The RCAF Group Build Birthday Party

Whoa, just got off work here on the West side of the continent and man there is a lot of catching up to do.  You guys went post crazy on me.  I'll try to get some info up on my build later but I thought for now I'd give you guys a little shot of what I built for the last Candian GB a couple of years ago to wet your whistle.  This is the airfix Sunderland kit (423 Squadron) and boy was it a peice of work.  Had to sand and beat that thing into submission but I think it turned out okay in the end.

Orange and Black, Orange and Black, Black and Orange, Orange and Black................If you didn't know this was the home of the Hamilton Tiger Cats Football Team you'd think it was the Realm of the 'Great Pumpkin'. 

You have some great choices guys.  This should be a fun build.  I have the new Revell Lancaster I/III on order but I'll be doing it after the Spit and Typhoon.  I'll probably have to put a sleeping bag under the Lanc and work on the kit en suite.  I never realized just how lucky I am to have these planes so close. My dream is to have a rich relative kick off and leave me the cash to buy a ride in the Lanc. - about $2,000 I think, but oh man, that would be one wild hour.

Reload wrote:

Poppie - I won't be adding any store bought details, but can we scratchbuild our own? Such as wiring harnes and the like? I am going to be doing 1/48 for both my models Westland Lysander in CHW colors, and a PBY -5A in  Hornell's markings. Please update in honor role. Thanks Awfully O'l Chap

AFTER-MARKET DETAILS: 'Store boughts' are allowed, just not encouraged for this very reason: - I'd really like to see just what we can 'scratchbuild' using our imagination.  I spent yesterday with my two grand-daughters rummaging through their 'jewellery making kits' and scrounging all kinds of beautiful, very thin, multi-coloured wire that they use for making earings and bracelets and such, that is going to make the most, ultra-attractive, knock your eyes out, wiring harness' that you've ever seen.  They may not be technically correct but their sure as heck going to look pretty!!

Sounds good with the sracthbuidling.

Looks like all I can find are 1/72 models of both as the 1/48 are not made anymore. Will have to see about the Lysander then........that's way to small for my liking. This just keeps getting more and more depressing.....

You bet you can count me in Poppie! Not for the Tutor though - I flew post uni.

I'll let you know which of the many I have to build soon enough   But I like the idea of a Sabre in this. Perhaps a..............

Hello,

Great pics; I'm actually building 104815 from 1 Canadian Air Group. I have the print from my dad as a memory of our days living in Baden. It's a fairly simple green camo which suits my not so great air brushing skills. I've got few 1/48 Hasagawa kits (PT18 and PT20) in my stash so this GB came at a great time....and I can't wait to get started!!

Cheers 

moskit wrote:

Hello, Great pics; I'm actually building 104815 from 1 Canadian Air Group. I have the print from my dad as a memory of our days living in Baden. It's a fairly simple green camo which suits my not so great air brushing skills. I've got few 1/48 Hasagawa kits (PT18 and PT20) in my stash so this GB came at a great time....and I can't wait to get started!! Cheers

Thats great Moskit. I'll bring you up to date on the Honour Roll and we can get started today. This is going to be a fun one.  Hope you don't mind me pulling your leg a big earlier though.  Poppie.

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear RCAF. Happy Birthday to you.

Happy Birthday to you. It is hereby commanded that we the members of the RCAF Group Build of 2008 make our way, under our own power, to our own icebox's, and snap-a-cap-a-(insert favourite brew), and drink a toast to plastic pounding and keeping alive the memory of a very valiant few who performed some very incredible deeds.  We are committed to re-create, a 'living testimonial' in recognition of their achievements and to establish, foster and maintain and lasting bond of fellow craftsmen, dedicated to the re-creation of their famous, and not so famous, aircraft, of old. To those who have gone before, Happy Birthday and a heartfelt Thank You.

Well guys, todays the official day, I've got two of my kits for the build in.  Here's the Spit that I'm doing - as I said, it'll have the markings of 401 Sqn as of 18 Aug 1942.

Here's my second build - a lot simpler in many ways but I've been warned that I can expect to do a fair bit of sanding on this one.  I'll probably do it in the markings of of 438 Sqn when they were chewing up the German Army in the Falaise Gap in August, 1944.

How do you guys organize a build?  I've found it easier, and safer, to have gone to Wal-Mart and bought some cheap tupperware like containers and use them for storage and what all. For instance, I bought a pile (8 in a pak) of 4"x4" containers. I label some with the name and date of each build I'm working on and keep the clear plastic and small parts separate in them til I'm ready to use them:

I've got a couple of bigger ones that I use for things like my 'Future Dip Tank'.  As soon as I take the cellophane of a kit, I double dip the plastic canopy and such in Future, let it dry, mask them, and then put them in their own small container.

