The 50 Shades of Gray Group Build!

OK gang, I'm posting some (OK, a lot!) of photos of my finished AH-1J from HMA-775 circa 1991. This wraps up my third (and final) submission to the GB. 

This is Fujimi's kit in 1/48 with Cobra Company's resin cockpit. It's the first time I used a resin cockpit in one of my builds. It was a challenge, and a great learning opportunity, for me. The ECS hoses (wire wrapped in finer wire), turret-opening cover/cannon surround (sheet styrene), pitot (styrene rod and very fine tubing), RHAW receivers on the nose (punch sheet stryrene), FOD covers (red napkin soaked in diluted white glue) and rotor tie down (paper strip with a random PE buckle) are scratched. The whip atenna on the tail is painted monofilament. The blade antennae on the belly are from the spares box. The CC resin set comes with some chaff dispensers, but I swapped them for the plastic ones from Italeri's AH-1W boxing. The tail's squadron code and the nose's MODEX are painted on using home-made stencils. The branch markings on the tailboom and national insignia are decals from the drawer. 

It's painted using MM enamels and weathered with pastels and Flory washes. 

Well, it's another 3-footer to lay on the shelf. Here are the photos. Remember, you were warned. There are a lot of 'em...

Just for fun, here are a couple of "buddy pictures." Here's one with an AH-1G I kitbashed a couple of years ago.

Here's one with the AH-1(4B)W I Frankensteined using Italeri's AH-1Z boxing.

I realize that the dihedral on the stub wings is a little steeper than it should be. That was the angle I had to use to keep the gaps to a minimum. It's something I'll just have to live with.

Thanks for looking and thanks to Robert for hosting the GB. Feel free to share you comments, questions and/or criticisms. Now to move on to...anything NOT gray!

Happy modeling!

-O

PS: Robert, here's the glory shot for the main page:

Good looking choppper action going on in here!

Mark the decals relly look nice!  I love that nose art.

Coming down the homestretch with my viper. I'm working on the base for it now. Here's a couple pics of the mock up. VMM-163 is deployed off the USS Boxer amphibious assault ship So i grabbed a few pics to come up with the flight deck layout. 

One of the benefits of working from home during this pandemic is the bench time. When I have a virtual meeting and listening to someone ramble, I can do some modeling while "listening." 

I'm working towards the finish line with my AH-1J. I'd say I'm in the last turn before the final straight. Now I'm at the point where I'm thinking the whole, "Oh, yeah, I still need to do that." before I get to the final assembly. While sitting at my table today, I tackled two of those "little things" that needed to get done.

The -1J had a shroud or shield (for lack of a better term) covering the canon's opening in the turret. The Fujimi kit does not have that covering.

Some -1Js during ODS did not carry them, but the airframe I'm modeling did. So, I scratched one from some stryrene.

It's not perfect, but I think it looks the part. 

Also, I realized that I lost the pitot for my kit. When I went to look at the one in AH-1G project to measure, I realized that one was missing too. So, I used the one on my USMC -1G for measurements and scratched one...er...two. 

Here's one. Again, not perfect, but I think it'll look fine under some paint.

I hope to have this kit wrapped up over the weekend. I just have a few odds-and-ends to wrap up before final assembly. Once it's done I'll be able to turn my attention to other (not gray) projects.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Cheers,

-O

I've gotten the decals on my Eagle. The kit decals were atrocious. I swear they were printed on scotch tape, they were so thick.I had some after market decals for all of the important stuff...

So I got this great idea to scan the kit decals and print them out on clear decal paper. That would have worked great but the old decal sheet had yellowed and that yellowing transfered to the reprinted sheet. But I pressed ahead anyway by tring to cut as close to the pertinent part of the decal, cutting out as musch yellow as possible. In the photos the kit reprints appear as black blobs. In hindsight I should have just left them off.

tempest, I'm usually not a big delta wing fan, but in my opinion, the SAAB Gripen and Viggen are se...um...attractive airframes. You've done the -39 justice. Nice!

