WW2 BATTLES--PEARL HARBOR 2005 (aug 7 - - december 7 07:55am) finished

cool thanks Mike... I might have to go get some... you are right.. it is very close to what the actual pieces of planes have on them!

BTW the name of the person who has those Nakajima and Mitsubishi paint chips couldn't be Mr Tamiya would it ?

I'm trying to find the reference but I believe it is a descendent of the person in charge of the Mitsubishi plant or corporation back then. I just thought it odd he wouldn't share it for historical purposes...

Ok -- a lot of work done today on the F3F... first of all I can honestly say I need more practice on rigged aircraft... it was a bear getting up in between the upper and lower wings with a visor, a pair of tweezers and a hot lamp in my face... all in all it didn't go too bad, and only if you get up in between the wings with a visor and that same hot lamp could you see the slight fit issues. Actually something just hit me which I will try on the FIRST F3F I was doing tomorrow night before rigging the rest of this plane... smart guys those AccMin guys... it's just sometimes they don't tell you about the smart things they did to make it go together well... ('ll explain with pics tomorrow, my back hurts from leaning over the bench so won't be doing much tonight except complaining)

If anyone decides to do one of these I would be happy to point out a few areas where deviation from the instructions AND online build actually works out for the better.

Oh well enough babbling, all I have is the rest of the PE rigging, decaling, and some minor cleanup before being finished... this has been fun.

The irony is last night on the web I found a shot of a formation of F3F's practicing in Coronado Beach in CA right before they were sent to Pearl, the photo was dated 10/41. The nice thing is one of the planes was from 3rd section and was the wing leader... so his aircraft would have been painted exactly like mine except his with a black nose and belly band, and mine with a red one. It pointed out a problem with the AccMin decal instrutions. They had the MF designation as black over the red belly band, it was supposed to be white as it was a hi-vis marking pattern. The letters over the aluminum were the only black ones.

Luckily they included the white MF stencils and I was able to get them to lie exact over the black ones so it doesn't show now...

well I am going to post pics later of the Val's I would speculate that they are about 70% to 80% complete.

Cool Mike - looking forward to it...  

 

I had a "DOH!!!" moment today... came home and really wasn't in the mood to model much.  Decided to anyway, as I plan on giving this one to a coworkers sick grandson on Friday... started messing with the PE and messed it ALL up (bent it in places and it wouldn't straighten).  The previous bits I did were ok but once I started adding the long bracing (rigging) I started getting waves in it... finally I just ripped it all out and will take the PE from the previous kit and go for it OR use the very small plastic Evergreen strips I bought, to do it with.. it will probably be the plastic as I still have the unused PE to size it with and it will be less prone to bending even if it is a good length...

here are more pics

Looks good Mike, but I can't click on them to get a bigger pic... new forum will be wierd for a while.  I am like 99% finished the Zero, I have to give it a flat coat tonight and maybe I'll be able to take pics and post them soon.  Almost there and three weeks ahead of schedule!

at least I should be able to get decals on and put on the remaining parts.

Looking good Mike!  I like the different schemes you did them in...

Daniel - looking forward to pics!

I decided to give mine a rest after last night.. I'm far enough along not to hurry.  Maybe I will just do a little decaling till the weekend and tackle the PE then...

Well, as promised folks I have completed my PH Zero.  This is EII-102, the aircraft flown by PO3c Tetsuzo Iwamoto as part of the Zuikaku Air Group flying CAP on the day of the attacks, so even though he wasn't directly involved with the fighting he was still there.  Some of the pics didn't turn out as I had hoped but I really enjoyed building this kit and it went together very nicely.  It is the Tamiya 1:48 A6M2b Zero.  Thanks Joe for doing this GB it was great fun!

Oh and I guess it is appropriate to acknowledge that this is Remeberance Day (Veterans Day).  MAy we never forget.  I hope that by me building models, it will help others remember.

Jay,

Super job on the Zeke!  It really came out great.  Congrats on a real nice build.

Richard

Jay - good looking Zero!!! 

Hey there everybody.

