Fvdm

Thanks for your feedback! 
 
Sadly, I have to say "goodbye" to the idea of building a colourful bird - the misregistered decals simply aren't acceptable.
 

 


 

 
Quite a shame, but there is no easy fix for this problem. They are too small to be masked and painted and I am not in the mood to redraw them and have them printed - without guarantee that the shade of red will be the right one. So, a line bird it'll be - which maybe fits my collection better anyway. 
 
The next step was a warm grey wash and heavily thinned Smoke applied by airbrush. Things are starting to become interesting at this point. 
 

 

 

 
The decals went down perfectly on the satin surface which was slightly polished before decal application.
 

 
I then sealed the decals with gloss varnish from MRP before applying a coat of matt varnish - from MRP as well. 
 
I've had problems with MRP matt varnish emphasizing clear decal carrier film by making it somehow "milky"  but I thought I could avoid that by applying a gloss coat first - but how wrong I was! 
 
Look at the carrier film around the "VF-102" logo on the ventral fin - that's not silvering, it's the carrier film becoming opaque when the matt varnish was applied. Same with the square stencil at the right; I already overpainted the transparent carrier film around the "NAVY" wording. I will probably remove those decals, draw masks and paint them. 
 

 
Nose section. The opaque carrier film was addressed where possible and more smoke was applied; I will probably replace the stars'n'bars with painted ones. 
 

 

 
Fuselage top.
 

 
Belly at an early stage. It'll become much dirtier; I also have to address the Phoenix pallets.
 
 
 
In addition, I am facing some problems with the rear fuselage cracking under stress - as you may remember, I had to squeeze it quite a bit to reshape it. I hope I can eliminate those cracks. Stay tuned! 
 
 

I don't know if this is the best solution to separating the horizontal stabilizers but it's what I came up with and seems to work ok. 

All R-2800's are attached to the airplane via a truss supported ring, and six vibration absorbing "Lord" mounts.  The Corsair is no exception.  Here is the Vought/Sikorsky drawing of the engine mount for the F4U-1 and 1A:
 

 
I have made the ring; the truss behind it will come later, maybe much later.  And that only if all continues to go well with my plan to have an openable engine compartment aft of the cowl flaps.  That is not certain at this point.  You may notice in the picture above that there are six mounting points on the ring - four above the horizontal centerline, and two below.  That is where the "Lord" mounts attach.  The Lord mounts look like this:
 

 
Item number 1 above, I believe, is the hard rubber insert for vibration damping.  I had to deal with these mounts on the Thunderbolt engine as well, but the six I have made for the Corsair are a little better, as I think they will be a bit more visible (you cannot even see them on my Thunderbolt).  Here is a shot of the mount ring, and the partially assembled Lord mounts:
 

 
You only see five Lord mounts - the sixth one is already on the engine.  They are made from simple plastic shapes, plus some Meng nuts.  The ring itself is made from that .125 inch diameter silver solder I used for the intake and exhaust manifolds.  I created a fairly simple fixture to assure a circular shape of the right diameter, and to properly locate the pads for teh Lord mounts.
 
The Lord mounts attach to the engine in between the intake manifolds, like this:
 
 
 
And with the ring test fitted:
 

 
Tell the truth, I was not very happy with this installation.  I thought I had closely positioned the Lord mount pads on the ring, but with the fittings properly located on the engine, they really didn't align that well with the pads.  But the viewer is going to be hard pressed to see that once the engine compartment is complete with an astounding amount of clap trap in there competing for attention, including the exhaust stacks that cover them up quite a bit.  
 
Next I believe is going to be cowl stuff, including cowl flaps.  The Corsair cowl flaps are an incredible rube-goldberg cable actuated contraption.  At the moment, of course, I don't have a good plan.  It's either going to be that, or the supercharger section of the engine which will involve the lathe.
 
Take care.
 
