75th Anniversary of 1941 Group Build (World at War)

Looks to be excellent work there, TJ

regards,

Jack

I'm calling this done. Still have to add antenna but that's it. Thanks for this GB. Pick whatever pic you like for front page.

Looks beautiful, tj.  That blue-gray is very appealing.

More work on the Vindicator.  Decals are on  In a few days another coat of gloss and weathering. 

Very nice, Steve!  If you'd like to build this for 1942, the GB thread is up, running and signing up volunteers.

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/29/t/173219.aspx

Check,

Are you going to host a 1942 build next year? If so look what I received today for my birthday.

Thanks, Jack.  A Canadian version would be something to see!

Check, great job on the Hawk!

The final colour choices you arrived at look good, and will have to remember those when I want to try an RCAF version of the same bird.

regards,

Jack

Thanks, Jack and Bish!

Bish:  great to hear that you're gearing up for 1942 and next year's round of GB's.  This year (2016) has been pretty slow and unproductive for me--mostly owing to the aircraft carrier GB.  That Tamiya Yorktown was a black-hole that sucked in all kinds of temporal resources.

I think that's exactly what they did, Jack--just pick a close match to the RAF colors. From what I've read, neither Curtiss nor DuPont made any effort to mix colors to match the British standards; they just aimed to get near with what they had.  

Researching the colors, I ran across this website:

http://www.ratomodeling.com/articles/AVG_cammo/

which has a lot of information, some of it I realize is controvesial.  Then there were some threads about the subject posted right year on our own FSM forums, years ago.

At some point, I had to go with something, so I opted for the MM paints I used.  I'd hate it if everything looked like a Spitfire!    Bish would probably agree.

And here, by the way, is the finished product.

Despite what I said about their accuracy, the Kits World decals went on beautifully.  I used them in combination with the kit decals, and Airfix also did a fine thing with them. I think that the box indicated they were manufactured by Cartograph.

I used a medium gray pinwash on the undersides to accent the panel lines.

I think the Kits World Chinese insignia is a vast improvement over the really pale blue Airfix used in the kit decals.

Checking photos of the propeller blades, I couldn't determine that the graphic logo appeared on them very much--if it all; so I just used the lettering.

The shark mouth decal came from the kit itself, and went on really well; conformed beautifully to the fuselage.

The prop lettering silvered on all three blades, so I had to paint over them with black acrylic paint.  It blended in pretty well.

I used a dark brown pinwash over all the uppersurfaces.  I didn't attempt any other weathering, since I didn't want to take a chance on ruining "good enough."

So that's it for my 1941 contribution, at least for now.  I look forward to seeing at least a few more finishes, before the year runs out and we get going with 1942.   

Check, that is looking good.

It is interesting what you have stated about the DuPont paints.  I thought there existed paint swatches from this commercial supplier, and they (Curtiss and whoever else was building aircraft for the RAF), just picked what closely match British standard colours?

So if that is uncertain, then yes it would be difficult to pin point a hobby paint to match.

regards,

Jack

Excellent, will keep aneye out forit. I'll be doing Dragon's panzer II Ausf F in a ruined factory scene in Stalingrad. All ready have at least the first half of next year planned out so just working out where to fit it in.

I have noticed that with a few decal sheets and always check now. I once got a set for a Snetterton B-17 and would i looked into it the tail code was for a transport aircraft. The only reason i checked was because the decals had no nose art which i thought was strange.

I am surprised to hear that.I have got a few things from Sprue Brothers and found with postage it was cheaper than UK prices, thats assuming UK stores had them in stock. But thats usually kits which i can't often find here. Ilike Hannants largely because i can get somuch in one placeand it local to me so only takes a couple of days to arrive.

That explains the colours and i guess getting the exact match is not that important when they are needed quickly. I think its turnedout really well.

I am, Bish--I'll be posting it before the month runs out.  I think I'll probably do another Flying Tiger from '42 for that GB.  By March of '43, they were being issued the leaping tiger insignia. Hannant's had a decal sheet I just ordered with different markings than the Kits World offering--along with two more of the Airfix Hawk kits.

Always glad to help support the British economy!

I was disappointed in KW's AVG decals.  The style of the aircraft numbers is not accurate in some cases--most notably the three's and five's.  Someone didn't do their research!

