity and it all in PE.

Steve

Amazing progress, everyone!

I haven't even started my Black Hawk yet ...

You know, just because this build is coming to a close and there is a 4th SS GB, I just wanted to come in here and say Merry Christmas to all of you.  It's been a great year.

Mike

Merry Christmas backatcha Mike - and to all the rest of the yuletide crew !

And a special Merry Christmas to the generous rogue Secret Santa - Zipmeister.

There's only a little more to do on the Intruder.  3 external fuel tanks, glue the canopy down, and I can call her finished.  I'll post some pics later in the week - cuz I'm headed off to a family gathering.

Blessings to all in the new year - It's been a pleasure building with you.

Chris