Peterpools

Thanks Sasha Making nice progress now on a daily basis and hoping there are no more bumps in the road

Thanks Carl. so very much appreciated. Glad I bit the bullet and went to work correcting the engine cowl assembly and now I can keep going without worrying, as I tried to make sure at this point I fixed or corrected everything that I needed to. I tend to shy away from most Trumpeter kits as I do not have good luck with them rarely enjoy building them. One exception was the Bearcat, which I did enjoy and didn't have any issues. Of course, that was a long time ago.

John Thanks for the info

THE NOSE ASSEMBLY Yes, it didn’t fit and I missed by a mile. This was where I actually started the build and found right from the start, for me, it was difficult to get all the parts to mesh together correctly. GWH intent was two interchangeable nose assemblies held in place with magnets; one with the engine cowling panels on (as I did) and one with some part or all of the cowling panels off, displaying the big AllisonV12. I wasn’t interested in the interchangeable assemblies. Back tracking. I just didn’t get the firewall bulkhead seated perfectly and that apparently widened the nose quite a bit. I wasn’t interested in building the P-40 with the engine exposed, as I’m after the fierce look of the AVG Flying Tigers Shark Mouth in all its glory. Down the road, I’ll build the Allison up for display. I shouldn’t have posted the previous update as I knew I had a lot of work to do in correcting my error, as my intent was to show the progress made as a whole. After Gaz and Rob zeroed in on the nose fit blunder, I knew I had to stop, correct it, no matter what. I spent two days sanding and massaging the nose area, muttering to myself, why in the world did I even glue the nose onto the fuselage knowing there was a fit issue? But I did and that was now blunder number two - I just made the repair a zillion times harder. Care was taken to bring everything back into proper alignment. Slimmed and corrected, the nose and the fuselage finally flowed together and an unsightly gap appeared. The gap needed to be filled and re-scribed as it is a major panel line and I needed a filler that would dry rock hard and solid. I went with Standard Milliput and when dried, hard as nails. And of course, more wet-sanding and cleanup work – but the gap is gone. All that remains to be done now is scribe the panels lines I removed, add the screws, a few rows of small rivets and it’s time for priming with MRP Light Gray Primer. I originally went with MRP Black Primer to check specific areas for seams and sanding marks and that mission has been accomplished.

Shasa Some mighty nice weathering - looking just right

Beautiful work - terrific work for sure.

Chris Beautiful work - just love the finish and light weathering.

John Nice call for your next build and so glad it's a Jug. I do like the scheme, markings and it being a NMF. As always will be front centered front row for the build. One nice looking front office. BTW, are the kit decals the newer type Eduard now uses with the peel away clear film? I tested them when they first came out and removing the clear film didn't seem to be an issue. Since then, I've seen lots of videos on the subject and the system does seem to be well accepted. Any thoughts on how you are going to handle the decals?

Dean, first and foremost welcome aboard. Holy Smokes, the Huey is huge and glad the fun part of the build is front and center. Will be following all the way Air America dio looks very impressive.

Ernie Tremendous progress and you absolutely have the Helldiver under control and completely in charge of the direction of the build now. Nice work on the raft as it is a small detail that can be partially seen and adds to the interior. Canopies and the glass do fit well after all your prep work and it's one of the first areas we look at on a finished model and then onto the interior - looking so nicely busy. Depending on the type of aircraft is where I draw the line on bombs, rockets and missiles. With the Helldiver being a dive bomber, she has to have some of her clout and firepower. I'm also in the camp of wanting to finish and display my models how they look best and lately that's being pretty clean, not much hanging from the wings and the engine cowls closed and buttoned up. Priming looks mighty good and the paint shop isn't too far away for the helldiver now. On the P-40, my thought is to go as far as I can until January 1st, then she gets put to the side for my GB build and then when done, back to the P-40. That's quite a bunch of Hanger Queens and I'm sure it's hard figuring out how to work them back into your build schedule - it normally always is for me.

Rob Brilliant work. Normally I'm not a fan of macro/close up build photographs but here they work perfectly. The painted stencil details just blow me away. Your paint and airbrush work is perfection

Bill For my money if the GB gets a kit off the SOD, back on the bench and across the finish line, I'm all for it. Of course, Ernie has the final call.

