Clunkmeister

Finally, I couldn’t resist trying on the resin HPH hood pieces, and like I had said a few months ago, they fit perfectly and are a HUGE improvement over the IM parts. I used the resin windscreen and the resin gunner’s hood. The fixture glass is a kit part, as is the front cockpit hood. Im starting to feel good about this build, now. Slowly, I’m getting past the caution areas mapped out by previous builders, and finding answers to new issues. I’m happy -ish right now.

And we lost some paint on the radios, so back we go with the detail brush

I built up the dinghy container according to the instructions. I realize it’s much simplified, but I have ZERO information on how they stored the dinghy, etc. So, being that it’s all but hidden under the turtledeck, I simply painted it green and formed some wet paper towel into a “folded dinghy” cylindrical form, and shoved it in. Then, I hit the visible area with faded olive drab followed by a khaki wash. Probably not all that prototypical, but it’s a semi literate guess at what’s in there. At least it’s not an empty tube now. The dinghy container fit well, but I had to tweak the front mount a bit to allow it to rest square to the fuselage.

Went over the entire airframe with wet 600 grit paper, followed by 800. A lot of the goody stuff is gone now.

A bit of progress tonight. I had originally planned on having clean wings, but research finds me having to mount the rocket stubs and bomb racks. Apparently the rocket stubs were standard equipment on -4 production. 😡 I DESPISE hanging bomb racks and building bombs. The racks dirty up beautiful clean airframes, and building bombs has to be the most tedious form of repetitious self torture in model building.

This stuff sticks like glue. It’s pretty awesome stuff, but I found myself thinning it with a few drops of water

The primer highlights a couple areas that still need work. I love it!

We gave the airframe a shot of MiG One Shot black primer. This stuff sure dries super slow, which is good, because that means it levels off perfectly. I can a d does go on with a disconcerting Orange peel look to it, (probably operator error), but it dries flawless.

Not underway yet, except for attaching the Quinta instrument decal to the panel. The fit of the Quinta 3D decal was superb

My wife’s the same way. The less I pollute the air the happier she is.

I gave about 80% of the airframe a shot of black One Shot by MiG, and I’ll get some pics up when the entire airframe is in black.

Wasn’t expecting that one at midnight, but you got me. I actually chuckled out loud. In bed. Woke up my wife. Got slapped for waking her up. My new day will look odd through my brand new shiner. The swelling should go down in a week and it should open up again.

Carl, I’ve never been a fan of water based anything, including people. 🤣. I’ve always preferred solvent based, such as lacquer and enamel, as it seems to bite the surface better, but I’ve always fought primers over PE and resin, but this might change my mind.

It seems to be water based, Carl. I cleaned up with water, than ran my standard Alclad airbrush cleaner through it afterward. I’ve just read a bit on the stuff, and people are saying it’s rebottled Stynylrez. I’ve never used Stynylrez, but I’ve heard good stuff about it, so maybe I’m on to something. What I really like is how it applies over everything, no matter the makeup of the surface, and dries very slow so it levels out. No reason to use Mr. Leveling Thinner in this, it already is reduced and retarded perfectly. It IS pretty thick, so I wouldn’t be running it through a new Iwata or Grex, but my old VL swallowed it whole.

I would also like to do the Special Hobby Fixed gear Hawk version, and a classic P-36. But that P-6 is calling to me as well.

Another thing. I shot this straight out of the bottle. No Mr. Leveling Thinner, nothing. Just straight through.

I ran out of black Mr. Surfacer 1500, my regular go-to primer, so I thought I’d try this stuff. U N B E L I E V A B L E ! I followed the directions, pulled the air up to 30 psi and shot it straight through my old Paasche VL, and it laid on nice and opaque,…. And took a couple hours or so to dry. Plus, it leveled itself out and dried rock hard with no adhesion issues. I was impressed. Next, I tried it on a Virgin piece of uncleared resin casting block. The mold release agent had not been cleaned yet. Gave it a shot, and same thing: 2 hours to dry and nothing would pull up with masking tape. So then, I trued it on my Helldiver’s airframe. There is plastic, resin, and PEll over the place on that model, and it didn’t miss a beat. Even the PE, where regular primer can pool up and bead on metal, this laid down perfectly. After 2 hours, it was super sloth and level. I’m impressed. I’ve never used this stuff before, but it’s truly amazing. The black flows out perfectly but needs a lot of air pressure. I haven’t tried grey or white yet, but the black is truly fabulous stuff. I’ve been hot and cold on both MiG and AK products, some good, some bad. But I LOVE this stuff and will see how the MiG Real Colors spray over top of the MiG One Shot.

I’m ready for that, but I need a P-40B first

My next build will be a Curtiss Hawk.

One other thing in defense of this Helldiver kit. The main airframe parts on this kit fit absolutely beautifully! That alone is half the battle. It’s MUCH easier to make interiors fit decent exterior parts than getting the exterior parts to fit in the first place. I WILL build another one of these. With folded wings.

It’s really not that bad. It’s just a matter of scale. Here, there’s just more of everything. Instead of Tamiya White, you go to Evergreen card stock and/or CA plus Milliput. You’re doing the same thing, in the same spots, but on a much larger area. Im no world class expert builder. I just don’t give up. That is a downfall as well. I can’t build something I don’t like because I can’t get the enthusiasm which means I won’t stick with it.

John, one thing to bear in mind: I’m blasting through this build because people like yourself built the model before me and documented the issues and potential pitfalls on this kit. When I started, I followed your build thread and an LSP build by a member who is also here. Those two builds allowed me to concentrate more on the plastic instead of fighting it and as a result, I was able to incorporate more AM without worrying about potential fit issues. My build as well has found a couple more issues and potential workarounds, and I hope that when all is lumped together, we’ll see many more built, and built quickly.

The PE exterior panels are a nice touch. It’s an easy way to emphasize access panels that stand slightly proud of the surface

Thanks, I’m exactly the same. Scribing is crazy tedious for me, Radu’s rivet wheel is the only way I can do rivets, and Milliput and I are on a first name basis. I have a tiny amount of an advantage when it comes to PE because I’ve built HO scale steam locomotives, tenders, and crummies from PE flat kits. Hopefully I don’t Bork it up bad. But if I do, I still have the plastic kit pieces.

There is no right way wrong Way, John. And if I could’ve figured out a way to sharpen up the trailing edge serrations and drill out hundreds of double layered holes I’d hAve done it. in my opinion there’s no right way and there’s no wrong way to build a model. Deciding to build those PE flaps is going to come very very close to making me want to start smoking and drinking 40 ounces of whiskey every day. But it’s a personal decision and I decided to try it.