Draken, your flights of Sabers have been added to the front page.

Gregbear, your LVT(A) has been added as well.

Beautiful work all around guys What's next?

Steady progress on my armour builds ;

The M4 and M5 Tractors are coming along nicely

I also managed a little preliminary airbrushing of some olive drab/green on the Trumpeter M26 and Matchbox M40 kits .

Hasegawa's M5 tractor has three nice control levers included with the driver

I made some control levers for the SHQ M4 Tractor to go with the driver also

There's a tiny bit of metal flash on the wheels of the M4 but it wont be difficult to file off ; The tread patten on the top and ends of the tracks is really nice but it doesn't extend to the bottom of the tracks , which is a little disappointing .

Other than that the M4 Tractor is going along well

I'll start cutting sprue for the Long Tom Gun next and get a few sub-assembly's done .

Here is a look at the decals that I just managed to save. I am a tad dissapointed at the colour of the blue in the roundal not matching the blue of the plane.

I eyeballed the plane's colour and it is as close to the real one in the books I have, will just have to live with it.

They are so thin it almost looks painted on.

Still allot of work to do on this model.

Did the F4-U4's have a wire antenna from the base on the mast to the fin or rudder???

Thanx

Theuns

Hey Helo,

That M-2 155mm is a real beaut of a kit. It doesn't take too much skill and you can have the trailing arms, the barrel, the wheels, and the hydraulic jacks all movable.  I also have mine so that I can pop the trailing arms off of the caisson and remove the breech support.  That means it can be positioned in towed or firing positions repeatedly, depending on which diorama you may want to have.  The thing with the Hasegawa armour is that it was designed for wargamers and as toys rather than for serious modelers.  That aspect tends to show through on all of the GMC trucks more than anything.

Have fun! 

Great work all around guys!

John: Nice save on the tractor, good idea to shim up the too low roof.

Theuns: These decals look really good, And she's almost done!

I must say I am confused and a tad ticked off now! Looking at the pic of my F-4U I see the small decal under the stab says "Marines" and gives the correct # as per the instructions, I didn't put the wrong decal on the NAVY plane.

Ah well, can't change it now

Theuns , it's okay buddy ;

The Marines marking under the stabilizers are correct according to my Osprey Combat Series book ...

F4U Corsair Units of the Korean War .

F4U-4 BuNo 62952 of VF-53 USS Essex (CV-9) ;

The aircraft originally served with VMF-224 (1947-1948) , VMF-452 (1948) , VMF-312 (1949-1950) and VMT-2 (1950)  these are all Marine Squadrons using this aircraft prior to being issued to VF-53 in March 1951 .

Your build is looking good .

John .

A little more progress on my current armour builds ;

The M4 and M5 Tractors have recieved there final coats of olive green and tomorrow I'll mask part of the roof section on both tractors to airbrush the canvas covers with some Gunze H-71 Middle Stone , Rear canvas on the M4 and front canvas section on the M5

Ther is one confusing issue with Hasegawa's M5 Tractor  instructions , following the assembly steps , Hasegawa have you place the rear top deck piece with the molded on shovels facing forward

However the paint instructions overleaf show the rear deck with the shovels now facing the rear

Mine is just sitting in place for the moment but I'm not sure which way the shovels should face ?

Anyway I started some assembly of the Matchbox M40 GMC and I have all the seperate parts painted for final assembly tomorrow

The Matchbox kit has gone together quite well so far , a very enjoyable build

I only managed to seperate from the sprue and airbrush the pieces for the Long Tom Gun

The gun barrel wasin two halves as was the rear support arms which I glued together last night and puttied the joins on the three pieces , then lightly sanded the join this afternoon and then some airbrushing .

The Middle Stone color on the canvas covers on the two tractors will make a nice contrast to the olive green paint scheme but I'm wondering if I should just try a lighter shade of olive green/drab instead ???

