Floatplane/Seaplane Group Build 2012

Stoutfella - Good to see you up and runnning with your Kingfisher.  I have two in my stash, which I recently bought new.  Lone Star used to have a resin cockpit for it, but have recently discontinued it, so, no joy .  What are the Eduard parts you obtained for it?  I am highly curious.  Thanks!

I've got the first coat of paint on.  It's interior green, but I don't know what Vought-Sikorsky reallly used.

Before I put white on the undersurface, I checked for mold seams, and found a few.  These will have to be cleared up.  It's easier to see the imperfections under a coat of paint, then it is to try to find them in this clear plastic.

Old Ordie

Stoutfella - Good to see you up and runnning with your Kingfisher.  I have two in my stash, which I recently bought new.  Lone Star used to have a resin cockpit for it, but have recently discontinued it, so, no joy .  What are the Eduard parts you obtained for it?  I am highly curious.  Thanks!

Ordie: No aftermarket parts. The kit came with some PE details parts -- instrument panel, gun ring, etc. It'll be my first shot at PE.

Stoutfella - Glory, I had no idea!  I guess I should break open one of my boxes and get a look see at what I bought ... thanks!

Sorry for the late reply, haven't been on in a while, anyways, the Curtiss is a biplane and I will attempt to rig it.  I have rigged once, (if ships count), and I used black thread.  I'll try piano wire first if it's not too thick.  I'm a little nervous about drilling holes in a newly finished model but I feel better knowing that someone else is trying the same thing.  If the wire works I'll probably paint it and dullcote it so it's not super shiny.

BTW,  How are you guys getting the old message to appear in a reply?

M9130

BTW,  How are you guys getting the old message to appear in a reply?

You have to click on "Use rich formatting," then click on the word "Quote."  It's colored in green above the light blue bar. 

Stoutfella - Below is posted a photo of the box my OS2U kit(s) came in.  This is the current boxing - Revell instead of Monogram.  I opened one up, hoping to see PE.  Looks to be the exact same molding as yours, in grey, except no PE, different decals.  And, they cost me more than $5 each .  Darn ...

checkmateking02 - Your Kingfishers are looking good .

M9130 - If you need any further assistance with the quote function, PM me and I'll help.

Ordie: Mine appears to be from 1993. It's part of Monogram's "High Tech" series which included the PE parts. There's not a lot to the PE -- just one small sprue with maybe 20 or 25 mostly tiny parts. I'd never seen one of the "High Tech" kits until I picked this one up.

Good luck with your kit. After building three Tamiya kits in a row, this one looks to be a bit of a wake-up call. It was "state of the art" back in the late 60s, but not so much now. I see a lot of filling and sanding in my near future.

checkmateking02

You have to click on "Use rich formatting," then click on the word "Quote."  It's colored in green above the light blue bar. 

Got it, Thanks! 

  Progress on the Curtiss:  Painting the tail stripes because the decals had the colors reversed.

Old Ordie

checkmateking02 - Your Kingfishers are looking good .

 

Thanks, Ordie.  Progress has been slow.  I've been waiting for a day or two between paint coats, to let them dry and cure.

I applied the white undersurface color first.  Actually it's MM Camouflage Gray, which is so light it looks white to the eye.  Unfortunately, the flash washed out most of the detail.

Next photo shows how I masked the undersurfaces with poster tack, so I could apply the Intermediate Blue, also MM.

Then I masked the Intermediate Blue so I could apply the Sea Blue.  Due to the tiny size of these, I'm doing the fuselage spine and horizontal stabilizers separately from the wings.

Next, I used masking tape to isolate the wings, and painted them Sea Blue.

I have to say that using poster tack as a masking agent hasn't been all that easy.  It tends to stick to fingers better than it sticks to the planes, and it has an annoying habit of pulling loose from the side of the model you're working on, necessitating a continual back and forth re-doing.

Finally, a light bulb went on and I stuck them down on some old bottle caps, so I didn't have to handle the little devils themselves.  That made things somewhat easier.

And having gotten this far, now I'm thinking that these might be easier to paint by going against conventional wisdom of painting from light to dark.  It just might work better to paint the Sea Blue and move through the Intermediate Blue down to the white. 

I still have six of these left in the box, so if I still have wits about me after these five, I might give that I try.  I know I'll need more of these for future ships.

Nevertheless, I foresee a lot of brush touch-up in the future.

Now I need to move on to masking the floats under the fuselages--and they're a lot tinier than the planes, of course.  I was studying them today, and there almost doesn't seem to be room enough on them for three colors.

Joy. . .

Thanks for looking.

M9130

checkmateking02

You have to click on "Use rich formatting," then click on the word "Quote."  It's colored in green above the light blue bar. 

Got it, Thanks! 

And it does feel good to know something! 

I've just found out that Italeri are releasing a new tool 1/72 Sunderland in September. Wowwee.

I won't have time to get it done for this GB, but I like it. Photos on Hyperscale if you're interested.

