GROUP BUILD - Pacific 60th Annivesary [from Nov 1 2004 to Nov 1 2005]

well, here they are. 1/35 tamiya Chi-HA early war version.

Hey guys, sorry it has taken me so long to get pics. I finally got the camera back and i'll have pics in a minute!!!

lobbie, outstanding work!

G'day Folk's,

Having now completed all the PE and copper wire parts to the Beaufighter, the pix [and their are 9 altogether], show what is and is not visible when assembled. With exception of the trailing antenia wire and it's mountings all have been completed. The exhaust collector ring is painted in Humbrol Antique Bronze.

The model is to the clean up stage and hopfully by the weekend should have the base coat of BMF applied too it, by applying the BMF as a base, when the cammo is completed and the decalling done, I will rub the entire model to a weathered finish - something similar to the PBY- 5 Catalina, I built as part of the RAAF contract.


Ignition Harness fitted and painted to the Bristol Hercules engine

The exhaust collector mounting s made from a PE set taken from the Tamiya Swordfish

Showing both engine cowlings fitted to model

The gun camera and 20mm cannon ports have been drilled out

The addition framework added to the undercarriage doors, this is part of the Eduard set of PE for the Beaufighter kit

0.125 copper wire [not yet mounted] for the trailing antenia fixture point

Same size copper wire fitted to the rudder post, for the rear monting point of the trailing antenia

Trailing antenia secured only to the rear mount point, [both of these mounting are as yet fitted to the model - this is for the purpose of ilistrating my mounting points of the model

The part opened resin cowling flaps, replacing the kit parts with the resin Mk IV stub exhaust fitted and as yet not painted

Rob great looking build
Jason

Rob great work, the kits you build are awsome, wish i had that kind of patience.

rob excellent progress there.



joe

G'day Folk's,

This Beaufighter is progressing to the final assembly stage, apart from the wartime photo, the colour side view of the old AeroMaster decal sheet, here is the progressed assembly and modifications to date.


Colour side view from Decal instruction sheet

Wartime photo of what model is based on - taken from a photo in a book

Upper wing section showing a set of resin flaps revered to create the internal wing ribs and the fuel drain pipes without the flarings - yet to be made up and fitted

Ingnition harness made from copper wire, also the carburetor intake screen made from an Eduard Mosquito set and a piece of aluminium mesh

Opposite engine

The artifical langing lights fitted to the model - these are jewel headlights used on model trains, as I drilled the kit supplied light centres out slighty to fit the cut glass parts.

You guy's builds look great! Love the Kiwi birds! My Dad talked quite a bit about them "saving his bacon" more than a few times! - Calvin

Wow. I can't even imagine having all of that going on at once; I get all confused with two or three going. Your's all look amazing though!
Leon

G'day Folk's,

Joe and Roy,

Thanks for the kind words on the progress build of the Beaufighter so far.
Roy, I've been intouch with Al in regard to the info for resin casting and I'll let you know when it arrives here, so I can forward it too you.

Leon,

Their are 31 builds going at present, 4 aircraft [all in 32 scale are: an F14, F15c, Me 262 and a Mk Inf Beaufighter, converted to a Mk XXI, this is the old Revell kit and is moulded in black plastic] are for clients .
1x 24 scale Porsche GT 3 another job for a client
2x AFV's which are mine are an M26 and the M8 Greyhound.

With exception to the B 24j in 48 scale [which is for the RAAF OTS], the remaining models are my own, of which 3 x IJN birds are of this GB [ the 'Pete', 'Jill' and 'Rex' are almost completed, the 'Grace' is into the cockpit assembly stage].
The Beaufighter [which I added to the GB], is for my collection, but I intend to use it as a promo for our forth comming Model Expo, I've been asked to enter this build in the Expo as it is in a similar weather beaten condition to the PBY 5 Catalina I built for the RAAF last year.

The RAAF have agreed to lend me 3 of the birds we [Scale Magic] built for the School as promo's, they are the Catalina, DB-7a [A20a Havoc] and a Mk XXI Beaufighter, as all these builds had our resin components or conversions added to the kits.

Note: This does not include 3 other GB subjects, that have yet to be started.

Wow Rob. It is really fun watching all of your builds go together. Just out of curiosity, how many do you have going at a time?
Leon

looking good Rob,cant wait to see it finished

rob that looks incredible. you certainly have some outstanding work my friend.



joe

G'day Folk's,

The Mk IVf Bristol Beaufighter is progressing, this started life as the Mk VIf 'Med' Theatre kit from Tamiya, the pix show both the resin seats fitted to the interior and the resin conversion, or addition bits the kit is missing fitted to the basic kit. Together with the brake lines fitted to the main undercaraige legs along with the ingnition harness fitted to the enginge cylinders, the inside of the upper wing skin has had a set of resin flaps modified to replicated internal framing, [only one has been dry fitted to wing]. The fuel tank drains are a section of styrene rod, they are not trimed to contour the narcelle as yet.

hi Jason,im from BC,i live in nanaimo,

rob great work as always I really like the bottom on the last pic Jason
Roy What part of Canada U from?
Jason

hi Lobbie,your bird is great,my build is comeing along not to bad, i hope to finish it soon, have a good modeling day.

roy.

