Academy 1/72 P-51B, Bud Anderson's Old Crow

 At the age of 102, Clarence "Bud" Anderson is America's only living triple ace. I decided I'd build a replica of one of his planes, and Academy has a kit to let you do this right out of the box. I put the completed model on display at AAA Hobbies in Magnolia, NJ. Only two photos so far, more to follow.

I didn't quite build it out of the box, since having the gear up is not an option, and there's no pilot figure in the box.

First step was to make the main gear doors fit, which took some shaving down of the raised detail on the inner surface of the doors, and to cut away the tailwheel doors and widen the tailwheel opening to allow them to fit.

I didn't quite get the doors perfectly flush, so a bit of filler was required.

Lots of sanding and filling, using Bondo, Perfect Plastic Putty, and Mr. Surfacer. The fit between the cowling and lower wing would have been better if I had glued the lower wing to the fuselage before gluing the upper wing surfaces to the lower wing. As a result, I needed to fill in the lower wing behind the cowling tapering back to the landing gear bays.

Oops, sorry, no photos of the cockpit or the figure of then-Captain Anderson, which

I swiped from an Airfix P-51 (the new tool kit, so the figure's not bad). Here you see the primered model with Vallejo masking fluid over the canopy. I like the Vallejo product much better than Microscale Micro Mask, which beads up on smooth surfaces. The Vallejo mask stays where I put it.

 I got out my trusty Paasche Model H and preshaded the whole airframe with Mr. Color flat black. That single action airbrush is excellent for all but the finest lines, and it has only three parts to clean. Cleaning the Paasche H is even quicker and easier than cleaning a paintbrush, but you can get a beautiful paint job you'd never achieve with a paintbrush. Those are the two things I look for in a tool: better results and/or less trouble.

The important thing to remember about preshading is to airbrush very light coats over it and stop before you totally obscure it! I had a stock of Hataka paint I'd bought for various projects, and decided to use their Olive Drab (Late) and Neutral Gray. 

I'll have to take some more pictures of the finished model and post them later.

Shinden, minus one Godzilla

 Godzilla Minus One is one of the best movies I've ever seen! For me, a small part of the movie's appeal is the appearance of the Kyushu J7W-1 Shinden fighter. It happens I built the 1/72 Hasegawa kit some years ago, but didn't have any pictures of it on this blog. Not to blow my own horn, but I'm pretty happy with the job I did on it. As of this writing, it's on display at AAA Hobbies in Magnolia, NJ.

It's mainly painted with Model Master Enamels, with the green/gray camo scheme applied with my Paasche VL. To give the hinomaru decals a painted-on appearance, I painted over them lightly with the base color.

By the way, I found out at Aviation of Japan that you can see the replica Shinden used in the movie at the Tachiarai Peace Memorial in Fukuoka (story here).

 

Okay, I'm done ruining this model

 

Here's Academy's 1/72 P-51C "Red Tails" which came with markings for two aircraft flown by the Tuskeegee airmen. Quite a few years agi, I had done most of the assembly and cut out the flaps, scratchbuilding the part that's exposed when the flaps are dropped, then airbrushed the whole thing with Metalizer Buffing Aluminum. Then I decided to repaint the wing aluminum dope, like the real thing. I masked off the wing, then it went to the Shelf of Doom.

When I revisited it, the first thing I did was to airbrush the wing with Rustoleum Aluminum, of which I have a gallon can, using a Paasche Model H I bought on clearance at Hobby Lobby. This airbrush works great and is a breeze to clean up, being external mix. I do more airbrushing now, since it's hardly any more hassle than a paintbrush. I also chose the markings for Capt. Ed Toppins of the 99th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group.

I masked and airbrushed the red areas and yellow stripes. The kit comes with decals for the stripes, but the decals were really weak near the edge and needed two coats of Superfilm to hold together. They also don't stick well. I discovered the problem starting with the national markings. The one on the left side of the fuselage flaked off so I replaced it with one from an AeroMaster sheet. Common sense would have had me replace them all, but instead I touched them up with paint. This started the snowball rolling, and unfortunately it was pretty much all downhill after that. 

