AUSSIE/ANZAC GB 2006 Jan 26 to Sept 21st

I am going ahead in leaps and bounds now, I managed to do the dark sea grey camouflage yesterday after some feverish masking using paper and blu tack. I was amazed that the blu tack didn't mark the paint. What was even better was that the Tamiya tape didn't strip the acrylic RAAF blue from the model. I didn't think it would hurt the Humbrol but I am a bit dodgy about those acyrlics, nice as they look. The photos are after the 'one go' was applied.

Wow there is just too much great work going on in here, well done fellas

OH yeah BTW my spit is on it's way but i'm afraid it has had a little mishap, whilst in storage the port wingtip just up and vanished so unfortunatly it is now a clipped wing MK VIII and it's gonna be a little inaccurate but you know what they say "Build what you like when you like" and i kinda like the look of the clipped wing spitfires...

Dave - as I said before, it's a looker!

Jules - you know I am a stickler for accuracy... I can't stand for you doing that kit with clipped wings...    And yes, the Tweety II I did in the N Africa GB was indeed a real plane... oops, be right back.. I have to go prune my nose... haha

Well, I got the Ocean Grey in but had started in my Mexican AF P-47 am I am on a roll with it... I'll be working on this for one a week or so then I will be back on the Spit!  I'll try to stop by now and then to see the progress!

Dave the Magister and the P-39 look great, nice job.

I struck a little snag with the P-40 over the weekend after doing some research on what color the wheel wells should be (this is after I had painted them RAF Interior Green mind you) and discovered as I had begun to suspect that they should be Zinc Chromate Green or Curtis Green instead.  I also went on to discover that the cockpit should also be in this color so I'm afraid it's back to the beginning for me.  It's just a good thing that I hadn't actually assembled anything yet.

Cheers

AAARGH well my matilda is going to take more work than previously planned I just found out the turret conversion i ordered is no longer backordered but Discontinued so any mods to the turret are going to be scratchbuilt more delays

Darren dont ya just loooooove the lil foul up's that come with modeling lol

darson wrote:

I struck a little snag with the P-40 over the weekend after doing some research on what color the wheel wells should be (this is after I had painted them RAF Interior Green mind you) and discovered as I had begun to suspect that they should be Zinc Chromate Green or Curtis Green instead.  I also went on to discover that the cockpit should also be in this color so I'm afraid it's back to the beginning for me.  It's just a good thing that I hadn't actually assembled anything yet. Cheers

I got my box of goodies from Eduard which included a P-40N as well as the P-39, so I'm going to be picking brains around here when I get to them.  Surprised the cockpit is z/c, yanks almost always did them in Interior Green, with the z/c primer left where aircrew didn't go.

I've finally finished the insides of the Camel & am going to close it up.

I've found a few distinctions between the AFC Camel's & any others I've seen pictures of - extra dial on the dash, circular leather pads behind each gun butt & a more elaborate windshield (low wrap-around with extra square centre piece). Manufacturing the windshield intimidates me more than a little, no clue how to go about it.

I would like to make a camel or two eventualy. On as an AFC aircraft and the other done up as a 'Biggles' aircraft. Yours is looking good, i'm guessing that the engine is rather small as is the rest of the aircraft.

My P-39 is getting closer to finishing, I still have to do some weathering then give it the final matt cote.

Carl, oops that didn't come out as clearly as I wanted.  From the info that I have researched, the cockpit of the P-40 was Curtiss Cockpit Green, which was the Berry Brothers' (a local paint vendor) approximation of Interior Green. Reportedly it was a little browner than Interior Green, but as far as I'm concerned Interior Green is just fine for me.  The scalloped cutouts inside the fuselage windows aft of the cockpits on P-40D to M models were usually painted the same as the camouflage colour. As the rear windows could be easily detached for re-painting, most field repaints were also performed this way.  The wheel wells had canvas covers similar to that on the Bf 109E. These were in drab canvas colour with brass zips and fasteners with the wheel well itself Zinc Chromate Green.

The Camel looks cool btw, lovely job

Dave the P-39 looks excellent, I can't wait to see the finished article .

Cheers

Hey guys I asked a couple of guys at my LHS on the subject of my 3" howitzer for the Aussie Matilda noone knew of an aftermarket barrel for the 3" gun but one of them said that the low velocity 75mm on the early shermans would be a pretty close match I'm just checking if that sounds about right to you guys before I order one? Thanks TTFN

PS Happy easter MMMMMMMMMMM Chocolate Bunnies

Chris I've just checked my meager references on the Matilda and only have 1 pic of an Aussie Matilda CS and it doesn't show a lot. 

