Battle of Midway Aircraft Group Build

OK Tom i get it, you dock the jetski in the station and the jetski powers it right, what a cool idea My own personal preferance is dirt bikes, we have a huge pine plantation bordering a state forest which gives us miles of tracks to ride on, even caves if you ride out far enough.............

Darren yeah mate a lot of time is required on these A/M kits to bring out all the detail, i figured i could have the tamiya zero finished in the time it takes to do the Avengers C/Pit, I think the Anzac GB is going to be another long one and provided i don't have a heap of other kits on the bench i should be able to concentrate on it for a few months without worrying about other Gb's...........

QUOTE: Originally posted by bobbaily Tom-thanks for the info. will be of great help. Problem is I see these pics and keep thinking that I need to add a couple more SBD's to the collection....

Bob - you know you're not finished building them till you have one of each type! Ask Jeeves and I!!!

Darren: here is the website to the "boat" I have.. it is actually a jetski docking station... (ok yeah I am an IT person when I describe a boat as a docking station) Interesting enough, if you browse the three pics at the bottom of the page, the two women you see there actually come with the craft! (haha)

http://www.shuttlecraft.com/jetsport.htm

I live on Lake Houston, it is a man made lake (dammed) about 8 miles long and about 2 miles across at the widest point. I'll try to post some pics soon, I have a bunch...

I know what you mean Jules I have a couple of AM kits the TBF-1C Avenger and the dash 5 Dauntless and I'm a little wary of doing them in a GB because they have so much detail and take so long to do.

Tom what sort of boat do you have and how big is your lake?

With any sort of luck I might grab the Wildcat by the tail this weekend and give it a shake. As soon as the Aussie GB Buffalo is in its final stages (soon I hope) I will promote the Wildcat to No1 on the build pile.

Cheers
Darren

Jules that would be great... I am thinking of trying my hand at the RNZAF SBD with the stomach holding a bottle of whiskey and a champagne glass on it... I have to figure out how to get the image over to decal paper though... I still have one spare SBD and it HAS been awhile since I built one!!!

I should be able to get a bit done on the Zero this weekend... Fri is mine, Sat the wife is going to Karate from 10 to 11 and Sun is our day out on the lake... I've been waiting to get the boat out for awhile! (ok I got it out last weekend but no one else was out so it got a bit dull... We usually go to a beach up on the river north of the lake we live on and there's usually a nice crowd there!)

Yeah Tom thanks for all those pics, they were very interesting And as for VT-6 i just don't think i'll have the time to do the Avenger, the A/M kit requires a lot of time to build and i've overdone the whole GB thing "AGAIN" but if i can get a little help from "Kremps" i think i can finish it early next year but in the RNZAF markings for the upcoming ANZAC GB

Tom-thanks for the info. will be of great help.

Problem is I see these pics and keep thinking that I need to add a couple more SBD's to the collection....

oh yeah - just thought I would throw this your way....

a NMF SBD-5, Jacksonville, FL 1945

ok Bob - here you can see the direction of the exhaust... it blew directly at the wing root forming a sort of triangle from the exhaust the the wing:

http://www.cloud9photography.us/bp/BP15_Douglas_SBD_Dauntless_ProducerPeterJMancus.jpg

ok here we go... there were lots more when I researched this... but in fact here is actual pics of the Battle of Midway. Note the color above the wings... on better pics it was not so noticable but you get the idea for the black, and now the whitish grey I was talking about... the white/grey was VERY faint in the other clear pics I saw... it seemed to get a little more noticable right over the longitudinal axis of the wing... will post more if I find it...

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/g10000/g17054.jpg

a better pic:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/achtungindianer/Photo%20Files/US%20Aircraft/SBD%20Dauntless/VB-5/SBD-5VB-55-6Oct43001b.jpg

ok happened on this for all you who were going to build a VT-6 AC... here's them lining up on June 4,1942 for the attack

http://www.daveswarbirds.com/navalwar/ac_pics/tbdcrowd.jpg

Cool Bob!!! Looking forward to seeing it! Interesting approach to those prop tips I haven't tried yet... might give that a whirl on my next dash-2.

I'll try to find some pics very quickly for you, but the exhaust left little black on the plane... just immediately around the exaust tip itself. Over the wing it faded more to a whitish grey and it was very light at that. I'll bug out of here and see what I can find in a hurry, hopefully I still have them in photobucket!!!


---edit---

I'm having trouble finding them, but you might find these wartime shots helpful.

http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/NARG/dauntless.html


There is almost no exhaust streaking... I have seen pics with it but I am still on the path for them now.. more later

non-wartime but decent shot of exhaust:

http://fotodj.com/pages/reading/Wb048d.htm

It's wierd but the wartime shots don't show that much streaking. I'll keep looking...
!!

...and now for something completely different...BUMP

actually, a bit of an update. the prop tips on the SBD have been painted yellow, which is the middle color. with one piece of tape, I can cover the yellow and be masked for the red & blue (maybe this pm). wash applied to the landing gear, canopy 'touched-up' (just needs the tape goop cleaned from the inside). exhaust attached-just needs some weathering from said exhausts. should have pics by weekend.

btw, Accurate Miniatures has added (reinstated) the on-line build info to their website, which will be a life-saver for the Avenger project. wahoo!

hahah thats one reason I like hanging at you guys... not many people understand the things that make me laugh here...

(What???? a mock Frog? We serve no artifical ingredients or colorings of any kind!)

What about a pineapple?? come at me with that pineapple... that's right boy-o!! Do your worst!

okokokok... I have to stop....

QUOTE: "What if he comes at you with a pointed stick???"

