Thought I would do something different for this campaign.

Saw the Grumman Widgeon / Gosling on EvilBay and bought it, mistake number 1.

Accepting the delivery was mistake number 2.

Opening the box - mistake number 3.

Still stupid enough to try and build it - priceless.

Well here is the first photo.

Good luck Eric, I built that kit recently for the Airfix campaign and while it had its issues I was pleasantly surprised how it turned out. My main issue was the undercarriage and deciding to rescribe the panel line and copied what as on the kit but turned out not to be panel lines

I think I have the Palva version of that in the stash, would love to get to it. Hope to get my Bearcat started this weekend, probably late Sunday night before I get started.

Greetings,
Some in progress pictures;


Regards,
Firstsergeant

Eric,
Welcome aboard.

I haven't built a 1/72 scale Airfix kit since the early 70's. Back then they were actually pretty close to cutting edge. You really can't compare it to what currently out there these days. But as Allen said it can still be built up to a nice OOB model. What about the kit has caused you to call opening the box mistake #3?
Joel

FirstSergeant,
Glad to see any Grumman aircraft started. Your cockpit is painted the correct color, Interior Green, as it looks darker then the GZC. The interior areas just forward of the firewall, and seat bulkhead should be painted Light Gray FS 36440 (Grumman Gray), which is the FS595 color chip for Light Gull Gray. Same for the inside of the engine cowling, and those external gas tanks.

Joel

The Grumman Widgeon / Gosling is really bad. Warped parts, mold shift, bad fit etc. it has it all.

Nothing fits, but I am really enjoying the challenge.

Eric,
Glad to see that you're sticking to the build. The Grumman Widgeon/Gosling looks pretty good in that photograph.
Joel

Thanks Joel. It has been fun...

Monogram 1/72 F8F Bearcat

Well I managed to get it here and do an official start photo. But now my jet lag is catching up to me. So here it is:


It's a 2001 molding of a 1967 vintage kit. Decals don't look too bad, but I went ahead and got some AM ones from Mark's Models.

Mark,
Congrats, it's an official start.
Joel

Monogram F8F Bearcat

Well I'm really started now. Got some interior paint in. Unfortunately it was it this point that I noticed that one of the gear door ran away..



Maybe Revell has another one they can spare.

Mark,
Nice start. Sure hope you find that missing gear door. If not, it shouldn't be too difficult to make one out of two pcs of layered sheet.

Just a heads up as to the interior colors of the F8Fs. The cockpit was painted FS 34151 Interior Green. As the Navy's usual practice the areas above the consoles on both sides were painted flat or matt black. The seat was painted black as well. The inside of the engine cowling was either Zinc Chromate Yellow, Interior Green or sometimes Flat Black. All moving exterior surfaces that could be visible were painted Glossy Sea Blue.

Joel

I tried using Vallejo's Interior Green (no FS number) vs. their Zinc Chromate, it looks a bit better dry than wet in that photo.

I assume you mean that the seat pan is flat black, simple enough to fix at the moment. I was planning on doing all the cockpit bits (including the head rest)under the canopy as flat back.

Some progress was made on the Tomcat over the weekend.

There were some ups and downs which can been seen in my blog but I got to the point of blocking some colours in on the cockpit. I used Tamiyas XF-54 Dark Sea Grey for the overall colour, the instruments Gunze matt black and the seats in Tamiya Nato Black



I'm thinking that I might repaint the panels in Nato black as the matt black looks quite stark but haven't decided on that yet.

As always comments, suugestions and criteque is always welcomed

Mark,
IG should be a few shades darker then GZC. By your pictures I thought that you used Model Master acrylic paints. Either way, once the cockpit is closed up, it becomes a moot point.

As for the seat, most respected references call for the seat to be flat black, so I'm assuming that the painted the whole seat, but it could have varied by individual aircraft. The black cockpit sidewalls starts at the top of the side consoles. The idea behind flat black was to kill the glare issues the pilots were having. At the beginning this was a field fix, so again, how they painted the seat would vary.

Joel

Grumman F8F Bearcat

Whipped out the Paint pen tonight and tried to do the seat, cockpit above the Consoles (no consoles in kit, so it's a guess)and the outer cockpit (under the glass). Probably as far as I'll get this week. Even with all the lights on this hotel room is as dark as a tomb. I'll be flying back on Saturday and maybe I can get some real work done under decent lighting...

Well, I finally got enough done on the A-6E to post an update with pictures. The full update is in my build blog in the Cold War Forum:

A-6E

His a picture of the fuselage glued up.



As expected, the build wouldn't be any where near as smooth going as the Academy 1/48 scale F-4B,and so far that's exactly the way the build has gone. Still, it's been an enjoyable build to date.

Joel

So here's a question: The rules say "any Grumman aircraft..." Just what does "aircraft" mean? For instance, might this count:


Michael

Michael,
Since my exact Campaign title is Grumman Aircraft, I would have to say no the Apollo 11 Lunar Module doesn't qualify.

Are you thinking of building it?

Joel

Thought crossed my mind, but I can understand. I just know I've overcommitted and the 1/32 F8F is probably too much bite to chew off right now. Fear not, Grumman is a pretty substantial percentage of my stash, I'll find something...

Michael

Michael,
Thank you for understanding my position. You can always step down in scale, and or finish up some of your projects before you start your Grumman build. 5 months is a long time, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Joel

Cheers Joel and hello to all

Since this campaign is going to be a parade of ***cats I decided not to do another one. And my favourite Italeri/AM's Avenger is already in the row
So it will be Revell's E-2C Hawkeye - but have to search my magnifying glasses first



@all entries: good choice of your kits and good progress so far everybody.
Thomas

Thomas,
Welcome to our campaign. I'm really looking forward to your Revell E-2C. It will be the perfect campaign mate to Pete's S2F-1 Tracker.

Joel

My entry. Accurate Miniatures Grumman TBF-1C Avenger.