Thanks Rob Spent nearly two full days plugging away on correcting the engine cowl fit and all is good now. I'm going to do a small update later today with a few pics of the repair and correction. I agree with what you are saying about all the hidden details lending themselves to creating a diorama or vignette but if the end goal is a place in the display cabinet, just a lot of extra work, time and I bet they added a lot to the cost of the kit. While I do have a number of AM kits in the stash, I'm right with you about all the hidden detail parts included in their kits as well. Number one has always been the pistons in the engines - makes zero sense to me. While the interior aircraft framework is a simplified representation of the actual aircraft's structure and I'm sure it has some educational value.

Thanks Brad For anyone wanting to figure out a way of showing all the hidden details and the Big Allison, all the work is worth the effort. But for me. the kit is just over engineered. I wanted to include all the hidden details so anyone thinking about buying the kit, would know what lay ahead. For what will be seen, it's a very pricy kit.

Gaz Right on the money. I guess we all have been down that road and comforting to have the company. The cowl I think was the first assembly I built up and just wasn't prepared for the alignment issues and how GWH needs parts to come together. I been plugging away since I posted the last update Wednesday morning, correcting the engine cowl assembly and except for scribing the lost panel lines, it's done. I'm getting ready for a quickie update a little later today.

Gaz You hit it right on the button. I'm right now in the midst of working on the engine cowling seams, the fit was pretty bad and a good deal of the issue is the engine bulkhead isn't seated perfectly - just so hard to know when I was gluing it up way at the beginning of the build. If I remember correctly, a lot of parts all coming together and things just didn't line up as well as I thought. Just another reason to have gone with the cowling panels off and the Big Allison exposed. The biggest waste is all the plumbing that is hidden - I just wanted to show what never will be seen.

Gaz Absolutely so. The small dio sets the scene for time and place and tells a story.

I'm just an MRP Primer Guy, wear a respirator and always shoot in the paint booth.

Ernie Right with you -the helldiver is looking so good and under a super, smooth coat of Black Primer. I'm pretty much now about at the same stage with my P-40 and posted a few update pics to show where I am. I checked all the panel lines with MRP Black Primer and I knew I would need some follow up work and the good old black primer agreed. Just love those Quinta 3D decals - can't build without them

Gaz Just incredible workmanship -the build and dio are amazing and those figures - so beautifully done

Rob Incredible work - some nice back-tracking and open field running and the stars and bars look perfect. Still blown away by the stencils -tedious and obviously time-consuming, but OMG, do they look fantastic.

Mark Nice work on the AM batteries - looking mighty good.

Carl Got ya and hoping the new display case will be big enough to house your growing collection of heavies.

FUEL LINES, CHECKING SEAMS AND LOOKING FOR SANDING MARKS First up was checking all the seams and the areas I used Evergreen styrene to replace the super thin PE parts up to now, priming with MRP Black Primer. I just knew I would need to do a good amount of touchup work and my guess was right on the money, so no surprises here. Final primer for painting as always: MRP Light Gray - super smooth as silk. Next area to check was the wing/fuselage fairings and while the fit is pretty good, GWH chose to split the fairing a third of the way up from the end / side panel line in the concave area, leaving a seam that needed to be removed. Tamiya filler was put to good use, just a little bit more work needed now plus a pass or two with my scriber and job should be done. The PE MG Breach panels (?) were replaced with Evergreen styrene and came through with flying colors. The upper spine showed a bit of the seam that needs some attention as well On the underside: The flaps needed to be beefier or at least one more attachment hinge so they wouldn’t have sagged when drying. If I went the route of the flaps down, I could have avoided a lot of work. My fault for not realizing how I glued up the parts but it was one of my typical very early morning work session: 2 AM! Just out of curiosity I wanted to see how the fuel lines looked glued in place on the belly. Nicely detailed and I didn’t waste any time painting them or the fuselage under them, as nothing can be seen after the balance of the lower fuselage is glued into place. If I was going to leave this section of the lower fuselage off or removable, I would need to move all the fuel lines one line over to the right. I guess GWH thought some builders might choose not to glue the flower fuselage in place, leaving it removable but I just can’t see it – I didn’t see any indication in the instructions that this portion of the fuselage should not be glued. To represent the visible portion of the fuel lines, I would think a small, one-piece part would have done the trick nicely by the engine cowl flaps. Another example of excellent details, included in the kit, that once built will never be seen. Beautiful fuel line details Presto - they are gone for good.

Phil, agreed. The bigger the kit and scale, the included details would become an issue, as so much more can easily be seen. I often wondered about the logistics: how to handle a kit of that size during construction and painting. When done, display of large kits for me has always kept me from purchasing the 32nd scale WWII heavies.