You pretend to throw a banana at him, and then pull out a gun and shoot him???

Darren - that's ok I do it all the time (post updates int he wrong GB) and I don't think anyone notices.. as we are all together in the same group builds it kind of gets the lines blurred for all of us!!

Bob - They were a little tricky for me to get to lay in the right places, and I burnished them down with a pointed dowel.. (hmm.. suddenly the pointed stick self defense training episode from MP came to mind "What if he comes at you with a pointed stick???")

Did the second coat of Future on the Zero and after drying it has some grainy type dust looking stuff on it so I am going to have to windex it. I just hope the acrylic underneath is going to stick!!! Will keep you posted.

Oh (for Darrens sake) the Martlet Mk.III got started, I primed the interior bits and am ready to cut out the floor pan per Pingy's scans he posted. Hope to get most of the interior done this week.

Darren-thanks for the heads-up. Good to know.

Bob just be careful with Goo Gone because it makes a really effective paint remover as well as goo remover and is not fussed by either enamel or acrylic paint.
On the other hand, if you make a little boob with the paint Goo Gone can be your best friend.

Cheers
Darren

- Edit-
Oops I included an update for the wrong GB

Bob, Mate i know that site realy well, you can spend a lot of coins on that site very quickly

Tom, actually the -2 did come with masks and I used them. For some reason (user error?) I didn't get complete coverage. Again, I used a brush-should have thinned the paint out a bit and used multiple coats. I really think once I get the airbrush up and running, I'll have better success. I will definatly look at the BMF techinique-saw that one in a FSM article some while ago. Ended up 're-masking' select sections last night-will pull the tape later today. Only major task left is to paint the prop (tri-stripes), install the canopy & exhaust and then some exaust weathering. Hopefully will be done by the end of the week. Then on to North Africia...and the Pacific GB...and the P-40 GB....one at a time, right?

Bob - on the ones I built Tamiya or Model MAster masking tape worked great. the trick was to use a toothpic and burnish it down into the corners (or your thumbnail or such) ... then with the magnifier on I would use a fresh blade and carefully fit it as close to the frame as I could get it and run it along the raised frame.

Another thing I have been trying that was introduced to me by Tweety is using Bare Metal Foil on the canopy. It is a very thin foil with an adhesive on the back. You can get this stuff on so tight that you can't even tell it's there at all except for the silver color. And when you cut it there's no lifting at the edges like with tape sometimes. It leaves a bit of residue but normal liquid handsoap has taken it off for me once the paint is dry... Model master also makes an equivalent called Khrome or something like that that is identical. It's about $6.00 a sheet but I've used less than 1/3 of one and masked about 4 canopies so far, definitely a lot cheaper than the custom masks...

hmm speaking of masks... yours didnt come with a set? My dash-2 did...

QUOTE: Originally posted by j.s.harrison Yeah Daniel Thanks a heap for that mate, it looks fairly simple to cut out but i'll wait until i get the Eduard set for it before i start hacking, just to get a good idea of what PE goes where..........

Jules, you are probably aware of it, but I stumbled onto a link on the Eduard web site, www.eduard.com, where you can do the detail search, highlight the PE and view or down the instructions as a .pdf

Painted the canopy on the SBD and I'm not terribly happy with it-uneven and not completely covered. Also used masking tape on the interior to prevent seep-thru and it left the dreaded goop. Will pick up a little 'Goo Be Gone' at Walmart this week. Guess I'll tape off the 'uneven' sections and touch-up. Gotta figure using an airbrush in the future will help. Of course, I'm starting to shutter when I think about the Avenger canopy that I just picked up.....

Ok, maybe this thing will be finished NEXT weekend......

No worries fellas, glad I could help.

Yeah Daniel Thanks a heap for that mate, it looks fairly simple to cut out but i'll wait until i get the Eduard set for it before i start hacking, just to get a good idea of what PE goes where..........

I knew the floors were not solid but hadn't found a good enough reference as to where the cutouts were... thanks Daniel! I'll be cutting the floor on the Martlet for this build!!!

You know, it never occured to me to modify the floor since Tamiya did put the windows in the kit.

Far as the ink foul up, I put the ink on, then Futured only once, and the Future caused the ink to run, then dried before I noticed anything. Looks rather interesting and to scale.

Thanks for the post Daniel-I'll be able to use this info also.

I don't think it should be too hard at all Jules. Here's a diagram I scanned from an old Finescale mag:



The text with it said:

QUOTE: The Wildcat's open floor enabled pilots to see out the belly windows. Since Tamiya molded the floor the full width of the fuselage, cut away the floor on either side of the foot troughs. Cut into the sides of the floor just behind the slots for the instrument panel bulkhead, and just ahead of the slots for the seat mounts and headrest. Score along the outer edges of the foot troughs connecting the two cuts. After a few knife passes, the floor will snap off easily. Clean up the cuts with files and sandpaper.

It all sounds too easy doesn't it? And, if it doesn't make sense, don't blame me this time, blame Finescale magazine......

That would be great Daniel In your opinion how hard would it be to alter the floor of the Tamiya kit

The problem is that the Tamiya kit has a floor. Wildcats didn't have full width floors, there were big cut-out sections on either side of the foot troughs. It was so the pilot could see through those two small windows in the lower fuselage.

I'll send you a better explanation by email when I get something scanned from a Finescale mag soon.

Well Tom i was thinking about doing another F4F for the upcoming Battle of the Atlantic GB so i might just get the seat for that one........
BTW whats with the floor, Bob mentioned altering/cutting the floor, is there an inaccuracy in the Tamiya kit