Eye In The Sky GB - January 2010 - October 2010

stikpusher

What size 'roos do you need? The Italeri or AMT UH-1D kit had some.

About 1/48 Huey size. LOL, It figures that the two Huey kits that I have are both "C" model gunships. They're 'rooless.

I was thinking about, and looked at aftermarket helo decals, I figured that would be my best shot at a black/subdued decal, but no luck. I did find a set of Sea Fury decals that has 6 red roos. I was thinking that maybe I could try painting those. I still have time to search some more. I'm still trying to straighten out my painting shed/building so that I can start this build. I hope to get that done today.

Thanks for the lead, Stikpusher.

Art

What size 'roos do you need? The Italeri or AMT UH-1D kit had some.

Thanks guys. I just hope that I can deliver my ambitions.

Now I need to find some 1/48 scale subdued kangaroos, if such critters even exist. lol

Art

simpilot34

Might be an issue for nitpickers, but not here!! I want to see that awesome camo pattern.

Art what has been said above cant wait to see this build.

Might be an issue for nitpickers, but not here!! I want to see that awesome camo pattern.

Thanks, simpilot.

I've got a slight change. As they say in football, "after further review"  I won't be doing the a/c that I described in the last photos in my last post. The Australian Army a/c were Pilatus Porters and this model is the Fairchild version. It looks like the exhaust system is different. I might still do a toothy Peacekeeper in the same camo scheme if historical accuracy is not a requirement for this group build.

Art

Art, looking forward to seeing your WIP shots!!! Looks like a nice kit!

Back again.

This is going to be my first Group Build attempt.

Here's the kit. I haven't done much yet. I'm still trying to get set up again. It's amazing the amount of essential material that you can acquire for a hobby.

Box art:

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 Pieces parts:

 [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Decals for : 1 USAF a/c (s/n 72-1316, 4400 Special Operations Squadron, June 1972), 2 Royal Thai Air Force a/c.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

 Holes to drill:

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

This is the a/c that I'm going to try for (if I have the patience to do the masking ). The a/c in the first photo did actually serve in Viet Nam with the Australian Army in 1970 I think. It was a replacement for an a/c that had crashed. This is not the camo scheme that it wore in Nam, but I think it's pretty cool.

Notice the bridge abutment in the backround of the pic.

[View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Art

VanceCrozier

artabr - welcome back from your hiatus! And I would support you in your choice to "work up" to the Storch. It is without a doubt a great kit, but I've noticed two things! The parts are very detailed & fit nearly perfectly... but if you mis-align something, the tolerqances are so tight that you risk throwing other things out of alignment. And knowing what I paid for the thing (not that it was ridiculous, just more than my usual) seems to put a little pressure on me to "not screw it up", rather than just enjoy the build.

jmabx - love that little Taifun. I build a lot of Luftwaffe stuff, and it felt weird putting a splinter pattern on something other than a fighter!

Got some time in on the Storch over the weekend. quick light sanding of the primer, double-checking all the seams etc. Overall coat of dark green, tape masks & finished up the splinter pattern with black-green, peeled off the masks to reveal the splinter-pattern camo. Underside grat still needs to be done. There are a couple of spots that need a quick touchup but I'm not going overboard as I have yet to do the whitewash. With a little luck I'll get progress pics up today too.

Later,

Thanks for the welcome. Yeah, Vance, thats what I was thinking. Discretion being the better part of valor, I figured that I'd start small. I had some problems with my hands a couple of years back, and I have a hard time handling small parts. The Storch is a great kit and I don't want to take a chance on ruining it. God knows the spare parts box just about over-flowing with botched kits as it is.

Jmabx, she keeps looking better & better. Great looking build.