I'll think about it overnight

Ah thanx for that very interesting info re the Corsair 

I think it will look more the part as soon as all the "bits" or hanging from the wings :-)

Theuns

I've been lousy at documenting my progress on the F-86F, but it's been going together a lot faster than the last few kit's I've worked on.  I've got the major assembly just about done, and everything's masked off for airbrushing.

Your F-86F Sabre is coming along well Ghostrider114 , what decal markings will you be using ?

I airbrushed the canvas covers on the two Tractors with some Gunze H-304 Olive Drab

I'll brush paint the wheels with some steel next and then add a heavy black wash over the tracks on the M4 Tractor .

John .

Hi John, your tractors look real good.  You better hurry though, the guy holding the ammo cans looks impatient! 

Ghostrider, Sabre looks good too. 

Cheers,

Greg

I haven't decided yet, I'll probably use the Beautious Butch II livery that comes with the kit.  Of course I have to figure out how to put together my new air compressor first before I can do any painting.

Got it done today, light not very good for pix though.

Pitty the canopy can't be left open to show the nice cockpit detail.

Humbrol 15 midnight blue with a bit of black to darken, Tamiya acrylics for gloss and satin coat.

Not to weathered, just some exaust stains and a few paint chips on the LE and wing hindge.

Thanx for all the input.

Theuns

Theuns: She looks good to me!

Ghostrider: Sounds cool!

Excellent F4U-4B build Theuns...

Another addition to the page one Korean War Fleet .

I've decided to do another Matchbox M-40 build , for a couple of reasons ;

 Firstly Andy pointed out to me that matchbox allow the recoil spade to be movable and with some carefull cutting of the two support arms that hold the barrel in place it is possible to raise the gun barrel and pose the M-40 in the firing position .

 I unfortunatly glued my support struts with the barrel in the lower travelling mode but I'm now thinking of swapping the gun barrels and support base with each other . The second reason is with the gun in travelling mode I was thinking of cutting open the front hatches and replacing them with some similar ccupola's from the Dragon M4 Sherman kits and have the hatches posed open with a couple of Hasegawa figures looking out

So basiclly I'll just swap the gun and support base between the two kits and have an elevated gun with a lowered recoil spade and closed hatches and the other in trvelling mode with a lowered gun and open front hatches .............' that's the plan '

I also hace the 1/76 Fujimi M7B1 Priest out on the bench as well , lot's to do .

John .

Theuns, NICE work on the F4U!!!

I started with just drilling out the hatches first on the 2nd M40 GMC

Dragons M4 Hatches fit okay , This will work out nicely .

John .

So, as I've been working on my P2V Neptune, I started thinking about what to do with my built kits when I leave Korea.  Finally had an idea to put them up for sale.  Don't know why I hadn't thought of that in the first place.  This is still just an idea that I'm playing around with, I'd much rather donate them to a worthy cause.

In the meantime, which venue would you dudes suggest:  eBay, Craigslist, or a facebook sale page?  Each of them have their merits and downfalls.  And remember, this is not a decision that I will necessarily follow through on, just scouting out the playing field.

In the meantime; I've gotten the fuselage pieces together for each side, filled and sanded them.  I've also got the interior parts installed.  This has taken some wrangling as the interior of the fuselage is now wider since the vac form parts are added, I'm going to have to put some sheet styrene in to position the flight deck properly.  I've installed the nose gear bay and added a seat for the tail gunner.  Next step up is assemble the fuselage, fill, sand, and go to town on the major assemblies.  The engines looked like I might spend some serious time on them then as I started to test fit parts I realised that you can't see anything of them once it's all assembled.  So they're just going to be metal tones.  The wing tip tanks are assembled, and I'm not sure what colour to paint the interior bulkhead of the searchlight tank.  Should it be Interior Green or Dark Sea Blue?  I'm going with Dark Sea Blue with the gear bays and gear as that's what the Navy/USMC was doing at the time.  I'll likely do the same on my Privateer.  Normally I'd cut out all of the windows on the vac formed parts, but there's two windows per side that are ahead of the wing, and I have no clear plastic!  I'm going to just paint those gloss black.  For the age  of the kit, it's going together quite nice!

