Messages

4441

Combat Warplanes / Re: Boeing B-47 Stratojet

« on: June 09, 2011, 07:26:35 AM »

I built one of the Hasegawa kits for my little brother many years ago. It's a great kit and I'll build another one some of these days......when I find one!

4442

Aircraft Modeling / Re: June Group Build--Curtiss Hawk 75

« on: June 08, 2011, 08:34:13 PM »

The first coat of aluminum lacquer for the cockpit and a few early enhancements. Notice the center spine on the cockpit floor. This is the tee-fitting where the two halves of the wing were assembled by Curtiss, and something that is often missed on models. In actuality the cockpit floor should curve somewhat as the floor is the top of the wing carry-through.

4443

Combat Warplanes / Re: Boeing B-47 Stratojet

« on: June 08, 2011, 06:57:39 PM »

Ahhhh.....the B-47 , by far my favorite U.S. jet bomber. Every Boeing product I've worked on over the decades owes its design in some part to the Stratojet. And the B-47 design owes much to the work done by the advanced thinking of numerous wartime German engineers, designers, and thinkers!

4444

Aircraft Modeling / Re: June Group Build--Curtiss Hawk 75

« on: June 08, 2011, 08:02:25 AM »

  This will be great! Just keep images private until submit for our magazine 

Yep. I'm working on it......

4445

Aircraft Modeling / Re: June Group Build--Curtiss Hawk 75

« on: June 08, 2011, 07:56:34 AM »

Escii kit brings nice memories 

That Hs 129 is another of my restoration projects. I'm trying to write a magazine article around the restoration and enhancement of it. I realize the Hasegawa model is a much better kit, but this will (hopefully) make for a nice contribution to Issue 3.

4446

Aircraft Modeling / Re: June Group Build--Curtiss Hawk 75

« on: June 07, 2011, 08:26:12 PM »

I managed to squeeze in a start to the Curtiss project. First, the wing on "wing build day" along with the A6M2 and Hs 129 wings in the background. It was easier to just work on all three while I was thinking of it.....

After the wing was cured I offered it up to the fuselage and found huge gaps on the wing root-to-fuselage joint. I got out a three-view and saw two problems--the dihedral of the wing is too shallow and the fuselage is too narrow on the bottom. The fix for the wing was to flex the center section up into a sharper angle very carefully. This photo shows the first adjustment, more was still required:

Once the dihedral was corrected it was on to the fuselage. I found that adding roughly .020" of material to the seam in front and back of the wing area was just about right. I simply used styrene strip for this and then tapered it down gradually to nothing at the tailwheel area:

Next everything was taped together and the results checked. It'll still need a bit of work but the fit and dihedral are now much, much better than when I started. There is still MUCH work to be done at the rear and front seams of the wing-to-fuselage joints but the dimensions are now correct.

4447

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Group Build> Japan

« on: June 07, 2011, 07:24:50 AM »

Thanks, everyone.

Profa, I'm going to use the Tamiya "parts airplane" to build Petty Officer Koga's A6M2. I've always been interested in the Akutan Zero and its retrieval and repair, but not much had ever been said about the young man who died flying it. Now I'd like to build the airplane as it looked the morning he took off on his last flight. With that in mind, I'm wondering if anyone has the red "DI-108" unit markings of Koga's machine in 1/48th scale? 

4448

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Group Build> Japan

« on: June 06, 2011, 07:27:52 AM »

Well, the information I was able to find (most of it on the Pacific Wrecks website, thanks for their hard work) was that no one kept track of which serial number airplane went with which unit tail marking when the captured airplanes were shipped back to the U.S. The tail number on this Zero was from a photo taken on Saipan but it was of another machine. When the airplane was put back into Japanese markings here in the States it looks like they took a good, but wrong, guess. Later, more research seems to have proven the markings are incorrect. Hopefully the Zero will be taken down from its hanging pose someday and the markings corrected.

4449

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Group Build> Japan

« on: June 06, 2011, 02:02:17 AM »

Part II

Not a lot to say with the A6M5, other than I'd been wanting to build this particular machine since the late seventies when I first saw a photo of it.

Incidentally, this is the Zero that now hangs in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. It's back in (mostly accurate) Japanese camouflage that it wore when the U.S. captured it at Islito Field on Saipan in '44. It is believed that the actual tail number should be 61-108 rather than 61-131 that's on it now. It's rather neat building a model of an airplane I've actually seen in a museum--I hadn't thought of that until just now typing the Smithsonian information......

I enjoyed building these two airplanes, especially so since they were two of the basic types so important during the Battle of Midway. I'm reading a very good, unbiased, book about that battle right now, and it is sobering to think of all the brave airmen and sailors on both sides that were lost during that pivotal battle.

4450

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Group Build> Japan

« on: June 06, 2011, 01:39:08 AM »

A two-part update on my first Japan-Build projects is in order. I performed "final assembly" on both kits today as it is extremely hot and I didn't want to work outside......

First is the D3A2 converted from a very old Testors/Fujimi D3A1 kit. As shown earlier in the thread, I cast a new cowl inlet ring using an old Zero cowl. The propeller blades were recontoured a bit and a resin spinner added. The engine is also a few scale inches further forward than on the -1, though it isn't easy to see the difference. The gunner's aft canopy is entirely different on the -2, and I just happened to have a perfectly shaped transparency in the spares box. I vacuformed that piece and the rest of the sliding canopy sections. The gun cutout is extended aft under the new canopy section also. The auxiliary fuel tank is from a George model that is waiting its turn to be refurbished.

For markings I was able to use the hinomarus from the kit, the tail markings came from various spare sheets, and homemade characters from white decal sheet. I confess I don't know the actual unit the airplane was assigned to--the mottled camouflage scheme led me to construct this airplane!

4451

Aircraft Modeling / Re: F-106 Delta Dart

« on: June 06, 2011, 12:45:50 AM »

My crew chief friend wouldn't be very happy if I weathered his airplane--he and his helper kept the paint in almost as-new finish right up to the day it was flown to Davis Monthan for storage! He told me that the 49th was VERY particular about keeping their ancient warriors looking good so the rest of the Air Force could admire their 1950s technology.

4452

Aircraft Modeling / Re: F-106 Delta Dart

« on: June 05, 2011, 04:25:07 AM »

Sorry the piccies are so poor....I may take a few better ones tomorrow.

4453

Aircraft Modeling / Re: Zvezda MiG-21Bis 1/72 + BalkanModels

« on: June 04, 2011, 08:14:36 PM »

As modeling is concerned,the most interesting part for me is scratchbuild.I really enjoy this part of the model. Although perhaps not always drop perfectly,i am glad to somehow get rich model.So i brought her a part of myself, and looks nicer models,for example rich when the landing gear box,or instead of the 2 rockets,paragraph 4...

AMEN, Sall!!!!! I enjoy the scratchbuilding also and you put it so well in your post. 

Scott

4454

Warplane Art / Re: XB-28

« on: June 04, 2011, 07:37:31 AM »

I've got a publication somewhere here that has a short article and several photos of both XB-28s.

For those who don't know, the B-28 was to be a high-altitude pressurized medium bomber with remote turrets--sort of a twin engined B-29 in many respects. It wasn't really a flop but there wasn't a legitimate mission for it by the time the prototypes were built.

4455

Aircraft Modeling / Re: F-106 Delta Dart

« on: June 03, 2011, 08:33:47 PM »

The Dart is complete, photos when I have more time......