"Size Matters" - Large aircraft build '06-Whenever

I forgot to mention that the Concorde will be in Air France markings. Lots of white paint! Thanks for allowing me to join this group!

gedenke wrote:

No problem, Mike, I've got you in for a "possibly". By the way, what scale will your Goose be?

She's gonna be nice and big, in spirit and in fact- 1/72!  (The wingspan's about 53 inches, just over 4 feet, and the fuselage is just over three feet long)  Yeah, put me down as fully committed.

I've done quite a bit of work on it already.  Both wing floats are glued together, and one is pretty much fully sanded.  I already scratchbuilt an interior, and the hull is glued together, and in the process of puttying and sanding.  The putty/sand stage will probably go on for quite some time.  The kit is only 14 vacuform parts, but the fit is so bad it's still a pain in the rear.

Half of the tail is done, and pretty soon I'm going to need to start scratchbuilding some control surfaces.  Add to this my goal to motorize it, and there you go- enough work to keep me busy unitl the end of the Group Build! 

Sounds good, Tom! So, B-25, right? What scale are you working?

And Mike, you are indeed an animal! ....53" wingspan?! Wow!

Mark, happy to have you, we'll look forward to your Concord.

Geoff - I'm not sure which I'll be building yet, I have the Hasegawa B25J in 1/72 but I'm thinking of getting one of the AccMinn 1/48 B-25's ... I mean, size matters right?    I'll let you know after I go through some more pics of his unit and get a feel for which variant was used the most in the S. Pacific...

Okay, another update- a comparison pic (or two):

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/compare1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/LHprs/compare2.jpg

The wings are just temporarily taped together to a temporary wing spar.  (If you notice, the wings are flat, with no dihedral)  But you can see the size of this thing.  Both kits are 1/72, and you can see the foot-long ruler at the bottom.

You can also see some of my putty-work around the cockpit- and I'm still working at it.  Sanding goes on...  

Holy bagels, Batman! Mike that thing is massive! I can't wait to see it finished! Keep us posted.

Oh, I almost forgot, this is to everyone, large helicopters are also welcome in this build. So, if you have a Super Stallion or a Hind sittin' around, jump on in!

Here's a little appetizer for the GB. It's an old 1/48 Monogram C-47 I did last year. Although it's not my offering for this build, I thought I'd post a pic anyway. I've since added antenna wires, so maybe I'll update the pic later...

Here's my B-24 as of a couple days ago. I decided to use a new technique I like to call "prefading", where I applied an irregular brush coat of MM Faded olive drab over MM| green drab, followed by a thin blotchy coat of MM Olive drab. These pictures show the a/c before the final OD was applied. I'll try to get some more pics posted later in the week. It now has the final OD coat applied and I've applied the National insignia decals to the upper wing and left fuselage, I'll do the other two tonight.

Here's a close up of the pattern of faded OD

An overall shot

Tecs wrote:

Hi all, I would like to join in,I am going to be building the Monogram EA-6B in 1/48, is this big enough?, I have the Black Box resin cockpit set on order so once this is with me I will be ready to rock and roll.

Well, initially, I was thinking that an EA-6 was more of a fighter size aircraft, but then I checked the stats compared to a B-25 (which up 'til now was this build's smallest). Turns out the Prowler is actually longer and heavier (empty weight) than the B-25. So, given that, the fact that you're working in 1/48, and the EA-6B does have a crew of 4, I guess I have to say OK. Welcome aboard, Tecs.

hmmm I gotta go get the AccMin B-25 in 1/48 now... to keep in the spirit of things at least...

On a side note I finally found the link to my uncle almost definitely flying in B-36's... immediately post war he went to "Advanced Gunnery School" which appears to be where they taught the 'computerized' turrets used on the B-29's which most of his unit converted to... and around 1953 the 42nd bomb Group became the 42nd Bomb Wing and at least part of the squadron went over to B-36's... still plodding along with the history though...  the details of what I have found are over in the Memorial Day GB..

Geoff - I looked up some specs on your printer and it should be able to handle small and moderate sized decals just fine!!!  (I don't know how it would handle B-29 nose art in 1/48 but maybe so!) If you do try it use the "Best Quality" setting by going into the printer preferences and changing it there.  Just remember to let it "cure" about 48 hours before spraying it with the fixative...   I've used the Testors paper with no probs, I've heard the paper micro-mark sells is good too, maybe a little thinner than the Testors which would let it settle in better I would think...

A bunch of work has been done on the H-4, but unfortunately, none of it is very picture-friendly.  I've spent about a week (and half a tube of putty!) on a seam about 9 inches long.  My problem is that, because I plan to finish it in overall aluminum, the seamwork needs to be flawless.  I've finally got it acceptable (not perfect...), but there's still a few feet (dare I say yards?) of seams left to finish.  This is gonna take a while...

Wish me luck!  I'm gonna need it... 

-Mike, I'll definately wish you luck on that one, I still think you're partially insane! I can only imagine trying to do that in my little townhouse, that beast would nearly fill my living room! Keep us posted.

-Chris, no problem man, I'll update the list.

PanzerWulff wrote:

I think I'm going to hold off on my B-36 at the moment I really need to get up to speed on my NMF skills before I want to tackle it, so I'm going to do a 1/72 B-52 instead I'll get back to you on which version later TTFN

Chris - if you can find it, Floquil old silver provides a NMF very close if not better than Alclad (better because it's half the prep time)  It's an enamel so it goes on flawless and has a very metallic sheen to it... just an idea in case you want to tackle it later... it brushes well too with very little thinning!

Sturzkampf wrote:

can i join? i have a revell germany 1/72 blohm und voss bv 222 to contribute.

that would be a good build to see!  An interesting looking aircraft....  Welcome aboard!!!

tho9900 wrote:

Chris - if you can find it, Floquil old silver provides a NMF very close if not better than Alclad (better because it's half the prep time)  It's an enamel so it goes on flawless and has a very metallic sheen to it... just an idea in case you want to tackle it later... it brushes well too with very little thinning!

How do you think the Model Master Metalizers would stack up to the Floquil? (my LHS has them in stock)

gedenke wrote:

tho9900 wrote: Chris - if you can find it, Floquil old silver provides a NMF very close if not better than Alclad (better because it's half the prep time)  It's an enamel so it goes on flawless and has a very metallic sheen to it... just an idea in case you want to tackle it later... it brushes well too with very little thinning! How do you think the Model Master Metalizers would stack up to the Floquil? (my LHS has them in stock)

The buffable ones provide a nice finish but they are a little fragile.  Make sure to get some of their metalizer sealant when you get the NMF.  If helps protect it.  This is for the buffable finishes mainly, the regular metal finishes should be fine without it... The bottles look very similar so be sure to read them before ya buy so you know if you need the sealer...

Good Luck!

-=edit=-

I just looked at squadron and they have an "aluminum plate" MM buffing metalizer that should do the trick nicely... it would need the sealer...  I've used their burnt metal and burnt iron buffig metalizers and they look good so I am sure this one won't dissapoint!