G'day Folk's,

Having painted two Brewster Buffalo 48 Tamiya kits, yesterday and posting pix of the RAAF bird, well I've spent the day applying decals to both builds, only the RAAF one is not the 'Pacific Theatre' Tamiya kit, it is actually the F2B2 Buffalo extensively modified into a true 339e of 25 Sqn RAAF. It's brother is the Tamiya ' Pacific Theatre' kit and is built OOB as a 448 Sqn RNZAF bird as flown in Malaya during '41 to early '42, the upper surfaces are the same colours, but the RAAF bird is not in the two tone fighter scheme of Sky/ Black as the RNZAF bird is.




25 Sqn RAAF




448 Sqn RNZAF Malaya '41 - '42.

Rob and Jason, your builds look great! I really enjoyed seeing them.
Leon

Jay and Rob what can i say ?your birds are great,very nice work. have a good modeling day.

Rob, Thanks both birds are looking good, I like the camo on the little guy. Jason

Jason,

Excellent progress on the N1K1 'George'

Here are a few progress shots of the B.Beaufighter, now that the interior is partly completed so far, the extensive weathering to the inside is yet to be done.


Crew seats prior to harness detail painting

Cockpit deatail

Observor's seat detail
Floor plate ready for fuselage assembly

The cockpit is not fitted with Eduard PE or any other AM stuff except for my resin seat, fine wire has been used to simulate the levers and switches. The observors seat is also from my resin range.

Here are some pix of an unrelated RAAF bird which has been extensively modified from the Buffalo F2 into a 339e.

here are some pics of the george.



Jason

G'day Folk's,

I've started to do some of the pre/pre assembly to what is to become a British built Mk IVf Beaufighter as used by the RAAF in and around New Guinea, this bird is A19-87 and will look in it's well used guize along a similar finished line to the PBY 5 Catalina, that was weather beaten.

As the pix show the detailed additions to the interior and also note that the cockpit tub has not as yet been removed from the main floor plate, also notice I have removed the Blast Plate doors and magazines from the two kit parts supplied to brace the floor pan. I've drilled out the hatch well frames for both entry points for the crew, I have also replaced the cockpit heating inlets with brass and metal tubes.

If there are no objections to adding this bird to the GB

The pix below show what I've done in the pre/pre assembly and how I filled the horrid gap in the fuselage halves, as I intend to add all the resin components to this build that we [Scale Magic] market.

hi guys hows all the builds going? my lvt-4 is starting to look good,i will be puting some cargo in it as well a persoal stuff just to mack it look a bit beter.have a good modeling day.

Thanks Leon-very helpful.

No problem Bob. In reality, I would probably just do some preshading. Instead of doing what I did, you just paint the panel line with a dark color (black / dark gray) and then put the base color over that filling in the panels a little more than the panel lines. It has the same type of effect and seems to go a little quicker.

Over at testors scaleworkshop there is a video that demonstrates it. A link to the video:
www.scaleworkshop.com/workshop/video4bg_2.htm

Hope it helps.
Leon

Thanks for the details Leon. I just purchased my first AB so I'm trying to gather as much info as possible before diving in.

Thanks guys. The kit is Tamiya 1/48. It went together fairly quickly and easily. I have to admit after seeing Jason's george up above, I kind of like the rivets on the arii one.

As for the painting sequence, I'll give the long and short version.

Short version: Tamiya paints. Base color (I think IJN Green - I can't remember) over the whole thing, then remixed the base color 50-50ish with flat black and mixed that with quite a bit of alcohol, then tried to just paint along the panel lines. Now will maybe lighten the color and lightly go over some of the centers of the panels (haven't really decided on this).

Long version: This build really showed me that I had no idea how to airbrush. I tried to do alclad as a base, so I decanted some Krylon gloss black and sprayed it as a primer. It didn't really come out glossy and actually went on rough and fairly bumpy. From reading some airbrush trouble shooting tips, I have come to suspect that the paint was drying in the air before it hit the model. So anyway, I then sanded trying to get it smooth. Then went on the alclad - also not a smooth finish (I can only hope/figure the same problem) So I kind of sanded that smooth. Then I decided to abandon that whole idea and went with the above method. So instead of chipping by pulling up paint, I decided to fade the paint and chip a little with probably a colored pencil. On the bright side, I think/hope that I have kind of figured out how to airbrush and mix my paint a little better through these last steps...

Hope all is well.
Leon

Good job Leon.

btw-what brand/color paints and what sequence of painting the shades did you use? I've got a Zero that I would like to try that on.

Thanks