IDF Group Build Mk. II 2010-2011

Nice going mike.

Well here's a pic of the manual, no parts call for the nose gear housing, why I got confused is that most of the parts used for this section are on the one sprue, but the F-16I uses different ones

The manual

the replacement sprue on the right and the correct parts I should of used on bottom right.

The bad bit. I was originally only going to replace the intake mouth and cut open and use the intake tube but since I got the whole sprue with part son it as well I figure why bother. I still need the vertical bar on the inside of the mouth but that shouldnt be to hard to remove.

Andrew

More progress to report today, I unmasked the tail stripes and found them very sharp, no bleedunder whatever. A tiny scuff in one or two places to be touched up later, that's all. Here's the unmasked tail:

And here's the remasked tail, ready for overall spraying:

I thought I would have had the paint on today, but this kit seemed to chuckle ominously, and at the first opportunity reminded me in no uncertain terms that it is a Hobbycraft kit, not a Hasegawa...

I thought all I had to do was add the tiny bits and get her into colour, but...

1) The canon gondolas feature two pegs that go into holes in the wing. The starboard gondola fits, the port doesn't (trim a peg, no big deal...) The canon barrels are so delicate they break as you're handling them, such as to rub down filler in their visible gaps... (One barrel reglued, the other completely off and both it and the stub drilled to be reattached with a wire pin... No bets will be taken as to whether the other one survives the painting procedure without similar surgery.)

2) Tailwheel attachment -- long or short? Fairing or not? Hobbycraft's committee-effect struck again here, as the hole in the fuselage was so large the tailwheel strut waggled in the hole, but the hole in the optional fairing was so small the strut would not pass through it (shave down strut, drill out fairing...)

3) Centreline droptank: I've seen this model built with the tank and I considered it: the adaptor fits the fuselage holes perfectly, but... The four pegs do not match up with the locators on the tank AT ALL. Sigh... I could source these parts as unused Hasegawa bits from a 109 K-4, but... The '48 war was a defensive one, Israel is a small country, it stands to reason the longrange tanks were removed to increase manoeuvrability when the planes arrived, so it's fair to depict the aircraft without it. The S-199 painted up as 120.D in the museum today is displayed without it.

So, at this point the canon gondolas are on, the tailwheel is mounted (short, with the fairing, mirroring Aeromaster's research), and the droptank is omitted. I have the aileron balance horns and fuselage gun muzzles to add, four tiny parts which will doubtless give me cause to profane, but hopefully I'll be painting again tomorrow.

I'm thinking of giving preshading a try, as a monochromatic bird it's a perfect canvas for getting that show-through effect. So, first thing, I'll load up some XF-1 and follow the panel lines. Then mix up Bondo's formula for Israeli camo, add gloss to bring up a sheen (unless I do some experiments with satin topcoat first...) and lay down the colour.

Cheers, thanks for looking, Mike/TB379

John -- I used your tip of double-coating the white to avoid bleed-under when I finally came to grips with the rudder of my S-199 today. Then I mixed the insignia red from Tamiya acrylics, 25 parts XF-7, 2 parts XF-3 and 1 part XF-1. Even so, it still seems a bit dark, yet the bare XF-7 seems too bright.

I also resprayed the spinner cone (over a satin white basecoat to aid luiminoscity, not that I can actually see any difference from the first time I sprayed it red, so maybe these paints are more opaque than I thought...):

I have the paints to mix the camo shade, and I'll sort out a lustre with satincoats of some sort, certainly 120.D in the museum today is high gloss. I'm hoping I might have this one done in the near future, and that's a good thing, because...

I just received in the post Aademy's M-51 Isherman and I must say it's a very sweet looking kit! It's rather calling to me, and if I can complete the Merk II from IDF I in time, I would love to throw the Isherman into the IDF II melting pot as well! Would that be okay, White?

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Vincent thanks for the links, would also love to see the LAV pics.

On a different note. My F-16 after making a start on it again I noticed a problem, the instuctions didn't give the part numbers for the nose gear housing to use and I used the wrong ones (then discovered the correct ones after all glued and dried to other parts). I emailed kinetic and they sent me out a replacement sprue for the part I needed (for the cost of postage, great friendly service from them). I got that Thursday so should be able to start again (again) this next week sometime. Pics soon

Andrew

Hay Konigwolf I have some photos of a full scratch-built interior., of a LAV that I will use to help in one of my LAV projects. If you want I'll upload them to my open photobucket album and send you a link in (IM).

An thanks for your comments and getting inspiration from my work. Here's some of my interior and exterior scratch work on an M3A3 Bradley.