 

More work has been done on the paint scheme, starting with recoloring the antennae on the spine and nose (quick reshoot of primer, followed by FS36495 Light Gray.) My next areas of focus were the vertical & horizontal stabilizers, the outer wings, and the pylons.
 

 

 

 
After touch-ups for the upper color, I moved on to the undersides and shot them  and the pylons
 

 
Following that, I moved on to what I consider to be another milestone in the construction: attaching the verts to the fuselage
 

 

 

 

 
She's definitely moving along at a nice pace now, and looking at the progress so far, I wont need to do much panel highlighting, both thanks to black-basing and the fact that in all reference pics that I've seen, the panel seams are not that prominent on modern US jets, mainly just where they would normally be removed or where sealant was applied.
 
As always, thanks for stopping by the hangar!
 
 

time for the wheel wells canvas,  Dragon kit supplies a very good flexible plastic canvas but I used them in other kit so I had to use Magic Sculpt and sculpt them, will let it dry and add some more details later, cheers
 

Quick update as I was on a roll...
 
Finished shaping the hook. Not going to mount it just yet, as I work my way through the major construction. Not that I’m afraid of it breaking, rather it’s a large fairly pointy piece of metal and I don’t feel like stabbing myself with it!
Here it is compared to the kit part. You’ll note mine is about a mm wider. Otherwise, it looks good and is very stout.

I drilled through the hook fairing part, so it’ll slide in. You can see how I bent the rods so it’ll rest on the fuselage and abuts the bulkhead. I’ll cover it liberally with JB Weld on the top and bottom. It’s really about maximizing the contact points that will help support it. Frankly overbuilding is good.

Here’s a side profile shot. Note how the hook actually extends further than the hook point. That’s what will get inserted into the wooden base and support the entire deal!

and one last view. Note I filled in the holes Trumpeter has on both sides. Also filled in the little dial on the right side. It’s a gauge to check dashpot pressure—that’s what keeps the tailhook ‘down’ when it hits the steel deck. It was pressurized at 1,000 lbs to keep the hook from slapping back up and hitting the airplane.

That’s it for now. I’ll concentrate on getting the horizontal stabs situated and the antennas on the tail.
-Peter

I realise it's becoming a broken record so for the last time: this kit is engineered in the most annoying way, every step takes twice as much effort as it should, aided by the failing instruction format. Anyhoo. I spend small periods of time clearing one bit at a time and that helps to keep interest.
 
Getting this (not yet glued and still to receive the small parts and PE):

 
Is portrayed like this in the instructions (and this is a magnification):
 

 
The assembled rear gun, before weathering. Gun body and nozzle from Kitty Hawk, rest from Eduard. I didn't have the appropriate diameter hollow brass rod, so I drilled out the kit-nozzle with a micro drill):
 

 
Rear deck with some added wring (not accurate, just for some interest):
 

 
I have gotten this far now:
 

 
This is the paint I used for the "Field Green" called out in the instructions. I think it's a pretty good match.
 

Thanks CJP, hope it helps in some way!
 
 
 
I like the decals in this kit.
 
Despite having seen some pretty damning reviews of them from differing sources, Cartograf have produced a way better set of decals here than for the Mirage III's. There is a smallish section for "Version C" - the German Marine version, and it has the most prominent markings - even for my Luftwaffe version.
 

 
Obviously the numbers are a bit limiting, but with some creative mixing quite a few options are available. It must start with a 2. the 20's are Lockheed produced but means that one must produce a 0 from a 6 or 9. 25's were manufactured in the "North Group" of aircraft industry, and the 26's at MBB from what I understand. Since I got Zane from Mav Decals to make me a Boelke tail badge, it had to have flown in JaboG 31. 
 
