Great work everybody and it looks like being an exciting last month of the campaign.
I'm looking forward to presenting the ribbons!
So far there are 7 "Aces" propping up the bar at the officers club.
In the order the completed photos were posted in the
ACES HIGH 2 PHOTO GALLERY
they are,
CMOT70. Ilmari Juutilainen. Brewster
ATOPLU. Maj Carsons P-51D
TIGERBAIT.Richard Reynolds Seafire.
KEEPEROFSOULS2099. Richard Bong P-38
BLUEHEELER. Clive Caldwell Spitfire
AUSSIEREG. "Pat" Pattle's Gladiator
LAMPIE. Ralph Hofers P-51B

Dont forget to post your finished photos of the model along with a photo of the actual aircraft in the gallery to qualify for the ribbon.
Have fun everyone!
Nige

Hi Eetu
Wow, thats great information you have provided and just in time, I was about to apply primer on the Hellcat tomorrow. The kit is going together realy well. Only concern I had was joining the main wings to the fuselage. It's a good fit, but difficult to get the wing lined up correctly without it popping out of the recess in the fuselage. I remedied this by gluing the wing before joining the fuselage halves, a bit unusaual I know, but it worked well. Another approach which I will try next time [ I also have the Hellcat duo combo of the Fleet Air Arm's Mk l and ll] is cut a hole in the recess and glue a spar through the fuselage into the wing. The horizontal tail plane was also done this way.
It's a pity that Eduard dont supply the engine cowl with open gills [as illustrated on the box cover] but thats just nit picking from me. The only bit of filler I have used in the whole kit was the top of the fuselage above the pilots seat. I will certainly incorporate the modifications in the link. Thanks Eetu, much appreciated that you took the time to write.

Anyway the build so far:

Cockpit is now almost complete. Some colour still needs to be applied.







Attaching the wings, very important to get the angles right!





Thanks for looking.
tim

**** Steve,

I'm really glad you're building this hurricane for us with lots of progress pics. I happen to have this same kite on the shelf and its helpful to see what challenges you encounter.

Are the gaps as big as they look? As a fan of liquid plastic cement and plastic strips I'm curious as to whether the fit issues are minor enough to simply be shimmed or, if major contour issues are involved, or will I be simply forced to break out the putty.

Cheers,
Fred



Plenty of gaps, going to need plenty of putty.





Ans after the putty... Tamiya light putty smoothed with nail polish remover..





As soon as the putty has gone off, it will be out with the sanding sticks and hopefully a coat of primer this evening.

More soon, comments and critique welcome.[/quote]

You're welcome. Glad to be of help.
One more thing I forgot the first time: the F6F-3 kit is lacking the panel of armored glass mounted behind the windscreen, characteristic of the 'dash three' hellcats. (though later included in a PE set #49411 among other stuff like those cowling gills you mentioned)
The unneeded, late style windscreen can be used to make a decent representation of the said armor glass. It takes some careful carving, sanding and dryfitting, but I felt it was worth the trouble, even though the results probably aren't absolutely 100% authentic.

Here's a cockpit and rear fuselage walkaround that shows the armor glass panel. Another link I found useful was this one with cockpit layouts scanned from several Hellcat manuals.

Hi all
Suspended the priming to modify my Hellcat as suggested by that very helpfull man Eetu.









tim

Well I finally got off my rear and got started on my build for this campaign. I figured with less than 30 days left in it I had better do something. Monogram's venerable P-51D in the markings of Big Beautiful Doll. For as old as this kit is, it still builds really well. I was able to paint and install the cockpit and seal everything up in one sitting this evening after dinner. I would say this one will be complete in a day or so. Gotta love the old kits. Thanks, "Q"
Prior to being sealed up....

Catching up with this great campaign…

Nick – congrats on the finish. Very nicely done, love the outdoor pics, very clear.

Damian – Congrats on the finish. Great mini-write up, always good to learn a bit of history as well as build techniques. Cheers. Woodgraining for the prop was a success for sure.

Nigel – Congrats on the finish. Beautiful looking Mustang and a great weathering/finishing to the bird.

Half a dozen GREAT WIPs .. loads of great information, thanks to everyone who took the time to fully document their builds, truly a great source of info!

Q – LOL I did *exactly* the same as you… abandoned the P38/Bong build and opened another Revell P51D box (gotta love those 50% off coupons from Michaels’!) to build the BBD. I have a Revell P51D in progress for another GB, so bring this one up to “speed” so I can paint/build at same time. Will post some pics in the next couple days.

Cheers all!

