Interceptors GB 2018 - CLOSED

My decals came in the mail yesterday late afternoon but was busy helping my daugther move till late in the evening so not much done except reviewing the sheet and finding a couple of mistakes thanks to Hasegawa.

I should have ordered this Eagle Cals sheet from the beginning but trusting that Hasegawa's info was correct and their decals were still in good condition has been rather a disapointment.

The  Eagle Cal instruction sheet also provides pictures of the actual aircraft credited to Jerry Crandall and three other gentlemen cleary showing the pin stripe of the Stab JG4 tail band that Hasegawa totally omitted.

I painted it as per Hasegawa's description:

Pin stripe added as seen in the actual picture of Michaelki's Dora:

This was as simple as slicing a couple of thin strips of white decal film from a leftover helicopter decal sheet I have in my spares decal box.

Another area where Hasegawa goofed is in the nose spots where they list it at RLM 75. In reality, it was RLM 84 which makes it stand out more. This will be my next mission to carefully spray RLM 84 over the present spots.

The nose spots were carefully re-sprayed with RLM 84 Grey/Green which has a higher contrast as seeen in the pictures of the actual plane.

Some of the decals went on but it's getting late..

I decided to have a NMF on the drop tank. It was weathered with oils and Prismacolor pencils.

Fuel streaks are present.

Correcting the splinter pattern on the wings will be next.l

Another update on my Dora....I was gonna give Hasegawa a pass on the color scheme mistake on Michalski's Dora thinking the kit was older. The kit isnstruction sheet is from 2005 and the Eagle Editions decal sheet containing the updated information is from 2003 so Hasegawa should have done some checking since the info was out and verified in actual pictures.

But then the Eagle Editions sheet has Michalski's name misspelled as Michaelski so even they made a mistake. As a side note, 21st Century makes a 1/32 diecast model of Michalski's Dora and they actually got the scheme and name correct LOL.

The corrected left wing tip area has what appears to be a paint patch, or half painted. This part is clearly visible in one of the pictures in the Eagle Editions sheet so It's correct.

The right wing also has a filled in area forward mid wing with RLM83 and the top of the right aileron is a solid RLM75 cutting into the green area.

Most all of the larger decals are on. I still have to add several small stencils.

I was going to replace the guns with brass tubing but I drilled out the bores even more and painted them several shades of Alclad paints till I got the desired metal color. I then hand polished them with a soft cotton rag giving them a metallic sheen.

The wing cannons

and the nose guns

I was going to replace the loop antenna with thin brass strip but tried first to thin the plastic to see how thin I could get it and it actually looks to scale so I will be using the part as is.

There are a couple more plastic antennas I will be replacing with thin surgical wire I have courtesy of my late friend and former FSM member John Staworski who sent me a ton of this stuff some years back.

Have been working on the canopy details so here's what I did. Very carefully I drilled down into the canopy so the aerial can come in clear thru. It will attach to the rear bottom of the frame.

Scrap pe pieces were trimmed to make the top canopy frame wire brackets. Using my mini drill bits  a clearance slot was made on the top brace so the antenna wire can go thru and attach to the pulley at the bottom rear that I made from stretched sprue.

Wires attached and threaded thru the pe gussets aft. Once the CA securing the wires is dry they will be trimmed. A simple pulley was made from sprue and will have the antenna wire attached once the plane is completed.

This is how they look

The bottom antenna was cleaned up and the thick plastic tip sliced off and replaced wih thin surgical wire ca'd in place. Next will be painting it then attaching it to the Dora's belly.

Hasegawa dropped the ball here with the dash padding/coaming. It's missing a piece for the Revi sight to sit in which is absolutely wrong.

So the first thing to do here was to add some stretched sprue to match the rest of the padding.

I did some minor surgery on the Revi16B sight to make it fit in the square and added the glass pieces to it. I have resin ones but the Hasegawa sight was equally well made so I used it for this build.  I also see in the picture the white is showing on the inside of the seatbelts . I need to touch up those to get rid of that white color.

I also attached the boarding ladder, loop and small straight antenna. The smaller antenna is a piece of very thin metal.

For the pitot tube, the thiiner part was replaced with .004 brass pipe into a drilled hole in the thicker plastic part.

Been busy with house things bu got to attach the drop tank and added the metal fuel lines a few minutes back. I like how the NMF drop tanks looks on the painted plane. I weathered the main wheels and dirtied up the doors since they operated from grass fileds. Next will be a flat coat and dot filtering/weathering. 

I like to take pictures as I go which magnifies any issues missed by the human eye. Another method is placing a small mirror to view from different angles. Silvering is visible on one of the tank decals.

Sometimes the silvering appears no matter how glossy the surface is but I usually kill it by taking a new #11 blade and lightly scoring the decal film then apply good old Solvaset to get it under the decal film which usually works. I did it to the one decal on the tank and the silvering was neutralized.

