Been since 2007 that I've built a Warbird

[southwestforests]

Has been since 2007 that I've built a Warbird, with a health decline largely responsible for that.

But ...

Last month I started having the 'want to' again after years of poking along at railway and sci-fi builds.

So ...

I dug out the 5 kits I still had & Bought a Brewster from the renewed Squadron Shop.

 

There are;

Two Hayakushiki in that box, one recon, one air defense. (recon job is a really shapely airplane)

Two Avengers in that box, one Lindberg, one Monogram, both vintage kits with operating features. 😁

One Revell/Monogram P-40B, not pictured, another vintage kit.

(am pondering buying Airfix's recent P-40B, it looks good and has a very nicely done pilot guy)

And the recently bought Brewster, which I'd thought about getting since learning of it in the 1970s. Yes, I'm a greybeard model builder. 😸

{sure wish Tamiya had posed the Brewster's and Hayakushiki's pilot guys HOTAS}

 

They will join the sloooowly in-progress 1/48 scale Lindberg models of 1910 era planes like those in the movie Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.

 

So that's nine kits to poke along at whichever ones I'm in the mood for that day.

 

Again, none will be super detailed, merely getting the kit made is going to be an accomplishemnt.

 

Also ...

 

Decided to see if I could get back in to the painting of little people.

So, began with all these kits' pilot guys & some model RR people & some pilot guys for sci-fi build ideas.

 

🎨🎨 Paint jobs will vary & be more for fun than historical exactness.

 

The Recon Hayakushiki will be painted as a civil registered plane imagined as mine, but still have the Japanese pilot guys.

Lindberg Avenger will get anachronistic Yellow Wings because that livery is a favorite.

Brewster will get Yellow Wings for maybe a fictional squadron; or a civil paint job imagined as my plane; or a fantasy/what-if paint job with VF-84 Jolly Rogers tail art, which also would be grand on a Brewster Buccaneer, ya know!

Its cockpit paint has been done to my personal tastes in the 'aluminum lacquer' silver with the wing spar/fuel tank/rudder pedals floor having a black top as seen in a prototype photo found online.

(that Brewster Buffalo is a little bitty thing! Especially next to the Avenger!)

 

The will be hung up, which really brings attention to Brewster's ventral viewport, and Avenger's weapons load of a torpedo and 2 depth charges.

 

Monogram Avenger's paint job is undecided, will build it later.

 

P-40 will get fantasy/what-if paint job replicating one I did in late 1980s or early 1990s.

Silver overall with red dot stars and tail stripes.

 However ... the 1/72 WW1 Aero Squadron decal I used on fuselage side is no longer made by Microscale. Was a camel and a pyramid.

So, ❓ Hmm.

🛩️

 

 

[southwestforests]

Here, these pages have the reference photo which led me to paint top of Brewster's wing spar/fuel tank/rudder pedals floor black;

 

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/models/aircraft/Brewster-Buffalo.html

 

 

https://kw.jonkerweb.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=725:brewster-b339-buffalo-uk&catid=83&lang=en&Itemid=545&showall=&limitstart=1

 

 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/610167449489487335/

 

 

For contrast here's an image where it is in that aluminum lacquer, 

https://postimg.cc/Q9vTxddR

 

(ya know, if Airfix did a 1/24 kit of a Buffalo I'd buy it as long as it had a really nice pilot guy & made the versions with the window in the bottom.

Oh, and it has to have the working pull-out chart drawer/shelf/table under the instrument panel too. And give the pilot guy alternate arm parts where he can either be flying the plane or working on the navigation chart pullout.)

Edited March 18 by southwestforests

[southwestforests]

Well, I went and did a few things to start the Monogram/Revell TBF after saying just above that it was going to wait.

 

Got the fuselage compartment windows glued in.

 

Wing fold hinge parts are there but not used in the instructions. They can be figured out.

 

Circular raised stops for the wings and the aft cabin door will be left in place.

As will raised copyright lettering under one horizontal stabilizer.

The copyright MMI has been replaced by copyright Revell with the original 1956, or is it 1958, date intact.

There is also raised Monogram Models lettering inside one fuselage half in cockpit area.

 

Two parts I don't remember from the 1970s are a pair of 'posts and railing' looking things numbered 45.

See lower right of photo. 

Wonder what they do. ❓

 

Anyway, the movable parts will be made movable for the entertainment value of doing so.

 

👷‍♂️ Three crew guys come with kit but only 2 seated in plane. Guy for aft compartment will be selected from vintage pilot guys who long ago saw their planes cut up for sci-fi builds.

 

And speaking of the aft compartment and of hinges, there is no hinge for the door. A working one will be fabricated.

 

And ...

 

After saying no superdetaining ...

 

Bomb bay top and sides are going to be made.

With a bit of an anachronism.

Kit is a dash-something which which I remember reading moved bomb/torpedo drop controls to pilot and deleted bombsight window in aft bomb bay wall.

Model is going to be hung up with bay open, so that feature will be added since the wall has to be made anyway & I like that feature.

 

Even though model is to be hung up with cockpit unviewable there will be at least some styrene shapes added to represent the side consoles.

 

Final note, main landing gear tires are so skinny on this thing, easily half the width of those in Lindberg's kit.

Fuselage looks a hair skinnier too, like a Hellcat compared to a Wildcat.

 

.

