USAF 60th Anniversary Group Build--(non-aircraft subjects allowed)

I just finished my entry for this Group Build.  It is the Revell, 1/72 scale F-89D/J Scorpion.  I built it as a J model from the 119 Fighter Group, 178 Fighter Squadron of the North Dakota Air National Guard at Fargo.  The kit went together rather well with very few problems.  I left the main landing gear doors open even though they are closed in all the pictures I have seen of the plane on ground.  I wanted to be able to see the inside of the gear wells.  I guess the plane was undergoing some last minute maintenance before going on alert with the two Genie missiles.  The decals from the kit were terrible.  The first ones that I tried to use disentegrated into a gazillion pieces when I put them in water.  I sprayed 3 coats of clear decal fixer over them and let it dry for a week.  They only broke into 5 or 6 pieces the next time I tried to use them.  Getting the pieces lined up on the model was a real pain in the you know what.
  I used Model Master's Aero Master aerosol Aluminum Plate for the basic finish and buffed it to a glossy shine.  I sprayed some on several test scraps and then put different clear coats over them.  Every one of them took away most of the shine, so I didn't use a clear overcoat on the plane.  That is why the clear part of the decal shows up in some pictures.  Comments welcome.

more photos available at: http://s130.photobucket.com/albums/p265/te...89J%20ND%20ANG/

Grandma L

One word for your F-89 Texgal: GORGEOUS!

Thanks for participating and be sure to stick around, it's been a pleasure!

A bit more of the BOne:

I will get a good crack at this soon as i have some good weather coming (it's pretty cold out in my workshop!) and a few days off work.

BTW - Grandma Texgal - Excellent looking metal finish, real clean. Love it! 

 Al

nebrnative wrote:

I know I am joining a little late, but I would love to join in by building a KC-135R in the markings of the Nebraska ANG 155th ARW. I have the kit and a significant amount of the detail sets, but I am still working on putting together the decals. I may actually be force to attempt to make some of the markings myself. So if anyone has any suggestions on teaching a first timer on the art of making decals please feel free to provide suggestions. BK

Outstanding! I was Asst. Crew Chief on an R model back in the early Nineties and it's great to have one in the build! Welcome aboard.

Since I have the old AMT 1/72 KC-135A in my stash, I'll be very interested in this answer too.

If nobody comes up with an answer here, you might want to post a separate thread in the Airplane forum.

 Hi everyone,

Here is a bit more of the BOne - i have loads of "bits" in various stages of building - here is the main gear well which i have just about finished. Most of the detail is molded on, but I have added some wiring and Eduard photo-etch panels more for interest and fidelity: 

Aft end: 

Front end: 

I should have the landing gear finished by tomorrow, the pointy end by the weekend, and the back end about the same time.

Happy landings,

Al 

Yeh I used a 10:1 Turpenoid and burnt umber/black oil paint wash, laid on with a very fine (5/0) brush along the recesses and areas where i had added rivets. That's my preferred method now - I used to just splash it on with a wide brush and remove the excess with a cotton swab dipped in turpenoid. The thin brush method does the job in one pass and is much more controlled.

Anyway - here's the landing gear awaiting decals and finishing touches:

The nose gear still needs some lenses to complete the taxi lights:

This is the size of this stuff - the BOne's main gear next to a Tornado of the same scale!

I've now put the front and rear fuse halves together, and puttied and sanded and puttied and sanded and... you get the picture! 

If anyone is thinking of doing one of these colossus' then there are things to bear in mind:

1) it is BIG. Put up some new shelves

2) if you don't own one already, get a dremel tool. It will make grinding out all the huge ejector pin marks all over the detail parts a lot easier. (Some of those things are the size of headache tablets) 

Still - the build is going to plan so far. Next step - bombays and bombs - my favourite!!! JDAMs, bunker busters and WCMDs - this must be the most politically incorrect plane you can build. HEH HEH I LOVE IT!!!

