Battle of Midway Aircraft Group Build

Thanks all-Really enjoying the quality of the Tamiya kit-this is my first Tamiya plane (one tank last year and some 1/12th F1 cars waaaay back when I was in college-let's just say mid-70's and leave it at that..).

Tom-The belts are Eduard, product number 49001, pre-painted. Happy with them to date but still like the looks of the Ultracast products. I have the Wildcat seats coming, therefore, I will have to build at least two more Wildcats to break even-one in Atlantic paint scheme and one tbd. Just hope Hobby Lobby keeps running the 50% off sales!

looking good Bob! who makes those belts? they look nice!

Lookin' good Bob! Can't wait to see it buttoned up.

Looks great so far Bob. The colour looks just about right for a wildcats interior. Looks good with the floor secttions cut out too. Great job.

Ultracast seats didn't ship until today-won't see until Tue. (if i'm lucky-the canopy masks for the North Africa F-6A are in the same shipment) so I used the last seat of PE belts I had and finished the interior. With a little luck, should be able to get everything buttoned up this weekend and maybe painted....maybe.

Daniel-thanks for the info. Using the kit decals will be a cost savings (to be spent elsewhere) and a time savings. Seems that everything I order is 'out of stock'.

Oh well, builds patience I guess...

Bob - The decals in the Tamiya Wildcat aren't too bad actually. When I built mine a while ago, they behaved themselves quite well. They are no where near as thick as the decals in the P-47's, Corsairs (or most of Tamiyas kits for that matter). Some of the better decals Tamiya have produced actually.

Panzer here is a link to a review of the Special Hobby Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo
"Battle of Midway" edition. At the bottom of the page is a pic of a Buffalo from VMF-211 and Tom is right, apart from the national insignia there's not much to the markings. If you could pick up some generic black serials you could combine them to make the correct codes.

http://kits.kitreview.com/sh48032reviewse_1.htm

Cheers
Darren

what's the testors decal maker? i've heard of the alps printer (but then who hasn't) but not the testors???

Thanks Tom. After spending many hours researching out decals, think I'll stick with the kit decals this time. I want to build another Wildcat (or Martlet) in the future so I'll wait till then to purchase AM decals. However, the decal maker option will be floating around in the back of my mind.....

hmmm I haven't actually used the kit decals on any of the Wildcats I have built. I built them all as British MArtlets so wouldnt know.. on looking at one of the sheets here I think they will settle down fine with Microsol or if necessary Microset... The stock decals for that Zero were even (a lot) thicker and Microset put them down after a few tries...

Good luck! of course buying the US Nat'l markings 1939 to 1942 isn't a bad idea if you do a lot of US stuff, then you could use a decal maker program to make exact decals for your build. (It's several different sized decals on 3 sheets, of US stars with the red dot, including a guide to which size went on which plane)

Maybe that's what Panzer could do... print out the MF-15 in that Testors decal maker and use the kit markings for the rest... That testors system worked great for my BOB build... here's a pic (the Tweety II nose art)

Tom-(or anyone else)-I've noticed that the decals in the Tamiya Wildcat appear to be thicker than usual. Is this going to be a major problem (i.e., should I purchase after market decals?) or just use PLENTY of Solvaset?

ps-Tom-congrats on the 4000 posts.

hmmmm thanx for the pic i should be able to come up with something pretty easily
i have also gotten an idea for a group build sometime in the future i call it a Mirror,Mirror build.you take an aircraft from any era and build it up as if it was flown by it's opposition paintscheme,ordinance,armament,insignia and so on.i was thinking of maybe a corsair in japanese markings or a Me-109 in british spitfire colors or maybe a F-4 in an all metal soviet Mig 21 scheme I'm not thinking of starting any time soon maybe november or december what ya think? sound interesting???

Panzer - you may be in luck, I did find a kit for a "Battle of Midway Buffalo" the only markings besides nat'l insignia and stencils seemed to be a black marking of MF-15 just forward of the fuselage star. I found

got to www.greatmodels.com and do a search for SO48032 and check out the pic... although it pretty unrealistically portays it as just downing a Zero, you could use that for a guide... I'll keep looking for the number/letter sets.. I know they make them for the SBD so that might work (they have them in different sizes in that set so it would have a match for your plane size)

I found this pic on a flight sim site but it is repeated across model sites (including the greatmodels pic) and other non modeling sites as well, they all list it as a Buffalo of VMF-211 at Midway...

on second thought I think they do make a 1/72 and 1/48 letters and number sheet for USN and USMC aircraft from WWII... maybe that combined with kit decals for the stars etc... I do know that nose art was looked down on in that period of WWII in the Marines... so you'd be pretty safe with just numbers and letters...

I'll see if I can find it...

sorry Panzer... couldn't find anything out there for ya... they had plenty of VMF decals just not 211

got the cockpit done on my buffalo hopefully i can get some pics of it before closing it up in the fuselage btw anyone know where i can find any 1/48 deals for VMF-211 i found out another kit has them but im having no luck with aftermarket I may have to mix and match until i come up with something seeya

Daniel & Tom-thanks for the info & the invite to post here. Almost ordered Midway decals but decided to go the Guadalcanal route.

Will do on the posting-always looking for helpful hints and advise for future builds.

ON TOPIC?!!!! We don't know the meaning of the words "on topic" around here...... And the good thing is, no one has ever bothered us about it. I'd like to see some pics of your Wildcat Bob.

