Clemens, Due to the fact that I am getting a late start here and that I have taken on some other outside commitments I am going to put the F4U Corsair aside for now. Instead I will be building the 1/72 Eduard F6F-3 Hellcat. I haven’t decided on which aircraft yet but, it’s a toss up between the evil “Grin” of VF-27 off the USS Princeton or Alexander Vraciu’s Hellcat of VF-6 from USS Intrepid. This should be a little more time friendly for me. Thank You.
Tony, I’m looking forward to your 1/72 Hellcat. Funny, I was not aware that the “Jolly Rogers” flew the Hellcat in '45. I’ll have to look into that.
Joe: I changed your entry. If those tiny Eduard Hellcats are half as good as their 1/48 ones, this is going to be a nice build to watch! I hope you get to that Carsair in the future though. I’d love to see you build it. Maybe you have more time when round 3 kicks off (hint, hint)
Here are the boxes. The box on the right came with Trumpeter’s USS Lexington kit (which I haven’t built yet; but I’ve been using the planes). The other one is the after-market purchase.
I counted up all the Dauntlesses, and it seems I have thirty of them–far more than I can fit on Tamiya’s Enterprise, but that’s where I’ll start. I figure I can fit 4-6 on the hanger deck, and some more on the flight deck.
The rest, I’ll put in markings for the Yorktown and/or Hornet, but I’ll decide that later.
Here’s a sprue shot with a comparative U.S. one-cent piece. The black thing to the right is a piece of fuzz that I eliminated already.
The decals I’ll use came from “Starfighter,” which is a very good quality set. It also included markings for the three Yorktown-class carrier flight decks in 1/700 scale.
And last, the finishing instructions from the decal sheet.
I’ve got six of the planes cleaned up. Now I’ll get on with masking off the canopies, then start painting.
I have the Trumpeter 1/32 Dauntless SBD-3 “Clear Edition” sitting in the stash since November 2012.
Have a couple of other GB’s that should require attention but the kits have been boxed up and sent to Germany and my relocation there has been delayed.
Hey Clemens, I’m gonna put in for a 1/48 Eduard Hellcat Mk. II weekend edition for this build as well, I’m waiting for it to get warmer to paint about 3 models so I figured I’d get this one to the painting stage as well.
It’s a british hellcat that was stationed on a carrier during okinawa in '45 so it should fit within the constraints of this group build.
I’m finally getting ready to start cutting sprue on my Hellcat. I’ve got to admit that I am rather excited to build my first Eduard kit. Other than the extras common in a Profipack I will also be adding the exterior PE set and True Details seat.
I have only just started but already managed to loose the Oil Cooler in sub-assy 5 - E16, 17, 18 & 21.
No biggy but I will not be able to take advantage of the clear parts.
The cockpit floor and main assy with the clear hull side and engine cowling visible for reference. I wont be able to use the clear parts to their advantage.
The general idea with the dashboard is that there is a film that should be applied behind the clear part.
I will follow advice given on the assembly and drill out the dials on the clear part before painting.
I have drilled our the the ring to allow for the cabling to be inserted. That was tricky and I don’t think I am there quite yet - at least 2 out of the 18 holes are ruined.
And it is Sweden / Gothenburg[:D]
We buy Swiss watches, they buy our jets [H]
Very Best Regards
Johan
Edit.
Some advice please…[proplr]
BTW how close am I to Zinc Cromate Type 1 with Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green (IJN)?
Should it maybe be closer to XF-4 Yellow Green?
Johan: Sorry 'bout that. I only knew Gothenburg in Switzerland [;)] You’re making some nice progress on your Dauntless. Engine and cockpit look really nice! If Zinc Chromate 1 is the untinted one, you’re way off with XF-71. It looks more like Interior Green (tinted ZC). Untinted ZC has a yellow color with a slight green hue (I use XF-4 and I really like the color). What are you going to paint with that color?
No worries Clemens The instructions call for Zinc Cromate Type 1 for the interior, both engine bay and cockpit. They dont tell you what thatbis though The reference pictures I have are inconclusive, or rather - both green and yellow cockpits are out there. Yellow seem to be more common on pictures from the time where as greenish seem to be more common on restored objects and kits. I take it you would suggest XF-4 is a close match to what would be correct for the Douglas SBD Dauntless? Very Best Regards Johan
It looks like the SBD-3’s cockpit was painted in Interior Green. The rest of the interior was either painted in Interior Green as well or normal Zinc Chromate.
The cockpit in the first picture looks to me like it is painted Interior Green as well. It looks kinda yellowish because of bad lighting i think. Interior Green wasn’t a real color, it was basically tinted Zinc Chromate, so the shades of green could vary.
I’ve been making slow progress on my TBD and may soon have a few more pics to show off. I got hung up in part because my airbrush compressor wasn’t doing a very good job anymore, but I have so little experience airbrushing that I didn’t realise where the problem was. Now that I have a new compressor, I finally seem to be starting to figure out how to use the airbrush!
Man all of this blue color is enough to make anybody want to build a Pacific theatre plane!! Good stuff going on in here. Joe Rix, can’t wait to see you get started on that Hellcat!
Nice work on the SBD interior color Johan. Good shade on the 71!! Well worn in Zinc Chromate color.
I got some progress done on both the hellcat and the corsair…we still have snow on the ground from the storm that passed through almost a week ago…but it’s 70 degrees haha. Don’t have to work, got all my papers for class finished so I airbrushed the underside grey of the corsair today. I have the cockpit done on the hellcat. Neither are worthy of taking any pictures at the moment. I have a long day of classes tommorrow, hopefully if it’s still warm out I’ll be able to put the blue on.
The instructions call for Zinc Cromate Type 1 for the interior, both engine bay and cockpit. They dont tell you what thatbis though The reference pictures I have are inconclusive, or rather - both green and yellow cockpits are out there. Yellow seem to be more common on pictures from the time where as greenish seem to be more common on restored objects and kits. I take it you would suggest XF-4 is a close match to what would be correct for the Douglas SBD Dauntless? Very Best Regards Johan
