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

Really like the scratch work you've done there gjeratic! Looking good!

rooster513

Yikes Brandon you're right! Double checked the verlinden instructions and I have it how they show it but after checking ref photos I see you were right. Those verlinden people saw me coming a mile away thanks for pointing it out buddy, I'm gonna get it changed around. Thanks again!

 

Sure thing! I'm glad it was taken in the spirit in which it was given. I don't usually like to call out things in other's people's builds, but hoped you'd see it before closing the fuselage, when it would be harder to fix.

-BD-

Hi all,

I'd like, if I may, to add Trumpeter's 1/48 MiG-3 to this group build. After my last builds, one of which took more work than I was anticipating, I decided to build this mainly because it seemed like it would be quick and fun, and it is!

The cockpit fell together easily, and I am not throwing any aftermarket at this one, especially since I read somewhere that you see them without harnesses from time to time, and that (plus an instrument panel) is really all that this one falls short on.

I painted the interior with Mr. Paint Blue Grey (or maybe it was Grey Blue, I can't remember, and yes they are different colors). I then used a Vallejo grey wash on it, did some dry brushing and dirtied it up with a Flory Dark Dirt wash.

Next up was addressing a couple of issues in the kit. The wing air intakes look great when you fit them to the assembled wings, but they leave a significant gap upon mating to the fuselage. The wings also have a small, rectangular-shaped indentation where they meet the fuselage, so I cut more sheet styrene to fit and then filed it down to size.

That takes me here, and with those two small modifications, I was able to get the wing root seam to be a faint line instead of having two significant gaps to fill. As I am terrible at filling and hate it, this makes me happy.

Trumpeter did something with this kit that I wish more manufacturers would do and molded the front of the plane in four sections (each fuselage half has 1/4 of the engine covering, and there are single pieces for the upper and lower cowlings that fit along actual panel lines, negating any need to fill). The belly scoop housing is also molded separately and almost completely covers the seam where the rear of the lower wing meets the fuselage. Excellent engineering!

The fuselage only has seams behind the cockpit and the wings, and they were easy to fill. The only really questionable thing I've come across so far is the flimsy tailwheel, which must be installed when you close the fuselage. I am sure I am going to break it before all is said and done.

Anyway, I can't wait to finish assembly and get this thing into paint.

-BD-

Very appealing work on the cockpit, Andy.  You did well with the painting!

Bi-planes are pretty challenging, Jack.  Your's is coming along great.

Brandon:  I've updated the front page with your latest project.  Glad to have you doing it.  It's looking good, as usual.

Excuse the delay in replying.  Was out of town for Memorial Day and just got back.  

BrandonD, the MiG cockpit certainly doesn't look like it needs any AM, really excellently done.  That is interesting the comment about the four part fuselage at the front, but can see the merit of it.  I know Eduard's Spitfire had the top half as two pieces, most people seemed to hate it, but likely because the actual aircraft had no panel line where the two parts met.
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Thank you Andy, modelcrazy, and checkmateking02.

Bit more done on detailing the little bipe:

1. - Added a pitot tube based on a prewar photo.  Created from 0.4mm hollow brass rod, along with two pieces of wire splayed outwards.  The front end was also crimped to give some flatness, though difficult to see.

2.- Slight amendment to the cabane struts.  The kit has them with locating pins sticking straight down, but the location holes in the fuselage are perpendicular to them, making a very difficult attachment at best.  So those four points were cut off, and replaced with plastic rod (approx. 0.5mm).  In the photo above, one of the rods still needs to be trimmed down.

3.- Just a test shot with some stainless steel wire for scale comparison.  Another reason to replace the push rods is to facilitate painting, as they would be inserted in position after the engine is painted up.

regards,

Jack

"Slight amendment to the cabane struts.  The kit has them with locating pins sticking straight down, but the location holes in the fuselage are perpendicular to them, making a very difficult attachment at best.  So those four points were cut off, and replaced with plastic rod (approx. 0.5mm).  In the photo above, one of the rods still needs to be trimmed down."

Outstanding detail work, Jack.

