Vietnam Air War GB - Extended!

You`re a good son Ken! My Mom lives with us, but has been in Florida since September. She is back in NJ but is staying wit my Aunt for a week, then with my Brother for a bit. The place we`re renting is only 2 bedrooms and pretty tight with the 5 of us now....would be sardine-can like if Mom came here...lol. But...she will wind up here...hates being away from us and doesn`t get along with certain family members...she`s 76 and set in her ways.....

Len

I know what you mean Len, my Mom is 77!  Fortunately she only lives about 3 miles away so it is easy for me to get to her house whenever she needs anything.

Ken

Hey all,

Started my Skymaster FAC on Sunday. Made alot of progress being that there isn`t much to the kit. Here are some pics...

...cockpit floor...

 So far I`ve been brush painting everything and not liking it too much...headin` out to the garage tonight to start spraying...

Here`s a shot of my work space...the kitchen table. Not used to cleaning up after every session...

 I bought that flimsy, plastic, 6drawer thingy to hold my Tamiya paint survivors...

This is where I am now, everything is assembled for the most part, haven`t glued the wings on yet, or fiddlies. Gonna shoot some paint on it tonight...at least that is my plan.

 The clear parts were a really good fit...a little gap on both sides of the windscreen near the bottom but easily fixed with some white glue (can`t really make it out in that pic).

The directions called for a 1/2 oz of weight in the nose to avoid tail-sitting, I used more like 1 1/2 oz`s..

Fuselage is ready for painting after being stuffed with toilet paper...

I`ll post more pics after my paint job is done...like the kit, not alot to that either...

Thanks for lookin`....

Len

Good work!

Hi Len,

Now that is determination and also a cool wife to let you have the space in your temporary home at the dining table!

You are moving right along on that O-2A Skymaster!  I have that same kit in my stash.  The only aftermarket detail I have for it is the Draw Decals "DON'T SHOOT".

I have not opened my kit yet.  How does the cockpit look on it?  With all that glass it is going to be pretty viewable.

Ken

Son Of Medicine Man

Hi Len,

Now that is determination and also a cool wife to let you have the space in your temporary home at the dining table!

You are moving right along on that O-2A Skymaster!  I have that same kit in my stash.  The only aftermarket detail I have for it is the Draw Decals "DON'T SHOOT".

I have not opened my kit yet.  How does the cockpit look on it?  With all that glass it is going to be pretty viewable.

Ken

And yes, my wife is pretty cool. She knows this hobby is important to me so she doesn`t break `em too much... She actually asked me if I wanted to find a desk and set it up in the bedroom..(wants me out of the kitchen..lol) but the bedroom is too small. Have to either set up in a corner in the living room or in the cold garage. I can`t wait to get back into my house!

Thanks again Ken, you too Ripcord!

Len

Hey Len, I really like the 02A and it looks as though you've done quite good thus far. Especially considering you have hand painted everything. I'm not sure if you mentioned it but will you paint it the silver  finish or some type of camo pattern? Best of luck with the rest of the build. Look forward to seeing the finished product.

Any idea if F-104-C  starfighters flew over Vietnam. I see references to the G version and i assume C's did too. I have one in the stash if they did and may join or am i too late?

seems like the c version did. i have the hasegwa 104-c withe the "George" decals. does anyone know if the other decal scheme in the boxwas a vietnam era one or would ineed aftermarket decals.

mikeymize

Hey Len, I really like the 02A and it looks as though you've done quite good thus far. Especially considering you have hand painted everything. I'm not sure if you mentioned it but will you paint it the silver  finish or some type of camo pattern? Best of luck with the rest of the build. Look forward to seeing the finished product.

Except for training the Germans at Luke I don't think the USAF ever flew any G's. Only A's and C's.  C's were in Viet Nam but were not very useful as there was no air defense mission.

talentless

Any idea if F-104-C  starfighters flew over Vietnam. I see references to the G version and i assume C's did too. I have one in the stash if they did and may join or am i too late?

seems like the c version did. i have the hasegwa 104-c withe the "George" decals. does anyone know if the other decal scheme in the boxwas a vietnam era one or would ineed aftermarket decals.

The F-104C and the F-104D were the only versions that the USAF used in the Vietnam War.

Ken

I thought it was usually a grey color but it appeared to be a NMF or something on the box photo. Also the MM enamel cap issue you had made me laugh as the last time I had a super stuck lid I used vise grips on top and channel locks on bottom; the glass broke! Good thing it was in the garage over some newspaper.

is it too late to come in? If its ok ill be doing a f104-c

talentless

is it too late to come in? If its ok ill be doing a f104-c

Obligatory sprue shot taken at work during lunch.

