Granger Davis

I know it may not matter to many of you, but I lost a good old friend this past weekend, at the age of 100. He was a veteran of the USAAC in WW2, served with the 474th FG, 428th FS, as an assistant crew chief working on P-38 Lightings. He was fantastic human being, and a good friend, and I will miss him. Archie Lee Stuck. He is the reason I love P-38s so much.
 
Tim

Finished.  A really fun build.  Enjoyed doing this conversion of clipped wing FAA Corsair Mk.I
 
FAA Corsair Mk.I
This aircraft represents Corsair Mk.I Fleet Air Arm 1835 Sqn JT150.  Transit Camp Downhill at US Naval Air Station Quonset Point, RI 1943.  Pilots would train on Corsairs at Quonset Point then return with plane to UK.
 
Tamiya 1:48 F4U1/2 Birdcage Corsair
EagleCal EC152 Birdcage Corsairs, Barracuda BR48114 Wheels, Eduard PE, Ultracast Prop, Vector "Turtleback", Vector Cowling detail, HGW belts, X-Small Ultra Wire, INFINI 70 Denier 70 Lycra Thread, AirScale Decals, MRP 132 Interior Bronze Green, MRP130 Salmon Pink Primer, MRP 98 Lt Gull Grey, MRP 99 Navy White, MRP 77 NATO Black, MRP 365 Ocean Grey, MRP 138 Olive Drab, MRP 127 Super Clear Matt, Alclad 117 Dull Aluminum, Alclad 107 Chrome, Motlow Liquid Chrome, MiG Black Smoke powder, MiG Standard Rust powder, MiG Industrial City Dirt powder,  MRP 130 Salmon Pink Primer.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you all for your kind words.  Really means much to me.  I feel somewhat discouraged as I do not get the time to mine LSP check in and comment on all the beautiful builds   There are so many outstanding modelers on this site.  It's a privilege to be part of this group.
 
Cheers - Rick

Thanks a lot for your kind messages. 
Much appreciated.
 

Happy birthday today!

Happy birthday today!

with green camouflage spritz. One of my favorites. 
 
A placeholder.  I have to finish shower plumbing repairs. This gives me some incentive. 

That P-40N is elusive!

Well, i just finished up what i think will be my last ANA 623 paint experiment.

This formula uses just 2 colours, instead of four: XF-17 Sea Blue and X-16 Gloss Purple.

Not a colour per se but i find that mixing in Super Clear Gloss UVCut helps a lot with the gloss and as long as you thin the mix adequately, it sprays beautifully and dries pretty quick.

Taking it outside into (some) daylight serves as a more reliable validation...

This project was slated to be a late Brewster F3A-1 at MCAS Cherry Point, but its unclear if the plane was painted overall 623 at the factory (the last F3As rolled off the line in 1944) or if it was re painted after an overhaul.... so i don't know if the propeller hub should be gloss sea blue or not, like the Goodyear FG-1As were.

My test sample is glossier i think than the real ones were, but of course that can be controlled by adding less gloss, or none at all. Adding gloss does however, make the paint more durable and resistant to marring like it is in its natural, flat finish state.
 
Done going down this rabbit hole. My curiosity has been satisfied.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

That P-40N is elusive!

I'm probably in a minority of 1 - but I love their 1:32 109E kits.
 
Yes, they take a little work, but the surface detailing is more subtle than the Dragon kits IMHO.
 
I'd love to see them pick up the scale again.
 

 
Blue skies,
 
Iain

That's looking pretty good, Mike! Can't wait to start modeling again, you guys here give me quite a bit of inspiration 

Got some markings on , feeling better about my progress.
Still some markings I'll need to make myself , stencils and/or decals.
 

 

 
Thanx for lookin'

Gorgeous Birdcage! I built a 1/48 Tamiya Birdcage in the markings YEARS ago, but this is truly art.....

Hello, all.  If you've been following the build thread, you know that this project was nearing completion.  Tonight, after taking the afternoon off, I finally crossed the finish line.
 
As has been my modus operandi of late, I wanted to more or less recreate an historical photograph.  For this project, I chose this photo:

It's from a fairly well-circulated set of photos and film that were taken either for training purposes, propaganda, or the news reels.  In some of the other shots from this series, there's a movie camera crew just out of frame to the right.  So, there was something big going on.  Also probably explains why the pilot's exiting the wrong side of the aircraft.
 
Anyway, this photo was taken in July of 1943 on Espiritu Santo.  The pilot here is one Lt. Virgil Ray, great uncle to our own @ARay87.  He did a pretty great write up on Lt. Ray at the WW2 Aircraft forums, so I'll point you there for a great in depth look into the man.  Sadly, Lt. Ray was lost in a storm on 13 October, 1943, just a few months after this photo set was taken.  Rest in peace, Virgil. 
 
