South Pacific Group Build 7 August 2006 to 7 August 2007

Bob,

That is a nice looking Zeke!

bobbaily

WHOA   what a outstanding job on the zero!  impressive with all weathering and paint chipping ya got!  it does give me some ideas for the future projects. 

Thanks Stephen.  I took some tape to the tail number decal and ouch!  A little too much came off.  I thought about making a stencil and painting over the numbers, but gave up on that.  I ended up Futuring the Zero and hopefully will get to apply an oil wash later this week...and mask the canopy.

Regarding the weathering on your P-61, it this months Flight Journal (June 2007, page 34), there is an article about the history of the USAF and a great picture of the Black Widow on the eve of the Korean War.  Very heavy weathering-the planes are more silver than black.  I can only imagine how weathered a South Pacific WWII plane would have looked.

Really impressive Bob! The weathering is turning out great! It seems my chipping wants to come off in large strips instead of small chips. Hopefully I can correct it. Good job on yours.

Thanks Scott.  I would agree about the rising sun roundels-a better set of masks probably would have been better-I used an index card taped down to the wing & fuselage.  A quarter & dime are about the right size for the diameter.  I like to think that it gives it the 'faded look'   Yeah...that's my story & I'm sticking to it....

btw-courage has nothing to do with it.  In my humble mind, having an inexpensive kit and a large jug of Windex removes most of the fear...

I did get around to chipping the roundels today and applying most of the decals.  I probably should have made a stencil for the vertical rudder numbering....well, next time.  I think I can lighten up the numbers (after some chipping) with either chalk pastel and or dry brushing.  And I really need to remember to do a better weathering job on the underside.  However, I might be able to do some extensive damage with artist oils & chalk pastels.  Still haven't touched the canopy yet....busy day.

Looks good to me Bob, although the rising sun roundels look a little soft, not sure if that's due to the camera or not. 

I really like your worn paint, maybe one day I'll have the courage to try that! 

Well, a little more progress.  The insigna's are on.  Next time I think I'll go the decal route though.  Fought with poorly mixed paint/thinner (my fault) and overspray (my fault again).  However, Windex is a wonderful thing.  I wish I had had the forethought to Future the plane before hand-the Future can be unkind to uncoated acrylic .  However, I'm still happy with the build and will chip the insigna's with masking tape later this pm or tomorrow.  With a little luck, I'll get the canopy masked soon....

I knew you would come through with something Bob, great job so far on the zero it's looking nice.

Wow Bob, your Zero is going to turn out awesome! 

Yes, it has been a while since any posts.  The pace of life is picking up.  I still haven't gotten the canopy masked-next time the first thing I'll look at before choosing a build is whether or not Eduard makes a mask for the canopy!  However, I did get the engine done (although not visible in these pics) and the exhaust & canopy on.  Also, I have the masks cut (a quarter and a dime work well) for the national insignia.  But I also took a moment and applied one of the spare decals to a test mule (I keep an old inexpensive Revell/Monogram Zero & bf109 around to test new techniques on).  I then chipped and sanded-I might go that route-not sure.  Anyway,

WOW, four days without a post, are we slowing down? I admit I have been a little lax on building myself. Hopefully will get the inspiration to start back when my order gets here!

Mark thanks for the remarks and Bob we're still waiting on pics.

Nice progress everyone is making.

Great work on the P-61!

You've shamed me all to get off my butt and do some more on the Goose.

I've had a lot going on at the moment and it's amazing how much enthusiasm it sapps. When I get a break I'm just more than happy to sit back on the couch and have a break.(and check out other people's builds.)

Well all is just about sorted so I'm enjoying working on my models again.

I've got the underside painted and am now masking for my second colour.

Gunze don't make the right blue for the upper surface so I'll be mixing that by eye.

I'll post some pics a little later.

Keep up the good work guys.

Mark 

Thanks for the remarks guys! I have a few more pieces and then it's on to decaling and weathering. Hopefully not to much longer until it's finished.

Silentmodeler- those are 20mm cannons in the belly, four of them and four 50 cals in the top turrent that could be lock in the forward fire mode. Sure would hate to be in those crosshairs!

I've got the Has. jeep on order hope to have it soon, also went ahead and got Tamiya Mess. Bf109E 4/7 Trop. Had not built one before so why not?

NucMedTech

nice bird you got!  I love the pictures where it shows the engine and the machine gun with bullets ready load and locked   is that .50 cal or? 

bobbaily wrote:

Scott-I should have the Zero finished early April and you have inspired me with your P-40E build over in the CBI GB, so I think I'll tackle the same kit (but with Superscale decals for one of the planes flying out of Austraila or New Guinea.)  Besides, all the other GB's I've committed to don't have end dates until '08

The Hasegawa P-40E is a really nice kit, just beware the seam issues I pointed out many pages back in the CBI thread.  I eventually would like to have several P-40s in the display case, at least one or two in Australian / British markings. 

Once I finish the P-40 (on the final steps right now) and finish up my Spanish Civil war build I'll actually have a little breathing room with all my GBs. 

Looking forward to more pics of your Zero my friend. 

Thanks everyone, I'm going to order one from Tower Hobbies. Now for updates and pics. I finally got the wheels on, they're from True Details. I think they came out ok, but it seems they put to much bulge in the tires. They almost look flat. The pics don't really show so I'll try to get better ones. Anyways here are the pics.

Here's a shot of the gun bay all stock except for the pe ammo belts.

Thanks for looking.

-Stephen

nucmedtech

you can check the squadron.com out to see if they have it in stock. 

Hello,

     I was down stairs working on my model, when thunder erupted and an idea was formed. Not a new idea but it just kind of hit me, why not get a jeep to put with my plane. So up the stairs I ran to my trusty computer to search for one. So I gotta ask are Sol and Verlinden the only ones who have a 1/48 scale jeep? I here Hasegawa is supposed to come out with one soon, but even Tamiya did not appear to have one. Oh, I found their schwimmwagon, Kubelwagon x2, even a russian command car but no jeep. Does anyone know where I can find a respectable jeep, prefferably under 20 dollars? 

NucMedTech wrote:

Primer also helps to hide small suface scratches that can really show up on nm finishes.

And it can help reveal seam issues as well, allowing you a chance to fix them if you're so inclined. 

Espins1

ahh  gotcha smiles