First I tried 25+66, no good - JG 71, 25+99 also JG 71 - damn! Then an obvious choice 25+69, but I couldn't find its unit. Dave Williams solved the mystery for me - also a fighter,  from JG 74 . The 26's were seemingly all Marine types, so it would have to be a 20, and since I had to sacrifice a 6 or a 9 to make the zero, a 5 had to go after the balkenkreuz... Hard to believe a grown man can turn a hobby into this!  The actual answer is to buy the beautiful Astra decals F-104 set, and then you can create ANY German F-104 your heart desires. I did purchase a set last year, and our post office "lost" it along with all sorts of other aftermarket stuff intended for this kit. I do hope that whoever ended up with it is a Starfighter enthusiast.
 
This left me with the self imposed options of 20+56 (JaboG 33), 20+59, 20+65 (?) or 20+95 (JG 74). Luckily 20+59 was a JaboG 31 aircraft, and that is why my Teutonic Zipper now looks like this...
 

 
The numbers are not perfect copies of those used on the Luftwaffe F-104's, but close enough not to fiddle any further.
 

 
Here you can see how well the German specific decals do their job.
 

 
With the main decals in place, it now becomes quite a task to use the vast array of "Common Decals" to portray the stencilling in a similar way to Luftwaffe examples. I mixed and matched various decals until I had what looks like a reasonable facsimile, although I wouldn't send it in for a major service since the oil, hydraulic fluid and drag chute could all end up in the wrong compartments! As an example, the two larger fuel cap decals are modified from the original decals, having added a white strip on the main one, and a punched out red disk on the one above it. The third one is from the kit, and even though it isn't the same size as the other two, will have to do. 
 

 
This was the only decal that I ended up destroying, since it didn't make any sense once in place on the panel. I salvaged the main logical stencil "STAB POWER CONTROL MECH ACCESS", and will add individual bits until it looks more like the actual panel.
 

 
 
 
It took me three days to complete the decals. In terms of entertainment, that makes this kit worth every penny!
 

after some struggling with alignment of the  cowling I decided to cut  the problem, now it fits 
 
 

 

 
 
a bit of 109's project overbooking on the bench lol

 
thanks for watching
cheers

Thanks for checking in! Finally have an update to post.  The cockpit has been glued together...

 
And the cockpit has been glued into the fuselage. The rear cockpit sill is a photoetch part from the Brengun set.  


 
Playing around with the engine placed on the fuselage.  I've glued the cowl flaps onto the engine cowling and have painted the interior of the cowling black.



 
Finally worked up the nerve to tackle the wing bottom rivet job.

 
The Shiden Kai has a LOT of rivets so just drawing the rivet guide lines takes time.


 
As with the fuselage, the amount of drawn lines caused smudging so I decided to do the center of the fuselage in a separate step.


 
After the rivets were applied, the entire wing bottom was sanded to remove the excess plastic around the rivet holes.  A brown pastel wash was placed over the wing bottom to check the work.  After any necessary corrections, I'll clean off the wash as much as possible to prepare for the painting stage.  

vB 

In this update I'll talk about how I installed the Zactoman Su-27 canopy sets.  First, this was one of the longest parts of the project so far, not because its necessarily difficult or unique, although there are challenges working with vacuformed canopies, but I just kept dry fitting and trying to think many steps ahead of potential problems that could arise owing to the fact that these Zactoman Su-27 canopies are discontinued so I was really nervous I'd screw it up (Chris if you see this, PLEASE reconsider making them again, they are wonderful and help correct the kit into a really good looking shape/profile).  Well luckily I think I got them to fit really well and at least I think they look great.  I have lucked out and found a couple others....one day I plan on adding another Flanker or two to this project (Blue 03 and maybe Red 50, which is SU-27UB two seater?)  If anyone has any reference photos of Blue 03 with the wolf on it I'd be very grateful.
 
