US CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD 2013

Rex,  Never seen such an animal.  I have some stuff that I bought years ago, 2 part 10:1 resin for the mold, and two big bottles of the resin for the parts. But I like the idea of making 3 parts.  

My original is actually an old Cutting Edge set.  The nacelles on the kit are ugly and due to the fan and splitter, cant really be sanded on the inside.  And I have designs (but no kit) for another ERA

it is stuff like this,,,,,,this one is 1 part powder to 3 parts water, though

www.dickblick.com/.../make-a-mold-impression-material-refills

it is easy to use

Rex

Well here is my entry with all the stuff that I have for it currently. I am still needing to pick up a resin seat, and maybe one more item for this...

The basic kit

the decal set

and ordnance that I will be using from these Trumpeter sets 

Very nice pusher, very nice indeed.  

Stik, I don't know when those came out, but, it is great to see 1/32 get some weapons choices like we have had in 1/72 for awhile now

nothing worse than not being able to do different loadouts on aircraft, when you are trying to work some variety into a collection

(you don't want to even know how many different 1/72 sets there are/were, just staying mostly US jets)

OK, since I told you I'd be out of commission for the next few days, I figured the least I could do would be to offer up a taste of what awaits:

Kit at the top, wings to the right, and leaning against the box some reference pics I took of a A-3B at the New England Air Museum 10 years ago or so. Kit decals (won't be used) are under my sketch of the modifications I need to make to turn this A-3 into an EA-3B.

After some surgery, the dark squares amidship will become windows, and the dark odd shaped item in between window 1 and 2 from the rear is the crew door for the Elint crew.  I have a couple of other representations as I was trying to get the size right. 

The appropriate electronics canoe is still on the pour stub and courtesy of Cutting Edge is on the drawing in about where she will be mounted, and the decals for my chosen subject will come off the Aero Master decal sheet.

Carry on, Marty

Rex,

Got home from work and my new scale was waiting on the porch, so I'm good for my casting project.  My RTV was actually packaged by Bare Metal Foil (whod'a known?) and is named 'Polytek'. Hopefully it hasn't gone bad with age.  The container with the base component is soft but feels like it is filled with putty not fluid.

Worst case, I'll order that stuff you pointed me to.  I'll keep you posted.

I'm sorry for not opening this up myself, but i was sleeping at that time....

Stupid timezones....

So I wish all of you much fun and good modelling!

Cheers, Clemens

Most likely won't start on this until I finish my Sopwith Baby for the WW1 GB, but here's my pick for this one: Hasegawa's 1/72 Prowler, with the Super Bug resin cockpit set and Super Scale VAQ-137 "Rooks" Desert Storm decals. (I'll also add a HARM or two from the Italeri US/NATO Armament set, not shown below.)

[Still haven't 100% decided on using the Super Bug set, since I actually got it for another kit--if not, I'll add True details resin seats instead.]

Love seeing what everybody's up to. Rock on and party hearty!

I have started working on my Wildcat. I got all the cockpit sub-assemblies together and start painting them in a few hours. The only bad thing about this otherwise awesome kit: No decals for the instrument panel. But It has all the instruments with raised details so some drybrushing with white paint should do the job.

I'll do a Wildcat with those nice red 'n' white stripes on the rudder btw. And with meatball insignia!!!

Clemens

Oh some nice EW birds there!

MA, thanks, I am looking forward to this build in a way that I have not looked forward to any builf for quite some time...

Tarn, the "A" set came out when Trumpeter first released their 1/32 A-7, something like 8-10 years ago now or so. The second set is more recent, I think about 3-5 years old at most. They have some issues, but are better than nothing. There are also a couple more sets out there, one of new generation smart bombs and one of air to air weapons. If I was in charge of designing injection plastic weapons sets though... LOL!

Stik, that is where I have been spending my "carve and sand, check it, carve, file and sand" time,,,,,,making weapons and other under the wings things

I have 15+ aftermarket weapons sets, plus a bunch of individual resin weapons, and all the cool stuff I have stripped out of specific kits

and in all of that, there still are not any of the following group,,,,,,the Practice Multiple Bomb Racks that carry the MK 76s, the individual  MK 76s themselves, the MBRs that were carried by Skyhawks for years and years before the MER was developed, MC-1 or MK 94 chemical weapons, correct ECM pods for the EA-6A, a decent HPAR 5" rocket (we only have those Airfix lumpy ones in their Skyraider),,,,,the RAM for the fronts of the HVAR 5" for Korea Corsairs, the MK 89 practice bomb, the last two commonly seen Nukes to hang under the wings (we have 5 of the 7 most popular),,,,,,,,,,and lastly, the Mk 79 Napalm carried in the early Vietnam days

a guy could make up a whole weapons sets, just with the parts I am slowly carving out,,,,,,but, they "don't fit" into a matching set,,,,,,,,,so, I will keep plugging away and add them to a Navy aircraft as I get some of those done

Rex

Tarn,I hear you loud and clear there... if these SUU-29s in the bottom set were not so off in shape I would definitely get another set and alter them into some the later more blunt nosed SUU-30H. I can not understand why that and the CBU-87 are so daggone rare in kits (at least 1/32 and 1/48) Those are probably among the most widely used freefall dumb bombs in use over the past 40 years...

