U.S. Naval Aviation GB!

it looks excellent Dan ! the staining on the guns especially! i presume you used your usual pastels ?

great looking bird Dan! What do you use for lighting on your pics? I've notice yours are always quite consistent and without glare...

Daniel youv'e done it againFantastic build mate
Cheers Jules...........

I too like your pics, your photography is as good as your builds.

Scott

Nice "Hog" Dan! Mine is following close behind.

Where did you have problems?

Ray

Sweet Corsair Dan! Like the others have said you must be a prof photographer... almost think I could run and jump in and start her up.

Thanks Reggie, Tom, Jules, Scott, Ray and Jon.

Reggie- Yep, I used my usual pastel technique for the staining.

There's no real secret to taking good photo's of models. I've got a big sheet of blue card that I use as a back drop. I've got three normal house hold lamps that I use. A flouro light directly above, one pointing in from the left, and I hold the other one with my left hand. I just move the lights around until the lighting looks right, and then I snap away.

Ray- There wasn't any problems with the kit itself, just my stupid mistakes. Like putting a heavy object on a shelf above it and knocking said object off. I also sprayed on a coat of flat clear that was a bit old and didn't look too great. Then there was the time I dropped it while doing some airbrushing. You can still see some of the results of that one on the nose. Then the Micro mask I brushed on wouldn't come off after painting, so I just re painted the wheel wells over it.

Now that I think of it, the thing didn't turn out too badly for all of my best efforts to ruin it.

Thanks again everyone for your comments.

No Dan, no real secrect to how you take your pics, nor on how pastels are used, its just that you are really good at both.

As far as your blunders went, I feel for you. The Wildcat got test flown by my Labrador while the paint was wet, and who know how many times I have broken off the dive flabs, antenna's, and other little details on the SBD. I have the same feeling with this static model that I have with my RC planes and that is that I hope they stay in one piece long enough to take some pictures.

I got both the Wildcat and SBD decaled. I hope my film arrives tonight so I can take some pics. Where I live, the only place to get film and have it processed is Walmart, and since they have made a mess so many times, I now mail order my film and processing from Kansas City. Takes a lot longer but its now worth it.

Tom, I had a terrible time with the fuselage stars on my SBD. Even with solv a set, they had a hard time conforming to all the contours and they ripped many times. So there is some touching up to do.

Scott

Well the Hellcat is progressing nicelyeven OOB the detail is impressive, all i've added so far is a set of Eduard coloured seat belts with some new gun barrels to follow......
I'll have the fues joined up tonight and all the wings on tonight as well, so if i can remain fumble free for the rest of the night and not drop everything like i normally do i should be getting some pics up tommorow
Cheers Jules.......

Scott, same with my first one... I ended up taking them off and going down and buying a set of nat'l insignia 1942-1946. they were a little thinner, conformed to the fuselage without microsol and stuck real good! It was a good purchase, for about 7 dollars I got 2 or 3 sheets of varying size Nat'l insignia and a reference chart as to which AC had which size insignia depending on location. I have used them over kit insignia for 3 builds now...

too bad I didn't buy the 193? to 1941 ones as well, tore them on this SBD build as well... wasn't the decal's fault... I forgot I had microsol'd it and tried to pat it down and it tore... I was thinking I had only used microset on it... oh well... so I just ordered the replacements about 1.5 weeks ago but made the mistake of having it sent thru USPS instead of Fed Ex or UPS... and my mail service here is horrible. (The Postal Nazi works my route)

Looking forward to the Hellcat Jules... I like the looks of that plane! I am sure it will be a dandy like your other builds so far!

Well Fellas here's where i'm up to with the Hellcat



the engine cowl is just sitting there on it's own, the fit is that good i figured i would just push it on when i paint the camo and add the engine after that just to save a little masking time........Cheers jules

Looks good Jules! From what I can see of the cockpit it looks to be a real knockout! Cant wait to see it painted! That's how I did the SBD paint, I did need to use a little blue tak to keep it from moving but it was a lot easier than stuffing that nose full of tissue!

Hope to replace those decals that tore with the ones from my wildcat today... found out another one wrinkled but will post the almost finished build anyway in case the decals don't come in by the time the build ends... (I hate that I checked USPS shipping on those things... don't know what I was thinking!)