F104sprues by omgpainful, on Flickr

No idea how it will finish up. ideally it will be an interceptor with underwing tanks and sidewinders, "possibly" just after takeoff with gear cycling as its the only time the main bays are fully open (yeah right, i can hear my inner voice mocking me already) or with gear up (more likely as ill probably write off the u/c trying the former.)

Hi guys, since it goes til late 2013, any space for me and my 1/72 Airfix A-4b Scooter in USN VA-95 sceeme?

Theuns

Hi Everyone,

It has been sometime since I posted any pictures of my progress.  I have managed to put a little time in at the bench and took some pictures along the way.  But with everything else going on I have not had time to post them.  So here they are.

In this first one I have painted the knobs on the rear cockpits scope:

  In the next picture I have the right side of the cockpit wall still attached to the resin base mold:

 Here it is again with the resin base mold removed, sanded to fit the cockpit:

 In the next picture I have epoxied the scope into the rear cockpit:

 This next picture shows the left cockpit wall still attached to the resin base mold:

  And here it is again with the resin base mold removed, sanded to fit the cockpit:

  The next picture shows the front ejection seat still attached to the resin base mold:

 And here it is again with the resin base mold removed:

 And the next picture shows the rear ejection seat with the resin base mold still attached:

 And here it is with the resin base mold removed:

I epoxied the front ejection seat into the cockpit and now waiting for it to cure.  I will take more pictures tomorrow.

Ken

Hi Everyone,

Here is today's progress.

In this first picture I have the front ejection seat epoxied into place:

 This next picture shows the rear ejection seat epoxied into place:

 Here is a close up of the rear control stick epoxied into place.  It was a real bear since I had to hold it in position waiting for the 5 minute epoxy to setup:

 Here is an overhead shot of the cockpit so far:

 And finally a view from the starboard side:

 Ken

Hi Everyone,

I guess I just don't know when to quit on this cockpit.  I decided to add a few placards and paint the red trigger buttons on the control sticks.

Here is the port side wall with a couple of placards added:

 And here is the rear cockpit control stick with the trigger button painted red:

 And here is the front cockpit control stick epoxied into place with placard attached and trigger button painted red:

 Ken

Updates are great and yes Theuns always room in this GB. I would love to see another A-4. Is it the new one by Airfix?

IMPORTANT MESSAGE TO ALL PILOTS: Pm me for my email to send me the finished pics of your aircraft to post on the front page.

Hi Everyone,

It has been a while since I posted my progress so I am going to play catch up tonight.

In this first picture I have painted the photo-etch landing gear control handle and attached it to the left side instrument panel:

 In this next picture I have just cut the resin rear cockpit's engine throtle controls from the resin mold base:

  In the next picture you can see where the engine throtle control will be attached (the two long slots closest to you):

 The next photo shows the engine throtle control in place:

 The next picture shows the photo-etch of the arrestor hook control painted and attached to the right instrument panel:

 There has been a couple of requests on how I did the instrument panels.  Well I realized today that I needed to paint the photo-etch canopy emergency release handles yellow and black.  Since I will do this the very same way that I did the instrument panels, I will document it as I do them.

I must first give credit to Robert Kwikkel on this idea.  Here is a link to the web page where he describes how he does it:

http://www.arcair.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT033-PE-Painting-Kwikkel/00.shtm

Here is a picture of the photo-etch handles.  They are numbered 7, 8, 9, and 10 right above the dime:

 Now one thing about the handles is that the top of each of them will be right above the bottom of the canopy glass.  This means that you will be able to see both sides.  As it turns out, I happen to have two photo-etch sheets since I had to order a second cockpit after accidentally destroying the first one.

 I also discovered that the handles are mirror images so I can glue them together to have a two sided photo-etch handle.

Another thing about the handles is that the emergency ones one the left side are yellow with black trim and the manual ones on the right side are black with yellow trim.  So I will be doing the colors in reverse order on the two sheets.

Here is the paint I will be using:

 First thing to do is clean the photo-etch.  I use lacquer thinner:

Just be sure to use plenty of ventilation when you use it.  Also be really careful not to spill any, it can destroy paint in a hurry.  Also you should wear latex gloves, in fact, just read the warning label!

Next you will need to mask off the area that you are going to work with.  I like to use the Scotch brand "Safe-Release Painters" masking tape:

 First thing is to seal the backside so there isn't any paint that comes up from underneath.  So I mask the entire backside:

 Next I mask off everything on the front except for what I am painting:

 The first color to paint is the color you want the "shiny" part of the metal to be when you are done, and not in the "etched" area.  Also you want this to be an acrylic paint.  Since I need both colors reversed, I will be doing each sheet reversed.  Here is the first one where I need the handles yellow with black trim:

 And here is the sheet that will be the black handles with yellow trim:

 Model Master's acrylic takes 24 hours to completely dry.  So this is where I will leave off for tonight to wait for this to dry.

