Clunkmeister

This one snuck up on me. Maybe someone here announced it already, and if so, I apologize, but ooooh, this looks nice. Copper State Models is, to me, for all intents an purposes, Wingnut Wings quality.

Thanks, Peter. Some of the seams on the model are in prototypical places, and I’m taking a different approach and leaving some of them, along with toning down others. I have an idea that if I can pull it off, it’ll add to the “hard usage” look I’m aiming for. If I miss the mark, I’ll just have a decent display case model. There are a couple areas on the cowl attach area and the ammo box access panels in front of the windscreen, where, to me, a tinny bit of imperfection will be better for my goals. Same with the wing fillets where they meet the cowl. That’s a high traffic area and I’m hoping a bit of disorder there might add to it. I may be sniffing too much glue here. We’ll soon find out. I also purposely banged up the ammo box hatches on the underside of the wing as well, and left the small hinged panels on the top of the wing slightly proud in a spot or two. I’m hoping I’ll be able to pull off a bashed in and slammed shut look. If it don’t work, on with the Evergreen.

I’m like Hubert, thinking that while the P-40 dio is incredibly creative, and the technical accomplishment is truly astounding, but personally, my experience gets dimmed when I think analytically about what I’m seeing. An AVY P-40 in the ocean, with little to no ditching damage, blah blah blah. My mind just refuses to compute. But I still admire the amazing creativity needed to create this.

Constructive comments?

Here are the mixes I found. Note that to me, the grey is way off, more like traditional RAF “Sky” than was used by US builders of RAF aircraft. DuPont 71-009: brown. 4: XF49. 4: XF2 1: XF65 1: XF9 DuPont 71-013: green 9: XF65 3: XF61 3: XF2 DuPont 71-021: grey. 3: XF20 2: XF12 1: XF2 These got me to what I consider is VERY close Y’all need to play around more after that because obviously they are all too dark, and the grey bottom is way too, well, Sky

Mixed up a bottle of green, and have it a very small test squirt. I think we nailed the basic colors. I found these mixes on an archived post on the Britmodeler Forum, and gave them a try. As mixed, they were close, but still too dark for my liking, so I played with them a bit more and am happy where we are here. There is room to lighten up the mixes somewhat and then completely trash the surfaces in high traffic areas. Quite honestly, I never realized that the AVG birds, especially the first 100 machines, were so incredibly hammered. These colors are quite a bit lighter than the recommended mix, so there’s room to play.

I think I need to go look at my 1/48 civilian Ju-52 in my stash. The old Gooney Bird needs some competition…

Something you usually see way, way overdone on models is the gun residue. But these birds really look like hammered shit. Plus major lead deposits from the exhaust. Just WOW! Also notice all have their flaps UP when parked. Much like Spitfires, Hurricanes, and DC-3s.

Some serious wear and tear in some brutal operating conditions and in just a few short weeks or months.

The Lisunov sure had a different look to it’s engine cowls and nacelles…. Like you, art in, I find the history to be seriously interesting

Those were THE way to get around in the 40’s! Even the Japanese ran off their own copies of the C-47. The only major nation that didn’t use them was Germany, because of course they had their similarly capable Junkers 52. Some VERY good airliners came from the 30s to be pressed into military Service! And both the DC-3 and the Junkers 52 are still out there, making money in revenue service to this very day!

Looking great, Martin! I’m looking forward to see what you do with the obviously different engines and cowls

Thanks. It’s certainly ugly enough and I think, a decent base to start from. It’ll get uglier after I go at it with some variations.

I really like their stuff, and have built a few of their kits. The key to them is being able to remove the wings for transport. I’m a sucker for oddball aircraft, as in models of inconvenient in my favorite scale, unpopular or workaday unremarkable aircraft with little to know sex appeal. So, the subjects HPH produce are very exciting for me. Not only that, but they make easily the nicest MiG-15 kit out there, plus an L-29 and an L-39, two of those popular two seat military trainers ever produced. There’s barely an aviation event today that doesn’t feature at least one L-39. Nobody else even attempts that gorgeous machine I built the big HK Lanc, and even though it pales in size compared to this, being able to pull the wings off for transport makes it palatable. Even so, my “big” ones only come out a couple times per year, either to show or display around friends. But, given all that, due to the setup of my home and my liking off “off the wall” subjects, I’d take a stab at building this, assuming I had a couple thousand extra $$$ just laying around 😵‍💫 I’m wondering if 1/35 might have been a better scale for this, as it was mostly used as an airlifted for the Army.

Amazing work, Tim! I wish I had even 1/4 of your patience. The metal tail looks great against the wood fuselage.

I like the brown because I expect it’s a touch lighter than the factory Curtiss RAF approximation, but close enough that it may fade to similar. Comments? Gaz, your eyes are better than mine. Same with Martin..

Been picking away at color mixes, and to my eyes, I’ve found a pretty convincing grey and I think I nailed the brown. That brown has khaki, field grey, hull red and white in it. A mishmash of whatever to make something convincing to my eyes. Brown from before compared to now. I expect it’ll come to life after some patchwork and washes.

What were those Canadian WW2 Chevrolet scout vehicles they used. Those were cool as well. I was thinking maybe of the Staghound? I know Ford made some cool light trucks as well, as well as White with their M3A1 scout car. You’d run in to them in farmyards all over Western Canada and the Western States. Even the odd Kübelwagen and Kettenrad. Farmers bought them by the thousands as they were surplussed after the war.

I’d say it’ll be a go later in the year. This is a GREAT theme. Even the S-Boot would fit in. It was a scout and recon platform.

Well, it was meant as a joke, but this COULD be out next GB. Meanwhile, once my floatplane is done, I might need to do a schnellboot.

This might get some participation. 😀

Yeah I was messing around with a brown mix last night and I may try a bit on an old 109 wing I have, just to see. Peter, like you, I left the flaps UP. You really never see one of these parked with the flaps down, although the cooling gills are almost always open when parked for a short time. Makes sense.

Thought so too, but to me, it looks ok for unfaded, freshly applied brown. We’ll screw with it more. Waking up in the morning and looking, and yeah, way too dark

Might be just the reason I need to visit Auckland.

I’d love some opinions on the brown. To me, it almost looks like an actual RAF dark earth tone, which it isn’t supposed to quite be.