Battle of the Coral Sea Group Build 4 May, 2017 - 8 May, 2018

plasticjunkie

 

checkmateking02

 

GMorrison

LOLS! Found my draft card the other day.

 

 

 

 

Misplaced mine decades ago.

 

 

 

 

Gosh, I know I still have it somewhere along with the Army ROTC wapons issue card for my M-14 kept at the National Guard Armory by the U of Miami in Coral Gables at the time. Now you guys are forcing me to look for the darn things.

 

Hope you find them; we should always be careful to preserve our history!

checkmateking02

 

 

plasticjunkie

 

checkmateking02

 

GMorrison

LOLS! Found my draft card the other day.

 

 

 

 

Misplaced mine decades ago.

 

 

 

 

Gosh, I know I still have it somewhere along with the Army ROTC wapons issue card for my M-14 kept at the National Guard Armory by the U of Miami in Coral Gables at the time. Now you guys are forcing me to look for the darn things.

 

 

 

 

Hope you find them; we should always be careful to preserve our history!

 

lol. Still looking check!

I got the final pictures taken this morning. My Lex is now complete.  I have to keep my bases small to conserve room in my display cabinet.  

Scott,

It looks terrific!! Great job on everything. I would love to try my hand at a water dio. I will have to get with Steve(ModelCrazy) to brush up on that even though he has instructed me on how to do it LOL. Wonderful work Scott! 

Thanks Hunter.

Steve is the expert when it comes to water, especially heavy sea.  

I keep water simple since I use it as a secondary element and not actually want it to be part of the display.  I paint the base with a mix of blue/yellow or blue/white, depending on the ocean, since each ocean has its distinct color.  Then put the ship on the base, draw the outline of the hull, and apply a layer of acrylic gel with a wide, flat bush across the base except within the hull outline.  I let it dry, then mount the ship and apply a few more layers with the brush and actually paint up the waves making sure everything is uniform to the direction of the wind and the ship is travelling.  Let dry for 72 hours and then drybrysh the whitecaps.

This months FSM has a free download and I did try their technique on making the bow wave.  Didn't turn out quite as expected but a little practice was bound to be in order.

Scott

Looks great, Scott.  Superior build of a superior ship.  I like what you've done with the water.  I haven't mounted any ships permanently on a "water" base--but am thinking I ought to, at least for safety reasons.  For purposes of photos, I've used crinkled/painted aluminum foil

I didn't know about the FSM downloade re: bow waves.  Will look into it.

So which of the photos would you like for the finished front page picture?

Lets go with this one.

Congratulations Scott, that looks exceptionally good. 

Cheers

Tony

Front page is updated with your finished-build photo, Scott.  Sorry it took so long; I'm still much hampered by not having a working computer at home.

Thanks again for taking part in the GB.  It's always enjoyable and informative seeing your creative talents with ships.

Sorry to take so long to get back to you, Tony.  Got distracted last night with new episodes of "Broadchurch."  

Anyway, the build roster is updated with your Dauntless.  Welcome to the GB; always a pleasure to see your work.

I have a dual set of these in the stash, so it'll be good to see how construction goes.  I'm working on the old Airfix version of the SBD-3 right now--but work, too, has gotten in the way.

Thanks for your participation!

That is one fine looking flattop scott.

Here is my entry for the GB:

The kit is ok for its age and has good exterior details. The interior needs a lot of work and is not as accurate as the Hasegawa Kate which is reported to have an excellent and accurate cockpit.

This Nichimo pit is partially there but lacking several details that need to be scratched out to make it look close.

I assembled the cowling and used the UMM saw to trim the vents so they could be partially open. I also sanded them from the inside to thin them and drilled out the exhaust pipes. I was gonna use some aluminum tubing instead but these plastic pipes are really well done.

Cowl vents thinned, trimmed and partially opened:

This is the scheme I plan to model from the Shokaku but with a torpedo

My thanks to Gary (Devil Dawg) for having his daughter in law translate the Japanese writing on the Nichimo sheet for me.

This is another can of worms because the Kate schemes, specially this one I found as built models with the lighter color being NMF, light grey or a pale green. I read somewhere that all Kates where painted at the Nakajima factory in a color called Nakajima Amber Grey or Ameiro or Ame-Iro or caramel color? The Kates were then painted by the individual units in the field. I have been looking for this info and unfortunately did not bookmark it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the lighter color is in fact the Ame-Iro (light caramel color) over sprayed with the darker Nakajima green. Unfortunately, out of over 1,200 Kates built, none survived intact so who knows what's what with the colors. I also saw a picture of a Kate salvaged wreck with what appeared to be red oxide primer on the wing sheet metal. 

I ordered the Nakajima colors by WEM so they are in the mail. Again, I saw a kate painted this way and failed to bookmark it too. WEM is reported to have a close match to these colors.

Not the same unit I will be doing but the Ame Iro color is mentioned and used.

http://www.hyperscale.com/features/2001/kateir_1.htm

Nice work, pj.  You're off to a good start.

Since I don't know anything about Japanese aircraft, and haven't built any, I thought your research and information about the color scheme was very interesting.

Thanks check.

I worked over the Nichimo rendition of a Type 92, or what it's supossed to look like!

I'm really surprised that a Japanese company would be so far off but I decided not to toss it but to try to improve it.

Here ie the Nichimo Type 92 MG straight from the box:

and after my modifications, still needs paint:

I used thin plastic sheet to fashion the grip, brass sheet for the trigger guard, trigger, drum handle and rear grip assembly, stretched plastic sprue for the rear vertical grip, and pe AA sight. The bore was drilled with a #80 drill bit. Should have lengthened the receiver just a tad but it will be partially buried into the rear pit once mounted in place.

