Vandy 1 VX 4

Progress happening slower than I would like, as only able to do between the paying job and family stuff
 
Rear cockpit
 

 
Rear instrument panel and coaming

Front instrument panel (not complete and coaming will follow)
 
 
 

Don  Its fine and accurate
The port ( left ) drop tank is full of gas. They just haven't gotten to fill the starboard ( right ) side yet 

The armored glass in front of the gunsight complicated matters significantly, but I was able to get it out.  As a bonus, I managed to scratch the canopy in front of the armored glass too.  I then had to wiggle a tiny paintbrush with some Future on it to clean up the scratches.  Worked like a champ.
 
Good thing, because....
 
She's done.
 

Hi, all.  Making progress this weekend, but it doesn't look like we'll make it over the finish line today. 
 
This is how most of the weekend has been spent.  Holy smokes there are a lot of decals on this beast, including 10 of my least favorite kinds of decals... Long, narrow lines.  The walkway demarcation on each wing is 5 separate pieces, two of which are just long, narrow lines, and two others are long, narrow "L" shaped decals.  I'd considered painting them, but opted against it.  In the end, they went down okay and are relatively straight.  So, hooray.  I also discovered that I've misplaced my reverse grip tweezers which are a critical tool for my decal process, so improvise, adapt, overcome and thus you see a hobby knife dunked in the decal water.  :/  Oh well, it worked out okay.

 
After the decals were sealed in with another clear coat, I did a pin wash with some burnt umber oil paint.  It's subtle, but it turned out nicely.

 

 
Lastly, I tried recreating that bizarro faded or repainted patch just forward of the canopy as seen here.  It doesn't look to me like the typical fuel staining found in that area and almost looks like an area of paint has been applied.  Perhaps, painted over an area of paint damaged by fuel?  I don't know.  No color photos exist of this photo session, so I have no idea what color it actually is.

 
I tried to do it initially with airbrushing when I was base coating the plane, but it did not turn out well at all.  It looked absolutely artificial.  So, I went after it with very light blue oil paints today and I think it turned out reasonably close.



 
I'm going to let those dry for a day or two then get to the proper weathering.  Depending on how my week plays out, I may be able to wrap it up before this weekend.
 

Double posting to wrap up the night here.
 
We're getting there.  Chipping is done - I kept it fairly subtle as there's no evidence the original plane was chipped to pieces.  The gear and doors are firmly fixed in place and I applied a neutral gray filter over the whole thing.  I really like the way that turned out - it faded the darker upper surfaces and toned down the brightness of the white belly and insignias.  As filters usually do, it really helped tie the whole scheme together.  The fading effect is subtle, but you can see it on the left wing and horizontal stab.




 
It honestly looks a little overdone in the photos, but at 1:1 scale, it looks pretty great. 
 
Anyhoo, I'll let that dry and then hit it with a gloss coat to get some decals down.

Just a little update tonight.  I laid the gloss coat down and will probably get to the decals and the start of weathering on Friday evening.
 
I also finished painting and installing the Anyz canopy rail.  What a neat detail!
 




 

Oh, what a journey it's been since last night's post.
 
The rest of this project has gone exceptionally well - truly better than expected - and it would appear that the gremlins have just been waiting.  The plane itself is fighting me tooth and nail.
 
After posting, I went to start working on the insignias.  After de-tacking the vinyl mask on the leg of my pants, I placed it on the left wing.  I didn't like the placement so I pulled it off and a big sheet of paint came up with it.  I had previously laid an undercoat of Alclad aluminum so that I could do some subtle fine sanding of the topcoat to expose the aluminum underneath.  I remembered last night as I stared at the patch of missing paint a lesson that I'd learned the hard way on my NMF P-40B: topcoats don't adhere well to Alclad aluminum at all.
 
So, I took some masking tape and started dabbing it on the wing and sure enough, everywhere there was an aluminum undercoat, the paint came off in sheets.  So, a few more minutes with tape and a little bit of sanding, and I landed here.
 

 
Good times.
 
So, starting over, I took a few pics to show you what I didn't photograph when I was doing the base coating the first time.
 
Mr. Surfacer 1500 primer.