Ken

Morning, yes it is the new Airfix 1/72 A-4b, but I have by now almost completed it.

Theuns

Since we still have some time I will then also enter a 1/48 Hasa A-4 E/F. :-)  Seems 2013 will be my Scooter year LOL!

The new little Airfix kit is actually vey nice, the wing does need some filler to join smoothly , and the slat rails tend to break off with handling th model. but otherwize the fit is very nice. The scraibed detail is also much finer than on some other new Airfix stuff, I would put it about the same as Academy's detail.

U cut off the flaps , thinned them out and re-glued the top halves to the wing.

I left the cockpit pretty much out the box, the canopy so so somaal I was not sure much would be visable anyway, but the detail level is not bad atall.

Primed ready for paint

The decals were a pure joy to work with, I was worried about the star that went over the votrex generators and the IFR probe, but they went into the detail witout any hassles.

The only thing with this kit I am not sure about is the instructions show the ailerons outboard tips to be painted in a straight line, jet there is a scribe line just ahaid of the outer leading edge that looks allot like the counter weight like on later scooters. I am not sure if Airfix is planing on bringing out later models and threrefore did this.

Completed pix to follow. 

Theuns

In the meantime, this wil be my next entry......

Theuns

Greetings Everyone!

Tonight's continuation of painting the two colors on the photo-etch process is very simple and short.  For this step we need to paint the clear coat on top of the base color we applied last night.  This needs to be gloss acrylic clear.  I am using Model Master brand.  By the way, I did not mention this but I am using about 22 lbs pressure.  Also, I am not using any thinner as Model Master acrylic comes ready to be used in an air brush.

Here is a picture of the yellow photo-etch I painted yesterday with the clear gloss coat that I applied tonight:

 And this next photo shows the black photo-etch with the gloss acrylic clear.  The camera is not able to get a good shot of the pieces but one thing you can see is where the paper towel was blocking the clear as I was spraying it on the left side.

Once again this will need to dry for 24 hours before proceeding with the next step.  So I will continue tomorrow!

Ken

My 1/72 Airfix A-4b completed. Depicted in the colors of VA 95 aboard USS Intrepid 1966 (IIRC)

Next up is the Hasa 1/48 A-4 E

Theuns

Hi Everyone,

Here is another episode of how to paint two colors on photo-etch.  Tonight is a little more work than last night since we have to use two colors again.  This is of course because I am painting two different photo-etch sheets.  If you were only doing one sheet, you would only be painting one color.

Tonight we use the opposite color on each sheet that we used as the first color, and the paint has to be gloss enamel.  I also use Model Master brand for the enamel, and I thin it with a 1 to 1 ratio.  This is because I want to be sure the paint gets down into all of the etched areas of the metal completely.  Once again I am using about 22 lbs of pressure.

Here is the sheet that had the black painted first and now has the gloss enamel yellow sprayed on top:

You can see how the yellow has settled down into the etched areas and since yellow is a little transparent to begin with, is showing the black through on the non etched areas.  This is giving you a hint of what this is going to look like when we are done.

Here is a shot of the sheet originally painted yellow with the gloss black enamel painted over it:

Once again you can see a hint of what this is going to look like when we are finished.

Model Master enamel takes 72 hours to harden completely, and we need it to be completey set before the next step.  So it will be Wednesday night before we can move to the next step.

Ken

Hi Everyone!

Wednesday is finally here and so the enamel is finally hardened enough to complete the final step of the 2 color photo-etch.

First we need mineral spirits:

We use this because it is not nearly as aggressive as other paint removers which will allow us to get more control on the process.

Next we need a straight edged spreader:

This is the type used to apply different types of putty and is made of plastic.  I believe this one came from an auto body & paint supply store, I can't remember.  I have had it for so long.

The next thing you will need is some very tightly woven cloth material, like a handkerchief.  Take the material, soak an area of it with mineral spirits, then wrap it tight around the spreader like this:

 Then start scraping across the photo-etch watching carefully how much paint you are removing.  You only want to remove the last color from the flat "shiny" surface (or what would have been the shiny surface) to expose the color underneath.  You want to leave the last color painted in the "etched" area of the photo-etch.

For example, in the above picture, the last color was black and the first color was yellow.  So we want to remove the black from the upper non etched area exposing the yellow but leaving the black in the lower etched areas like in the next photo:

And here is a shot of the reverse color photo-etch after I was done:

Pretty cool huh?  Like I said, just keep an eye on how much paint you are removing.  The thing is, if you screw up, you can always take the laquer thinner and remove all of it and start all over!

Ken

Hi Everyone,

Well here is the photograph of the finished two color photo-etched canopy release handles.  I glued them together using Future:

Next step is to attach them to the cockpit walls tonight.

Ken