Fleet Air Arm Group Build

It's raining cats and dogs here to Mike.  Just in time for the holiday weekend of course' but then its a perfect excuse to spend time at the sork bench.

Three modeling benches in one house... Now there is a scarey thought.  don't imagine much modeling would get done until the Rum rations ran out!

Frank found my cross reference chart

Extra Dark Sea Grey is Gunze H333 - no tamiya match

No match for the dark slate grey in either gunze or tamiya.  Both polyscale (505266) and MM Enamels (2056) have it though. 

I thought I might be able to fix the paint that I had already sprayed, but it was not to be.  Last night, I worked on her half of the night and ended up sanding back the paint so I could fix it and redo it.  This morning, I went to the LHS and picked up some MM dark sea grey and dark slate grey.  Not sure if I am going to take a lil' break from her for a lil' while and concentrate on the Spit, or if I am going to press on.  In the past, something like this would have landed her in the scrap box, but after all I went through with that blasted Zero, this shouldn't be too bad.  Here is how she looks today:

Frank, think of it as a FAA overhaul/refit  I'm sure it will turn out great.  Well three weeks before I leave .  I looked into a stop in your town but it's too far out of the way.  Keep the progress report going.

Roy

Been there myself, Frank. Sometimes I've found it best to put projects aside for a while, then get back into them with a fresher perspective after I've worked on something else. Forcing myself to work on something takes all the fun out of it, but if the desire to see it through at that moment exists, I'll stay with it. I'm sure yours is going to be a real looker when done!

Roy, that 3 weeks will just fly by! You'll see! You will be up and modeling again in no time!

Dave, looks like we might get a break from the rain, at least for today and tomorrow. I'm hoping so, because the grass really needs to be cut and I hate doing it when it's wet.

Roy, Mike-

Thanks for the encouragement guys!  I think I'm going to keep at it for now.  Nothing like a lil' setback to keep one humble.

Frank, then again what fun would it be if everything went the right way  From the look of the Zero (Which I think looks very cool)this should be a cake walk my friend.

Roy

I for one am not an expert but maybe you should consider what Mike said, set it down and come back to it later.  Or ask yourself what have I done different on the last 2 paint jobs compared with the way I used to do it, Just my .  Bottom-line, it will turn out OK.  Or as we say in the Homebrew world, "Relax and have a homebrew"

Roy

Frank-

Glad to hear you're not beaten yet! Just take your time with it and all will be well.

In the meantime, have a tot of rum and relax a little.

My news is that I have been sanding and filling the Mk.47's engine bulges, I noticed this morning that there was a slight gap which the paint did not take care of. I have also spayed on the white paint for the invasion stripes on the wings. My plan is to get the black stripes on next, then gloss and mask it all so I can get on with the rest of the airframe. It a fidly way of doing things, but I recon its a safer bet than using the decals I got in the box. I put some pics up when  the paint job starts to make sense!

I thought about it quite a bit, and decided to change the scheme of my Corsair back to the original idea- glossy sea blue overall.  Maybe that's why I was having so many difficulties with her, she wanted to be all blue like I had originally planned!  Of course, that means some modifications to the airframe.  Here's what I have to change:

1. Change the spine antenna from whip aerial back to standard Corsair mast.

2. Paint the wheel wells from sky back to sea blue (no easy task on a buttoned-up Corsair!)

3. Sand down three tone scheme, underpaint entire airframe int. green, then glosscoat before sea blue.  This should (hopefully!) aid in the heavily scratched appearance of this aircraft today.  Here she is all green!  Hopefully will begin painting the glossy sea blue tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July my friends!

I wish all my friends on the other side of the pond the happiest of celebrations. For some reason its not a big holiday in my part of the world.........

On this day I always recall that scene from The Great Escape when Steve McQueen and James Garner muster the men to the sound of drums and they salute the RAF CO with a cup of hooch and a shout of "Down with the British!"

The CO accepts the drink, smiles and with typical British reserve replies...."Couldn't agree more........" No matter how different we may be-will are always on the same side.

Frank-

first up, I wnt to say a BIG THANK YOU for those decals. They arrived in the post today and I am delighted with them.

I will be using these on my Mk.47 so I will take extra care with them. Thanks again, I'm very greateful.

Secondly, Nice work on the Corsair! I was reading a great build article on a Gloss Blue FAA Corsair and the way it was weathered was superb, the chap used light colours on top of dark to highlight the panel lines and give a well worn appearance. I'll scan a picture later and put it here so you can see what I mean.

I've not much news myself as I haven't been at home today. I went to visit RAF Cosford with my best mate and it was briliant! They had a Mk.I Spit in their museum and I also got to have a walk around a Vulcan bomber too! As you can imagine, we had a cracking day there-I put some pics up at a later date.

Darren-

Glad to hear they arrived safely, and that they are what you were hoping for.  Glad to return the favor, my friend!

Thank you for the compliments on the Corsair, I painted her all blue yesterday (TWICE!), and after the near disaster with the first color I thought she was doomed.  But, another couple of coats of my favorite brand custom-mixed and I think I can live with it.

Your trip sounds exciting, wish I could have been there!  PLEASE do post pics, I'd love to see them!

Looks like you can save this one Frank.  Good work.

Regards,  Rick

Will you guys please stop tempting me to buy a Corsair to go with the rest of the FAA aircraft!!!!

I bought the 1/48 SH Skua the other week but I have passed on the Roc as I reckon I might wait for the inevitable 'Hi Tech' version from Special Hobby. The Skua is ok but it will definately need some work to get it made.

 Anyway, I am in search of images/profiles of the TBM-3 in FAA service as I have two Accurate Miniature kits that I don't want to do American aircraft with. Can anyone help?

The Barracuda hasn't progressed anywhere but the Firefly has it's first coat of paint on it. I had to remove the original coat due to it being a bad ti of Humbrol paint. I'm hoping to get the drak grey paint on tommorrow after I have fixed the odd crack that has shown through the intitial paint job.

Sorry Dave!  Not trying to influence another modeler to spend more $$$ on kits, but I have to admit that the Tamiya Corsair is a fun kit to build!

Nice score on the Skua.  I had never even heard of it until this GB and I bought the Osprey book "Royal Navy Aces".  I really like that plane, and may have to add one to my collection. 

Here's a photo I found for your Avenger:

Dave-

I found these........

Hope they help.

Gentlemen.......

as its the weekend, I thought we should all take a moment to reflect, relax and get blind drunk

Its weekend rum ration time!!

CHEERS!

TANGO 1 wrote:

Gentlemen....... as its the weekend, I thought we should all take a moment to reflect, relax and get blind drunk Its weekend rum ration time!! CHEERS!

Cheers!  Timme four eveerywon too hav a drink orr too ann relacks...

OK, maybee moore than too...