mattyfarm

ict, Jaw-droppingly excellent work. I love a Warthog like LSP Chris loves a P-47. Excellent photos, too. I intend to use your build as a reference when I get the guts to start my Hog! THANKS! Matty

Keep your drill sharp and true! This should be an impressive addition to your collection! Matty

That wingspan is BIG! Looks great so far. Are the dive brakes balsa or the vacu-form plastic? Looks like a job for the well-focused. Matty

What a great, innovative idea! I have one of the 1/18 P-47s, and thought about repainting it. Your use of the "toy" as a starting point for super-detailing is excellent. Making good use of available assets to achieve a new level in an unconventional way. I'm glad 21st Century had the cojones to make that line of 1/18 planes. Not museum quality models, but hey... big, and pretty accurate for what they are. Your work on it looks great. You may start a trend...! Matty

As I've mentioned, I'm not doing a lot of super-detailing. I figure wherever there's clear parts you can see into, I'll try to put in just enough detail to fool the (untrained) eye into thinking the plane is built up on the inside. I took a photo of an illustration of the B-17 cockpit then reduced the size until it looked about right. I cut out the picture, mounted it on some sheet styrene, then hit it with some spray varnish to seal it up. I then dabbed Future onto the instrument dials. When people look into the small windows around the cockpit, there should be enough detail to see on the instrument panel. This was a pretty simple "cop-out" alternative to scratch-building an instrument panel that will be difficult to see anyway.

Here's all the styrene details, including wing root forms. The control surfaces are in place on the model. The smaller details should be easier to place than the control surfaces, and probably won't require as much corrective action.

Here's a shot of the details cut out of styrene according to the kit templates. The windows from the previous pic are on the blue tape on the right side of the photo. Clear styrene in is place, and the window edges are colored with the marker pen. The batwing-looking shapes are the "cheek windows".

Thanks Erwin. It's really just a variation on the kit instructions to paste the paper templates to the model. I wonder if the paper would have been easier to manage. Here are some more detail items being made from styrene. The fuselage door and nose hatch are done. I used 0.03mm styrene strip for the hinges, and 0.05mm clear styrene for windows. ...EDITED NOTE...I meant to write 0.03 INCH styrene (0.75mm) and 0.005 INCH (0.13mm, really thin...). The fumes and dust must be getting to me. Mistakes like that could cause you to crash on Mars! Other windows are cut out, and the white edges of styrene are colored with an olive-colored marker. The removed sections are the squares on the blue tape; maybe they can be used for other panels, hatches, etc. Next, I will cut out the frames after attaching clear styrene windows to the inside surface.

Excellent one again, Erwin! The finishes keep getting better. Looks like museum-quality work! Thanks for the education! Matty

Back to little rubberbands and bits of balsa to put pressure on the styrene. I'm going to used the same method for hatches, small panels, and windows. I think it will be easier with small pieces. I think I'll end up using a lot of strip styrene to hide some of the mistakes on the edges.

...this deformation makes it a pain to attach to the wing (or elevator, or rudder...), and causes unsightly bumps. The ballpoint pen causes the plastic to bump up a little, giving raised detail on the control surface. Getting it all to lie down and stick has proven to be a challenge. And will require some corrective surgery later. Again, I may just blame it on the B-17 being so war weary that all the panels, even the control surfaces, are stressed and rippled from combat flying.

I then traced over the "rib" detail on the control surface. I used a ballpoint pen with pretty good pressure. The template is on foamboard, so the pen puts a good indentation in the styrene. It also causes the styrene to deform and curl...

The wings, stabilizer, and rudder were built as one piece, rather than with the control surfaces separated. If I do another balsa model, I will take the extra time to build the moving surfaces. As it is, the model needed some work to add control surface detail. I decided to transfer the paper templates onto sheet styrene, then glue them into the appropriate spot. I'm going to lose some scale accuracy in order to "clean up" this process. Here's a section of sheet styrene taped onto the paper template. I've penciled in the outline...

Thanks for notes, guys! I'm going to start on some of the detail parts this weekend; the kit includes clear plastic canopies, turrets etc. I'm also going to use sheet styrene for control surfaces, hatches and other bits. Chris: the kit includes some plastic molding for the upper wing roots, but I haven't tried them out yet. There's also some paper forms for the lower wing roots, which I may transfer onto sheet styrene. If I get most of the details done in the next week, I hope to start the final painting next weekend. My estimates for time have consistently been wrong. I'm going to go with OD green upper surfaces, and grey underneath. As I warned earlier, artistic license will be used liberally with decals and markings. Matty

Hey Erwin! I'm glad Rob had the right answer. Now we can follow another one of your builds! Next to the Thunderbolts (P-47 and A-10), the Dauntless has always been one of my favorites. I had forgotten Guillow makes one (must be pretty big!), but as soon as Rob mentioned "Dauntless" an old buried image of the box art popped up in my mind. Thanks for posting the picture of the box. Stick your hand in the next batch of photos so we can get an idea of the size! Matty

...and a right side view. Thanks for the encouragement guys! Matty

Another shot to give a size reference...

Not too much progress. I'm trying to decide the best way to proceed on adding details such as control surfaces, hatches etc. I've got some ideas, and I just need to stop fretting and try 'em! Here's that same area now filled, sanded and primed...

Jay L. I just checked out your T-34 build on the HS link. I remember seeing it last year. Absolutely stunning! I think it was looking at that build that started me thinking about building a great big grimy T-34. Thanks for the link. Looks like the T-34 ride was a blast! Matty

Hmmm. Air intakes on the wings. Hmmm... Maybe it's not one of the kits you've mentioned are in your stash... Matty

Jay L. Thanks for the armor break! Excellent work. I did a lot of armor and figures in my youth (long gone...). Part of the attraction was the chance to really grime things up and show battered, war-weary stuff. Rivet-counters and shade-graders can GTH, as far as I'm concerned. Especially with armor. I might have to think about getting one of the HUGE Trumpeter tanks, now that you've got me thinking about armour again. Ole--nice panther Erwin--your talent covers earth AND sky... "LSP/LST" ? Matty

Hey ict, Outstanding work on the Hog! Great detailing, excellent weapons! Can't have too many Thunderbolts (originals or II's). Good to see a Warthog in progress here. Mine is still in the box, waiting for my skills to improve. Is that the Verlinden set you are using for the outside compartments? Great job! Matty

Hey Matt! Excellent effort so far. I'm so impressed with the riveting that I contacted Petr in the Czech Republic to get a couple Rosie tools. I tried using a pounce wheel from MicroMark, but the teeth were annoyingly uneven in their appearance. If I were more mechanically inclined, I would try Rato's method for building my own riveter (Rato the Riveter). Your work with Rosie made my decide to go with Petr's. MiG is gonna look good! Do you use any of that UV setting stuff in your dental work?

Hi Erwin, I'm doing some mental imagery trying to follow your build (non-modelers might call it hallucinating... what do they know...! ). I have an educated guess as to which model it is, and I see some interesting and difficult angles it must entail. I sanded through some of my styrene. What a pain. Seems like fixing the balsa panels would be a bit more tricky Matty

You can't have too much Thunderbolt stuff, Chris. There's nothing sick about that. Matty