I did add the tail fin phalanges to the SUU-29Bs just to make them a bit more accurate, even though the overall contours are off. But only ordnance fans would know that...

yes I am easily sidetracked on minutiae like this... LOL!

and for those of you who have never seen the old Hasegawa 1/32 Scooter before, here are a few sprue shots.. she is an oldie but a goody!!!

I am extremely biased,,,,,,,,but, I still think that is one of the sexiest jets in the world

geez, those CBUs almost look like they could be modified a bit and used for some of the more rare of the USAF versions

we have "good shapes" in 1/72 for SUU-30 variants in plastic sets, and in Spectre Resin versions

Ok guys this is where I started off. The base cockpit that came with the kit. Notice I have hacked off the "tailgate" of the cockpit. I'm going to replace that with the Hasegawa ammo boxes.

Next are all of the Hasegawa base components that will actually make up the *** pit.....at least from the pilots area with no paint. When I was a kid this kit was great to build but as an adult I'm having alot more fun with it.

Looks like this is off to a flying start already.

Greg, I have never heard of super bug, do they have a website. I have the Hase A-6E in the stash and have only been able to find a small PE set for it. Might be worth checking these guys to see if they have any resin.

I've been busy guys...

The cockpit is now completely coated in a thin layer of green paint. I'll just paint some details and give it a nice oil-wash and then post some pics for ya. This should be in about 2 hours.

Stay tuned, fellas

Clemens

Clemens, well done on launching your first GB.

A toast to set it off in style.

I would toast like that too but quit drinkin!

Greg,

Nice looking EA-6, I'll need to get something like that myself one of these days, to show the follow on to the Whale.

I'm comin at ya from another roadside attraction aka gas station in rural TN. I'm seriously jealous of all y'all who are building right now.

Clemens, you running this shooting match from the other side of the pond?  If so, no roundels allowed!

Bish

Greg, I have never heard of super bug, do they have a website. I have the Hase A-6E in the stash and have only been able to find a small PE set for it. Might be worth checking these guys to see if they have any resin.

Website here: http://superbugmodels.net/superbugresin/sbmhome.htm

I had never heard of them, myself. Great Models had my set on sale a year or two before they were taken over by Sprue Bros., so I picked one up sight unseen. Apparently Superbug was previously called Golden Dragon; judging from reviews available online, their reputation is a bit mixed as far as quality of castings and material goes, but they've got a fair amount of stuff available. My set seems pretty good--better detail than the Hasegawa kit parts, a little flashy and with messy pour stubs, but nothing too daunting. My one big gripe is that there are no instructions, drawings or otherwise telling what goes where, but I guess I'll figure that out as I start studying photos of the "office" on the real thing.

On the plus side, a review I found stated that the set represents an ICAP II layout, which is exactly what I'm shooting for. I'll see when I start hacking whether everything fits or not.

Actually, now I see the site, I have heard of them. I have checked there site before waiting for some of their B-52 stuff to be released. But I hadn't looked at the rest of it. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

mustang1989

I would toast like that too but quit drinkin!

You and me both. But they didn't have a coke smiley

Bish

mustang1989

I would toast like that too but quit drinkin!

You and me both. But they didn't have a coke smiley

Thank you, Bish!

I promised you guys an update and here it is:

I airbrushed the whole cokpit in Gunze's H422 (RLM82) which is a perfect color for US-cockpits IMO, even though it's a german color.

Next step was to paint all black details in Vallejo Air "Black". I like to use Vallejo's colors for such things, as they brush on much easier than the Gunze colors.

As the IP had no decals to put on, I drybrushed the raised!!! details on the instruments with some white color. I had to repaint all black parts of the IP, because there was some white color everywhere.

The last step was giving it all a wash with thinned down black oil paint. Actually it was colored thinner

The cockpit is finished now. I'll pick up some HGW seatbelts at my LHS this Saturday and maye add a silver drybrushing as well.

Nuff said! I reckon you want to see some pics instead of just plain text, so here ya go!

It's nothing special, but I hope you like it. (what do you think of the IP?)

Cheers, Clemens

Lookie what I happened to stumble into today. In honor of this august group, I hereby declare y'all official US Carrier Aviation GB Tailhook members:

[URL=http://s79.photobucket.com/user/Francois_du_Nord/media/Panther_zps2f84f031.jpg.html][/URL

Time to reply to ya!

Joe: Some interesting kit-bashing you're doing there. I like it!

Marty: Yep, I do manage this from the other side of the pond. I'm sitting here in a small country called Austria! AND I WILL USE THOSE ROUNDELS!

That Panther looks awesome btw! I ove that blue finish with the yellow insignia!

Cheers, Clemens

Ich spreche ein bischen Deutsche, aber sein Englische is sehr gut!