I was in Michael's Craft Store and they had a sale on plastic containers for people who do 'scrapbooking'. A 1/48 kit with the small container fits in one just perfectly, the lid snaps shut, and my builds are pretty much safe from g/kids and dogs and the cleaning lady (me).

 I find I can have 3 or 4 builds on the go at the same time and never get the parts mixed up, etc. 

 It's a way of organizing myself that has just sort of 'evolved' without any conscious thought, it just 'happened'.  How do you guys keep things 'straight' and how do you start your builds?

Major question - other than the colour, which I know is crappy as my flash is on the fritz, do you find that this is the right size for pics.  I'd like to see us post a lot of pics of work in progress with a lot of suggestions, tips, and helpful  critiques going back and forth.  Could we do something more than just say: "Hey, great job there buddy"  - Lets try and be specific for each other and tell each other exactly what it is we like or find lacking.  I think that way this wil be a real 'learning' experience for all of us.  Poppie

Poppie, I like your containers very much for organization.  Picture size is Ok also.  I usually upload pics around 100kb.  I started the P40 this morning in between moving a foot of snow since yesterday afternoon.  Lake Superior can be pretty mean at times.  But the snow came from Minnesota this time.  I can send in progress shots if you like.

Jeff

jssel wrote:

I can send in progress shots if you like. Jeff

Hi Jeff,

'In Progress' shots would be great!!!  I'm hoping all the guys will start posting pics on what and how their doing. I have so much to learn and seeing a project 'grow' in picture form really helps me understand the dynamic of how things got to be what they are.  You know, looking at the finished product, you have no idea how the modeller (artist) got his/her project to look the way it does.  Who mfg your kit and what scale is it? I think you put down 1/48????

Whoa! I looked in the bottom of my stash and guess what I found..........a nice Hasegawa Typhoon Mk IB.  I'd rather do the Hase than the Academy....worlds apart...not the least is that the Academy is 1/72 and the Hase is 1/48.  Don't know why I was thinking the Academy was 1/48....guess I had the two of them mixed up in my head and just forgot that I had the Hase kit.  Happy, happy, happy me.  I have problems with the 1/72 because of a slight hand tremor and those small parts drive me batty......short drive....more of a putt.  Well, that fills my agenda for the next year and a bit.

I'm lucky in a way, I get to play all day as I'm retired and my wife is still working.  She has two years to go ( now figure this two year build) and I'm alone all day. It can be pretty boring at times though, so thank God for these little hobbies I've started.

My project for this group build is the Revell P40B in 1/48th scale.  This mold was produced by Monogram in 1964 and this release is labeled 2006.  The molds have really broken down by this time so cleanup of flash on all parts is necessary.  Probably one of the hardest tasks is filling in the "knockout" tab marks as some are in very tight spaces on the horizontal stabilizers and the interior of the flaps.  There is no wheelwells on this kit but since I am builing it OOB and once it is in the showcase no one will notice.  Overall reviews of this kit indicate that it is very accurate but low on interior detailing.  The decal sheet has not changed much in 44 years.  You get an AVG aircraft, a USAAC aircraft, and the subject of my build, a 403 Squadron P40 marked KH*R AH883.  Camoflage and Markings indicate that this aircraft was actually AH881. The Revell release has excellent quality decals.  I bought mine at Michael's Craft Store with a 50% off coupon for around $6.00 US. 

So today I did interior work in preparation for assembling the fuselage halves.  I also drilled out the exhaust stacks. 

More on 403 Squadron's short term P40 use later on.

Thanks for looking

Jeff

Jeff,

What size bit did you use to drill out the stacks.  Did you have to start with a 'pin' to mark it and then use a larger bit or is your hand steady enough that you just went right in?

Yep.. this is going to be loads of fun

All I've got are kits that are based on the RCAF - That's what started me back into modeling.

A trip up to Ottawa back in '06 after my mom had passed away  had me going to the Canadian Aviation Museum and the War Museum - that just brought back a flood of memories as I had been to the Aviation museum about 25-30 years before with my parents. Seeing those aircraft just made me long to get back into this "quiet hobby".

I had been down the "buying kits and never building them" road before in my adult life though... and I knew the pitfalls of just buying anything and everything and creating more of a retail store than a small stash of kits So this time around I had decided "nothing but aircraft used within the RCAF" - sure, there were many "cooler" aircraft out there flying for many other "cooler" air forces but, really, after doing some research and looking at the aircraft that were used and made here, there's plenty to be proud of and to keep my hands busy for years to come.

Ansons, Sea Furies, Vampires, Spits, Lancs, Hornets, Boxcars etc. etc. etc.  so many of them and all, in my eyes, cool

Thanks for starting this Poppie!!!

