50th Anniversary Vietnam War Group Build

Hello!

Nice details, Stik! Are you going for that red mud look with your M113?

Yesterday I worked on the main gear - added some PE and copper wire. Here's a picture:

Good luck with your projects and have a nice day

Paweł

All basic construction now completed!

The Revell Germany/Italeri pioneer tools are too petite, or some missing altogether, so with a bit of help from my spares bins, here we go...

no shovel in the kit, so one from the bin added to the proper storage place on the glacis. I also added a tripod for the .50 and since I only have one radio inside, I blanked off one of the antenna mount spots with a blanking plate from spares... all those parts are Academy

the kit comes with the later type of "half' shrouds, instead of the original full width type that was used in Vietnam. Fortunately I had a pair that I had not used from my old Tamiya 113 that Ihad not used on one of those builds

I drilled a hole for the missing bilge pump drain near the driver's position using my pin vise and a micro bit

I added the , lifting rings, rear lights, brush guards, rear bilge pump drain pipe and hollowed out the end for that

hollowed out the heater exhaust pipe and added that in place

salvaged or spare Academy and Tamiya pioneer tools to replace the kit parts, stowed in their proper positions

drivers side headlights, lift ring and brush guard installed... the blackout drive lamp had the projection hood molded upside down (in reality would project light skyward instead of groundward- Doh!) so I had to slice that off and glue it back on properly oriented

spare track shoes with some shave off Academy retaining bolts & washers to keep them there

and the overall track now ready for paint

but now it is time to prep up the BBQ for a nice evening meal of ribs here...

Thanks Pawel. I am glad to be back at work on this one and now ending the build phase... I should have it all ready to start outer painting by evening here.

Hello!

Nice progress, Stik - I like the interior, looking forward to the OD coat. Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

And the rest of my work for this evening before I call it a night here...

top deck and front plates on

Future and dirt added to suspension for mud texture

link and length tracks on... I'm getting better at these damned things...

Now it looks like a track!

Tomorrow I think I will get the last parts on needed before a nice base coat of OD...

OK, I'm starting to get back into the groove here on my track... Today I finished up the interior and glued it in place

I have the openings masked up from the inside in preparation for the exterior paint. I have the top now glued on and it is starting to look like a track. More photos to come soon...

Pawel, I think that your wash of 32 came out just fine... perhaps a retouch of it on the leading edge center of the lower surface, but otherwise it looks great.

Hello!

Another update - this time I tested how a wash could be applied to my model. I chose the horizontal stabilizers as the test ground. I lightly thinned some Humbrol 32 with turpentine and applied this mix to the panel lines over a thin layer of future. Before an hour passed, I began to wipe the was down with a dry paper towel. The results were OK - as the photo shows:

I hope you like it - thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Stik - thanks a lot!

Bish - when you look at that shape it's getting logical, isn't it?

Thanks alot for your comments and have a nice day!

Paweł

ye, good work there Pawel. I can see why you decided to paint those black strips rather than use the decals.

Pawel, that is some very sharp paint work there!

Hello!

I've got another Whale update for you - I managed to put some paint on my model. Here's what it looks like now:

The stripes are for the paint scheme of the VAQ-131. I decided to paint them on instead of using decals from the Hasegawa kit, and I'll be modifying the kit markings anyhow. The stripes and the anti-glare panels are Humbrol 33 black, and the antennae fairings are Humbrol 32 dark gray.

Hope you like it - thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks for joining us Bish! And yes, there is a huge variety of paint schemes, just for aircraft, in Vietnam war aircraft.

Thanks Stik. There's certainly some nice builds there. Its been a pleasure to be a part of this GB, certainly makes a change from mottling and black crosses.

And with Bish's beautiful F-111A now added to the front page, we now have 9 gorgeous builds! Excellent work so far guys!

Bish your F-111 looks great! I love the bases you build with your models, it really adds to the display.

Thanks Rob, much appreciated.

Bish

Thanks pawel. Its all a learning curve isn't it, and modern US aircraft are not something I do often. I only have one other in the stash that will be in this scheme, the Mono B-52, but I would certainly like to do more, and that paint set looks handy. Thnaks for the link, and all the help.

Next up, its back to some heavy armour, with a Dragon 35th Jagdpanther.

Pawel

Hello Bish!

Congratulations on a work well done! You've got a beautiful model there!

