whiskytngofxtrt

wills ee what we can work out..here is a example of the kind of pictures i will use in this thread to make sure you guys get this model correct

rear cockpit

I thought i would perhaps make a thread where i can post details and answer questions regarding the cockpit of the Ju 88 A1 and that it could come in handy when we start making the JU 88 A1 1:32 scale model
here i can post pictures and explain colours on different parts and things like that.
and also other details from the real aircrfat that people need to see pictures from when making the model
 
what is the thoughts on that..good idea or..
 
best regards
Guttorm Fjeldstad
 
starting with to known original drawings from WW2 ( ofcourse the cockpit is in a darker black/gray that what is een on these drawings but still a very good sample for other detials and colours
 
the man that strikes the 100 000 visitormark will be given a kit free from me..not telling whatkit it is..need to see his doosiers first--hehe

Hi all, welcome back ... and thanks to everyone who's been following and commenting.
 
While I was getting the cockpit together I had plenty of time to work on other things. One of those was the exhausts - these were a similar odyssey to the cockpit although not as extended.
 
I used the Aires set. The detail is simply beautiful - the only problem is, resin shrinkage seems to affect them somewhere between moderately and severely. My first set had an enormous step between the kit part and the resin; fortunately, Aires customer service is nothing short of brilliant and they promptly sent me a replacement set. This too was a bit short, but nothing I couldn't live with.
 
After sanding back the kit plastic and rescribing, there's a bit of an odd hourglass look that isn't there in the real thing - but it isn't too noticeable. Here it is under a couple of coats of paint - you can see that I've gone with different colours for the different layers of afterburner petals, from alclad jet exhaust through steel and pale burnt metal.
 

 
I also tried to replicate the greenish-tan tinge on the insides. You can also see here a bit of titanium silver dry brushing on the blackest of the afterburner petals.
 

 
Having done this, I set out to replicate the distinctive discolouration that you see on F-14A exhausts. I started with a range of alclad paints and some salt weathering, which came out looking sharper than I'd intended - but I was still happy with the result.
 

 
I then added some weathering from Tamiya's weathering pastels, including red and blue heat discolouration. It's hard to see in real life, and almost invisible in the photo. The blotchy look on the metal bits is also deliberate, as you do tend to see it in reference photos.
 

 
Then I went back to the insides. I decided to abandon the greenish tan and went for a sooty black, which I then added salt to so I could overspray it with a lighter grey. In between I also semi gloss coated the exhausts - for some reason they look really flat in this photo.
 

 
Here they are with afterburner chambers installed.
 

 
And here's a shot showing the weathering on the insides:
 

 
I also tried to do some soot stains on the inside of the afterburner chambers, but between my dodgy airbrush skills and dodgy photography skills I couldn't get a shot that looked good.
 
More to follow - these photos are dated January 2014, so about two years after I started the build. A lot more has happened in the last 18 months so stay tuned.
 
Cheers
Jim

After I did this, I got on to installing the canopy. Such a simple concept, right? I mean, how hard can it really be to get a canopy on a model? We do it all the time, right?
 
At this point I have to confess that it took me about six months. Partly this was due to having a young baby daughter and not getting a lot of bench time; but mostly it was due to me coming up a very steep learning curve on vac form canopies.
 
The reason for going with vac was simple: for whatever reason, the OOB canopy wouldn't fit on the model I'd built as it was too narrow at the front. Doubtless this was my fault ... a better modeller would probably have been able to put it together without the fuse being too wide. But I wasn't about to pull it apart at this point ... after all, that would've taken a few weeks of filling and sanding. Much more time savings to be had by rogering around for six months trying to fix the canopy!
 
First attempt involved using hot water to try to "stretch" the OOB canopy using a length of satay stick wedged in the front. I got it wedged just right, added the hot water, and completely stuffed the canopy - it had a huge lateral twist in it when I took it out of the water. So I worked on other things - the good thing about the Hasegawa tomcat is that there are always things to fix - and waited for vac canopies to arrive in the mail.
 
When they did arrive, I set about screwing them up. The front canopy went (relatively) well. I trimmed it out, painted it, and faired it into the fuselage with Mr Surfacer 500. Pretty happy with it.
 
The rear canopy was another story. In the time that it takes most of you lot to build a contest winning model, I managed to install one single vac form part.
 
