Welcome to the Grumman Aircraft Campaign!

The campaign will run from July 1, 2014 through December 31, 2014.

If you haven't signed up yet, or want to see the rules, go here.

Please post your initial and in-progress photos as well as campaign discussion in this thread. Please post your finished build photos in the campaign gallery.

It's time to open up the Aeroscale Grumman Plasticworks! And most importantly, have fun!

Yea!! I was hunting for this earlier. Thanks Jessie! Now I just gotta figure out where I stashed my Bearcat during the move.

Ok, the fun time is about to start. Naturally, I won't be able to start my build of the 1/48 scale Hobby Boss A-6E until Friday afternoon. Anyway, here's my start picture with all the sprues still in their plastic bags. I used my phone for the date, but it's way too small. We no longer get a newspaper, so you guys will just have to trust me.

The kit has more parts then I've ever seen before. Even more then the Academy F-4B I just finished. Not going to be OOB, but I'm not planning on going overboard either. Just a mix somewhere in between. Any and all detailing will be by me. The only AM will be the Quickboost MK7 seats, and just to be a little different the Figthertown colorful A-6A/A-6E part 1 decal sheet. I've heard that the kit decals aren't the best quality, so why take a chance.
Joel

Marc,
That's something I always seem to do. I loose things. Even my car keys. You don't want to know how many sets I've had the dealer make for the new car.
Joel

Hi this is my entry:-

Dang, I was hoping to get two of the three projects I still have on the bench finished last weekend before I start the Tomcat, but life got the better of me again. I better pull my finger out

I am not going to get started until Friday either. Even then, I am going to force myself to finish decaling my Eduard Spit IX and do some serious painting of the P-51 this weekend so I can finish those projects up before I add the Hellcat. Four kits on the bench is just way too messy.

I am thinking the F6F will go quick, but I need to finish everything else I have managed to start the last 6 months.

JA
Glad to see you're getting ready to start the big Intruder and hopefully will be building the kit as an A6E Tram and using the full size aircraft at the Grumman Memorial Park as your major reference.
Bro

UPDATE: OPENING ROUND 7/1/14

Being mostly a 1/32nd scale builder, my interests also include 1/72 and 1/48 aircraft. Growing up on Long island, Grumman and Republic aircraft have always been near and dear. So when my brother decided to coin the Grumman campaign I decided to search out one of my all time favorite Iron Works Gang aircraft; an S2F Tracker, how could that be? Growing up, I saw quite a few Trackers fly over the house on approach to Bethpage and every once an a while, one would land at Zahns in Amityville and taxi over to the Army Air National Guard area .. of course, I had no idea why but I was there to see such an event a few times.
The kit Hasegawa JS-102 was released in 1970 and the instructions are weathered from age; a perfect fit for the campaign. Following my brother's lead, I plunked down the iPhone to show the date: 7/1/14.
I'm planning on an OOB build and seeing what I can do on a 40 plus year old kit.
Thanks for checking in.

Peter

That'll be cool to see, there is just something extra fun about building old kits!



I won't get going for about 2 weeks... Wheat harvest has finally begun in our part of Kansas and it's all day every day until we finish. (Think "Deadliest Catch" but hot, dry, and with grain.

Hellbent

As campaign leader the very 1st thing I need to do is to thank Jessica for stepping up and getting this thread up and running for all of us. Thank you Jessica. Jessica is also signed up for the campaign, so at some point in time she'll be joining us with her build.

Richard welcome,
Looking forward to seeing your 1/48 scale Eduard F6F-5 build. Glad that you decided on doing the -5 rather then the more common -3.

Allen welcome,
Just finish up your current projects, "then come on down" and join the group campaign. I'm looking forward to your F-14 Tomcat build. If I remember correctly, you're doing one of the Academy 1/48 scale versions. I believe it's the F-14A, with plenty of AM stuff. I'll be following along closely as I plan on more then one Academy F-14 over the next few years.

Paul welcome,
I've been looking for your latest updates on your current P-51. Will be following your builds to their conclusion as always. After all, your our resident 1/72 scale P-51 expert.