My first attempt with the new airbrush was semi-successful, I got the primer down fairly smooth and I was able to buff out any bumps in the finish, we'll see if I can get the aluminum down right tomorrow.

I remeber the first few times I used an airbrush , I was very cautious to say the least but after a few goes I quickly got the hang of it and I'm sure the same will apply for you Ghostrider . Best of luck in any case .

I stumbled across a site on the net where a small scale armor model builder posted some really nice WIP pic's of some of his builds . There's some Armoufast builds with lot's of extra mods added ...

http://henk.fox3000.com/achen.htm

Quite inspiring stuff !

Hi Andy , I'm not sure what the best approach would be regarding your larger model aircraft when you leave Korea  , apart from wanting to see them going to a good home where your workmanship , time and effort will be appreciated .

John .

Theuns, another work of art from your workbench! I have added your F4U to thje front page finished builds. Whats next?

I airbrushed the Alcad, it went down fairly smooth, and I was surprised how well the masking held up, I basically just shoved blue painters tape in all the gear bays, taped down the airbrakes and stuck masking over the cockpit.  The cockpit mask fell off while I was painting, but the rest held, so I just have to repaint that part.

I already let it sit a couple days to set, so tomorrow I'm going to start airbrushing on the stripes.

GR14: That's a beautiful coat of NM man, I wish mine would come out that well.

Great WIP on you Sabre , Ghostrider . The alcad finish is something I'm yet to try and your effort looks really good .

My RetroTracks M-39 resin kit just arrived

I was quite suprised as the wheels and tracks are all seperate pieces . so this will make airbrushing and weathering much easier on the lower hull and pieces

There's a nice molded in engine in the lower hull

And some nice detail on the top hull

There's some additional tools and machine gun included , over all I'm very happy with little armored vehicle .

John

John:

Looks like a nice kit, plenty of detail there. I've never tried to assemble resin tracks like that, are they difficult? Since regular plastic cement won't work I assume you have to super-glue them?

I am pretty much out of subjects to do for the GB if I want to do SAAF stuff. We used only F86 and 51's, no SAAF Helo Sqns there.

I might do a T-33, the SAAF bought "hours" from the USAF to to conversion training for the SAAF F_51 Pilots that have not yet flown jets.  The academy T-33 look nice.

Theuns

Ghostrider, your F-86 is coming along very nicely. Rather bold to paint the wings before attaching them, isn't it?

Helo, the M39 will be a nice addition here. The first American "track" (fully tracked APC type vehicle).

Theuns, I think the T-33 sounds like a great idea! Did South Africa send any ground contingent to Korea?

This book arrived a couple of days ago

I've only just starting reading it and there's a list of Ground Units provided by the United Nations

The Author , George Forty , was a young commissioned Officer and there is lot's of pictures of the troops in action , particuulary in the trenches . Should make for great reading .

Cliff , your right aabout using super glue for the resin tarcks on the M39 AUV . I'll have to be very carefull fitting the tracks into position , I probably could use little tiny blobs of blu-tack to get them sitting and spaced correctly and then apply some super glue from a tooth pick where the tracks join each other . I think this should work .

John .

Theuns, I like the Corsair.  Very nice!  Of course, I am rather partial.....

GR, the F-86's finish looks very good too.

The M-39 looks really detailed, John.

Today was Model Fiesta 31.  There were some great builds on display!  I saw a PB-1W for only the second time (the first was John's), an awesome 1/48th Privateer among others.  There was a vendor there that had won an auction of a storage unit full of models.  He was selling for pennies on the dollar, and had hundreds of kits and detail sets, mostly 72nd scale.  Not to brag.....

Okay, I bragged.  Almost everything was $5, and nothing over $10.  I passed on a lot of cool stuff, but I just didn't have the room for it. 

Cheers,

Greg