Yellow Wing (1930 - 1941) Group Build May 2007 - May 200?

*ulp*   homina homina homina.....

 You know, I'm having the devil of a time getting started.  I feel guilty as you know what working on a model while I'm supposed to be looking for a job (and my benefits run out at the end of the year, not to mention money).  But I will persevere, and hopefully slap something together worthy of your laughter admiration.  Oh yeah - and find a job, too. 

Don,

You have figured out my secret.  Now I must ensure that you never let anyone else know.

Sure, Scott.  We know what's really going on.

You have one of those flippin' sweet time machines!

Don,

As fast as that camera goes through batteries, that is probably what happened.  Fortunately for me, the kit was not released back in 2003, so that adds a little credibility to my story.  Well, that and the fact that my first photos showed a 2007 date.

That's probably running off of the firmware date for you camera - when you buy it and put a battery in for the first time, it typically comes up with the date the camera's firmware was released.  If you remove the battery for any length of time it will revert to that date when you put the battery back in.  While digital cameras can be so easy to use, setting them up before you start using them can be a royal pain.

And we do believe you. 

ps1scw,

Thanks!   I did not notice until I was looking at your comment that my photos have a January 1, 2003 date on them.  I swear, I just finished the build!  I guess that I need to figure out one more thing with our digital camera.  

More Power Scotty wrote:

As promised, here is my finished project: I wanted to include a shot of the engine, as Accurate Miniatures does a very nice job with replicating them in their kits.  The decals with this kit were nothing short of phenomenal and adhered very well even without using Micro Sol.  The final sealant is Testors Metalizer Sealer, airbrushed straight from the bottle (gotta love easy stuff).  Let the questions fly, I will be glad to share how I did what I did.

Way Cool!

Thom,

Thanks for the compliments, and thanks for allowing me into the group.  Just because I have completed this build does not mean that I will not keep checking in on the progress of others.  Although I have a fair amount of stuff that I am committed to building now, later this year I may try to sneak another plane into this group build.  If nothing else, I will post a photo or two of the yellow-winged planes that I will be building for my USS Saratoga that I am working on now.

Don,

The Willow Green is straight out of the bottle Testors Model master enamel ("Willow Green", product #2028).  For the masking, I simply used Parafilm M, and fortunately for me, the tail markings were painted around naturally existing panel lines, which took out any guess work.  The paint really does come very close to matching the decal color, so I left well enough alone.  Thanks for the compliment, and let me know if you have any additional questions.

Scott,

Awesome work love the color scheme used. Thanks for being part of the build and showing us your work.

Now I just wish I could get time for building myself.

Thanks again hope you enjoyed the build.

Cheers,

Thom 

As promised, here is my finished project:

I wanted to include a shot of the engine, as Accurate Miniatures does a very nice job with replicating them in their kits.  The decals with this kit were nothing short of phenomenal and adhered very well even without using Micro Sol.  The final sealant is Testors Metalizer Sealer, airbrushed straight from the bottle (gotta love easy stuff).  Let the questions fly, I will be glad to share how I did what I did.

Don,

My one and only child is going to be starting college in two more years as well.  having been in some group buildds with much younger individuals, it is different being in a group with someone that must be close to my own age.  Good luck with your search, I hope that you are progressing along with that satisfactorily.

For the Group, 

I finished my Vindicator last week, and I am pleased with the results.  I must admit that the diretions got really strange towards the end with the wrong parts referenced in the painting tips as compared to what was actually being installed in the steps.  I found that the separate window sections do not fit properly to allow for them to be posed open in the back, and the painting masks for them were less than satisfactory.  I actually wound up painting the window frames by hand, except for the section that was painted over on the real planes.  I am having some issues with getting my Kodak program on my computer to download photos from our camera, but I will get some photos taken soon and do my best to get them posted here.  I hope that everyone else is making some progress as well.

Well, I'm here.  I haven't started yet, but that's only because I've been busy trying to find a job.  Believe me, there's nothing I'd like better than to sit down and start to throw a kit together, but I have a wife who's home for the summer and I know I'd never hear the end of it.  She already thinks I'm a stereotypical sitcom out-of-work husband.  And my oldest is going to college in 2 years, so I want to get back out there ASAP.  Otherwise, I'd be posting pretty good pictures of a horrendous modeling job right now.