I wanted to do this particular aircraft because it had red insignia surrounds (and I've never done those before) some pretty (ahem) unusual weathering.  It wasn't until a few weeks into the build that I really realized what I'd gotten myself into.  A couple highlights:
I sculpted the crew chief from the waist up, using only premade hands and head.  I also had to modify his ankles so he would stand up straight on the wing.  The base figure was the standing pilot figure included with the Corsair kit. I had to resculpt the pilot's lower legs because the Black Dog Resin figure was in ETO heavy gear.  It's still not perfect, but it's a lot better than it was. I also had to resculpt the pilot's hands as the stock figure's hands were nowhere near where they needed to be.  I had to build 2 palm trees from scratch.  I used Luke Towan's method, but also wrapped the trunks in masking tape to give them a little more texture.  Each tree has 38 fronds.  I could fit 12 fronds on a sheet of paper in my cutter.  Each sheet took 65 minutes.  You do the math. I added a ton of wiring detail to the cockpit, engine, and landing gear bay  
So, in all it was a pretty challenging project and a lot of fun (except the palm fronds) that really pushed my limits, especially the sculpting parts.  See the build thread for full details on the sculpting adventures.
 
Aftermarket parts used were:
Barracudacast plain tread wheels Anyz canopy frame Quinta studio cockpit interior and harnesses Black Dog Resin pilot figure  
Though my dio is not a perfect 1:1 recreation of the source image, I feel it captures the essence of the scene.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy.  Tomorrow, I have to build new floating display shelves in the model cave as I have officially run out of display room.
 





 

 

 

 

 



 



































 
Sorry, no under belly shots.  The plane is not attached to the base, but there's no good way to set or hold the a/c upside down with the figures in place.  It looks nice, you'll just have to trust me. 
 

For anyone wanting to see how it's done:
 

 
Kev

This is the first time I've used my Flickr account, so hopefully these pictures come out and I don't goof up and send my entire Flickr Library. If it works good, I'll post some work in progress pictures on the in the works section. I hope you guys like this very enjoyable build! Thank you to David Hansen for all your help!
This marks the first time using masks; Montex masks are awesome!
 
 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/129265461@N06/shares/2G5DgZ

This is amazing!!!!

If I'm thinking about aircraft Kotare should/would do from the World War II era, I think the following would be sure-fire sellers:
 
Hawker Typhoon
Hawker Hurricane
Ki-43 Oscar
Bristol Beaufighter
Me-110G
A6M3
P-40E-N
 
I have to think Kotare will the same as WnW did, and eventually venture into larger, twin-engined aircraft, hence the Beau and Me-110. Additionally, save for the A6M3 which is a very particular beast, each of these have various variants that can be created modularly with little effort to the original molds. More bang for your buck once the main bits are tooled. We saw this with WnW, and it served them very well. I mean, they released what, 5-6 different boxings of the Fokker D.VII, and the only differences were some cowling bits? And all of them sold out before they went **** up.
 
The 109K-4 is an interesting choice, honestly. It didn't contribute much to the war effort (they didn't have any pilots left by that point in the war that could truly handle it), and it's not the most prolific Bf-109 variant when it comes to boffins. It was a hot rod, late war, and pretty niche. Definitely a project someone at Kotare wanted to have done (not necessarily a sure-fire seller), but it most definitely has the cool factor. As many have noted here, and what we also saw with WnW, simply because of the quality reputation of the manufacturer, many will be purchased for that reason alone. I happen to love the 109K, and that, as well as the fact Kotare is making it, means I will absolutely be purchasing one.
 
 
- Dennis S.
   Mount Juliet, TN USA

Many thanks for your message !!!
 
Gilles
 
 

Hello, and welcome to LSP! that’s pretty nice large scale collection you have there!

This was my second crack at a 1/32 aircraft model.
The HobbyBoss spitfire is an excellent kit with great fit and good detail. Its far far cheaper than the equivalent Tamiya and I honestly can't imagine I would have produced any better model if I had the Tamiya kit.
I settled on the Tamiya XF 81,82,83 series of paints which worked quite well with an Ultimate weathering wash for the panel lines.
Its a very enjoyable build and highly recommended if you want to do one in this scale. I couldn't bring myself to weathering it very much as I didn't want to wreck the paintwork, so sorry to disappoint all the realism fans out there. I call it factory fresh!



 
 




 
cheers
BT

This is my third 1/32 scale kit and it was a real gem. Its a top of the range 1/32 Corsair and its every bit the quality for the price I paid for it.
Detail - Incredible
Fit - perfect
instructions - Excellent
Decals - too thick, cartograf are better (only flaw for Tamiya kits unfortunately...)
Challenge - requires patience but its a very enjoyable build
Result - Very satisfied
 
For the paints I've used a mix of Tamiya XF17 Sea Blue, XF8 Flat Blue and XF2 Flat White in about a 5:2:1 ratio.
The assembly turns out to be multiple kits in one.
There is the cockpit assembly


 
There is the engine assembly, which I added some fuse wire to as the kit didn't reflect all the pipes that are quite prominent for radial engines.


 
The undercarriage

 
And the final finished product.







 
 
Its been a very pleasing build and being a carrier aircraft I didn't give it the typical pacific island hard weathered look, just a bit of rough marks here and there. I hope you enjoy viewing as much as i enjoyed building.
 
cheers
 
BT