I know that Firestorm Models http://firestormmodels.com/ do a full conversion for the Matilda but it's fairly pricey.

I would say go for what the guy at the LHS said and get the 3" howitzer for the Sherman, then try and find someone who'll tell you it's not accurate .

Cheers

Darren Once again you are a godsend the few pics I have of the Matilda CS are all front shots. Now at least I have a shot of the rear of the vehicle lol. also I checked out the firestorm conversion and I do not have the $90 to spend on it TTFN

Chris no problems at all, I'm happy I could help out a bit.

Progress wise on the P-40 I have now completely repainted the interior of the aircraft the correct colors and tonight I will give them a decent spray of Future in preparation for some washes and weathering.

I have been looking at a few online builds of the Hase P-40 and I think I may have made a little boob.  All the builds show and suggest adding the insert behind the cockpit and the separately attached tail to the fuselage halves rather than assembling the plugs and then trying to get them to fit once the fuselage is closed up.  Oh well I have already assembled the tail and fuselage plugs separately, I guess I'm just going to have to live with it now.

Cheers

Darren - hard going on the P-40... I've done similar recently and wished I would have reread the review a few more times before I built it...

No progress on my side... the Spit is primered and ready to be painted but the P-47 for the Latin American GB is still on the desk... I've put this one off too long plus I am building it for a class at a local school so want to finish it before summer vacation!

Jules,

         I like to change my group build subject to Hasegawa's 1/72 P-40N Warhawk, it will carry 78Sqn Markings.   Won't get into the reasons for the change apart from the fact that last two months are best forgotten (problems not related to modelling), its also the reason why I haven't been around lately.  

Wayne it's good to see you back on line.  Jules is having to deal with some real life issues at the moment as well and isn't around much, to answer your post.

Cheers

darson wrote:

Wayne it's good to see you back on line.  Jules is having to deal with some real life issues at the moment as well and isn't around much, to answer your post. Cheers

Im glad to be back darren, there was a time when I didn't think I would be.

harvs73 wrote:

... i'm guessing that the engine is rather small as is the rest of the aircraft.

How's everybody going with their build.

With my change of subject for the build I've realised that because I have mainly been working on armour and fiqures over the last few years that I don't have some of the colours required for my P-40N in my paint supplies so I'm off to the LHS tomorrow to obtain the colours for the internal parts of the aircraft.  Didn't think that painting the insides of the fuselage and wheelwells buff or offwhite (German armour internal colours) would be prototypal.

P.S. this post was mainly to get us back for page 2 to page 1 of the folder. 

Well Wayne,

My projects are humming along, I actually added another one to the build list, a Matchbox Westland Wessex. Started to decal last night and came cropper when the decals decided they did not want to stay in one piece.

A helpful fellow from another forum has another set of decals for this kit which he has kindly aggreed to send over to me. Hope to get them and have it finish for the ACTSMS Annual comp at the end of May

The Herc is going a little better though again while decalling I found that the downsized (from 1/72)  Hawkeye sheet is not designed for it. The walkway markings are out, so I just nicked out and got another sheet from Hawkeye at lunch to fill the gaps.  Will have another go at it tonight.

The A330 has been rubbed back and more filler added when I noticed some problems when the primer coat was on.

That's it for me

cheers

My "Grey Ghost" spit is coming along, it had been on hold waiting on some Med Sea Grey for the upper camo, and then to finish my P-47 for the Latin American Aicraft GB.  Now that I'm 90% done with the P-47 it's back to the Spit.  I got the lower color sprayed and hopefully this weekend I can mask and spray the upper color.

Aussie747 - looks good!  shame about those decals but good that someone has the spares for ya... I like those early choppers!

South Aussie - I dunno... it would sure look interesting to see that plane with a Panzer Buff interior!   Wonder what it would look like with an '88' strapped to the belly and ambush camo?

Aussie747  - Good to hear from you again Ray, waiting to see your finished model.   Say Hi to the rest the boys at ACTSMS.  I was disappointed that I couldn't make last years comp, also looks like a miss for this years too.

tho9900 - you are giving me ideas   a Henschel Hs 129 fitted with an 88 instead of the 75 mm gun or maybee a Messerschmitt Bf 110 fitted with the 88 in lieu of the 37 mm anti tank gun.  Could even get away with it as the Germans were renowned for their unusal aircraft designs.

I've been making good progress on the P-40 over the last couple of days (sort of), the amount of filling & sanding I’ve had to do with the fuselage and tail plugs is amazing.  With the amount of bog I've had to use on this kit I feel like I'm building a limited run kit rather than a state of the art Hasegawa offering.  Still I am making good progress and I'll actually have some pics in the next couple of days.

Oh yeah, BUMP.