First one was a victim of lousy skills with a No. 11 blade. Next one had a blemish on the inside which I tried to polish out, and couldn't; I tried everything I've seen on line, micromesh cloths right down to 12,000 grit, tamiya compound, the lot. It still looked cloudy.
 
After ordering another couple of sets (if anyone wants 4 F/A-18 vac canopies in 1/48 I have a boatload of spares), I managed to get one installed with mirrors and everything. Then I noticed that the face curtain grab handle in the front had slipped down so it was resting on the pilot's helmet. See below:
 

 

 

 
 
 
I tried to live with it and couldn't. So off came the canopy. I fixed the grab handles, and reinstalled the canopy. Then, handling the plane one day, I managed to squeeze just a little too hard at the very front; off came the PE rear view mirror, trapped inside the canopy and looking very sorry. I swore very loudly and continuously for about ten minutes and took a break for a few weeks. Then pulled the canopy off - again. In the process I lost the PE mirror and scratched the canopy.
 
Figuring this one was doomed, I cut out a fourth vac canopy. I installed a spare PE mirror set from another Hasegawa tomcat, and polished it up. It took about a month of dipping in future, stripping in windex, dipping in future, stripping in windex, etc, until finally I had one with no blemishes or runs or grit trapped in the drying future. I faired it into the fuselage and the front windscreen with Mr Dissolved Putty mixed with black Mr Color lacquer paint (didn't want the fairing putty showing grey on the inside, when the rest of the canopy framing is black).
 
Then I had to delicately sand the seam between front and rear canopy, without scratching the clear part, but enough to make the seam almost disappear. I fashioned a sander out of a thin strip of sandpaper superglued to a cut down satay stick; four of these at different grits did the trick. I didn't take photos at this point; you'll have to wait until after the paint is on to see the result. It basically looks the same anyway, but with the grab handle at a realistic angle!

Thanks Maru!
 
Next step was to install the pilots in the cockpit. This required some surgery to the pilot figures, whose legs are too long out of the box; for some reason, the pilots in the Hasegawa deck crew set - which has a launching Tomcat on the box - won't fit in the Hasegawa Tomcat.
 
Unless, of course, you chop their feet off. Which I (quite ruthlessly) did; I figure if they are flying in a Tomcat which I built, getting launched off a catapult which grew out of my shabby scratch building skills, they'll have to rely on the ejection seats that I put together. In other words, they're doomed anyway, so it makes no difference if they die with no feet.
 
Here are the shots with pilots, seats and coatings installed. You can see the end result of the filling and scribing on the left fuselage.
 

 
If you look at the shots above and below you can see the green HUD lens. This was a bit of acrylic rod filed down to fit in the aperture, and then thickly coated with Tamiya clear green.
 

 

 

 
Thanks for looking!
 
Cheers
Jim

Then it was on to filling up the cockpit. It's a launch dio, so I wanted the pilot figures looking as realistic as I could get them. This was an issue as I've never done much with figures before. Much research into techniques was needed before I got going!
 
I used the figures from the Hasegawa deck crew set. They fit together well, and I used a technique I saw on this site, running the edge of a no.11 blade around the edge of the clothing detail to sharpen it. After primer, I sprayed base colours for clothing, and then (with the airbrush pointing up at the figure from below) sprayed a darkened mix for shadow. After, with the airbrush pointing down at the figure from above, I sprayed a lighter mix of the base colour. It's a subtle effect in real life, and almost lost in the photos:
 

 
After that I added washes and decals. The stars on the helmet are custom decals from Ad Astra masks (from whom I got the masks that I used for the rest of the plane); the stripes are sliced off a spare decal sheet.
 

 

 
And some silver to detail the buckles
 

 
Also at this point I noticed I'd broken off the face curtain handles on the ejection seats. Much swearing ensued; after it subsided I made a jig and duplicated them with copper wire.
 

 
Next up - the cockpit all together!

Ok, so the next step was getting the forward fuse together and installing the cockpit. The left side of the Hasegawa forward fuselage has a cheesy representation of the gun, probably so that they can render different gun gas vents for different models of Tomcat. These fit very poorly, and plenty of filling and sanding is required in order to get them looking ok. I also thinned down the gun muzzle quite a bit as it looks really chunky out of the box.
 