What kind of glue/cement did you use to attach the new locating pins to the cabane struts? Whatever it is, it must provide a pretty secure attachment point since it allows you to trim it down, without breakage.

Thanks, Checkmateking and Jack! And Jack, that scratch work is really amazing. I don't think I have the patience for that, but it is clearly worth the effort.

Anyway, I got the major parts of the build done yesterday and today at lunch. Everything fit together pretty nice after I got the sheet styrene pieces shaped and fitted. I used some Perfect Plastic Putty at the wing roots and a few of the other seams just to knock them down, but left seams visible as they are panel lines on the real thing.

Then I got the upper cowling on, with the weapons installed first, and was happy to see Trumpeter did my favorite thing with the windscreen and molded part of the cowling with it so seams are not so close to the "glass."

I wont have much time over the weekend, so this will likely be boxed up until next week, but I'd like to get the rest of the canopy masked and the interior color sprayed so I can go straight to primer and paint next week.

-BD-

Hi BrandonD, thanks and your MiG is zippin right along there - looks quite good.
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Thanks Check ... the new pins on the cabane struts were attached with Tamiya liquid cement.  It's a bit tricky to start as it evaporates very fast, but once in place it receives another dousing for a stronger hold.

regards,
Jack

Looking really good Brandon!

Very nice work, Brandon. It's a classy build.

Thanks, Jack. I've got some of the Tamiya cement on the shelf. Haven't used it in quite the way you have, but it's good to know it's got holding power.

I've finally got started on my build. Removed about 75% of the parts from the sprues. THis is what I started with. I'll build the aircraft from the box art, but I understand that the spinner was actually red.

Cheers

Tony

Thanks for the tips Modelcrazy. I built one a while ago for one of the Pearl Harbour GBs, but I can't remember the watch points so your help is appreciated.

Cheers

Tony

The other day took care of some final details, followed with a primer coat.

Went ahead and attached the wind screen, but scale wise is fairly thick.  The exterior side was sanded down, but one can cheat a bit and sand the top edges slightly more, sort of like a bevel, to give a thinner look.

Primer on, and gaps pretty much gone at the base of the tail.  I forgot to take a progress photo, but I built up the spine a bit to represent framework where the fuselage seam was.  This was done with some thin plastic sheet, after attached was further sanded down and shaped.  Mind you, I 'm not completely sure this detail is correct, perhaps it should have remained flat?

Now back to the engine ...

After cutting off the kit's push rods, drilled some location holes in their place.  To aid in lining up the replacement stainless steel wire, some hollow brass rods were doubled up, and super glued to each other.  Working at two points at a time, once glued in place, these 'bases' for the push rods are trimmed.  A little filing to touch up, and a sewing need is required to re-open the hole in the brass.

Engine where it currently stands, painted up, and two pairs of push rods in place.  Unfortunately the details do not match photos of actual Bristol Jupiter VI. The circumference of the engine is too large in front of the cylinders, and the push rods should actually sit lower by a good scale mm.  There is also detail to the framework here that should be simplified.

So the above is just an FYI, as I won't be fixing this since the parts are all glued and painted, plus much of the corrections would be obscured by the nose plate armour.

regards,

Jack

LOVE that engine work, JG! 

I got some work done on the MiG - mostly just paint prep.

Primer coat went down, and the roots needed a little work, so I fixed those, as you can see below.

I actually sanded away some of theprominent rivet detail, so I went to work with my new riveting tool and did it manually. A couple of them are too deep, but I'm hoping that paint, a little sanding and weathering will even them out.

I got another coat of primer on it last night, and it looks mostly good. I missed a line of rivets and went back and did those, so hopefully with one more pass of primer it'll be ready for paint this weekend. I think I'm going to try using a bare metal base for the metal parts and weathering the paint a bit more than I have in the past. We will see if/how I like it.

-BD-

Rivet work looks awesome BD!

Thanks, Rooster!

checkmateking02

Making good progress, Brandon. What kind of rivet-making too are you using. Don't think I've ever heard of one.