Al 

Al,

OMG is that thing HUGE or is it HUGE?  Nice work on the landing gear and bays.  They look exceptionally well done.

Darwin, O.F. 

Just wanted to give a quick update on my 106. Progress is slowly but surely getting made. I've got the fuselage halves together, filled and sanded. The upper and lower wing halves are together and filling and sanding is in progress. Most of my time was spent detailing the wheel wells and then discovering that most of what I had done wasn't going to be visible.

As for the Bone, unless you have seen this kit in person, you can not grasp how big this mutha really is. I have one in my stash and had given serious thought to doing a kit for each of the 100 that was made. What was I thinking? It's going to have too wait to be built after I finish building my workshop. In real life, walking underneath the Bone is like walking in a parking garage, wide open spaces with a ceiling 15 or 20 feet over your head.

Further progress with the BOne - i'm getting a real good crack at it now the good weather is here!

Here's the rear fuse with Shawn Hull's (www.shull24.com) excellent ALE-50 decoy launchers and a scratchbuilt defensive avionics blister:

The next two are works in progress - first a Conventional Munitions Dispenser for 10 WCMDs (made from half the kit's internal fuel tank and plastic card)

These are the Conventional Rotary Launchers in the process of being superdetailed - the kit version is just a smooth cone of plastic. I didn't want to go overboard on it as most of it will be invisible when the JDAMs are on:

These are the resin JDAMs - Shawn Hull's bunker buster (GBU-31(V)) and the standard GBU-31. If you want a stock of these as most airplanes carry them now, the standard USAF JDAMs are by Golden Dragon - they come in a set of 4 for about $14 from GreatModels.com BUT beware! They are two-part assemblies - the front ends are OK but the GPS tails and fins are the worst cast bits of resin I've ever worked with - badly formed, lots of bubbles and surface imperfections. Be prepared to make lots of new fins! Shawn Hull's are just magic - accurate and so crisply cast they could be the real thing in monochrome.

These are the WCMDs in the process - they are the M-20 Rockeyes from the Hasegawa F-15E slightly modified as can be seen from the comparison. The WCMD is formed from Milliput and chopped sprue.

Thanks for the kind observations, it keeps me motivated to continue!

To answer nebrnative's question - I cheated. The tires *ARE* cast in rubber - all i needed to do was sand them lightly with a worn piece of 600 grit sandpaper to create the worn look on the treads. These airplanes are normally kept pristine, so the tires on the real thing are true black except the tread pattern - I used a bit of dramatic license to make them look less like a model....!

All the best Guys and gals,

Al.

How's everybody doing? Is anybody finding themselves slowed down by the improving weather?

My F-106 has been on hold, but I will be back to it in a few days and working on it exclusively until it's finished. Then I'm working on two NASCAR models with my kids. I might be able to fit in a second plane for this build, maybe my Chico the Gunfighter F-4.

yeah it's all gone a bit quiet in here lately!

We had some bad weather over here so I got some more done on the Bone:

Bombs (all 22 of 'em!) and bomb bays are finished!

I also managed to finish the nose landing gear with some MV lenses and scrap decals:

I can now close up the fuselage and start getting some painting done (yeehaw!) 

The last headachey bit is the engines so I'm psyching up for those.

I might also try and get another kit finished for this build - whaddaya say to a "lovely" 1/48 Esci/Revell F-100D Thunderbirds Hun mr cdclukey?

All the best,

Al 

Wow that's one heck of detail!

Looking forward to see more progress and above all the completed "beast"!

Hi again,

Took a short break from the Bone to build an Esci F-100D Hun in USAF Thunderbirds colours. It is not an easy kit to build (Monogram one is better apparently) but I did my best to make it out of the box (using the world's supply of putty and Zap glue!) The paint was various shades of Alclad 2 over a black gloss base:

The decals went on with Future but most of them disintegrated in the water so it was a long and painful job. You can't see all the mistakes from my pictures (deliberate "error")!