I free handed the canopy painting. The framing is in sharp relief, so it was less trouble than masking but the results are just as good. I also painted some scotch tape to make seat belts that you can't see very well with the canopy closed. I used fine wire for the aerial, then broke it while weathering and redid it. As a result the tail is a little messed up where the aerial is attached.

The coup de grace of model ruination was the exhaust staining. I did this with some Metalizer exhaust that had totally dried up and which I revived using lacquer thinner, and sprayed through my Paasche VL. Despite the thinness of the metalizer, it started sputtering and made a horrible mess on the model. I went back and cleaned it up as best I could with some brush and Q-tip application of Metalizer buffing aluminum, then lightly brushed on some Vallejo black. The result is still a godawful mess.

You'll notice a second, lower streak I added on the right side of the cowling. I have seen this in photos (some P-51s have this on the left, maybe some on both). It looks like oil, and it originates from a hole on the side of the cowling. I expect this hole is some kind of crankcase vent. I'll need to do more research into this feature of the P-51.

Anyhow, you will probably never find any photo of a P-51 of the Tuskeegee airmen that's this dirty, unless it came back with engine problems. Photographic evidence convinces me that they kept their birds clean.

Postcript: this kit (No. 2225, since re-released as 12501) also contains a jeep. If you remember, Academy's first 1/72 P-51 kit had the bizarre inaccuracy of seven exhaust pipes per side. They fixed that since, but their penchant for miscounting wasn't over. The jeep's grille has ten slots instead of nine.

PM 1/72 Ho 229 Nightfighter

 

Okay, this is a perfectly awful kit, but it was really cheap. PM is a kit manufacturer in Turkey. I'd built their 1/72 Ho 229 kit back in the '80s (when the company called itself Pioneer Models) and about a decade later they came out with this two-seat nightfighter version that never flew.

I did a little scratchbuilding and added a couple of figures from the spares box. I also elected to show it in flight, partly because the landing gear on this kit is nothing to look at. I made a base from Sculpey and 1/8" acrylic rod.

Finish is RLM 74/75 on top, black underneath. One thing that went wrong along the way was I lost one of the two fairings from the engine fronts, so I chucked a piece of styrene rod in my drill press and used it as a lathe to form a replacement. Then I lost the other kit part and the replacement I'd made, so I ended up making three of them. The carpet monster has the others. Gotta admire that carpet monster! He can eat just about anything I drop, up to at least an inch in size, and he doesn't even need carpet to hide in. He manages to maintain total invisibility on the bare concrete of my workshop floor.

Pitot tube is 1/32" brass tubing with a bit of brass rod superglued in the end.

Polishing a Turd, or Setting the Bar Low

Somehow, I had this Monogram snap-together Spitfire kit lying around (I never belonged to their Young Model Builders' Club) and decided the best way to get rid of it was to build it. It's not much of a kit, with stickers instead of decals. I guessed at first it was 1/72 scale, but I measured the wingspan and found it about 10% oversize for 1/72, which makes it approximately 1/64, which is the scale that Scalemates . Anyhow, I'd already decided to use some Scale-Master decals I had saved from an old Encore kit that I let my daughter complete the way she wanted when she was about 3 years old. (She painted it red and pink.)

This wasn't going to be a serious build, just something to hang up in my workshop. The markings I chose were for P7666, call letters EB-Z, a presentation aircraft from the Observer Corps, the personal aircraft of Sqn. Ldr. Donald Osborne Finlay of No. 41 Squadron in late 1940.

I printed out the camo pattern sized to the model and cut a template. I traced this and brush-painted it over black primer using some Humbrol acrylics that came with an Airfix kit. These tiny plastic vials of paint are tricky to stir without spilling and the weight of the lid makes them want to tip over, but they go on nicely with a brush and as far as I can tell accurately represent RAF colors. A little internet research gave me to understand that in the early years of WWII, the underside color of RAF day fighters was usually Sky Blue, aka Duck Egg Blue. Less commonly used was Sky, aka Sky Type S or Duck Egg Green (or a similar but lighter and greener color Eau-de-Nil). Least common was Sky Grey, normally used by the Fleet Air Arm and Coastal Command, but apparently this color was used by No. 41 Squadron. This color was more of neutral grey than the others, lacking their bluish or greenish hue, so I used some Testors Flat Camouflage Grey acrylic I had since it seemed a fair match.

