Fleet Air Arm Group Build

Those Eduard kits are nice! I have their Tempest kit in my stash. I am planning to do my Hellcat mostly OOB, as I want to start with something easy/fun to do.

My Corsair will quite likely have its office upgraded as its such a nice kit, I will probably use the Eduard set foir that. 

Hi all,

I've been in the workshop today trying to salvage the poor paint job I did on my Spitfire. I have had a crack at doing the camo freehand and I'm not happy with it so I think some masking will be called for. 

In the meantime, I think I will have a peek at the 1/72 Lynx that I have in the stash, just to keep  me occupied.

Still waiting for paint to dry on my Spitfire.........

So........I opened up my Royal Navy Lynx Mk.8  !!!

I looked at the parts.......read instructions......then all of a sudden I was overwhelmed by the urge to start removing parts from their sprues and started to clean, sand and assemble them. 

It was good!

Before I knew it, I had the interior and rotor assembly built and painted

Time flies when you're having fun!! 

I'll call this my "Warm up" entry to the G/B.

I'll post pics when I get some drybrushing out of the way. 

Ahoy there mates, just returning from a spot of emergency shore leave

Darren, I agree with Bob post some pics of the Spit and the Lynx.  That way we have something to keep us in the mood so to speak.  I'll try and do a bit more on my 1/72 Sea Fury as well so I can post some snaps of that. 

Btw what has actually happened to the Spit to cause you so many problems?  You mentioned the camo, but what exactly is wrong with it.

Roger has your Dauntless shown up from evilBay yet?

Cheers

Darren-

Sorry to hear about your Spitfire woes.  I think I can relate with you on that one.  As for starting on your Lynx, I have to be honest- I clipped and sanded a couple of parts on my Corsair yesterday.  Just couldn't wait.  I'm so ashamed... 

Frank I know the feeling, I've pulled out the Spitfire about a dozen times so far and have examined the instructions six ways from Sunday, and so far I'm holding strong

The one thing that worries me with the kit is that I have to cut the lower wing section of the Tamiya Mk.Vb Spitfire into three sections so that I can toss the old wings and add the resin "C" wing.  I can see the whole thing going very well or ending in complete disaster

Cheers

Well I have finally managed to make up my mind with what to make - I will be doing the Special Hobby 1/48 Barracuda Mk II. As a semi backup I have a 1/72 RAN Firefly Mk V that I have half done.

I really want to make an FAA or RNZAF Avenger but unfortunately I only have 2 x TBM-3 Avengers in 1/48 from Accurate Miniatures. I also have some Kiwi markings and the Aeromaster declas for the FAA but they need the TBF-1C to use them.

Darren

I got a nice ocean grey over the airframe and thought I'd be a clever *** and spray the dark green freehand. Well it was not very good, the edge was waaay too feathered and did'nt look "in scale" So, to fix it, I have added some more green, then put a liquid mask over over the green so that when I spray the grey again, I should end up with a neater demarcation line between the colours. I hope so......

As for the Lynx, when I have the interior done, I will post some pics. So far it only has the base colour on. I'm not going to dress it up as I will be building the model with doors closed. 

But don't worry-I'll have something to show soon.

Daywalker wrote:

Darren- Sorry to hear about your Spitfire woes.  I think I can relate with you on that one.  As for starting on your Lynx, I have to be honest- I clipped and sanded a couple of parts on my Corsair yesterday.  Just couldn't wait.  I'm so ashamed...

I dunno......you guys!

Well, i am happy to report that i now have the dauntless in my possession! I'm gonna see if i can get started on it tonight. But i think it would be prudent to put some work into refining my small workbench before i really get into sitting down to a build. Of course as luck would have it, i find myself pretty much all over the flight roster at work for the next few weeks, so i think time for me may at a premium.

   I didn't realize it before, but i see now that the dauntless i got here was the Confederate Air Force version released by Monogram in the late 80's. The decals and paint scheme shown on the box looks more like the pre-war markings. I haven't decided if i'm gonna do it like that and go straight outta the box, or if i might look into aftermarket stuff. So, maybe the lack of free time for the next week or so might not be a bad thing. Gimme some time to consider my options. Don't suppose anyone has any words of advice on this kit, would they? I'm still pretty much a novice who has been out of it for several years, so any nuggets of wisdom would be great. Thanks!

harvs73 wrote:

Well I have finally managed to make up my mind with what to make - I will be doing the Special Hobby 1/48 Barracuda Mk II. As a semi backup I have a 1/72 RAN Firefly Mk V that I have half done. I really want to make an FAA or RNZAF Avenger but unfortunately I only have 2 x TBM-3 Avengers in 1/48 from Accurate Miniatures. I also have some Kiwi markings and the Aeromaster declas for the FAA but they need the TBF-1C to use them.

Dave,

I like the choice you have made! I have always fancied building a Barracuda so I will watch your build with great interest. I have heard it is a difficult kit, I hope it does'nt give you too many problems. 