Daniel and Bob - just don't let the multible build thing swallow you up... it can soak up every bit of enjoyment from modeling there is to be had... I found working in stages on one kit at a time is what works for me (so far), burnt out a few times in the past and stopped modeling for weeks until I got the itch again...

Bob - what Daniel said... typically I just wash mine with warm soapy water and spray them, last one I did I primed it too though... I think you'll like the end result with that seat... especially with the F4F, you can't see anything inside BUT the seat!!! take your time and use a very small brush on the harness, go over the harness several times for coverage... then an oil or acrylic wash to bring out shadowing etc... BAM!!! a nice looking seat!

I'll have to watch that GB for the pics... if you want to post them here in the Midway GB feel free... all the usual suspects here and so far we have pics of everything but La-15's in here as it is a Kremps-for-all in here... we're just using it to chat at the moment haha.. (re: my FW 190 pics which was definitely NOT at Midway... at least yours would be on topic! )

Tom - I've got the multiple build thing going at the moment too. Mostly because I'll get inspired for a few days and work hard on a kit and then get interested in building something else. At last count, I had 4 kits on the bench. A 1/48 FW-190D-13, 1/48 P-40N, another 1/48 P-40N and a 1/35 King tiger (the dark side sucked me in), and the Devastator is sort of on the side.

Bob - Resin is pretty easy to work with, especially when it's a small part like a seat (When you start getting involved in conversions it gets alot trickier). I'd suggest giving the part a good washing with warm soapy water to get rid of any mold release crap on there. A primer isn't a bad idea, because the resin can soak up paint. Apart from that, it'll be just like working with styrene.

Tom-unfortunatly, I've had to try the 'multiple-build' thing while waiting for the folks at Great Models to ship my canopy mask for the F-6A. However, I have a question for you-based on your glowing recommendations of the Ultracast resin seats, I ordered one for a F4F Wildcat for the Pacific Build. Is there any special prep prior to painting, i.e., does resin have to be primed? I'll be using MM acrylic.

Looking forward to seeing the Zero. That's another build I want to add to my collection.

Thanks.

ok the Zero is on hold for a bit... the black on the cowling and prop have to cure so I am starting on my P-26 Peashooter for the Pearl Harbor build... now I finally am getting how to do multible builds at once.. I have to go put the incomplete ones in the closet while I work on the present ones...

The P-26 won't take long as it is a bit of an older kit (late 70's or early 80's) and although it has engraved panel lines and the such there is not much detail to it.. (after researching the P-26 there wasn't much detail on the real thing either... pretty much a stick and about 8 dials on the IP in the cockpit)

I'll try to get a pic of the color on the Zero that I chose as well as the comparison of the color on the site Daniel posted...

Daniel - exactly... it's pretty cut and dry with US aircraft but I am finding out how hard it is to knock down what schemes certain Axis aircraft really had... I am doing that FW190 in JG54 markings and basically everywhere I have looked has said "it's anyone's guess what they really looked like" .. this was doing the period they were gaurding airfields during ME262 take offs and landings...

That's one of the things I like about building WW2 aircraft. There's never any really definitive answer when it comes to colours. Even well documented aircraft can still be hard to pick because of the low quality of colour film back then. It all comes down to personal interpretation and alot of guessing sometimes.

Daniel - right on! that's exactly what I needed!!!! That is almost exactly what the lightened RLM02 looks like!!! Mine is lighter than the examples in the pics but I can live with it on this one, now I knwo though and will probably stay with that color. It's not like anyone can definitively shoot me down as you've seen by the disagreements on the color!!!

Tom,

I just stumbled across this article at a modelling site:

http://modelingmadness.com/earlya6mcolors.htm

Don't know if you've seen it before. I haven't read it all yet, but it might be helpful.

Daniel - actually I was tired last night when I was reading it... the source at j-aircraft says a lightened RLM63, Eagle strike and another spot on j-aircraft say RLM02.... I like the Grau look and will stick with it on this kit... might do another in the RLM63 lightened to see the difference. Amiero is a caramel type candy and that is where the paint got the name so I would think ... but reading THIS article kind of strikes it down so I am just as confused..

http://www.j-aircraft.com/research/amerio/out_of_ameiro.htm

I was probably right with the very first coat I put on... oh well! I'll still post pics because I like the look!

Tom - Where on j-aircraft.com did you find the info on Ame-Hiro? I've had a look around and haven't been able to find it. Might come in handy for an A6M3 I plan on building sooner or later. BTW, what is Kremps doing with herself these days? She seems to have been a bit quiet since Jules has been gone........

I had a go at re-scribing some of the panel lines on my devastator the other day, and it might be easier than I thought. The raised lines are just thick enough to be a guide for re-scribing the engraved ones. So I won't have to use half a roll of Dymo tape on it like I thought I would.

cool! no rush! but we really do like seeing each others work... by tomorrow I will have a pic of what my concoction of Ame-Hiro is... it actually looks pretty good. A warmish brown/grey that in bright light DOES look lighter so I can see the light grey or even dirty white confusion. (although I never know where the Commerative Air Force and their Tora Tora Tora group got that bright white of their aircraft from... or the overlooked fact that the Kates were not the Dark Green until later in the war... oh well, everyone loves an airshow...

Happy modeling while you still have time to do it! Just don't burn out! BTW: could you check in the phone book for your area and see if there is a "Kremps" (last name) living near you? We just need to be sure... haha don't worry about it.. she's our mascot for the GB's we are in (if you read back on this one) totally made up.... (we hope)