I finally figured out how to post pics! Well,sort of! I don't know yet how to cut 'n paste the thread it's in. They're in the "Bearcat Cockpit-photo test" thread of the Aircraft Forum! Let me know what you guys & gals think - Calvin

here ya go Lodni

http://www.finescale.com/fsm/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=33494

all you have to do it go to the topic, and if multiple pages, go to the page of the post you want us to see, then cut and paste over here the URL in your browser (up at the top where ya type in what website you want to go to) Just click it, it all should turn blue with white letters, then hold down the CTRL key and hit the C, then come post a message here, and at the end hit the CTRL and V together and it pastes it for ya!

when you click the text in the address bar, if it all doesnt hightlight, click it once again and it should highlight then...

looks good! Don't ya hate when all that sweat and tears gets entombed in the fuselage? For me it's still worth it because *I* know how much work went into it...

Thanks, Tom! BTW, did those decals work out for ya?

lodni i checked out your pics, Looking good mate

Tom, yeah the c/pit came out better than i expected, i normally s--k at dry brushing but this time it went smoothly, Strange huh
I did try to get a closeup shot of the pit and engine but suprise suprise the pics didn't turn out............jules.........

Lodni - yeah the Wildcat ones are exact... they are still on the contact paper but they will work (I'm all caught up in this martlet build I am doing) will probably do it tomorrow as I am going to give this Vallejo extra long to cure because I layed the last coat on a little thicker than I wanted to in a few areas...

Jules - can't to see the finished product!!! and your pics did fine showing what I needed to see... I know your work enough now to know it is always gonna look good if not great!

The Hellcat is looking great Jules. The Hasegawa kit is a beaut isn't it? I don't know if you've done this already, but try to thin the gear doors down a bit. They are way too thick on the Hase kit, and it will just make the build look a touch more realistic. Apart from that, it's a great kit OOB.

Now, if you Queenslanders could only kill canetoads as well as you model, we wouldn't have anything to play golf with.

Thanks for tha Advice DanielI'll check it out later on tonight.....
BTW what Gunze colours did you use for the 2 blue colours on the upper surface

Canetoads, mate we Queenslanders are quite happy to let a few migrate into NSW, just so you fellas have something fun to play golf with, have you noticed they have a tendency to pop

Jules, on my corsair, I used some Gunze H-54 Sea blue for the upper surfaces and Tamiya AS-8 intermediate blue for the side surfaces. But on my hellcat I used H-54 and H-56 intermediate blue with some Tamiya sky blue added to make it a bit brighter.

And mate, you can keep those canetoads. I'm not really into golf.

A pic after re-buttoning up.



Yes, that is a (basically) empty P.E. fret you see! Should be painted before the weekend. Mad Komet Day coming up!! - Calvin

BTW, uploaded some more Bearcat pics to the rongeorge site. My starting photos with MY camera, that's broken now Enjoy & Critique away!

Lodni... the only thing I could find were perhaps those rubber bands aren't to scale looking good and looking forward to when ya get some paint on it!!!

Been in the painting mood for the last couple of days and i figured i'd show you guys what i've been up to

I gave the Hellcat it's preshade and then covered it in white, followed by a coat of Pledge and then a wash, after that i decided it looked a little grey and the wash was to standoutish so i misted another coat of white over the top to tone it down a little......
I just gave it another coat of pledge before i took the pics so you might see a couple of still wet patches






Now i can start the upper colours

Looking great Jules. The pre-shading turned out great. Can't wait to see it finished.

looks good Jules! which kit is this? (who makes it)

My first build in the new house after nearly 3 months of idleness.
This is the ever popular 1/48th Tamiya F4U-1A with kit markings for U.S.N. VF-17, operating out of Ondonga in Nov. 1943 which I did for the U.S.N. Group Build. She was a breeze to build and was a much needed break from the modern builds I usually do ( of course I did not realize this until I started). I added PE belts and cockpit details from eduard and bulged tires from true details. It was painted with a combination of Testors enamel and arcrylic sprayed through my new Badger 100-LGF. What a tremendous difference between my earlier efforts using the problematic Aztec!





There are more pics on the aircraft forum.
And now for my Viking....honest, I really mean it this time!

Ray

Thanks for the comments Boys

Tom the kit is the Hasegawa Hellcat 1/48 and it's a real beutifull kit to build

Grenadier, Sweet looking corsair Mate

Thanks Jules. That f-6 is coming right along. Do you find that preshading works better for you than a wash?

Ray

wierd... I thought I had commented on this...

nice looking build Ray! Real sharp paint job on her! Hopefully I will have my decals on before Sat... life has a way of getting in the path of my modeling...

Great looking Corsair mate. I've always liked the one's with the red insignia surrounds and tri-colour scheme. The finish is very smooth too. Did you use Tamiya's decals?

Just a quick tip on your photography. The photos are great, but it looks like the camera moved while you were taking the pics. Try holding it steady on the desk or something, it'll fix up some of the blur issues.

Thanks for the pics.