As I recall, the Encore kit (from a Heller mold) is a little overscale, say 1/69, so the decals I used should be sized accordingly. At any rate, while the markings are still undersized for the Monogram kit, the only place it really shows is the tail flash, which is clearly too short.

I wanted to use this kit to try out washi tape for the first time. I masked the canopy with it and found the results satisfactory. I also masked off the red rectangles on the leading edge of the wing where tape was applied over the gunports, but I'd have gotten better results here just freehanding it. The washi tape also lifted a decal. Ouch! I touched it up with a Gundam marker.

The kit's representation of the main gear and their bays is laughable, and I wanted it to show it in-flight anyway, so I cut out the shallow bays to modify it so the gear are retracted. This left peg holes that I filled, and would have required even more work to show the gap where the top of the door doesn't quite cover the bay, but it wasn't worth the effort.

I also tried ways to avoid decal silvering. Decal silvering is the bane of my existence, though I must admit it's not too horrible a bane, as banes go. I gave the plane a coat of Future and used Micro Sol to wet the areas where I applied the decals, then more Micro Sol, and rolled a Qtip over the decal to press out the excess. Mostly it worked, but I also carefully chipped away clear carrier film with the tip of a #11 blade, used a pointy brush to get more Micro Sol or Micro Crystal Clear under the decal, and touched up with paint. And I still see a few little flecks of silvering. Aaarghhh!

So now I have a Spitfire hanging in my workshop. If it were some kind of masterpiece, I might find a safer place for it, but this way it livens up my workshop. Besides, if I decide I don't like it anymore, I can always stuff it full of firecrackers, like back in the good ol' days.

Hasegawa 1/72 Isuzu TX-40 Fuel Truck and Toyota GB Starter Truck

Speaking of gems, these must be the crown jewels of Hasegawa's 1970s braille scale vehicles. National pride really encourages model companies to do their best tooling!

Both first came out in 1974, according to Scalemates. The molding is so good, I decided to do some detailing on each in an effort to get the whole model up to the quality of the basic kit. The starter truck has rigging added to the boom that supports the drive shaft that spins the aircraft prop, and a bit of chain to hold up the drive shaft, like on the real thing. I also added canvas doors to the sides of the cab, made from paper and cellophane, glued with Micro Crystal Clear and painted with Humbrol. I wanted the starter truck to appear older, so it's much more heavily weathered than the fuel truck, and painted in a different tan color.

The fuel truck has a refueling hose made of solder, with a nozzle I fabricated from various bits, made to scale from drawings I found online. Both vehicles have windshield wipers I made from tiny slivers of styrene. I dirtied up the windshields with extremely thinned enamel and used a toothpick to clean the dirt away as the windshield wipers would do.

Hasegawa bills the fuel truck as Japanese Army/Navy, but of course it's got the Army star, not the Navy anchor. I've got another of these in my stash that's going to get the star shaved off and replaced with an anchor, then be painted blue to represent a naval fuel truck. The starter truck is simply billed as army, and I don't know offhand whether the Japanese Navy used them. None of the images of Toyota starter trucks in my references shows one in naval service.

Oh, by the way, the starter truck this kit represents may not be a GB. According to the Wikipedia article, it is instead a KC, a version simplified for wartime production. However, the article also states that the KC had a plywood cab (the kit clearly represents a steel cab) and that the KC wasn't produced before November 1943. Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-1945 by Henry Sakaida shows a good photo of a Toyota starter truck starting a Ki-27, and it looks exactly like this kit. The caption makes the credible claim that it's 1939. At any rate, the photo cannot have been taken as late as November 1943!

So these models are another example of the unplanned impulse modeling than can result from raiding kits for parts: I needed a figure for my Fine Molds midget sub, and converted one to represent the sub's captain, but also built these kits I was raiding. The included figures are obviously in army uniforms. And nicely sculpted figures they are! More national pride at work, no doubt.

