Larry Wolf Memorial Close Air Support Group Build 2021 Needs YOU!

Pondering aquiring/building this one for this GB.  I just like the box.  Am I nuts?

Fantastic job on that old Fujimi Snake. I have one in my stash so I will be using your build for future build reference when I do mine.

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 Cobras. Last I left you, I had the cockpits built up and ready for the next step. Well, the next step was to install them.

AH-1G:

AH-1J:

The -1J 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 the AH-1G to get it pretty close. Well, as close as I could. Something you don't see in the above -1J picture 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 canopies masked up and installed.

Here's the -1J:

Before I could attach the -1G's canopy, I had to finish the doghouse. What I needed to do was improve the exhaust. It's represented as a small, hollow molded ring at the rear of the doghouse. I grinded that off and replaced it with a piece of brass tube.

Having that done, I was able to install the doghouse and the canopy.

Shortcomings of the -1J 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 for these builds 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 fuselages are 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

May I join with Hobby Boss Vought A-7B Corsair II in 1/48?

I pooled Plast I Weld over the light refueling door pane lines which swells up the plastic over the panel lines creating a filler. After a few hours of curing the area is carefully sanded smooth with various grits of sanding pads eliminating the panel lines.

For the door vents I cut and fitted a piece of plastic sheet and pooled the Plast I Weld over the patch causing it to ment into the area and later can be easily sanded smooth when cured. I will be using Alclad and Xtreme Metal paints and don’t want to use any putty as filler. 

I have a decal sheet for colorful Thunderjets but for the E variant and my kit is a G. A little research revealed the main exterior differences are the vents on the fuselage doors and the inflight refueling door on the port inside wing on the G model and absent on the earlier E.

The kit offers both early and later reinforced canopies that appeared by late 1952. I want to use the markings of the 527th FBS, 86th FB based at Neubiberg, Germany 1952 that will require deleting the vents and refueling doors. 

The Squadron book has lots of useful information.

Looking good drum. 

Got started on my F84 with the pit. I have an Eduard pe set to add some additional details to this great looking kit that is good oob but the pe part and film instrument faces will look even better. I still have to cut off the molded foot pedals and replace them with the pe ones.

The pit tub was assembled and is ready for paint. The seat still needs the pe belts that will go on after paint is sprayed on.

Some interesting looking builds here, and some nice modelling.

Thanks for the kind words plasticjunkie, and yes I am painting the bird in the Vietnam AC-119 paint scheme.

To All.... Please let me know if I bore everyone with too much chatter and incremental updates. I desire for these updates with pictures are to both entertain and inform for others wanting to build this kit eventually. Please let me know if would prefer I make the talk and photos shorter and less frequent.  

So with that said, I'm finalizing the things mentioned in the last post and moving on to the engine nacelles while waiting for the mini-gun barrels. 

The individual engine assemblies are made up of only three pieces each. The back half shows only half of the rear cylinders molded into a flat solid backing. The other main part is the entire front set of cylinders. To complete the assembly is the propeller shaft. 



There is a square slot in the back half of the engine with a corresponding male slot within the engine nacelle for alignment. When the back half of the engine is inserted it looks like this.



From that photo I can see why the model does not have any great detail on the rear engine. Once the front half of the radial engine is added you will not see much of the rear half anyway. Actually once the prop is added, you will not see much of any part of the engine.



So the next item I looked at was the engine cowling. As molded the ends of the rear vents on the cowling would've been around 1 foot thick in scale, so I made the effort to thin them to a more respectable thickness. 



Here are some photos of the engine vents on actual aircraft.





Since I really did not want to make the individual vents from scratch and redesign the mounting points for the engine assemblies I simply thinned them while ensuring the alignment pins and mating surfaces were retained. Here is how they look now, if you look closely there is open air space between them and their wing mount.



I did finish the navigator to complete the last cockpit member. I initially thought I had a problem as I did not have a pilot type crew member remaining from the Hasegawa purchase. Good thing I also bought the ESCI NATO ground crew which has several pilot figures, but none sitting. To solve the problem I used the last remaining figure sitting from the Hasegawa set, modified the sitting position to work in the cockpit, and then lopped his head off. YES, I decapitated him in favor of a replacement head from one of the soft plastic ESCI figures. After some careful manipulation of the parts I managed to fix the last figure without loosing my head (see I made a funny). After the modifications he was painted and added to the cockpit crew (photo coming).

I've also decided that since the bird will be in flight, I will not correct the wheel wells. They will be closed with internal reinforcements to retain their correct position. The same decision was made for the control surfaces on the wings and tail. If I was building the kit on the ground with the clamshell rear doors open I would most likely pose the control surfaces.









