AIRCRAFT - Latinamerican Air Forces

Tony - as of yet there is no end date, as there are only a few of us and a lot of us are tied up with other GB's we decided it best to keep it open.

I'd love to see the Uruguyan Hellcat... (I dated a Uruguayan girl once... special connection) have you checked aztecmodels.com and decalscarpena.com? they both have a good selection of Latin American decals... if not for the specific plane I am sure you can find something comparable in scale and do the codes and such on your own...

Welcome!!!

Hi,
I think I could be tempted to do a Uruguayan Hellcat in 1/72. I'll hae to use spares box decals as I don't think this subject is covered, but I'd be delighted to stand corrected. When is the closing date for this GB ?
Cheers
Tony Mollica

Manuel - I am fine with the dates as they are (none!) I am limited in my modeling time until this summer as well so I think it would work well for all of us. If we see we are coming to a point where we all might finish soon we can set a date. As there are only a few people I don't think this will cause a problem. Does anyone else feel different?

P.d. - I am almost ready to spray the P-47 with the Alclad. I used the Alclad black primer and it has taken several weeks until it doesnt feel "sticky" to the touch.. I used a 2000 girt sanepaper over it and will go back and polish it some more but now it feels ok.

Hopefully this weekend I will show some results!

Dear firends:

Thanks SAWI for the Mexican Navy and the P-47 pictures, there are very nice, and about the Swedish Mick comment on a final building day I dont kown, but any suggestions? Or maybe a time period, I mean six months or so? I dont want to say something becuase I dont have some much time for models, maybe three or four models a year is my production rate and I just use five or seven hours a week to modeling so I spend some months for a model, but if some want to add dates to this GB, please go ahead.

Best regards

Manuel

I finished my last two P-47's mexican air force to join the trainner I showwed earlier; both are Hasegawa kits in 1/48 scale OOB, with Aztec decals.

Thanks to balta1, who has extended the building time in the Chinook GB, I can continue my work on the Cuban MiG-23 and other builds without feeling the panic.

The MiG-23 is now assembled and halfway painted. Thanks to the replacement services of Airfix, I have a new canopy, and thanks to Janne Holmqvist, I now has some Cuban decals and tailflags.

The Managuayan Draken is also under progress and undercarriage is to be attached next.

@ cote1995:
Is there a final building day decided? I don't seem to find it anywhere. If it is sometime in Sep-Oct put me down for a 1/72 Revell 4381 as a Saab 35GT Draken in FAV markings and camo scheme, circa 1971. It's a "Could have been" ...

Nice pics, SAWI !! Not much to report here. I did get my household goods from Japan finally on Friday. And I've been up to my eyeballs (quite literally!) in boxes! LOL There's like 50 mid-sized boxes in my barracks room now. Hope there's no inspections anytime soon! - Calvin

very nice SAWI!!

Well my P-47 is on hold... the alclad black laqcuer primer still feels a bit "sticky" although a lot dryer than the other day.. I think I sprayed it too think the second time. I will wait and see what tomorrow is like, I might even spray it anyway as I have a second P-47 kit, and extra Ultracast seat and the tires arent mounted yet. If the paint messes up I can always do a second one in time for the build.

This time I think I will use MM Gloss black like someone in another GB recommended to me... the Alclad primer seems to not want to dry in this humidity.

The mexican navy had a few of these up to the 80's. This is the Monogram Kit in 1/72 scale made OOB.

ok everything is all nice and black now... waiting on the primer to dry then I am hoping to have time to start with the alclad tomorrow... Unfortunately I went to the ultracast wite today and I did not realize the extent of resin available for the P-47, and had I realized this kit was as nice as it is I would have bought more resin as the Ultracast really sets things off...

As far as the stabilizer fillet, I found several photos of Es. 201 aircraft without them, taken in June 1945 so I am going to model this one as is... I will try to model it corrected on the next one which I will be making for the local elementary.

I know the feeling Calvin - I hate waiting for things...

Well sprayed the Alclad black primer last night and it went on smooth as glass... I did notice a spot on one wing I need to touch up. I might even use the alclad gloss black primer as a subsitute for any gloss black subjects I am spraying... it look sbetter than ordinary enamel. I also bought the Alclad airbrush cleaner and I highly recommend it... it cuts through Alcladlike water! The inside of my pipette was black where I drew up the paint to put in the airbrush, when I drew up some of the airbrush cleaner into it the black just ran off the walls of it and settle into the tip. no shaking or anything to get it to dissolve like enamels and such. It's basically Acetone and toluene. Might see if I can make a home brewed batch of it one day as it was a bit expensive (like $5.00 for 3 ounces)

Great jobs, everyone!! I am getting kinda antsy for my stuff to get here from Japan. I bought a P-51 off Evilbay but it hasn't got to me, either. I hope Monday it will get to my shop so I can start something!! LOL - Calvin

ok ... the P-47 is nearing completion... I have the fuselage closed, the winges ready to cement on and the body sanded and ready to polish.. I should be able to prime it tomorrow and use the Alclad on sunday... after that I expect about a week of putting the exterior pieces on and I will be ready for decals next weekend...

