PACIFIC CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD

Your Avenger is looking stunning, Steve. Keep up the good work.

You're setting a tough standard for yourself on you first build back. We'll all hold you to it as you move forward, you know.. (just kidding)

You have me scratching my head to remember how I masked mine. Definitely not liquid mask, more like your option #2. Now I gotta go down and look, see if it sparks a memory.

Hey Steve, I've been contemplating your prop dilemma and the best I can come up with is the solution you've already presented. Paint the props. Mask as far down as you can. Paint the hub and then hand paint the small area that you are unable to mask. Once painted you should be able to better define it with a wash. I have no doubt that whichever route you take it will turn out simply marvelous.

On my end i am still making progress. I shot a flat coat over the gloss paint and when that was dry I shot the gloss coat on. Yippee! No orange peel effect. Will be applying the decals and then a gloss seal and then I will fit the new wings to the fuselage.

Hey Greg...thank you sir.  All one can do is try.  

Joe..we are on the same page.  I gave it more thought and what you outlined makes the most sense to me.  Thanks for your input on this.  That settles the issue for me.  I will start working on that tomorrow night.

That is really great to hear about your progress.  Thank goodness about the no orange peel.  Now you can get past the gremlin stage.  Is there any hopes you can make the deadline?  Or is there too much to do yet?

Sounds good. Best of luck with your efforts. As far as making the dead line, well, it's going to be really tight. I'll give it my best. My main goal now is to have the Hellcat finished in time for WestFest15, which is the contest I enter and help out with in Grand Junction, Co.

Ok sounds good Joe.  

Hey Joe and Greg--

here is how the masking turned out.  Now as you say, hand brush the black down to the hub.  Its almost a shame to do that.  It looks pretty cool the way it is.  Then of course I have to paint the yellow tips.

That looks right nice so far Steve. It does in fact look fairly sharp as is.

Well, The rackin' frackin' hits just keep on coming! I have now officially met with so many set backs on this build that I have lost track of how many times I have had to redo or repair something.This latest test of my sanity definitely blind sided me. As you all know, I purchased an Eduard Weekend Edition F6F-3 kit mainly to obtain the decals, namely the wing insignia. Last night I applied the said decals and was really elated that I was finally turning the corner on this whole wing rehab project. Well, after having applied the upper wing decal and letting sit to dry, I came back to notice that the blue on that decal was way out of register. Naturally, I'm just standing there saying, "How can this be? It's the same decals right?". But, sure enough, there it was, much lighter than any previous decals i had already applied. I even compared it to the one on the first wing:

The wing at the top is the original and the one on the bottom is the new one. You can pretty much tell how badly the difference is:

Whoops, sorry, I posted before I was finished. Moving along now. So, after having let the initial shock wear off it was time to contemplate a solution. And NO, I am not giving up dadgummit! Needless to say, purchasing another kit was out of the question. So, I sat down and reexamined the original decals and found I had 2 options. First was I could use the upper wing insignia that was used in "43. This one has the blue border around the bars and is slightly larger. Although it would  technically be incorrect it would at least look better than my current situation. My next option was to utilize the even earlier insignia with the red border and trim the red border off. In doing so I would end up with an insignia that was correct in size and design. This option was fraught with fear. This would be no easy task as this would require a steady hand and hawk like eye sight. None of which I possess. Here is a pic of my options:

I then thought to my self that I might as well give the red border trimming a try. At least I have the other decal to fall back on should I hack the other one up. So, with my trusty scalpel, small beauty scissors and optivisor, I set to it. After several nerve wracking minutes I had managed to do a half decent job on it. It's a bit rough but it might just work. The next task at hand that had the potential for initiating yet another panic attack was to try and strip off the old decal. Now, I've had some really good luck with this and some really really bad luck. But, I opted to try none the less. I started with Tamiya tape to see if it would come off easily. Not much luck there. Next was blue painter's tape. Some small chunks came off but, not much. Then it was on to clear packing tape. Hey, I was desperate. Even this had little effect. At least it didn't tear the paint off. So, now I had to go ahead and decal over the top of the old one. This was the action that prompted me to use the trimmed decal as it would fit perfectly on top of the old one. the fear here was that it would effect the color of the new decal. It was time to stop over analyzing and just DO.

Glory Be and Hallalujah! IT WORKED! It's a little rough from the trim job but, nothing I can't cover with a little weathering.

So, now it sits marinating in Solvaset. Then get a quick  over coat of gloss and then I will mount the new wings and I will be back to where I started and I move forward to finishing it up.I'm in the clear. I mean seriously, what could wrong now? Right?

Holy moly Joe, that could have been a disaster.  I was holding my breath when you started talking about pulling the decals off with the various types of tape.   Thank goodness the paint didn't come up.  That would have been bad. You obviously have a solid foundation of paint.

You certainly have had your share of tests on this build.  Way to go in fixing the problem, Joe. That was a clever fix to a vexing problem.  Way to go man! Seriously.  That is a great outcome.

So that you don't feel too alone with these gremlins.  Two days ago I accidently got masking tape stuck to a wing, right on a decal.  Oh yeah.  The tape pulled the decal right off.  It was pathetic.  Thank goodness I had bought two decal sheets.  At the time of purchase I was grumbling that I had to buy two, it was an order min. I certainly ended up needing them. Now I am glad I have the second sheet.