 
Pre-shading with a thinned down MRP-059 Schwartzgrau (RLM 66).  This is my new go-to for pre-shading.  It allows for more subtlety than straight black.

 
From there, I base coated with MRP Sea Blue again, which more or less got me to the same point as I was at when I posted. 
 
Then, I happened to notice that one of the gear door actuators has broken off and 100% MIA.  I'd had to glue them on way back when I was working on detailing the gear bays and, despite being very careful about it, one of them is gone.  I didn't realize it at the time, but it's missing in the belly shot in last night's post.  (Right hand gear, outboard door).  So, when I'm ready to put the gear doors on, I'll have to scratch up a facsimile which shouldn't be too hard, but still.
 
Then!  My airbrush had been giving me fits all day with all sorts of erratic behavior.  I'd broken it down and cleaned it 3x by the time I posted last night, but it was still blowing bubbles back into the cup.  So, at the end of the night, I decided to tear it all down again for another deep cleaning.  As I unthreaded the muzzle cap - as I have done thousands of times, the o-ring between the cap and brush body ripped in 2.  I calmly set the whole thing down, turned off the lights, and walked out of the room. 
 
Enough for one night.
 
Fast forward to now: We're back on track.  I've ordered a new o-ring, nozzle, and needle for my airbrush.  I actually have 2 identical Iwata HP-CS brushes, one that I run with the .35mm nozzle (primary) and one with the .50mm nozzle (secondary, for larger jobs).  I tried swapping the .35mm nozzle/needle into my secondary brush and it immediately started bubbling paint.  So, clearly the nozzle and/or needle are shot.  For the rest of today's work, I used the larger nozzle and was super careful about my trigger pulls.
 
Now, on to the insignias.  There are probably much easier ways to do these, but this was essentially my method.  Place the whole thing, mark the top point of the star and the 5 wedges with sharpie, remove star and bars, spray white.

 
Replace star and bars oh. so. carefully.

 
And then forget to take pictures.  <facepalm>
 
Remove wedges, paint blue, replace wedges oh. so. carefully.
 
Remove surround, paint red.  Say prayer.  Remove all masks:

That process alone took about an hour. 
 
Now repeat 3x more times, throw in some squadron numbers, and you get here:








 
For whatever reason, I have had issues with paint lifting in a few other spots straight down to the bare plastic.  I've never been one to wash my models prior to painting and I've never had such issues before.  Gremlins out in full force.  Hopefully they spent themselves last night because today has been a mostly enjoyable experience.  Mostly.
 
Anyway, now that it has some tonal variety, it's now starting to grow on me.  Next I'll finish up the brushwork, do some light brush/sponge chipping, and lay down a gloss varnish for the decals.  With luck, I'll be able to wrap it up by next weekend.
 

Thank you.  I more or less followed Luke Towan's tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSKG9rcb_Y4 
 
I varied in that I wrapped the trunks in layers of 1.5" wide masking tape to help give them texture and strength.  This is a much larger scale than what Luke works in, so I had to add some heft to them.  Cutting the fronds was the most annoying part.  To get them to come cleanly off the cutting mat, I had to set them to run suuuuuuuuuuper slow and do 2 passes through the cutter.  A set of 12 fronds - all that would fit on one sheet of paper - took 65 minutes.  Each tree has 38 fronds, so you do the math.  That was just to cut them, then I still had to super glue a wire to the back of them and paint them.  They turned out really really nice and I'm very happy with them, but I shan't be doing another one again for some time if I can help it.
 
Interestingly, whatever materials Luke uses behaved the opposite of mine.  He put a sheet of laminate on a sheet of paper then ran it through his cutter.  I used oramask 813 on a sheet of paper.  He then glued the stem to the laminate as he specifically said the leaves would bend towards the laminate side over time.  On the first, taller tree, that's what I did, but my leaves bent towards the paper, so that tree has leaves that are bent upwards from the stem.  On the second, shorter tree, I glued the stem to the paper side and got the result I was after.  They both look great, and I think it adds a little visual interest anyway, so whatever.  Lesson learned.
 
Anyway...
 
