ivanmoe

I’ve got an E-4 in my stash that appears to be complete. In anticipation of starting the kit, I read up on the several build threads associated with the Dragon releases. Wow, the fuselage assembly process, from the cockpit forward, looks like a PITA, and that’s in the hands of the most skilled among the LSP membership. With this in mind, it occurs to me that this could be a model that would benefit from a simplified resin assembly for the forward fuselage/nose, one that’s directed at builders who aren’t interested in completing their kit with the engine exposed. It would seem that such an aftermarket solution would resolve a lot of headaches for a lot of modelers. Here’s hoping that some industrious AM manufacturer will feel my pain and make the Dragon/Hobby2000 kits more approachable.

Reading through the discussion, I'm taken with the degree to which model painting appears to be as much of an art, as it is a science. This is a good thing, I suppose, insofar as art breeds passion in it's devotees. No shortage of either, here at LSP.

Tamiya has a Pink "Fine Surface Primer" out now, also. Haven't tried it yet, but it ought to perform similar to the Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500/Pink product. The latter is great for use under yellows and oranges. Edit: Gundam builder, true, but he does a great job of explaining Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500 as a primer, and how the color selected impacts the topcoat. Samples all five colors from MC:

It took a couple of months for the 1/48 Anson to make its way over here as well. Not pitching the enterprise, but I believe that Squadron had that one first in the USA.

That's a Panasonic Toughbook, what's advertized as a "ruggedized laptop." American public safety uses them in police and fire vehicles. After I retired (the first time, at age 49), I got bored and took a job at a local municipality's IT department, part-time. I took care of the Toughbooks for the PD and FD. Good technology that improved, technically, while I was there. Biggest prob was firemen downloading porn and malware onto their "mobile terminals," LOL. The military uses something that appears similar to the Panasonic units, although It's my understanding that they cost a LOT more.

Seeing as how that's linked directly to Tamiya, it's probably both current and complete. Great to have access to a good chart, as simply performing a web search will generate myriad images, very few of which are up-to-date.

Could be that Colin's body/clothes/shoes are the problem, rather than the model. If the model's carrying a charge, it's likely picking it up from being handled. If you use a nylon brush to sweep away dust, that could worsen the issue. To release the static charge, simply touch the metal case of the power supply for your paint booth. I haven't purchased a home computer from a store in thirty years, and long ago learned to discharge static electricity from my hands/body before handling components like memory sticks, again via the power supply. Assuming that the booth is properly grounded, that will release the charge and send it down the circuit to your home's grounding-rod. Finally, "anti-static-straps," typically worn around the wrist, will accomplish the same purpose.

Three-prong plug on the fan's power supply?

Would it be wrong to say that an airbrush that's good for spraying lacquers might not be good for spraying water-based acrylics, and, perhaps, vice versa? That's a real question, as I've never found an airbrush that played nicely with the latter. Further, I'd love to read the thoughts of others regarding an airbrush that IS effective when spraying water-based acrylics. I really don't have anything against paints like Vallejo, I just haven't had much luck spraying them.

In the way of "educated conjecture," let me offer a perhaps useless insight into the way that pilots and planes got selected to be in a photo-shoot. To that end, I'll note that the pics FREQUENTLY involved either the squadron commander or its XO. From there, we can look at the pics and plausibly assume that the photographer was gonna go for a ride in the back-seat of "Lone Star Express." Looking at the pic below, we see "Black 2" flying in in the wingman position for what should be the first section, the flight led by the Squadron Commander: Leaning heavily on my comments in the paragraph above, the absolutely best guess I can offer is that "Lone Start Express" is the Squadrons Commander's plane, "Black 1." Well, who the heck was the dashing figure in the pic that you posted...and what squadron do all those Dauntless belong to? For that, we need a fairly serious historical record...or simply some luck. In regard to the former, let me offer this: https://archive.org/details/historyofmarinec00sher/page/n1/mode/2up As to the latter, let me extend you my best wishes, as my credentials in that regard can be fairly characterized as de minimis! Edit: It would appear that VMSB-241, which was lamentably decimated in the June battle, remained on Midway after the fighting. A surviving pilot from the squadron, Capt Marshall A. Tyler, took command of the squadron at the time. However, it's unclear as to whether or not he remained in command in September, 1942.

Found a link that includes your pic above, the one from the image hosting site: https://inchhighguy.wordpress.com/2019/05/15/douglass-sbd-dauntless-color-photographs/comment-page-1/ The page includes numerous other pics of Midway SBD, including the ones that I posted directly above.

Can't really tell you anything that you likely don't already know. However, I do have a couple of pics from the same tranche of photos from Life/Midway: Life's color images from WW2 are a real treasure, as color photography was still somewhat rare. In fact, they provide us with perhaps the best record available of what planes and pilots actually looked like, certainly in terms of livery/color. On the other end of the spectrum, there are the "colorized" photos that we sometimes trip over. Might be fun for Photoshop practitioners to toy with, but not much use to the rest of us.