Where is everyone? I know, you are all glued to your televisions watching the Tour de France on Versus like me in your spare time right?

I am just about to start placing the decals on my Vindicator.  I have run into a few fit issues towards the end of my build, and I am still deciding which canopy will be installed (the single piece, or the multi-piece).  Overall I think that Accurate Miniatures makes a nice kit, but their directions could have been a little easier to follow at some stages.  Anyway, I will try to get some photos posted in the not too distant future of a hopefully completed SB2U-1.

As an update, I have gotten the fuselage halves put together, the tail assembled and painted, and the upper wing halves installed.  I need to do some touch-up work, but overall, the kit looks acceptable.  I will work towards getting a photo or two posted in the not too distant future.  I do think that the pre-painting worked reasonably well, most of my touch-up has been due to an errant drop of glue here and there.  Definitely easier than masking and painting everything once the plane was assembled.  So far, my only critiques of the kit are that the upper wings did not quite meet up with the fuselage towards the back of the wings on the top of the plane (the left side was the worst of the two), and the supplied masks do not fit onto the canopies worth a darn.  I am still debating what I will do to fill in the various sized gaps that exist and will have to be covered.

alumni72 wrote:

Seeing the fuselage halves brings to mind a long-lingering question - do you cover the edges to be glued later with anything to keep the paint off?  I remember thinking that a bead of white glue along the edges would do the job, and would be easy to peel off when the paint is dry.  Sure beats scraping all the edges with a knife later on, like I used to do.  No matter how hard I tried I never got more than half of the paint off without wearing down the edges so they would no longer join up properly.

A very god low-tack masking meduim for this and general coverage to keep touch-up overpsray from ruining an otherwise perfect paint job that I am using for my chosen subject for this build is the cheap lint rollers you see at Wal-Mart and all the dollar stores.

What I do is keep a clean roller, and as I need it, I simply carefully peel off the next layer without rubbing it on anything, and I go ahead and peel off about 1/4" of the next layer sheet as well to loosen it up for my next need. Then I carefuly re-apply the outer wrapper to keep the next sheet clean.

I then trim the sheet as I desire with a pair of scissors, applying them as I wish. This should work fine for protecting unpainted edges.

As a general mask, I apply a trimmed sheet to the model's surface (such as painting a rudder fin a special color different from the rest of the fuselage), leaving a slight gap to the edge of my detail I intend to paint, and take some standard Scotch magic mending tape to finish masking detailed edges.

The back side is a nice heavy-duty slick/wax-type paper that resists super-glue,paint,epoxy and can be used as a protective/non stick surface surface as well, such as for gluing tiny details on a larger part when you don't want them to stick to the table surface.

OK?

Tom

Don,

I thought that I would try something a little different with this build, and I prepainted all of the aluminum while the parts were on the sprues.  Of course there will be seams to clean up and touch-up work to do, but I thought that this might make the build a bit quicker for me.  As far as the edges are concerned, I am scraping and filing the paint off before I add the glue.  I came up to play on the computer for a while, and to check my group builds, but I should be assembling the fuselage today, and I will post some in progress photos next week, as I am taking a few days off with the holiday.  Anyway, I am going to use the masks from the kit on the windows prior to painting them, and I plan on using Parafilm M to mask the aluminum paint when I get around to painting the tail section.  One suggestion would be to use the back edge of your hobby knife blade to remove paint, as it will not dig into the plastic like the cutting edge will.  This technique has worked pretty well for me.  Anyway, good luck in your search, I hope that something comes up soon for you.

Nice work, Scotty - I have that kit in my stash (via eBay) but I'm holding off for awhile - time will tell if it's a good or a bad thing (for me) that you're showing how good a job can be done with it.