Art 

Got some other projects done, so I started on the CP of my Mossie.  Got some of the intruments/radios painted.  Will post pics when they're glued onto the CP floor

Jeremy, your Taifun is starting to look ready for take-off!

artabr - welcome back from your hiatus! And I would support you in your choice to "work up" to the Storch. It is without a doubt a great kit, but I've noticed two things! The parts are very detailed & fit nearly perfectly... but if you mis-align something, the tolerqances are so tight that you risk throwing other things out of alignment. And knowing what I paid for the thing (not that it was ridiculous, just more than my usual) seems to put a little pressure on me to "not screw it up", rather than just enjoy the build.

jmabx - love that little Taifun. I build a lot of Luftwaffe stuff, and it felt weird putting a splinter pattern on something other than a fighter!

Got some time in on the Storch over the weekend. quick light sanding of the primer, double-checking all the seams etc. Overall coat of dark green, tape masks & finished up the splinter pattern with black-green, peeled off the masks to reveal the splinter-pattern camo. Underside grat still needs to be done. There are a couple of spots that need a quick touchup but I'm not going overboard as I have yet to do the whitewash. With a little luck I'll get progress pics up today too.

Later,

Jeremy your almost there mate!!! Looking great!!!!

And decals...

Look closely and you can see some of that engine from underneath.

I think that's all for today. Hopefully I'll finish her up next weekend.

Yes... patiently waiting for some Arado progress!

Randy - Thanks! I absolutely love splinter camo... my favorite.

I managed to spray the canopy framing aluminum and yet again had all kinds of problems with the Eduard masks not sticking. I didn't turn out bad but don't look at it close because the masks shifted around.   I'm dreading pulling off the masks over the glass... might be a terrible scene.

Jmabx thats a beautiful job on the camo Cant wait to see the masking come off.

Aggieman wow !! Thats gonna be a nice build of an interesting subject

Jeremy, your Taifun is looking fantastic!

Pics of my Arado ... not much to see here yet.

It does not have a large parts count, so if I get some bench time I can probably get this one done pretty quickly. 

Art thats another lil masterpiece, well done!!!

Jeremy, she's looking great mate!!!! The splinters are top notch!!!

Nice little Taifun Art!  That was the other option for my kit. I have another kit but it has a different box top. I don't recall if it has markings for the same two planes or not as I plan on building it as a civilian job.

Jmart - She's been sitting on my bench the whole time. I have four kits in progress including the little 108 so I bounce back and forth. So... here's some progress just for you.

A little masking tape...

A little RLM70 paint on top and we have a nice splinter camo.

Once the paint dries real good, I'll get started on painting the canopy framing a bare netal color. Aluminum I'm guessing.

It looks like everything went great until I got to the canopy

As for the Lake Charles show, I don't know unfortunately.  I reside in Katy, which is on the far west side of Houston (or as I like to say, East San Antonio).

I have begun work on my Arado as well as a FW200C Condor I'm building for another group build.  With that monster Kondor, I found out that I didn't have enough RLM02 Gray to do a thorough job painting all that interior space.  But I did lay down a pretty fair coat on the much smaller area inside the Arado.  I'll try to post some pictures when I can get my pictures downloaded.

Jmart, thanks.  Been watching you guys from email land and there's a lot of good work going on here.  Art, just checked the IPMS website and the New Orleans show is 27 March.

Aggieman & Stenscience, I got to thinking, I built the same Lysander kit a few years ago. I pulled it out and took a look at it. It looks like everything went great until I got to the canopy. I had major issues with it. Misery loves company I guess.

Aggieman, I'm looking forward to see how your Arado comes out. I've always had a love for that aircraft. Growing up, we had a seaplane base about 3 blocks from the house. One of my buddies dad was the manager, so we were always hanging out there. I like just about anything with floats, but the 196 is a favorite.

Aggie, I have one more question, and you may know the answer being that you're in the Houston area. Would you know when the Lake Charles club has it's show? If I remember correctly, it's around this time of the year, I think.

Art

Great GB! Just catching up with it… would like to join with the old Revell 1:48 P-38, recon configuration of course!

