This is Classic Airframe’s 1/48 SBC-3 Helldiver, which I’m building for a customer.
I finally got the painting done. The surface had lots of mold flaws which didn’t show until I applied the Alcad. The kit plastic is almost white, and priming it with Future enhanced the glare. I sanded out a few spots, re-Futured, repainted, and re-Futured again until I was satisfied. The wings were tricky, since it’s easy to sand away the rib detail along with the flaws. It took me a few days, and many hours.
The decals, on the other hand, were a snap. They are old, and one of them fractured. This was for the dog insignia on the right side. It’s made of a white background and a separate black outline & spots. The outline on a couple legs turned into shattered dots. My local stationary store sells fine-point draftsman’s markers, and I’ll get one to draw the missing lines.
Next, I’ll be building the landing gear and doing the panel line washes. Then the fun begins . . . the rigging.
As you can see, this aircraft has no wing chevron. It will add a little variation to my customer’s shelf.
You can see the previous progress pics here:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v280/Pixilater/helldiver-3/
This is, by far, the most difficult limited-run kit I’ve ever built . . . but it’s also a lot of fun !
Looks great so far! Keep those pictues coming!
Excellent work as usual Bill. Looks great at this stage.
Regards, Rick
Beautiful work so far, Bill! If anyone can turn it into a winner it’s you.
Mark
Very nice! I love the paint job on this one.[tup]
Pix, you are gonna trun me into a bi-wing fan yet! [:O] After seeing your last few posts, I am starting to jones for some “yellow wing navy” a/c like this! Keep the pics coming, they are great (as always) and thanks for sharing!
Brian [C):-)]
Very nice so far, Pix! [tup] Interesting point you make about the base color for the Alclad II. I’m using different (darker or lighter) base colors on select panels for my F-84G, then will overspray with just the Aluminum. I hope it works.
What do you plan on using for rigging?
Thank you Mike, m1, Rick, Mark, Darren, Brian, and Mike !
Mark - a modeler just needs to be patient with this kit, and be prepared to keep re-doing things you thought were already done. This one is about as far from a “fall together” kit as you can get.
Darren - I feel this is one of the cleaner schemes from the '30s. The white tail really brings attention to the dog, which adds a forward motion to the aircraft.
Brian - if you’d like to build a “yellow wing,” I’d suggest Accurate Miniatures Grumman F3F kits. The cabane struts (the ones between the fuselage & top wing) are molded with the fuselage halves. This ensures proper alignment of the upper wing. The kit also includes photoetched rigging, which makes it much less of a chore. These Classic Airframes yellow wings are b*****s to build, difficult to find, and expensive if you can find one.
Mike - the underlying color doesn’t make a difference with Alcad. Their Chrome and Polished Aluminum shades are the only ones that are slightly translucent (hence the suggested gloss black primer), but you can’t use decal solutions on them. Alcad is durable enough to mask, you just need to lay out the cash for different shades. You can get regular Aluminum and mix it with their Dark Aluminum in different ratios to get a multitude of shades. I just prime the bare plastic (after sanding and polishing) with Future, wait at least 24 hours, and spray the Alcad. When you’re painting the Alcad, make sure you check it from all directions. What looks good from one angle may look spotty from another. Hope this helps.
I plan on using fishing line and wire to rig the yellow wing kits.
Thanks again !
Pix, thanks for the info on the Alclad II. Right now I have 3 different shades of it - Aluminum, Dark Aluminum and Duraluminum, so I’ll break the panels up using these. What’s a good cure time between masking for each shade?