The biggest lesson in working with vacuformed parts is to give yourself a moderate amount of "extra" materia to play with in the initial cut, and to go VERY slowly with scoring the plastic and sanding it to precision.  I carefully mark where the actual line needs to be with thin strips of tamiya tape and then cut a bit aways from that which gives you some room to get used to how the plastic handles/cuts/sands.  Then I apply Demo tape which is secure, and apply either a lot of blue tac or clay to give the canopy strength.  To Zactomans credit its good durable plastic and didn't give me any problems.  Then use a fresh #11 xacto blade and carefully with a little pressure (you can practice on the scrap plastic after the initial cut if you need to and I did) follow the hard edge of the demo tape.  Once you have made a few lighter passes, there should be somewhat of a "groove" in the plastic to help with firmer pressure and cuts.  It can seem like its taking an eternity and you're probably doing it right, and eventually you will cut through.
 

 

 

 
We're not out of the woods yet, now comes the really dodgy part where you need to separate the windshield from the canopy, same technique applies, but you need to be even more slow and careful because cutting on the curve is tricky.  I found "pulling" the knife slowly towards me made a smoother more natural motion.  Eventually with a lot of sweat and holding your breath you're done!
 

 
Then you need to slowly and carefully sand/grind it down so it fits.  A word to the wise, if you're keeping the canopy open it will make for far less headache and you get to see the wonderful detail of the resin cockpit.
 

 
Now comes time to remove the rudimentary IRST piece on he kit with a razor saw and fit the zactoman IRST.  Maybe I took off too much kit material, but I had hard time getting the IRST to sit flush with the fuselage/cockpit area.  In the end I used a combination of carefully applied and sanded CA glue and superfine milliput to get it flush.  In the end I had to blend it as one piece (which on the real plane it isn't like that) so I used Tamiya tape for curves to re-scribe the panel line delineating the outline of the IRST secured with dymo tape (this tamiya curve tape is wonderful stuff and I highly recommend it for any modelers tool collection).  Its slightly "taller" but once the primer and paint is on it you won't be able to tell and most important it looks good/accurate.  Remember to paint the inside of the zactoman IRST that faces the cockpit in black otherwise you'll have this awkward looking white resin piece staring at you from the inside of the windshield.
 

 

 

 

 
To apply the windshield and canopy 'frame' or 'bulkhead' I dry fitted the parts to make sure they were flush by placing them face down on a flat surface.  Now more hair raising work, you will need 'foam safe' CA glue specifically used for clear parts otherwise the fumes from regular CA glue will stick to any finger prints/smudges in the clear parts and ruin your part.  What I did was apply a little of that special CA glue on a piece of cardboard and used a long toothpick/narrow wooden dowel to get a small amount of glue on it and then apply to the edge of the frame piece that will be attached to the clear parts and spread it around so its a thin film of glue that won't "push through" when you join the part together.  I wouldn't use CA glue remover on the clear parts unless you test it on the same material scraps as that stuff can 'craze' styrene and ruin the part.  Then position the canopy part face down an gently nudge and position the part quickly.  I recommend practicing the motion without glue a few times so you know what to expect.
 

 
Once you've dry fitted the living hell out of the parts, mask off the clear parts and spray the interior color either the Akan Flanker cockpit color or black on the inside of the side part that glues to the fuselage/cockpit area on the windshield.  Again use the special CA glue for any cockpit parts for safety to attach the windshield and use some ca glue for the gap and sand smooth and re-scribe any panel lines/detail you need or lost.  I find taking pictures of the kit parts before I go to town sanding helps with redoing the detail work and panel lines and such.
 
Skipping WAY ahead, here's how one of them currently looks (more or less, there's currently more detail, but I just don't have an up to date photo and its late)
 

 
Take a deep breath, get yourself a drink, kick your feet up and relax, one of the most stressful parts of the build is done...now you just need to be insane like me and repeat the process twice more :-)  Next I'll talk a little about the intakes, and then on to the riveting. and flight control surfaces
 
Until next time.
 
Dan

I can only agree with Brian. I think it's a nice kit but it needs some attention when assembling. Looks good so far

Nice job!
Yes, the KHM instructions are vague in parts and down right wrong (especially in order).
However the kit does go together well in the end, and with some additions like a reinforcing rod for the main float it can come out really nice.