Lewbud, Darren – nice predators – good WIPs to keep in mind, it is an interesting craft.

Aggieman – Well, the pics may be huge, but looks good and in focus. Good attention to detail, I like what I see. Bummer about the kit’s fit; scratch that kit of my “to get” list!  Oh, congrats on the son’s scholarship! We hope to have similar news in a few weeks (college scholarship)..or you will see some of my kits in ebay lol. Oh, and Aggie, I drive 800 miles where I live and cross 8 states lol.

Stenscience – Look forward to your build.. when I was a hobby “returnee” I also started with an old revel kit out of nostalgia. Did give me fits, but also learned a lot of basic techniques I forgot (or never used!).  Cant really give you that much input being a newbie myself.  But maybe hit the pilot with some flat/dullcote… looks a tad too shiny? But you are doing a good job persevering and making the model look good.

Subrev – I love the vigilante, look forward to your build.

Vance – good looking storch! Ditto on the making a good job out of a hard kit. Too many angles for me!

Jmabx – bird looking great, and yes, great engine! But where is it now?? This is what happens when you don’t read a GB for a month lol

Helo 53 – nice start on the tracer; are the seams that bad? Looks like fit issues? I have my eye on that kit…

Jmabx - your build is looking great. I've taken about a year & a half hiatus from building any kits, but the Eduard Taifun was the last kit that I had built. It's a great little kit.

Ok, now my question to the rest of you guys. The shipping gods blessed my doorstep today with Roden's 1/48 Fairchild AU-23A Peacemaker. It looks like a great kit, but I haven't tried to fit any pieces parts yet.

I'd like to build the kit as the gunship version and still enter it in your group build. Would that be alright with y'all? I have Tamiya's Storch in my stash but I'd like to get back into the building grove before I try tackling it. I've got butter fingers & bad eyes (getting my alibis ready ).

 One other warning, my photo skills are pretty shabby, but we'll see what happens, I guess.

EDIT:  Somebody had asked if the Taifun was the aircraft used in "The Great Escape". It was a Bücker Bü 181.

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Art

Thanks for the info Bob. I sprayed last night, I'll leave it alone until Saturday anyway - then look out, I'm flying!!

Vance-just be sure to let the Tamiya primer cure before applying anything else.  I use Tamiya spray can primer and either MM Acryl or Tamiya acrylics with no problems.  I try to let the primer cure at least 24 hours.  And the primer eliminates any lifting issues from masking....at least it has for me.

Hey gang, after a work-imposed break from modeling, I sat down at the bench again last night. Got a little work done on several projects - most important here though is a primer coat on the Storch after masking/protecting the open cabin door and the exposed engine. Yes, I'm using only the upper cowling so I can display the lower engine detail. They had to service these things at some point rigth?!

Primer question though... Tamiya "metal & plastic primer" from a rattle-can... Am I going to have any issues using acrylics over that stuff? Now I'm not sure if they're compatible. I've still got a good stash of MM enamels, I'm just trying to avoid using them in the airbrush due to the cleanup factor!

Vance

Thank you sir. As for my RF-4, I have completed the fuselage scribing. Not as hard to do on this kit as on my two previous attempts. I am somewhat encouraged, even though this is a time consuming process. The plastic on the Testors kit is much nice to work with for this than my previous attempts with Monogram kits. Now I just need to do a little more paint in the nose camera bay and I will have the fuselage glued together.

Jeremy, Stik, looking good fellers!!!!

I usually build 1/72, but when I saw the 1/48 Ar-196, I said I think I might have to start 1/48 again!

Is the Italeri kit a new tooling or a repop of the HiPM kit?

Per Italeri it is a new tooling, but I have no way of knowing since I've never built this subject and am not familiar with the HiPM kit.  It looks like a fair kit (the Italeri, that is) but it appears that it could use some aftermarket parts especially in the cockpit.  From my first inspection, the IP looks fairly basic.  But I'm looking forward to putting this little guy together.