Battle of Midway Aircraft Group Build

Played around with the chalk a little this evening-maybe a bit much. However, I have a grey & blue in my chalk selection that I can do some 'touch-up' work later. Applied a coat of gloss and after that cures, will future the decal areas. After decals are applied, a coat of dull and then pastel correction, as needed, followed by another coat of dull-at least that's the plan. If all else fails, by that time the AB should be here and I can make some very light/thin blue & grey and do it right. Actually, the more I think about it, that might be the better approach....will postpone completion of this project, but I think it will be worth the wait.



Started on a Monogram 1/48 Zero for the Pacific GB. This kit is circa 1962 with no interior detail. This Accurate Min. kit has spoiled me. Looking forward to starting on the F6A for the North Africia GB. Will use the Zero for AB practice when it gets here.

btw-found the orginial BBC series 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' at Blockbuster today. Local PBS station showed the series in the early 80's. Watched the first episode with my 11 yr. old. He didn't find the humor in it. Sigh... But, as it is written in bold friendly letters on the Hitchhikers Guide, DON' PANIC!

Bob - those AM kits will ruin you on almost any kit from now on... your whole expectation for a cockpit has been raised!

Errr.... have you seen the newest pics of the Vindicator?? Great Models has some posted at the bottom of this week's newsletter:

http://www.greatmodels.com/main/050423.htm

I believe AM has topped themselves-- I do believe those are headphones in pic #6??
http://www.greatmodels.com/main/Reviews/Peterson/dash3_003.jpg

Bob Looks good so far. And like Tom said, don't expect every other kits cockpit to live up to this one (unless you build a Tamiya P-47, which is just as good IMO). So far my SBD has been great fun to build, hope yours is the same.

Jeeves Looks like it'll be another amazing kit from AM. Who needs AM (aftermarket) parts when you've got an AM kit eh? Any idea on a release date?

:::progress report::: I did what I said I would do in my last post, and am now gonna start the fiddly bit stage. I'm hoping to get it finished by next weekend so I can enter it in a comp (if it turns out half decent that is).

The wife is out of town and the son slept late this am so I was able to start 're-weathering' @ 7am. A little more subdued on top, still 'too' much on bottom. Will work on that later-had to go to a soccer match. My hope is that the dull coat will take some of the 'edge' off. If not, I'll be ready when the AM SBD-3 Midway version is released....



I have to agree with the comment regarding the AM detail. Only complaint is the lack of seat harnesses (other than decal). I'm torn between geting a set of PE belts for the F6A or ording the Ultracast seat. And since I'd be online, I'd have to order the Ultracast exhaust and maybe a vacumn form canopy so all that detail would be visible. I can see me getting into trouble with this stuff.....

haha welcome to the addiction Bob!!! yeah IMHO the ultracast seats look better than PE harnesses. oh and make sure you get a prop too! but I agree, the harnesses are the only think missing out of the cockpit.

Jules - OMG I don't like the plane but am going to have to buy it just to do that cockpit!!!

Daniel - I have to agree with you on that P-47 cockpit. VERY nice looking, as good as a resin cockpit in my opinion. AND half the buildup of the AM cockpit. A lot less dials and flare guns to fiddle with. I am about 80% done an a FAM Mexican P-47 and I am in love with that kit as well!

Bob Weathering looks good mate. If you want to tone it down a bit, just rub a soft cloth over the top of it (my t-shirt works particularly well). It'll just take the edge off it and give it a nice subtle and feathered look.

Watch yourself with that aftermarket stuff, you'll end up spending more on resin and PE than you did on the kit. And it gets even worse once you start adding AM decals.

QUOTE: Originally posted by pingtang [(my t-shirt works particularly well). It'll just take the edge off it and give it a nice subtle and feathered look.

could you send me one of them then? I may have weathered my Ju87 a bit much and mine doesn't seem to do the trick

getting to a point with the Ju87 I will be able to start on the Zero.... only thing AM with this kit are the decals.

Unfortunatly, I made the mistake of adding a clear coat before I decided that I may have weathered a bit much. However, taking advantage of the clear coat, I added some decals. After a dull coat, I'll decide whether it needs to be lightened out a little and keep the t-shirt tip in mind.

Bob - if you hadn't put the decals on you could have done a pre shading type thing... They call it a filter coat... take a coat roughly the same color but lighter than the major color of the fuselage... thin the you know what out of it and mist it over the plane.. with contrasting camos it helps draw them together but in your case it would have helped settle down some of the weathering...

Tom-Still waiting for the Paasche H to arrive. Bottom line is that I'm wanting to finish the SBD and move on. And the more I look at the weathering, I may be happy with it. Will decide after the dull coat-maybe some 'reverse' pastels at that point.

Did purchase the compressor & filter today. Now just need to spend some time to research painting with acrylics. And practice on paper and the Zero. Hope to have everything in place to use it for my Mustang F6A for North Africa. Very good article in the latest FSM on the AM P-51A as far as detailing. Hope to try some of the same techiniques. Unless I go with the RAF version....too many choices....After the AB gets here, I'll have to add another SBD to my wish list.

