Viet Nam War Aircraft Group Build

John, you pit work looks great. Those seats look like a total pain to paint up. They came out steller.

BK

Hey lots of great models going together in this GB. Great looking 123 John, the metallic color looks great.

Here is my contribution and the obligatory box picture:

I will be doing a shark mouth Thud of the 17th WWS, 388th TFW operating from Korat RTAFB, Thailand.

I usually do not follow most of the order on the assembly instructions so instead of starting with the cockpit I went with the weapons and tanks first.

Each load varied depending on a particular mission but a common SAM killing load used by the WW Thud was two AGM-45's on the outboard stations, a CL fuel tank with another fuel tank on one inboard station and one AGM-78 on the other inboard pylon. I will be using this load on my build.

BrandonK

 

 

cbaltrin

F-100 Update:

Finished fililng/sanding the lower fuselage gun insert panel. 

Got the wings on.

 

 

 

 

 

Your F-100 looks really good. This is one AC shape I always liked. Glad to see someone building one again.

 

BK

 

Ditto,always liked the 'hun' since I saw one in FSM when I was a kid. Can't believe it's taken me this long to build one...

Well, the MiG 15 is ready for paint, it's just that the weather has been rainy and very humid for the last few days. I haven't been able to get out onto the patio to do any painting. The weather is supposed to warm up and clear out in a couple of days so then I can maybe paint. Stay tuned.

Been working on the pit PE parts and man they are tiny.

Got the IP's done

here's the pe sheet

First roadblock...........big gaps between the side panels and side wall 

I will need to use some plastic card to close the gaps. Freaking Trumpeter always throws you a curveball! 

Earlier this year I built this old Revell Thud and it had excellent fit throughout and a beautiful detailed pit right out of the box. I enjoyed building this little guy. Are you listening Trumpeter????

I'm sure you'll prevail, but why do they do such stuff!  The Revell Thud is nice!

Warning!!! Tamiya XF-52 IS NOT a good approximation of FS30219.

I just had to post this. Although Mr Color makes a very good match for this color, of which I have in my inventory already, for reasons I won't go into , I wanted a tamiya version for my F-100. Naturally, I asked google and it brought me right to an FSM thread that pointed me to a conversion chart at http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_tamiya.htm..

This chart lists XF52 as a suitable match for FS30219. Hey I am in luck, i have that color already! Wrong! I mix it up and let it try on the wood stir stick and it is definatley not even close. WAY to dark. 

I head off to the LHS and buy a few jars that look like good candidates, bring them home and do the same test, along with my mr color and polly scale versions.... To my eye the Tamiya XF-59 Dessert Yellow is a much better choice, epecially for a faded SEA scheme. 

Ok, am I crazy?

plasticjunkie

 

Earlier this year I built this old Revell Thud and it had excellent fit throughout and a beautiful detailed pit right out of the box. I enjoyed building this little guy. Are you listening Trumpeter????

 

Nice 105. I have the Revell/Monogram 1/72 F-105D as well that I have tested fited all the major parts on and agree the fit is quite good. If I have time after the Hun is Done, I may build it for this GB.

cbaltrin

Warning!!! Tamiya XF-52 IS NOT a good approximation of FS30219.

I just had to post this. Although Mr Color makes a very good match for this color, of which I have in my inventory already, for reasons I won't go into , I wanted a tamiya version for my F-100. Naturally, I asked google and it brought me right to an FSM thread that pointed me to a conversion chart at http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_tamiya.htm..

This chart lists XF52 as a suitable match for FS30219. Hey I am in luck, i have that color already! Wrong! I mix it up and let it try on the wood stir stick and it is definatley not even close. WAY to dark. 

I head off to the LHS and buy a few jars that look like good candidates, bring them home and do the same test, along with my mr color and polly scale versions.... To my eye the Tamiya XF-59 Dessert Yellow is a much better choice, epecially for a faded SEA scheme. 

Ok, am I crazy?

 

Thought I would add a picture of the colors I was testing. From Top to Bottom:

1. Tamiya XF-52 (eek!)
2. Polly Scale Tac Tan
3. Tamiya XF-59
4. Mr Color FS30219
5. Tamiya XF-59 + 10% Red (Wild ass guess).

