tucohoward

Well after much debate (in my mind) and hostage 312's input, Vandy's suggestion and links to helmet covers,
I modified the helmets on my crew to more represent the HGU 55 and the desert cover.  Hope I got it close
and I'm happy with the results. I've again modified the neck on the pilot since I took these pictures to look more like 
he might be flying the plane as apposed to "Star Gazing". The crew is now mounted in the pit,except the heads where I 
can add the microphone and cord before permanently attaching them. Thanks Guys

This was built a few years ago using the Revell Mk 1F kit. Reference was the SAM Modellers Datafile 6. I built it as an early VIc hence no porcupine exhausts. It also has the dihedral tailplane which was adapted from the flat one with the kit. Experts will know the screen is not quite right for a VIc but I didn't have the ability at the time to do any better! I decided on a desert scheme as I thought it was pretty interesting(apart from the fact I had a load of dark earth/middle stone/azure blue paint sitting around from previous builds!) The file shows the Malta Beaus were "extremely weathered" Pictures show a couple with hardly any paint left at all! I used Alclad Alu on the wing leading edges then used liquid masking then paint and then peeled it off to try and create the effect.

The DF loop on top of the cockpit was built from wire. The dome was made using the "crash" moulding technique.
The Malta Beaus also had a conversion where the rear observers canopy was cut back and a Vickers K gun installed.
The strike camera in the nose was apparently removed and a blanking plate fitted.

 
Hope you like. Few more pics to follow
 
Phil

Calling this one done - earlier stuff can be seen here.
 









 
Comments/thoughts/abuse appreciated!
 
Have fun...
 
Iain

Hello,
 
it took me one year to finish this kit and I tried to build it as correct as I could. I used quite a lot of after market stuff, such as the Eduard BIGED, the Avionix sets for the Cockpit, the wheels are Eduard Brassin for the B-25, the engines Brassin for the Corsair. The oxygen bottles in the wheel wells are 3D printed. The markings are painted and the nose art decals are custom made.
I hope you like it!
 
Cheers,
Bodo
 
 

Built this from the old Revell Germany boxing.
1/32 Scale, raised details, Eagle Cal Decals, lots of added details, 21st Century Pilot.
Vallejo Paints, Model Master Clear coats.

Build pics here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnmanny/sets/72157645587290775/

Glamor shots here

Very nice !!

Hello,
 
Top Notch work as usual
 
Cheers
Boris

nice, great scheme

Wow Jay that looks quite nice with the paint and decals!  Really colorful..............i like it

Hardcore, I am guessing you mean to leave the underside in the lighter color, so I did. Did some decaling last night. Eduard for the crosses and EagleCals for the 16's.
 
Jay

Hardcore, I am guessing you mean to leave the underside in the lighter color, so I did. Did some decaling last night. Eduard for the crosses and EagleCals for the 16's.
 
Jay

Hardcore, I am guessing you mean to leave the underside in the lighter color, so I did. Did some decaling last night. Eduard for the crosses and EagleCals for the 16's.
 
Jay

Looks fab Jay!  
I like the natural metal on the wings, and in combo with your late war color on the tips and fuse, it makes for a visually interesting contrast.

Really nice stuff.
 
Sincerely,
Mark

After discussing things on the general board I have decided to go with the late-war color on the lower fuselage, natural metal wings, 76 front cowlings, lower tail, etc. I mixed my own late-war color, that which shall not be called RLM 84, as I didn't have anything in Mr. Color to match. Started with an off-white base and added a little 04 and 65. Mr. Color Shine Silver on the wings.
 
Jay

After discussing things on the general board I have decided to go with the late-war color on the lower fuselage, natural metal wings, 76 front cowlings, lower tail, etc. I mixed my own late-war color, that which shall not be called RLM 84, as I didn't have anything in Mr. Color to match. Started with an off-white base and added a little 04 and 65. Mr. Color Shine Silver on the wings.
 