Cheers
Dave
 

Well, I started by giving my Hasegawa Spitfire a good scrub in dishwater and I was really pleased. I didn't find nary a single piece of 'flash' on the whole kit. Absolutely great! Hope this is a portent of great things to come with this kit.

I mentioned yesterday about rummaging through my grand-daughters jewellery making hobby supplies for odds and ends to use on the planes.  This is a picture of the really thin cosmetic wires that the kids gave me that they had 'doubles' of: They say they get it in a hobby store and just ask for jewellery wire and that it comes in 'hundreds of colours Poppie!'.  It's really fine, holds its shape perfectly, bonds great with CA to polystyrene, and the colours stand up well against the RAF Interior Green that just about everyone uses. They say it cost a couple dollars for a set of colours. I think you could probably get it at a place like Michael's Craft Stores.

  The rolls are less than an inch wide so they take up less space than a spool of thread if that gives you any idea of the diameter of the wire. The post on my wifes pierced earring is a lot thicker than this wire.

DaveCS wrote:

Yep.. this is going to be loads of fun Ansons, Sea Furies, Vampires, Spits, Lancs, Hornets, Boxcars etc. etc. etc.  so many of them and all, in my eyes, cool

Dave, when I was a little kid my parents used to pack us off to my uncles farm in Wooler, Ont. which is just outside Trenton. The planes from Trenton Air Force Base used to do their practice loops and dives right over the farm - so it seemed to our young eyes -that was Sooooooo cooooool -  I can still remember my uncle telephoneing the base because some young pilots in a Moth had 'buzzed' his cattle - he was in an uproar.  I imagine now, looking back, that the planes were probably a couple of hundred feet above ground but seeing them come down at me in a dive and then pull up and fly away used to just set my 9 year old heart a thumpin.  I spent about 4 - 5 summers on his farm and we could just sit on the side of the hill and look straight into the cockpits with a pair of binoculars, - or so it seemed.  I still get a thrill, and a young one at that, when I hear a Harvard or a Moth flying low overhead. 

I was out at CWH this afternoon picking up a set of decals for my Typhoon and I couldn't just go into the tuck shop, make my purchase, and come home. Naw, had to wander, scuff my shoes on the tarmac, daydream a bit, kill a couple of hours.........now where did that afternoon go?????  Was here somewhere, musta been an airplane around. Poppie's got his head in the clouds again.

jssel wrote:

At any rate, since my last posting I now have masking tape seat belts added and the fuselage halves together.  More pictures to follow. This sure is getting me out of a slump.

Glad your enjoying yourself Jeff. Now, time to do some teaching. I've heard of, and seen the results of, guys making masking tape seat belts in the past but I don't know how to make them. How is it done? I mean, the whole shebang - how do you make the belts, the buckles, install them, paint them.  They are something I'd really like to know how to do. Can you guys help me out?

Poppie, go to your LHS, and see if you can find a book titled, "Detailing Scale Model Aircraft" By Mike Ashey (it is put out by Kalmbach books and they have ads in FSM all the time) Here ya go, http://www.amazon.com/Detailing-Scale-Aircraft-Modeling-Handbook/dp/0890242054

This is how I started doing all the extras on model building. It shows everything form tools, painting, scratchbuilding, seatbelts, engines, re-positioning the movable parts....ect. Everything you can imagine, he has it in there. He is an ex-Navy Seal and his models grace FSM very frequently.

Seats belts, I learned from him, are made from putting 2 pieces of tape together, cutting them to shape, and you can buy PE seatbelt hardware for them.

Canopy, I do what you do. I have my special wet/dry sandpaper from 3600 grit to 12000 grit. I sand them out in order, and in the end they will be a tad milky. I then clean with white toothpaste (NOT GEL) rinse, and dip in future like you do. I then use scotch tape to cover the canopy and use a toothpick to bur the edges beside the frame. I use a fesh #11 exacto blade and carefuly follow the frame work on the inside. When done, the tape comes off the framing and not the clear glass portion. Take your masked canopy, and spry the 1st coat with the color that the inside should be. When dry, paint a 2nd coat of the outside color. When you are done the outside will be the outside color, but when you flip it over the 1st coat will show through the on the bottom.

A sad note for me today. I went to the LHS after searching the internet for 3 hours yesterday. Besdies an airfix kit (not my fav) there are no Lysanders to be found anywhere other than the 1/32. So I am goin to have to go with a Harvard I believe. Revell makes a 1/48 PBY but are in the process of re-issuing it. So instead I found a real nice 1/72 Acadamy PBY that got great reviews and looks to be perfect for what I want to do. 

Sorry to be so back and forth with the scales, but I just figured there would be kits if them to be had............my bad. I also noticed something else today in the LHS, there were alot of WWII planes, but holy moly were they outnumbered huge by the modern crafts. I really hope this is not a trend where some poeple tend to forget about the stepping stones of our countries.

