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

It makes for a very visually interesting paint scheme, Dan.  Which one of them are you inclined toward?

For the Panzer IV I'll be building, I decided to practice airbrushing the scheme on a old Tamiya Panzer II. Starting with a base coat of Tamiya XF-63 Germen Grey, then running tape down the center to divide the two scheme's. First is a light XF-60 Dark Yellow over the germen grey, the other side is a more heavy amount to cover most of the germen grey. I think it turned out ok.

CMK02,

I do know the Italians were supplied B-1s and they were using them up to 1942.

Gary

The old-mold Stuka wasn't too bad. Was the "B-1" variant still being used in 1941?

Sprue Brothers lists the Ju-87B-1 as having arrived Jan. 7, along with the Shackleton, Lightning, and 1/24th scale FB VI Mossie.  It also says they're out of stock on the Stuka!  Guess it was pretty popular.

The Shackleton and Lightning seem to be in stock, however.

Gary

Oh, and the 1/24th scale Mossie is in stock.  At $140 dollars, it had better have engines that run on gasoline! 

GAF

CMK02,

That is a rather bad fit.  In order to fix it, you would have to break out the plasticard stock and cut out the bad frame to make a new one to go around the canopy. In the end, maybe not worth it.  Too bad!

OTOH, the new Airfix P-40 should be a much better fit.  I didn't know they had released it yet.  I did see the Airfix JU-87B 1/72nd version though.

Guess that means I'll be plugging along alone for awhile.  Been filling and sanding on the fuselage, and started on the wing wheel wells.  Nothing worth posting about yet.

Gary

 

has the Stuka been released yet. I have had it on back order with hannants for months. It was supposed to have come out in Dec, but Hannants still don't have any.

CMK02,

That is a rather bad fit.  In order to fix it, you would have to break out the plasticard stock and cut out the bad frame to make a new one to go around the canopy. In the end, maybe not worth it.  Too bad!

OTOH, the new Airfix P-40 should be a much better fit.  I didn't know they had released it yet.  I did see the Airfix JU-87B 1/72nd version though.

Guess that means I'll be plugging along alone for awhile.  Been filling and sanding on the fuselage, and started on the wing wheel wells.  Nothing worth posting about yet.

Gary

Now that don't lok good. I hate gaps in canopies and those are the worst. This is one reason i stopped buying Airfix. I don't blame you for stopping this now and waiting on a new one. On Hannats it seems they have had the new one but are awaiting more. these new Airfix kits seem to be flying off the shelf. I see Sprue Brothers are out of stock as well.

Here is the result of fiddling with the canopy on Airfix's old-mold Blenheim:

It's atrocious and awful and just--bad!  I have no idea how those gaps could be filled around the canopy and windows, and still leave a presentable appearance.   

With Airfix's new mold of the Blenheim, I don't think I want to waste any time trying to make a silk purse out of this.  So I'll wait till the newer one becomes available again.  Both Squadron and Hannant's say they'll get them in.

I've placed an order with Hannant's for Airfix's new P-40's and Kits-world's Flying Tiger decal sheet.  I'll get back to the Blenheim when I can get the new one.

Looks like it's you, Gary, and me and Dupont paint in 1941.

CMK02,

Bummer!  Perhaps you can wait until the fuselage is together, sanded and painted?  It looks like you could fit them in through the canopy opening.  Don't know if anything will be in the way as I have no idea of the cockpit layout.

Gary

Bish

Some nice work there Gary. Thats an interesting site as well, i do hope he adds some more to it.

Thanks, Bish!

You mean Witold Jaworski's site, I take it.  Yes, I was glad he had a copy of the P-40B for Blender as I've been learning Blender for 3d work myself.  I can actually load the model up, hide sections and move them about to see what's underneath.  I suppose I could also print out sections or part plans if I really needed them.  I'm not into anything that elaborate yet! 

Gary

Check, got to love those old Airfix kits. Looks like your getting a grip of it.

Some nice work there Gary. Thats an interesting site as well, i do hope he adds some more to it.