Thanks Peter! Yep, I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out. Always learning though!
 
 
Thanks mate. It's all relative though.... my skills have grown exponentially through this project alone, but it might be another 44 years before I finish it!
 
Wow! another month flashes by with the blink of an eye. Precious little time spare for the bench, but......
 
Since I've moved to NZ and completed conversion onto their platform of choice I've been kept very busy. I thought I'd share a few pics from last week of the new bus. In my mind, still not as awesome as a Chinook (I am possibly biased), but not altogether bad either . Especially not when I get to fly around places like this!
 

 

 

 
Yes, all three are of me, freezing my a*$e off in -10 degrees at 7,000 feet. I know for some of you that's nothing, but when you've lived pretty much all of your life in the tropics........ Good fun though!
 
Back to the build. I've been chipping away for what seems like forever to blend the kit and my printed nacelles together in preparation for casting. I don't know how Iain is doing it with his Andover build, but I've certainly had enough of sanding for a while! So this is where they're at now:
 

 

 
They still look a bit rough, but they are in fact quite smooth. It was quite challenging to recreate the seam that runs around the nacelle. As always, it's done 90% by eye so hopefully will look the part once it's all together on the wing.
 
The shape of them alone makes for a challenging proposition when casting. No I'm certainly no expert on the matter, but hopefully by each nacelle on these brass pins, everything should stay in the same place.
 

 
Because I could, I drew up and laser cut some MDF for the mould boxes. I figured that would support the weight of the pin a bit better than simple balsa wood.
 

 

 
So that's pretty much where it's at right now. I'm waiting for the first pour of the silicone to go off so I can pour the second half. I really hope this works, as I don't fancy going through this process again!
 

 

 
Cheers,
 
Craig
 
 

As I suspected. They do look rather good side by side. I’m just waiting on some Perspex sheet to build their display mounts. 
 

The He 162 is almost finished, I still have to cut masks for various markings but don't feel like spending time on it right now. The Kingfisher box has been staring at me for well over a year. I had started engine construction and I must say I never had a more disappointing and frustrating start to a kit in my life before. In the box the kit looks to be awesome. And it IS. Detail seems very nice overall.
 
Why did I throw everything back in to the box over a year ago?
 
The plastic: soo brittle that smaller parts just burst in to pieces very easily. The sprue gates: made to withstand a 10 Megaton blast. Just ridiculous in some areas. See above. The instructions: insulting that Kitty Hawk let that sorry excuse for instructions go in to production. It is nearly impossible to see what goes where and how. For a very complex 70-part engine in an expensive kit, I find that highly unsatisfactory. Only a few detail-drawings would have done the trick here, something like an A-A, B-B sort of thing. Kitty Hawk: make an addendum and put it on your website. (Non-) Mating tabs and slots, pins and holes: too many of those. Correctly cut and cleaned up parts should fit and not require extra trimming and re-drilling holes. All of the above okay for a short-run, but not for a € 110 main-stream kit. Corners were cut, major ones me thinks.  

 
Then why the resurrection? Well, it's The Scale and it's of a magnificent looking float plane. The greenhouse works like the real thing and in itself the kit has magnificent potential. Soooo, I took a deep breath, sighed, gave it The Finger, and got on with it. I was going to finish her as one of the Dutch East Indies birds that were on their way on a ship when the Dutch called it a day. These airplanes were diverted in their crates to Australia (already painted up Dutch), where they were repainted and used.
 


 
I had visions of a diorama where a Dutch plane sits in a hangar showing a partial RAAF repaint, but since I lost interest in Dutch subjects I chose t finish as an FAA Kingfisher, in the lovely Slate Gray / EDSG / Sky scheme, or the also lovely and less usual Non specular Sea Gray over Light Gray. I am still researching for photos drawings of the latter (bottom scheme below, the only one I found so far).
 
Can anyone recommend MRP paint equivalents for the lower scheme?
 