Take a look at this web site. I use it all the time for walkaround photos, reviews, tips, tricks, ect.

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/index2.htm

Brent, I have an old Hawk Lysander. But you are most likely looking for something from this century since your not interested in the Airfix.

Just checked on ebay, there are 2 Pavla kits listed right now ! 

Reload wrote:

Sorry to be so back and forth with the scales, but I just figured there would be kits if them to be had............my bad. I also noticed something else today in the LHS, there were alot of WWII planes, but holy moly were they outnumbered huge by the modern crafts. I really hope this is not a trend where some poeple tend to forget about the stepping stones of our countries. Brent

Brent, I got the same terrible shock today in, of all places, the Canadian Warplane Heritage!!! What WWII planes they had were well stocked, but my gosh man, you'd think the prop had gone the way of the hand egg-beater (remember those). The one high spot for me was that they carried a ton of the Hobby Craft Easy Build kits for beginners and were selling them to the school kids off the bus tours.   On the other hand, the cashier told me they were not going to be handling plastic kits in the future but were going to be sticking to the cast iron, ready made  planes. Don't know whose going to buy them at 200 and 300 dollars a pop! There are a few nice lines by Franklin Mint and Corgi, I have a few of the 1/72 but their hard for kids to come by at $25 a plane. Absollutely terrible markup prices.

Thanks a million for the lesson on the canopy and the lead on the book. I'll be plunking down my money as soon as I'm through this post. Probably buy a copy for my son as well as he's starting to get back into modelling now that he's in his forties.  My youngest boy has shown a great interest in my hobby these past few months. He and his comic book kids, Nat and Nate, (age 7 & 4) brought me in a lovely  30" framed and double matted painting of a Spitfire . I was pleased as punch and when I asked them what the occasion was they said: "Oh, this is just an 'We love you Poppie Present".  Man, did I tear up.  Had it hanging over my doorway in the living room in 3 minutes flat.

It was a great experience to have my two sons and their two sons sitting at my workbench with me working on a couple of easy-build models last week-end, - three generations of modellers talking and teaching and learning and just having a general all round ball.  The afternoon shot by.  I helped them do a rough spray job of acrylic so it dried that night, put on a coat of Future and we did the decals Sunday morning. Then my wife had to put up with one old geezer, her two sons and two g/sons aged 9 and 8 running around the house with airplanes in their hands doing immelmans, half-rolls, inverted dives, ratt-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat *gotcha*, I'm hit, going in Poppy, your dead dad, watch this plane smoke em Dad,...............it was a blast. Best time I've had in years.

Thanks again for the lead on the FMS book - gotta go buy two.  Poppie.

Summit wrote:

Brent, I have an old Hawk Lysander. But you are most likely looking for something from this century since your not interested in the Airfix. Just checked on ebay, there are 2 Pavla kits listed right now !

The only reson I don't like the Airfix is because I remember doing so much sanding on them. Maybe they have gotten better? Is yours 1/72 or 1/48? Can you give me the wing and hieght dimensions possibly?

Do you have a link for those ebay kits? I typed in Lysander and got 0 results the other night.

 Poppie - glad to here you had so much fun with the family, too bad about the plastic kits though. I can't believe they are going to the die cast........everyone has 2 to 300 clams for kits these days eh? My daughter has a table across from me and she is going to be starting her Revell/Monogram Spitfire MK I soon, hopefully she will have as much fun as she did when I took her flyin gin the Cessna 172 I used to fly up in Canada.

Brent

Thanks for the lead on the book guys, I put my order in for a used one - says it should be here in 2-3 weeks but my experience is that it usually only takes about one week for Chapters.ca to get things delivered.

For some reason Amazon.com will not ship used or rare books to Canada. I've tried several times to place orders for different items and after inputting all my data and credit card info and clicking 'purchase', I get a message that 'they are unable to ship to the address provided'. Bummer.

Brent,

If you're lucky you can search (and find) the Gavia 1/48 Lysander kit on Ebay - it shows up from time to time - and hey, we do have 2 years to build it right?

Poppie,

I've got that book that was suggested  by Brent. It's a good book but I never noticed that one section regarding framing before - fancy that, you learn something new every day!!! 

Folks, seeing as how we're asking some questions I have a very basic one regarding a common activity that seems to elude me every time I try it - stretched sprue - I swear, I've tried a ton of times lately and, maybe the plastic composition has changed since I first started building about 30 some years ago but I can't seem to stretch sprue thin enough for making aerials etc. 

Does anyone have any personal methods that are, basically, foolproof for all brands/age/colours of plastic sprue?

Cheers,
Dave

P.S. don't get me started on prop kits going the way of the do-do....  and if I see one more company kit another Focke-Wulf 190 or ME 109 or Spit I'm going to scream - there are so many more props that deserve to be kitted... *sigh*