FAQ: TBD-1 Edition
It seems like every single post I make documenting my progress on the TBD-1 Devastator attracts questions I’ve already answered at least five times. In the interest of not posting…
1/32 Trumpeter SBD-5 Dauntless – Part 1
When The Weathering Magazine’s aircraft-focused spinoff, Weathering Aircraft, reached out to me about doing a build for an upcoming publication, the request was pretty wide open. World War II, with a focus on painting a camoflage scheme.
After a few false starts, I decided to tackle a late-war SBD-5 Dauntless. The Douglas SBD Dauntless is one of the unsung workhorses of the war. Slated for replacement before the first bombs even fell at Pearl Harbor, it proved instrumental in turning the tide in the Pacific, and was ultimately responsible for sinking more Japanese ships than any other aircraft.
The SBD-3, which distinguished itself at Coral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal, gets the lion’s share of the attention, but the -5 was the most produced variant, and did a lot of the dirty work later in the war. It also wore the tricolor camoflage that I personally find more interesting than the bluegray over light gray of the early war dive bombers.
It’s been nearly six years since I built my last Dauntless – Accurate Miniatures’ SBD-3 (my second build after coming back to the hobby). My memories of that kit have dimmed, but I clearly recall the frustration with the cockpit, which built up in a sort of top/bottom sandwich with the cockpit floor loading up and into the fuselage. This made test-fitting next to impossible and ultimately caused some issues getting everything installed, with some elements hanging down trying to occupy the same space as those loading up.
The wingroots, too, were a challenge on that kit. But it was my second kit back to the hobby, so just as likely my own incompetence.
Trumpeter’s side-load approach to the cockpit clears away the problems the AccuMini kit ran into, though the initial test-fit shows that the wingroots are still an issue.
More on that later. (more…)
1/48 Trumpeter MiG-21F-13, Part IV
Part I | Part II| Part III | Part IV
Welcome to Part IV of the MiG-21F-13 build. At the end of Part III, the Fishbed was painted, chipped, and had just had the markings masked and sprayed.
Now, it’s time to continue the journey with some weathering.
Wash & Strut
Handling the MiG-21 with the nose strut only installed was becoming tiresome by this point, so I said f- it and installed the main gear struts as well. The fit of these into their mounts is frustratingly wobbly, but somehow my “CA-and-pray” approach worked just fine ,and the plane appears to sit level. Now…it does appear to sit taller in the rump than most images I’ve seen…but I think that’s a case of the oleos being at full extension or something.
In addition to strutting the MiG, I also applied Vallejo Light Gray Wash. Vallejo’s washes are something I’ve recently discovered, and used properly they are fantastic. The darker colors really have a much stronger effect, but the gray wash quite subtle and helps to bring some cohesion to a really visually disparate paint scheme like this one.
Like I said. Subtle. (more…)
1/48 Trumpeter MiG-21F-13, Part III
At last! Welcome to this build’s big moment of truth. Making this:
Look something like this:
Or…similar. While I was tempted to go for 100% fidelity…the “AMS” side of the Force…I have found that stressing so much about complete accuracy doesn’t really do anything except suck the fun out of builds. So for my forays into 1/48 jets, I’m making a conscious effort to strive for verisimilitude over exactitude.
(more…)
1/48 Trumpeter MiG-21F-13, Part II
Part I | Part II| Part III
With the cockpit sorted, it’s time to move on to the build portion of the build.
Overall, Trumpeter’s kit is straight-forward and hiccup-free. Still, there are a few areas to watch out for, and it’s probably a good idea to have a sanding stick or five on hand.
Salting the Shock Cone
Before construction can really begin, there are a few central bits that have to be sorted out. Namely the cockpit, engine, gear bays and the MiG-21’s distinctive shock cone. This cone can move forward and back, essentially regulating airflow into the jet engine. The MiG-21F-13 has a noticeably smaller shock cone than later Fishbeds such as the MiG-21MF and MiG-21bis, in large part because later variants placed the radar behind the cone.
