Official Alley Cat GB Sept2010-Sept2011

Howard, great choice of markings    Nice scratch work so far too.  Looking foward to more pics.

Dean, your Panther is coming along nicely too.  I can't answer your question on Trumpeter kits.  I  haven't built one. 

I am closer to starting this GB.  Gotta finish up painting and weathering the Lancer and the HRS-2. 

The Panther has been primed and next time you see it, it will be the proper color.

Dean

Nice Panther,Dean! Makes me think of the movie Bridges at Toko-Ri. There is some good footage of Panther carrier and combat ops in that film.

I've got the IP finished . Currently building up the cockpit side consoles . 

I told myself I would build this OOB, dressing up the kit detail where needed. Next thing you know , I'm scratching the cockpit. It needed something more accurate. The kit parts were OK ,but then I down loaded reference images .Scaled them for my purpose and started cutting plastic.  

Here's the pics so far.

Howard

Howard,

The IP looks really good.

Whenever I see a Panther, I also think of "Toko-Ri".

Dean

Awesome job guys. Both birds looking gorgeous so far.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Spent the day eating turkey and building up the right side wall and console of my Hellcat.  Here are the pics. The model , not the turkey.

Notice the pencil mark about halfway up the cockpit wall for the height of the side consoles.

The IP and cockpit floor tacked in place with a couple drops of Elmers white glue. 

I found an image on the web of the Eduard PE set , reduced to scale and used as a pattern for consoles which are made from sheet plastic. Switches , levers, knobs,etc made from bits of plastic and stretched sprue. Then detail painted . 

A fairly accurate representation, I think.

 Now to shift focus on the left side of the office, followed by the seat and rudder pedals.

Howard

Nice work on the Hellcat.  I love the cockpit detail

Darwin, O.F. 

 Got the port side of the cockpit done, seat and floor board almost done. Still have the make up the rudder pedals, but that's pretty easy. Anyway , here's pics of todays work. 

This first pic shows how I used the printed copy of the Eduard PE set as a pattern. I do feel it may be "cheating" a little bit , but you can see how everything is still pretty much scratch built.

Those minute switches and levers get tedious rather quickly , but worth the effort.

Howard

 Cockpit complete! I still need to weather with some washes and such,but I couldn't resist some pics mocked up with the fuselage taped together. 

Next, to dress up the kit engine. It has some nice basic detail, but definitely could stand some correction and enhancement.

I like to start with a coat of flat black on the cylinders , now I'll dry brush MM steel over the black. I use steel for a darker tone and more contrast with the detail painting and aluminum dry brushing to come. 

I do this step first to create my base canvas for the enhancements to follow. I've also painted the rear bulkhead flat black for better contrast of the engine in the completed model.    

 It may take me a couple days to get back to this one. Need to detail the cockpit of my Lightning build.

Building both models together allows me to time the use of certain paints/tools . While I have the cockpit colors and plenty bits of plastic and stretched sprue on the desk, might as well bring the other build up to the same point of construction. Like a small assembly line.

Howard

I am really stunned by that awesome cockpit.

Darwin, O.F.

Wow, its gorgeous. Ive got a whole crudload of prepainted PE for my bearcat but i dont think its gonna look anywhere near as cool as that.

Howard,

Beautiful cockpit.

I blew some paint on the -2 Panther this weekend.

Now to get the nice panel lines to stand out. That's this coming weeks mission.

Dean

I like the blue tail tip

Mikey,

That's for the VMF-311 Marines in Korea circa 1953.

Dean

very nice, cant wait to see more.

f-4phantom

Howard,

Beautiful cockpit.

Now to get the nice panel lines to stand out. That's this coming weeks mission.  Dean

How are you planning to do the panel lines on that dark background?

Darwin, O.F. 

Darwin,

I'm thinking maybe a medium gray wash. I don't think anything lighter would look right. Any thoughts?

Dean

Since the basic plastic is gray, you might take a scriber of some sort and "lightly" scribe the panel lines.  Just enough to break through the paint.  This will allow the gray to show through against the dark blue.  You might want to try it in an inconspicuous place at first to see how you like it.

Darwin, O.F. 

Darwin,

That sounds like a good plan. I will give it a shot if the wash doesn't work out. Thanks

Dean

Scorpiomikey

Wow, its gorgeous. Ive got a whole crudload of prepainted PE for my bearcat but i dont think its gonna look anywhere near as cool as that.