Thanks, CMK02!  I was beginning to feel kinda lonely in here. 

Good work on the side windows.  It seems as if once a mold ages, the things that used to be there to help position a part now become more of a hinderance than an asset.  I had to cut a couple of the locating pins off the cowling for the P-40 for that reason.

Gary

I hope everyone is settling into the new year well, and the smell of glue and paint is in the air (unless you're using acrylics).

Thought I'd get started showing my so-far miniscule progress.  The old Airfix Blenheim is kind of "sow's ear" sort of kit.  Test-fitting showed that the side fuselage windows were going to be a problem--especially the port side, so I thought I'd start with them, and if I couldn't get them to work, I could move on to something else without too much waste of time.

There was a kind of "shelf" around the windows that looked like it should attach to the fuselage so the window itself could protrude through.  Naturally, the shelf wasn't deep enough to allow this, so I filed and sanded away the shelf so the window could be attached directly to the frame.

Here are the windows, filed down to the frame size.

And they are supposed to fit into the little openings just above and forward of the wing roots.

In order to have time to move them into place, I used Testors orange tube cement on the bottom edge of each window and maneuvered them into place.

The next step will be attach them permanently with superglue, then sand around the windows to blend everything in.  It looks like Airfix molded a solid frame line around each window, which I'm guessing is supposed to distinguish the clear part of the windown from the frame.

That's it, and:

Be seeing you.

Things are progressing with the P-40B (Tomahawk II).   I have the cockpit, such as it is, painted; the exhausts glued in and painted; the fuselage is together, though I still need to go over the seams for some fill and sanding.  Work is being done on the wing wheel-wells by cutting out some cardboard fillers to go inside.  I need to do the wheel-bay as shown in BrandonK's WIP thread here:

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/169117.aspx

Mine will not be as elaborate as Brandon's, but I'll show something inside rather than the bare plastic that's there now.  I'm wondering if I should do the canvas covers rather than the bare metal well?  Not sure how the British handled that one.

Meanwhile, I'm replacing the kit provided pilot with one from the Monogram Mosquito.  The "American" pilot looks like he's seven feet tall next to the British one.  Maybe so!

A shot of the instrument panel, which is totally wrong for this P-40, though it does resemble later versions.  Needs some touch up work.

Finally, I cut the kit cooling flaps off of the fuselage and will be making my own.  I've also installed some radiators inside to help cover up how blank it is on the inside.  Not sure what color these were.  Maybe Zinc Chromate Yellow instead of interior green.  We'll see before I close her up.

That's it for now.  Thanks for looking!

Gary

PS> One other image of the 3d model shows the flaps and how the fuselage is formed underneath them.  May need to get out the saw for this.

Thanks, CMK02!  I'm trying!

And after a bit of thought, I may go back to that RAF 403 Squadron scheme.  It will add a whole lot more masking to my task, but I think it will look "spiffy". 

Here you can see a version of it (though I will probably do my own color choices for some of this, and I'll give reasons for doing so as I progress).

Thanks!

Gary

CMK02,

Yeah, I've seen that site and there are those who don't completely agree with the conclusions printed there.  But what else is new? 

Anyway, work continues on the P-40.

Cockpit is being painted, along with the pilot.  The exhausts have been painted black, and I will give them a nice wash of rust before inserting them.  Started on the instrument panels, such as they are.  The metallic stuff beside the pilot is aluminum duct tape.  I'll cut a strip of it to use to fashion some seat belts, then paint it.

As I said, this must be an AVG bird, though what "ZhongShan" is I have no clue.

Meanwhile, I've been looking at Witold Jaworski's 3D P-40B model for reference.  Easier to see if you can rotate the model and see things from a different perspective. 

If you know how to use the Blender 3D program, you might download the model and take a look.  The program and the model are free. 

http://airplanes3d.net/index_e.html

Thanks for looking!

Gary

Gary, OK, I think I get it.  Not to add to the mix, but I found this site quite a while ago, when I was considering AVG "Flying Tiger" P-40's:

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

From what I understand, AVG's planes were originally ordered by the British, then diverted to China, so they carried the Dupont paints.  Haven't done anything so far with AVG planes, but maybe in the future--when the controversy gets settled.  

