The Akagi-dioroama has some problems.

I painted the flydeck, but I messed up. Now the only way to save the day is to clean the deck from paint. I used ovencleaner, but the last time gave me 2 days of headache. I heard something about brake fluid, but I have no experiënce with it.

Does anybody have another (prooven) advice?

Paul

Greeting strangers I'm back!!!!

I stepped into the man cave last night for the first time in about 3 months sat down at the bench and actually did some washes on the cockpit of my Zero and it felt damn good.

I'm still travelling a far bit with work but I'm hoping that the worst is over now and I can get back to some sort of normal existence, yay.

I've got over 30 pages of posts to go through and so far I'm up to page 48, so I've updated page 1 with new starters and completed builds up to that point.  Over the next couple of days I'll gradually read through the rest and update the roster.  Stay tuned.

carsanab wrote:

Im going to have to tell the elves to take the plane over to Earl Sheib's get some body work done beforehand.....nothing a little "Bondo" wont fix...thats wha kept my first car running.... c

  Now THAT is funny!

Paul- Like Bob said, SImple Green is amazing stuff for removing paint.  Won't hurt the plastic a bit.  Just be sure to wear protective gloves, as your skin won't like prolonged exposure to the stuff.

Just a quick note, too let everyone no I haven't forgot about the GB. I still have the P-400 waiting on the bench.

Scott

Thanks Richie, I really appreciate that!

Buddy- I hadn't thought of that.  Quite possible, wonder if that is the culprit?  Has anyone else run into this problem?

Darson welcome back

Jason

Darson, you and I , my friend. I have been away from the bench for too long.

 Our local model show is coming up atthe end of the month. I hope to pick up a few Hellcat decals there and finish off this otherwise nice and simple kit.

Welcome back chief....the elves have been asking about you....

Well 2 weeks into my Buffalo and all I have so far are bits and pieces....

heres the instruments and my version of the rudder pedals...didnt like the kit part (left pedal)....nothing even close to the real thing...the right one took me all night after a couple of versions..

more or less...heres what it should look like...that instument cluster goes in between...thats next on my to do list.

still look a bit rough...

Carlos

Well its not much to look at right now, but I wanted to post a quick picture since I havent had any for a while:

The fit on the fuselage / wing was bad enough but the cowl wasn't even close! Any putty work would have covered the surface detail completely. I ended up just filling the gap as best I could and still ended up with a slight ledge most of the way around the seam.

I have another dilemma brewing too. I bought a vac form canopy for the model, but the fit is pretty bad. Rather than take another month to do the body work I'm thinking I'll just use the kit glass (which is very clear). The kit has two canopies - open and closed. The rear windows on the open canopy are malformed so I'm just going with the closed version. The vac form doesn't provide rear windows at all! At least the painting will be easier.

On a happy note, we had a beautiful day today so I got the underside painted. I've got plans with the family tomorrow but hoping for some good weather after work next week.

Gary she looks to be turning out nice for the problems mentioned. keep up the progress

Jason

Carlos- Looks like you really have your work cut out for you on this build.  IP looks very good, and the modified rudder pedals look MUCH better than the kit supplied ones.

Paul- Glad to see some WIP pics!  Bummer about the canopy, but glad you have a plan "B".

Carlos, great job on the Buffalo IP, it looks better than the real thing.

Gary, looks like your making good progress on the P40.

Karl

 I agree with Karl on the Buffalo IP! Looks fantastic!  Gary I have a real thing for P-40's. Summit(Sean) Built the old Revell 1/32 kit and added so many extra things and scratch built stuff if was irrognizable. Should prod him to post a pic of it.

 Yours is looking the part as well!

Frank! I finally found your Corsair pic! You hid it with your Zero!  Great work on that tricky British Slate gray camo. It can be a bear!

Guys I've now read through all 36 pages of posts that I missed (phew) and I've updated the roster with new starters and completed builds.  Can everyone just check Page 1 to make sure that I haven't ballsed up your entry?

Carlos that's outstanding work on the IP and rudder pedals, oh and by the way "elves"?

Frank I love the look of the corsair in FAA camo and you really nailed it, great work.

Cheers

Carlos: A Buuffalo?!?! What did I miss? There are no floats on the Buffalo....wait a minute, have the elves replaced you with an imposter?

Paul: Definatley looks like P-40. I'll be looking for further updates!

Darson: I won't be entering anything to the competition, just admiring the fine work and taking advantage of the great deals.

Thanks guys, I like it too!  Was hoping to put a clearcoat on her today, but alas all of my parts holding clamps are busy holding Zero parts.

Spent a lot of time on that one today.  First, I cut out some irregular circles from a post-it note and taped those up off of the surface.  Then, with a very thin mix of IJN dark green, I went to town spraying squiggles and splotches all over the topsides.  Finally, I cut some circular masks and sprayed the hinomarus inside the masked off areas.  I have always loved those splotchy green/gray mid-war Zeroes.

Here's how she looks tonight.

mucker wrote:

Carlos: A Buuffalo?!?! What did I miss? There are no floats on the Buffalo....wait a minute, have the elves replaced you with an imposter?

Actually Charles....almost ..check out my post on page 56....get you up to date....forced to take a break..

 a little change of pace...

Carlos

Frank, that looks awesome!!!! I love those schemes as well!!!

Darren look back to Carlos' first build with the beaching dolly, the lil benchwork he made in the back ground is where the elves started

Daywalker wrote:

Thanks guys, I like it too!  Was hoping to put a clearcoat on her today, but alas all of my parts holding clamps are busy holding Zero parts. Spent a lot of time on that one today.  First, I cut out some irregular circles from a post-it note and taped those up off of the surface.  Then, with a very thin mix of IJN dark green, I went to town spraying squiggles and splotches all over the topsides.  Finally, I cut some circular masks and sprayed the hinomarus inside the masked off areas.  I have always loved those splotchy green/gray mid-war Zeroes. Here's how she looks tonight.

THat's excellent, Frank! Verynicely done on the mottling. I'm with you..I like the splitched look. And with the wide variety of uniqueness out there, it's hard to mess it up!

Here is my contribution to the "War in the Pacific Group Build." Its Lt Stanley W. "Swede" Vejtasa's SBD Dautless as I believe it may have looked as he brought it back to the USS Yorktown that fateful day back on 08 May 1942.

Throughout this build I complained about the quality of this $7 "El-Cheap-O" POS Testors kit but I have to admit I got my moneys worth when you consider how long it kept me occupied. It also was a good test bed for some scratch building, PE application and weathering techniques.

Well thanks for putting up with my complaints, and for allowing me to get involved with this GB.

Most of all thanks for taking the time to look.