bdthoresen

Thanks Rotor- I like the post war racers. Some of them were pretty neat. I someday want to tackle "Beguine"......
 
Thanks Don- It does make a nice change from the norm. I only recently started reading up on the post-war air racing scene, and I am truly fascinated. Thanks for stopping by.
 
Yeah, I will take suggestions on that tune. There will be more I am afraid, but until then, I am going to plow on. Thanks for stopping by Torben......
 
I hopefully will have more to show during the weekend. Thanks All-
THOR   

Well, time for another update! I have been busy working on Thunderbird for the last week of evenings. As I said earlier, the first order of business was to fill and sand out the majority of the recessed rivet and panel line detail because most of it was filled on the actual aircraft. I managed to salvage the majority of the inspection panels, reasoning that the aircraft would have still had to have been inspected on an annual basis. I will have to add the specific post war mods by scribing the relevant added details once the airframe is assembled. I think it might be easier to add than take away.

Most of the external details were filled with multiple coats of Mr. Surfacer 500, and then wet sanded back with Flory Models sanders. (Love these!) I also sanded down some of the overdone fabric on the surface controls, but did not fill any panel lines on them. I did fill the rivets on the trim tabs, as I felt they were overdone. Onto the pics.....


Here is a shot of the exterior parts I have been working on. Basically, all external parts of the aircraft. Wings, tail, fuselage, and gear doors were all filled and sanded.


Here is a shot of the correction I made to the chin inlets. I fabricated some blank off plates with .020" styrene sheet, and filled the seams using CA and accelerator. A smear of Mr. Surfacer 500, and away we go.


Another shot of the fuselage half. The rivet details that were filled can still be made out, and there was a lot of it!


A shot of the lower wing. I filled all of the pre-drilled holes for the drop tanks, rocket tubes, and the three formation lights in the left wing (The "B" Mustang did not have them) with styrene rod, then filled and sanded them.


And the upper wing. Same deal as before. The three piece gun bay covers were installed, filled with CA, and sanded smooth, as Thunderbird's wings were converted to wet wing fuel tanks.

Not a terribly exciting update, but a huge milestone for the build. I am starting the cockpit now. Much to do. Thanks for stopping by-

Until next time-

THOR   

Dang, John that looks great. Beautiful work as always!
 
-Thor    
 

Vince-
 
Awesome work. Loving the conversion work. The FM-2 is a great airplane. Keep up the good work. What are you going to use for an engine?
 
Thor

Been there, done that on a -2800, and, quite frankly, it’s sucked! (Not a Hellcat, FG-1 Corsair!)
 
Looking good, Chuck!
 
Thor   

Been there, done that on a -2800, and, quite frankly, it’s sucked! (Not a Hellcat, FG-1 Corsair!)
 
Looking good, Chuck!
 
Thor   

“Meanwhile, behind the facade of this innocent looking workbench”......

As I said, I practically blinked and had an assembled airframe. The bench.....
 
I was surprised at the wing and horizontal stabilizer fit in some locations, some for good reasons, and some for not so good reasons. Allow me to explain......

The main wing root seams were extremely tight, which was a relief because Hasegawa has some lovely molded reinforcement strips along the fuselage wing root fairings.
 
A slight polish of 0000 steel wool along the seams will clean them up nicely. 
 
The underside trailing edge seam was fairly tight as well, with just a pinhole showing up, probably from the liberal amount of Tamiya Extra Thin. 
 
I have to study my reference materials and figure out what parts, if any, of this seam existed in reality. Also notice the slight panel line misalignment at either side of the glue joint. 
 
Another interesting thing here is the the lower wing’s meeting of the trailing edge wing root fairings on the fuselage is not precise. The lower wing half is wider than the fuselage, creating an underside step, or “underbite”.....
 
And lastly, the horizontal stabilizers. They feature an interlocking tab system that ensures they stay perpendicular to the vertical stabilizer. However, I found that the tabs were an extremely tight fit to each other, which in turn caused them to slightly push away at the tail glue joints. You can see the slight mismatch at the “kink” in the tail fairing. 
 
Overall, I am impressed by Hasegawa’s overall fit, with just some minor annoyances to attend to. I also am fully prepared to accept that some of these minor annoyances were self-induced. I hope to get all of these scrubbed up quickly, so I can move on to the engine and gear build-up. But my plan is to tend to all these defects and rescribing now, so I can call this sub-assembly done. Comments and critiques always welcome.
 
Thanks for looking-
 
THOR    

Merry Christmas Dave-O! Stunning build!
 
Thor    

Merry Christmas Dave-O! Stunning build!
 
Thor    

Yes, there are options. Some of the NJG 5 machines in Norway were 75/76 with a mottle of 81/82 oversprayed to conceal the birds on the ground. No clear photos, I am afraid. 
 
There was also reportedly six machines built from spares in the field by NJG 1 in Venlo that had no official Werk numbers. They had field applied camos of 75/76 in squiggle/mottled patterns. No real good photos of them out there. 
 
There is very little documentation of 219’s in action, but they did contribute……
 
Good Luck in your quest!
 
Thor, huge 219 fan…….