DesertRat wrote:

Well, i am happy to report that i now have the dauntless in my possession! I'm gonna see if i can get started on it tonight. But i think it would be prudent to put some work into refining my small workbench before i really get into sitting down to a build. Of course as luck would have it, i find myself pretty much all over the flight roster at work for the next few weeks, so i think time for me may at a premium.      I didn't realize it before, but i see now that the dauntless i got here was the Confederate Air Force version released by Monogram in the late 80's. The decals and paint scheme shown on the box looks more like the pre-war markings. I haven't decided if i'm gonna do it like that and go straight outta the box, or if i might look into aftermarket stuff. So, maybe the lack of free time for the next week or so might not be a bad thing. Gimme some time to consider my options. Don't suppose anyone has any words of advice on this kit, would they? I'm still pretty much a novice who has been out of it for several years, so any nuggets of wisdom would be great. Thanks!

Roger, 

glad to hear that your kit reached you safely 

I have not any experience of this particular kit, so I cannot offer any specific advice on it, if you have been out of the hobby for such a long time, it might be a good idea to lay off the aftermarket stuff until you feel OK using it. Just an idea, you do it which ever way suits you.

TANGO 1 wrote:

Dave, I like the choice you have made! I have always fancied building a Barracuda so I will watch your build with great interest. I have heard it is a difficult kit, I hope it does'nt give you too many problems.

 I have heard a bit about the kit but I found that a build review was done on it at ARC and I  printed that off for reference. From what I understand a lot of the problem is just the floor and bulkheads being too big. But having looked at it there is a fair amount of cleaning up of pour stubs and flash on the parts. I was in fact tossing up between the Barracuda or the Grand Phoenix Firefly Mk 1 I also have. But as there is less resin in the Barracuda it won this time.

Hi crew!

As promised here are a few pics of todays butchery in the workshop.

First up, my troublesome Spitfire. You can see the camo pattern is not quite right yet, I have just torn off the large bits of the liquid mask. When the paint dries proper, I will tidy up the edges. Anyhoo, the demarcations are better now. I just need to polish things up a little. One thing that has disappointed me is that the panel lines on this kit are very shallow. After 3 light coats of paint one can barely see them, so some re-scribing will be needed.

Now we move swiftly on to my 1/72 Lynx. I like this kit! Nothing special, just a fun build. I am trying a few things out here, it may look daft now.......but give it a chance.

I have added some tissue paper to the interior walls and ceiling to simulate the padded material inside helo's. 

Here is a closer look.

This is the rotor assembly, not bad for OOB .

Here's the office, small to say the least. I've added a few bits to it to make it look more interesting. Used a little artistic licence here.... 

Well, thats all for now. Time I sat back by the fire for a cup of tea and a slice of cake. 

Looks good Darren.

Regards,  Rick

Thanks Rick!

I'm glad someone else thinks so!

That does look nice, Darren!

I am curious though, cause i gotta Spitfire waiting it's turn on the shelf until my skill with an airbrush improves. But ya mentioned the camo didn't look quite right. How so? I'm curious to know. I think the camo will probably be the most difficult thing when i go to do it.

Darren-

Looks to me like that Spitfire of yours is turning out beautifully!  And, that little helo is looking good too, great idea on the tissue covered sidewalls!

Roger, Frank,

Thanks for the kind words fellas, it helps when things don't go so well in the workshop.

To answer Roger's question, when I first sprayed the camo green the edges were too soft and there was quite a lot of overspray. Now I have used a liquid mask, it is much improved.

However, the pattern is not quite accurate, so I want to touch it up here and there. For example a couple of curved edges need adding on the port wing. No big deal....I'm just a fussy so and so.

I am not good at freehand camo.....yet! Therefore I use a mask, weather its made from paper, tape or liquid is up to you, but if you are like me then a mask is the way to go when spraying a camo pattern on anything in this scale or smaller. 

I use paper masks for the SPitfires I make. This link gives a bit of info on how I do it:

http://www.aussiemodeller.com/pages/Reviews/acft%20kit/Harvs_spit14e.html

Essentialy I use the instruction sheet photocopied to the right scale as cutouts then cut small squares in the centre of each paper piece. I then tape the paper to the model which allows the edges to be up a little allowing the airbrush to leave a fine soft edge.

Dave that's a beautiful looking Spit, great job . 

I've had a read of your build article and I'm afraid I don't understand the part where you mention "cutting squares in the paper and using scotch tape to hold them down through the mask".  I get the holding down with sticky tape bit but what's with the squares?

Darren I'm going to agree with everyone else, I think your Spitfire looks just great.  Although you didn't show any shots of the camo before hand, the end result looks spot on.

Cheers

Well, I went and did what I didn't want to...on order for the Hellcat Mk.1 are:

Techmod decals (800 Sqdn. Atlantic theater), Eduard Color Zoom (interior only-instructions look pretty straight forward), True Details resin wheel/tyres, Ultracast resin seat (can't build without that..) and with sooo much cockpit detail, just had to try a Squadron vacumn form canopy. 
So much for my OBB....