Scratch work on one M3A3 Bradley OIF

Go here to see all the projects I have on going Vincent White's full work bench

Hi guys, kinda fell off the planet for a couple of months (ok about 5) been working on my Sufa a bit, finished getting the intake puttied and painted white just have to do the grey just on the inside. Nothing really photo worthy. should be there soon.

White, your build is amazing. I have dreams of onday scratching the interior of an ASLAV-25 and your a true inspiration.

Mike nice perservering on the BF -109errr S-199. I have a Hobby Craft A-4E/F that I'm not looking fwd to (I did the seat and the pit looks 60's airfix or worse).

Andrew

Hello every on and how hs your holydays bean? Fine on my end. Here's some progress work on my set of RCWS. I now have three for my three IDF projects.

I'm close to the end of adding fine detail to this RCWS, so here's what I look's like so far...

Here's some more work on my Achzairt from 2 days ago.

I'm woring on cuttting this over sized part down and I'll have new photos of the thing later..

Now the LIC commanders cupola is next...

Here's the figuers I'm working on and some progress photos of my Achzarit IFV.

Hello every one< I hope you all had a verey nice Turkey day. Here some of my progress.

Everybody's looking good.........

I'm still alive, just have had zip for modeling time lately, but hope to get back to the bench shortly.

Thank's for the link on the Yom Kippur war photo's , there are some awesome pic's on that site .

Mike , I recently read a tip in a back issue of FSM on painting/airbrushing stripes on tail rudders etc ;

After airbrushing the white and then cutting your strips of masking tape to cover the area you wish to remain white , you then airbrush a couple more of coats of white first to seal the edges of the masking tape , this helps from any of the next "darker color" paint bleeding under the tape .

HTH ;

                          John .

WoW that's a lot of little parts, look like fun. Here a photo link on the Yum Kippur War for any one that need's it: Yum Kippur War Photos

I did a little preliminary airbrushing on the M19 Transporter parts ;

I mixed Tamiya XF-62 Olive Drab with X-2 White 50/50 for a light olive drab base coat . I'll start glueing the truck cabin and trailer pieces next .

Also a little work on the M113 ;

I mixed Tamiya XF-71 and X-2 , 3:1 for a light interior green on the insides of the M113 .

For a base coat on the outside I mixed equal parts of XF-57+XF-59+XF-20 , for a Yom Kippur War "Sinai Grey"

I found a couple of stowage racks to add to the sides of the M113 as well as a couple of upper rails .

I'm not sure which type of external exhaust to use , a solid piece or the flexible type ????

Lot's of glueing tomorrow , I'm happy with the paint colors so far .

                                 John .

Hi everyone ;

I was thinking of having a go at some 1/72 scale Israeli Armor builds and I have come up with these four kits ;

Firstly Revell's 1/72 Magach 3 [105mm] M48 ; The kit has markings for 7th Armored Brigade , Sinai 1973 .

Along side her the Airfix M3A1 Half-Track ...

Also the 1/72 Revell M19 Transporter also with makings from the 7th Armored Brigade as well as a Italeri M113 A1 ...

Revell's paint instructions call for the Magach 3 to be beige in color , where as the M19 is in light Olive Drab .

I'm unsure what color scheme to do the M3A1 Half-Track and the M113 A1 ; I'm thinking probably light Olive Drab like the M19 but I'm not really sure ???

Anyway I'm hoping these four kits would be suitable for the time frame of around the Yom Kippur War .

Suggestions and advice are most welcome , I'll make a start on the Revell M48 and M19 kits today .

                              John .

A smidgeon of progress, I got the white onto the bird today. I mixed flat and gloss white for a satin finish (Tamiya acrylics) and applied them by airbrush. The paint was too thin and ran a bit, so I'll smooth it out with 2000-grit paper, sanding wet. I also put the spinner cone into white, so that the red will have equal luminoscity to the same shade at the tail. I sprayed the spinner a mixed flat red ages ago and it was okay but ... dull. It really needed the white primer!

Okay, here she is:

The white doesn't show up much in this shot, but the other colours should be a good contrast.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Hi White -- thankyou so much for the kind words! I put off this job for a long time because I knew deep down it would have to be from scratch, and I guess Eduard mask sets have made me lazy!

The IDF Knife will be getting some attention in the near future, and I will definitely be posting pics of how I do the rudder masking. I'm off overseas for a couple of weeks at the end of the month and I would like to have this one finished in that timeframe. If I'd been on schedule I should have had the paint on by now, in fact, but real life always gets in the way.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thanks "Thunder" for your comments man, I must point out that I have never seen any one, detal mask as well as you M8. I can't wate to see your masking work on the stripes. (If you choose to show it)....

