1990-1991 Gulf War 25th Anniversary Group Build

Been a little slow going in Enigma land, and might have another slowdown due to some medical stuff over the next few weeks. But hey, I've got almost 4 months left still! Finished filling and primered the parts, and started on the tracks. Nothing really picture worthy, though.

Great to see everyone's progress and work so far. Hopefully I'll get there soon. 

I haven't been able to stop by for quite some time.

Last page back was quite a treat indeed.

Steve, that tank blowing up is really something, and your flame reproduction looks great!

Bish, the first armor of yours I'd seen. Very impressive, my friend.

Just checking in to see what is going on.

Not alot of build time at the moment due to work, but the holidays are here and I will finally have time to start my M1A1.

Bish

Thanks Greg. I don't build armour as much as I would like, so many aircraft in the stash. This makes only 2 this year. I am hoping to do a few more next year.

 

Far as I can tell, if you're a bit out of practice it doesn't show.

Hah- found this little gem going through boxes in the garage.

I'll try to squeeze it in.

Stik put me in with a 1/48 Hasegawa F-14A. I will be making it in the markings of Wichita 103 from Operation Desert Storm.

Thank you Bish. Researching load outs now.

Hey BTW other flyers?

Call Sign Owl, report in.

Got a swing wing up, any news on yours?

Thanks for the update Bish. Here is some work on my cat:

Got the pit painted. The cushions got a dark oil wash to pop the belt outlines and other molded details. The front fuselage was closed up and the seams sanded and polished.

Got the IPs done. I gave the screens a coat of silver and when dry applied a heavy coat of Tamiya clear green. The silver adds reflection and depth to the screens.

Thanks Bish.

Did some work to move this build along a bit. Got the rear fuselage together. It needed some putty to fix a not so good fit along the leading edges and rear sides. PPP was used and it dries within a few minutes.

Did I say not so good fit? The front fuselage and rear section do not match! I thought I screwed something up but several online build reviews verified I wasn't the only one with this problem. The top part of the join is almost a perfect match but the bottom belly side has a very visible step!

A partial solution is to use some scrap sprue as spreader bars to minimize the alignment problem. I cut some sprue pieces and carefully ued a sanding stick to get a fairly decent fit. The spreader bars were Tenaxed in place.

The step is almost gone. I could not get the fuselage to expand out any further.

The Aim 54 pallets will cover most of the small step.

I will go with two Aim 54s on the front belly pallets and one Aim 7 on the center rear station. The wing pylons will have Aim 54s and Winders.

PJ & GM, I have your new selections added to the roster. 

Bish, you Challenger has been added to the finished front page post. Beautiful work on that. It looks striaght out of the desert! 

PJ, very nice work so far on the Tomcat. I do like your idea of using sprue as a spreader. Very creative.

GM, there should be a link here to the ODS.EU site that has a table of loadouts for most aircraft types in the war. RAF types carried mostly the JP-233 or basic 1000lb iron bombs early on. Later they started carrying ALARMs and 1000 lb LGBs or the few TILAD pods deployed in theater to buddy lase.

Folks,

I want to aplogize for not getting started in this Group Build as I had planned. Work has gotten very busy lately, especially with a recent promotion, so building time at the bench has gone to practically nil. Plus, you've probably noticed (or maybe not) that I haven't been on-line in quite a while now. Tonight is the first time in a long time that I've able to peruse the forums here, and it might be another week or two before that happens again. So, with Stik's permission, I need to pull out of this Group Build. Sorry about this, folks.

Gary Mason

No worries Dawg. been there/done that. Life is pretty busy for myself as well.

Got some more work on this Cat.

This Hasegawa kit is a bit over engineered and a lot of things could have been simplified. For example, the nose gear is maded up of 12 parts, the mains are 8. The intakes is another bunch. Some parts fit good and others do not, requiring trimming and sanding. Usually Hasegawas have a good fit but this one requires a little help. None the less it's a great looking model.  

It's about ready for paint which I hope to get on by tomorrow. The tail fins did not line up either cause the mounting tabs were too long. I had to slice off a bit from each tab to make the fins properly fit on the rear fuselage.

Hasegawa does not include any weapons in the kit so their weapons set was used. The Aim54s were drilled for mounting pins made from stretched sprue. Corresponding holes were drilled on the pallets and wing pylon mounts.

I was very surprised and pleased to find the Aim54 pylon mounts included in the kit!

It looks different than the common Sparrow set up. A Sidewinder will be on the top rail.

The tanks, tail hook assembly and weapons were all assembled, sanded and polished and ready for paint. The kit includes several different chin pods ranging from early to late updated  A Tomcat.

I just need to add some small parts, mask the canopy and windscreen and it will be ready for some color.

calling the SCUD done though i still need to build a revetment base and not sure how big it will be, depending on if it's going to be a diorama. i might have over weathered it but some of that may tone down on a sand base. it is Vallejo sand yellow with a raw umber oil wash followed by a pastel mix of yellow, orange, brown and light gray.

Another update. Did the preshade using black and random patches of tan. The canopy exterior was sprayed black so it will show up as the interior frame color once the gull gray goes on top.

The black adds some texture to the panels and the tan gives some discoloration once the top coat goes on leaving very subtle shadows. This breaks up the monotone color scheme.

Further washes will weather up the finish once the decals are applied first.

Bish

wayne, I really like that Scub, I think the weathering is just fine. From what I remember of Iraqi kit it was not the cleanest or best looked after. Do you want to use one of these pics or wait for the base.

 

i like the trall one from the rear.

that's my understanding too. it's not obvious in the pics but all the top surfaces were scrubbed with a bit of light gray pastel to make it look a tad faded. similar to Karl's top surface overspray with a lighter color technique i am using in the K-5. it does look better today and i really like mixing my pastels to add some color.

picked up the new Tiger Models AMX-10RCR but, as it's the R upgrade i can't use it in this build. pity. also picked up the Trumpeter 1/35 SCUD (Squadron Black Friday IPMS club grouip purchase) so i guess i can dump the 2 DMLs they just re-released.

Ernie, you seem to be handling the fit issues well. That cockpit looks awesome, I really like it.

Wayne, your SCUD launcher came out great. Nice work!

I'm doing my best to keep up here, but haven't touched anything on the bench for many months. Sorry.

oh Dear i seem to have fallen into modern French armour. just what i need another interest. picked up the Tiger Model AMX-10RCR, as i mentioned, is too late for GW1. OTOH i have 2 sets of FFL figures so it's off to Afrika with that. think i will get the Meng AMX-30B which was in GW1.

right now i need an good uncomplicated kit so where else but Tamiya. doing the T-72M1. Have a pic of a captured one in Kuwait.  Won't be as elaborate as MC's but it fits the need and is a nice build.

given my T-72 was a water damaged garage sale pick up i discovered the mesh for rear intakes and the PE louvers for deck grills are missing. made a pattern and will create the louvers in plastic and have mesh screen but the kit moved out of the quick and easy.

the AMX-30B2 has indy track which is why i do wheels but i will sacrifice because it is cool and different.

Hi Stikpusher,

Can I enter with an Italeri 1/72 BAC Jaguar please ? There is some temptation to do a Buccaneer instead, but for now it's a Jag.

Cheers

Tony