Thanks for posting all that, Joe. It's a great example of patience and perseverance. 

Steve 

Nice work Joe.  Good save.

Thank You Steve and Craig. Yeah, for the most part, I've had good luck removing decals with tape. MM enamels tend have good "bite" and aren't usually damaged by the tape. But, I have to admit that Eduard decals prove to be an admirable foe to the tape method. I find that encouraging in that it gives me confidence that they are not likely to be damaged very easily. Which, by the way, reminds me to plug their decals. They go on with no hassle and conform nicely with a setting solution.

Hi There Fellas. Well, I have hit another unanticipated snag in my progress on the Hellcat. Yesterday I tore a tendon in the middle knuckle of my left hand. Thus, I have a big ole splint which inhibits my ability to work on my model efficiently. Yup, It sucks. On the bright side I have made some decent progress right up til said boo boo. I'll get some pics soon.

Clemens, I believe that I can say with certainty that I will not make the deadline. It's all good, just encountered to many set backs. I should though, make my bigger goal which is to have it done in time for WestFest 2015. I'll keep posting here, though, up to the cut off.

Joe! I think this kit of yours is hexed.

Sorry to hear about the torn tendon, and hope it heals well and soon my friend.

Please be careful, let it heal. No heroics.

To SS and everyone who contributed to this GB, I apologize, but I will not be finished with my SB2U.  Even with the extension, work and family took up more of my time than I expected.

I do intend to finish this project and I'll post pics when I do.

Thank You Greg. It's all good my friend. Although I might be getting tossed some curve balls as far as this build goes I'm not too down about it as the rest of the things in my life are good and happy. No self pity here. Simply going to find a way to model regardless of the gimped up condition.

Bruce, I can certainly relate. Just glad you're going to keep at it and continue to share with us. I'm still excited to see your work.

Greg

Joe! I think this kit of yours is hexed

mustang1989

Greg

Joe! I think this kit of yours is hexed

Ummm......nooooo! I think it's Joe that's hexed! lol . Really though , sorry to hear the news about your hand and hope it gets better Joe. You actually made me feel good about my slow building progress this morning. lol

Hey Joe....Sorry to hear about the latest.  That is a real pain.  Like Greg said, take care of that.

Steve

Joe, what a recovery! Your patience never fails to amaze me! I would've given up on that build ages ago, but you just keep building on and manage to make it look as if nothing ever happened!

I should be able to finish my Hellcat by the deadline.  Had a bit of a paint mishap, but haven't really felt the bug to build since the Weekend GB ended at the end of last year.  Hang in there Joe!

Despite my injury I am actually able to work on my Hellcat reasonably well. Thank God! So, I am making some progress and, Happy Day, I have some pics to share with you all. Prior to my injury I applied a brown/black mix Flory wash to the underside and sides and gray/black mix to the upper dark blue. I normally use an oil wash but I was having some issues with it and it just was not coming out right. I've had the Flory washes for awhile and didn't use them because it kept beading up on the gloss coat and thus not working. But, once I got me worthless noggin to working it dawned on me to add a small drop of dish soap and problem solved. And thus I have found that Flory washes are awesome and work wonderfully. Today I shot the flat coat on. It dulled the gray wash just a tad but, completely acceptable. Here is how it looks for now:

My challenge is going to be trying to hold the Hellcat while I try to spray the exhaust stains on. If it proves to be to difficult I may then result to using pastels, which is what I have done in the past. Thanks for looking guys.

Hey Joe... It's great to hear that you can still work on your Hellcat.  Which by the way, is looking really--really good.  It is nice and tight.  Your perseverance is paying off man.  Good job on the weathering. That really brings the plane to life. 

Steve

Thank You Clemens and lewbud. lew, glad to hear that you're going to finish your Hellcat. Hopefully that revitalizes your modeling ***.

Thank You Steve. I really appreciate the positive feedback from you. How's the Avenger coming along?

Thought I'd give you guys a shot of what I'm dealing with. No, I did not pick out the colors for my gauze. Although it is rather becoming.

Hey Joe--nice picture of your bandages.  I think you ought to spray a nice camouflage pattern on there. Or maybe add a Hellcat decal. Now that would be cool.  

My Avenger is almost done.  Can you believe it?  I can't.  My goal is to finish it tomorrow.  I just need to install the tail gun, tail gun canopy, front canopy, weather the exhaust pipes, and install fhem.  If all goes well, I will be posting images by evening.  

Oooh, I like it, I like it! Hmm....if i could only find some gauze that is dark blue, light blue and white and then paint a growler motif on the end of my finger.

Super news about the Avenger. I'll be parked in front of the laptop with popcorn for that finale.

Wow! Joe, didn't realize you had an injury! So, sorry to hear that. But as always, you find a way to press on! The Hellcat looks great , can't wait to see it finished.

Bakster, looking forward to seeing the Avenger finished!

Joe, now that doesn't look convenient at all.  

That said, if you can continue work on your 1/72 with that injury, in a strange way you've sort of incented me to try one soon.

So what's the prognosis on splint removal and back to 100%?

Hey Bakster, didn't realise you are so close to finishing the TBM. I'm with Joe, getting the popcorn out of the pantry.

Mornin' Greg. I've got about another week and a half with the splint. Then, hopefully, it will be in good shape.

Aaaah, to the dark side we may go, mmm. Exciting this is.