Weekend Madness 2013- Completed!!!

Well 4 hours down and time for break. 1/2 way through step 7 of 13 so I figure halfway through the actual build process.

Pirst pic, parts laid with FSM screen for start time (second close up for better readability, I figure close enough to 5:30 pm)

44 Hours to go

Well 10 1/2 hours into my build and still seems to be only one started, feels lonely out in front .

Its near 4am here so calling it quits for the night progress has been slow due to A: the wonderfully clear instructions, had to do a some trawling for reference images. B: having to clean up lots of small bits of flash.

Here's the turret after being glued together. One side was fine with just some sanding the other needed a seam filled which I did with superglue and accelerator (faster than putty).

 I won't say its been an unenjoyable build, its been good but I can't wait till Trumpeter release their version, gonna get it and build soon as it comes out see how they compare.

Alrighty....start your stop watch, cuz I'm off!

I've opened it, and opened the plastic the sprues were in but haven't got to assembly.

I don't even know the make of the kit, I got it for a few bucks last year so I figure I'd give a crack at it.  What could go wrong......

Already I think the decals are toast.  They are peeling up in place.  Luckily there are many of them

All right guys! I am loving just looking at this! Looks like Armor is VERY popular her this year.

Konig- You are flying along. the only speed bump I foresee now for you are the tracks, but you have made so much progress I am sure you will get those done rapidly as well.

Pyr, that one is a classic! I look forward to the progress pics. I know how easily and well that one builds up.

Chris, a little 88 brings back fond childhood memories of Airfix and Hasegawa's take on that piece. and in a day, followed by a slathering on of Testors or Pactra paints...

I will be kicking of my Hurricane here in another hour or so...

My build begins at 12 sharp

I began my build as of 12 Noon, Pacific Standard Time, and the clock is now running. Oxygen is Go. Cabin pressure is go... sorry, I was having a Gordo Cooper moment  

The kit I chose for my 48 hour build is this- Hobbycraft's 1/48 Hurricane IIC "Night Intruder". A Blitz era night fighter in the RAF. I chose this kit for 1) simplicity of construction, 2) inline engine, with a closed cowl so no engine to paint, and 3) simple monotone paint scheme



the open box with instructions on top



sprues in the box



sprues laid out for inspection



and then construction began- step one build the propeller- attach the blades (with no alignment pins) to the spinner plate



step two, assemble the landing gear. All I did was glue the wheel halves together. I left all struts on the sprues to ease in painting, but cleaned up mold seam lines



step three, assemble the cockpit, this was done according to the instruction sheet- except for gluing the base to the lower wing half



I also dipped the clear parts in Future now so that they had plenty of time to dry while I did my next steps...
then it was time to begin painting. I decided to try a differeent approach. Since this is primarialy an overall black monotone scheme, I painted all the parts that should be black with Tamiya Semi Gloss Black while the glue on most parts was drying...



the cockpit area in Model Master Acryl RAF Interior Gray Green



landing gear parts in Tamiya Aluminum



and the propeller in appropriate colors

I'm in with a MPC (Airfix) Skyraider but cant do it this weekend.  I have to wrestle with a dishwasher.

Hopping I can build the blue bird after Thanksgiving.

Lots of nice boxes boys but where's the Pic's???

Just stopped for lunch, almost finished all construction minus the tracks will post pics when done.

Pics show up fine here...

Ding Ding!  Start the clock!  It's 2213 hrs here in Vermont and I'm ready to go!  I'm thinking the painting will take the longest!  Or at least figuring out what scheme to paint it! 

All Right Eagle, get the lead out! That is a cool looking subject! I think you are right about paint being the longest step on yours.

Well here is where my work stands now, after a couple of breaks and dinner in 8 hours time - I completed the painting in the cockpit



afterwards I glued the fuselage halves together...



then I glued the wing upper surfaces to the lower



Then I did a test fit of the wings to the fuselage- But no gluing until I get the seams sanded later this evening

@Stik, I actually meant where's the construction pics not just the pretty boxes (sorry my typo)

OK 22hrs in construction finished on this Zvezda/Dragon DOG of a kit.

eg, kit should have 8 smoke grenade launchers according to instructions only 6 supplied. Various areas of instruction are lacking (parts pictured into the wrong place or just not saying which side left or right  mirrored items belong).  Even by Dragon's standards its confusing

Pics to follow in about 10 minutes.

Ahhh, got ya... those are beneath the pretty boxes pics. mine is a pretty simple build and painting is taking longer than any building so far.

I built the basic T-80 kit 20 or so years ago and remember it being quite challenging at some points. I picked up the Dragon release of the kit you are building now from a guy at AMPS here a couple of months ago. I figured that it was time to replace my Lindberg T-80 that I built even before my Dragon T-80.

Looking forward to your pics there Konig...

@Stik, overall it resembles a T-80 and I will admit its been a frustratingly relaxing build, but will be happy to replace it (as much to see how different Trumpy's construction/instruction will be as to have a more accurate one)

Here's a pic of the little feller!  Like I said the painting will take the longest.  I'm going to do a two tone grey splinter top with a Hellblau  bottom!  Hey, it's a Luft '46, I can paint it what ever I want! 