 
 
 
On to the engine. The instructions were no help here. The first thing I did was look at everything, thinking about what should go where, dry-fitting various options, and making a plan. I contemplated just glueing the cowling to the fuselage, but this is a no-go because the engine plus cowling 'float' in front of the fuselage firewall, resting on the engine brace rods. I decided to assemble cowling, cowling front ring, engine covers, and cowling flaps first and then figure out how to get the engine in there.
 
This is how the engine mounts are supposed to be assembled. I had to re-drill the holes and do lots of cleanup on the too thick connecting pins. Tamiya thin cement fixed them in place and on the backside I added drops of superglue to make sure they stayed put. First sigh of relief.
 

 
Here's the bracing glued to the front firewall. Again, the holes had to be widened. But: getting there.
 

 
 
A dry-fit finally revealed to daft-me how the enige assembly is meant to be attached to the cowling ring rest (which I already glued to the cowing).
 

 
Now, that was that, But can the engine assembly be fitted in to an already assembled cowling? I airbrushed the cowling inside interior green just in case I could get it in but not out again (experience  )
 

 
Well, it fits with minimal effort IF you slide it in sideways. I did not have to exert any forces of significance to get it to slide in past the three tabs. Not sure if this can be done with the exhausts installed.
 

 
I secured the tab joints with thin cement and left it to dry. I will also add bits of superglue once it  dried fully. Phew. I got that out of the way and out of my system. I will add parts of the exhausts later, from the outside in. I just did not have the stamina to battle with that extra feature right now. As you can se I also got some Eduard stuff to enhance the kit here and there. 
 

 
In hindsight, it was me at fault and not Kitty Hawk. I commend them for the engineering of the engine, it makes it possible to build a very detailed engine right out of the box that one can show off through open engine panels. Construction is very sturdy once assembled, and very accurate and delicate. I just lost my patience the first time around. What I did today, I could have done in the first place.
 
Thanks for watching!
 
 
 
 

Hi Guys,
 
Some more work on the Pulse Jets for the Ef-126 for the Mistel.  I got the base colours down a few days ago and decided to add more metallics and heat staining.  I managed to screw up by adding too much Chrome at one point so darkened down again using Mission Models Transparent Medium with a drop of black to give  dark tint.  Then I used the Transparent Medium again but tinted with Orange and Blue for the heat staining.
 
Revised base colours.  The mix was 40 Black 60 Cold Rolled Steel then eyeballed amounts of Chrome in the mix.  Got it too light and recovered as described above.
 
Tubes by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
With some Orange added as the first stage of staining.
 
Tubes by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
The some Blue
 
Tubes by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
That's it.  Hope you like it.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby
 
 

Hi all,
The pre-rigging was first added for the cross bracing, flying and landing wires. Mono-filament 0.12 mm diameter and 0.5 mm diameter tube. 'Gaspatch' metal 1?48th scale turnbuckles and anchors.
Underside of the upper wing, top surface of the lower wings, engine cowl and the tension frame for the cross bracing wires of the rear cabane struts.
Then the upper wing was fitted - always a tricky time of the build.
 
Then next step is to fit the rudder and elevator then complete the full rigging,
 
Mike
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

July 20/20
 
I was home for a few days and a few more days of modeling.  Step #19 has you put the front engine halves E7 & E12 together, along with exhaust backings E5 & E6 and Step #20 has part D2 inserted at the top of the front intake.
 
 

 

 
 
Since I’m using the Barracuda resin replacement set (BR 32334) instead, these exact steps are eliminated.  The first task is to carefully cut off the large casting block at the front of the one-piece nose, which like most resin blocks, is tricky to do cleanly when they are so large.  It turns out that I have two of these noses, because I purchased one of the first sets when they came out a few years ago on the right, which was replaced later by Barracuda with the one on the left I’m using.  Apparently the first ones were flawed somehow, but for the life of me I can’t tell the difference between the two, so maybe I didn’t get a flawed one after all?  No matter, cutting the block off with a large razor saw did the trick, with detailed instructions supplied by Barracuda that can be found on-line here:
 
 
Barracuda Instructions in PDF
 
 

 
 
The kit parts have lots of panel line and rivet detail, but they are rough, so filling the top seam and sanding everything down smoothly won’t be easy if you use them.
 