Great minds think alike This one will be complete in the next day or so. I have all the nit noid pieces painted and ready to go. Just waiting on some Mr Surfacer to cure on the scoop and she will be ready for her paint. I lightly sanded and polished all the surfaces to prep her for her silver coat that is coming. More pics to follow. Thanks, "Q"

Hi Fred,

Fit issues aren't as bad as they look, the rear of the wing to fuselage gap is quite large due to the being quite a bit of flash on the wing parts. Once cleaned up, a large gap appeared, it could have been shimmed but I had no suitable stock so used putty. It was a nive warm day and it went off nice and quick. The fit at te wing root isn't too bad, a shim will do there, but I am about to start another one soon ans will glue the tops of the wings to the fuselage before attaching the lower parts for a better fit. The only real alignment issue I had was the front of wing to the fuselage fit, my fuse was slightly twisted and as I had already fitted the cockpit and didn't do enough dry fitting I didn't notice it until it was too late, so I just tried to make the best of a bad job.

All in all, its not a bad little kit, its been enjoyable, the only thing I don't like is the canopy is very think and will have to be modelled shut as I don't have the time to source a replacement, so I didn't go overboard on cokpit detail as you can't see much of it through the think plastic.

Shot my silver early this afternoon and then added my post shading. Got a little heavy on the one wing, but will be able to touch that up later. Currently letting the gloss coat dry in preparation for decals. Should be able to add those either this evening or first thing tomorrow morning. All the other fiddly bits are complete and ready for installation once the decals are on. Shouldn't be long from here.
Thanks, "Q"

Tim & Q - you guys are FAST - putting me to shame. I would even manage to drag out that old P-51 for 3 months or so.

Stefan - We need more Spitfire pictures!

As for me, I've made some progress on Wittgenstein's Ju88C-6. Most of the bad things I heard about the Dragon kit are true, but I managed to avoid some of the pitfalls by not following the instructions! It's a real Frankenstein, with lots of inserts for different versions, separate wing tips that are thicker than the wing, wing that is thicker than the wing root fillet, mismatched panel lines on the fuselage, etc.

Typical modular construction is not recommended. Instead, start with gluing the front and rear fuselage halves together, then join the halves, then start sticking everything on the fuselage. For the wings, I didn't glue the wings together....I glued the tips to the matching wing top & bottoms, then joined the top wing to the fuselage:

Then I glued the engine mounting to the top wing...

Then on went the bottom wing working from wingtip in.

Styrene shims were used to fill gaps in the wing thickness and the underside wing root. Basically, I moved all problems to the underside!

Tonight she got primed!

Hi all!


Nice Junkers Tom, and how could I say no to more Spitfire pics?

Here they come;

Time for another update on the Spit!
The Interior is almost completely painted, but I still have to do a black wash, but I’ll wait until everything is assembled.

I started with the instrument panel.
The clear parts got a dip in Johnson’s floor polish (Swedish equivalent to Future); this makes it possible to use CA-glue later on.

When I opened the bag with the decals and saw these decals, I thought “WTF”????




Then I got it!

The instruments are printed ”bottom up”, so what you see on the paper is only the back of the decal!

That’s another reason to dip the clear parts in Johnson’s, to get a smooth, nice surface for the decals to “grab onto”!

The decals themselves are well printed, perfect in register and fits like a glove!




This is the complete bulkhead;



One of the side-parts;



This is the engine bulkhead and engine frames, lots of SMALL parts here;





The bulkhead with the pilot’s seat, made of Bakelite, in a reddish-brownish colour, I used Humbrol160 German Red-Brown, a WWI-colour, but I thought it was appropriate here.



Still have to add the seatbelts!

The engine covers are made of a somewhat harder plastic, and comes in thir own little tray, where they are well protected from damage.



These parts do need the protection as they are extremely thin, only o.4mm, and must be handled with caution!



The covers are held in place with the aid of small, but very strong, magnetos glued to the inside.


First impressions was true, and even more so, The ”Big T” have done it again!
With this kit Tamiya leads the way!

More to come soon!

Cheers!

Stefan E

(Interior) Green with envy. What a great kit Stefan

Got the lozenge and rib tapes done on the wee Fokker.

Needs a sealing coat then markings and stencils.

BBD is almost complete. Gotta head out for the evening or else she would be. Will put the wraps on her tomorrow. The nose area decals were a real treat... Thanks, "Q"

Hi all
Updates on my Eduard 1/48 Hellcat F6F-3. Not happy with the white/mid blue demarcation, I think it should be much more softer. Just applied some Klear before masking for the blue upper colour. Tom I am not usually this quick. This kit has been a breeze to put together, I have really enjoyed it so far.
tim

2 1/2 weeks left. Figured I needed to get goin' seeing as I can't pump out kits like some of y'all (JP and Q off the top of my head). Some beautiful work so far. Hope I can pull mine off half as nice as Nigel, Jesper, Tom, Steve, Damian, etc.
Either Tanimizus' A6M5c, or Saburo Sakeis' A6M5. Sakei would be easy since his squadron basically took any plane that worked and didn't have a specific one assigned to him (per an interview with him after the war. Tanimizu is a different story with a specific plane and distinctive markings.