Bob - if you are going with acrylics (which is what I mostly use) I strongly recommend needle lube. It helps paint from adhering to the needle and disrupting flow. I use it for enamels and acrylics but it does the most help with acrylics...

at about $5 a bottle you can't leave home without it! Badger sells it as Regdab Needle Juice, Iwata as Medea Lube.

BTW: try any of the SBD's ... I liked the build of the dash-5 the best, dunno why. Maybe some of the things we see in the dash-2 and dash-3 had been remdied by time the 5 came out...

Also, if you are ordering paint, take a look at Vallejo or "Colors of Eagles" paints available from www.greatmodels.com (they are on sale right now). As far as acrylics they go on the smoothest for me and look the best.. I am slowly replacing my entire arsenal of paints with them. If you do try them, order a bottle of vallejo thinner,or if you cant get it I will see if I can get you a bottle.

The "Color of Eagles" blend, distrinuted from Miami is bottled by Vallejo... and includes most every WWII shade you'll need! Best think is there is little waste with them...

Daniel, I know this is going back a page now but WOW, your SBD looks great

Bob more of the same from you, congrats on the progress so far. Like you said all you need to do now is to tone things down a tad.

Cheers
Darren

Tom-thanks for the info. Will definatly get the needle lube. Will also investigate the paint.

Darren-thanks. Now I just have to come up with a game plan on toning it down a bit. Still think that after decaling is complete & the dull coat applied, lighter pastels on the panel lines might work. Actually, the upper doesn't look as overstated in person as it does in the photos. The underside does need some more work though.

Thanks Darren;

I've got the thing just about done. Nearly everything is painted and assembled, now it's just like putting sub-assemblies together. Shouldn't be long til it's done now. Pics soon I hope.

Sorry I have been away.... the Vindicator is due out next month I believe....

I am at the decal stage on my SBD.... pics to follow soon....

looking forward to seeing more pics from all of ya! Really impressive results so far! Of course yall will all be finished and sitting around chatting while I have to build mine solo... thats ok... long as I have someone to talk to while I am doing it....

Bob your Dauntless is looking greatIf you think youv'e weathered it a little heavy you can do what i did with my Spit MK VIII, after i added the wash on that one i decided that it was to heavy so i mixed up another batch of paint thinned about 50/50 and lightly misted the paint on, worked like a charm

Jeeves & Pingy looking forward to seeing some pics guys

Tom you certainly won't be building solo, I'm a very long way from being finished myself.............

Jules - like Kremps always said... slow and steady cooks the borscht...

never quite understood the background meaning with that though... she'd always throw her head back and cackle when she said it.

Funny that you should mention that Tom thats what she chants just before she breaks a billiard ball with her thighs, then she lets out that big bear cry and bang, one billiard ball broken into shards...............

Tom I don't think you'll be doing the thing on your own mate. I might enter another build into this GB. Maybe a Tamiya wildcat or something Jap maybe (how about a Val to complete my midway dive-bomber collection). Then I'd add a vindicator and I'd have a complete set......

Daniel - sounds great!!! would like to see more of your work! I am enjoying seeing your builds!!!

Daniel how many kits do you reckon you'd build in a year seems to me that your churning them out at an incredible rate, hmmm you musn't have kids.........

Just a word of warning...the decals that come with the SBD-3 have a boo-boo in them. The little SBD decals that go on the tailfin are labeled as SBD-5 in the kit...at least they are on mine...luckily I am actually using three different sheets so all is OK for me

Jules No kids and no job. Great for getting lots of modelling done. Problem is, I don't have enough money to buy kits. Hopefully that'll change soon, I might have a few jobs lined up. So then I'll have money to buy kits, but no time for modelling......... I need to find a balance there somehow.

Jeeves I noticed that too. I left them off my build. It's probably not very accurate, but it's more accurate than calling it an SBD-5.......

:::Progress Update:::
OK my Wildcat is progressing, just very slowly that's all. I dry brushed the IP with chrome silver on the weekend and it came up very nicely. The only problem is that now the entire IP has a metallic sheen to it so I'll have to add a drop of masking fluid into each dial and respray it black. Oh well.
As a by the by, the Ultracast seat has come up a treat.

Cheers
Darren

Daniel - yup... it's damned if you do, damned if you do't right? but at least with work you can occasionally take vacation to get some marathon modeling in...

Darren - I agree on the ultrcast seats. They do a lot to make the cockpit look realistic without being "busy" because of the scale.....

so ... I just thought I would add

bump

Qucik question for you fellas that have built the AM SBD Did you have any trouble fitting the canopy in the open position It doesn't matter where I position mine, the smaller ones always make the bigger ones sit high. I'm leaving the smallest one off, bu I just can't get the next smallest one to sit right. Any ideas

Sounds like your sittin in clover Pingy except for the no money thing.....
work isn't really a problem for me, my main problem is the Missus, while i'm at work she lets the young'uns or should i say makes them have a sleep during the day for a couple of hours, now that works with babies but the 3 and 4 year olds end up staying awake until 10:30 PM and of course by that time i can't be stuffed modelling much....
The moral of the story::::::::::::::::Stay single