I've managed to make a little progress on my AH-1J. I got the elevators and stub wings installed. Also, I've got the markings on it too and started a little weathering.

The airframe I'm working on didn't have a lot of stencils, at least not that I could see. The other airframes in the squadron wore minimal markings too. I didn't have decals to match the squadron code nor the modex, so I has to make stencils and paint them on.

From what I could see in my references, not all airframes in this squadron had their serial number painted on, and it looks like the airframe I'm modeling didn't either. Although they did have the MARINES stencilled on the tailboom and a stars-and-bars on the fuselage. Again, markings and styles varied from airframe to airframe, even within the same squadron, but it looks like this is how my subject was painted up. On my build, the MARINES and national insignia are decals from my pile.

This one's nearing the finish line. I hope to have it wrapped up over the weekend.

Thanks for looking. As usual, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome.

Cheers!

-O

Looks like a real hot rod!  Splendid work!  

Want the 1st or 2nd picture on the completed list?

I'm all done. JAS-39 Gripen A. Italeri kit. Not bad 

That Warthog is looking great!

68GT

I got a little bit of gray on today!

 

Ed you can't buy grey-in, i know I've looked, but you can put gray on! Looking good and by the pic I'd say you'll get some nice shading in the color coat!

I got a little bit of gray on today!

Nice chopper O!

Johnny, that jet looks superb!

We are now at the 1 month to go mark...and my drone and helicopter are still not attached to the Freedom.  

Added a splash of color to the grey. Getting very close to the finish line on this one

Howdy all,

I'm back with a quick update.

Progress on my AH-1J continues. I've been able to get the fuselage together and some gray sprayed.

I started with a base coat of Light Ghost Gray.

Then I got the Dark Ghost Gray and Medium Gray sprayed to complete the camo. I couldn't find references or pictures that showed the camo pattern, so I used a little artistic license.

The stub wings, skids, and elevators are just dry-fitted for the sake of the photos. It's tough to see the difference between the LGG and the DGG, but I'm happy that's the way the two colors appear in my reference photos. The Medium Gray seems a bit blue when compared to my references though. I play on misting on some LGG to tie the three colors together. Maybe that will help tone down the Medium Gray.

Next will be prepping the airframe for decals and assembly of the fiddly bits.

Comments, questions, and criticisms welcome. Stay tuned for more!

-O

Working on all kinds of little touch ups and ancillary stuff right now. All the weathering is done. My AIM-9’s won’t be in till Tuesday tho so another week before i can truly finish it. Here’s some progress pics.

 

 

 

 

the next time i post up should be with finished pics :-)  

You aren't kidding Mongoose.  That is more decal sheets than I have used on any 3 kits....

The results are mighty fine though!

Great work Tomcat, I will have to try out those AK metals.  I am always on the look out for good metallic paints.

Rooster, nice decal work!  I like that the USAF birds have that little burst of color with the emblem on the stabilizers.

The F-15 is looking really good Mark! Here's a little update on my progress.

Main construction is moving along nicely with a little filler needed here and there. I decided to paint and decal the vertical stabilizers separate as I thought it would be easier to do the gloss coats and sanding needed to blend in the decal film. As you can see the one on the left needs a little more work to get rid of all the silvering but the one on the right is looking good. I also decided to paint and decal the stars and bars on the side since it will be easier to do the decaling blending before the intake covers go on. Green/white stripes at the top were painted on as I didn't look forward to getting the decals to conform to those complex shapes.

Love the stores tomcat! How's that AK Titanium look in the sunlight? ive Thought about those instead of the vallejo as it has the problem you highlighted, scratches off real easy.

Got the Strike Eagle painted (Gunship grey of course)...

I masked the underside engine bay to paint it Titanium...

I tried a new paint for this...

