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1/72 Academy Helldiver


CANicoll

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I was given a 1/72 Helldiver and while I hardly every build this small a scale (old eyes mostly) this has been a fun diversion from my usual fare of 1/32 and 1/48.  Far fewer parts to deal with.  Decals are a bit fiddly, stiff, and two have cracked, after they were down on the plane.  Strange!

 

Just a few pics:

 

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More to come. Comments welcomed.

 

Chris

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Making more progress and also a big determination - there is no way in the world I'm going to be able to mask all of that canopy without an enormous amount of help.  Help in the way of a set of Eduard masks for the kit.  Can't wait till they get here!  I should have thought of that weeks ago.

 

Anyway - got her on her wheels and bombs loaded and such. Here is the underside:

 

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The bomb bay doors are just sitting there - the fit is pretty tight with the bombs in place so I may just leave it like that.  I did not do all of the detailing and stencils on the bombs.  Not really planning on turning it over that much to be honest.

 

Here is a better view of the two door landing gear.  The Academy instructions actually have an error at this step.  One side shows doing the long door first, then the short door, but the other side shows doing the short door (closer to the ground) first then the long one, which is actually the correct way.  Almost got me.  Definitely going to have to do some re-spray on the leading edges to get the blue much closer to the edge.

 

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Here is the walk around as she sits:

 

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I have a clear coat over it to help seal in the decals, which really did not like to adhere to the plane very well.  The small stencils anyway.  The many stencils mid wing are actually all one decal (each side) which I had of course a huge problem with slivering;  not sure why they did that since there are so many other stencils but turned out ok with a good dose of Solvaset.

 

The engine cowling and prop are dry fitted and have not attached the exhausts or the antenna mast yet.

 

Still working on the P-39.  Have a dull coat drying now, then putting on the various running lights and will be taking off the canopy masks too.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Chris

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry for the lack of updates guys.  Ordered the canopy masks from Eduard a couple of weeks ago so hoping they show up any day now.  Really looking forward to masking the canopies, getting them painted and on the model.

 

Thanks for following!

 

Chris

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I can't believe it has taken this long, but the masks finally showed up.  I also didn't realize there are something like 30-40 different panels to be masked.  All masked now so just need to attach and paint.  The masks were kind of a pain to use.  VERY hard to see the individual masks, and in 1/72 scale some are very tiny.  But had to start lifting each one with an X-Acto blade, then use the needle point tweezers to grab and position.  But the real pain is that most of the square masks were too long on one side so for at least 32 of the panels had to be trimmed further.  About the width of the X-Acto blade actually.

 

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Chris

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Nice work on that Helldiver ! , and it reminds me also why I never did care for 1/72 scale..too freaking small....( though I once built a 1/100 scale Hughes OH-6 and scratchbuilt the interior )

 

-Joe

 

Agree Joe!  Wait till I post the pics of the masked canopy.  So small!  CN

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FINALLY PB is cooperating again.  Yay!

 

Before painting, after masking.  This took me about and hour to do.  Sorry, yellow on yellow is a little hard to see.

 

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And after painting.  This is 1/72 so what I see under the magnifying lens is a bit different than the naked eye.

 

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Busy tomorrow but maybe Thursday I'll get the HellDiver finally all together.  I can't wait!

 

Chris

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