60th Anniversary Korean War Group Build- extended for the duration

No worries Stik ,

I'll save the NC/AC-123K for another time .

I will need help on how to add the badge to my posts , I can't remember how I did it last year for the Helicopter GB ???

                               John .

Hi Guys:

Again with the hospital routine (pneumonia) ... home last night finally and first time on line in a week or so ...

The F-84G Thunderjet is coming along nicely ... if it warms a bit here today (Garland, TX - Dallas area), I'll be shooting the metalizer coats ...

I also started a RNAF Sea Fury ... they flew off Royal Navy  carriers in the ground attack role, very much like the Corsairs did ...

The kit is 1/72 by Trumpeter and I'm very disappointed ... first T-per kit for me and probably be the last ... flash on almost every part ... not a single thing fits without a great deal of sanding/filing and such ... at least it's a realtively easy paint scheme and I'll try to shoot the green coats today as well; the dark gray coats tomorrow  ...

I'm taking pictures of all and will post yet this weekend if I have the 'image posting' routine figured out now ...

Hope all is well with everyone and have a good weekend ...

Pepper

I wasn't real happy with how the silver turned out on the Panther which along with some other GBs that were eending caused me to put the Panther on the back burner, but I've got it back out and should have it wrapped up in a day or two. I'm tossing around a few ideas for number 2, I've got several options but I'm really leaning towards an Italeri Corsair, the navy blue is more appealing than a NMF right now.

I didn't realize that a badge hadn't really been finished up. I started out trying to clean up the one that had been tossed out early on but started drifting and eventually came up with this one.

Scorp , Your F4U-4 came out quite well , nice job

Pepper Kay , sorry to hear you've been in the wars again , looking forward to seeing your F-84 Thunderjet .

Aaron , what scale Corsair are you thinking of doing ?

There are some issue's with the 1/72 Italeri F4U-4B ; After glueing the wings to the underside of the fuselage I noticed that the wings were uneven , the left side is much lower than the right side . Back on page 29 , I posted some WIP pic's . I used the cutting mat grid lines to line everything up including the tail planes , however after I finished the painting and added the landing gear and wheels , I noticed the tail planes are slightly off being level . On my next Corsair build I will leave the tail planes off and paint seperatly and attach them after glueing the landing gear and wheels on . Perhaps when I lifted the left wing to line up with the right wing this may slightly change the stance of Corsair ?

Also , the holes for the underwing rocket stubs are to close together , I drilled out the holes but left the stubs off because of the NAVY and MARINES lettering that go on the under side of the wing but when I glued the stubs on after decaling the rocket tails hit each other . So basiclly dont bother drilling out the holes , after painting the rockets and stubs seperatly ,  glue the rockets to the stubs and then fit each one onto the underside of the wing one at a time .

HTH

                  John

BTW , I like the badge you did Aaron

It's the Italeri 1/72 F4U-4B kit, I'll go back and have another look at yours if I go with it. There was a photo posted a page or two back showing a Corsair loaded with rockets and bombs tha just got me in a Corsair mood. I've been wanting to build something just packed  with ordnance and the Corsair did that well. It would also keep the Panther company since I don't have much in the way of postwar fixed wing aircraft on the shelf.

Got to work on the kit this week. It's one of Dragon's older kits, The molding is not as crisp and there is a bit of flash to work off. The decals have a date of 1994 and were yellowed. I have put them on the window sill this week and they are looking alot better. I have assembled the hull and suspension. Had to get out the dremel for some cutting/trimming as the hull is for an M4A3 and needed modifications per the instructions. I spent some time this week searching through the spares box for a replacement transmission cover, tools, machine guns and other parts for detailing. I'll try and get some pix as it goes together.

It wasnt finished it those photos. Im tentatively calling it finished now. will post pics tonight hopefully. Im still debating wether to put the stencils on or not. (got about a thousand no step, fill here, etc to put on if i go down that path lol)

I resized the badge, don't know if anyone wants it smaller or not.  Your choice of two more sizes:

Here's some finished pic's of the U.S Navy and USMC F4U-4B Corsair's ;

VMA-332 , Korea 1953 and VF-53 , Korea 1952

                                      John .

Very nice, I like the polka dots on the USMC Corsair. I have the same kit and when I saw those decals I knew I was going to have to build that one.

Great job on the two bent-wing birds, John ... and ... Great job on the badge, Aaron ...

Pepper

Nice looking Corsairs, John.  I love those bent-wing birds!

Cheers,

Greg

Hi Guys:

Someone posted a note recently that they had also built an F-84G as am I ...

I'm having a problem and p'haps that guy can let me know his solution ...

When I lay out the main landing gear for installation, it sets up with a decided angle to it ... not straight up and down as are most gear struts, but cocked at an angle of about 25 - 30 degrees ... this with both the gear legs that came with the kit and with the replacement white metal gear I bought ...

I've looked at problably 100 pictures on the Internet, trying to see how the gear goes, but unfortunately, all the pictures just leave me more in the dark ... the gear legs are covered by the landing gear doors and aren't visible in any of the photos I've seen ...