Next up, I glued the forward fuse together and attached it to the rear. Plenty of styrene and CA reinforcement!
 

 

 

 
I added some lead foil to the canopy coamings to try to simulate a fabric effect (out of the box, Hasegawa gives you a dodgy crosshatch pattern which looks terrible to my eye). According to the Aires set, the forward coaming has a sort of extra patch on top which I tried to duplicate. Hard to see in these photos but will be clearer in later ones.
 

 

 

Next up I spent a bunch of time on subassemblies. Won't spend a lot of time going over what I did except for a few items.
 
Intakes were of course a nightmare. Finally got them smooth on the inside - don't want to think how long it took - more applications of putty, primer and sandpaper than I care to think about!
 

 
Then there was the tiny intake on top of the port vertical tail. All Hasegawa gives you is a notch - pretty ugly and in need of modification. My descriptive skills are lousy and photos are out of focus, but let's see how we go.
W
First, I cut out a chunk of the fairing forward of the notch. This allowed me to get a drill in there at a downward angle. Having drilled a hole at the right size, I inserted some evergreen rod the same size as the hole - but with the top half filed down a little to leave a crescent shaped gap. Sorry about the lousy photos:
 

 

 
Then sanded back the rod to agree with the rest of the fairing, applied putty and off we go. Unfortunately didn't get pics in progress, but here's a look at the finished article:
 

 
Then I did some work on the navigation lights. The kit lights were, in a word, hopeless - didn't fit at all. So I superglued some shiny bare metal foil into the gap, then glued some clear sprue on top and sanded to shape.
 

 
The only other thing I tried to do at this stage was get some texture on the wing sweep bags, so they'd look a bit like leather. I sanded down the styrene bags, and glued thick lead foil over the top. I then scored the foil with coarse sandpaper to try to create a grain. See below:
 

 
Unfortunately it looked a bit terrible so I sanded it back to more or less flat.
 
More to come next time!

Of course, you can't really see the cockpit side walls on an F-14 with the canopy closed. Suspect that's why Hasegawa didn't pay a lot of attention to them. But I figured I'd give it a shot.
 
First attempt (with epoxy putty and some Evergreen scratch work) just didn't look right. So I scraped it off and tried again. The technique was, mix up some epoxy putty, then try for a fabric look by stretching some cling wrap over the top, and pushing the cockpit against it to make sure it lined up with the edges of the cockpit. Results are here:
 

 
Here's the next step with a bit of styrene and lead wire scratch:
 

 
And here with a bit of paint and a wash:
 

Ok, so next up was the cockpit. The aim was to try to replicate a more detailed cockpit (using photos of the aires resin set as a guide), using my dodgy scratch building skills.
 
First up was the main instrument panel. It's certainly detailed enough out of the box for a dio where the canopy will be closed. I put white primer underneath Tamiya black, and then scraped off the dial faces with a toothpick. Here's the first cut:
 

 
And here it is with some future on the dials, and clear green drying on the CRTs:
 

 
Same technique was used on the main pit:
 

 
Then I added a bit of colour, a wash and some dry brushing etc.


 
And here you can see my scratch efforts at plumbing on the rear wall:
 

 
Side walls to come!

Next up was the cockpit. I decided against a resin cockpit, as the canopy would be closed, and I figured it would probably be distorted anyway through the canopy. Then, for reasons I didn't fully understand, I figured I'd try to replicate something like a resin cockpit by scratch building stuff. I started with the seats.
 
Cushions out of the box had some detail but didn't really look the part:
 
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So I fashioned a sort of sideways scriber out of an old blade and some scrap plastic. This would allow me to carve a line at the side of the seat, to replicate the look of the seat cover, and maintain a constant distance from the front of the cushion:
 

 
And here it is against the side of the cushion:
 

 
One cushion, now with padded cover, and foil and tamiya tape for a bit of extra detail:
 

 
And with a bit of paint slopped on:
 

 
Seat frames together with a bit of scratch, and the face curtain handles thinned a bit more to scale (they would subsequently snap, of course, and need to be replaced by wire):
 

 
And with a bit more paint - you can sort of see where I've tried for tire black on the headrest to contrast with the metallic black on the frame:
 

 
I didn't then get any WIP pics until after the cockpit was complete, including washing, dry brushing and teeny tiny decals ... For which I'm now kicking myself! A LOT more hours went into the seats from this point forward, but you'll have to wait until they're in the cockpit and installed!
 
