US CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD 2013

Dre, that's some impressive detail painting in the gear bays. Inspiring, and I like the colors you chose. Wheels/tires look good, too.

MA, your scratch building is also inspiring. Looking good!

Falconmod- that's all Aires resin.   The only thing I've done is to add paint.

Dre:  your wheel wells are amazing!  what did you use for the tubes/hoses?  fine solder, wire wrap wire?

Marty:  that interior is way cool,  will you be able to see it once it's finished up?  should use one of those small fiber optic automotive scopes inserted into it to see the glowing crt's,  that would make a cool dio.

John

That's some real nice scratch work, Marty.    You might call yourself a noob, but that work looks great.

That is really impressive, Marty! I never to scratch-build something, just out of lack of skill, but I'll try to when I get more experienced... Your work is really stunning, even if it's not 100% accurate!

Cheers, Clemens

Just to prove that I'm actually capable of using styrene, here is a pic of my crew EW panel.  Four Techs work the equipment here, and the senior evaluator is in the rearmost position. The panel is about where it will be when installed.

One of the grab handles got disappeared when showing it unglued to my daughter. It has now been replaced and all secured with CA. Additional black boxes will be mounted above the work that has been done to date.  The big tubing is to represent some CRT's with monster big bezels in my reference photo. Tough to see, but there are 10 or so 'knobs' in each workstation.

The rivet counters among you are going to notice that this is more representative than 100% accurate, but this is about the max of my skill set, so be nice. Remember, I'm a newb.

The desktop is above the fuse, and will be glued to the bottom of the workstations in the fuse.

The forward bulkhead is just paper card stock for shape, size and position, will be traced and replaced with styrene. Note that it intersects with the aircrew hatch, so I'll need to build a tunnel.

So far, they're just 2 layers of MM enamel Flat Black... I want to add a little more black paint for durability's sake before doing any dark grey shading.

The hubs were detailed with Gunmetal and Steel for the bolts and brake pistons and then washed with Future/Tamiya clear smoke for staining.

Wow, just wow! That is looking really great, Dre!

I love the amount of detail you achieved in the gear bays! May I ask you how you painted all of that fine details in this quality? I'm interested most in the brush and colors you used.

I can't wait to see some progress on your cockpit! If it looks only half as good as the gear bays, it's going to be a masterpiece!

Cheers, Clemens

Wow, Dre, just wow.  What color are you using for tires?

Over the weekend I was able to get a little detail painting done (so as to avoid doing actual 'work' on my model)...

Added a little color (almost entirely inaccurate, mind you) to the nose gear bay and main gear bays.   Although the bays are almost entirely white, there is some subtle staining and discoloration on hoses and insulating wraps that  breaks up the blandness...  which is all I was trying to recreate through various shades of light colors.   these still have to be dirtied up with a heavy wash.   It is really tempting to paint all of the wires a light grey just for contrast, but I'll refrain from that.

and I spent a little time making the wheel hubs look used and dirty... I haven't begun to age the tires.        I might have gone just a little too far on the backs of the main hubs...

I need to start in the cockpit soon.

Thanks MA. When time permits, going back and reading this whole thread. Looking forward to seeing your WIP.

Clemens / John,

Yes that is the one.  I love the Luftwaffe and would like to get back into building them. I built a bunch as a youth, but then had a conversion 20 years ago or so and decided I couldn't build them any more. I've listened to arguments on both sides and am slowly coming around to a position where I am probably back in the game. So many great airframes.

John, missing wingtip: Yeah, that is a tragedy, but that isn't what I'm buying. You might not be aware, but Hub actually has two of the repop's in stock.  check the top shelf in the 1/72 aisle. Right next to the new 1/48 Academy F-4 B.

Hi Greg,

Welcome and come on in, the water is fine.  I'm new here too. Although I've been a member for a number of years, I had about a dozen or so posts prior to Clemens' invite, and posted my first ever bird early in this thread.

Glad to have you!  

Thanks for adding me, Clemens.

I hear you re the AM instructions. I stumbled across a pdf of the AM Avenger instructions a couple weeks ago. Wish I'd have found it sooner, would have eliminated a lot of head-scratching! :) The Academy instructions aren't the best I've seen from what I recall way back when.....

Sad that Accurate Miniatures are no more, really enjoying the kit.

And looking fwd to your first look soon.

I put ya on the list! I just have to tell you something: Those GBs are addicting, so watch out! I love the Accurate Miniatures kits bitw! I got me one of their F3F-1s and the kit is looking really good (nice plastic parts, PE-rigging). Their building instructions are beautiful as well. There are some pictures like in normal instruction sheets on every page, but also a large coloumn of text explaining step-by-step what to do! I'll post a little "first look review" of it next weekend!

Cheers, Clemens

Thanks for letting me join in, Clemens. :) And also for your kind words.

The kit is Academy TBM-3 Avenger in 1/48th (which as I understand is a reman of the old Accurate Miniatures kit).