Back to the Bone - more to follow!

All the best,

Al 

Al, that Hun is 100% gorgeous! Great job on it and on the Bone compnents you showed upthread. Your Hun is retroactively accepted to the build with enthusiasm.

The decals went on with Future but most of them disintegrated in the water so it was a long and painful job. You can't see all the mistakes from my pictures (deliberate "error")!

No big deal, I feel your pain and a little photo trickery is no big deal if you're honest about it.

Now, everybody remember how nice I was to Al when I post my 427 Cobra photos over on the Revell-Monogram thread later this week...I've got the same reason for a "deliberate error" or to in my photography. :-)

Here's a quick update on my F-106. While waiting for some body paint to dry on my 427 Cobra, I got the Dart on the bench and made some progress. I've been laying down a lot of interior green and I glued the upper fuselage pieces together. They didn't fit all that well, but I had been warned about that and will just try to enjoy the puttying and sanding. :-) There's some serious gaps in the vertical stab and I've got a lot of extra glue on it (using a new glue and underestimated its flow rate) but I haven't hit any major obstacles yet.

Al,

Great work on both the BONE and the HUN.  The weapons detail on the B-1 is truly awesome to behold.

Darwin, O.F.

Guys - thank you very much for your supportive comments, they are highly appreciated and give me the motivation to keep going cos the Bone is getting quite tedious right now (lots of repetitive construction like 6 bomb bay doors each requiring up to 6 ejector pin marks to be cut, sanded, puttied and sanded again, then each door has four struts which need to be filed, ejector pin marks removed, glued into position, jiggled to line up etc etc ).

So - - - - Thanks!

Al

PS. few more pics of the bombs loaded on the launchers! 

Going back to work on Friday so this is probably it for a few weeks,

All the best and thanks again,

Al 

Hi everyone!

Bit more done on the engines:

First shaved off the nasty lumps round the nozzles: 

Then built up the very unsightly intake trunks with plastic card to eliminate the awful big gaps which would have been unworkable with putty and sanding:

Finished the compressor fans (altho they will be invisible with the radar cross-section vanes in place)

And finally the Cutting Edge burner cans and nozzles - which altho fabulously cast, are about 1mm too narrow for the Revell kit they were intended for!

More soon I hope - depends if this lovely weather continues or not!

All the best and keep em coming!

Al 

Getting a bit quiet in here!

Well I joined the old Bone bits together and .... WOW! it is a big beast!

There are a few "issues" with fit however:

I started painting as well - I used reverse shading for the first time. Start with the lightest colour (Tamiya Med Gray spray can), add details with a darker colour (Gunze FS36237 Grayish Blue) then overspray with a thin coat of the darkest colour (White Ensign FS36118 Gunship Gray)

I reckon after washing and drybrushing this will get the faded look I'm after.

Still need to see a lot of builds - how's everyone doing?

All the best,

Al.

It's coming along nicely Al! 

Good luck with those gaps, you going to use putty, strip styrene, a pleasant combination of both? 

Hi again,

espins - I managed to fill the gaps using a little miracle called Mr White Putty (from GSI Creos). It doesn't shrink when dry so it is great for filling big gaps and steps - no Revell modeller should be without it!

So here's the big bird primed and with the first coat of Tamiya Med Gray (FS36320) and pre-shading with Gunze Mr Color 337 FS36237 Grayish Blue: 

I also finished the Cutting Edge nozzles so the engine pods are all painted ready for fitting:

The only real challenge ahead for this kit (among the many so far) is to finish all the painting on the exterior and then add all the extras - vanes, antennae, aerials and sensors which are on modern Bones but not in the 1988-vintage kit (not Revell's fault, after all times change).

The final touch is on its way to me from Shawn Hull (shull24.com) - a Sniper XR pod to bring this build right up to date!

Just one observation - am I the only one still building for this GB? Only three months to go people!

All the best,

Al