US CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD 2013

Belated Merry Christmas everyone, and here's to a good 2014. I've got a few adys leave and getting stuck into my Hellcat this morning.

Cheers

Tony

Clemens, awesome GB!  It was a hit!  

Merry Christmas my friend!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays everyone!  Hope everyone is having or will have an awesome Christmas!

Eagle90

Merry Christmas to you and yours as well, friend Clemens.

Thank you for making me feel so much at home. As my first GB, I'll never forget this one.

............and a very Merry Christmas to you too Clemens.

As your GB host I have a few things to say:

First of all, I want to thank all of you for participating! You are an awesome group and make this GB so great for me to host!

I also want to wish you a merry Christmas! The christmas traditions here in Austria are a bit different than in the states, but i don't think it's too different. I hope you have a great time together with all your loved ones!

"Frohe Weihnachten" from Vienna!

stikpusher

It gives you an excuse to do another...

 What a kidder though!!! Ha hahahaha.

It gives you an excuse to do another...

Cool that Hasegawa came through for you. I understand the late part though.

Better late than never, right? LOL!

You know guys, after all I went through to build my SBD with the decals I had and waiting for those Yellow wings squadron number/ letter decals to get to me in the mail, guess what came in just yesterday? Any guesses??? Hasegawa did come through after all!!!

Although this is a sheet for 22-C-13 which I had initially planned on building (and I had a pic or two of that bird too) I'm glad I built -14. Oh well I'll have em for next time I need em or if anybody else needs a set! LOL

You know its that stage of the build that I dislike the most (and this looks great BTW) and I'll tell you why. There ain't nothing prettier than a cockpit thats all painted up and detailed, a firewall or engine that's all decked out to the max and lookin' Bad A or an access panel interior with all the bells and whistles installed with the fuselage halves "open". I am just initially apprehensive about covering all of that beautiful detail up but know in the end that its all going to look great later. I will say this though, good job here-

Good news! Your tub fit (or you made it fit!). Looking good, Stik. The visible detail, and there is still plenty of it, looks even better now.

Looking very good, Stik! She's strating to look like a plane now!

Understood  I know that it is a healthier choice.

And here is the latest on my Scooter- fueslage assembled

and a few shots of the cockpit now... much more confined and difficult to see all that work..

Well Stik, I sort of retired from drinking some years back, but still enjoy those places. In fact, we went to one last night and had a delightful appetizer style meal. They didn't even look down their noses at us for not ordering from the bar, and as I looked around we weren't the only ones. That's something that has changed over the years. Used to be almost a social taboo to enter a bar and not 'drink'. <<<<-- that's me now. Ha ha.

Well in that case go have a drink. Places with that decor usually open early for the serious among us...

Well, there ya go, Stik. I feel better now.

Gotta be the low light common in those places... Add alcohol and love is in the air... Lol!

Yes, I think deep-red is the color I was thinking. See why I can't match colors on a model???

Greg

Not to divert attention from your cockpit proper which I like so much, but I very much like the way you handled those side panels, Stik. They look GREAT!

For some reason, I'm reminded of of the plush leather semi-circular booth seats of the posh restaurant 50's/60's era, and have a burning desire to see you paint them a glossy-deep/dark purple!

One of my favorite watering holes (which also just happens to be a place of that sort from that era) has that decor, but more red than purple. Good old school food and drink.

Thanks guys. Those pics show it off pretty well and in spite of the tight confines, it is now coming together as I wanted.

VERRRY nice work!!!! This looks really good stik!!

Not to divert attention from your cockpit proper which I like so much, but I very much like the way you handled those side panels, Stik. They look GREAT!

For some reason, I'm reminded of of the plush leather semi-circular booth seats of the posh restaurant 50's/60's era, and have a burning desire to see you paint them a glossy-deep/dark purple!

Greg, the instruemnt decals are a mix of Airscale (majority- all the larger ones), and Monogram Pro Modeler (smaller ones)

SS, I used  Testors Clear Parts Glue for the lenses.

Today I got the IP, gunsight projector, cockpit tub and nose weights installed. The gunsight projector was something of a beach to put in (Clear Parts Glue is NOT very tacky at all), as it kept falling out of place and at one point bounced under my workbench that took quite a bit of searching to find. 

I will get it all sealed up tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on circumstances here.

Looking very good there, Stik! What glue (brand) did you use for the lenses?

Greg: Yeah, landing on a carrier has to be really tough. Stik used AM decals for the IP btw...

Panel ended up great, Stik! Did the instrument decals come with the kit or are they aftermarket? (sorry if you already covered this). Never done individual decals, looks like a fun challenge. They look cool.

I hear you re carrier landings and the complexities of contemporary fighters. When I think about, and I mean really think about landing an aircraft on a carrier, my brain turns to scrambled eggs.

Now that the Clear Parts Glue for the instrument lenses has dried and cleared up I took a better photo



and one with the projector for the gunsight. I have since added a coat of Flat Black around it leaving only the top in a tinted clear color

Thank you guys.

Greg, while researching the cockpit I stumbled across a manual online for one of the earlier model Skyhaks, and just going over some of that gave me an appreciation for all that a pilot has to learn to become familiar with just to drive this particular aircraft. Never mind learning to take off and land at sea as well as learning to fight it as well. Quite sobering when you think about it.

Rex, that is indeed a great compliment. I cant think of a better one.

nice cockpit work

the one view made me think "I have seen that somewhere before",,,,,,and then I forgot about it and went to do something else

I picked up a stack of books to do something, and saw the photo of the cockpit on the back cover of the Detail & Scale Skyhawk book

some of the details are different (it's a Super Fox),,,,,,,but, that is the "photo I thought I had seen before",,,,,,,,it is a little bit more subdued, but, after your panel is buried in the cockpit, it is going to look more subdued also

I can't think of any better way to say "nice work" than to have a model part remind someone of a photo of the real part

Rex

Stik, very convincing cockpit. I agree about your detail work. Nice!

Thanks for the info on all the emergency pull-handles, that's a lot of potential emergencies to keep straight!

Well you sure do some impressive detail work there yourself my friend. As your SBD showed so well.