I found a good image of an Eduard PE set for a Hellcat Mk I on the web, saved the image ,rescaled to the size I needed. I then cut out and trimmed close some of the panels on the side consoles and IP .Then laminated to thin plastic sheet with superglue. That served as a great pattern to build up the throttle controls, instruments, other various switches and knobs. So this pit does have an indirect PE use. Still spent some time cutting and gluing some very minute pieces of plastic and sprue. A steady hand, a nice pair of sharp Fiskars craft scissors, and jewelers magnifying visor really come in handy.  

 The belts were also printed images ,reduced to scale , then used as patterns. I doubled up the paper strips in key spots where the belts might overlap and for the buckles to add a little more visual depth. Then painted with a mix of MM light sand and dark tan, a mix of MM aluminum and chrome silver on the buckles. Stitching on the belts and detail on the buckles was drawn on with a black Prismacolor pencil. Interestingly , the pencil point seemed to scribe the soft metallic paint on the buckles and give them a bit more of a 3D look rather than flat paper.

 Using the printed images off the web might be kind of cheating , but not unlike copying a picture from a book or magazine to use as a pattern. I just brought the internet age to old school scratch building.

 BTW the scissors I use , I found in Walmart's craft/ sewing section. They're made for scrap bookers and are sharpened to cut all the way to the tip ,blades about 2 inches long. I bought another pair just for decals. They're great for trimming into tight corners and up close. I think I paid around 6 or 7 bucks each for mine , if I recall correctly.Highly recommended , inexpensive tool .  

 Howard

Nice, thanks for the Howard, Ever thought of submitting it as a tip for FSM?

Hey Guys,

I have the decals done on my Panther.

I used a medium grey wash so the rivets and panel lines stand out. It's subtle and not over done at least that was my intention.

This is a good look at the Panther face.

Dean

Very nice, shes lookin a real beauty Dean. I like how the wash has picked out the details. Looks really good. Well done so far. 

Thanks Mikey.  Trumpeter made this a nice build.

 Your Panther is looking great, Dean. Fine looking aircraft.

 Due to computer glitches and other assorted snafus around here, it's been tough to get on the web or find a lot of modeling time. The Christmas season seems to grab a fair amount of spare time too.

 I have made forward progress though. 

 Detailed up the engine , built up the oil cooler/inter cooler duct work behind the 'grin'. 

 Here are the pics.

Decided to do a bit more than add ignition wires . The kit engine would make a good basic form, just needs a bit of reworking.

First, I stripped off the paint to start fresh, then cut off and carved out the molded on magnetos. Then lightly scribed cooling fins in the affected areas. 

Working from back to front ,first a fresh coat of paint , flat black with steel dry brushed on the cylinders. 

Scratch built ignition harness, reverse side. Just thin sheet styrene, cut to shape , mark off where the wires go , glue black thread for wires.  

Completed harness.

Have painted push rod tubes gloss black and picked out cylinder detail with aluminum. 

Built new mags and other detail from bits of sprue and sheet plastic. 

Completed engine. Added a little more plumbing with thread and stretched sprue.

Spruced up fuse. halves by cleaning up the exhaust openings in prep for the stacks and a little detail ribs in the nose.

I like to vary the interior colors for visual interest. Here , mixing a few drops of interior green in to chromate yellow.

Sections of 1/16th brass tube made nice exhaust stacks. There were none in this kit.

On to the chin ductwork .

First ,I made a 'floor' of sheet material to build up from. Next, came the screen using a portion of mesh ribbon, then built up the various vanes and enclosed the ducts with sheet stock .

 Next step was to give finish of the interior with some detailing , paint and wash. Finally gluing on the nose .

 Now I'm going to move on to the wings. 

The gear bays have some detail , looks nice , but not close to accurate. With the work I've put into the fuselage , might as well do up them as well. 

 Howard

Great looking work on the nose Howard.  I've got a soft spot for those wired up radials.  Super detail on the intakes and exhaust stacks.  Looks like a great build off to a solid start.  Rick.

Wow howard, thats a mighty high bar for me to aim for with my bearcat. im working similar detail in, but most of mines after market PE lol. I hadnt even thought about brass rod for exhaust stacks. thanks for that.

I seriously cannot wait to se more. this looks like its going to be an epic build. 

Hi All:

I'd like to jump in if not too late ...

Don't have a kit in mind, but want to build a Tigercat in CDF colors ...

pepper

(center)

(/center)

No worries, ill add you to the list with a TBA

Dean, sweet Panther!  If I can get mine to look half that good, I will be thrilled.

Howard, great scratchwork.  Very inspiring.

Mike, I started plugging away on my Panther again.  I am going to try to get it done by the New Year.  Operative word is TRY.  This build started off quick, but I just can't seem to get it painted (right).

Cheers,

Greg