This is a great kit! Incredibly engineered and very enjoyable to build. My example is from VF7 U.S.S. Wasp ca 1940 during Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic.
I screwed up on Aircraft #. It should be 7 for the leader of the 3rd section recognizable by the blue cowling and stripes. I don’t know why I put 13 on…[:$]
The only things added were an old .30 cal. MG barrel for the lefthand weapon and a brass tube for right hand 50 cal. MG blast tube. The radio antenna is invisable thread.
The only snags were with the PE rigging. The left wing flying wires were a bit fiddly. The landing gear was a bit fiddly also, but nothing really serious.
After building this wonderful kit, it will be tough to go back to Classic airframes “rough” engineered kits. [:P] I have alot of Golden age biplane kits to build…[Y]
As am I! The kit is dummyproof. The landing/flying wires are PE! There is no hassles, other than making sure there is adequate room for the parts; don’t fill the gaps with CE.
The radio antenna is invisible thread. That was difficult to attatch![6]
Nicely done, Mike! You make me think that I need to break the ones I have in my stash out and start them. I have enough to make a couple sections of a squadron.
Sure Brad. I used Testors non buffing aluminium metalizer on the fuselage. Steel for the landing gear struts. Tail was Tamiya Semi gloss black. The Blue was a mixture of Pollyscale Blue 23 and white 3:1 ratio.
The Wings were Pollyscale Orange Yellow, the lower sections were ATSF silver with SnJ powder. I used future on the upper top wing and lower section of the top wing and the upper section of the lower wing. I did not future the fuselage so to add contrast with the wing surfaces.
I did not weather it too much as these ships were kept in pristine condition. I did weather a little by the machine gun troughs and the landing gear wells.
I did this same kit a few mootns ago and had a litte problem with the gear struts not fitting well, had to reposition the wheel off-cente on that side to get it to sit level… Did you have that issue?
I did have trouble with the port strut not sitting properly. I don’t think I had to reposition the wheel though. It was one of the “problem” areas…[:)]
This is a fine build of a fine kit. And a great choice of schemes as well. I’ve built all three in this series, and never get tired of them. It shows just how much talent there is at AcMin. If only they had as much money as talent. I really miss their original kits, and it dismays me to see them doing nothing but reshots of other companies’ kits.
However, I had one of the AcMin executives tell me that their reissue of the old Monogram 1/72 F-4C/D made them more money than just about anything they’d ever released. If we want them to do more original kits, we have to put our money where our mouths are, and buy those kits that are there. You still can’t beat their TBF/TBM or Dauntless series no way, now how. And even their first kits, the Mustang series, which certainly shows its age, is still fun to build. Remember, when those came out in the early '90s, the best we could do for a 1/48 Mustang were the ancient Monogram B/D kits. There were no Allison Mustang kits to be had anywhere.