...and Braille Scale Kettenkrad

And here's the 1/72 Kettenkrad that comes with the Schwimmwagen in the Hasegawa kit (31113, originally MB-103). Not much to say about this, other than I'm still using up stocks of Polly Scale paints (Panzer Yellow and Grimy Black, to mention two). The seated figures that come with it are pretty awful, but there's a standing figure who might be usable. I won't embarrass Hasegawa by showing you what the figures look like. Instead, here's another of their early vehicle models, from 1973! Sure, it's simplified (the front wheel and fork are one piece, as are each of the two track and wheel assemblies), but actually it's quite a little gem, with nice detail and just a bit of seam lines and flash.



It was a really quick build, but at least I took the time to clean up these minor defects where visible. The instruments are painted black with these nifty Gundam markers I got on sale cheap at the Dragon USA online store, which seems not to have much inventory anymore, but that's another story.

Anyhow, I like these little multi-kits. They're like little dioramas in a box, or playsets if you like to move them around the workbench while making "vrrroom" noises.

RSO Part 4

Just a short update. I finished cleanup of the new vent holes to make them neatly geometrical, so they look like they were made by Germans (or Austrians, rather) and not cavemen. Then a shot of primer, and I added metal screen. The problem is that the cab is about a scale inch thick, but softskin vehicles like the RSO are made of sheet metal. The screen in the real thing is fastened over the opening from the inside and has no problem lying flat and nearly flush with the back of the cab. I couldn't come up with any better alternative than pressing the screen in from the inside, and the results aren't as good as I'd like. To really get the right look, one would need photoetched parts for the openings. Some plastic would have to be shaved off, the PE parts put in flush with the surrounding surface, then puttied smooth so it's impossible to tell where the PE starts. The screen would be attached to the PE from the inside, and would be nearly flush with the outside since the PE is so thin.

Although these screens don't satisfy me in this case, it was good experience and would look right for some applications. I'm leaving them be since there will be a canvas top, which will make them very hard to see. The duct inside the cab has several similar screens that will be more visible, so I will have to consider how to make those.

RSO Part 3

I noticed that while the vents on the rear of the model's cab are centered, the cooling air duct that fits in the cab is off-center. Aside from the fact the duct wouldn't line up with the vents, the vents are supposed to be off-center, as you can see in the picture. I forget where I found this picture, but apparently someone found this RSO cab somewhere in Poland.

In the next picture, you see the relocated openings superimposed over the old vents, which are just surface detail. The lower opening shouldn't be as tall as the upper, so I corrected that, too. I have since started puttying over the old vent detail and mesh will go in the openings to complete the vents.

Aside from this, I've been puttying and sanding ad infinitum, primering, and opening the vent holes in the front of the cab. I found out those two rectangular covers with rounded corners that you see in the top picture are dampers for vents. Expecting the RSO to have headlights other than just the Notek blackout light, I had thought they were headlight covers. I even found a wartime photo of an RSO with what appeared to be light shining out one of those openings, but vents they are, and for a good reason. It could get hot in the cab sitting next to the air-cooled V8 engine. Wartime photos often show just one of the vents open, usually the driver's vent.

RSO Part 2

Friul should consider branching out. Check out the what a fine bracelet these RSO tracks make, modeled here by my lovely wife Ilene.






Closer inspection reveals why some of the pins broke after I assembled the first run of track. The nub you see in the photo at right is enough to wedge the adjoining link causing it to pull on the pin, shearing it off. Before assembling the second run I filed any nubs off.


The shapes stamped into the back of the cab should also show on the inside, as in this close up from a walkaround at the Military Models website in New Zealand. I edited the picture to indicate the stamped shapes. This particular walkaround is great because the vehicle is painted white and partially disassembled, making details more visible.

I made the matching raised areas in the back of the cab by fitting sheet styrene into the depressions. First I taped a piece of strip styrene into the depression running around the lower part. I bent the strip to get it to go around the corners.

Once I had the styrene shape formed, I simply peeled off the tape and the styrene with it.







Next I put it into the cab and cemented it in place, carefully peeling off the tape.