Jay

After discussing things on the general board I have decided to go with the late-war color on the lower fuselage, natural metal wings, 76 front cowlings, lower tail, etc. I mixed my own late-war color, that which shall not be called RLM 84, as I didn't have anything in Mr. Color to match. Started with an off-white base and added a little 04 and 65. Mr. Color Shine Silver on the wings.
 
Jay

I think I have an insight into why Trumpeter's efforts are maddeningly inconsistent, and it comes from my job in a very large Fortune 500 company.  I work with my colleagues in China every single day and have traveled there extensively with a focus on IT development and deployment and Supply Chain logistics.  These are just my observations, so please take them as opinion only:
 
Travel is very difficult for PRC residents outside of China.  When Tamiya wants to go visit a museum in the UK for example to measure a Spitfire, they get the appropriate visas, arrange the visit with the musuem, and arrive with laser measurement tools to inspect the subject in the nth degree.  They also give a generous donation to said musuem for the exclusive access.  For Trumpeter, this is much more difficult (not impossible, but difficult) and they have not shown any propensity to do this with their projects.  Everything is done from the comfort of their offices in Guandong Province. Research is more difficult.  In China, there is no access to YouTube, Google, Network 54 and many other internet portals that we in the West take for granted.  We may think it's just a matter of doing some really good internet searching, but if you can't get to the search engines in the first pace, it makes life harder.  They obtain various reference books that are widely available like the Squadron In Action and Verlinden Lock-on books, use published plans that may have suspect origins, and work mostly from photographs.  I believe this is why you so often see them getting canopy shapes wrong as the subtle nuances are very hard to determine from a picture. Trumpeter is a business first rather than operated as a model company filled with people passionate about the hobby.  They are not a bunch of modeling geeks who got together to make an excellent company (like the orginal Accurate Miniatures, Eduard, ZM, and WNW), they came to this industry in a very different way than the traditional model companies we know and love.  It's all about product rather than passion and I think that leads to a number of their exasperating failures. Chinese culture is a factor.  Dealing with my Chinese colleagues day in and day out, I have observed that they are very reticent to speak up, are very mindful of a tops-down hierarchy, and pretty much do what they are told by their management team, whom they fear.  If the project plan says two months of research is allocated to the design phase, then that is what the designer will spend on the task plan.  If it takes more than that to really get the last bits of details done, too bad.  The designer is already working on a different project, which probably is a ship or a tank.  That phase is now closed.  I know that Western subject matter experts have offered to help Trumpeter and their efforts are usually ignored.  Lots of material gets sent via e-mail but it doesn't appear to be used much if at all.  Offers to review CAD designs fall on deaf ears.  It's not polite to say "no" in China, so it doesn't get said very often. Trumpeter does best when there is a good copy of the subject to study.  Anybody who's been to China knows that product knock-offs and copyright infringement is widely accepted without regret.  Intellectual property is not a concept that is highly regarded or respected.  So when Trumpeter makes their P-47 kit and has the excellent Tamiya 1/48 kits to study, there is no question that they do so.  This is not just simply copying the design of the other kit as Trumpeter usually adds features that makes their offereing different.  But if they get stuck and can't determine something quite right from photos or plans, they appear to have no qualms about seeing how someone else did it.  In the P-47 example, I can see how they copied Tamiya's 1/48 scale kits' mistakes in the too-large boss on the Hamilton Standard propeller and the strange engineering of the wheel well detail that doesn't include the canvas cover.  Why are the SBD and TBM relatively good kits?  Accurate Miniatures was there before them.  Note that this isn't always true -- Trumpeter blew it shape wise with the A-7 canopy and intake, and the air intakes of the F-14 are really hosed.  They could have used Hasegawa examples to help them but they didn't for some reason that is not obvious to us. Good enough is good enough.  There isn't a culture of perfection in this industry that I have seen, as opposed to the Japanese.  Their kits fits together pretty well due to CAD design and injection molding knowledge, and they know how to provide a lot of content in their kits.  I wish I could understand the insistence on including engines and internal structure that will be buried inside the finished product never to be seen again, but that is what the bossman says so that is what is provided.  
I think that Trumpeter's contributions to this niche of the hobby (large scale models) have on-balance been tremendous, but with the realization that they don't go the extra mile towards the perfection that we Western modelers would really like to see.  Personally, I got burned when the A-10 first came out and was sorely disappointed when the reviews by SMEs pointed out some serious shape flaws that are almost impossible to correct without a ton of work.  I vowed to never buy a Trumpeter kit until it had been thoroughly reviewed and built by modelers whom I respect.  This has worked out pretty well and I look forward to more interesting subjects to be released by them in the future.  Like anything in life, you need to be a little careful of what you are buying and what you are willing to put up with.
 
