PACIFIC CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD

Thanks Mustang... I appreciate your input!

Glad to report that I have made some progress. Got the gun barrels installed and the wings glued together. In the process of modifying the wing in order to accommodate the new barrels and insert I had to enlarge the holes in the wing with a round file and I got them a bit too large and offset. Fortunately I had opted not to install the PE covers I have on the original wings as I thought I would mess them up and that the slight rise would appear unrealistic. So, I took a deep breath and set to bending them and getting them glued on. Looks substantially better than the gaping holes around the barrels.

Hey Joe--  Way to go!  That dresses it up nice!  It does really beat just having some holes in there.  I will have to do that on future builds.  

I hope the ammo isn't loaded, Joe?  Don't want to hear about any misfires! 

LOL! Thanks Steve. This was a perfect example of not doing something because your so afraid your going to mess it up or it just won't come out right. But, when you get over that nonsense you find it wasn't all that bad. Well, it wasn't all that easy. Getting those little buggers bent til they were close was a challenge.

By the way Steve, how's the work on the Avenger coming along?

I forgot to add that I made the bending of those small covers much easier by taking my butane torch and annealing them first. this definitely makes bending PE much easier.

It looks like it was a challenge to make it fit right, Joe.  Way to go pulling that off!

I totally hear you.  Sometimes that fear of messing things up can really hold a person back.  I have been there more than once on my build.

As for the Avenger... I have been working on it virtually ever day.  You guys will probably think I am nuts when I tell ya what I have been up to.  You may recall that I mentioned getting some splatter during the color coat painting.  Well, that was bugging me.  So, my only recourse was to wet sand the wings and fuselage.  I might have got away with sanding just the splatter followed with some polish, but in the end I think there would have been a mismatch in finish.  Along with that, I was just not happy with the overall look of the gloss.  It was shiny as all heck but it just didn't look natural.  So....I set out to sand the entire plane.  I worked on that a few hours each day all of last week.  It's a challenge not to sand through around the rivet detail. I finished the sanding up on Saturday.  This week I will start polishing to bring the gloss out again. Fingers crossed.  With luck, I will start applying the decals by this weekend.  

Today, I worked on making replacement exhaust pipes.  The ones that came with the kit are blah.  I will post a picture tomorrow of how they came out.  I will be looking for advice on how to weather them.

Lookin' good Joe!!!!

Thanks Joe. I hope to get the white primer coat on tonight and clean up any flaws that turn up.

As mentioned I worked on making some engine pipes.  I bought the extruded tubing from a hobby store, cut one end at a slant, and then honed out the tubing to reduce the wall thickness.  The tubing had a wall thickness similar to the plastic pieces supplied by Academy, shown below.

I want to give the pipes an appearance of ones having been subjected to heat. You know how engine pipes get discolored by heat and such.  Does anyone have a suggestion on how I might accomplish that?  Any other suggestions are welcome as well.  I will probably give the inner pipe a dusting of gray/black to simulate exhaust residue.  

Joe - The wing guns look great.  Especially for 1/72 scale.  Steve - The exhausts pipes you made look so much better.  I will be taking a page from your playbook when I build my Avenger.

Craig

Those pipes are truly outstanding Steve. Fabulous touch. As far as painting them. I suggest a goggle image of TBM Avenger exhausts ( or any USN aircraft with the R2800). I took the liberty last night and there is certainly a mixed bag. Anything from black to steel to burnt metal. So, for me it's really what appeals to me. I painted my Hellcat exhausts with MM burnt steel.  I know that what ever you do it is going to look great.

Thanks Craig and Joe.

Joe..thanks for doing the research and your suggestion.  I will look Into that MM paint!

Steve

Glad to be of help. You may want to look into other colors that fit the bill. The burnt steel, although i like it, is simply what I had on hand. It's actually got me thinking that maybe I need to look into alternatives to add to my paint stash.

Hey Joe-- I found this closeup image of an Avenger.  Though its an Avenger, the weathering can hold true for all WW2 aircraft.  Something one can consider.

Steve

Joe: Way to go, those gun fairings look great!

Steve: Great work on those exhaust pipes!

The plane has been wet-sanded and polished. I ultimately used plastic polish on the paint.  I also tested Meguiars Ultimate Polish (paint polish) and I found that it seemed to leave the paint somewhat tacky. The plastic polish worked much better all around.  

The image below does not translate very well in how the finish really looks.  In the image the finish looks somewhat lackluster. All that said, I am pleased with how the finish came out in the real.

My next step is the decals.  I will start that process within the next few days.  Today though, I will probably spray the prop and maybe paint the wing-light insets. 

That's the latest from here.

I'm having trouble with taking pictures of matte finishes, so I can only imagine how hard it must be to get that glossy surface photographed.

That being said, I really like how the finish looks in that photo!

