Grumman A-6E Intruder

Finally finished this build today.
Lost some interest in the buld due to a bad fit, very tiny pieces, that didn't want to get glued to the model and an incomplete building scheme.
But on the way learned a couple of things to be done different in a future build.

Starting with this build while the paint on the Mosquito is hardening out for taping and the set of paint. This isn't a faultless model. 

On the decalsheet the J is missing in the name of the carrier. It's correctly written down above drawing. But under neath.......
Therefore I ordered a decalsheet from Fightertown Grumman A-6A/A-6E Colorful Intruders Part 1. VA-75, VA-115, VA-145 and VA-165.

On the most parts are tiny parts of plastic attached.

With the kit comes with a decent supply of ordenance. But only 2 MER-7 come with the model. I wanted to build the A-6E with a mk.20 rockeye's and unguided bombs. These bombs come with the kit, but I needed 4 MER-7. I ordered 2 sets of Aerobonus US NAVY multiple ejector rack MER-7 A/A37B-6.  The Fightertown decals and the Aerobonus MER's came from Hannants in the UK.
You won't get short off external fuel tanks 2 centerline tanks and 4 underwing wing tanks come with this kit.





The undercarriage is well detailed and has a metal core. The fit is good.

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 The cockpit, painted and drybrushed.

The arresterhook, I masked the white parts out with Washi Microtape. And the final result.

On the MER some metal was added. Time consuming, but fun to make. Glued with CA to the MER.

 I chose to built the aircraft with a closed nose. The parts in the nose and the nose it self wasn;t a good fit. It seemed as if the the radar dome didn't have the same shape as the fuselage.








The next problem came vissible when attaching the wings to the fuselage. At the underside there was a good fit, but on the top some strips where needed to fill the gap.

de Havilland Mosquito B Mk.IV

Parallel building with the Supermarine Seafire FXVII. A Mosquito doing the Mk.IV.

The interior is painted with Vallejo Model Air 095 Pale Green, the other colors in the cockpitt are from Revell and Humbroll.

 Busy with masking the canopy, a job that takes some time and using Tamiya and Microtape 1.0 and 2.0 mm - Washi.

The fuselage was joint and wings added. Next step is putting the primer on

Vallejo Primer 601 Grey. Dilluted with Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver to prevent a dry tip. It works very well specially on a bigger model like the Mosquito.

For masking the camouflage scheme I used the sheet Tamiya suplied with the kit. After the layer of grey (Vallejo model color 70.992 neutral grey) the grey parts were masked. By using white tack the pattern was kept in place.

Than a coat of dark green (Vallejo model air 71.016) was airbrushed on the the model.

Supermarine Seafire FXVII

Currently building, Supermarine Seafire FXVII:

The build of the Seafire isn't very different than building an Airfix Spitfire. After builiding 2 Spitfires I choose the build thet Seafire with folded wings. 

For the topside of the fuselage I used Vallejo Model Air 110 UK ext. KD Sea Grey and for the bottom

Model Air 103 RLM 84 Grey

From the start I didn't took any pictures at all. On this model I used Pledge for a coat before applying a wash.

 According to this website: www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture, this should be the Dutch alternaive for Klear. It was applied with a brush.

 After letting it dry for at least 24 hours, for the first time I used Vallejo Wash, in the shade dark grey on the lighter parts and white on the darker parts. Quite happy with the results after cleaning it.

The fuselage is almost done, just some small parts. Than the wings can be attached.

 After the plane is complete time to shoot,
 some photos with a real camera.

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt

Another Tamiya build. And again a pleasure building this plane. During the build no issues at all. For the fuselage Vallejo Model Color was used diluted with Airbrush Thinner. For the top 70.889 USA Olive Drab, 70.947 Dark Vermillion and for the bottom 70.992 Neutral Grey. Again the small parts, propellor wheels, ect. I had done with Humbroll.
 

North American P-51D Mustang

The second build, I did some building parallel with the Airfix Spitfire PRXIX. It was a real pleasure building this P-51D. Not bad for a kit released in 1995. No filing or sanding needed.

For the paintwork of the cockpit I used Humbrol, Somehow the way I used to do the building keeps coming back. In the 80's I used the same paint Humbrol and Revell. For the fuselage I used Vallejo Model Air 062 Aluminium (Metallic) and 088 French Blue for the nose. I prefer the run a waterbased paint through the airbrush instead of a enamel one. 

The results:

Supermarine Spitfire MKXII

The second Spitfire I builded, I really like the World War II British and American planes, the roaring of the engines and the lines of the planes. I've been enjoying the sounds of the engines of the Spitfire during the Dutch and Belgium Air Force Days.
For the paintjob on the fuselage I used Vallejo Model Air, all the small parts where painted with Humbrol.

Airbrushed the grey color first than to get the camouflage pattern I used small rolls of white tack (this tip I picked up on the Internet). It took more time than expected.

After I was satisfied with the lay-out of the pattern, it was time to mask the grey. This was done with Tamiya masking tape and painters tape.

The result after cleaning up the masking tape and the white tack.

And the final result:

Intro

This year  I restarted building scale models.
After building quite a large number in the early 1980's, I stopped building scale models due to school, relocations and familiy.
The difference between bulding in the 80's and now is that there is much more information available due to the Internet. As well as other manufactures.

I don't have the intention to go to contests or so, the building is just for the fun and to clear my mind after work. But I want to inprove myself, by the time and number of builds, using the Internet, to get some ideas.
I want to share in this blog some stages of the building proces and the final result.

As a planespotter I like to build planes, the scale I've chosen is 1/48.

Enjoy reading.

Jan Remco

Mikoyan Mig21PFM Fishbed

This is the fourth build I've done since the restart. I wanted to build a MiG 21, because it was for many years the counterpart for the Western Air Forces and seeing some in Musea after the end of the Cold War. Comparing with the other 3 builds the most temptating one. This is the profipack edition with some photo etched parts. For me the first time working with photo etched parts. It took some time to find a appropiate glue for these parts. Searching on the web for a solution, Gator was recommended, but this is not a common glue in the Netherlands, so I used superglue. Personally I would appreciate if a manufacturer would take the effort of adding some special for the photo etched parts into the kit.
For the colors of the cocpitt I used.............................................., the small parts and the radar Humbroll, for the fuselage Vallejo.
During the build I had some issues, the front section didn't line up 100% with wings, and following the construction sheets the seat sould bebuild and placed into the cockpit in one of the last stages. In my case there wasn't enough room to fit the seat. I had to grind the seat to make it fit. While testing the fit, some parts of the cockpit broke and had to be glued in after the seat finally fitted in. Reviewing the build I didn't start with the seat just to get a dry fit in the early stages of the building. For me lessons learned.