Just an opinion. You should always lay down a light coat of white primer before applying yellow.




Sometimes its best not to do too much 'figureing', and just go straight for the jugular.

Mark, back in the early 70s when I got back into modeling the 1st time as an adult (well out of my teens and married), this was my 1st build. From what I can remember, yours is coming out a million times better then mine did.

Looking forward to seeing your completed Kingfisher.

Joel

Me too. Thanks

I've actually made progress today, got the squadron stripes painted on and painted some decal film for the wing walks.


Thought it through kinda quickly, the decals I do have are for a plane from a different ship, rather than repaint the tail, I'll go ahead with most of my original plan for willow green squadron stripes and fake the numbers.

Live and learn, the yellow went on over silver and actually gave good coverage. The problem was that touching up the silver damages the yellow...

Well I figured I might as well chime in and say your doing a fine job on this build Mark Still though , it ani't no biplane !




Terri

All right Ms Smarty pants, I've at least got a couple of string bags in the stash now.

OK, call me crazy. The decals in this kit are original, suffering 40+ years of horrors. They're heavily yellowed, and will probably disintegrate if they ever touch real water. I can't hang them in a window and hope the sun bleaches off the yellow. I live in Oregon, we won't see the sun again til June.

So I've scanned them to a bitmap, I'm cleaning off the dross and hoping I can salvage the 3-0-4, the U.S. Navy and the 4. Then print them onto a clear decal sheet. then I only have to scavenge the Star and meatball and maybe a buno decal...

Mark, way too much effort to try and reproduce decals that are at best just ok. After all your work why not go the extra mile and purchase two sheets of Yellow Wings decals designed specifically for pre war Yellow wing Kingfisher versions. One sheet is for the unit markings, and the other sheet is for Chevrons and fuselage bands if you don't want to paint them. Each sheet only costs $9.99. They're available from The Sprue Brothers, and are in stock.

Joel

Yeah, I have the Aeromaster(?) sheet for the Kingfisher. It'll be the source for the star and meatball along with the tail ID. I was just to far along with the paint to do a plane off of the sheet.

Mark, take a look at the Yellow Wing site. The Vindicator sheet has the numbers you're looking for in various sizes.
Joel

I remember building that about.......1967? I loved the Edo float configuration but painted it in dark blue. About 5 years ago I built a yellow wing Curtis Seagull, you're going the right way, but they look better on floats.

I've got the Mono 1/48 Kingfisher with brass somewhere in the stash. IIRC that has the floats integral to the fuselage, so that one's definitely gonging to be on the float. I may cast about and see if the Octopus-Pavla kit's available or even another Airfix to do a float version..

Okay , but you will have to build one of those string baggers so or later ...come on ... step into the dark side if you dare


I'm sure your efforts will pay off with the decals . Which seems to be very time consuming doing the clean up on them .



Terri

Just a little bit of clean up left.

Nice job on the decals Mark




Terri

Thanks, the national insignia and the tail ID decals are the only ones from a commercial sheet. I recovered the U.S.NAVY, the 3-0-4, and the 4 decals from the Airfix sheet. The wing walks are clear decal sheet painted gloss black and cut to size.

Mark, I'm really impressed with the decaling. Can't believe you actually salvaged anything from that old Airfix sheet.

Joel

Thanks. Truth is I didn't, I just used it as a template to create new decals. And I probably did it the hardest way possible. I do 3D CAD for a living, but 2D graphics is a black art to me. The U.S. NAVY decal needs to be a point (pixel) or two smaller. I might have been able to do it from scratch if I knew what I was doing.

Terry is great for inspiring us outside of our monoplane comfort zone! She can be proud of me that I built this one prior to her joining the site.


Mark, your Kingfisher - beautiful markings. Similar colors on my Boeing. It inspires me to dust off my Monogram kit and stick that resin interior into it. I still think the OS2U is one of the neatest lil' stalkers...

Good work on the F4B. I think I did one years ago. You two are getting me psyched.

Great to see you eventually beat that sucker into submission Mark..

Cheers
Warren

Fred, nice F4B. I have to confess that I've never even attempted a bi-plane. Just too chicken.

Joel

Thanks Joel, now someone else can take the flak from Terri.

Mark, I knew that flak from Terri had to start sooner or later. At my age expanding, let alone venturing out from my comfort zone is really a scary deal for me. Haven't even built a single 1st generation jet yet.

Joel

Well, my comfort zone has been US Monoplanes 1936(P-36, TBD-1)to the mid '80's (F-16). Not much interested in the Pork Barrel Cats (F-18, F-22 and F-35), Do want to add an F-20 and F-21 to the finished shelf.. Now I seem to have some string bags in the stash (P-26, Stearman, Tiger Moth and Grumman Duck), go figure...

One day you will venture over to the dark side ... and when you do ...there is no turning back !


I have a very well covered stash . From WW 1 to modern , cars and the odd motorbike has found it's way in there . Only thing I don't have is a ship .




Terri