PACIFIC CARRIER AVIATION GROUP BUILD

Clemens, you most probably can count me in on that one.

So, I am currently in Seattle visiting my wife, grand daughter and step daughter and son. Today they took me to the Flying Heritage Museum. WOW! What a collection! Amongst them is an F6F-5 Hellcat and today they had the cowlings removed and a mechanic was doing maintenance on it. Photo op!!!!

And Clemens, got some photos of their P-47 with the cowling removed.

Yeah I'd be in for another one

Haven't even started my project for this build, but count me in for another one!!!

Tal Afar Dave

Haven't even started my project for this build, but count me in for another one!!!

Same here! 

It's nice to have you guys aboard next year as well!

Classes are done til the fall and the weather is awfully nice here after a few straight days of rain so once the river goes down I might have to spend some days fishing. Hopefully I'll be able to find some time at the bench next week though....man having an indoor hobby is hard during the spring/summer ;)

How's everybody else's builds going?

Hey Josiah, I can completely relate to attempting to work on a model whilst the weather is so nice and outdoor activities beckon. My progress has been quite slow due to said activities plus vacationing. But, I'm starting to get a bit more done on the Hellcat here lately. I'm getting a bit closer to getting the cockpit done.

I'm down for round three.  

Hi Ho Gentlemen! It is has been far too quiet on this here GB. Especially on my front. Sooo, it's about time to get things jumping around here. Spur some of that there activity if you will. I have eeked out enough time to finally get the cockpit completed on the Hellcat. I found some things rather odd about the detail in this 1/72 Eduard cockpit. First was that the gunsight was a solid piece molded onto the IP. Not even a clear one. Thus, I carved out the lens part and replaced with cutout piece of acetate. Some panels on the side consoles were neither molded in relief nor was there a PE part supplied. Namely the fuse panel located on the lower front of the right console. Just blank space. I hand painted the panels on and then painted on the details. All of this contributed to spending a bit more time than anticipated. As for the cockpit itself, the seat is a True Details resin seat with molded on harnesses. The overall cockpit is painted MM enamel zic chromate green. This was given a coat of MM acryl gloss and then an oil wash was applied. This was then subsequently hit with a coat of MM acryl flat. Raised relief and floor and panel lightening was achieved with Tamiya weathering pastel light sand. Scratches and wear on the seat, floor and pedals was done with a silver pencil. So, with all that said. here some progress pics. Thanks for looking.

Ummm, is there anybody out there? Hopefully I am not on my own here.

I am here Joe, but it is frightfully busy time of year (end of semester) so building time = 0 and on-line time is approaching the same value...

Since I am here though I'll say that your cockpit looks very good to me.  I particularly like the look of the seat belts, all the more so since at first I did not realize they were molded to the seat!

Agreed, beautiful cockpit Joe! and in 1/72? Certainly doesnt look it.

I will throw in a fujimi 1/48 F-14A in the black bunny scheme "vandy 1"

Guys, my apologies. SS sent me a message a few days ago saying he had been really busy with work these last few weeks and would be so for another couple of weeks. He only had a few mins, not really enough time to go through the threads to catch up properly.

I completely forgot he was running this GB, so sorry about that.

B-one, obviously I am not running this GB, or even taking part in it for that matter, so hopefully some one else can clarify. But I think this is only open to builds from the pacific in WW2, or have I misunderstood..

That is correct Bish, WWII Pacific Theater carrier planes only.

Oh well thanks for clarification

Rob and Josiah, Thank you very much. I can completely understand everyone being busy as I share the same circumstances.

Bish, Thanks for the heads up concerning Clemens. I too was aware that he had a full plate. I'll shoot him a PM and see if theirs something I can do to monitor the GB until he gets himself freed up.

B_ONE: Sorry you were not able to join with the Tomcat. Might you have something in your stash that would fit in with this GB? Would certainly like to have you join us.

Sorry B_One. We did have a swing wing GB a few years back, lots of B-1's got built in there. It would be nice to have another, but theres quite a few GB's on going at the moment, not sure there room for any more just yet.

Joe, I am sure he would appreciate it. I know he has a few GB's running at the moment, you know SS, doesn't do things by halves

I've been out of the loop for a bit, but that is one nice looking cockpit, Joe.  Good work!  Great weathering.

Thanks Checkmate. Good to hear from you.

I want to do a few more Dauntlesses for the flight deck of Enterprise, but I need to finish the "Longest Day" build before I can get back to Navy aircraft.  6 June isn't too far off.

Weather has been too hot to be on the water and fish all day so I finally got out and did some airbrushing on  a couple of projects and finally got around to doing the top coat on the Corsair. Here she is....got some touch ups to do.

Nice going so far, Josiah.  Looks like you achieved a smooth finish.

That appears to have turned extremely nice Josiah. Like CB said, that is a very nice finish you achieved. Great work. So, what's the armor project you got going there?

Thanks Checkmate and Joe.

It's the Academy 1/35 M1A1...I'm planning on putting it in a dio that I'm still keeping under wraps for now 

I wish the anti-slip coating I sprayed on the hull turned out as good as the blue on this corsair but oh well.

Thanks again guys...I put the canopy on tonight and hand painted it. I'll decal it up tomorrow and be looking at pictures so I can figure out how I want to weather this thing.

Here it is with all the decals, all it needs now is weathering and the antenna. Im going to hold off doing that until I get a couple other planes to the weathering step. So for now it's finished!

Looks sharp!  A job well done!

Looking good Josiah.  I hope my Devastator paints up as nicely!

You've got it looking relly good Josiah. I'm looking forward to your weathering efforts.

Making some progress here. Got the fuselage together. Interestingly, Eduard omitted locator pins on the fuselage. Although the cockpit tub, oil cooler vent and the tail wheel fill that function. After a half dozen test fits to ensure everything lines up I put the Tamiya liquid cement to the fuselage and clamped it. After allowing the cement to set and unclamping I found that the fuselage halves had ever so slightly slipped. This left a slight ridge to putty and sand.  But, it's working out.