It sprayed on well with no need to thin. And its tough. I didn't have any chipping problems like I've had with Metalizer. I recomend mixing the paint really well, as it tends to settle on the bottom of the jar. Here I masked around the engine cones so they can be sprayed Jet exhaust (a shade of grey?)...

Again I used a new paint...

After all was dry, I future coated her in preparation for the decals...

While waiting for the paint to dry, I worked on the canopy. I decided to try something new when painting canopy frames. I decided to mask and paint as I go. Working this way, I feel, gives me a little more control of the process. First I polish the glass, and mask off a little at a time. I then brush on some future along the tape seam to seal it and help prevent paint bleed...

when dry I paint the color over top...

So far it seems to be working out Ok.

Finally, here is a repost of the completed underwing weapons pylons to be added at the end. Hope the pic works this time...

That's it for now, off to the decals.

Seriously nice work here, well done all!  Really excited seeing these projects coming together.  

lostagain that gap closed up nice. You must be happy bout that Cause it was definitely noticeable! Must have been a shock to see that when you put the two together lol

 O, the Stearman looks super! Excellent finish on the model, very attractive. I did get a ride in one for my 50^th.

 Mongoose, the Viper is looking great, can’t help you with the markings though.

 O, the Cobra looks great, good work getting the resin cockpit in

 TJ, yep hard to spot the difference, is it easier to tell in the flesh? Regardless, the Gripen is looking sharp.

 Repainted the deck in a better colour this time, then glued on the superstructure. Bit of a gap between the two after.

 So filled, sanded, masked and painted

And happy with that

Ok finally got some grey on this 

You can just barely tell the difference in the top and bottom color 

Hey gang, wow, there's some great work going on in here! I'm always impressed by your talent and skill. Very inspiring! Pushes me to be a better modeler myself. 

So I've been able to make a little progress on my Cobra. Last I left you, I had the cockpit built up and ready for the next step. Well, the next step was to install it.

The resin cockpit was a bit of a challenge because I had to do some grinding to get the resin to fit. Also, there are no locating tabs so I had to do some careful measuring and comparing to an AH-1G I'm concurrently building.to get it pretty close. Well, as close as I could. Something you don't see in the above are the armor plates. I added them after I took the photo but before I closed up the canopy.

Speaking of canopies, I got both the canopy masked up and installed. Again, there are two because I'm also kitbashing an Army AH-1G.

Shortcomings of kit are the intake and exhaust assemblies. The intakes are molded as hollow openings that allow a viewer to see into the empty doghouse.

I'll have to figure out a solution for that. The exhausts are just these two shallow ovals molded onto a piece that mounts to the rear of the doghouse. I pressed some tissue soaked in white glue into the shallows to mold some FOD covers. A small hole drilled into the backing of the exhaust allowed me to push them out after they dried.

The last thing I did was attach the rotor blades to the hub. When I kitbashed a USMC -1G, I found that the assembly was very weak and allowed for a lot of flexing. So much so that I accidentally snapped a blade off during construction. This time I used a couple of small styrene strips to add some rigidity and reinforce the joint. I'm sure once everything is painted up and washed, the extra plastic won't be noticeable.

So the main fuselage is assembled. Next will be to clean up all the joints and fill the gaps around the canopies. After that, I think things will go pretty quickly. 

Thanks for looking. Feel free to share any comments, questions or criticisms. I hope to be back soon with more progress.

Cheers!

-O

Big thanks for all the comments, suggestions, and just plane following along guys  The weeks been busy and i just got a few minutes tonight to do a little decalling. Thought I’d at least throw a teaser out for what will be this weekends work now.

A little microsol and off to bed.

I’m doing YP 41 from HMLA 267 off the Boxer. This one’s on the Marine Skid Zulu’s Flying Leathernecks Sheet. I found info on the black aces and skulls. I can’t find anything on the red skeleton on the ripped black flag yet. Does anyone have a link to more info on this insignia?