U.S. Naval Aviation GB!

Thanks for the info mate. I'll have to have a look for that decal sheet. Now that I can see the scheme though, I might be able to piece together something from other decals. I can use the Jolly Rogers symbol from Tamiyas decal sheet, I've got plenty of insignias and I'll use some other codes put together to make the fuselage codes.
I might be able to stay in this thing after all.

scottrc- Vf-17 was the first to take delivery of the F4U-1 corsairs. They were used on the USS Bunker Hill and the USS Charger. But, before VF-17 was deployed over seas, they conerted to the raised canopy F-4U1. But tehy used the birdcage corsairs prior to their deployment over seas and I want to do one of these birds.

Alright I am finally into my new house, but now my wife has many a chore for me. Sounds like everyone is having a very eventful month. Are you guys OK with moving the completion date to the end of Jan. 05? There is just no way I will have the time to meet my GB "obligation" at present.

Let me know your thoughts.

Ray

Oh, I'm SOOO for moving the completion date, that way I won't have to worry about dropping out.

a superb idea as I have some commitments with the LHS I have to build as well.

Jan works for me! I might have a little time to model another since I am picking up steam on this one...



here's a pic of the unfinished cockpit on my SBD-2 (I did let yall know I changed my build didn't I? lost a few parts on the F4U so that is going aside until I call Tamiya) got most of the instrument panel done, just need to fix up some over brushes from the weathering stage and dot my I's etc and it will be done. well a few more pieces to attach but this is the best stage to freshen it up a bit before it gets crowded...

interesting note, I am trying a few new things on the instrument panel... all the silver red and yellow are done with artist's pencils... (except larget knobs) I was surprised how good they got in the bezels and picked out some detail... with a little practice I think I may stick with this technique. tomorrow I am setting up my lighting so you can see better... I did a light burnt umber/black wash on the floor. when this squadron arrived in the pacific the planes were still rather new before the battle of midway so not a lot of weathering to do. some paint scratching on the pilot foot trays (running through the rudder pedals) some scratching of the grating under the rear gunners seat, and a light black wash to accent the grating... when I get more light on the subject you can see it...


anyway I'll post those tomorrow... this might not be my best build but I am trying some new things I think might really help me out... like the artists pencils...

Looks great from my house Tom!! i just finished my stang for the NMF Group Build a couple of days ago and now i'm gonna concentrate on my F4U-5N & SBD-3 for this build now. i'm about ready to detail the engines on both kits..............i've been "about to" for 3 days now!!LOL if i can just get over the engine hump, i'm gonna be gettin' to my favorite part of any build.........the painting and weathering!! and to pump me up even more, i just watched wings over the Pacific on Discovery Wings!! oh yeah babe!! can't wait to see the rest my friend. later.

thank Chris! wierd thing, it wont enlarge when ya click it! I posted it, it wouldnt enlarge so went and resized it... same.. this was the third try so yall are outta luck if you wanna see it better...

looking forward to yours too Chris, didnt ya do a SBD-3 on this? Mines gonna be in the old blue/grey and light grey scheme... not sure if I am ordering AM markings as actually there is only one set I have seen... I did find a website with some SBD nose-art so might try my hand at that testors decal system.... who knows?

Tom, the trick to getting your pic to enlarge is, it has to be oriented so that the width of the pic is greater than the hieght. for some odd reason, the pics that are taller than they are wider want expand!! who knows, some sort of glitch. try cropping the pic and reloading it.

yes, i'm doing an SBD-3.

ok got it Chris! wierd! I guess all my previous pics were wider than they were tall... never had that happen...

p.s. this is also my "look at that piece I missed" shot haha... just saw like 3 things I gotta go back and fix... but the dash looks decent for pencil I think...

LOL, i do that all the time Tom...........forget something after i post the pic!! you Intrument Panel turned out better than mine did!! i just couldn't get the decal on the back to look right, but yours look cool. and the pencil technique certainly turned out well. keep up the good work.

you mentioned better lighting (not that there is anything wrong with your pic). GE Reveal bulbs are the best for photography. it brings out the truest light of the subject. when i photograph small pieces like cockpit parts and such, i use a plain old piece of typing paper as a background, and let it "roll up" the side of a paint thinner container (or anything handy to hold the paper up) for the backdrop. the pics turn out nice evertime.