 

 
 
While the quality of the resin is excellent as usual from Barracuda, I was surprised to find that the front did not fit the spinner very well, leaving gaps on the sides and top, while the bottom fit was flush.
 
 

 

 
 
Getting the parts to fit is easy with a little sanding, but you lose a lot of the detail that must be replaced.
 
 

 
 
Later, I will be installing the CMK Resin Exhausts that are an upgrade to the kit and recommended in the kit instructions in Step 46 on Page 11.  I also highly recommend them, because the detail is amazing as you will see much later in this build.  In any case, I will need the resin exhaust backings to replace the kit parts E5 & E6 fairly soon.
 
 

 
 
Like most resin replacements, the Barracuda nose piece utilizes the kit parts for the panel line and rivet detail when it was cast, but the detail is much weaker than the kit parts and, in some cases, you can barely see it at all, even with a dark wash.  Soooo, like the rest of the fuselage, I re-scribed every panel line and re-punched every rivet, which took me about 12 hours in total!  Yes, I can be a bit obsessed, but that’s nothing new.  Here are the results that I’m glad is over with…..
 
 

 
 
You may notice that some of the rivets are a little off alignment, but that’s because the kit part detail is a little off where they came from, which I used as a guide to replace the ones that were faint or missing.
 
 

 
 

 
 
The fit to the fuselage wasn’t quite plug and play, but after some careful trimming, sanding and even immersing the part in hot water to widen it slightly, the fit is generally excellent.  After gluing these parts together, I will sand everything smooth to eliminate any abrupt steps in the fit.  Now I know that some of you might be thinking that all this rivet detail is overkill, but after paint and weathering, it will become much more subtle, but still very much there in close-up pics which I always like to do.
 
 

 
 
I was initially a little bugged that the horizontal panel line at the top of the exhaust stack didn’t align with the fuselage panel line behind it, but after checking references, it’s not supposed to!  Whew!
 
 

 
 
Here’s a pic of the main differences between the kit parts and the Barracuda replacement.  The front of the kit fuselage nose isn’t tapered very much and the spinner is too big, as is the mouth of the intake.  The Barracuda part looks so much better- and all the internal detail is excellent as well.
 
 

 
 
The “British Brute” as Peter Castle called it, is starting to look the part!
 
 

 
 
Thanks for your continued interest in this very slow project.  As mentioned before I only model every few weeks or so and like most of us, I feel so lucky to have this stay-at-home hobby to help me weather this brutal pandemic that has been so hard on so many.  I am truly one of the lucky ones.
 
 
Cheers,
Chuck

Work continues, after a lot of humming and humphing as to how to do the gun bays.  In my eagerness when I bought this kit many years back, I rushed out and bought and bought the full Big Ed package of Eduard upgrades.  At the time, I had no time for modelling thanks to work commitments, but I wanted to eventually build the biggest and bestest P-47 Razorback I could.
 

 
I've since come to realise that I have neither the talent, the tools or the eyesight to mess about with all this, and I'm not much of a fan of modelling guns anyway.  Plus I'd already sprayed the insides of the wings, again in my eagerness, which would need re-doing .  There's a lot of bending in this, and as I don't have the tools to do so, this is now consigned to my spares box, which means I stand a chance of finishing this kit this year.  I've walked away from this build twice, but I want to finish it now.  Maybe I will be able to use some of this when Tamiya release their 1/32 P-47??????? 
 
So here we have all the wing bits, air brushed and ready to go together, along with the flaps ailerons and tail planes.  If I'd used the photo etch, I would have needed to remove the ribs in the gun bay you can see in each wing top, the air brush again. And that's just for starters.
 