I did set a custom whitebalance on my camera for this shot.

Obviously, unless you have a color calibrated computer monitor, this is useless; however, smart phone screens are probably better for viewing colors accurately.

Polished out the bogus framing in the canopy. Consequently, my shoddy cockpit work will be clearly visisble... :-P

Progress on the Tomcat is painfully slow right now. I have all the small bits on and the major construction is complete. I am currently building ordinance. Mostly tedeous work for now, then on to paint.

BK

I was unaware that VF 1 and 2 covered the US withdrawal from Saigon in 1974 using the Tomcat. This one by far is my favorite jet and have several in my stash. 

BrandonK

Progress on the Tomcat is painfully slow right now. I have all the small bits on and the major construction is complete. I am currently building ordinance. Mostly tedeous work for now, then on to paint.

BK

 

Painfully slow? Takes me about three years to build/paint a monogram F-14. You go any faster and your gonna melt the plastic. :-D

Sorry I haven't posted anything, there's been a lot going here that has stopped me from getting more than just a few minutes at the bench here and there.  But, I've made some progress and finished up getting all the pit parts ready.

Any comments/criticism is welcome.  I also want to add that all of you have been doing amazing work!

Amazing working silentbob!  Very impressive!

silentbob33

Sorry I haven't posted anything, there's been a lot going here that has stopped me from getting more than just a few minutes at the bench here and there.  But, I've made some progress and finished up getting all the pit parts ready.

Any comments/criticism is welcome.  I also want to add that all of you have been doing amazing work!

 

BK

Made some more progress on the F-14. I've just been painting as I go but it's coming along nicely.

Bob your cockpit is putting mine to shame for sure. That looks really nice!!

" alt="" />

" alt="" />

Working on the Quick Boost resin parts for t OV-1A.

Cheers!

Nice progress all around in here.  I'm looking forward to the Mohawk.  They were new when I was in helicopter school and I saw some flying at Ft. Eustis.

I lost faith in those conversion charts of Urban's a long time ago. Some of the suggested mixs are simply ridiculous.

.

Spent a few hours this morning improving the fit of the canopy on the hun. Covered the cockpit in BMF, set the canopy in the correct position, then filled the gaps with slo-zap. Removed canopy and started sanding... Basically I had to extend the frame of the canopy to match the fuselage. 

That’s a great idea for the Hun’s canopy fix!

CB that looks great and a fantastic fit too. I had a similar problem with my Thud not with the canopy but had to extend the pit side walls to cover up huge gaps overlooked by Trumpeter. 

Got some free time last night to cover up Trumpeter's goof. Here is the pit and walls OOB. I circled the ugly gaps to make them more visible.

I used some plastic card stock measuring and cutting the parts to get a good fit then shimmed the bottoms where I drew the arrows. The shims bring up the sides even with the pit consoles.

Looks great now that the gaps are gone.  Now I can complete the PE work in the back pit and paint the plastic card pit grey then add some lead weight in the nose just in case Weasel decides to tail sit.

Great problem solving, guys. 

PJ, nice fix on the pit issue. I don't think it is a "whoops" on their part, but rather more of a "whatever, this is easier to design" decision. Great work, it really looks good now.

I've spent the last several days painting the F-14A. I forgot how much work it is painting these modern birds. I have a good 8 hrs just in masking this up to various shades. I lost one of the nose antenna during the first spraying and I don't have anything like it and scratching those up looks funny, so I left it off. Other than that I'm pretty happy with it so far.

I'm not a fan of preshading because most people way over do the look. I thought I would give it go again on this one as it favors this AC. Since switching over to Vallejo paints I am having a great deal more satisfaction with my paint work. I'm hooked on this stuff now. I think my preshading is pretty good for once. This will work well with the oils I have in mind for the weathering. I need to let it sit for 24 hrs between painting as this stuff is soft for quite awhile after spraying, but I haven't had and lifting so far, and that makes me very happy. I hope to be nearly done by the end of the year. We will see.

BK

Wow, that looks sharp Brandon.