Not sure why I showed those photos other than to indicate how they would've looked if the plane was grounded. Perhaps somebody else who might build a 119 can use them for reference (?). Another critical step in the assembly is to ensure the proper pitch and alignment of the main wing. The 119 boxcar has a unique main wing shape. 



The lower section of the main wing that ties the wing to the fuselage did not have any good alignment pins so I decided to align the leading and trailing wing edges. I was fortunate that this worked as the spacing on the fuselage and the wing angles came out OK. There will still be some minor fill between the center and outer wing sections, but I'm OK with that. So with the help of my little buddy I was able to complete the main wing assembly. In the photo the rear tail section is sitting in their positions and not glued to the main wing. Likewise the main wing is sitting on the fuselage as the internal assembly and other items have not been assembled. I need to give a special shout out to my son, Jarrod, for his help in the build process.



Jarrod and I say bye for now but we will be back with more progress soon. Comments are always encouraged.

Ben

Drum that is one kick a$$ detailed build! 

Will you be doing the waivy black belly scheme as in one of the pictures?

Wow Tomcat, I have not seen that style of molding for a long long time. I am very interested in seeing how you progress on this one. 

Finally I have an update on finishing the "innards" of my AC-119 in 1/72.

The figures were completed and added to the cockpit along with some other minor details. I am still working on the fourth cockpit figure (the navigator) but he should be there soon to finish it out. I am still debating on adding seat harnesses. The photo shows the internal sub-assembly sitting in the fuselage (it is not glued).



Keeping with the nose of the aircraft, I decided to reshape it to the traditional nose cone as the one in the kit was far too pointed when compared to the actual aircraft. I simply stacked layers of sheet plastic in decreasing radius then used a Dremel and a lot of sanding to shape it into a more accurate nose. 

actual


model


corrected (still may need a little more work)


Back in the cargo / gun bay I finished adding the guns, figures, painting, details such as ammo cans in storage and by the 7.62 guns, ammo feeding tubes to the 7.62 and flex link feeding shutes to the 20mm. I also added discharge trays for both the 7.62 and 20mm. Numerous other additions have also been added such as larger ammo cans for the 20mm, larger and more accurate electrical boxes on the fuselage, decals. etc. I was debating on adding some of the white electrical lines either by paint or very fine solder, but 90% of that work would be laboreous and not seen when sealed.

According to the flight manual for the AC-119, the crew consisted 8 people, 4 in the cockpit and 4 in the rear. One person is manning the NOS sight while another is monitoring the guns, and another looking over the firing computer. There is still one more to add that will be in the rear by the illuminator. This is as far as I can go till the replacement barrels arrive for the 7.62 mini guns.





I can still add the ram air cooling tubes for the 7.62 guns, the flare dispenser, illuminator, all the windows, and a couple more little things while waiting for the gun barrels. Till then, please share your constructive thoughts or critiques....

Ben

For my first build, here is a true antique, the Monogram so called "box scale" B26 Invader...

All that raised Rivets, panel lines, Insignias...OH my. My plan is to sand down all those raised details, rescribe the panel lines and replace the landing gear and nose guns. This is goingh to be interesting....or aggrevating.

plasticjunkie

Im in with this one that I’ve been wanting to build for a while

 

Im in with this one that I’ve been wanting to build for a while

Hey CASers, I wanted to share the little progress I've made on my helos. 

I got I started on my AH-1J. My plan is to build it in the 3 gray camo scheme used during Desert Storm. I want to build every version of the Cobra that served with the Marines. This will Cobra be the second of the series. I finished a kit-bashed -1G in '19 and the 4-bladed demstrator last year. I purchased the Cobra Company resin cockpits for the the J, T, and W for my project. I decided to go ahead and use the resin for this build. 

I have never used a resin cockpit before. My experience with resin hadn't extended beyond an ejection seat or a set of wheels. Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out. There are a few little mistakes here and there, but they really won't be noticeable under the canopy. The only addition I made was a pair of scratch built ECS hoses.

I also got the cockpit done for my Army AH-1G. This is mostly OOB except for a couple of small changes. I scratched the ECS hoses, used some tape for some simple seatbelts, and added a piece of acetate for the sighting glass. Oh, and since I removed the molded ECS detail from the rear bulkhead, I covered it in aluminum foil to represent some soundproofing. Not perfect, but I think it passes muster.

I'm ready to move on to the airframes. I'll be sharing my progress as I make it. Comments, questions and criticisms welcome. Thanks for looking!

-O

Moving right along, the F9F is ready for the first color on the canopy. This Eduard mask has two sizes of masks so when you paint the canopy you get the thin white trim inside the Glossy Sea Blue Camouflage color. I like that.

f

Progress picture of the A-10. Just showing some assembly and some filler work.