I've compared prices between Hannant's and some of the domestic shops, and the price difference with shipping sometimes comes out only a couple of USD different. Plus, Hannant's usually has on hand what others say will be "in stock soon."

As far as the paint scheme goes, the Curtiss Hawks that went to China and Burma were diverted from a shipment supposed to go the the RAF, so they were painted in RAF camouflage, using rubber masks.  The paint supplier--DuPont--didn't have exact matches to Dark Earth, Dark Green and nothing coming close to Sky, so they went with what they had.

I thought about just painting them with RAF colors, then decided to make them look different.  There's a lot of controversy about the colors, and nobody has the definitive answer yet.  

I don't know anything about the schemes on these aircraft, but that looks good to me. And good to see you giving Hannants your support. I get the feeling quite a few people here like to use them.

I take it you are still planning on launching a 1942 GB.

Thanks, Bish.  I have more.

I started painting with the undersides.  I used MM's Aircraft Gray.  It's a light color with a slightly bluish cast to it.

Here's the wing/fuselage assembly finished and masked for painting.  I used poster tack around the difficult curves.

For masking the upper colors, I bought a set of masks for the AVG Hawks from AML (through Hannant's).  It's quite a nice set.  I traced around them, then photocopied and cut my own masks from regular masking tape.

I used MM's Military Brown and Medium Green.  I masked and painted the fuselage band with MM's Bright Blue.  It was a close match to the profile in the Osprey publication. 

Nice start there check.

Been working on the Airfix Curtiss Hawk 81-A-2 for a while, at the same time finishing up some other GB projects.

I didn't take too many photos since Steve (modelcrazy) already built one.

I wanted to do the plane assigned to David Lee "Tex" Hill of 2nd Squadron, American Volunteer Group.

Here's Tex.

Here's a profile of his plane (although I used Osprey's American Volunteer Group Colours and Markings for reference).

And here's the only photo of the plane I could find on the net.

Seem the poor thing never saw combat.  It was launched for a combat patrol on 9 December, 1941.  It crashed on landing.  So dramatic scenes like the one below are somewhat imaginative.

Anyway, here are the pieces for the cockpit.

I did a little messing with the wheel wells--a pin wash and some of Doc O'Brien's weathering powder.  I read somewhere that the wells had a canvas insert, so I painted them with the underside color.

Then, the assembled fuselage and wings.

The wing to fuselage fit is pretty imprecise on both sides, but it didn't take a lot of effort to correct them.

Looks like your keeping busy Johnny. Nice work.

Fine work, tj.  That's a nice shade of Navy Blue, too.

A little more progress

I'm not going to go crazy on the weathering of this one.  After all the U.S. was not at war yet.

Thanks Jgeratic & Bish.

Great progress on the Vindicator Johnny.

Got some paint on the Vindicator yesterday

Nice work on the StuG Dan, i like it.

And its nice to see you Pz IV has some company on the front page.

Thank you Bish, Dan and Check.

--------------------------

Dan, you have ended up with a very good looking example of an early Stug.  The figures add a nice touch too - a well rounded build throughout.

regards,

Jack

I'll take the second from the bottom, for the front page.

Great work, Jack.  Looks very realistic and natural in your photos.  Fine job!  Front page is updated to add your latest addition.  

Dan:  that's exquisite work with the StuG.  Nice job weathering and figure painting.  Do you have a preference for the front page "finished" photo?  I'd think one with all the figures participating.

Glad to have y'all in the GB.  Feel free to contribute anything else you build in the future for 1941.

And 1942 is not all that far away! 

Thanks Checkmate.

Thanks Jgeratic: Excellent job on the Soviet BA-20 armoured car and figures.

Gary: Great progress on your P-40B.

The StuG III Ausf. A and figures are now done, after decals I airbrushed on a mist of XF-57 Buff, and spray can on Testors Dullcote. The figures took longer to complete. I used a base from a Tamiya kit for one of the figures, he doesn't like to stand up.  After painting I airbrush on a flat clear.

As a comparison I put my Dragon StuG III Ausf. G side by side with the A model. Compared with the smart kit of the G model, the older A model kit clearly shows it age. I do plan on building one of each StuG version In the future.

Thanks to Checkmate for hosting this build.