BTW, i'd like for you to take a look at my latest build if you haven't viewed it yet. it can be found here.
http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30436

QUOTE: Originally posted by saltydog and the pencil technique certainly turned out well. keep up the good work. you mentioned better lighting (not that there is anything wrong with your pic). GE Reveal bulbs are the best for photography.

Thanks Chris! coming from you that means somethin... (I dunno what, but something! )

Yeah I sharpened the pencil to a really good point, picked out the details on the IP instruments... sharpened again came back and got the needles etc... trick was to keep it sharp so you could use just the tip on it... on the red and yellow it DEFINITELY had to be a fine point.. as I was picking out individual markers... two yellow, two red, the rest silver.. I might try white next time... and oh yeah, on my new lamps they all have reveal bulbs.. even the overhead magnifier I have had a reveal in it... (can drop it down and open the top to see small parts)

I tried the paint around the instruments scheme they listed in the instructions and got frustrated... decided to try the pencil thing... I've only used it for bezels before. I was just about to try your other idea from way back when, of drilling out the dials but might wait... I am sure the instruments would show up clear but I think they would be too recessed in this case... its a thick panel... plus from my SBD-5 experience you can't see it unless you hang upside down and stick your nose inside the fuselage anyway once it's closed up... actually all you can see are the pilots seat, the wobble pump handles (whatever those are) and the floor... I might post a pic of my SBD-5 so you can see... it was my first model getting back into this...

Beautiful NMF on that bird you had the link to... used Alclad right? what kind of undercoat? black? reason I asked I am doing a set of Grumman Widgeons for my dad and thinking about doing the NMF in Alclad...

Thanks brother! you have a good night!

P.S> you gotta be kidding me that my IP looks better than yours... I just went back and peeked at the old pics here... it looks like a charm!!!

i used the ol' pencil technique on my corsair pit if you remember and it turned out pretty good. as for the NMF, yes, thats alclad with alclad gloss black base under it. i also use a dark aluminum and chrome for panel highlighting. my IP on the SBD just don't look as sharp as yours IMO. thanks for the compliment on the NMF. maybe i can post up some progress on this GB soon. later.

Ray the end of Jan 05 works for me, i was starting to get a little worried with my lack of progress so an extra few weeks is a godsend to me

Tom your instrument panel looks great i may have to try the pencil method, so what sort of pencils did you use and how do you do it

Salty good to see you back at the bench mate lookin forward to seein some pics.....
.........Jules..........

Jules and Chris,

They are the artist quality pencils. not the ones you get with chidrens schools supplies, but the ones you get in the art supply store or hobby lobby.... just sharpen them up real good and keep them sharp. I just bought individual colors, not a whole pack. They were about 2 to 4 dollars apiece but worth it!

Thaks fellas... will post some more today when I get some better light set up

well, got some major assembly done on the F4U-5N tonight. i'm very pleased with the progress, hopefully, the engine will be completed and assembled tomorrow, along with some small part painting. nothin' worth takin' a pic and postin' yet, but i got alot accomplished tonight. i'm thinking i can spend a couple of hours tomorrow and be ready to paint next week. the SBD is still collecting dust. one at the time. later.

yeah my SBD is shaping up nice, even though it's slow going... got the radio equipment detailed last night... making me some seatbelts out of tea bags right now... the paint is dry so I am probably going to put those on later with fine wire for buckles...

this might end up a screwy looking plane but I decided to try a lot of the stuff I have been reading that sounded like a good idea...

i just futured the fire truck for my F-14 dio, and i am about to start painting the actual bird. the base is getting soem mroe primer, then it will get white.

cool! haven't seen ya in awhile Reg-meister! how ya been?

this is a slow build for me.. I am trying all this stuff I have only read about but so far it's taking shape... I kinda thought I should have started on a personal model but so far it's working out excellent! those tea bag seatbelts are a b**** to get on but they look good! kinda better than PE in my mind... if they get too hard I'll just leave em off, save it for next time...

lookin' forward to seein' the scratchbuilt harness Tom, and the dio Reggie. well, i've been at the bench for a while today and got even more accomplished on the Corsair!! i'm on the short rows on this build, and the fun is about to begin, the painting!! i really like painting and weathering, but i want this glossy Corsair to be clean. later.

cool! looking forward to it Chris! I'm having fits with the buckles on those seat belts so I might wait till another build because I am getting close to the painting and weathering phase too... the part I like...

here's a preview of the radio rack... after looking at it I might go back on a few areas and touch up but ya can't even see if inside so I might decide it's at a good stopping point...