 
I assembled the guns and started painting them.  Here we have a veritable forest of guns.
 

 
The gun barrel ports in the wing leading edge are a separate piece, and I decided to glue these into each lower wing to help with positioning of the guns.
 

 

 
After these had dried, the wing tops were glued into place, but had to be slid into place around the gun barrel ports, which was a little fiddly as there's a locating lip around the entire edge, and a locating pin adjacent on the wing.
 

 
After they had dried, I cleaned up each wing, checked the joint to the fuselage and glued them into place.  The wing joint is very good, and the stub wing spars in the fuselage means setting correct dihedral is no bother at all.  Well done, Trumpeter.
 

 
I put this aside to dry for a while, then set about attaching the tail planes.  Trumpeter provide an elevator link rod to each elevators.  This goes into a bracket on the fuselage, but they don't line up.  One side is worse than the other, and this interferes with attaching the tail planes, as they won't stay in place.
 

 
So I cut them off and drilled new holes for a single elevator link rod and cut a length of 1.00mm stock rod, glued it into one side, then glued that side tail plane into place, then glued the other side on, as well as gluing the link into the elevator.  Now I have elevators that work together, as they're supposed to.  Here it is in test fit.
 

 
So now we have a model that looks like a plane, which is always a great stage to get to.  The dihedral of the tail planes was set using ordinary sticky tape, and this is still in place as it dries.  Here's a couple of shots showing where the build is now, with a 1ft ruler along side to give an idea of size.  She's a biggie!!
 

 

 
I've set the propeller in place temporarily so you can see the full length.  I've also glued in the ailerons and flaps into their final positions.  That wasn't quite as straight forward as you'd think.  There's a lot more work to do before I get to the painting stage, and I'm still debating about further work on the guns.  The ribs in the gun bay would appear to preclude any further work, and the bullet belts kit provides are made from vinyl and look like a nightmare to paint and get into place without ruining that paint job.  For me, this build was always about the cockpit and engine/turbo detail, and that's what I've concentrated on.  I think it will still be an impressive kit without the guns being detailed.
 
So it's on with cleaning and filling, then the details needed to get it to the paint stage.  More soon, I hope.
 
 
Cheers,
Michael

Thanks guys!  I think my painting woes are behind me on this one. The decals have been applied.  I've tried to avoid the Hasegawa decals as much as I can since they are a bit thickish.  Luckily, I have lots spares from the multiple Revell 109G-6 and G-10 kits that I've built and also some Eaglecals as well.


 
After the decals, the model is given another light gloss coat and then a pastel wash using a brown color.

Hi all,
I don't think I've spent as much time cutting and applying decals to any model, as I have on this one.
The upper wing/ailerons are 45 degree 5 colour lozenge ('Aviattic' ATT32019 underside, ATT32018 top surface).
The lower wings/ailerons and elevator are standard 5 colour lozenge ('Aviattic' ATT32075 underside, ATT32013 top surface).
All rib and edging tapes were cut from 'Aviattic' ATT32073.
National markings and pilots personal markings were from the ‘Pheon’ (32023) Siemens Schuckert D.III decal sheet.
 
I had the problem of repairing the model after I dropped it during final preparation for applying the decals.
I managed to catch it between my legs, but in the process clamped the wing tips which transformed the D.III into more of a Vought Corsair!!
 

 
I had to break off the upturned lower wings, clean up, re-pack, re-drill and re-pin then reassemble.
All in all it didn't turn out too bad.
 
The surfaces are gloss sealed so as not to damage the applied decals. The final finish and weathering will be done later in the build.
 
Mike
 

 

 

 

 

Finishing up the fuel tank straps and ratchets. I hate working with small PE using my sausage fingers. This made for a fun night.
 

 
Tim

Thanks
 
First 2 colors done - here I'm really pleased with result - can't wait for last one.
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