As for the colours - my first impression was that there's something wrong with the tan - but now you mention it, maybe it's one of the greens not being green enough - colours can be very tricky at times... Recently I heard about a new Polish company making historically accurate paint sets - one of them is a Vietnam War set: hataka-hobby.com/.../usaf-paint-set-vietnam-war-era-2 - who knows, might be worth a try...

So, what's next?

Thanks for sharing, and have a nice day

Paweł

Thanks buddy, much appreciated.

Spectacular Bish!  Everything looks great!  And as always, your base is awesome!  Great build my friend!

Eagle90

Thanks pawel. Its all a learning curve isn't it, and modern US aircraft are not something I do often. I only have one other in the stash that will be in this scheme, the Mono B-52, but I would certainly like to do more, and that paint set looks handy. Thnaks for the link, and all the help.

Next up, its back to some heavy armour, with a Dragon 35th Jagdpanther.

Hello Bish!

Congratulations on a work well done! You've got a beautiful model there!

As for the colours - my first impression was that there's something wrong with the tan - but now you mention it, maybe it's one of the greens not being green enough - colours can be very tricky at times... Recently I heard about a new Polish company making historically accurate paint sets - one of them is a Vietnam War set: hataka-hobby.com/.../usaf-paint-set-vietnam-war-era-2 - who knows, might be worth a try...

So, what's next?

Thanks for sharing, and have a nice day

Paweł

As promised, here are those finished pics, albeit a few days late. To finish off the build, the bombs were added, along with lots of RBF tags. The ladders are from Flightpath and the MJ-1 and figures are from some of the Hasegawa ground crew and vehicle sets.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with the end result. I know there is an issue with the colour of one of the greens, that's something I will work on for the next time I do this scheme.

Thanks Stik for running this GB. I am really pleased to get the chance to build this. It really brings back memories of the 80's when the skies over Norwich would be busy with F-111's from Lakenheath and A-10's from Bentwaters.  I certainly want to build a Lakenheath 111 one of these days, and have been looking for the Hasegawa kits.

Thanks again Stik, and everyone else for all the help and advice you have given.

All comments welcome as always.

MK, I second Bish's suggestion on sidelining Puff for a bit. At least until the Gremlin haunting her goes elsewhere... The Oscar Deuce sounds great as a stand in. Go for it!

Bish, glad to hear that your 111 is finished! I'm looking forward to those photos.

As for me, hopefully on my days off here I will have enough motivation to get back to the bench and get some serious progress done on my 113... It needs it!

Sounds like your having a really struggle with that Kelly. But sounds like it might be a good idea to out it aside for a bit.

My F-111 took a couple of days lnger to finish than expected. The RBF tags took the best part of an evening by themselves. But I did get it completed last night and will get some pics tomorrow.

Stik, my AC-47 Gunship is haunted.  In no particular order I have had right side windows fall out,  gun sight disappear after installation, mini guns break off and blast blankets fall out.  So I have lost my desire to finish this for a while. I will finish it, most likely not before the end of the GB. With your permission I would like to switch  to the Testors O-2 Super Skymaster FAC.

Ye, I notice at the base most aircraft are in hangers. They usually have a few left out, but not always. Its just hard to do a military build without adding a little grime, it just doesn't look right even when you know its correct. Its like those messy German camo schemes added with a mop. Just hard to get your head around that's how it should be.

Thanks, really looking forward to getting this one done. I really like this aircraft.

Cold War aircraft in Europe are a whole different subject. Especially for the latter portion of the 70s & 80s. For that era most NATO aircraft spent their time in hardened shelters out of the weather when they were not involved in flight ops, or prepping or recovering from them. Those are much more conducive to an aircraft looking good for longer. At least all the tactical fighter & strike types were in the HASs. In south East Asia, they had pens to protect them from attacks, but they were open aired and still exposed to the tropical weather as well as those pesky mortars and rockets...

I'm looking forward to you having the Aardvark done here.

I can see what you mean there Stik, they look well beaten. I have of course often looked at more modern aircraft, 80's/90's era, and notice how clean they are. And the F-15 I see every day all look extremely clean. But I guess that's the main difference between being at a peace time base where you may only get only get op deployments for a few months every so often and being in a conflict like Vietnam. And I imagine the climate was not helpful either.

I have been paying a lot of attention to the aircraft, ground equipment and even the markings on the taxiways since I started working at Lakenheath a few months ago, and even after 22 years in the forces, I have learnt a hell of a lot about modern aircraft and all that's need to support them. And building these kits certainly makes a nice change from building aircraft on the muddy Russian Steppe or the N African desert.

Thanks for the comments and all the help guys. I hope to have her done in a day or two.