---edit--- after looking at it a little I realized what's missing. I need to fill in the inside of those silver dials/meters with a whitish grey... the backs of dials aren't black... everytime I post a pic I see more to do!

Nice work Tom! I can't wait to see the finished product...

thanks brother!

been experimenting with this build, maybe I should have tried all this on a non GB build but I thought maybe this is best... go through all the new stuff so people can see it... I'm not an accomplished modeler by any means... but people can see the gist of some of the stuff I am doing and maybe take it for what it's worth!

Some of it has been kinda fun and I imagine when I perfect it (or get close) it will be worth its weight in salt!

Tom, relax friend, non of us are "accomplished" modellers, we're here to have fun. your radio panel looks great, and the picture quality has improved as well!! i feel your pain on the SBD pit, all that work and you can barely see any of it once the fuselage halves are joined. i'm gonna "wear" my SBD out!! i want it to look like she's on her last mission.........and she's showin' her age and what salt air and brutal sunshine can do over time. i want to focus on the dive flap system since it will be more visible. she's next in line after the corsair. later.

I saw a good pic of exactly what you are wanting on that SBD... I'll see if I can find it and post it.. basically it would be reverse weathering... spray the blue grey or sea blue... put some liquid mask in a few places then NMF over it all and use tape to put a little of the NMF off in a few places.... thats how weathered this plane was... just a few specs of paint on her...

LOL, Tom, you of all people should know how fanatical the Navy is about painting!! the ship i was assigned to had atleast 25 coats of paint on it by the time i left.!! i don't know how much bare metal i'll show, but i do want some really faded paint and some staining. send the photo anyway though, i may change my mind. thanks, later.

Nice progress on the SBD Tom. Looks like we should have an SBD build eh? I'm just about done with my 5 model for the AM build. Should just change it over to this one, that way I'm not so pressured to finish the Wildcat (although I really need another cat on my shelf, the other one sheds and breaks too many models). Anyway, I did a rather stupid thing. I'm doing the tri-color blues and after a week of painting, brought it up stairs and set it on the table and after a day or so looking at it, I began to get a strange feeling something wasn't right. Well, I forgot to paint the tail with intermediat sea blue.
So, back to the paint booth. This is what happens when I have too many commitments going on at the same time. At least I didn't forget to put the cockpit in it after closing up the fueslage like I did with my BF109 last summer.
Scott

I know the feeling scott, was there recently until I put the other kits back in the box, took a few days off and started the SBD build. I think I needed both less builds on the desk and a little more challenging of a build. I love those AM kits for that... especially the cockpit. I would love to see them do something like a Ju-88 with all that glass where you can really see th pit... it would look so nice. The Monogram Promodeler one isn't too bad and I know there is stuff out there for it, but AM makes em look nice and clean, just enough detail without clutter...

Tom your work looks good to mei'm lookin forward to seeing everyones builds finished............
Speaking of pits after seeing Saltydogs 109 iv'e decided to give the Hellcat a rudimentary pit, reason being once it's all built with the canopy closed your not gonna see much of it at all, i wiil add a PE seat harness though......
And as far as weathering goes i'd like to keep it kinda clean maybe just dirty it up around the exhausts and guns.......Jules.....

for some strange reason im not very motivated to model these past few days. cant figure out why. progress is null.

Well.... The corsair's just about ready for a priming. I've given the wheel wells and other areas a coat of micro-mask and am waiting for it to dry. I've still got a bit of wiring on the engine to do and a bit more sanding and I'll be ready to paint.

Jules- What scheme are you doing your Hellcat in? I'm interested because it's one of my favourite aircraft. I'm interested to see how your build goes.