Seeing the fuselage halves brings to mind a long-lingering question - do you cover the edges to be glued later with anything to keep the paint off?  I remember thinking that a bead of white glue along the edges would do the job, and would be easy to peel off when the paint is dry.  Sure beats scraping all the edges with a knife later on, like I used to do.  No matter how hard I tried I never got more than half of the paint off without wearing down the edges so they would no longer join up properly.

As for my progress, I've opened the box up a couple of times to look at the parts - I lost my job at the end of May so now my focus is on finding another one.  It's always something, isn't it?

Thom,

Thanks for the comments.  I wanted to get a picture taken before I glue the fuselage together, and it becomes difficult at best to see all of the detail that the kit has to offer.  I understand the work thing as well, and I think that I am also setting myself up pretty well for having lots of building opportunities in about 20 or 25 years (depending on how that 401K works out).

I will continue to keep the group informed as I make progress.

Hello Scotty,

The build looks great so far, the cockpit looks like it is coming along nicely. Thanks for sharing your progress pics with us. I'm trying to find time to sit down and work on mine, but work keeps interferring. I just have to deal with since it supports my habit of buying more kits that I'll need for retirement oh say in 25 years .

Keep the pics coming...

Cheers,

Thom

Alright, here are the photos of the progress thus far on the Vindicator.  I apologize for the photos themselves as I have not yet conquered the use of a digital camera.  I am willing to live with this downfall though, at least through cycling season.  Anyway, I am always open to any and all questions and comments.

Well, I finished off my Richard Petty car for the Monogram Group Build, and an Me-163 that I built because it looked like fun.  I have started my SB2U-1 Vindicator by painting most of the parts aluminum, and have started detailing the parts with other colors as well as some early assembly.  As soon as I make enough progress to take a worthwhile photo or two, I will share them with the group.

An item of interest, at least for me, when I was visiting my local shop on Friday, was a double kit offering by Accurate Miniatures of a 1/72 scale F4B-4 and P6E.  Both kits are the old Monogram offerings, but the detail looks really nice.  I have built the P6E kit twice in the past, but I had never run across the F4B.  Depending on how much time I have later in the year, I may try to build these up for this group build before it ends. 

alumni72 wrote:

Wow, Tom - I'm all out of breath just from reading your post.  That's a lot of thinking and planning there!  Me - I've opened the box to my Devastator.  Woot!

In my opinion, the Devastator's best paint job was the "yellow-wing era".

Just remember one thing, the chrome-yellow the wings are painted is not the same color as the lemon-yellow the rudder and elevators are painted. This is a common error made by modellers, and I do not recall if the Monogram instruction sheet is as clear on this as Hasegawa's is.

Tom

rlawson wrote:

Tom The squadron insignia you describe sounds like Scouting Sqn Two (VS-2 after July, 1937, originally VS-3B).  They used an Indian head in a warbonnet for years, on a number of aircraft.  Unfortunately, they also varied the style, so I can't say if the one you have is appropriate for the SBC-3.  If you can lay hands on a copy of Squadron's "SBC Helldiver In Action", there are a few pics in there that would help you. HTH Dick

Thanks, Dick.

Actually, since they varied the style, I don't guess it really matters, since frankly I do like the look of the old Aurora decal, and that is my first criterion, anyway. I just got a little suspicious since they also put out a kit of the Nieuport 11Bebe at about the same time with essentially the same insignia, so I just kind of wondered if they"faked it".

As for Squadron, I have literally given up on them as a source for anything, so I will be happy to take your word for it.

If you want to know why, see this link:

 /forums/789922/ShowPost.aspx

Tom

Hello Tom,

I found this in my Navy Air Colors United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Gaurd Aircraft Camouflage and Markings Vol. 1 1911-1945.

I do not know if this matches your decals, but at least it confirms that there was such an insignia used.

hth

Cheers,

Thom

Tom

The squadron insignia you describe sounds like Scouting Sqn Two (VS-2 after July, 1937, originally VS-3B).  They used an Indian head in a warbonnet for years, on a number of aircraft.  Unfortunately, they also varied the style, so I can't say if the one you have is appropriate for the SBC-3.  If you can lay hands on a copy of Squadron's "SBC Helldiver In Action", there are a few pics in there that would help you.

HTH

Dick