2016 OTS (1/72) SMALL IS BIG

Harriers are cool, and that one certainly does the adjective proud.

Thanks Lew and Steve !

Lew - nice grab !   A Squadron scratch/dent/and return sale ?  You gotta be kiddin me !  I don't suppose they make it up here to New York very often.  

Chris

Thanks Steve - the Mariner is gorgeous and the diplay base is most excellent !  That's a very striking diorama.  For a static display - it seems full of motion. 

Chris

MC, thats probably the best depiction of motion I've seen in a static aircraft model. Congratulations on a quality piece of work.

Chris, thats a very cleanly executed Harrier. It's an aircraft that I love, and you've motivated me to build another.

I've progressed my Hunter and the two Spitfire XIXs. The Spit just got a coat of primer, so no photos, but most of the spraying is done on the Hunter.

Cheers

Tony

Bossman- Yeah I was luck with my fingerprint too! I gently sanded away the print with 1000 grit and of course the paint and the gloss went and so did the print! woohoo Because I put the glue on and then repositioned my hand to better hold the wing almost immediately, so the glue only got the paint, WHEW!

Love your little gem of a Harrier!! Very nicely done! I know it's a bit late but, as I was looking at your pics, I thought something just didn't quite look right, then the penny dropped, it's the canopy position. I googled a pic to make sure.

MC-WOW What a stunning finish to a stunning build!! You'll flood the competition with that one! Pardon the pun

Tony- The Hunter is really starting to take on it's character now! Nice colors!

After my finger print removal and reattaching of the cabanes to the fuse, I glued the outer struts on, let them dry and then glued the top part of the struts. They had a lil bit of a gap at the front as the incedence of the top wing wasn't quite kosher. put glue in and taped them overnight, then after work today, I sat down and sewed this thing together lol almost literally, yes, the wing rigging is done! Now just have to put the oddly angled cross rigging above the guns. Was wondering how I was going to do that, decided in this scale I think I can get away with draping a piece across the top then have the bottom piece come off one side, over the top piece then pull tight enough to give the right look and attaching to other side. Tiny dob of glue for the knuckle looking bit. When nearly finished I will go over it and do touchups. Anyways here's a few pics.

Thanks Tony,  The Hunter looks great.  The highlighting colors are striking.  I just checked out the 2015 OTS GB for the first time tonight.    I guess you really like Hunters !

Sim,  Thanks so much for the pic.  It shows me three things.  First, I need to make the correction - the canopy needs to ride on the edge of the cockpit - not hang out in space like it does now.  Second, I guess the canopy doesn't open up very wide.  I'm assuming your pic shows it fully open (?)  So at least I wont run into a problem there.  Third . . . that's a mighty glossy finish !  DOH !   If I get really ambitious I might go to the trouble of putting on a satin finish.  I'm not sure why - but in this scale, a full gloss finish just doesn't look right to me.

Nice rigging on the Camel - I guess you got over that hump !

Chris

Harrier canopy corrected !

Thanks Sim !

So I've been giving some thought on what to do next . . .  I was thinking it would be kinda lame to just finish off another mostly built kit.  After all, this is a group BUILD.  So I'll start something new and different.  

I picked up the MPM A-20 Havoc kit at a show about a year ago for $15 from a guy who was selling stuff from his stash.  It was quite a steal as it came with an extra set of Zotz decals with some nice artwork, and a very nice Eduard photoetch fret.  The only issue is that there are a few decals cut from the kit supplied page of decals.  I havent figured out which decals were removed yet, but I'm sure I can figure something out.

I don't think I've ever seen a 1/72 A-20 kit built before - so it's kinda unique.

Here she is:

Nice molded and recessed detail including cockpit sidewalls.

Sweet Photoetch !

This one may take alot longer.  There's more gardening and housework to do now that the weather is nice.  But there are always rainy days. 

See ya,

Chris

The Harrier looks great on the base. I'm looking forward to the Havoc. 

Thanks Steve,

It's the only grass base I have - so I use it for all the glamour shots of A/C that might land on a grass field.

The other day I thought of your work with the water base when I was watching a different kind of "water landing".  It was video of a P-39 from the Aleutians landing on Adak Island.

They say there was about a 1/2 foot of water on the runway.  The nosewheel was kicking up a rooster tail of spray that covered most of the plane - with just the nose and the wingtips poking out.  