Today was a good, long day at the bench.  I bopped back and forth between working on the figures and the base.  The figures are still very much a work in progress (only the flesh tones are done), but the base is finished!
 
Though not present in the photos, I added a little grass for visual interest.  I did it in such a way that maybe the SeaBees missed a swatch or two as they were grading the runways and taxiways.  I don't intend to glue down the Corsair so that I can use this base for as a photo base for any single engine engine Pacific warrior.  Yes, I've tried squeezing the A-20G and Lightning in... they fit, but only just barely.
 
Anyway, here you go.





 
And a couple placeholders...



 
If all goes well, I should be able to finish up the figures this week and turn my attention to the Corsair proper next weekend. 

What kit did you use for the trees or did you scratch build them?    They look great

Thanks mates
so while watching Top Gun Maverick I've added the sensors/probes, got the black stripe on the launch bar and, taped the exhaust to the model so I can set it aside until the Reskit components show up, I also ordered a metal "Master"  pitot to replace the slightly bent kit part. 
The model as it sits right now awaiting the last couple of pieces;
Something I'd have missed without the book, the black on the launch bar;

 
sensors finally painted and in place

 
tailpipes just taped on right now awaiting new parts

well...thats it till the remaining parts on order show up, once I've got the exhaust components pitot and fuel tanks glued on it'll be done.
This was supposed to take me a lot longer, what do I do now?!
Thanks for looking
 
 

Thank you!
Thank you as well!
Yet another update on the build. I bought a lot of aftermarket updates thinking the more I had to add and the doing the best job I could would take me through the winter. Nope...I don't know what I'm doing wrong but the model is almost finished (I think)
The last of the kit parts to add, probes and antennas. The one probe (I think) draws air in if it's like anything I've seen on real aircraft. So I drilled it and cut the opening into it

 
The kit part for the canopy interior is being used with parts designed for the resin insert which, due to warpage or shrinkage or something doesn't fit the canopy

 

 
dry fitted to the model, I still need to do some work on the bottom so I don't want it glued just yet. The seats are finally glued in.
 

 
and a bit of the tint visible on the windshield

Thanks for looking

Progress!  wheel wells and wing roots are dine.  No weathering yet, but a base coat is down. 
 

 

 

 

 
No warranties express or implied on spelling, grammar, or diction due to wine consumption. 8|

There was a bit of playing around with the camouflage on top, shading the surface so as not to overdo it, and that's how it came out. I didn't manage to keep the radar and I wanted to make a milk-coloured transparent cowl through which you could see it. Instead of the radar, I had to put a weight in there and I painted the cowl a milky colour. And as you can see from the photos I don't yet have a place to do a photo shoot, my studio like the rest of the house is under renovation.
 

Looking great keep it coming

Looking awesome Brian Merry Christmas to you and your family

I'm glad you're getting into the groove of everything and enjoying it!!!!!!
Have fun and happy holidays

Brian is there any photos that you need specifically if you need I can drive down to Chino and take them for you

I think they have one at Chino planes of Fame Air Museum

In a nutshell the work on the engine at my place looked like this. Ready and prepared for camouflage painting as is the whole model.
 

 

 

 

And here's my nightly write-up, now just the camouflage and it will be ready.
 

 

 

That's an awesome build.   I was always hoping to build a late war Okinawa "radar picket" DDG with the AA upgrades and square bridge.    I actually had no idea that there was a 1/144 kit of a Fletcher class DD out there.   I'll have to do a bit go googling to see what's available for aftermarket.   Call me crazy but I would also love to build one of those FRAM Gearing class antisub DD's used in the cold-war days. 

This now adds to the fun of fitting parts and will be added to the painting in a moment. For now, everything is ready for the primer to be laid.
 

Hi Mike it looks like you are deploying the air brake on the belly. But I have a question for you. how are you going to place your Elevators / Ailerons. also the Drag Rudders    Are you leaving the Drag Rudders closed. Or one deployed open as in a turn?  The reason I ask, does the instructions mention any thing on one open or both closed on the rudders?
 
Thanks and Cheers
Danny

A goal Photo Mike    A little low angle   

Any conversions yet for the Tamiya
Mosquito Tes Tes?