White -- stunning work! The figures are amazing, how you get such life in 35th scale I do not know! This will be a showpiece, I envy your research materials, dedication to subject, perseverence ... and eyesight!

Only a bit to report -- I got the cockpit masked and sprayed. The windscreen no more fit thanthe canopy did, so I gritted my teeth and got on with it. All panes were masked froms cratch with Tamiya tape, then I masked over the completed cockpit and back of the windscreen before laying on some XF-63 standing in for RLM-66:

Next up, satin white on the tail, and mask the stripes...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Here's a bit more to look at....

Here's a bit of work for this day/knight...

Here's a nice side view....

More to come......

Here's a bit more work done.

Hi Mike ;

Sorry to hear about the poor fit of the canopy ;

Good on ya for perserving with the build though

I know what you mean about the rudder decals , when I built a few 1/72 IDF Spitfire's last year , the Chevron rudder decals from the Sky Decals IAF First Fighters sheet were way too big , so I did what you are thinking about and airbrushed white first then masked and added the red bands . It worked out okay .

Best of luck ;

                                     John .

Hi guys,

The canopy of the Hobbycraft Avia was a nuisance and so too was the windscreen. As usual, Hobbycraft seems to have been engineered by a committee, and the canopy subcommittee was working from diffrerent measurements to the fuselage subcommittee. The windscreen matches the canopy, so it does not fit the fuselage... All I can do is set up one side correctly and ignore the other! (Replacement vac canopy in future...)

Here is the windscreen masked (from scratch, once again, the dimensions of this canopy are much smaller than those of Hasegawa's version of the same thing and for which the Eduard masks were designed -- masking from scratch really makes me appreciate the precut items):

Also, the small intake/fairing under the nmose is now in place. I had to take a best guess at placement, Hobbycraft certainly didn't know exactly where it went and that structure is obscured in all my reference photos. The only certainty is that 120.D didn't have the big intake/radiator under the nose, so by default it was the small one.

I'm starting to think in terms of paint. I picked up Tamiya XF-12 IJN Grey yesterday and will use Bondo's mixing ratio. While no photos I have show the wheelwells, an underside view of another completed model suggests the wheel wells were the overall camo colour, which would make sense if the aircraft were being prepared as quickly as humanly possible. The gear legs on 120.D in the museum today seem to be a cooler, bluer grey shade, but the inside of the gear bay doors looks like a match for the rest of the aircraft. Likewise, her prop blades are now in overall camo colour, while an older photo shows them black with yellow spinners, and some models are finished in RLM 70, which seems likely for the operational aircraft in 1948.

Aeromaster's sheet includes the red and white chevron rudder but the decal is much larger than the rudder and seems to be meant to be trimmed around after application. Getting the chevrons to match up seamlessly at the trailing edge of the rudder sounds very dodgy to me under those circumstances, so I'm thinking of painting the tail instead -- satin white, mask the six white bands on each side, satin red (and matching spinner cone), then mask the rudder and fin cap completely.

I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel on this one, and when she's done I'll turn my attention to finishing the Merkava II from IDF I.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Ok I repainted the M113's interior with a lighter color.

An I added grees plugs to the drive sprockets of the Achzarit APC/IFV.

Here's a look at the real wheels, with colored plugs and whit out color.

Now the painted sprocket.... :D

Thanks Thunder for the comments, I have a lot more to build and then I'll have a lot of realy small detailed work to do. I love your masking work keep it up M8.

White -- your scratchbuilding is inspirational and reminds me how much fun it used to be engineering in styrene sheet!

Well, it took two sessions of fiddling, but the S-199 canopy is masked for painting inside and out:

Now for cockpit grey inside, mask again and set aside for the overall colour on the outside. Speaking of which, I'll need to hit the LHS for the shades Bondo used (way back in this thread...). I could go with RLM 02, but it just wouldn't be right, so a mixed "Sinai Grey" it is.

Cheers, M/TB379

Hello guys Im sorry I have neglected posting my new work., so here what I have so far on the Namera Mk. IV-IFV and Achzarit APC/IFV.

Achzarit APC/IFV project:

Here I had to cut the rear down a bit.

Hi John,

It's, um... exactly the same kit! Academy and Hobbycraft have a reboxing agreement. You find Hobbcraft in Academy boxes, the way you find Trumpeter in Hobbycraft boxes...

The overall airframe is pretty good, good enough that I bought an extra one, but this canopy was an unexpected snag. The parts are crystal clear and look great on the sprue, they're just a different shape to the fuselage! I wonder if a replacement from Squadron might be a good idea... But I've heard working with vacform canopies can drive grown modellers to drink (even quicker that working with the kit bits)...

Cheers, Mike/TB379