First day in the past three weeks that I've had a chance to work on my Kate.  Things are going well.  I would show you but I don't have access to a digital camera right now and will have to swipe my sister's camera by Dec 7 to prove I actually finished the project.  I have all the paint down on the 1/48 hasegawa kate and tomorrow will future and hopefully lay down decals and panel wash.  Hope everyone's kits are going well.  I will post pix when I can get my hands on aforementioned camera. 

BTW I think this is going to turn out to be one of my better paint jobs, and would definitely come in first in my own collection were it not for one or two things.  First of all, I may never paint with another brand except Tamiya acrylics.  I absolutely love the way that they have gone down.  Some of the colors on my kit are tamiya and some are gunze, and I have to say I'm a little dissappointed in the gunze.  I also have totally sworn off enamels for the forseeable future.  I've been thinning the tamiya with rubbing alcohol and the results are fantastic.  Hopefully the pictures will do them justice.  Just for people's opinions,  who likes gunze and why?  how about a show of hands for tamiya paint?  Finally, why do people like enamel over acrylics?  I just can't see any advantages in my limited experience. 

Talk to you all later

Matthew

Haven't used Gunze yet even though I have a few bottles of it.  I've only used Tamiya a little and it was ok.  I kicked the enamel habit last yr when I ran into Vallejo made Acrylics (a line called Color of Eagles)  I like them because they are water soluable, seem to go down smooth as anything and are rather durable for being a water based paint.

I might try some Tamiya thinned with laqcuer thinner at some point.  I know several people who have used it like that and they raved about it.  I'm just interested to see how it sprays, I won't use it regularly as the fumes would be horrible. 

Hi guys, just an update on my Arizona.  Worked abour 4 hrs last night and got the catapults done.  The rebuild of the turret cat didn't turn out too great, but good enough for government work I guess.  Still a lot a gaps and it still looks uneven, I'll just mount the planes with a little offset and nobody will notice right?

Anyway, she's getting there, just a few more details to the stern crain, add the deck rails, a few more ladders, a little touch up paint, a commission pendant and hopefully ready for pics to upload to Photobucket by Dec 1st.

Scott

Pretty much finished the Kate this evening.  Those of you who know the hasegawa w1/48 kate kit know it's a great build.  However once again I fouled up the canopy.  It looks like crap and the rest of it looks pretty good so I'm going to use the spare canopy provided in the kit that shows the canopy all closed up.  Hopefully I can get my hands on a camera next week and post some pix.  I am probably going to take a few without the canopy on so ya'll can see the office.  Then I'll place the canopy on and take the rest.  Hopefully this is kosher with everyone. 

I also had a problem with the polly scale clear flat final coat yesterday.  It started spitting gobs out of the airbrush nozzle and I almost had a seizure when I saw it.  I think I fixed it by wiping off the gobs and overspraying with another light future coat and then trying again with the clear flat with the nozzle of the AB almost closed.  Has this ever happened to anyone with the clear flat acrylic overcoat? 

 

well got the bomb onto both Vals so now only 4 pieces left to install and I'll finish up the decals later

all of you are doing fantastic.  well done. 

as this is drawing to a close i feel the urge to say thankyou.  thanks for joining and building with me in this build. 

 

 

never to be forgotten.

 

 

joe

thank you Joe for hosting it... I havent got much done on finishing mine.. been busy the last 2 weeks with insurance stuff from the hurricane and trying to get contracters out to give bids on my room that was damaged... looks like a hot summer or modeling if I dont pay for the AC that was crushed myself... ends up windstorm damage claims have a much higher deductible than regular claims.. ::shrug::

It's still damage!!

Hey huys.....

 

While I may not be able to finish by the Dec 7th deadline, I am still going forward with my B-17 project.   To add interest I want to display it in flight, gear extended trying to make a desperate landing.

Question is.....with such a large 1/48 scale model what kind of base do I need to keep it from tipping over?  I am assuming simple wood will be too light.

Ideas?

ell here are more pics

i know what your thinking why is the fuselage band a little warped well solve a set warped it a bit

well I found out that the other Val (the green and Gray one)that I am working on uses literally the exact same tail band decal so I will need to make a template from the other decal so that I can paint the bands on the tail. 

