Nice work PrickleHead!

I am in jeopardy of not completing I was unable to get the paints I planned on using for my Hellcat so I will have to try and mix them, I am not sure if I have what I need or not. We will see....

Cheers Rob.

It'll be fine, just go ahead and do it.

I got a good nights work done on my Trust Territory Albatrosses. the painting is done, sealed with clear lacquer, most of the decals done. landing gear and props done, ready to mount.





the last three weeks of the campaign is often the busiest and most interesting -

Hi

Johnathon the Albatrosses are looking good. I have to agree it is nice to see a variety of Grumman planes in the gallery. Even though I was the boring one doing the F6F!

Jonathan,
Your Albatrosses look fantastic. Can't wait to see both cross the finish line.

Joel

OK,
I got my paints all sorted
I am using Tamiya paints and for the bottom I just used sky thinned for airbrushing, for the extra dark sea grey I used dark sea grey mixed with some flat black and for the dark slate grey I used RLM grey mixed with flat black and Nato green.

I used a fine tipped sharpie to do some pre-shading and sprayed the first coat of sky.

Cheers Rob.

The Albatrosses are on their wheels.

Rob,
Looking good. I'm intrigued with the use of a fine tip marker for pre-shading panel lines. Never thought about it before.

Joel

Jonathan,
Both Albatrosses look spectacular, especially when viewed with the Dime as a size comparison. It's just amazing how you can work in such a small scale.
Joel

Jonathan the Albatrosses look great!

Joel,
I have never done pre-shading before and thought that doing it with the airbrush was too heavy handed, so far I find that I have great control and it seems to be working well.

Cheers Rob.

Finished, and some portraits uploaded to the Gallery.

Everything I build is part of an ongoing and never ending meta-project, a 1/144 scale airfield model of Kwajalein. I am so pleased with these Albatrosses, I got part of the layout out of the boxes it is all packed up in to have a little look.


Also a big brother, a Navy SAR SA-16B which I built for a campaign last year.


and uh...

Another SA-16B, one of numerous partially built aircraft in project boxes stacked in my closet.
I want to build three of the SAR squadron planes eventually.

Also, I'll need to build yet another Trust Territory airline one - in 1968, the last remaining Albatross in the Trust Territory was taken over by Continental partner Air Micronesia and recieved a red/gold cheat line

@Rob: you just gave me a boost for my F6F with your photo shots on the panel line method and after paint shot. I was wandering how I would accomplish the preshading. Now I have a gauge.

@Jonathan: Love the Albatrosses
and how you approached your build especailly in a scale that I cannot see even with my glasses. Good job.

Bob

Johathan,
Well done!! Congrats on finishing both Albatrosses. And your ongoing Diorama is suburb. You really need to make it an on going Build Blog.
Joel

Jonathan,
Just checked, and all 5 pictures are there. Again, Well done my friend.
Joel

Thanks Joel. Aviation on Kwajalein will eventually have a website of its own, but there is much to be done before its anything but bits and pieces, not least the building or a studio, ok - a shed, to house it! If youd like to see a bit more you can look at this photobucket album




just reading back over all 17 pages of the thread, alot of good work got done - We still need to see a Tomcat or two, a Bearcat, another Hawkeye maybe, and I'd dearly love to see a Widgeon finished.

Let's go you guys, there should be at least a few hours of model building out of the 400 hours or so left in December.

A quick update:
Eduard kit and Eduard resin R-2800 engine assembly.








This kit seem to be a well engineered kit. Parts fit easily and without any deformed seems.

At this point I've painted the gloss on all parts and will let sit for a day then will continue the weather of cockpit and engine with enamel washes and pigments...

I've also added a Quickboost gun sight for this kit (Mk. VIII)

I recieved the Wolfpack resin wing fold kit. If progress continues
on a positive speed... I might add it...

Jonathan,
Just checked out the pictures via your link. Your project is coming along quite nicely. What are the overall dimensions?

And yes I completely agree with you that there are many missing aircraft types that have either been started or announced as builds that have never seen the light of day. I would really like to see another dozen or so models cross the finish line, but I'd be surprised if 6 more do so.

Joel

Wow, Tobar, that's alot of little details, nice work!

Joel, at present, the Bucholz field layout fits on a 24"x60" card table, but eventually it will cover a 4'x8'
sheet of ply.

Front part of canopy (windshield?) is glued with white glue:

Painting done:


Ailerons and flaps added:

I managed to get the masking done I made mask's for both colors and got the first color painted.

Cheers Rob.

wow, nice bit of masking work there.
looks like the sharpy enhanced panel lines are coming through nicely. That's going to be nice model!

Hi,

Running against the clock, i believe my Wildcat is 80% finished, so hoping to complete the remaining 20 this upcoming week, because after that is hopeless time for modeling, with all the xmas frenzy in my house.

Since I found hidden away in my decal stash a Cutting Edge sheet that has one F4F-4 with artwork, I changed my mind and moved from Torch Ops to Guadalcanal. I was completely oblivious to the plane depicting the artwork so looked it up and it turns that it belongs to a Ace-In-A -Day, Jim Swelt, and the plane was ditched at the end of the day's battle.

Trying to portray a very sun faded Wildcat with a bit of worn and thorn, hope it turns ok.

So far, the pictures are not the best justice, I am happy with the paint job. Half way thru weathering, and will add landing gear very soon.
Managed to get a bit of superglue on top of the engine , which coupled with a few other nagging bloops have been stalling the pace a bit...











Thanks for watching, comments are welcome.

Cheers
Pedro

Rob,
That's certainly an outstanding job in making all those masks. Looking forward to seeing how the camp paint scheme looks when completed.

I'm rather interested in seeing how your pre-shading of the panel lines with the marker comes out. Of course the number of coats of paint will directly effect the bleeding effect of the panel line colors.

Joel

Pedro,
Your F4F-4 really looks quite good with the paint on, and the start of your weathering process. Looking forward to seeing it cross the finish line.
Joel

Oh, cool
TWO very nice looking - and very different cats approaching...