AlexM

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Very interesting to follow. My kit just arrived today

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I began work on the flaps and ailerons. They still need some fine-tuning to improve the fit, but so far it looks promising. 
 

 

 
I added styren card at the outer sides of the flaps to close noticeable gaps to the ailerons (I also managed to flood the right aileron with some glue )
 

 

 
Just for fun, I 3d-printed some bombs. Maybe I'll use them instead of the kit's bombs, as the printed ones have no glue seams at the fins.

 
Cheers
Alex

Contrary to what is somehow indicated in the instructions, the cowling does not seem to be connected to the fuselage via the engine, but only via the radiator.
 
Talking about the radiator, which consists of several parts and forms some kind of unusual V-shape when viewed from the front, i got two very noticeable seams. I don't know how the real thing looked like on close-up, but I decided to fill the seams with some styrene (radiator and cowling just plugged to the fuselage without glue at the moment):
 

 

 

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Fantastic work
The bomb looks as clean as a CAD render!
 
Cheers
Alex

Very interesting to follow. My kit just arrived today

To quote Chuck in his epic A-20G build: She's got legs:

 
At the rear fin, tare no hinges for the rudder, so I added some rectangular Evergreen stripes, which also help to attach the rudder.

 

 

 
 
 
Rudder glued in place:

 

 

 
Slowly but steadily, I'm getting closer to the point where I can start painting.
 
Cheers
Alex
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Looking good.
 
Cheers
 
Dennis

eveening folks
 
 
Thanks Matt - yes, you are right, it is just placed in the boot so nowhere near it's true position
 
 
 
 
Thank you yes, it will be skinned in litho - i think you could print parts with rivets, but it would use a LOT of resin to do that so i prefer to print in cheap HIPs for the shape and then skin it
 
so a random wander around what has been going on lately...
 
I 3D printed a buck to vacform the windshield, upper canopy and rear glass and then filled the buck, sanded, filled a few more times until I had a master good enough to cast in resin...
 

 

 
I will try and get this vacformed as it is too big for my little dental machine..
 
..then I made the instrument panel mounting frame and two emergency door release handles..
 

 
..then I built a small house..
 

 
..in fact, it is a jig to hold the cockpit skin as I thinned it so much it was transparent, so with it in place on the airframe, I built a jig around it so I know when I am done it will fit right back into place..
 
..then I skinned the inside and started detailing it..
 

 
..on this side is the throttle mount sticking out into the door aperture..
 

 

 
..and the other side..
 

 
..I rolled out a strip of lead until it was super thin and then stuck down templates for all the seatbelts needed for the RAF sutton harness..
 

 
..these were then assembled with PE hardware.. here seen with maskol on the PE bits..
 

 
..and painted & added to the seat..
 

 

 
..the seat was added to the rollover bulkhead, and that bulkhead added to the skin in the jig - this gave it enough strength to be able to cut most of the jig away..
 

 

 

 
..and finally, these are all the components prepared for the throttle quadrant..
 
 

 
..and after assembly..
 

 

 
..and where it sits on the mount..
 

 
..I should get the instrument decals next week, so soon I will get to my favourite bit of any model - the instrument panel
 
TTFN
Peter
 

Hey team!
 
I'm pleased to say that the dust of our move home has settled enough to resume progress on the big girl
 
We're in the for the long slog now of covering the wings. After such a long break it took me a while to get back into the groove of doing the rivets, but I'm now starting to make some headway. 
 
Outer wing main panels are done, I'll move onto the wingtip next once I confirm the pattern and panel shapes. 
 
 
Bit of a colour difference between the new and old panels, but once everything is done they'll all look pretty much the same. I hope .......
 
 
 
 
Not the most exciting of updates, but there IS progress being made finally! I've still got the underside of this wing, plus the whole other wing to do. Gonna be here a while, but if I can average a panel or so a day, I'll gradually get through it.
 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 

Many of the etch pieces are now in place, so I've sprayed all the cockpit bits with Nakajima cockpit green.  The cockpit back frame has been painted firstly in aluminium on the rear surface, and green on the front surface.  I've added all the etch to this, as well as the seat supports too.  The rudder pedals have had etch foot straps added along with the star adjuster wheel.
 

 
Another picture of the cockpit bits.  I sprayed the seat with aluminium base then green, so before seat belts go on, that will get some scratching.
 

 
The cockpit floor is now more or less complete too.  The wiring was picked out with flat black, semi gloss black was used on some of the other details, and the three handles on the raised section in front of the hydraulic what's it (getting technical here, if that's OK ) were painted aluminium with sg black handles.  There's a clear window in front of the control column (check the gear's retracted???) and the rudder pedals and foot plates have been scratched up a bit too.
 

 
I've made a start on the cockpit sides, but only as far as painting some of the details.  Next time, I should be able to show them in all their glory.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

As I wasn't satisfied with my engine cowl, I tried to soften the RLM 70 spots with micromesh 8000, but it ended up erasing the spots...
So I repainted RLM 04 and tried to use the masks I had, but only with the smallest holes: failure...
So I've just repainted the RLM 04 and I'll try with pointed Q-tip, we'll see.
And if that doesn't work, then I'll redo the spots with the mask as before. 
For the moment, the engine cowl is yellow, waiting for better days... 
 