Anyway, whether you paint them black-and-white or OD and NG, you're off to a good start!

CMK02,

checkmateking02

Off to a good start, Gary. That's good to see. What's the color controversy you referred to? There's also been a lot of "discussion" over OD 41 and Neutral Gray 43 over the years, too. I think every model paint manufacturer has their own take on the "proper" shades.

It concerns the underside color of Dupont 71-021.  You'll get a better understanding if you scan this thread I posted over on Britmodeller:

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234993439-403-sqdn-p-40-underside-color-black-port-wing/

Really, I think I'm going to paint her in black and gray and post black and white photos!

Meanwhile, I started on the cockpit last night and gave it a coating of Model Master "Interior Green".  Yeah, it's not Curtis Interior Green.  But in the words of a famous Chief Engineer, "It's - It's green!"

Gary

Off to a good start, Gary. That's good to see. What's the color controversy you referred to? There's also been a lot of "discussion" over OD 41 and Neutral Gray 43 over the years, too. I think every model paint manufacturer has their own take on the "proper" shades.

Jack: thanks for the information.  So the E-7 mold is different from the E-4 mold?  The new-mold E-4 I have comes from Airfix's "BoB Experience" set, and I haven't looked at it closely enough to see if it has the problems you cited. I'll look into it.

I planned on spending NY's Day cleaning up parts for Airfix's old Blenheim.

GAF, that is too bad about the KittyHawk, was looking forward to seeing it done in Canadian Sqn markings.  Did you consider a desert version, or is that a can of worms as well?

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

checkmateking02, something to consider about the Airfix new tool Emil.  Get the E-7 boxing, as some of the earlier releases of the E-4 have missing wing root detail on starboard side:

I suppose the E-3 starter set might also be another option, but don't know if it shares the same problem.   One other detail I noticed when I built the E-4, the underwing has some erroneous panel lines, whch really should just be rivets (not likely visible in 1/72).

regards,

Jack

Guess I'll get started then, since I didn't celebrate New Years with partying and fireworks.

I'll be doing a Monogram 1/48th scale P-40B for the group build.  There's not much I can say about this kit that most modelers don't already know.  It is a fairly good representation of an early P-40, but with raised panel lines and virtually no cockpit.  I'm building a late release kit, so the plastic is rather thin.  I am also going to do this one pretty much out of box, except for a few details in the landing gear bay and the cowl flaps which I will scratch-build.  I figure that I need to keep this simple if I'm going to finish it in a reasonable amount of time.

Here's the kit:

And here it is after a couple of hours work cleaning parts and scraping off flash.

I've left some of the tinier parts on the sprue, and they won't leave it until absolutely necessary.

I had thought about doing a British camouflage for one of the early Tomahawks for 403 squadron, but decided it's too complicated, and I run into that controversial color problem that just about every aircraft ever in service has one of.  So, I decided to try something simple, and found this:

A much simpler scheme, though it lists the 33rd PS as part of 35th PG, which is wrong.  The 35th Pursuit Group was stationed at Hamilton Field, California during 1941.  I think the 33rd was part of the 8th, but I'm still trying to confirm that.

http://p40hawksnest.co.nf/Service/USAAF/35FG/35FG.html

This means I will need to print (or find) some of the decals for this one, but there's not a great many needed.

Thanks for looking!

Gary

PS> Confirmed that the 33rd was part of the 8th Pursuit Group.  Apparently they were stationed to Iceland in 1941.

http://www.asisbiz.com/usaf/USAAF-8FG.html

This is still New Year's Eve in the states, but please start your projects whenever New Year hits you, in the areas where y'all live.

Hope your New Year of 2016 is happier than the one illustrated on the cover of the first Saturday Evening Post magazine of 1941, 75 years ago.  

I think it does very well, though, conveying the war and conflict that "gripped" the then-new year of 1941.

I'm grateful for all of you participating--for "auld lang syne!"