Mike - still looks good!  and I understand, had the same thing happen on the M-41 Walker Bulldog tank I am working on at present.

I may not be able to finish by the deadline either but will still post pics.  I am doing the rigging scratch, the PE was good enough but I warped it on the port wing and decided plastic evergreen strips of the appropriate size would be best.  So I am stuck cutting out strips and gluing them... I am taking a lot of breaks from it (hence the M-41) as it gets to be a strain on the eyes after awhile.

On top of that the first week of December I am having the section of my roof taken off by Hurricane Rita replaced so the modeling room will be off limits till they are finished... so unless I finish in the coming weekend it is a late entry...

Glad to see all the finished pics though!!!!! 

well Tom you could always move the important stuff to another room in the unaffected part of the house and keep on building so try not to let the roof repairs keep you from building. don't want you to go mad from modeling withdrawl (LOL).

Mikeym_us - Looks good, even with the decal problem.  I have the perfect solution, just display it with that side to the wall so no one can see it! 

You couldn't see it in my pics but the port fuselage hinomaru of my Iwamoto PH Zero had a patch that was dissolved by the gunze mr mark softer. So I had to do some touch up with red paint and pastels, neither of which matched the red of the decal well so you can see an ugly patch but only from a few feet away so I wouldn't worry about the fuselage bands much.  Your vals will be a nice display with the green and grey colour schemes sitting next to each other.

I just have to at least get the tail stripes done on both planes. for the template for the tail identification stripes (horizontal stripes) I was planning on cutting out a piece of wax paper and taping the decal behind it and use Tamiya's yellow tape to form the template. peel off the template and afix it to the tail and then paint away let that dry and repeat the process.

 

Besides both planes are destined for a local military museum when I am done and I hope to be done before next week.

Mikeym_us wrote:

well Tom you could always move the important stuff to another room in the unaffected part of the house and keep on building so try not to let the roof repairs keep you from building. don't want you to go mad from modeling withdrawl (LOL).

 

haha that has been much on my mind lately... the modeling withdrawals... problem is they actually have to cut about a quarter of my roof off the house and rebuild it rafters and all... so I don't think I will be able to ignore it.    Actually I may change my build (Joe willing) and build the simpler Zero I have in my stash... It would be interesting to see the color interpretations among the several of us that will have built Japanese aircraft... 

I'll give a definite answer tomorrow... I don't think I have time to complete the scratch built rigging for the F3F in time.. (mainly because my old eyes get tired WAY too quick to finish it all in several sessions... I need new glasses.  )

Well i'm back, coming up to Xmas i always get a little busy with work so i havn't been posting or building much lately....

But I have made some progress on the Wildcat, the pit is now finished and tonight i'm gonna join the fues and wings so i'm looking forward to getting the build in the shape of an aircraft finally.......

Mike your builds look great despite the decal problem, I hate fueselage band decals and have all but given up on useing them, they are just to hard to get into the right shape, now i take the time comsuming approach of masking and painting fueselage bands because i can be a little more precise and there is no pressure to get a decal on quickly before everything dries......

Oh yeah i forgort to mention, Jay i also had a problem with the Gunze decal softener on my Midway Zero, most noticably on the port wing roundel where it did disolve the decal a little, this was not a problem with the solvent but the thickness of the decal and me applying to much to it to get it into the panel lines(bloody tamiya decals) Anyway thanfully i painted on the fueselage band so i just cut a little bit of decal from the kit fueselage band which was the same colour and stuck it over the ugly spot, with a couple more coats of future it almost couldn't be seen Almost but if you look hard enough it is still visible....

CJ95, mate if i were you i would take a peice of harwood board perhaps about 20mm thick and then attach some decorative moulding of about 50mm around the outside of the board, that will give you a recess on the inside of about 30mm which can be filled with pouring plaster, after that has set it will weigh a ton and your B-17 will have no chance of tipping it over...The plaster is also sandable so if you need a flat surface like a runway you just have to sand it flat.....