Cheers
Jim

Next step was preparing the base. I got myself a piece of MDF cut to the right size, and likewise a piece of black acrylic sheet from Bunnings. I even bought some framing dowel and a right-angle clamp to put the frame together - not pretty, necessarily, but adequate. Once it's properly done I may get a professional to make a frame for me (or better yet a display cover to keep the dust off).
 
I then laid some styrene foam inside the frame as a base for the acrylic (the JBD required a gap in the foam):
 

 
Acrylic was then grafted to the Skunkmodels JBD. Pretty messy and not as flat as I'd have liked, but got the job done:
 

 

 
And with the Italeri tomcat posed on top:
 

 
Comments, criticisms etc all welcome!

Hi all, been watching the forums for years now and marvelling at the amazing skills here. I have been meaning to start on a proper LSP WIP, but given that I've been working on my current project for over three years now - with no end in sight - I figure I might as well start posting photos of that.

I've always been a tragic Tomcat fan. So, when I first came across Masa Narita's tomcat launch dio (see www.naritafamily.com) I knew that I wanted to build it. Did a couple of other tough 1/48 kits first (Academy F-111C, Hasegawa F-4E) to boost my painting and scratch building skills before I tackled the dream project. I finally kicked it off around Feb 2012, by which time Skunkmodels had released their 1/48 carrier deck and JBD. I also collected a Hasegawa F-14, a bunch of paint masks, a Skunkmodels tractor, and some figures.

Of course the Skunkmodels deck kit is way off scale - the base is too small for a Tomcat, for starters, and the distances between the JBD and catapult are out of whack. Also, the surface texture is terrible and the spacing for the pad eyes is pretty random. So I figured I'd start with a big acrylic sheet from Bunnings and take it from there.

First was the planning stage: I slapped together an Italeri Tomcat which I was planning new to use as a paint mule and scale estimator (wasteful, maybe, but it was only $20 and I figured for a four or five year project I could tolerate that). I also used blu-tack to put together some figures and printed off a catapult from a CAD drawing I found on line. Results are here:







More to follow!

Done and Dusted. Here are two teaser photos. Hope to post in RFI in a day or two with more.
 
D-Pleted
 

She's done.
 
I'm hoping to get some pictures taken today.
 
d-smack

I think we're there.
 
Still need to install the pitot tube, but its ready to go. Need to do some minor touchup painting where the antenna hooks to the tip of the rudder, but i think it better to do it with a fresh set of eyes tomorrow morning.
 
See You in Seattle.
 
d-knackered

Status Report:
 
I'm back from my deployment to the Bay Area, and back at work on the mighty FG. She's sort of on her feet; the struts are installed, but i'm in process of painting the tyres now. Hopefully some photos tom come soon once the tyres are installed.
 
D-Lusional

And now- a status update.
 
I've started a new job and moved from Portland to Hayward CA in the SF Bay area. I brought my Corsairs with me along with many of my tools.
 
Trouble is, i  simply haven't had time to work on my bird. I get up very early in the AM and by the time i get home in the evening i'm just too knackered to work on much of anything. As the joke goes, being a pilot s a hard way to make an easy living.
 
Nothing has gone wrong with the project; it's just a matter of getting some time to myself to work on it. I since picked up the new  32nd scale -1A kit, and while i could immediately go crazy slamming subassemblies together, self discipline tells me i need to get the three Corsairs i have in the finishing stages done first.
 
So i hope you won't mind while i sit back and admire everyone else's hard work from the cheap seats. For a little while, anyway.
 
david

Special, "I'm good, but i'm slow" edition.
 

 
The exterior painting, decaling and clear coating is done. Not really visible in the photos, but the wings are finished in my favourite mix of Future with Tamiya Flat Base added, and the fuselage is done in Model Master Dullcoat. The vertical fin and rudder are still glossy, since i'm awaiting some aftermarket stencils and Bu Aer numbers.
 

 
I finally lost patience and removed the masking from the clear parts. For the most part they turned out OK. I could have left the masking on until i installed the antenna post (which will require some touchup painting), but i need to get the underside wrapped up so i can put the model on its feet).

 
The red fuel filler caps were done by punching holes in some Tamiya tape by using a Waldron punch and Die set (remember those? LOL).
 
