Monogram Mafia III

Thanks gents for all the nice comments. And along that subject, lots of great progress going with all the builds here.

Colin: nice looking pilot.

pj: that Voodoo.....

ajd: your P39 is coming along nicely...luv a fighter plane that has car doors!

`97 Ford Expedition SSV  update: I've completed the Tufloc Tufbox and installed it in the cargo area. I decided to paint on the slam lock. I also added an axe holder on the left side. I blanked over the center console open storage and painted it flat black.  

I decided on an MDT....

here's the MDT installed

Now that I've finally installed the MDT, I can get onto the EMS/rescue goodies that will be added to the cargo area and then adding the front seats and steering wheel.

PJ, that Voodoo is most excellent!

Great work on your pilot, Colin!

Great research Stick! I was just going off the top of my head with my limited knowledge.

Thanks, Stik, that's what I was thinking, but I wanted some confirmation.

Gosh, thanks fellas!

Colin this is from the IPMS Stockholm website about Hellcat Interior colors. I personally would go with Sea Blue for the wheel wells.

Grumman F6F Hellcat

By the time Hellcat entered mass production, Grumman had made the decision to adopt Interior Green in place of Bronze Green for cockpits, and possibly also to adopt Zinc Chromate primer in place of its own Grumman Grey. However, older paints were to be used as long as their stocks were available.

Thus the first hundred or so F6F-3 airframes produced almost certainly had their cockpits finished with the remaining stock of Bronze Green. Subsequent aircraft had their cockpits finished in Interior Green. Starting with F6F-5, cockpit area above and including the side consoles was finished in flat black with the remaining surfaces in Interior Green.

An enlarged portion of a well-known photo of  newly produced F6F-3s on Grumman publicity flight. The factory-applied red surrounds to the national insignia should indicate a June - September 1943 time frame. What is interesting is the colour of the headrest inside the cockpit, which  looks markedly unlike Interior Green. The actual colour could have been Bronze Green, but this statement is non-conclusive.

The inside of the engine cowling varied throughout the Hellcat production, being Grumman Grey, Interior Green or Zinc Chromate Yellow. Later F6F-5 and had flat black cowling interiors. Other enclosed areas of the fuselage were either Grumman Grey (on early production machines) or Zinc Chromate Yellow.

In common with the general Navy practice the wheel bays and undercarriage legs were finished in the lower surface colour. However, the area ahead of the main spar in the wheel well was left in Interior Green. Also, some photos of operational Hellcats show wheel hubs and legs in Aluminium finish, possibly applied during overhauls at field maintenance depots.

Late-war production F6F-5 show the overall Glossy Sea Blue colour being carried over to undercarriage legs, boths sides of covers and wheel hubs. The wheel well interiors were also painted this way. The phot has been taken aboard USS Bennington, ca. May 1945.

PJ, your Voodoo is incredbly dazzling! What a fantastic finish! Wow! 

that voodoo is gorgeous !

And PJ--thanks for showing us that Voodoo that you do so well!   Your NMF is excellent!

Colin, thanks for posting those pages, that's perfect!  It tells me that I was right, when I dry-fitted the pieces last night.  Thanks very much!

If I may offer you a tip in return, I paint the lenses on the goggles gloss brown.  I just say that my pilots all have tinted goggles.  I do that last, since I always hit the figure with DullCote, to seal it.  Of course, I could also use a matte brown and just use Future to add the gloss.

Colin,

Your figure looks good. Nice detail. Detail painting is a challenge for me.

As far as  the landing gear and wheel well color, The gear was typically a grey, same as the under belly color and all wheel wells and interiors were Zinc Chromate (interior green or yellow). During WW2, green was used, Korea, green or yellow, and after typically yellow. this paint was for corrosion protection of the aluminum due to the paints properties.

It really depended on the painter at the factory. They may have over sprayed the Zinc Chromate or the squadron may wave repainted them in the field due to use/battle damage and repair. Iit's really up to you, either way is ok.

I was an aircraft mechanic in my early days.

Steve

This is the best I can do for now, Baron.

That Voodoo looks awesome!  I also can't wait to see Genie's bottle.

Here's the cockpit for my Hellcat so far.  Looking at the pictures, I'm going to tidy up his goggles a bit; maybe paint them black for contrast.

Incidentally, the instructions call for interior green for the landing gear, but I thought that the navy painted landing gear and bays the same colour as the underside.  I haven't found any good reference pictures that show me.  Does anyone know?

Wow, just tons of great builds here and lots of talent. That Gemini capsule is an eye catcher! Great work guys.

Well folks I finally finished the Voodoo so here are some pictures of the finished product. It was built OOB.

I will be starting shortly on my 1/48 Fokker VII for the second entry.

I'm coming out of the summer modeling hiatus and getting some bench time this week.  Tonight I got out the Typhoon and did some preliminary work on her.  After following your builds the past few weeks, I know I have some catching up to do.

Let's start with a shot of the sprues:

As you can see, it's a relatively simple kit, as far as the parts count goes.  Refreshing, compared to many of today's kits.  But it's got some nice detail, a good example of the level Monogram had achieved by the late Sixties.

Fit is very good, the seam should be easy to conceal.  The only odd part is that the wing cannons are molded in two halves, on the upper and lower wing parts.  There will be a bit of a seam there to cover up.  That's all of my spring-loaded clothespins, by the way.

They await some cleanup and priming.

Looking good guys! Carlos, I'm looking forward to seeing how you do her bottle. Keep up the great work; I'm gonna try to get something done today myself.

Golly stik that looks excellent!

ajd, that looks real good. But I bet some PE or scratchwork in there can make it outstanding!

Nicely done, Stik!

MC, go for it! We need more real space stuff on this site.

Mark, I am looking thru my spares bin for appropriate sized shapes/parts to modify to make her bottle. I still have a few months to get that part done...

68GT

Maddog - Did you try Future to pull the decals down?  I'll use it under the decals as a setting solution for old decals.  I don't know if it is just me or not but I feel the Microsol does not work as well when coated with the liquid decal film.

GT, I used Aqua Clear on these to clear coat them. The liquid decal film may have made them a bit thicker and thus a bit more difficult to lay down, but I;d rather deal with that than broken/shattered decals. I didn't use MicroSol either, mostly because of the same reason  you mentioned. I pulled out the Nuclear Option: Solvaset, which pulled the decals down very nicely indeed.

Hopefully, I'll have pics up soon. I suffered a setback in having the engine and propeller both break off on the Bearcat. I gotta figure out how to get the engine put back in before I can even fix the prop.

Carlos, outstanding work on that Gemini capsule! Very well done! The astronauts even look good too! I gotta ask though, where's Jeannie's bottle?

Colin, that's a great looking Monogram Air Force you got! Way to go!

Stick,

Watching your build makes me want to start my "Man in Space" kit.

Thanks MC. I was just a newborn to toddler when Gemini was going on so I have no recollection of that program when it was going on. I learned more researching for this build than I knew for the past nearly 50 years of my life. And I really gotta say that this craft grew on me. It really was a pilot's spacecraft. Probably because Gus Grissom was so closely associated with its' design and features. Now Apollo I remember quite well. I'll get around to building the Apollo kits in my stash one of these days.

Stick,

That's a great looking Gemini there. I was still a little kid during Gemini, so all I really know about the program is what I've learned over the years. I do recall just faintly, the Gemini to Gemini rendezvous on TV.

Colin,

I like your air force, I especially like the P47, my favorite WWII fighter. You do seem to be missing a Hellcat and Corsair though, If you wanted to extend into the carrier side of things that is.

Steve