More to come!

(as close as I can get to a like button)

Konig it's looking good to me. I am sure the Trumpeter kit will be far superior though. When Dragon first released the T-80 kits, it was still very much a Soviet super tank and information was hard to come by. Now they are all over the net and not  so mysterious.

Eagle, that is coming along well. Heck, you could even do it in a "Flying Circus" paint scheme and no one could call you out on it.

During my last break I did a bit of image searching for so reference on my build- low and behold I found a gorgeous color shot of the real deal...

After 12 hours of on and off work, it is mostly built and I am calling it a night.... more to come tomorrow.

UPDATE.....Hour 16 (which included a six-hour nap!)

here's what's been happening....got the chassis/undercariage assembled with a preliminary basecoat of Tamiya German Grey (TS-4)

the oh, soooo sparse interior

The 223 was equipped with the Luftwaffe's FuG 10 radio pack

this is Tamiya's rendition of that radio  oi vey!

....progress continues.....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stik: your `cane's looking good!

Konig: surprised you picked a Zvezda kit for this GB.....great job on it

Eagle: interesting looking a/c...look forward to seeing it finished

Hi all,

Made a start at 8.30 pm, 23rd November.

There are two kits in the box, both unstarted. I'm doing just one of these. :)

and after about 2.5 hours, here's where I got too before I had to do some other stuff.

Now it's bedtime, will continue in the morning.

Cheers

Tony

Some nice looking builds coming along there guys

Well got her undercoated (decided to ignore the few problems I could see that undercoat made obvious due to time constraints. then got the green painted, tracks coated with NATO black for rubber. Next up is do the rubber on the road wheels. Haven't decided if I'm going to leave it green or go cammo yet, I'll make the choice once I get the skirts on the side so the cammo matches up if I do do it.

That's all for this update.

Konig: the T-80 is coming along nicely.

I got a few parts to put on then I'm off to the sleep chamber

Well ninety to ninety-five precent done. Tracks on and skirts done. Usually don't mind link and length tracks BUT this time would of preferred rubber BUT even that wouldn't of fixed the problem with the drive wheel being not wide enough to fit the tracks. Ended up trimming some teeth of one sides drive wheel with the other just having an outward bend on them. Add to that the main bottom length of track was to long so I ended up with a kink in tracks (front on one side, rear on the other). Also didn't bother with top lengths as reviews say they don't fit properly and they hidden by the skirts

Konig- you are a speed demon model master! Very nicely done there sir! The tracks were the biggest issues that I remember, and I built mine over 20 years ago.... LOL!  enjoy your sleep. I know that I did.

Pyr, looks you are off to a good start there. I suspect that it will all be falling together for you soon if you can keep the sandman away. I look forward to more.

tax, I was gonna rate you as another madman along with Konig if you were gonna build both. Nice work on the solo and sane 190 so far.

Guys I am enjoying this throughly. I added the wings and tail assemblies last night before bed, and took pictures as well, but did not upload them. I will do that later today when I resume work here shortly. Also, Bish got our GB badge made up, so I will be posting it on the front page here as well. Feel Free to grab it once you build is complete. I think that Konig will win the Gold here.

No pics right now, but just had to jump in and do a mass AWESOME WORK GUYS!  Some really great kits (some of you are just "plane" crazy for some of the builds you are doing!).  What awesome work and subjects!  Great work everyone!

Stik, I like your idea about no holds bar on the painting, so I've come up with something a little different!  Pics soon!

Eagle90

Eagle, I look forward to those photos.

Well here is where my Hurricane was last night at Midnite before I called it quits and went to bed- assembly about 85% done.

This morning after sanding the wing and stabilizer seams (minimal on both areas- this is a VERY well fitting kit) I added the oil cooler and carburator scoops to the lower fuselage

Alsolast night before bed, I had puttied the gap between the cockpit rear bulkhead and fuselage halves, probably the worst fitting area of the kit, but an easy remedy had this not been such a rush build- I know better for my Hobbycraft Desert Hurricane IID. This morning I sanded the seams, and touch up painted that area. A qiock enamel wash over that after the MM Acryl paint had dried..

then I moved on to masking the canopy and propeller hub & tips, and glued the canopy in place...

It is all drying now and after some badly thought up and scheduled "honey do" chores, I can get the airbrush back out, touch up the black and be ready for decals later in the evening...

Very nice stick. I hope I can do my Hobbycraft I-16 half as good, half as fast.

Great work on the Hurricane Stik.

At T+12.45, I've got the cockpit done, and the main assembly complete. I added Extratech P/E harnesses to the cockpit, and used the kit decals for the panels. Now for the seams.

Thanks guys. I just completed my "honey do" work detail, and am now getting set to go back to the bench.

tax, your 190 is takinbg shape fast now. I love that cockpit! Great work there!

ajd, I personally think that Hobbycraft kits are underrated and underappreciated. I am sure your I-16 will come out nicely in no time. I have one in my stash and will watch how yours progresses. I have not done any Red Air Force WWII birds in several year and am overdue to do another.