The rectangular depressions on either side of the rear window have sheet styrene cut to fit...

...which is then transferred to the inside to form the raised areas, then cemented in place.






I found in period pictures and modern day walkarounds that the main bolt holding each roadwheel on is often secured with a strap held on by two opposing lug nuts. The RSO probably came from the factory this way. I decided my RSO should have this feature.

I wanted to simply put a strip of brass with two holes over the lug nuts, but this wasn't practical. My only other choice was to remove two lug nuts, superglue a strip of brass on, and reattach the lug nuts with superglue. To this end I sliced two lug nuts off each roadwheel with a fresh #11 blade (with tape over the nuts to keep them away from the carpet monster).

Then I pulled off the tape taking the two nuts with it. I shaved off the remaining plastic left behind so the brass strip would be tight against the wheel. Not shown is how I cut a strip of brass, pressed it over the hub of the wheel, and cut it to length. Some of the wheels got scored in the process, so a bit of putty was required to cover up the damage.

And here are all eight roadwheels modified with the brass strip and the lug nuts reattached. Comparing my work to photos of the RSO, I made the strips a little too wide, but I'm just glad the carpet monster didn't get any of the lug nuts. They are practically microscopic!

RSO, Part 1

Oh, by the way, Merry Christmas! It's a long time since I posted, having gotten derailed from modeling this summer and making very little progress on aztec decals for Starcraft's 1:1400 scale Saber-class starship. Meanwhile, I've started on an armor (well, softskin) project that should get me back on track (no pun intended) but not take terribly long to complete.

I recently got the Chinese version of Italeri's 1/35 RSO. It includes a sheet of photoetched details by Voyager and decals by Cartograph, neither of which I would expect to find in the Italian boxing. Sorry about the glare, but you know what the model looks like. The cat's name is Rory (as in Mr. Amy Pond). This kit was very inexpensive, Lucky Model's deal of the month or whatnot. A little history of this kit: Italeri (then Italaerei) bought the molds for this kit from Peerless/Max when they went out of business in the 1970s. Peerless Max is probably best known for their kits of various U.S. Army subjects in the range between the Jeep and the deuce-and-a-half (Italaerei bought a bunch of these molds, too). I never knew about their RSO since I don't remember seeing Peerless/Max kits at the 5 and dime where I bought models back then. But the Peerless/Max kits, while primitive by today's standards, are still pretty impressively detailed and engineered kits, and AFAIK pretty accurate.

A major reason I bought this kit was that I already had the Fruil tracks for it. Someone had tossed them into the table of parts for the Iron Modeler competition at Wonderfest. The stuff was free to all takers once the competition was concluded. Since I build armor also, I snatched these up.

At right you see the assembly fixture, followed by a picture in which I demonstrate how to use the fixture. These tracks are not what I expected: there is no wire to form track pins. Instead, the track pins are cast as part of each link. The part of each link that is like a hinge barrel is open so it can trap the pin in the next link. You place the assembly on the fixture and press the open barrel shut (here I'm doing it with a jeweler's screwdriver), and you get workable track.

Here's one run of track test fitted on the tractor. They look pretty good here, but I had to cut out a couple links in which the pins broke, probably because I closed the links together with too much force. PMMS has a review of Fruil's track set for the RSO, but it's for a new version, which confusingly has the same number of ATL-29. The differences are that the new links are more accurate, that they have wire for link pins and bolt head parts to make right- and left-hand tracks, and that sprockets are included. The new set apparently takes 69 links per run. I don't have the Panzer Tracts for the RSO, so I don't know how many links it should take. I looked at the best photo I could find of a real RSO and tried to count the number of links, and it seemed to be 72. The run I assembled took 67 links.

Since there are two versions of Fruil's track set ATL-29, you may get the old set when you think you're ordering the new set. However, I'm pretty happy with the old set. They are a bit wider to fit the wider kit sprockets, but the difference in width is kind of hard to see. Once I got the hang of assembling them, it was a breeze. True, the bolt heads on the link pins aren't there, but to my eye these are too large on the new track set. All in all, I don't see a lot of reason to prefer the new set over the old.