I've had the white metal landing gear from Scale Aircraft Conversions for a while now. I'm just getting to the point that I can install the nose gear. I had to break out the broken nose gear to fit the new piece. Being that the plastic is old and very brittle, that wasn't too difficult. I'll actually install all of the landing gear pieces after the main painting is finished.

I think the canopy might be a little warped. As you can see, I had to tape the canopy down to glue it and have it match up with the windscreen.

I'm really liking this build. This Panther is going to look good when it's finished. I might even attempt a Korean War Corsair and Skyraider before this is all over.

falconmod

Here's some updates to my AC-130.  lots of cutting out little holes to put the mounts for the cannon.  I plan to scratch build a primitive cockpit, just can't black out the windows even if it's a 1/144.

John

 

John

My cockpits should look half this good. Great stuff, rooster!

John, I like how your AC-130 is coming along. I've made some progress on my AC-119 too. 

I started working on the cargo / gun bay. At the beginning I mentioned that I do not want to super detail or go to crazy in there as much of it will not be seen once it is buttoned up. Well, I believe I reached that point. Other than some decals, finishing the guns, and adding people, the gun bay is going to be complete. Likewise for the cockpit, once the people are added it will be done. 

Here is what I am talking about for the gun bay:



The cockpit:



The figures (still a WIP):



Perhaps if I get the replacement gun barrels tomorrow I can finish the remaining elements inside (including the windows) and seal the fuselage.

Till then, please let me know what you think of her....

Ben

Here's some updates to my AC-130.  lots of cutting out little holes to put the mounts for the cannon.  I plan to scratch build a primitive cockpit, just can't black out the windows even if it's a 1/144.

John

After procrastinating I did a dry fit and performed the balancing act to figure out how much nose weight the Academy A-10 needs.

I think I finally have something to show.

First, here is the gun bay with the internal former bracing added. This was done by cutting plastic sheet into 1/8" strips. The strips are then shaped to the curvature of the inside of the gun bay. I did not go overboard because much of it will not be seen when the aircraft is closed and in flight. I did however add those I think will be seen through the larger openings and gun ports. 



Next the inside of the cockpit and gun bay were painted, including the bays floor and ceiling. I used a thin line micro sharpie marker to outline the internal skeleton framing. My thought was even though it is a little extra or over the top on detail, it will look more appropriate when closed and that detail will catch the eye and perhaps not look to excessive. One thing of note is how the kits ceiling is a very, very basic flat sheet with minor details while the photos of the actual cargo/gun bays are a complex combination of curved and box bracing many inches deep. 

Painted model parts (notice the flat ceiling):


actual photos of aircraft ceiling:




Here is the assembled flare launcher that will go in the right rear personnel door. I added a stick of flares in the cradle using soft aluminum rod cut to length. I painted it using the color call outs of the instructions along with some color from what I identified in source photos:

kit:




actual:


Here is the cockpit bulkhead, looking at the cargo bay side. Once again I painted it with a combination of instruction call outs and source photos:



Now here is the cockpit attached to the bulkhead, painted in the same manner. I modified the instrument panel and console based on source photos. The nav. radio operators table top is a wood decal cut to the shape. The panel and console details were painted based on real images and a couple decals added to the cockpit side of the bulkhead:



Here it is placed in-between the fuselage halves:



And YES, it will need pilots / figures,....so I purchased the Hasegawa pilot and ground crew set.





Last but not least, here is the professor who has helped me through the build process:



Till next time, please provide your comments....

Ben and Jarrod

Starting work on step 1 which is the cockpit. The instructions have FSN and Model Master codes calling out the paint colors. When researching the aircraft I found several other colors for the same items.

For instance the seats frames and backing in the cockpit are called out to be the dark gull gray as the floor. When checking actual interior photos the seat frames are a lighter gray, O.D., zinc chromate green, and even black. The cushions I found are O.D., rust, gray, dark tan, and pale green. As for the instrument panel and console controls, some are black, or dark gray, zinc. green (other than the gages themselves).

In the cargo, or in this case the gun bay, the canvas doors on the bulkhead show as pale green, O.D., light brown, black..... you get the idea. I guess unless I can trace a specific aircraft to a specific photo it appears that I have several color choices for many items. 

Photos of my work coming soon.... till then enjoy these new found pictures.












Ben

Attached the wing to the F9F today. The clean up of the fuselage seams took a little more work than I thought. I had to use a rubber band to get some dihedral in the wings. They kinda drooped after they were attached.

I've got a 1/32 C and a 1/72 D that I've been working on here and there to make into CAS Vipers.  Trying to figure out how to get a 1/32 scale GPU-5 made for the C.

What, nobody is doing this?