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WWII Carrier Aircraft Design GB (Starts Now -- Ends November 30, 2006)

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  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Everett, WA
Posted by gwaihir on Saturday, March 18, 2006 8:35 AM
Looks excellent PanzerWulff (Chris right?) Really nice work!
Where do you get the brass rods?
Leon
Click the banner to see my builds.
  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Saturday, March 18, 2006 9:16 AM
Well, my bird is ready for the paint booth.  But, of course, I don't have the right paint it seems.  I don't want to mix paints (per Tamiya's instructions) if I don't have to and I have all Model Master paints.  The consensus, from what I have found, is that the upper surface is Blue Gray and the lower is Light Gull Gray.  I have Dark Gull Gray, Light Ghost Gray, Neutral Gray, Gunship Gray and a host of RLM grays..  lol  Murphy's Law prevails...  Off to Hobby Lobby, perhaps I will get lucky and they will have them.

Dave
  • Member since
    November 2004
  • From: Salisbury Massachucetts USA
Posted by PanzerWulff on Saturday, March 18, 2006 11:20 AM
Leon I get my brass rod at my LHS as well as alumimum rod and tubing the shop has 2 sections one regular modeling and the other section run by the owners partner caters to model railroad supplies the MICRO-MARK catalog also carries a good selection as well
ACE??? you were NEVER an ace AN ace HOLE maybe! (Lister to Rimmer on BBC's RED DWARF) Chris"Hey GRAVITY still works"Gray
  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Saturday, March 18, 2006 1:00 PM
Well... they didn't have light gull gray or blue gray, but add MM light gray and Testors gray, light blue and blue to the club.  Tamiya's instructions say  a 3:1 ratio of medium blue and white for the top color and a 3:1 ratio of sky gray and white for the bottom color.  Out of all my colors, I'm bound to come up with something close without having to mail order, right?

On a brighter note, I found 18 gauge hypodermic needles at Tractor Supply Company.  Then I had to buy a cordless dremel tool to cut them, lol.  Expensive trip...  I'll get some use out of that dremel tool though. 

I also stopped at Radio Shack to get some wire for the buckles.  The only thing I saw that looked small enough but not too small was the 24 gauge bus wire, uninsullated tinned-copper wire.  I think it will work. 

Dave
  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Saturday, March 18, 2006 1:14 PM
Well, the wire appears too big, I'll have to get that itty bitty insulated wire.
  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Everett, WA
Posted by gwaihir on Saturday, March 18, 2006 2:35 PM
 TryintoModel wrote:
Well... they didn't have light gull gray or blue gray, but add MM light gray and Testors gray, light blue and blue to the club.  Tamiya's instructions say  a 3:1 ratio of medium blue and white for the top color and a 3:1 ratio of sky gray and white for the bottom color.  Out of all my colors, I'm bound to come up with something close without having to mail order, right?

On a brighter note, I found 18 gauge hypodermic needles at Tractor Supply Company.  Then I had to buy a cordless dremel tool to cut them, lol.  Expensive trip...  I'll get some use out of that dremel tool though. 

I also stopped at Radio Shack to get some wire for the buckles.  The only thing I saw that looked small enough but not too small was the 24 gauge bus wire, uninsullated tinned-copper wire.  I think it will work. 

Dave


Dave, bummer about the paint. I do imagine you have something close enough. I'm glad you found some needles; hopefully those work out really well. And the dremel tool - a great buy that I'm sure you'll find tons of uses for as time goes on. I didn't think of this, but to wire my p-47 engine I used some insulated wrapping wire (30 gauge) bought at radio shack. When the insulation is removed it is really small - might be an idea. I hope I didn't mislead you before - sorry the wire was too big :-(. Good luck and keep us posted.
Leon
Click the banner to see my builds.
  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Saturday, March 18, 2006 4:25 PM
Don't worry, I still greatly appreciate the advice and ideas.  The wire I bought was only a couple of bucks, and I guarantee I'll be able to use it for something.  It's just down the street, so no biggie. 

I have everything ready to paint.  I masked the canopy and those little windows on the bottom of the fuselage.  I think the light gray I have is fine for the bottom, but I still need to figure out something for the top.  I'm sure I could come up with something close with all the paint I have, but just trying to figure out what to use mix will be a pain.  I'm going out of town for work next week and I will be driving right by a good LHS in Jacksonville, AR, that I can get the blue-gray.   So I may go ahead a paint the bottom and all the other parts today and hold off until I get back to paint the top.

  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Sunday, March 19, 2006 1:51 PM
Little more progress.  I got the bottom of the plane painted, plus some the small parts.  Here are some pics of the engine.  Not the perfect colors, but close enough.  The pictures don't really show the difference in color of the cylinders and that front piece and the highlights don't show up well either, but oh well.  I'll be out of town this week, but at least I'll have the rigth color or colors for the upper surface.  Someone in the aircraft forum mentioned the tri-color scheme.  I'm tempted, but not sure.