Cheers

Tony

Ordie- Sorry for the late reply- IMO wonder wire would be perfect for 1:48 & 1:72 planes- it's pretty thin stuff I just felt it wouldn't be noticeable on my build.

JTBuckley

Ordie- Sorry for the late reply- IMO wonder wire would be perfect for 1:48 & 1:72 planes- it's pretty thin stuff I just felt it wouldn't be noticeable on my build.

Thanks, JTBuckley!  That's what I wanted to hear.  I build mostly 1:48, some 1:72.  I'll have to give the Wonder Wire folks a call.

M9130 & checkmateking02 - Thanks for the updates, gentlemen!  I look forward to them .

taxtp - The world needs more seaplane kits in 1:48 and 1:72.  Like a Martin Mariner, for instance ...

stoutfella - My first four plane builds (modern era) have been Revellogram kits.  I'm not getting much better at filing and sanding, but I am getting lots of practice ...

Keep on keepin' on,

Ordie

Some pictures of the engine...I hand painted almost everything with different metallic shades of testors square bottle enamels. Then an acrylic rusty/burnt umber-ish wash. The piece of toothpick is gone now.

The backside..

All wrapped up..I'm only going to pose one engine cover open. All paints not associated with engine metal are tamiya acrylic

I don't know about the color I chose for the exhaust pipes... But what's done is done and I'm not painting them again!

Sharp looking engine.  Well done.

I agree, very nicely done.

Cheers

Tony

What they said!

Thanks, guys

stoutfella

What they said!

(aka "ditto")

JTBuckley - Very nice engine, I do agree.

All - I was out of action for a few days.  Thanks for keeping it rolling along.

All - PaperPanzer has marching band commitments from now through November, and won't have time for modelling during this period.  I am, therefore, extending the time limit for this GB a month to 1/31/13.  This extension applies to everyone.  Enjoy!  And, Paperpanzer, good luck to you and your band this season.

Ordie

Greetings,

A tiny bit of progress on the Kingfisher cockpit. Not really much to describe, as there's not a lot to start with in this kit. I added the PE rudder pedals, trim wheel and belt buckles. Apologies for the quality of the close-up. I'm having a terrible time getting good focus with my camera closer than a few feet.

Nice looking cockpit.  Pictures appear fine, too.

Yeah, the picture quality is fine. Nice looking wash btw.

I've finally finished my project for the group build--at last.  It took a lot longer than I thought it would, for such small models.

First is an underside photo, with the main float attached.  I used white glue (Aleene's and Elmer's) to attach the floats (and the wing floats too).  This also helped to fill in some of the gaps.  These little planes were too small for me to fill and sand as usual.

Next is an upper surface shot, showing the three-color paint scheme.  When researching contemporary photos on the net, I noticed that there was a considerable latitude of interpretation when the scheme was applied.

On some Kingfishers, the sea blue from the spine dipped down and connected with the wing.  On others, the sea blue simply ran from fore to aft, leaving the intermediate blue running along the full fuselage.  This was the style applied in the one photo I found of a VO-9 plane from the USS Wisconsin, so I painted three of the planes in that style, and the other two with the sea blue interrupting the intermediate blue.

Last photo for now shows the wing floats--very tiny.  I airbrushed the white color, then painted the upper by hand with a brush. 

Despite some profiles, showing the three colors applied to the wing floats, most of the actual photos I found on the web (some in color) showed only the sea blue applied to the top and sides of the wing floats, omitting the intermediate blue altogether, so that's how I proceded, as subsequent photos will show.

To keep from making this post too long, I'll resume later.  Thanks for looking. 

Here is the finish up of the Kingfishers.

First photo shows the undersurfaces.  Decals and wing floats are in place.  I used a dark gray acrylic wash to bring out some of the details.

Second photo is of the finished group.  I used a dark blue/black wash, but it doesn't show up too well against the sea blue.

The three aircraft in the foreground will make their way to USS Wisconsin. I found photo evidence of number "1" on the web.  Numbers "2" and "3" are hypothetical.   The planes were from VO-9, but a search of the web yielded no information about that squadron at all.

Third photo is of the top and bottom of the two planes that will be placed on USS Alabama, currently under construction.  A search of the web provided no information at all about the seaplanes stationed on Alabama during WWII.

Fourth photo shows the planes posed with a penny, to keep things in perspective.

Last photo is a close up of number "1" from USS Wisconsin, based on an existing photo.

So that concludes my contribution to the group build.  Thank you, Ordie, for hosting the build and providiing an enjoyable experience.  I will be looking forward to seeing how the larger scale Kingfishers come out in this build--along with everyone else's efforts.

Thanks for viewing.

Wow. Those look awesome. The masking in such a tiny scale is truly impressive. My build is on the other end of the scale spectrum so I can't fully appreciate how difficult your tiny planes were. Good stuff.

My arado should be done a few days to a week - be sure to check it out.

Looking forward to your completion, JT.  I admire all the detal you "big scale" builders can put into something.