Looking great Joe!
Wow, love the stripes and the mill Joe!
Outstanding paint job![t$t]
Mike
Greetings all, I’m in for a little update. I managed to get the Meat Chopper decaled last night. I remember buying these Super Scale decals (#48-613) from my LHS about 5 years ago on clearance for 6 bucks. This was even before I had this N kit. I see why now, because they are older than dirt. Two of the four stars and bars shattered when soaked. I even used warm water. I ended up using spares from another Aeromaster sheet. The shade of blue is slightly off, but I hope after weathering and such it will blend in. I then held my breath, kept the water warm, then carefully commenced to salvage the rest. Fortunately, with liberal use of Micro Sol, I was successful. I had to supplement the red step squares on the flaps too. This was actually my first bad experience with Super Scale, but I’m sure It was no fault of theirs, just the antiquity of the sheet. Also, this is the first plane I ever used “all” of the servicing stencils. I usually put the more prominent ones on, then get bored with it, saying “good enough”…
This morning I sealed the decals with Alclad gloss coat to await a Flory panel line wash. Its time to start working on the other assemblies, such as the prop, landing gear, drop tanks and other such bits. Thanks for looking…stay tuned.
Joe
It’s looking really good, Joe. Great job on the paint scheme.
Glenn
Beautiful work Joe, love it! I have got to find more build time!
lovely build, cant wait for more!
Looking good!
Mike
You are both right in calling it a gear reduction gear box or propeller gear box! The engine rpm had to be reduced to lower propeller speeds.
Oh, the Academy kit aileron tip shape is incorrect for the N model. The Pro Modeler kit has the correct squared off outter aileron tips.
Thank you for this information Mel, I was unaware of it. I have heard scuttlebut that the Promodeler version was more accurate than the Academy example, but I didn’t know where. I must say however that I was comparing photos of both the Academy and Pro Modeler wings from various other builds. Unless I’m missing something, the ailerons look nearly identical in design to me.
Joe
Great work Joe. Paint, markings, and artwork are superb. Your descriptions are very informative. Thanks for sharing your work and knowledge. Rick.
After a marathon session last night, I finally got The Meat Chopper off my bench. I was pleasantly surprised by the Academy N and with a little bit of work (and resin), it can be brought up close to Tamiya Jug standards (I said close).
To summarize the build, I shaved off the rocket stubs to make Meatie more conducive to bomber escort. I replaced the cockpit with True Details, the instrument panel with Eduard PE and the wheels are Ultracast. The gun blast tubes are from Quickboost, however, It should be noted that these are not Quickboost’s best work and are missing the distinctive chamfer/lip at the business end. Also,they seemed undersized. I think the Tamiya’s examples are actually better. In hindsight, I should have just used Micro tubing or robbed one of the Tamiya kits in the stash. Other modifications were brake lines and centerline fuel tank plumbing with fine wire striped from an old stereo cord. I was going to run plumbing to the wing tanks too, however, I could not find suitable reference pictures. I suspect the plumbing was internal here. I also ran ignition wires to the radial for realism.
Here’s The Meat Chopper all decked out for a B-29 escort mission over Japan.
On a side note: I decided to replace the oversized mis-shaped Curtiss Electric asymmetrical kit prop, with a Tamiya example from the spare parts box. I believe N models normally used the CE symmetrical one, but I don’t have a Tamiya spare of this one at the moment. I suppose in reality the N could have used either so I didn’t sweat it.
Thanks for following this thread. Comments are always welcome.
Joe
Beautiful work Joe!
Geez Joe, what fantastic work! Your craftsmanship is so obvious in this fine model. The pics are great too! I’ve spent a lot of time pouring over them, man, what a great job all around. Thank you for the inspiration and for showing us mere mortals how it’s 'sposed to be done. [:D[[:D[[:D[
Gary
Eric and Gary…thanks for the kind words.
Joe
Joe ,WOW! Stunning looking Jug,you really did raise the bar on this kit to a higher standard. Very nicely done Sir!!!
Its looking great. Would you be willing to sell it or build another one that I could buy off you? The reason I ask is because Oscar was my uncle. My grandmothers brother. He passed before I was born so I have only seen pictures and heard stories about him. I have been looking for a while for a model or replica of Oscars plane. I know his actual plane was at a museum in San deigo but know I believe it’s in Texas. That will be a definite future trip. Anyway, no worries if its not for sale, I had to ask. Thanks.
Hello Frank. Thank you for the compliment. That’s pretty neat that Oscar was your uncle. I was reading up a bit on him before I started the build and he seemed like an interesting person. Reference Meatie, I would be honored to sell her to you. Send me a PM to the right and we can discuss it further.
Joe