Hi everybody!

Today the Big Bad Bombers Campaign has started and I joined in with a 1/48 Trumpeter Skywarrior. However, I have decided to go forward and start a daily building log. I will try to write about the construction problems that I run into and the solutions I find for them.

I started gluing some cockpit pieces and especially the weapons bay, because I read somewhere that it may be difficult to close the two parts of the fuselage. So far, I haven't had that problem.

The fit of the pieces is excellent but the accuracy of some pieces is not so good.
Up to now, day 1! See you tomorrow!

P.S. Bare in mind that today is Sunday... during the week the progress won't be so fast.

I feel personal blogs are better, Victor; they tend to carry more information and are far easier to follow. Don't be discouraged if there's not heaps of critical input and atta boy's, though. That's just the way it is. Certainly, people are still watching.

This one's going to be fun to watch

Victor,
I'll be following your build, as I have an interest in USA Naval jet aircraft. I appreciate your efforts in spending the time to do a separate build blog, as I generally do the same.

For one thing, it lets those of us not involved in the campaign to follow your build, and even for those that are in the campaign as Ben said, it makes it much easier to follow the build progress.

Joel

Hello!

Ben, thank you for the advice and for following this diary.

Jessica, I hope to make it interesting enough and fun at the same time.

Joel, I will try to make a diary with the progress or even if there is no progress, say what is happening. Thanks for following.

Day 2 (2/6)

My wife was sick so I have to make some extra house work, but I had some time to make a research to establish what things I can improve on the cockpit.
At first I thought it wouldn't be so visible, but after trying all the elements together, I realized that the window panes are quite big and you can see the interior well. To make it look better, I will open up the access on top of the canopy.
The cockpit is simple, but all the equipment is in there, so I have to upgrade the parts with some wire or scratching.

Day 3 (3/6)

I started to work on the electronic equipment, just behind the bombardier seat.
I haven´t got any pictures, just some drawings from books.
A picture of this area just as the kit comes.

Some work on it. I started to late, and these little details take lot of time.

See you tomorrow.

Hi everyone!

I know the post clearly says "daily", so WHAT HAS HAPPENED since Day 3?
I can resume my filing like:

Tired, researching, disappointed, and taking up the work I have to do... Day 4 to 11

On day 4, I was a little tired, so instead of continuing detailing the cockpit, I wanted to make something more relaxing, like gluing the wings or the gear bay (a little piece of advice, when you are tired, do not try fine details, your fine motor functions are not so fine...) so, as usual, I looked at the pictures I have, and started to note that lots of the details are not so correct.
The wing comes with a nice photo etched for the wing fold mechanism, but most of it is wrong.
The same thing with the gear bay. There is a hole that communicates both bays in the real aircraft (left to right of the fuselage) but, Trumpeter decided not to make this hole... even when don´t have to make a mayor change from what they do.
At this moment, you are thinking OH MY!!! HE IS A RIVET COUNTER!!! RUN AWAY!!!
First, I´m not a rivet counter, second, it´s impossible, there are too many, I lost the count several times...

Seriously, I´m not one of those modelers that compare the model with plans and my world will not collapse if something is two millimeters away from the real one... But, if there is a big hole, why not making the big hole! or if you make a photo etched, look at some pictures and try to make it as close as you can, or if you make a transparent instrument panel with a decal, make the decal coincide with the holes in the transparent part of the dials!
Anyway, if you have this model in your stash (or thinking of buying it) you have two ways to do it:
Enjoy Trumpeter's wonderful engineering of these days, where each part fits perfectly, almost without refilling anything, awesome panel lines and rivets, but don´t look at any walkaround or book and you going to have a very nice model of the Skywarrior (by the way, it is the only one in 1/48 in this days), or... follow the hard and painful way, when you have to make a lot of research (mostly on the details, like gear bays, wing folding mechanism, cockpit, etc) and make some scratch to correct these mistakes.
As I chose to follow the hard way, the construction of this model is going to be more complex than I imagined, so the work is going to be very slow... don´t expect too much every day, but I will try to correct as much as I can.
I want to be clear, I don´t have anything against Trumpeter at all. I think they made a huge step in record time from the first kits, and take the risk to make some not so popular models, but in this particularly model, I think a little bit more research would have made a huge difference.

See you tomorrow.

PS: (just a tough, I don´t want to start a debate) Still, I can´t understand what happening with Revell/Monogram. I remember when I was young and received this first 1/48 model, a AV-8B, and the others that come later like F-20, A-10, F-101, F-105 or F-15... what cockpits, air breaks, gear bay, all finely detailed! They even reproduced the exact shape of the aircraft, and we are talking about 25 years ago or more... just those raised panels lines...

Victor,
I would rethink your original concept of daily posts to your build blog. You're putting way too much pressure on yourself to keep up with a self imposed build schedule. Why not just post as your completed work allows and or warrants? Certainly would make you life that much easier.

Whether a model company does everything in house, or like the vast majority of newer companies these days, which are basically design houses, the financial bean counters dictate R&D budgets, production budgets to a major Chinese company who will make the molds, kits, and do the boxing, shipping, etc. Those costs have to be controlled, and hopefully led to a money making kit. No kit can be all encompassing. Omissions, wrong profiles of parts & locations are all part of the process. Everything costs time and money. We need to remember that as our modeling community is but a small segment of the model hobby, most of which has much lower standards.

While you remember Revell, Monograms, Aurora, Hawk, etc. from 25 years ago, I remember them as separate companies from the very early 60's. There was no such thing as scale, it's what fit the box. Accuracy, who knew what that was, we were all young kids. A rainy afternoon was all that was needed to build and decal a model. Then play with it. No one painted anything back in those days. Needless to say, model building has drastically changed, and it has changed for the better, because that's what we want, demand. and are willing to pay for.

Joel

Joel, good to see a realistic statement - thank's for your wise words and taking time to reply.

Thomas,
Time I have plenty of being semi retired. Wisdom, I'm not so sure of.
Joel