So, I've just painted the RLM 75 on the wings and horizontal stab.
MRP paint with 50% thinner and low air pressure, and before that a coat of micromesh 8000 on all the surfaces to be painted.
A first freehand line to outline the RLM 75 and then I paint, lightly covering the whole area.
Then I come back to it, insisting panel by panel (thanks to the rivet lines). 
I took a lot of breaks in my work to see where the BB'ing was, neither too visible nor too faded.
The effect of the BB'ing is well present and I can modulate it as I like by playing with the transparency of the RLM 75. You can clearly see all the rivet lines I've added, and believe me, I'm happy with that!
Overall, I'm satisfied with my work and it validates my choice of this BB'ing, which takes a long time to set up.
But it's worth it. (imho)
 
Denis who (really) takes his time!
 

 

 

 
 
 
All these rivet lines didn't exist on the REVELL model, so I made them with my own little hands and a big dose of patience.  
 

Got some time at the bench today. Dr. said take it easy, so good excuse to do just that.
 
Set about to make the radar and the various radios and black boxes that populate the rear cockpit.
To refresh you memory, here’s what the real deal looks like.

And here’s a crappy pic of the old Squadron Signal book. Missing the radar scope, but has the radio underneath.

Here’s what Infinity gives you. The rack for the radar is far too long and would extend almost all the way to the pilot. I lopped it in half and it was perfect.

 


Here’s the second shelf. Check out the trapezoidal shapes. Oof.


Infinity gives you some OK pieces that make up the front, but tough if not impossible to get them aligned with the trapezoid. Although the detail is a bit soft, they’re accurate and usable. I just added bits of styrene to make each box. Hopefully this pic gives you the idea (tough to photograph black with your phone)

 
Here’s the shelf with the radar. Need to add a couple more wires, but otherwise good enough.


and everything in place. Not much will be visible with the gunner in place, so the wiring looms were probably a bit much. Didn’t even bother doing the bottom row of boxes as they’re really covered even without a figure in place. I did add fuel lines from the fuel tank - really a rough approximation as not a lot is visible.

 
Up next I’ll finish up painting the cockpit sidewalls so I can start thinking about gluing the fuselage together. More soon!
-Peter

Hola Amigos!
 
Think I’ve finally got the fuselage fuel tank sorted. With Marco’s prodding I built a 3rd. Essentially traced the first (kit) tank. I shortened it a bit, and made lit longer too. Used a bit of Apoxie Sculpt to make the ends bow out. Added a fuel filler neck and some straps to hold it in place too. Took me all week as life has been crazy. Here they are, L-R: modified kit tank, 2nd effort based off the CAF Helldiver and my latest effort.

 
Then I started work on the roll cage bits. Didn’t go too crazy as most will be hidden. It also has to fit inside the fuselage. The real deal meets the bomb bay, so these are a bit off. Don’t think it’ll be visible once the rest of the radios and life raft are in. More importantly, it gives the impression that they’re there.

 
Paints still drying here…had to do a little touch-up.



 
As you can see here, not a lot’s visible. But it’s a good representation.


Up next, I’ll start on some of the fuel lines, as well as all the black boxes for our intrepid gunner.
More soon!
-Peter

Thank you Dennis and Andy!
 
 
Sanding is performed right after the black CA is applied.  I use CA activator to harden the glue instantly.
 
The rivet removal process was performed on the starboard fuselage half.  I figured that if I get both fuselage halves complete, I can at least move on to the complex cockpit assembly.

 
 
After the filling process, the panel lines and remaining rivets were cleaned up.  They were then sprayed with a light coat of Mr Primer Surfacer 1000.  My natural tendency is to apply more rivets, which I think would look ok without the kit's built-in oil-canning effect but I'm still in Costanza mode and will resist the urge.









 
 
Taking an initial look at the instrument panel parts.  It's hard to see but there is some weird surface striations on the panels.  At first, I thought they were raised bezels but they are random marks... minor defects from the molding process.  The panels are black so I'm pretty sure it won't be an issue.  Again, no aftermarket... I'm going to use the kit decals for the instrument faces.  In case I mess up, I do have a copy of Airscale Japanese instruments to fall back on.

 

Here's some additional clean-up on the engine cowling.  I'm removing most of the wing and fuselage rivets but I've elected to keep the riveting on the cowling and forward fuselage area intact because there is no oil-canning effect there.

 
 
The center wing part is next on the rivet removal schedule.



 
 
I do this a small section at a time.  Fresh sandpaper is key to keep the process from bogging down.





 
 
The center wing is done.  I'll cover this with some primer and then touch up the panel lines and remaining rivets.

 
 
There are some parts that attach to the bottom wing.  One looks like some sort of observation or camera port?  I don't know what the bulbous thing is.  The port part needs adjustment on the bottom as it does not fit the curvature of the wing very well as is.

 
 
Here is the kit bomb.  As far as I know, the Pearl Harbor D3A1's did not carry any wing bombs so this the only bomb that I'm mounting.  Instead of the kit plastic for the bracing around the fins, I elected to use sheet brass and bits of sheet styrene instead.

 
 
There are PE parts for the spinner things on the front and back.  I added a row of raised rivets courtesy of Archer's decals.



 

Some progress
I used Barracudacast main wheels.
They were painted and installed.
I added rudder control wires which are not included in the kit's plastic
It is nearly finished