For this particular build, the shock cone required some serious weathering.
Here’s how I tackled it. (more…)
1/48 Trumpeter MiG-21F-13, Part I
Part I | Part II| PART III
It’s amazing how our tastes and interests change over time, isn’t it?
When I was a kid, the vast majority of the models I built were jets. Mostly 1/72 scale. It was only relatively late in the game – into junior high and high school, that I really started getting interested in World War II subjects. And even then, I kept building jets right up until I wandered away from the hobby. In fact, I’m pretty sure this 1/48 A-7E Corsair II was the last kit I completed in my first modeling “career”.
When I came back to modeling in 2010, I found I had no desire to build modern jets. None. Zero. Instead I found myself drawn to World War II and then Great War aircraft. Modern stuff, I figured, was all boring, naptime gray, and didn’t have the same historical import as subjects from the two most important conflicts of the 20th century.
Then, somewhere along the way, I began to get some small urges. I think Eduard’s MiG-21 line might have had something to do with it, or the glimpses of some stellar builds on various contest tables. I snagged a handful of modern 1/48 jets…but never touched them.
Last year, things came to a head. I decided that, damnit, I was going to build a jet. And more than that, I was going to build it in 1/32 scale. I even started accumulating a stash of 1/32 jets. Then I started working on Academy’s F-16I Sufa kit, and it was a slog from the start. Nothing went right, and I daresay it stole so much of my momentum that it kept me from at least one and maybe two more completions in 2013. After fighting it for something like two months, I finally said enough, and put it away in such disgust that I decided to abandon 1/32 jets and sell off my small stash of them.
Instead, I opted for 1/48 as my scale of choice for jets. Started snagging some kits with the proceeds gained from selling off the 1/32 stash, even.
And now that the Messerschmitt Me 262A-2a is behind me and the Challenger 1 is rolling toward completion, it’s time to finally buckle down and BUILD. A. JET. (more…)
1/32 Trumpeter Me 262A-2a, Part IV
Part I | Part II| Part III | PART IV
It’s time to wrap this puppy up! The 262 has been a long time building, and finally, in Part IV, it all comes to completion. Strap in – here we go!
Picking Up
In Part III, I walked through my technique for masking and painting the putty lines on the Me 262. The result exceeded my expectations:
Part IV promises to be a longer post, bringing the build to a conclusion, or very near to it. Buckle up, and let’s dive in.
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1/32 Trumpeter Me 262A-2a, Part III
At last, we come to the reason I cracked this kit open in the first place. When I first stumbled upon Me 262A-2a Wk.Nr. 111712, I was intrigued by the unfinished appearance of bare metal covered in a latticework of putty. I’d seen this on other late-war Luftwaffe aircraft, but for some reason, when I saw it on 712, I had an epiphany. I knew how I could recreate the putty effect. And so I tracked down Trumpeter’s kit and got to work.
1/32 Trumpeter Me 262A-2a, Part II
Part I | Part II| Part III
It’s been some time since this blog has visited the long in-progress Messerschmitt Me 262A-2a. In Part I, I walked through some early test-fitting and the build-up of the cockpit.
Part II is usually all about the construction, but honestly, the 262 built rather fast and uneventfully. So rather than focus on that, I’m going to use Part II to cover both the construction and the first phase of painting – up through the bare metal finish.
1/32 Trumpeter Me 262A-2a, Part I
Part I | Part II| Part III
When the Academy F-16 build began running into roadblock after roadblock, I started searching about for something else to share the bench. And damn did I ever vacillate. Until I somehow stumbled upon this profile of a Messerschmitt Me 262A-2a:
It seems this particular specimen was left abandoned in a field in Austria after its port maingear collapsed.
I’m not sure if I’m going to try to tackle this sucker as a diorama setup yet, or just build it as is, but either way it’ll definitely be a looker. I’ve even got an idea of how I’m going to tackle all the puttied panel joints, but I’m going to save that until I start painting.
For now, on with getting this sucker off the ground! (more…)