Photos i have of my subject aircraft show the plane with tape over the blast tube muzzles and shell ejector ports. I made the tape with....uh, tape.
 
 
Questions, comments, constructive criticism, as always is welcome and encouraged.
 
d-bot

Very nice stuff David. I too was not aware of this type of paint scheme prior to your build.
 
Lots of Corsairs on the site but the more the better as the Corsair is one of my favourite planes of World War II.
 
Dave.

Current state of play...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Hope you likee. Thanks for shopping!
 
-d-

Another significant, but boring update.
 
Have sprayed the white stars on the upper left and lower right wing. The Tamiya white primer covers the blues about as well as i could hope for. Will let the paint outgas overnight, and with a little bit of luck will remove the pie sections and spray the insignia blue tomorrow. Then, i will tackle the fuselage Roundels.
 
-d-

Another minor update.
 
The Russians have a saying in Chess: "When in Doubt, Develop". While i await the masks from fellow model builder, corporate pilot, Corsair pilot and all-round-good-guy Steve, i turned to some of the more mundane, but equally important parts of the model.
 
Just finished painting the inside of the canopy frames MM cockpit interior black. Should be able to paint the exterior framework tomorrow.
 
Cleaned up and assembled the left landing gear strut. I'm really astounded by how well everything fit together and the remarkable complexity of the finished assembly. About the only thing Tamiya could have done but didn't would be to open out the lightening holes in the torque links. Would be a lot of work for not much reward.
 
Built up the kit wheel assembly and popped the rubber tyre on. Looks cool. Also bounces, i discovered. Would be a great part to use in rehabilitating the Revell Corsair (don't forget the spare clear cowling Tamiya gives you) or would work equally well on the Jurassic Hasegawa F6F-3/5.
 
Still having a blast with this one, slow going at times though it may be.
 
david

Hi Everyone. Here with an update. One that is actually interesting.
 

 
Well, if the title was not a dead giveaway, it's gonna be the prototype Goodyear FG-1, Bu Aer No. 12992, which first flew in early June of 1943. This model depicts Goodyear's interpretation of the Navy 4-tone scheme, which i like to call, not surprisingly, the "Goodyear Scheme". Goodyear tried to blend the three main colours together seamlessly, in some cases using intermediate blue and in some cases skipping the intermediate blue entirely on the fuselage sides (though the rudder and outer wing undersides were still painted intermediate blue by the subcontractors).
 

 
The model has been painted (so far) with Tamiya White Surface Primer (little square bottle), and Mr Color Intermediate and Gross Sea Blue (no really- that's really what it says on the label). This is my first experiment with lacquers and so far i really like them. They are extremely fast drying and the Tamiya primer has much less grain than Model Master Flat White; it also dries a lot faster and wet sands very easily. I'm using Tamiya lacquer thinner and so far, it thins both the Tamiya and Mr Color lacquers just fine.
 

 
The three colours are supposed to blend together seamlessly, and to be honest its kind of a difficult job. Not only for me, but for Goodyear as well. I'm going from a handful of black and white photos and making a few educated guesses here and there, but you will notice that the colours don't have the distinct separation between colours like the better known Navy-Applied "Norfolk Scheme" and the later Vought-Applied "Cookie Cutter" scheme which we all know and love.
 

 
The control surfaces you see here are just slid in place for continuity purposes. They fit very well. Had to modify the elevator and rudder tabs so i can cant the rudder, and make the elevators removable. Note also that in June of '43 the Three tone scheme had gone into effect, but Goodyear had not yet modified the upper cowling flaps to improve pilot visibility.
 

 
The next step will be the Non-Skid walkways and the narrow in-spar walkway markings. I will probably paint the insignias on using Mal Mayfield's masks, but the rest will be decals. This plane was pretty devoid of squadron markings but it was heavily stenciled.
 

 
I'm happy to say that the replaced Camlok fasteners turned out just as i had hoped. Visible, but not too large or obtrusive.
 

 
Dana Bell has a book in the works and in it will be a significant discussion about the the Goodyear and Brewster contributions to the Corsair Production Pool. He's uncovered a lot of good stuff and hopefully we will learn a lot more about Goodyears significant, though largely overlooked contribution to Naval Aviation.
 
Hope you likee. Thanks for shopping!
 
-d-