This has been a very nice build, I really like this Tamiya P-47 Bubbletop kit!!! I'll try to take pre-painting pics tomorrow...

Tanky - on the interior I used MM Forest Green with a tiny drop of black, that got me the closest to the paint chip I could get... the brown is MM flat dark tan (harnesses and control stick boot) red acrylic for the nobs, a silver art pencil did all the IP and radio knob detail... I used the kit decal for the IP dials and actually it went down pretty good... this is the first one I have seen that I actually was somewhat satisfied how it looked...

I did a light wash of paynes grey and in some places added a light wash of burnt umber.. both water soluable oils...

--edit--

there are some knobs and levers not painted in the pic that got painted after I took it... all in all a very nice OOB cockpit! I plan on adding another of these to my list.. done in escuadron 201 colors as well.

I am donating the next one to an elementary library near me. The school is about 85% Mexican children from migrant families and none of them had heard the story of escuadron 201... I want to build another one with a pamphlet with their story in it for display in the library there...

Thanks! I will try to get better pictures next time ...

I was talking about your 'pit Tom. But nice work on the draken to swedish mick. (I think. can't really see much)

your P-47 or Draken?

what colors did you use? nice work. I will use this as reference for when I build mine.

cool ... thanks for the pics Mick! from what I can see it is looking good!!!!

I closed the fuselage on the P-47 tonight and begin working on the engine tomorrow... I am picking up a little momentum as this kit is soooo nice to build!!! (Tamiya's P-47 Bubbletop)

I have some pre pics of the cockpit before I finished -- here is one:

Even if it's a bad picture, it shows some progress of my Draken.

Dear tho9900:

Thank you for the link, I hope to buy this movie to include it in my personal library...and for those about the LAGB, I salute you:



please visit my last work at Fine Scale Modeler magazine in the May issue: FAMous F-5E Tiger II article, in fact, you can read it here at Feature Stories link at upper left.

I hope you enjoi it.

Best regards

Manuel

I just found out a movie about escuadron 201 is to be relased on May 15th... I'll be buying it for sure!!!

here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0007QJ1QQ/qid=1111859441/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl74/104-2804918-8468732?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846

ok the one thing I hate about the Tamiya kits are the instrument panels... I futured mine last week in the P-47, went to put the decal in place (as there is no detail beyond the bezels) and the microsset turned the future cloudy, if it does not turn black again once it dries I guess several washes of very thin black left to dry inbetween would make it black again... (let it run in between the dial bezels and pool so it leaves the dial detail...

just my little rant for the day... if they had detail I could dry brush them or do them with silver pencil and not have to go through this....

ok I have the cockpit basically painted and ready for weathering... will post pics after weathering... I am ready to get moving on this build! in typical Tamiya style the kit seems to be puttingitself together!!

hopefully I can make some major progress tomorrow and Fri as I am on vacation...

Wow, Manuel! You've been doing that kinda work w/o an expensive airbrush!? You'll be really fixin' them soon! LOL Yeah, the sheet I got of Evilbay is pretty nice. Microscale's 1/48 Peruvian & Uraguay T-33's. I hope the Hobbycraft T-33 kit is decent. I did manage to find another P-51D on e-bay for cheap ( Hasegawa) so the FAD a/c is still a GO! - Calvin

Manuel, which airbrush are you getting? Good luck to you! I hope to be able to devote more time to my modeling this weekend.

Dear friends:

I hope to buy today a double action airbrush and maybe in the night, I test it on my Mi-25, altought it need more work in the fuselage halves, maybe tonight I finished the fuselage joints.

Best regards

Manuel

ok I am almost ready to assemble the interior on the P-47... this week I was in class and I got home very tired and didn't get anything done... hope to close the fuselage this weekend.. I really am looking forward to airbrushing this one! I will be using Alclad II and after the finishes I have seen with it I am anxious to get it done!!!

I like the Uruguayan flag... something about that sun...

Gentlemen, where do you get your info to detail the kits like Masters! I went to the FAP site but I can't save any pics from there. And they have some good pics! I just got moved into my barracks room here at NAS Fallon, so as soon as I get set up it's ON!! LOL - Calvin

Dang! Forgot for a minute that the Tamiya kit I was gonna use for this particular GB is in my packout & won't get to me for about a month!! That's OK! I found a nice 1/48 scale sheet for Dominica & Uraguay's T-33s'!! Now all I have to do is get ahold of a 1/48 T-33!