Fleet Air Arm Group Build

Frank big congrats on your contest results , it's always nice to walk away with a trophy or two from any comp.  I'll be looking forward to seeing some pictures of your entries.  Oh yeah, as Mike said the Fleet Air Arm and Coastal Command were separate service branches.

Mike congratulations on your permanent residence status of Canada , it's a beautiful country that my brother and his wife spent some happy years in before they came back to Aus to raise their kids.

Cheers 

Here are some pics from yesterday's show.  I regret that a lot of them were out of focus, so I didn't post 'em.  Here are the good ones, as you can see the competition was fierce.  I still can't believe I won something!

1/48 ME-109 Trop, 1/48 BoB Spitfire, and a gorgeous 1/48 desert Hurricane:

An unbelievable 1/32 scale Tornado:

a wonderfully finished 1/48 Spit:

1/48 Corsair painted entirely with oils:

not sure of the scale, but I believe 1/32 Albatros.  The wood grain as well as the rest of it had to be seen to be believed:

Nicely painted 1/32 JU-87G:

Beautifully painted 1/32 Tomcat:

Some of the well done 1/72 aircraft:

200mm figures, expertly painted:

A couple of the armor subjects.  The amount of armor at this show was incredible!  There must have been a couple hundred of them.  Very well done indeed, sorry I didn't get more/better pics.

An overview of about 1/2 of the show:

Wish I was there.  Thanks for the pictures and again, congrats on the awards Frank.

Roy

Congratulations on the Awards Frank & thanks for posting the pics.  My FAA Firefly, that I posted earlier, took a First for 1/48 WWII Allied in a recent, local IPMS Invitational as well.

Regards,  Rick

Congrats on the awards and raffle prizes Frank. It does look like there was some really nice work there, so, yes, you should be very proud.

Leon 

Rick-

Congrats on your win!  Do you have any pics of that one?

Thanks everyone for the congrats!  Really makes one want to sit down at the bench and get to work on new stuff for next year.

I decided to change my Corsair from the all-blue scheme of KD431 to the green, grey and sky scheme.  Does anyone know what color the wheel bays were painted on these aircraft?  I'm guessing Chromate Yellow, but don't know for certain.

I'm glad you asked, I was going to paint mine in sky, so it'll be good to hear if that is wrong. Sorry, I'm no help, but thanks for helping me...

Leon 

Daywalker wrote:

Rick- Congrats on your win!  Do you have any pics of that one? Thanks everyone for the congrats!  Really makes one want to sit down at the bench and get to work on new stuff for next year. I decided to change my Corsair from the all-blue scheme of KD431 to the green, grey and sky scheme.  Does anyone know what color the wheel bays were painted on these aircraft?  I'm guessing Chromate Yellow, but don't know for certain.

I posted this before, early on, but here's a re-run .  Took a First Place Award for 1/48 WWII Allied Aircraft at the IPMS South East Michigan Model Expo (SEMMEX) last month.

As far as the wheel bay color on an FAA Corsair, I'm not sure but I would guess they would be painted in the underside color, which was standard practice on US Navy Corsairs.  I looked through my references, but couldn't find an authorative answer.

Regards,  Rick 

Rick-

Gorgeous airplane!  You should be very proud of that one.

I know this is off topic but I need some guidance from the experts   I'm getting ready to decal my Hasegawa 190.  I painted it all with Gunze paints.  Do I need to add another clear coat or is it good to go?  Also what is the best method to bring out the panel lines and other details?  If I can master this the next step would be full weathering.  Any and all help would be great.  As for my Corsair, I have managed to remove the rudder.  The plastic in this one is very hard.  A part of the tail broke off , nothing that can not be fixed

Thanks for all the help guys,

Roy

Roy,

I paint exclusively with Gunze, and it really depends on the paintjob.  On my Spitfire, the paint was between flat and semigloss, so I sprayed on a glosscoat before the decals.  The setting solutions reacted badly with the Future gloss.  On my '109 Trop, the paintjob had a semigloss to gloss sheen so I opted not to.  Not exactly sure why the difference in sheens, could have been the paint, could have been me.  One thing I have noticed about Gunze, it really doesn't react to setting solutions like some of the clear coats do.  Seems to make it easier to really get the decals to snuggle down.  Every once in awhile it will soften up the paint, but it has always dried very well as long as I left it alone.  I hope I haven't confused you even more.

Roy-

I pm'd my cell number to you, give me a call if you want to chat about the paint/clear.

Frank, awesome pics! Looks like it was a heck of a show! The quality of the work shown is just amazing, which reinforces my opinion of the calibre of your work. To have trophied against that level of competition speaks volumes. Again, well done!

Daywalker wrote:

Oh, yeah.  I also bought a 120mm resin figure, "The Daywalker".

Now that is cool! Gives me an idea for another group build.....movie characters! I've been dyin' for a reason to build that 1/8 scale resin 'Predator' I have in my stash!

darson wrote:

Mike congratulations on your permanent residence status of Canada , it's a beautiful country that my brother and his wife spent some happy years in before they came back to Aus to raise their kids.

Thanks much, Darren! It's been a long road and a grueling process, but it's finally over. Feels like 10 tons lifted off of our shoulders.

rjkplasticmod wrote:

I posted this before, early on, but here's a re-run .  Took a First Place Award for 1/48 WWII Allied Aircraft at the IPMS South East Michigan Model Expo (SEMMEX) last month.

Nice to see that bird again, Rick. Awesome work as usual. Congrats on your award....looks like it was well-deserved.