I'm assuming that your F6F Hellcat is going to be in 1/72 scale. Hopefully you'll do a -3 version since Richard is doing a -5. No matter what version you build, we're all in for a treat as your detailing is always 1st rate.

Pete welcome to your 1st Aeroscale Campaign.
To all let me introduce Peter, also known as Peterpools. He's really my younger brother @ 66 years old. Ok, it's just 20 min, but I'm still #1. He's mostly a 1/32 scale WW11 modeler whose been specializing of late with not one, not two, but three Tamiya P-51Ds, all in spectacular museum quality MNFs. So his Hasegawa 1/72 scale S2F-1 Tracker is certainly a huge change of pace. Pete's also planning on doing a separate build blog in the Cold War forum for non-campaign members to follow. I'll most likely be doing the same with my A-6E.

I'm really looking forward to enjoying and following all of your builds. Let the fun begin.

Joel

Hellbent welcome,
Family and work comes 1st. You certainly have one physically tough job. But it's sure one super important one. I love bread. Believe me, I love bread. We'll be here waiting for your start. Just stop by when you have a chance in the mean time to stay in touch.

What aircraft, scale, and manufacture are you planning on building for our campaign?
Joel

Hi Joel,

Nice to see your brother joining you for a Campaign !
By the way here's my entry:



Parts



Decals





I still have a ton of plastic on my workbench so I'll work on this one slowly, in between the Showtime & Bomber Campaigns

No dust? Every corn harvest I saw in Minnesota had it's own small dust storm.

JA
Right now, the trickiest part of the OOB build, is going to be trying to use 44 year old decals! Will have the first update this weekend
Bro

John,
Welcome aboard. By all means build when you can. Just stop by every so often to check in and see what's going on.

Excellent choice of the Academy 1/72 scale F-14A with the VF-1 Wolfpack decals. When I eventually do my 1/48 scale F-14 it's either the Wolfpack or Sundowners markings.

Joel

Pete,
the decals look ok, but you'll never know till you actually use them. Since you're doing the USN version, why not experiment with a few Japanese markings, and see how they workout with soaking in water and the micro system? If they work ok, you're home free. If not, you can always post in your up coming build thread in the Cold War forum. I also ask around and see what I can come up with.

BTW, in several build threads of the Kinetic Tracker, everyone seemed to have issues with those big top wing walkway decals. the solution seems to be cutting into sections. For 1/72 2pcs should be perfect.
Joel

Well, I was planning a day long work session today, but my lovely wife decided that we're going shopping for new den furniture and a new carpet for the den and main hallway. Mission accomplished. You really don't want to know what the combined final bill was.

Managed to start on the cockpit main pieces, but that's about it, then the Fed Ex driver pulled up with my package from Sprue Brothers.

Wolfpack MK7 seats for the A-6. Simply a wealth of detail. Just puts the kit seats to shame.



And the Figthertown Colorful A-6A/E decals page 1. While the kit decals look just fine to me, I just wanted to finally try a top of the line AM decal sheet, and these look fantastic.



Joel

Greetings,
This is my kit for the Grumman Campaign.

Lighting issues...

Regards,
Firstsergeant

Welcome FirstSargeant to our Grumman campaign. Seems that you're the 1st to sign on with a F4F-4. The Wildcat really brought Grumman's to the forefront of Naval Aviation. I'm really looking forward to following your build.
Joel

Thank you Joel. Can't wait to get started...
Firstsergent

Looking forward to your build. I've got that one in the stash. IIRC it only had decals for an Atlantic scheme.

Whew, caught a break... I'll get my pics up one of these days but I plan on building the Eduard F6F-3 kit # 8221 in 1:48. It is from a few years ago and doesn't say but I would call it a profipack. I'm pretty excited as it's my first Eduard in 1:48 and my first real PE. I've done a bit before just not this much on 1 kit.

I am planning on doing the markings of Lt. Alexander Vraciu of VF-6 from the kit decals. I am having a hard time finding out if this plane had the centerline fuel tank. Anybody know?

Thanks, Andy

I'm not sure about the dust... I'll have to wipe the dust off my glasses and windshield to check