Subs are done with a little paint. Cockpit finished and sealed up by this weekend is the goal. As for the markings, I know someone makes these but I haven't found 'em yet. I'll give myself 'till Monday and then resort to (gasp) hand-painting them if I go with Tanimizu. That is if my 5/0 and 10/0 brush haven't been hijacked and put to use for (fill in the blank with pretty much any non-modeling, brush destroying activity). Had I known about teenagers 16 years ago, I'd be single and working in a dive shop somewhere in the Caribbean.

Aaaannnndddd CUT! Calling this one complete. Happy to have this one done and in the case. After the complex decal operation on and around the nose I need a break. It's a good 1 footer, get any closer and you can see what appears to be portions of a relief map on the cowl area.. It is the Monogram kit so I can't whine too much. I wasn't sure about the fuselage codes and if they mirrored each other from one side to the next as the destructions didn't point that out...I took a swag and decided to mirror them and as a result the stars and bars are off set from one side to the next. If it's wrong I'll chalk it up to experience. Not a big deal. I lost some detail on the bottom around the scoop, but...its on the bottom and I don't plan on entering this baby in any contest as it is. I've got some after market decals for BBD on hand, a few of them to be exact, which will make their way onto a nice Hasegawa or Tamiya offering. Hopefully they won't be as difficult to apply. Keeping my fingers crossed. I'll get a pic posted into the gallery soon. Thanks for running this campaign, nice work from everybody. Thanks "Q".

Hi all
I applied the dk blue on the upper surface this morning. A coat of Kleer this afternoon and applied the decals this evening. Decals went on nicely as they are Cartograf. The white of the insigna is a bit bright and needs toning down. Another coat of Kleer tomorrow, then apply some weathering.
tim

Looking good Tim. "Q"

@Q: I gotta confess. That's a really really nice Mustang.

Looks like we have less than a month to go and I have not been slacking. Chugging along, on schedule. Finishing up the decals this weekend, another clear coat, weathering, matte coat, then final trimmings. Should be done within the week.


Tried something different in the pre-shading phase. I hand painted the panel lines instead of air brushing them.



To compliment the hand worked pre-shading I followed up with the base colors (RLM 02/ RLM 65) then shaded the panel lines with darker shades of each color. After which I came back with a light dusting of the base color, then highlighted the centers of each panel with lightened shades of both colors. Because the scheme is plain, and because I won't be able to go heavy on the weathering on Moelder's plane (which apparently was meticulously cared for by his ground crew.) I want to bring out as much subtly as I can.



Decal time! Kit markings are a bit thick (but nice and opaque). The Mr. Marker setter didn't agree with them so I switched to the Walthers (which worked nicely).

... a bit of an apology for my craptacular pictures (I've been soldiering on with an archaic Sony Mavica for too long). I'm in the process of buying a Nikon DSLR and am hoping for a great leap forward in the quality of the pics.

Cheers,
Fred

Thanks Fred. Your 109 is looking good as well.
"Q"

OK. Here are a couple of progress shots of my 1/32 Hasegawa P-47 I started this morning. Got a few hours done..





Totally OOB. Only glued my finger too the thing once so far!!

Hi all!
Time for another update!

The work with the Cockpit continues…


The seat belts are made of steel in a vey hard quality, and are hard to bend neatly!
I think I prefer the pre-painted varity from Eduard!
I painted the belts with Humbrol103, Pale Cream, and when the paint had dried, I used a knife and scraped off the paint from the raised detail.







The shoulder belts were harder; these must be bent in a special pattern, hard to do as they were so stiff!



It was a bit tricky, but well worth the effort IMO.









The gun sight painted and mounted on the Instrument panel.





Voilá!....A Spitfire cockpit done!





To mount the cockpit in place I started by gluing it to the right fuselage.









Then it was a “piece of cake” to glue the other half and close the fuselage.




Coming more soon!

Cheers!

Stefan E

Well, going to stick a fork in this one and call it done! Just a couple of fiddly bits, like an antenna wire when I get some more fishing line, but for now, thats it.

Heres some photos..













Comments and critique more than welcome.

Hi all
Nice Hurricane Steve, which kit is it? Stefan what can I say about that cockpit. I had to check twice you were not doing a full size one. Excellent work so far.
tim