Found some interesting info on interior colors for US Navy aircraft.  Not exactly sure if the FAA aircraft adhered to the same color codes, but my guess would be proably so.  It does add merit to the aforementioned fact that the inside of the cowl on KD431 was factory painted white.  Check it out!

http://ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/05/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us_part3.htm

Thanks Mike!  I thought of you when I took that pic of the Hurricane.  It really made me want to build one.

Hmmm... a figure GB?  I've never really done one.  Must admit it sounds like fun, but a lil' scary too.

A lot of congrations are in order here-  Mike-congrats on becoming a Canadian citizen.

Rick & Frank-excellent work and congratulations.  That's one of the main reasons I enjoy the Group Builds-I get to witness some fantastic work.  And there are some excellent modelers in this build.

Daywalker wrote:

Roy- I pm'd my cell number to you, give me a call if you want to chat about the paint/clear.

I will give you a call later.

Roy

bobbaily wrote:

Mike-congrats on becoming a Canadian citizen.

Thanks much, Bob! Not quite a citizen yet, though. As of now, I have been granted Permanent Resident status, which is the first step towards full citizenship. This means I can live here full time, work, pay taxes, apply for a social insurance number (the Canadian equivalent of a SSN), apply for medical benefits, and carry a provincial driver's license...basically anything a Canadian citizen can do with the exception of vote in our elections and carry a Canadian passport.

TANGO 1 wrote:

I use Humbrol enamels myself, but looking through the latest Squadron flyer, I think the colours most useful will be: Polyscale Acrylics-- Extra Dark Sea Grey....FS36118 Dark Slate Grey..........FS34096 Sky...........................FS34504 These can be used for the RN WWII camo schemes. Later post war schemes were ususally Extra dark sea grey/white.   Hope this helps, Darren.

Hi guys..... I had a question on FAA colors and figured this would be the place!

I have an old Lindberg F6F-5 in 1/72 scale that I've had partially assembled for months. It's been a test bed for airbrushing techniques. I finally decided to give the little guy a real paint scheme as a reward for his help (), and as I have some spare British decals (from a Spitfire and a P-40.... surprise, surprise), I thought it might look neat to do it in FAA colors. The marking won't be real accurate, but that's no problem.

Anyway-- is the list of colors above appropriate for an F6F-5? Or rather Hellcat Mk. II?

Thanks! 

Roy-

It was a pleasure chatting with you this afternoon.  Don't forget to post those pics!

Likewise, I will be getting to those pics tonight or after work Monday.

Roy

Frank- thanks for the pics! There was some serious talent there.

Now these Corsair interiors.......I need to check my facts on this one, but the Brits had some of the earliest models, F4U-1's and 1a's. According to the article, the 1a's interiors were painted in zinc chomate green. So thats the way I'm going.

If you guys know different-let me know! 

Got nothing done today in the workshop.........will try and get there tomorrow. 

Take care all.

For what it's worth I'm doing my interior zinc chromate green also.

Roy

Wow, lots of chatter today!

Mike, congadulations on your permanent resident status.  I know its not an easy process and you must feal greatly relieved.  Wlecome to Canada and B.C.  It's a great place to live!

Frank and Rick, Congrats also on your awards.  One of these days when I'm not bogged down with all the usual life stuff I would like to just plan to go to an event never mind enter a build in one.  It's a 4-5 hour drive to Vancouver so I need to time a family vacation at the "apropriate" time one of these years.

wyoroy wrote:

I know this is off topic but I need some guidance from the experts   I'm getting ready to decal my Hasegawa 190.  I painted it all with Gunze paints.  Do I need to add another clear coat or is it good to go?  Also what is the best method to bring out the panel lines and other details?  If I can master this the next step would be full weathering.  Any and all help would be great.  As for my Corsair, I have managed to remove the rudder.  The plastic in this one is very hard.  A part of the tail broke off , nothing that can not be fixed Thanks for all the help guys, Roy

Roy, I too use Gunze paints almost exclusively these days and as a matter of rule I always apply a couple of good clear coats of Future prior to the application of decals and another one after the decals.  This serves two purposes in that it gives you a nice uniformly shiny surface on which to apply your decals as well as providing a protecting coat for the weathering that will come.

Don't worry by the way if the Future discolours slightly after the application of Microset, this is normal and always happens to me.  You will find the effect disappears after a couple of hours and the Future becomes clear again.

Cheers

jwb wrote:

TANGO 1 wrote: I use Humbrol enamels myself, but looking through the latest Squadron flyer, I think the colours most useful will be: Polyscale Acrylics-- Extra Dark Sea Grey....FS36118 Dark Slate Grey..........FS34096 Sky...........................FS34504 These can be used for the RN WWII camo schemes. Later post war schemes were ususally Extra dark sea grey/white.   Hope this helps, Darren.   Hi guys..... I had a question on FAA colors and figured this would be the place! I have an old Lindberg F6F-5 in 1/72 scale that I've had partially assembled for months. It's been a test bed for airbrushing techniques. I finally decided to give the little guy a real paint scheme as a reward for his help (), and as I have some spare British decals (from a Spitfire and a P-40.... surprise, surprise), I thought it might look neat to do it in FAA colors. The marking won't be real accurate, but that's no problem. Anyway-- is the list of colors above appropriate for an F6F-5? Or rather Hellcat Mk. II? Thanks!

Jon- 

sorry I did'nt answer this earlier! Those colours would be right for a Hellcat. I'm using them on my current build too.