Again, these are just observations as I don't have any insider knowledge on Trumpeter's actual operations.

I have struggled through several Trumpy kits and have been blown away by some of their kits.
I'm not a rivet counter and have enjoyed most of the ones I have struggled with because short of vac-u-form
it was the only game in town. I loved cussing my way through the F-105G that I spent 2 years building all kinds
of stuff for because I'm not a big AM user as I find a lot of it doesn't give me the Bang for the Buck.
The best one Ive build is the MIG-19 a fun , well fititing, before Trumpy got their rivet tool kit
The gentleman above and several others have said how bad the EE Lightning, me I love it and have 4 more in
my stash,  One mans trash, anothers treasure.  Depends on you building style and how you feel about shape issues.
If it waddles like a duck, kinda looks like a duck, sorta quacks like a duck, then it is a Trumpeter.
 
  Have Fun ....The Most Important Thing
 
   Jack

Happy Easter Everyone.
 
There have been some really nice Dora's on here lately so here is one that i have just finished myself.
 
This is the Revell boxing of the Hasegawa kit finished as the big tailed version "Brown 4" W.Nr. 500647 found at Hustedt by Canadian troops, late March 1945.
 
A really nice kit, and straight forward easy build. I used the JaPo books for reference which are fantastic books if you enjoy the subject matter. I am yet to add the antenna and seat belts.
 
This is my own take on "Brown 4" so there's a bit of artisic licence
 
The only downside of the kit for me where the decals. They looked ok on the sheet but where very thick and the Brown 4 was more pink then brown. I ended up using a set from Cutting Edge for the national markings and limited stencils. I painted over the aircraft numbers with my own mix to portray a browner "Brown 4". Next time I would probably use masks.
 
In addition to the kit I aslo used; (These werent really needed though - but just add a bit more detail.)
 
Quickboost - Exhausts
Quickboost - Gun Barrels
Eduard - Canopy Masks.
 
I added some extra piping and wiring to the exposed engine area just for a bit more detail.
 
For the camouflage I mixed all of my own colours from Tamiya and Gunze paints - RLM 76/81/82/83/84. ALclad and Tamiya Gloss Aluminium from the can for the NMF areas and other details. The plastic had a lot of "swirling" which was a pain to cover over in some areas.
 
For weathering I used the usual oils, filtering and pigments etc etc.
 
The pics are a bit on the green side - not sure what happened there.
 

 


 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Thanks, Peter. Been working on getting the IP and gunsight installed, and then the front canopy section so i don't break off the sight. Grab handles from solder and lights from the MDC cockpit set.
 
Jay

Maybe it's pretty close.

I was worried about doing the closed tailwheel doors, but pretty happy with the results. The rivets are much more subtle now with some Mr. Surfacer 1200 on them.
 
Jay

Thanks, Brian. Be careful, riveting can be habit forming.

Rick, beautiful NMF. The Flory's wash looks great. Can't get them to work for me, but yours is perfect.
 
Jay