Mighty 8th GB 1-Nov-2010 - 31-Oct-2011

Great info Bish! Thanks for the help.

So I was test fitting the parts last night just to see what I was dealing with and when attaching the nose section, I found out that it only comes with a nose for the droop snoot! There isnt any holes on the bottom for the spend shells to fall out of. I must go buy another P-38 model now, which will make 3 (Glacier Girl, Droop Snoot, P38J)

O right, thats odd. You got decals for a standard 38J but the kit only allows you to build the droop snot.

Alright I'm all set for this GB, just need to finish my other build for the last GB.

Well you got plenty of time. I have two GB's involving 3 kits to build before i start on my build for this one. I am glad we have a P-38 on the list.

Alright, I won the auction! Sign me up for a third. 

1/48 Monogram P-47D Thunderbolt. Of the bubbletop variety.

Markings will be for Col. David Schilling's "Hairless Joe" of the 56th FG, which flew out of Boxted from April 1944 through the end of the war.

I'm really looking forward to this one, to the extent that I might even build it before Petie 3rd. See...I built this exact kit probably 15 years ago around the height of my model building days. I'm 99% sure it's one of the handful of models that were both selected for and survived my parents' move from Texas to Arizona pretty much the moment I left for college. I'll be extremely interested to see how it stacks up against what I'm capable of these days!

I'd like to join in this build. It's only my second kit so the build won't be up to the usual high standards displayed by others but I'll give it a shot. I want to do a Robert Johnson P-47D. The plane is the one he got his 24th and 25th kills on April 13, 1944 so I guess the 61st FS was still at Haleswowrth. I hope to learn aa lot. By the way its a Tamiya kit.

Welcome aboard, jbrady! I'm sure Bish will get you added to the intro post soon! 

Looking forward to seeing the Johnson P-47. I swear, the more I learn about different pilots, the more fascinating they all become. Did you know that Johnson never passed gunnery school?

I cant wait to start this! I want to work on my P-38 sooooo bad! I might start one and find the mistakes in it so I can fix them on the fighter for this GB, after all I do have 3 to build!

DoogsATX

Welcome aboard, jbrady! I'm sure Bish will get you added to the intro post soon! 

Looking forward to seeing the Johnson P-47. I swear, the more I learn about different pilots, the more fascinating they all become. Did you know that Johnson never passed gunnery school?

Did you also know that Johnson had the engine drop off its mount in mid flight on his P-47?  If I remember correctly he took a couple bullets to the nose area in a dogfight and on the return trip home the engine just dropped and he ended up in a dinghy in the Channel

Not sure if I ever knew that. If I did i've forgotten it. I do know that early on in his combat career most guys didn't want to fly with him... they thought he was nuts.

The story I like is the time he had his rudder cable cut. He flew home with another squadron with 30 feet of cable in the cockpit. Managed to land using only rudder trim.

Does anyone know where I can find a detail set for the P-38? Everything I've found is for the Has kit. The only thing i dont like about the Academy cockpit is the steering wheel thing (not sure the exact name). I guess when it was made, one side seems to have shifted on the other so its like looking at two different pieces glued together poorly.

I looked at greatmodels, sprue brothers, ebay, verlinden.

This one says either Academy or Hasegawa.

http://www.hlj.com/product/LEGLF4020

Cool thanks! You or anyone buy from them?

Sorry for my brief absense. I spent yesterday traveling back to barracks and then sorting my room out. When i got back from the Falklands i just dumpped everything in and went home so it was a bit of a mess. You will have to excuse me if i do vanish for a few days, being in the Army things can come up at short notice. But i will catch up as soon as i can.

jbrady Added you to the list, i assume its a 1/48th kit. According to the Little Friends site, the 56th moved from halesworth on the 18th April, so yours is just before the move.

This shareing of info is what i really like about GB's. I am sure you guys do look into the kits you are building anyway, and not just if it is accurate, but also into the history of the aircraft and the guys that flew them. And this is what i really wanted from this GB, to remember the young men from your side of the pond who spent so long in my neck of the woods as well as the bases where they lived and the local communities many of whom still remember the friendly invasion.

jbrady!!! You will learn alot here trust me!!!!

Yes it is the 1/48th Razorback from Tamiya. I grew up just a few minutes from Bradley Field in Windsor Lockes CT. It is the place where I learned to fly and it's the place where many of the P47 units formed before leaving for Europe.

Almost all pilots flew a variety of different squadron aircraft. Squadron and group commanders had personal aircraft... in some instances that was true also for section leaders. I know of several aircraft that had two separate names and markings one on the left fulelage and one on the right. Check your references for the particular aircraft and pilot you're modeling.