Check it out - from around the 2:00 to 2:30 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOX_M8-q62A

That would be a challenging dio !

Chris

Wow thanks Chris, it sure would. It looks like they are landing on a lake and it probably felt like that to.

I just may have to try that. 

Lovely job on the Harrier Chris.

Wayne, please put me down for this one.

The new tool airfix 1/72 Fokker E3.

I hope I can got it built in a week or two.

I would like to join this interesting GB with this kit 1/72 Hasegawa MIG-27 what markings ? I dont know yet

The fuselage uses (in my veiw) an un nessesarly "complex" way of engineering. You have the bottom section and the two side sections incorperating the top section. 

I found it rather fiddly to allign and cement together. You have to hold it all inplace and try run cement into the seam...needless to say I got a fingerprint or two on the model doing this.

There will be some filling and sanding to be done on the fuselage seams.

Theuns

I tried to replicate the anti-corosion treatment they used on the Eindecker's sheetmetal parts.

I sprayed the cows X-11 silver and with a fine brush randomly painted streaks with humbrol "steel" that is a little darker.

Theuns

Bossman- You are very welcome for the pic and glad the fix was painless. She's a lil beauty!! I know what you mean about a high gloss finish in 1/72, sometimes yes, it's ok, but even for a glossy finish, I would give the slightest touch of matt just to kill a bit of the sheen so as to not look like glass, however struggle to maintain having the same smoothness. Does all that make sense lol. Looking forward to seeing the Havoc progress!! Thanks for the compliment, and I like the pun lol.

Theuns- The Eindecker is coming along nicely, like the effect on the metal!

Crown- A double dose of Mig's, looking forward to them!!

Don't have anything to report, been a bit under the weather since the weekend. I also had problems getting logged in since Thursday or Friday! Was like I had been blocked or something. Even re-registered with the same email, which usually you can't do, so dunno what was up with that but was finally able to get back on Monday, but by then my cold had taken hold and just longed for the bench but that was frommy bed lol, reluctantly I know I needed rest. Hopefully in the next couple days will get some progress posted.

I am waiting for the natural doped linnen paint to dry so I can do the shading for the rib tapes.

Sofar the build is quite enjoyable.

Theuns

crown r n7

I would like to join this interesting GB with this kit 1/72 Hasegawa MIG-27 what markings ? I dont know yet

Welcome Crown,

Wayne will get you on the roster when he can.

To try give some feel to the othewize mono-tone look I cut 1mm strips of tamiya tape and stick it over the ribs. Then I lightly spray tamiya "smoke" over the rest to darken and dirty up the exposed fabric.

where tapes were attached to the fabric it had a more dence lighter look to the rest. 

That's a good idea Theuns. I was wondering how you were going to do that. 

I used the tame idea on my 1/48 Nie 11, I hope the scaled down size will deliver the same results.

Theuns

here are some lastest pics from a straight forward mig-27.

I built a Hase Mig 27 years ago, nice kit. 

Here is the basic airframe assembled.

I have 2 coats of future as a glosscoat for decals.

Hoping to get them on soon...

The undercart was a little fiddly to put on but cyno works well for this.

Theuns

Theuns that Eindecker is looking great! Love the effects you're doing! Yes the undercarriage is a trapeze that has organised chaos. But it looks good! Have a build article in a mag, will see if I can relay any pertinant info to you!

Crown you're Mig is looking the part! I built the MPC Mig-23 back in the 80's. From what I remember it went together like a dream as i think most of those MPC 1/72 kits did. They were like all over at every supermarket and five and dime, then POOF, GONE! Now when you find an unopened one you're paying 5 times the price. Sorry,for the rant lol, if it was one lol.

Ok I have delivered on my promise of a little progress on the camel, and I do mean it isn't much,but any step forward is progress. Got the wing decals on and the grey patch painted over. Going to put that last little bit of rigging on the center cabanes. Bit or complete gloss to progress to a semi gloss for a final finish. Here's a couple pics.

Yes, touch ups are also yet to come.

The rigging looks absolutely fantastic Simplot 

wow that rigging does look very good indeed. What dod you use?

Theuns

Wow, I gotta say, there's all kinds of great projects going on here. Way to go guys, everything is looking fantastic!