Great looking remake of the machine gun, pj--100% better!

Thanks check. Will have few more pictures later.

Been doing things to the Kate pit to make it more presentable. I closed off the floor sides along with adding plastic sheet to the pit walls meeting the floor and made a bulkhead right behind the pilot's seat. I also made the throttle controls and console from plastic parts and pe pieces.

This is how Nichimo's pit looks like out of the box, not even close to the real thing!

Then there are the gaps where the floor meets the pit walls

Plastic sheet was used to extend the floor sides

Throttle controls and console scratched out from plastic and brass

A bulkhead was fabricated from plastic sheet behind the pilot's seat and more plastic sheet was added to the floor and the wall sides. All the little bits and thingies are ready for paint. I even got the torpedo together and thinned down the tail fins. 

I also thinned the seat backs and drilled out the backs

Thanks Tony. I use anything to scratchbuild. The leftovers from brass pe frets come in handy once in a while like making handles for the Tyoe 92 ammo drums and trigger guards.

Outstanding work, pj.  That is a vast improvement, and really looks good!

Thanks Check.

I put the small Kate engine together and brushed it wit Alclad Aluminum then it got a Wash of The Detailer.

There are some tiny pipes that are to be attached  but they won't be seen once the cowl goes on so no need to deal with the fiddly tiny things.

The IP is actually quite well done. I dry brushed the instruments with a 10/0 brush and then each one got a small drop of clear parts cement for the glass.

Got the pit almost done and just need to add the MG ammo drums, seat belts and a few other tiny details. Much will not be seen once the fuselage halves are joined even with the open canopies.

I forgot to take pictures of the radio instrument faces before gluing them into the pit. They actually have some nice molded details like dials, knobs and gauges which also got a drop of Clear Parts Cement for the glass. 

That is exquisite work, pj.  Really fine looking!  You've done well!

Nice to see you here in the Coral Sea GB PJ.  As usual, you are knocking it out of the park with your Kate.

Scott

Thanks gents for the nice comments!

Here is the completed pit. I added some Eduard belts.

And added the engine mounts and engine. I didn't bother painting this area cause it will not be seen at all.

Some or most of the detail won't be seen once the fuselage is closed up so here is a look at some of the radio dials and gages.

These Dewalt clamps are great. I can align things and hit the seams wiith Plast I Weld to weld up the joins.

Miss Kate is shaping up. Tomorrow all the seams will be cleaned up and polished out so that's all for tonight.

A good day's work, pj!  Outstanding details on all the dials/instruments!

Thanks check!

Got some paint on miss Kate today. I used Tamiya metallic blue and added a few drops of Tamiya clear green and aluminum to fine tune the Aotake color. I read that Aotake shades can range from blue to green. For those not familiar with Aotake please read this:  http://www.aviationofjapan.com/2010/02/aotake-part-one.html

I sprayed the entire Kate with Colourcoats ACJ17 Nakajima Amber Grey. This is a really cool looking caramel color. I read that Kates were sprayed with this Ameiro color by Nakajima and then the greens were applied in the field by the air groups.

Masking removed from the wells shows the groovy Aotake color.

As I cleaned the ab and was about to switch to my xtra fine detail Badger for some green mottling I noticed something wasn't right.

My Badger air hose that I bought at Orange Blossom Hobbies in Miami back in the mid 1970's finally gave out after 43 years of off and on use. The fitting came loose and came off with no way to keep it in that fitting.

Thank God for Hobby Town a few miles from my house! They had a new hose for $18 so off I went and got it along with more MM enamel paints. By the time I got home it was a bit late so to be continued tomorrow.

I saw a 1/32 ZM shinden at the Nats back in 2012 and it was an awesome detailed model. It looked so futuristic.

I finally was able to get the mottling done on Miss Kate yesterday evening. I used Tamiya IJN Green thinned with Mr. Color Leveling Thinner and it sprayed just like my enamels thru my xtra fine Badger ab tip so I'm very pleased with it. I was gonna use my MM enamel paint but it dried up inside the bottle.

The Ameiro changes tone and looks greenish grey once the overspray goes on.

I couldn't find a date anywhere on the Nichimo print so I did some web surfing and the kit was realeased in 1971. The decals looked ok but I figured being 47 years old something bad was gonna happen once the decal saw water. I cut out the Japanese lettering at the bottom of the sheet and dipped it water and kaboom, it desintegrated into a bizillion bits.  My next option was to attempt to save the old decals so I brushed some Superfilm on them. This product is a life saver cause it kept them together and is very thin even after 3 brush applications. I always gloss up the model prior to any decal application but I had polished out the paint getting a semi matt smooth finish and decided to add the hinomarus at this time to make sure the decals were ok.

Next step will be to spray the black/blue nose and then to gloss up the model for the rest of the decals and washes and more weathering.

Here is a picture of the Superfilm bottle and the Colorcoats Ameiro paint tin.

I used my UMM razor saw to cut the kit canopy to open up the pit but it's way too thick not allowing proper placement of the opened sections. I had the Squadron Vac formed canopy handy so I used silly putty as a filler inside the canopy to support it and sliced the sections with the UMM saw and trimmed out the rest. This vac formed canopy is very thin and will allow the canopy sections to slide over the others. This will be a hair puller trying to mask that long greenhouse.

The top one is the kit's thick canopy and the bottom one is the vac formed canopy.

 A lot of nice mods and airbrushing work PJ.  

Thanks scott!