Thanks for the welcome simpilot34. Maybe I can start learning now. I'm about to paint my very first kit and I'm going with OD/Grey standard. I'm using MM OD FS34087... seems too green. Any thoughts on how to tone the initial coat to a more brownish olive?

jbrady

Thanks for the welcome simpilot34. Maybe I can start learning now. I'm about to paint my very first kit and I'm going with OD/Grey standard. I'm using MM OD FS34087... seems too green. Any thoughts on how to tone the initial coat to a more brownish olive?

Use Tamiya paint? I use Tamiya paint and it seems pretty close to the real thing.

jbrady

Thanks for the welcome simpilot34. Maybe I can start learning now. I'm about to paint my very first kit and I'm going with OD/Grey standard. I'm using MM OD FS34087... seems too green. Any thoughts on how to tone the initial coat to a more brownish olive?

You can always mix paints to get the desired color. I think MM makes a Khaki Drab that's more on the brown side and would probably work well for toning down the green.

I actually just came off my first paint mixing experience with my almost-done Dauntless. 1:1 Vallejo Dark Blue Grey and Intermediate Blue came out just right. Used bottlecaps to test ratios and mixes, then made a batch big enough to last the model (about 3/4 a bottle).

Yeah, I'm willing to mix paints... just didn't know where to start. Thanks for the suggestion. Actually Khaki Drab might just be the color I'm looking for.

As some of you guys may know, i first toyed with the idea of this GB while still deployed in the Falklands. I had hoped that the build would be started and finished before i went away again.  But the day i got back from my last deployment i found out i am off to the Falklands again in Feb, and expected back home at the start of May. I only told my better half yesterday, and then felt it only fair you guys should be kept in the picture. There's nothing worst than a GB host who just goes AWOL. So, due to this and my other GB commitments, i am planning on starting my own build for this GB on my return, so will be about mid May.

This should not affect my role as host as i still have ample access to the net from down there, and its nothing like going to Afgahn. At worst i might have a week when i can't get online. I should be able to do everything down there that i can do here. If tehre is anything i can't do, such as posting pics of completed builds on the front page, i will do that as soon as i get home. So, if during my time away i miss something or seem absent for a while, i will apologise now. And please feel free to make me aware of somthing if i seemed to have missed it.

In the mean time, feel free to take the GB badge once the build starts, and above all have fun.

Bish, I hope you have a safe return to the Falklands and an even safer return back home!!! I wouldn't mind at all if you decided to extend the end date so that you yourself will have ample time to complete your build. A year would be good! Anyways it's just a thought and look for your safe return!!!

Thanks. And like a few GB's on here, i won't be to rigourous on the end date. Either way i will be happy to let it run until every one is done.  But i don't see any harm in extending it, so a year it is. I guess seeing as i am also asking people to do a little more digging than is normal when building a kit, its only fair.

I do plan to post a pic of everyones finished work over on the aircraft forums. So it would be handy to have a set date to do that.

I like the Badge! I havent been at home that past couple of days. I got into a fight with my brother so I was staying at a friends since thursday.

Just ordered a True Details seat for my Razorback, and I'm really excited for this GB.

Since I'm at college I have limited modeling time, so I've got a plan for myself.  Christmas break will be the soonest I can start on this group build but both planes will not be done together.  Since I'm still working on my B-17 diorama (my figures are getting done thanks to the figure GB....plus this project is my first priority ) I will build my Razorback at the same time since it looks like it shouldnt take too long.  If all goes well I may even get to start on the B-24

After Christmas break, I have  a week off for spring break so I will work on or begin the B-24, along with a B-25 and B-26 I'm doing for a show in october of 2011.  Then I get done with school the 2nd week of may which wil give me roughly 2 months to finish the B-24 before the group build ends

ww2pyshico hope your able to sort things out with your brother.

redraider56 life has a habit of getting in the way of hobbies. I only get to build when i am away from home. I am based to far from home to travel, so i only get home at weekends (if i am lucky) and leave. So because i spend more time in my room in camp than at home, and because i don't have the room at home at the moment, i do all my building here. Last night was the first behind the bench since April, and its takeing time to get going. I am just starting a B-24 for a different GB. Unfortunatly other things have to come first.

Crap guys. I just came across this build over at Promodeller 

http://www.promodeller.com/in-flight-p-51/

...and it has me seriously contemplating doing an in-flight diorama of Petie 3rd. Specifically, Meyer's famous takedown of a 190 while taking off from Y-29. 

Need to think about this some more. But for now I think I'll probably be doing Schilling's P-47 and Brown's P-51B first while I contemplate...

Well I was getting some work done the other day but then cut my thumb pretty bad with my x-acto knife so that didnt last long