So, I was an enamel painter. PITA, in terms of drying-time, overall mess and toxicity, but I had been using them for forty years. Basically, I just put up with the material's shortcomings out of habit. I restarted building kits about four years ago. I read around and incorrectly (IMO) assumed that acrylics had inherited the modeling earth. However, I had fits with them. The stuff didn't want to cover for me and caused all kinds of problems when I airbrushed it. Spit, spatter, and completely screwed-up air brush, what a mess. Didn't matter what brand of paint that I used. Even Tamiya was blowing up on me all the time. Can't remember who it was, here, but someone suggested MRP. I bit, in spite of the fact that it was a lacquer, and have never regretted it. The coverage problems resolved, as did the ability of the material to level nicely and produce smooth, even coats. MRP behaved well coming out of the airbrush, and it the gun was easy to clean up. Then, I discovered something else... I began to experiment with Tamiya, again, but I used Mr Color Leveling Thinner, rather than the Tamiya acrylic thinner. Sure enough, the paint went on MUCH better than before, dramatically so. Then, I used AK/Real Colors on a model, again with lacquer thinner, and it worked well, also. The point? IMO, lacquer-based/thinned paints really are the way to go, particularly with model planes. True, they typically don't brush well. But, I don't brush much, anyhow, with the exception of figure-painting...Yuk! That's all, really. Good luck with your modeling and try to keep an open mind regarding lacquer-based acrylics.

When Tamiya REALLY likes an aircraft for a model, which is to say that the type makes them lots and lots of $$$, they do it in all three of their preferred scales. If that logic is sound, and I believe that it is, we can look to the company's 1/72 and 1/48 offerings for clues as to what the next 1/32 will be. Some possibilities include a '109 and likely very expensive F-35, with the tie going to the latter, at least IMO. Timing? Who knows, but the state of the world economy may have the somewhat conservative company in defensive mode in 2023.

As has apparently always been the case, sometimes the magic didn't work and the pilot plummeted to earth when the parachute failed. Such a fate befell ace Erich Lowenhardt in 1918, when he was involved in a mid-air collision with a squadron-mate. The other pilot was saved by his parachute, but Lowenhardt's didn't open: https://acepilots.com/wwi/ger_low.html

Your DH.2 kit is truly spectactular. Turnbuckle-wise, the DH.2 strikes me as all but unapproachable, which is to say that there are a lot of them. However, you really pulled it off. In fact, whenever the Wingnut kit is mentioned, I always think of your work.

I may have dreamt this, but, at one time, wasn't it Wingnut's position that modelers should avoid employing turnbuckles on its kits because the parts would invariably be out of scale, too large that is?

Dauntless prop, SBD-5?

Search for Shapeways Miniatures. Not a great selection, IIRC. I'd like to see some armorers with appropriate ordnance. A lot of more "dramatic" poses, a launch-officer/shooter, for instance, really don't work in a diorama with a static-prop. Problems like that. Nonetheless, modelers want airdales!

Hi Ernest and thanks, I've got the wing(s) ready and am about to start laying down the decals. Thanks, likewise, to everyone who has been so helpful!

Hi Jeroen and thanks for your help. I've got the Wingnut/Goering D.VII F and was going to try and convert it to a plane flown by Erich Lowenhardt: Ostensibly a plane built by Fokker, I selected these decals for the job: I really want to get the leading edge matched up as best as I can. There's a small amount of scalloping baked into the trailing edge on this set, so, fingers-crossed, that can work out as well. However, the big challenge is gonna be at the margins where the panels join. I put it that way, because the "lozenge-pattern-tape" would appear to be a genuine bear to match! Your model is gorgeous; Thanks for sharing your pics!

Thanks Ernest! On the matter of a video, I'm a little surprised that Aviattac's proprietor has never made one regarding the finer points of working with his decals. As much effort as I put into trying to communicate some of this stuff in writing, I still feel as though other readers struggle with my meaning...if they can't see my hands! Hey, though, thanks again

Thank you Pete, What really got me thinking about the process was the fact that the tape-border is on the outboard side of all the panel segments. It appears that, if you've gotta lose some decal, that it should come off the non-taped border. I should note that Jeroen alluded to this in his second post, above. Hey, though, thanks to everyone who responded. I'd looked for a YT video on the finer points of applying the Aviattic decals. Regretably, I couldn't find anything of the sort. Definitely might be as useful, or more so, than detailed written instructions.

Hi Ernest, I've sprayed the wings with Tamiya fine-surface primer, white of course, and am gonna follow-up with a couple of gloss-coats. I'm hoping that will make it easier to position and adjust the panel transfers. Speaking of which... When decaling the upper wing, would it be better to start in the middle and work outward, left and right, with the additional segments? I ask because I wouldn't want to be sailing along, working left to right, thinking it was going great, only to run out of decal at the tip of the wing! In digesting that question, please bear in mind that I've NEVER used decals to cover surfaces this extensively before!

Jeroen, Thank you so much for sharing your experience with the decals. Your suggestions make perfect sense and I'm certain that I'll benefit from your insights. BTW, I DO have decals with the "lozenge rip tape," so that will be an additional challenge. Thanks again!