  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Sunday, March 19, 2006 6:08 PM
Nice work on the engine.  Looks good.
RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Sunday, March 19, 2006 8:07 PM
Well, I decided to try and give the blue-gray/medium blue/intermediate blue a try by mixing colors.  After looking at other wildcats and searching for what color it actually was, it seems there are some discrepencies.  So I figured, what the heck, maybe I can come up with something close to one of those.  I probably did it the hard way, but I started with light blue and gray.  It seemed a bit to light.  So I added a drop or two of black.  Perhaps not the best color, but I was experimenting.  I then decided it needed a touch of regular blue.  I was trying to compare it to an intermediate blue color sample I had on my computer screen.  I got something I thought was pretty darn close, so I decided to go with it.  Here was the result.



I used white Plasti-Tak from Hobby Lobby for a mask.  If you roll it up and place it along the line, it provides a pretty nice faded line.  (Disregard the little bit of blue I smudged on the bottom.  :(  I'll have to clean that up.)



However, I do have some bad news.  Although I have decent lighting, it's sometimes hard to see if I covered all the areas well.  Most of the time, it's because of my impatience.  :/  I didn't notice that on one side, I didn't get a good coverage along the mask line.  Although the picture isn't great, it's thin by the front edge of the wing and the back edge of the wing and not great along the rest of the line either.



Not only that, I didn't notice until I had removed the mask and thrown the paint mix away!  Double wammy.  I'll never be able to match that paint and I don't have time to do it now anyway.  So, it looks like I'm back to plan A.  I'll stop at the hobby shop, pick up some blue-gray or intermediate blue, and remask and repaint it next weekend.  I guess you live and learn.



  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Sunday, March 19, 2006 8:42 PM

Haste makes waste Smile [:)].

Regards,  Rick

RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: 288921 E, 5659868 N UTMz12, NAD83
Posted by jboutin on Thursday, March 23, 2006 5:49 PM
Looks like some good progress guys.  I'm still waiting to finish some builds on my plate before I got out and get my corsair.  I think middle of the summer will be a good start time I think.
JAY - fighting evil since 2:15pm, July 8,1976 -
  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Thursday, March 23, 2006 8:03 PM
LOL, how is this for luck.  I had mentioned I was working on the road this week and I was going to stop by a hobby shop and pick up the blue-gray paint I needed.  Well, wouldn't you know it, the store owner is on vacation this week and the store was closed....  what luck!  I fanagled a night stay in Little Rock and stopped by the hobbytown store today.  Luckily, they had the blue-gray.  They even had a set of eduards USAAF and USN colored seatbelts, so I grabbed those also.  So I'm set now.  Hopefully I'll get some more work done this weekend.  I'm looking forward to trying those PE seatbelts.  I've never used PE before.
  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: SETX. USA
Posted by tho9900 on Friday, March 24, 2006 7:55 PM
those PE seatbelts really set off a cockpit, on most planes that's most of what you can see once it's finished anyway, the seat and belts.  Myself, I usually go for an ultracast resin seat with the belts molded  if I can find one for that kit.  If not, it's PE...
---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Everett, WA
Posted by gwaihir on Saturday, March 25, 2006 8:25 AM
Dave, Sounds like your set. By the way, your progress looks good. I like the engine.

Leon
Click the banner to see my builds.
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Reno, NV
Posted by espins1 on Saturday, March 25, 2006 6:22 PM

Progress Report - Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat

Finally making some headway on the Wildcat, put together the sub-assemblies of the cockpit and sprayed them.  I know, it's not much, but it's something.  Smile [:)]

Scott Espin - IPMS Reno High Rollers  Geeked My Reviews 

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Saturday, March 25, 2006 8:29 PM

At least it's a start Scott, doing better than me.  I hope to get the Firefly on the bench early next week.

Regards,  Rick

RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Saturday, March 25, 2006 11:15 PM
Well, this has to be a mircle.  Since I got the actual blue-gray paint, I took an eye-ball comparison and it looked pretty close to the same color I had mixed before.  I went ahead and re-masked the plane but just started with the area I didn't cover well first.  Amazingly, the colors are so close I can't tell the difference with my eyes.  Therefore, I just covered the areas that were too light before.  I can't see any difference in the color.  Freakin amazing! 
  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Sunday, March 26, 2006 9:26 AM

We all get lucky once in a while Smile [:)].

Regards,  Rick

RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Everett, WA
Posted by gwaihir on Sunday, March 26, 2006 9:40 AM
The wildcat looks good so far Scott.

Sounds great Dave. What a stroke of luck!