So, could someone out their in GB land give me a heads up on this ... do the gear struts go straight up and down or are they set at an angle ? ...

It looks as if they should set at an angle as the nose gear puts the nose up so high that having the main gear at an angle makes them almost perfectly straight up and down when the fuse is set on the wings and gear ... remember now, that the Thunderjet has a decided nose high position ...

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or hints that will help,

pepper

Hi Pepper ;

I haven't built the F-84G Thunderjet before , so I can't speak from experiance , other than posting a couple of aircraft pic's ;

It does appear that the landing gear struts are straight up and down , I wish I could have been of more help .

Perhaps others might be of greater assistance .

                                John .

I'm guessing that the picture of them on the carrier is how they were transported to Korea? I dont remember ever seeing or hearing it used on carriers, then again I'm not a korean war expert.

I'm thinking they go straight up and down and the tooling/molding of the landing gear struts is p'haps incorrect on both the kit gear legs as well as the new metal gear legs ...

THe problem, as I see it, lies in that the gear door covers block from view the installation of the gear struts ...

Guess I'll try tacking a cover to a strut, then holding it in place to see what it looks like ... the nose gear strut is also a problem with  a locating tab of just about 1/32" in diameter to set the nose gear and carry the weight installed in the nose to keep it from being a tail sitter...

The Sea Fury is coming right along ...

I have now taken pictures of bpoth and will get them posted today ...

Thanks,

pepper

Academy's 1/72 F-84E/G Thunderjet kit box shows four small pic's of a completed Thunderjet ; The landing gear struts appear to be straight up and down .

I did find a 1/72 Testors F-84F in the back of the display cabinet , not quite the same as the E/G model but the landing gear struts are quite vertical ;

Also an incomplete 1/72 Airfix F-84F with the main gear doors molded to the struts , which would also fit in the verticle position ;

I don't suppose the swept wing version of the F-84 saw any action in the Korean War ?????

                                  John .

OK Guys:

Here's the deal ... I'm going to mount the main gear with the legs straight up and down ... after installing the nose gear and putting the tires on, I'll compare what I see on my kitchen table with the photos I have of the airplane ...

If it looks 'right', then to the paint shop ... if it doesn't, then off with the landing gear, close up the whell wells and then to the paint shop ...

Ain't it always sumthin ? ...

pepper

Well I did it..I ordered my Mig-15 from Ebay...couldnt find it anywhere else...soon as it arrives I will get going.....!!!!

Meanwhile...I finally completed my Corsair....not a GB build...but here are a couple of pic if you havent seen my posting in the aircraft tab.

Carlos

Great build, Carlos !! ...

You've captured the look and feel of the bent wing bird precisely ...

pepper

Beautiful Corsair!  I saw it earlier over in Aircraft, and I didn't have a chance to make a comment.  You did a tremendous job.  You really set the bar for "hose noses".  Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

Greg

Excellent work on the Corsair , Carlos .

I like the wing fold and lowered flaps too and the weathering looks perfect .

Nice job all round

                     John .

That is a very very awesome corsair, makes me kinda embaressed about mine lol.

Speaking of which.

Im not completley happy with it, but i dont think i ever will be. The flash has highlighted the exhaust weathering, It doesnt actually look that pronounced, trust me lol.

As always comments and criticism are welcome.

Another good looking Corsair!  It came out good Mike.

Cheers,

Greg

Are the tires from the kit or aftermarket ? ...

They really look super !! ...

pepper

stright from the kit. Apart from the decals the whole things OOB.

I painted the tires XF-24 (dark grey) The hubs XF-16 (flat aluminium) then did a heavy black wash over the whole thing. Theyre my favorite part of the whole model lol. 

Well I did a little work on my Centurion up to Friday evening. But then it was time for the Weekend Madness III GB so all other builds went on hold. And in 47 hrs and 15 minutes I built this Tamiya 1/35 KV-1 I will add weathering and such in the coming days, but this is the quickest completion of a tank I have done in years! and it was fun!

I will resume work on the Centurion tomorrow and should have some progress pics soon!

Stick......nice looking centurion...really like the texture on the turret!!!!

Mike: corsair looks good....really really like the tires great job on the gear....A bit of advice...your kit seems to be 1/72...when working those small scales, gloss finish is a tough finish to pull off , not too forgiving....I would use a semigloss finish, think of it as scaling down the finish... I even do it with 1/48 kits...but overall its good looking bird!!

Carlos

Might be changing my build again. I'm still getting the Mig15, but I picked up at F-84 today.

Hi All:

I finally have some pictures to share ...

3 of the Sea Fury and 2 of the F-84 Thunderjet ...

Again, I don't know if I've the images right here, but here are the img codes from Photobucket for each  photo ...

Both builds are nearly complete save final sanding, cleanup, painting and attaching all the little fiddly pieces ...

If our weather holds, I'll start painting tomorrow ...

Thanks,

pepper