Should be fun to be a part of this, looking fwd to it.

I really love the fact that some of you have the badge for this GB in their sig already! Thanks guys! I still have to figure out how to get pics in there... (stupid character limitation)

John, a kit with US-decals would be Nr. 8185! Just look at the link in my earlier post!

Clemens

Do you happen to know the number of that kit?  can't find one in there online page with US decals,  unless it's bigger than 48  I didn't look at any other scales.

John

No problem at all, Greg! I'll put you on the list asap. I just need to know the manufacturer of your kit. It wouldn't be poor form at all having it in both threads, so just go ahead and have fun! I think I saw the thread you mentioned already and your work is really impressive!

Cheers, Clemens

Hi. I'm a newbie here. Wondering if I could join in the fun with my 1/48th TBM-3 Avenger in progress? Fuselage not joined yet.

If yes, a question. I started a WIP thread last week .  Would it be considered poor form to update both that thread and this GB thread?

TIA,

Greg

I just checked at the Eduard website and found this:

www.eduard.com/.../Fw-190D-11-D-13-DUAL-COMBO-1-48.html

It's a Dual-Combo for the D-11/D-13, but it has some decals for a captured machine as well. Just have a look at the instructions. This one should be in production as well.

Cheers, Clemens

I'm there on Tuesday's.    is that eduard kit OOP?   we can just order another one if it's still available.  that poor Valkyrie is missing the port wing tip,  fell off the ceiling a couple of years ago and someone never fixed it, so no idea where the wing tip is.

Funny story: couple three months ago I needed to get a specific MM paint color on Sunday. I also had been debating a set of decals, and so I wandered back into the plastic section (along Penn, not back where railroad used to be) and started looking hard.

The lights flickered on and off, but I didn't really think anything about it.  I finally find what I'm looking for: Echelon Pz IV H and I walk to the front of the store. One of the employees is standing in the check out section and he scans me up and down like I'm a ghost.

Turns out store closed while I was back there, nobody saw me on sweep, and I almost got locked in for the night!

After he figured out that I'm not there to rob the store, I apologize, grab my paint and paid and went merrily on my way.

Perhaps I'll swing by one night when you are working.  

BTW: Raincoat and big bag.  Never thought of that, certainly would reduce the modeling budget.

I'm really pissed, somebody bought the Eduard 2x Dora D-9 and D-11. I've been looking at it for the past 18 months but could never pull the trigger on $ 80.   I wanted that one because it had decals for a US captured bird.

I'm also gonna walk out with the Valkyrie one of these days.  I bought one from MPC back in the 70's, but never finished it.  I'm sure it got junked at some point when I moved out of the house. But it is my favorite plane ever (Saw it at Wright Pat in about '73 or so.)

Thank you, Marty! I should be able to paint the kitten this week... I just have to complete the gear bay and mask it. Then it all gets a coat of primer, the 2 colors, some gloss coat, decals, oil-washing and a dull-coat. Just the usual stuff...

Cheers, Clemens

Marty,

   Scale Model Supplies, yes I like that place,  there's several old models on the top shelf that I want to get when I have extra $  It's a gold mine for weird stuff.

John

Marty,

 I work at the Richfield Hub one night a week,  I don't think I get mad at anyone for just looking,  unless you have a trench coat and a large shopping bag,  then we just follow you around the store.   Where do you work in west end?  I assume you mean in St. louis park?  I work at the theater there in the evenings to supplant my income to my real job as a electrical designer.

Can't wait to see some pictures of your A3, that's a subject not done too often.

John

Thanks for the comments, Marty.

I wanted this Cat to show some wear, but not too much. I know they would keep up with all the aircraft below decks, but not to the point of being really cleaned well. I wanted mine to have the look of being a flight-combat veteran.... sort of worn but ready to go!

Eric and Clemens,  good work and coming along nicely.  E, your 'cat is dirty and well used. Just the way she should be!

John, good to see your progress too. I've consigned myself to detail hell on this one. HUB? Yes. I think they get p*ssed because I spend so much time browsing but I do drop significant coin in there on a monthly basis. I work at the West End so maybe we can catch a beer sometime, and swing by a LHS. You been to Scale Model Supplies in St Paul?  Makes Hub look like Michaels. Literally 3-5 copies of the same kit. All over the inventory.

I've been gearing up for something beyond out of the box for a LONG time now. Believe it or not I've never used resin or PE on anything.  Other than scratching an odd antenna here or a set of really basic l.g. for a YF-22, I haven't really ever scratch built before either. But this project has been sitting in the 'some day' pile for too long. My good buddy from years back flew this specific type, and so I figured I had to do it even if it required more work.

Best, Marty

I've always though that the S-3 had pleasing lines, happy to see one getting built up.

I've spent the last few days resisting the urge to paint everything in the wheels wells something other than gloss white and detail painting the wheel hubs....  very exciting stuff.