Leon
Click the banner to see my builds.
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Reno, NV
Posted by espins1 on Monday, March 27, 2006 10:19 AM
I sprayed the flat white on the engine mounts, firewall and interior of the landing gear bay.  I plan on painting the detail work on the cockpit tonight, along with the chains on the firewall for the landing gear mechanism.  I will grime those parts up later this week and will post some more pics around Wed or Thurs.  So far I'm really enjoying the 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4.  It's a well engineered kit, easy to build and decent detail.

Scott Espin - IPMS Reno High Rollers  Geeked My Reviews 

  • Member since
    April 2004
Posted by pmm736 on Monday, March 27, 2006 6:08 PM

Here is the current progress on my build.  This is the Accurate Miniatures TBM-1C 'George Bush Version'. 

Not particularly happy with the way the IP came out, but it is passable, especially if I decide to keep the canopy closed.  For that reason, I'm still undecided about the pilot's harness.  The kit supplied decal just doesn't look realistic enough for me.

I do have one question.  The instructions call for openning holes in the underside of both wings for the Yagi radar.  However, there are no locating holes on the parts and the instructions are extremely vague as to where exactly they go.  None of the drawings in the instructions or the pictures on the box even show it.  My question, therefore is, is it even appropriate for the particular aircraft and if it is, does someone have a drawing or photo showing the exact location?  Construction is stopped at this point because of this problem. Thanks. 

  • Member since
    February 2003
  • From: A Spartan in the Wolverine State
Posted by rjkplasticmod on Monday, March 27, 2006 6:44 PM

Pretty nice looking pit pmm736.  Not sure if the Bush Avenger carried the Yagi antennaes.  If they aren't called out in the instructions, chances are they weren't.

Regards,  Rick

RICK At My Age, I've Seen It All, Done It All, But I Don't Remember It All...
  • Member since
    April 2004
Posted by pmm736 on Monday, March 27, 2006 9:18 PM
Thats the problem Rick.  They're shown in the instructions, but the positioning is less than vague (all there is is an arrow pointing to an area) and there are no locating holes.  And they're not shown in any other drawing or photo in the instructions or on the box.  
  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: SETX. USA
Posted by tho9900 on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 7:01 AM
pmm736 - I'll try to look at one of my SBD kits when I get home from work, and remember where I put them on the last one I built.  I remember having the same problem.  It really wasn't anything more than an indention where they were supposed to be placed.  It was actually farther aft on the wing than I thought it would be.
---Tom--- O' brave new world, That has such people in it!
  • Member since
    April 2004
Posted by pmm736 on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 9:05 AM
Actually, I rooted around on line for a pic, then went back and looked at the kit again and figured out the problem.  The instructions were showing the incorrect location.  The arrow pointed to a locating pin for the two wing halves rather than the hole location, which was much further inboard.  So we're back in business. 
  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 10:35 AM
Looks good pmm736! 

I'm hoping to future the plane and all the parts today.  Tomorrow, I will be able to apply the decals hopefully.

  • Member since
    November 2004
  • From: Salisbury Massachucetts USA
Posted by PanzerWulff on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 11:40 AM
Well guys my Hurricat is built completely I just want to try some setting soloution on my decals when i put them on I have never used the stuff before and hope the decals will snuggle down into the wing panel lines especially.the catapault will be built bit by bit as i finally have found some good pics of one. I hope i can get some nice pics of it during construction TTFN
ACE??? you were NEVER an ace AN ace HOLE maybe! (Lister to Rimmer on BBC's RED DWARF) Chris"Hey GRAVITY still works"Gray
  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Reno, NV
Posted by espins1 on Thursday, March 30, 2006 11:40 AM
Work is progressing nicely on my 1/48 Tamiya F4F-4 Wildcat.  I should have the cockpit completed, including weathering by the end of the weekend and will post some pics then.  It's a nice kit, good detail, well engineered, everything that we've come to expect from Tamiya.  Smile [:)]

Scott Espin - IPMS Reno High Rollers  Geeked My Reviews 

  • Member since
    November 2003
Posted by TryintoModel on Thursday, March 30, 2006 6:05 PM
Well, I may have screwed up another model.  Man, I wish I could actually finish one that I didn't royally mess up.  I've had a bad stretch of model building.  This makes the 4th in a row that I had a major mishap. I posted a question to help solve this in the Techniques forums, but I'll add it here also just in case any of you guys have an idea. 

My applied a coat of future to my latest build and ended up with some noticable "spots".  These spots are small, drop like areas of thicker future.  I have no idea how this happened.  Normally, the future spreads out evenly, even in places that get a slightly heavier coat.  Further, I hung it from the nose to dry, and the spots appear on the tops of the wings.  I have no idea how this happened.



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