 

Edited March 20 by southwestforests

[K2Pete]

Tis good to see you building something here SWF ... and those famous last words "Again, none will be super detailed, merely getting the kit made is going to be an accomplishment."

And then in the next post "After saying no superdetaining ... " ... it sounds like the bug has bitten you.

The adding detail bug.

The fun for me is just that. Adding scraps of styrene that, after painting, look like it's supposed to be something.

 

You'll get into the swing of things and you'll have a ball building these kits ... and they may even be displayed, instead of hung from the ceiling.

 

Either way, have a blast! Add that window to the bottom, that chart drawer, cut and saw and glue some styrene, relax and work through those health issues!

Pete

[southwestforests]

17 hours ago, K2Pete said:

it sounds like the bug has bitten you.

The adding detail bug.

Thanks! 😄

 

Oh, that bug bit in the 1970s with 1/35 Tamiya and 1/32 Monogram tanks; and a 1/72 Monogram P-51B with canopy cut open, cockpit details made of lacquer saturated cardstock, and pilot's control stick arm reposed to be waving at someone, which won the youth category a model contest. And with various brands of 1/72 tanks up till 2006 after a major health crash end of 2005.

 

And there have been the trains too, https://flic.kr/s/aHsmNta2w7 and https://flic.kr/s/aHskMwP9GX

 

Some samples from that health crash time in a KCAMPS contest around 2005 of 1/72 and 1/76 models based for miniatures gaming.

 

Hasegawa Churchill Mk1

Fujimi M36

Matchbox Krupp Protze, featuring a couple metal guys

Matchbox SdKfz 11 with a couple guys having aftermarket heads from Preiser

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20 by southwestforests

[southwestforests]

Just now, southwestforests said:

with a couple guys having aftermarket heads

And speaking of aftermarket heads ...

 

Those 2 middle guys wear each other's head well.

Pilot from Lindberg's also 1950s Convair XFY-1 Pogo will become TBF's aft fuselage guy.

(the XFY is getting cockpit and pilot from Monogram F-84, which will then get resin cockpit and a pilot guy yet to be determined)

(a sci-fi build is getting the F-84's stores)

(Hey, 1970s Monogram, y'all Could Have Made it A LOT Easier to build the F-84 with gear up‼️)

 

❓ But what was Monogram's 1958 deal with the pilot having "classic" 1950s-60s "Mummy legs" & the less visible gunner guy having nicely molded legs❓

That is beyond my understanding.

 

Even though the Monogram running man isn't being used in the in-flight build he got some love with a deformed hand and a far too thin foot being reshaped.

 

(Say in your Buzz Lightyear voice, "Cat hair. Cat hair everywhere".) 🙀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[southwestforests]

On 3/19/2023 at 3:49 AM, K2Pete said:

... and those famous last words "Again, none will be super detailed, merely getting the kit made is going to be an accomplishment."

And then in the next post "After saying no superdetaining ...

Uh-oh ...

 

Famous last words indeed! 🤣

 

Just had a fun sounding idea for a "What If" ...

😄

Avenger pair as specialist nighttime submarine hunter-killer aircraft. Noting that the Lindberg Avenger has a pair of depth charges and a short torpedo.

 

What if ...

🤔

 

... they were both given underwing radar pod.

 

... they both had a searchlight pod on opposite wing from radar.

 

... they were a fictional dash version which had 20mm cannon outboard of the wing mounted .50 cal machineguns.

... and the .50s and 20mm all had flash hiders.

http://www.master-model.pl/product/am-72-088.html

 

... the Monogram/Revell Avenger kept the cowl mounted .50 and it too got a flash hider; maybe it doesn't have the wing mounted .50s but only the wing mounted .20mm and uses the saved weight to pack some underwing rockets.

 

... the Monogram/Revell Avenger kept its long torpedo and got aftermarket depth charges under wing roots.

 

... undersides were painted black over standard camouflage, be it Atlantic grey and white or worldwide tricolor.

 

... they got the 1943 red border insignias for a spot of color, 

https://www.starfighter-decals.com/4815-operation-leader-uss-ranger-natlan48151943.html

 

... now, imagine you are the U-boat crew surfaced off New Jersey on a starry night and you discover the pair above coming at you ... 😲

 

... or they could be Pacific raiders hunting nighttime Japanese movements ...

 

😃 This is starting to sound like a very fun project. 

 

I might have to look in the bank.

 

And order parts.

 

EDIT: I just did, from the renewed Squadron shop.

 

❓What is not yet known is what to do for the underwing radar pods. Have saved images from the web. Haven't found aftermarket parts: buying the parts would save on making the parts and making my hands hurt even more than are are already guaranteed to.

 

Edited March 20 by southwestforests
typo fixes, added info

[southwestforests]

Okay, irrevocably committed to adding detail parts. 😄

Dug out the Monogram/Revell Avenger's .30 cal nose MG to turn it in to a .50 with flash hider.

 

❓ Unsure what exactly I'm going to do for the full gun since it is rather bigger than a .30.

But I'll be the barrel trough still needs a bit more depth.

 

Tamiya Brewster F2 and Monogram/Revell Curtiss P-40 fuselages are not glued, are just taped to hold cockpit parts in place while gluing it to one half of fuselage.

Brewster fuselage is something like only 2/3 length of TBF fuselage.

 

EDIT: Yep, cowl gun barrel trough needs to be deeper anyway,

https://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=17319

 

Edited March 20 by southwestforests
added a reference