 

I've heard of them, but now I have to have one. Good work Brandon, it looks great so far.

Cheers

Tony

Brandon, very nice work.  The corrected rivets look good, and size wise should blend in well with the rest, particularly under the naked eye.

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Thanks Check and Brandon.

Well I was all set to add decals this afternoon, but ended with a shattering experience. 

All five points on the star insignia broke, two of them went even further and disappeared into powdered form.  Upon close inspection of the decal sheet, doesn't appear to be any protective film over the markings - wondering why they looked so flat.  I've emailed ICM for a possible replacement.  Anyhow, there's a final shot of the engine before it gets covered up in front.

To upgrade the fighter to 1941 standards, decided to equip it with bombs, even though none are supplied in the kit.  ICM's boxing of the I-153 to the rescue.  It has options for rockets and two bomb sizes.  I chose the smallest ones, since they are suppose to be 10kg type.

1.) The tail fins are very thick, so decided to thin them a bit.

2.)  One set of fins are trimmed off, the remaining is sanded down.

3.)  New fins added from plastic sheet.

The red check marks indicate the 'refurbished' bombs, compared to the original kit.

The underwing attachment points are simply a couple strips of sheet plastic, with two location holes drilled in each.   Their placement is just  a guesstimate, likely being inline with a wing rib, and just at or slightly inboard of the wing strut found on the opposite.

This was my first time trying the Akan paint brand, using their acrylic colours.

The blue sprayed quite nicely, but found the green very thin.  It took several layers to arrive at a decent density, though some might find this advantageous in creating a streaked/worn look.

regards,

Jack

Ouch, bummer about the decals. I have some extra SoVietnam stars you're welcome to if the size is the same, but they may be later markings. My experience with ICM decals has been awful. Two kits, and both had decals that disintegrated. I'd kinda hoped they'd fixed that issue by now.

-BD-

Love your work Jack, it looks really good. It's a pity about the decals,I hope you can get some more. I don't have any to offer you.

Regards

Tony

Thank you Tony, and thanks Brandon for the offer.  Yeah the Soviet stars are early type, outlined in black as well as having a circle superimposed in the centers. 

If ICM doesn't come through, I have some spares from other kits I have planned to do in Finnish markings.  Trouble is I can only match the size for those on underwing, while uppers would be a bit smaller and the fuselage would be oversized.  Going to try brushing on some Tamiya clear on the original decal sheet and see if the rest of the markings are still salvageable.

regards,

Jack

Surething, Jgeratic. Unfortunately I don't have any of those ones, but hopefully ICM comes through for you.

-BD-

I spent the past few days at lunch getting some paint on the MiG-3. After priming in Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black, I shot all the metal parts with Alclad Polished Aluminum (and later cleaned it up by masking and shooting crisper lines of Mr. Surfacer).

Why?

Because I read that the MiG-3 tended to have different shades on wooden parts vs. metal parts, possibly due to being assembled at different places (though I have a hunch it was more likely that they sprayed thin coats of paint and the materials just showed up differently. But I really have no idea). Anyway, I wanted tome subtle tonal variation to show this off.

Once that was all dry, I did the underside in Mr. Paint Gray-Blue. It's an AMT code from later aircraft, but it's close enough, and may have been used on the MiG-3 for all I know. I did my standard method of mottling it with a thin sprayover (Mr. Paint paints are great for this and I love how easy they are to use since they're pre-thinned).

On the underside, it's pretty subtle, and also where I was testing the technique. I like how it came out, since I imagine it would be pretty close, especially after some operational use.

I repeated the process on the topside.

In the above image, you can see the variation. I left the cowl unfinished because it will be painted black.

ANd there's the demarcation line on the fuselage. I did the same with the horizontal stabilizers, and for the fabric control surfaces, I sprayed them heavily so they will (maybe) appear lighter than the rest of the surface.

I hope to get the cowling done today at lunch, shoot a clear before dinner tonight and maybe, just maybe, get decals on it this evening.

-BD-

D'oh! Looks like I need a tad bit of touching up around the underside root of the horizontal stabilizer.

-BD-