And same angle as the original picture.

Thats excellent work you've done one the Dora PJ!

68GT

Thats excellent work you've done one the Dora PJ!

 

Thanks GT! Again apologies for not posting sooner.

Nice! It's impressive, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed that you were able to drill such a small hole to put that metal pitot tube in. I t looks pretty small!

BrynnWryttur

Nice! It's impressive, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed that you were able to drill such a small hole to put that metal pitot tube in. I t looks pretty small!

 

Yes it's VERY thin and the plastic part was very tricky to drill. I used a pair of small pliers with masking tape applied on the grabbing surfaces as padding to carefully hold the part to be drilled. If that sharp thin drill bit slips off it goes into one's finger OUCH!!

By the way, these tiny drill bits I ordered from Home Depot and are made in the USA by Gyros. They are high speed steel and VERY sharp. Got several sizes to replace the missing ones from a set I bought over 30 years ago.

My Dora is completed and in my display cabinet. Maybe later I will add a base for it but who knows.

Thoughts on the kit.........Very enjoyable to work on with great parts fit. Hasegawa provides the foundation for a Dora and you go from there. My only beef is that they should incorporate at least partial rivetting specially for the fuselage. The side stripes on the fuselage actually do not line up as one is higher than the other one (notice the chevron is a bit higher). A picture of the actual aircraft shows this detail.

Here is Miss Dora all dressed up and ready for a ride!

The salt chipping effect

Weathering was done with washes and dot filters

Oil paint dots are wiped with a thinner damp wide brush in the direction of the air flow.

Just about all is removed but just a hint blended in to give tonal value to the paint leaving subtle streaks.

The pipes were carefully hollowed out and painted several Alclad shades till I got the desired effect then polished them with a rag.

The tip lights were painted Tamiya clear green and red

and inserted into the tip openings. They look like real lights so Hasegawa scored high points here.

Thanks GT for letting participate. Please choose any picture for the completed page.

Very nice job on the Dora!

A slight correction:

The Dora used the Junkers constant speed hydraulic VS 111 wood blades. The metal chipping was carefully painted over with a combination of Vallejo new wood and dark brown paints mixed and thinned with wather so they flowed into each tiny chip, applied with a 10/0 brush. Once dry a 8000 pad was used to polish out the bades.

Wow, you should be writing for a modeling magazine! That's some artwork there. You did an awesome job.

BrynnWryttur

Wow, you should be writing for a modeling magazine! That's some artwork there. You did an awesome job.

 

 

Thank you sir!

Quick update on the Eagle.  Got her in primer and scuffed for the teocolor gray scheme.  Had the paint callout page enlarged to actual size to make it easier to lay out the dark gray after the lighter gray goes on. Will be using ValleAir on her, first time with Vallejo.

I like the idea as I'm usually just winging it.

Plan to cut out the dark areas, temp. tape then down, run around the edges with Tamiya white, pull the paper, and mask off all the light areas.  Did the same for the Miss America red, white and blue scheme in the Mustang GB awhile back.

Sure makes things easier on me, and keeps me further from the bottled beverages.

Would the Grand Poobah permit me to change my submission.  My Raptor is missing some parts and Hasegawa doesn't seem to be in any hurry to replace them.  Two months is long enough to wait.  If agreeable, I will change to a 1/48 Trumpeter Mig-23.  This kits is also missing parts by the way, but just some missiles that I won't need.

Sure, go ahead and I'll edit the roster.  Build away!

PJ- another knockout build!!

Had a look at the completed builds, and very nice work guys!! Will be getting back to my F-106 soon. Moved again and have a man cave once more Keep it up dudes!!

Yeah, I have to get back to the 6s I'm builing also.  Things kind of hit a wall leading up to my aniversary this weekend but now i'm free to get back to building.

Thanks GH!

I have to seriously get back to the 6s.  It's been over a month since I've posted any progress pics.

Seems like I'm not the onlt one in a rut.  Figured if I start a new kit I might get the *** back.  !/72 Italeri F-14A done as Fast Eagle 107.

I've been in a rut too. I'm going to change my entry for this GB from a Meteor to an Academy 1/72 Me 163B. Definintely an interceptor !!!

Hopefully a quick build of this nice little kit will get my motors running again.

Cheers

Tony

I've been in a rut too. I'm going to change my entry for this GB from a Meteor to an Academy 1/72 Me 163B. Definitely an interceptor !!!

Hopefully a quick build of this nice little kit will get my motors running again.

Cheers

Tony

I've been in a rut too. I'm going to change my entry for this GB from a Meteor to an Academy 1/72 Me 163B. Definitely an interceptor !!!

Hopefully a quick build of this nice little kit will get my motors running again.

Cheers

Tony