Wow! That is a stunning finish you've achieved Steve. Wet sanding and polishing? Hmmm, you must have built a few car models in your time. Regardless, I love the results. By the way I really liked the pic you posted of the Avenger exhaust pipe. Something caught me interesting about that photo and that was the rust patina on the pipe. In all the pics I've looked at in my references and on the internet I had not noticed that on any R2800 engines. You certainly see it a lot on inline engines though. 

Hey There Clemens. How have you been doing? Thanks for the compliment on the gun covers.

I've got the underside white on and hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to mask and shoot the dark sea blue topside.

Say Clemence...thanks for the encouragement on my paint and exhaust pipes.  I appreciate that.  It's always great to see you pop in here when you can.

Joe...same goes to you.  Yes indeed.  My car modeling skills has come into play.  It's helped me recover from some of the AB paint splatter I had. Even though I sanded, some of that is still there. I didn't want to accidentally sand through to the primer.  Then it would be much more difficult a fix. In the end the splatter is not as noticeable. To be honest... I wish I didn't have to go the route of wet sanding and such. It was a lot of dang work! I really have to figure out the splatter issue because I don't want to do this again, not on a plane. It's just too much work sanding around all the detail. BTW.  Nice work researching the exhaust pipes.  That is really interesting what you found out that on certain engines they have that rusted look and others don't. Who would have thought that would be.  An interesting phenomenon indeed.  It's great to hear your work is progressing too!

Yesterday, I did manage to paint the prop and wing lights. Just partly though.  Both were painted with a base coat of Alclad aluminum.  For the prop, I will still need to paint the final color coat and yellow tips. On the wing lights I still have to paint the bulbs.  I may need some help determining what in those areas are the bulbs. 

Today, I plan to start with some decals. God help me. 

Hey Everyone

I've been out of the loop for a bit. I see a lot of terrific work being by you all!  

I have my F4U-1, just about ready for painting, and I have also thrown together another Eduardo F6F-5 "Hellcat".  

I'll post a few pictures as soon as I get them ready.

Freddie from LI

Can't wait for those pics Freddie. I just know that they are going to be awesome.

As for my progress, I shot the dark sea blue on the upper wings today. It may be agonizingly slow but, it's progress none the less.

Yeah Freddie..let's see some pics!  

Joe..sounds like progress is being made.  I hear you about the slowness.  I have been doing decals the last several nights.  I am 2/3 through. Slow process.  I will post a picture in a few days.

Nice finish on that Avenger Steve! Looks like your coming right along with that thing.

Clemens the art of taking good pics of glossy stuff is getting a light source to reflect off of the surface , kind of like Steve did in his photo. Notice the pic of his fuselage.

Here's another example with my Challenger body:

Thanks Mustang. You are correct about the lighting.  Nice shine on that Challenger!!

Well, I am better than half way through with the decals.  

Several weeks back I asked for advice about my decal sheet and whether I should remove the excess clear portions.  No offence to anyone that said not to cut, but I opted to go the route Clemence endorsed of removing the excess. I felt that if I didn't, it  would just not look right, and I would not be happy with it.

As I feared though, it is a challenge.  Each letter, hyphen, number, and number segment is a free floating piece that has to be applied separate.  With the exception of the #28 at the nose and some of the smaller markings that is.  Its a challenge to align things correctly and not to break any in the process.  They become quite delicate without all that clear carrier attached.  It's slow and tedious, but rewarding at the same time.  I am glad I opted for the challenge because I think they look as close to painted on as I can muster.

I hope to have all the decals on by the weekend.  God willing. 

Looks real nice Steve.  Hope to see it finished by the deadline.

Wow! Steve that's some real perseverance on your part to take the time and effort to completely cut out the decals. Your efforts paid off in spades as they look terrific. I certainly do not wish to take the time to cut them out fully. This, coupled with the fear of them becoming too delicate as you pointed out. You have certainly demonstrated the the positive effects though of cutting them out. Beautiful work so far. Bring it on home to the finish line.

Wow these are all really great!

What a nice looking Avenger, Steve!

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Greetings guys.  I am looking for advice.  I am debating on how to mask the propeller blades, primarily at their base.   I have two thoughts.  One is to use liquid mask around the collar and at the base of the blades.  My experience though is that liquid mask tends to stretch as you remove it.  Often that causes the paint to flake away at the join. My other thought is to take a thin strip of tape and wrap it around the bottom of the blades, as far down as I can go.  Then mask everything else below that.  Once AB'd, remove the tape and then hand paint the area below the tape that should have been painted.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Below is what I need to try for.

Below:  Unfortunately there isn't a gap between the blade and the collar hardware.  The right side has a gap, the left doesn't.

I pretty much finished the decals. I just need to put on another application of Micro Sol.  Funny how my PS camera interpreted the colors of the wings.  They look black in the photo compared to the fuselage. Goofy.