Yes, there are options. Some of the NJG 5 machines in Norway were 75/76 with a mottle of 81/82 oversprayed to conceal the birds on the ground. No clear photos, I am afraid. 
 
There was also reportedly six machines built from spares in the field by NJG 1 in Venlo that had no official Werk numbers. They had field applied camos of 75/76 in squiggle/mottled patterns. No real good photos of them out there. 
 
There is very little documentation of 219’s in action, but they did contribute……
 
Good Luck in your quest!
 
Thor, huge 219 fan…….

Yes, there are options. Some of the NJG 5 machines in Norway were 75/76 with a mottle of 81/82 oversprayed to conceal the birds on the ground. No clear photos, I am afraid. 
 
There was also reportedly six machines built from spares in the field by NJG 1 in Venlo that had no official Werk numbers. They had field applied camos of 75/76 in squiggle/mottled patterns. No real good photos of them out there. 
 
There is very little documentation of 219’s in action, but they did contribute……
 
Good Luck in your quest!
 
Thor, huge 219 fan…….

Damn, Soph……..might just have to give up and take up knitting! 
 
Beautiful work. 
 
Thor    

It’s merely a flesh wound……
 
Thor    

Yeah, C’mon Anthony. It’s time to get into the pit. Quit stalling. You managed to nail the exterior fuselage shapes. The cockpit should be a piece of cake-
 
And remember- I have seen your fabrication skills on a 1/1 scale aircraft. Get cracking.
 
All joking aside, killer work brother! 
 
Thor    

That’s not really the case. They are fairly capable Falcons, far better than the junk they were flying prior to Saddam’s removal. The problem is, they are not capable of maintaining the aircraft without direct help from Lockheed Martin, which has announced they are pulling all maintenance contractors from the country citing safety concerns. With no real experience in maintaining the fleet, it’s only a matter of time before they are all grounded…..
 
Thor    

Yeah, C’mon Anthony. It’s time to get into the pit. Quit stalling. You managed to nail the exterior fuselage shapes. The cockpit should be a piece of cake-
 
And remember- I have seen your fabrication skills on a 1/1 scale aircraft. Get cracking.
 
All joking aside, killer work brother! 
 
Thor    

Yes, Rick. There are a few still around. The B5N Kate at the Pacific War Museum is about 80 percent complete. It will be restored to full static using as much of the original material as possible. 
 
There are the 2 Vals in Fredericksburg, which it is said there is enough material there for a full airframe, but currently there appear to no plans for restoration of either. Planes of Fame’s airplane is a D3A2 that was restored by Robert Dietmart of Canada in the late 60’s. That airplane was cut apart by locals he hired for easier shipping back to his airfield in Canada. He “restored” the airplane, very shoddily, installing an R-2600 engine and cowing from a B-25. Planes of Fame wants to restore it to airworthy condition, but it appears to be stalled at the moment…..
 
And there are quite a few wrecks being recovered from Balalae in the Solomon Islands, including 2 and 1/2 Bettys, atleast 3 Vals, a couple of Zeros, and possibly a couple of Kate relics. A couple will be restored and returned to the government for display. But the exact counts and what are still not known. Some great photos here-
 
https://warbirdsnews.com/warbirds-news/wwii-japanese-aircraft-wrecks-salvaged-at-balalae.html
 
HTH-
 
Thor    

Congrats, Foz. You are one of the masters, here……
 
Thor    

Shogun-
 
Looking good so far. I agree with Frank that the second gray could use a tinge of blue/purple……
 
I was going back through your thread and suddenly remembered I wanted to build this airframe in 48th scale using the Kinetic kit. I had stockpiled some Model Master enamels that I had found matched the colors fairly well out of the bottle, made some notes, and then had “squirrel syndrome” moving on to other projects. I can have a rummage for my notes and share my findings with you if you like…..
 
Still, solid work so far!
 
Thor, still a huge fan…..

Shogun-
 
Looking good so far. I agree with Frank that the second gray could use a tinge of blue/purple……
 
I was going back through your thread and suddenly remembered I wanted to build this airframe in 48th scale using the Kinetic kit. I had stockpiled some Model Master enamels that I had found matched the colors fairly well out of the bottle, made some notes, and then had “squirrel syndrome” moving on to other projects. I can have a rummage for my notes and share my findings with you if you like…..
 
Still, solid work so far!
 
Thor, still a huge fan…..

Amen bud! I knew studying IJA/IJN airframes my whole life would come in handy someday……

Complete with duct tape prop tip decals?
 
This one is tempting me……
 
Thor  

Amen bud! I knew studying IJA/IJN airframes my whole life would come in handy someday……

I believe the in-flight photo you showed is of a D3A2, which differed quite a lot from the early D3A1’s. The nose was streamlined with prop spinner added in the D3A2. The squared off cowling was a D3A1 feature. Also, the upper nose had some changes done, as well as the canopy, exhausts, and centerline bomb crutch assembly. Looks like their kit is more of a -1.  
 
I could take or leave the “stressed” skin effect on the surfaces though, looks excessive. Hopefully it will be ok under a coat of primer. 
 
Thor