crazypoet

I'm tempting fate here, I know! So far, the largest piece I've lost is a bit of PE brass, for which I had to scratch-build a replacement. Everything else I've been able to find - sooner or later, usually after much cursing. now having said all that, fate will cause me to lose the entire fuselage of my next project!

Bit of progress on the deck fittings. The forward spar hanger was a bit of a headache, fit-wise. The location makes fitting the support brace a challenge - took about 30 mins and two pairs of pliers to get all the curves and twists just right. Hmmm. Realizing that a black brace, in shadow, against a black section of hull doesn't show very well ! Foredeck almost done

Today's new arrival is the Signifer conversion kit which transforms their excellent Grumman Goose into the G21B seaplane flown by the Portuguese Navy This will be fun!!!!

Thank you for the update! I would *love* to see a Dc3/C-47 from them - it would be an amazing bit of work

So I got impatient and finished the aft torpedo mount, because I just had to see how everything worked. I finished it with a couple layers of graphite, then pinned it to the hull with brass pins of the appropriate scale, likewise finished with graphite. With this bracket out of the way, I started the forward piece. This one's a bit more complex since multiple pieces are riveted together and have to articulate in multiple directions. So - out comes the home blacksmith shop... These are the first three pieces, riveted together and shaped. There's two more pieces to add. I'll add a touch of tamiya primer/filler to help smooth the half-millimeter-wide bend lines in the Model Expo PE, and connect it all up and mount it tomorrow-ish.

Damn. In this crowd, I'd be thrilled beyond my ability to express to get a 2nd or 3rd spot!

Working on deck fittings today. These include the cleats for lines of various sorts, the spar torpedo mounts and cannon fittings. The first pieces are the foredeck cleats and the aft mount for the torpedo. The cleats are pretty straightforward- Britannia metal casts that just needed a bit of cleanup and primer before hitting them with graphite. The torpedo mounts are fairly thick PE brass. The aft mount is two pieces that needed to be both riveted and adjusted to fit. Pretty straightforward, but needs a bit of primer to help smooth out the creases.

I recall seeing a note somewhere that HpH was working up a 1:32 A-20 Havoc with a projected 2017 release. Has anyone heard any news on this? I've been looking for the Havoc in 1:32 for the longest. I already plan their 1:32 PBY for my birthday gift to myself this year; if they add the A-20, I'll just have to celebrate a bit *more*

I've seen the occasional spokes-model... but for some reason not many of the builders!

I love this bird, and enjoy watching your work as it progresses

Got the hawse holes done today, and a start on painting the topside. I'd originally planned to do the hawse holes in brass, but ended up taking the 1/64" plywood/rat tail file/superglue/graphite approach instead. These are intended to be iron components set into the hull, and I *think* I got the look right. And after the first layer of paint and stain on the top deck: The decks and cover rails need another coat of gray, then it's on to masts, weathering and placement of the supports for the spar torpedo.

This is on the shopping list for my B-17... it's a beautiful bit of scale engineering!

I've had a lifelong love of the P-47 - looking forward to this!

It's taken a bit of back and forth but once again, progress is happening. In each step of this build I'm finding incomplete or conflicting documentation so I feel my way along, a bit at a time. Two specific, current examples of this are in placement of the waterline and in the placement and number of masts. The waterline is not specified in the kit as the designer assumed an all-over-black paint job and a museum-type display. Trouble is that I'm doing a point-in-time build showing the boat as it actually existed on a specific date (or as close as I can get). So off to the references I go... yes? Well, actually, no... the references available are all after-the-fact drawings of boats "similar to" Picket Boat One. Ok, I can work with that. The drawings don't say much about the color scheme, but do give guidance on the waterline location. And straightaway we run into a snag... to put the waterline where it *should* be would leave the kit propeller partially out of the water. The kit version puts the prop and shaft a bit over 1/8" - 3 scale inches - too high. Re-engineering this would involve major re-engineering of the kit. So bugger that, I'll change the waterline instead... Two different near-contemporary drawings show the general layout: So I split the difference and put the waterline even with the highest point of the prop arc. I'll be able to "fuzz" this a bit when I do the hull weathering, so it works. The upper hull follows the kit design in black, while the lower hull is dark gray. This aligns well with period descriptions. I'll also need to fiddle a bit with the fittings between hull and prop shaft as well as the spacing between the hull, prop and rudder. And, yes, I'm completely ignoring the difference in rudder design between the drawings and the kit. Artistic license is at play here, since both rudder types were known to be in use at the time. Problem solved! Next, as I'm ready to flip the thing over and work on the top-side fittings, I need to face a detail I've simply put off because I didn't want to deal with it. Masts. The kit provides for a single mast near mid-ships, which handily covers some construction seams. It also matches a depiction of the boat from a later illustration: Unfortunately, this layout doesn't match the earlier, near-contemporary views, which show masts at the fore and aft extremities - much more in keeping with period practice. I've avoided this particular detail until now, but I can no longer put it off... so I'll go with the fore and aft masts as shown in the earlier drawings, and come up with a plausible way to cover the construction joint where the kit mast would otherwise be located: I left that joint untouched early on in the build as I assumed that the mast in the kit was accurate. I didn't discover the discrepancy until much later, well past the point where I could fix it easily. Live and learn! Now I have to get creative. This is the fun stuff with models of this sort - interpreting and incorporating details that expand on what the kit has to offer. Next head-scratcher... Hawse holes at the bow for running anchor ropes. One drawing shows with and the second shows without. At this point I think I'll add them in, since they just make sense. The engineering is pretty straightforward, as it requires just a bit of drilling and some brass fabrication. It's kind of a fun extension of the kit design.

I've used that approach on openings up to about 1/8" and it seems to work well. I've read (somewhere - I can't remember where just now... Age is not for the weak!) that clear epoxy can handle larger openings up to 1/4"

I've seen a couple of posts here and there where the builder used clear epoxy for smaller windows. I'm interested in learning more about this - is there a good primer y'all can point me to? I have a number of upcoming projects where this approach could pay dividends, if it works like I think it might Help!!! Enquiring minds and all that....

Watching with interest!

I'm checking with Signifer to see if they still have the Goose conversion kit for the Portuguese Navy version, with the beaching trolley. That would put the kit past 50% resin - everything but the main fuselage and wings

I have a boatload of Eduard resin for some of my kits, and their Mig-21 Bunny Fighter (yippee!), so depending on the threshold for "significant" I have multiple options. For kits that are closer to "pure" resin, it's the Signifer Goose JRF-5 as my first choice

Dang! Now why can't someone do this with a B-52, FFS? I look forward to seeing this coming along!

Nice trick, that! I'm taking notes like mad...

Just...wow

Very cool! It's fun to see different subjects such as this. And nicely built as well

Working on the hull coloring, building up the color in thin layers, adding a bit more black each layer. It will ultimately be not-quite completely black with dull patches from wear and weather, and algae below the waterline. The rub rails will be battered, chipped and water-darkened, as will parts of the stem and keel. I'm mindful that the original was painted by hand, mostly with 3" and 6" brushes - so no airbrushing on my part for the base paint. I'll spray or airbrush the algae and suchlike below the waterline and probably a dullcoat overall when it's done, but I'm doing the painted bits with a brush. It gives me a bit of perspective - it's a *lot* of work to paint a boat by hand! Once the main hull is done, I'll get to work on the topside decking and details. Those will be a mix of wood and medium gray paint

I somehow missed this... Surely there's a way I can tie this into a diorama... :)