Bstarr3

I spent some time with the box figure, and honestly he’s pretty good. I swapped the more interesting face of the standing figure into the seated figure. Quite a well sculpted face for an injection molded figure, which makes a ton of difference in painting outcome. What do you think?

Just caught up on this thread - nice plastic surgery! I would never have enough patience to bash together this kit like you have. And it's really come out nicely.

Thanks very much for the constructive criticism, Wayne. I definitely found that I had a problem with exposure with the white background, and had to try to punch up the shadows digitally, which really "pops" on a phone screen, but looks way over-processed when looking closely at the photos as here. The other major limitation is that I'm using my iPhone. I don't really have interest in photography and can't justify buying a camera just to document my model builds. I use my spray booth as a photo booth, because it has nice neutral lighting, and use a white plastic photo backdrop. I've seen nice photos with blue backgrounds - I might get a different photo backdrop and see if I can get better outcomes. Again thanks for the tips - it's definitely a whole additional art form to photograph our work well, and one that I have a lot to learn about

The wing root/undercarriage section of this kit is just a marvel of engineering. The way everything fits into place is just awesome. Here’s everything fit together, with some custom mixed salmon pink primer. I’m giving Mission Models another try, because I don’t really have adequate ventilation for MRP. A little chipping in the gear bays and that’s it for now! This is Mission Models light gray, which seems almost white compared to reference photos. I might have to mix it up a little bit darker to get more of a gray hue to it.

On the contrary, he relished getting out there and mixing it up. If you haven’t read his autobiography “Fighter Pilot” do yourself a favor and get it- a great memoir of his fascinating life, including being an all American football player at West Point, being a P-38 and P-51 ace in WWII, being a test pilot and demonstration flyer, marrying a movie star, and being an “almost ace” in Vietnam. He claims that he gave kills away to his wingmen once he hit 4 because he knew they’d take him off his billet as group commander to go be a spokesman if he became the first ace of Vietnam

Is this one at the museum at Wright Patterson? I haven’t been yet

Thank you! I was nervous about doing something so figure-heavy, but I'm very happy with how it turned out

Diorama shots:

This was a build that I documented only on my Instagram. Thought I'd upload the pics here of the finished plane as well as the diorama. If there's any interest in WIP pics I'll put those up as well. This is Col Robin Olds's F-4C "Scat XXVII". As you may know, he named all of his planes after his West Point roommate, who washed out of flight school for medical reasons. The diorama represents Col Olds returning from his final combat mission over North Vietnam on 23 September 1967. As he was due to rotate back to the States, there was a huge turnout on the flight line to support the hugely popular group leader. The kit is Zoukei Mura, with Quinta 3D decals in the cockpit, resin exhaust nozzles, and ZM metal landing gear. Paint is MRP, weathering is oils. Figures are Aerobonus and ICM.

I know it's historically accurate for the pilot to be in goggles and mask, but I like showing the face anyway. That's what's got me on the search for aftermarket

It's been a long time since I've posted a project here, mostly because I haven't done an LSP in a while, but also because I've been exploring sharing my work on Instagram. Please give me a followthere, if you like. Up next for me is a big project involving the lovely Tamiya Birdcage Corsair. I've started, of course, with the cockpit. I laid down a coat of MRP Super Silver, then chipping solution, and a custom mixed vallejo acrylic dull dark green. I don't love how the vallejo chipped - a little too aggressively, but I'm not too worried about it because I plan to put a pilot in there. For that reason I'm also not troubling with placard decals or adding wiring, just straight OOB. Here are a few pics of the finished sub assemblies: And then, all put together and weathered. I used Ammo Oilbrushers for my primary weathering here, Starship Filth and Dust. And I'm seeing that images edited for Instagram don't really translate well to forum. I'll try to post some less manipulated photos later so we can see detail better. Anyway, thanks for taking a look - I'm enjoying being back on here sharing a new project!

I did see the Aerobonus, but I've already got the cockpit built out, so I don't want to replace the seat. The Boyington figure does look nice...

I saw those, and I do think ICM make some of the best injection molded figures, but I believe they've got an RAF tropical, a USAAF cold weather/europe, and a VVS pilot.

That looks really good. Do you have any closeups of the pilot? Also, let me pick your brain about that spinning prop...

I’m looking to add a pilot figure to my Tamiya Corsair. As far as I can see, the best looking seated pilot figures in our scale are the Master Details one with the white metal heads, and the ultracast Pappy Boyington. Does anyone have experience with either of these? Or are there any other high quality figures I’m missing out on - maybe something 3D printed? Thanks

Honestly, I'm excited about the 1/12 Fairlady, with full engine bay. It will greatly exceed the meh hasegawa 1/24 kit

A few pics of where we stand now. Planes are painted and assembled, decals pending. Put a few SBDs on the hangar deck just for some busyness down there, even though everybody should be switched to SB2Cs by late 44. Finally affixing the hull to the sea base. Filling in the gaps with tissue paper and gloss medium, and forming wake, bow waves etc. Will have a final painting later. Still have a lot of tedium remaining, between decaling the planes, assembling another 35 or so Oerlikons, and somehow dealing with these miniscule 1/700 figures. And then, of course, the special effects. If I'm not crazy yet, I'll get there before this is over!

Busy day today! Got the island completed and painted up, proved concept with my wiring, got the measure 32 camo on, than mocking up my explosion effect, and got first painting done on the flight deck.

This is a really fun kit. I built mine wheels up, too. It's a shame they dont make it easier to do. Very nice work on your color gradation!

Slow going with photo etch in this scale! The difference between this photo and the previous is about 2 hours worth of work,but it's starting to come together.

Lots of firsts with this project - first aircraft carrier, first 1/700, first wiring and first modeled explosion! The Essex CV-9 was in the Philippine Sea supporting the landings on Leyte and Luzon when she was struck by a kamikaze on November 25, 1944. It was far from the most destructive kamikaze attack, but is one of the best documented, including live video. She was struck just forward of elevator 2, causing a massive explosion. Fortunately, it was well forward of the planes spotted on deck to be launched, and few aircraft were lost. The fire was controlled easily and the hole in the flight deck quickly repaired. She recovered her own planes not long after. Here are my beginnings. The hull and hangar deck assembled, including the hole through which I'll run the wires marked out. Need to get the motor on my dremel replaced before I can finish that part. I wanted to try my hand at some scratch building, so redid the tripod mast with brass rod and styrene sheet that is more to scale than the kit part.

Emperor is a great recent one, about the investigation into Hirohito immediately after the end of the war, deciding whether they should try him for war crimes or allow him to stay on the throne

All of the above, plus Twelve O'clock High U-571

Hunt for Red October

Tamiya Mossie was brilliant