HubertB

The Duck has always been one of my favorites, and, in despair of ever seeing one released in 1/32, I was seriously considering launching myself in the dauntring task of designing and 3d-printing it. Thank God, the prolific Lukasj of Lukgraph has come to the rescue and released a fully 3D-printed kit of the Duck. You can already see an incredible build log of the kit, by member Boch. I am not sure I will be able to match his skills in painting and weathering the kit, but his build is a great indicator of what can be done with this marveouis kit. There is however a slight twist to my build (as you could expect ) ... Lukgraph have chosen the J2F-5 version, which was characterised by a long-chord engine cowling, and wore mostly wartime camos. I like my kits not too war-like, and especially not too camoed. So my choice fell upon a J2F-3, BuNO 1539, used as the personal aircraft of Rear Admiral William Brown when he was commanding the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, in 1939. It's a typical "Blue Goose" aircraft, with an Admiral blue fuselage, and silver wings and empennage. However, some pics of the said aircraft lead me to believe the upper wing was chrome-yellow : when applied the yellow was overlapping a part of the underwing at the leading-edge. And one pic of this specific aircraft, taken from the front, shows a distinct darker area (vs silver) on the leading-edge of the upper wing, which I interpret as chrome-yellow. The J2F-3 was different from the -5 however. So, before committing to this version, I had to understand the differences. They focus mainly on the cowling, which was short-chord, and the front fuselage fairing, which had a different carburetor airscoop, a fairing for the oil-cooler scoop, and distinct louvres to evacuate the air from the accessories compartment. BuNo 1539 also sported a bomb-rack under the lower wing, which, unless I have missed it in the kit's extensive parts count, has not been represented by Lukgraph. So, these parts had to be designed and printed in 3D, before converting Lukgraph's kit the -3 version. In the design process, btw, I found out that the front fuselage fairing, above the float, as designed by Lukgraph is too "flat" and not rounded enough. The way the engine bearer is represented is also completely fanciful, and the front fuselage too short, but this is of little consequence for the -5 version with its long-chord cowling, which will hide the issues. I am happy to report that the design of the conversion parts is finished, barring some (probable) mods when I try to mate them to the kit. The new cowling, in two halves : The underwing bomb rack was a rather involved piece of design : And, finally, and most importantly, the front fuselage fairing, with the new carburetor scoop, the oil-cooler scoop, the revised profile and the louvres : You can see that the engine bearer ring has been designed as an integral part of the new fairing. I have also opened the metalsmith workshop. Lukgrpah's kits tend to be heavy, and the Duck will be no exception. When converting the Potez 25 to the TOE version, the weight of the solid wing was 186 grams, and I went to great lengths to have the landing gear reinforced with metal rods. On the Duck, the representation of the landing gear in printed resin is beautiful, and scale accurate, but I suspect it will not bear the weight of the finished kit. This suspicion is reinforced by a cryptic remark in the instructions (cryptic surely as a consequence of translating from Polish to English) that mentions adding additional supports to avoid the splaying of the landing gear. So I have undertaken to redo the whole landing gear in soldered brass. More on this in a later post. Hubert.

Why do you need a Kotare 1/48 Halifax, when there is a « perfectly good » Fonderie Miniature kit available ? 😂 Hubert

If you want to trade it back, I might be interested … It’s one of my « stash purge » regrets …. Hubert

It’s a weird idea to put a cutaway F-105 flying on a pole with pilots on-board …A bit like the modeller could not choose between two types of models … Hubert

I love your weathering style. It’s difficult to have light colors with what are basically khaki / olive drab vehicles. Unless you went for civilian … or completely rusted … Hubert

Thank you, Mark. I have no dog in this fight, as I am not interested in the Phantom. But I fail to see the aggravation around this new release : the Revell kit is 50 years old, not totally accurate, and requires sinking a lot of money in AM to get a decent reproduction, which will not be a « B » any way. All summed up, you won’t be far from the 300 USD or more to get a potentially good Phantom, assuming you put as much sweat as TLC to achieve this result. The Tamiya offering, still not a B, is a decade younger than the Revell kit, starts with a 3-digits RSP, and, again, requires a significant amount of AM, and work, to achieve a good result and correct some inaccuracies. This kit is far from the superlative quality and fit that has propelled Tamiya 1/32 aura to the sky, which started with their Zero, then the P-51 … A 1/32 twin-engined jet is a lot of plastic, therefore a lot of steel to mold the said plastic … It has to be expensive. Even the cheap F-105 from Trumpeter retailed initially at a 3-digit RSP, and once you had bought all the correction sets available, you had pocketed more than 350/400 USD, with still some areas that were not properly addressed, like the canopy (I know, I did spend that much before reselling the whole lot for the lack of an accurate canopy ). So, whilst I agree this seems a lot of money to begin with, it may not be that much if the level of detail and the accuracy of the new Red Pill F4-B make AM sets unnecessary. Mark’s first-hand report seems to indicate the cash outlay may be justified, in the end. Hopefully this will calm down the nay-sayers. Hubert

Thank you Kevin. Glad you like it. Next one, already started, quacks and splashes. I am in the process of: 1) validating the feasibility and design of conversion parts for a -3 or -4 variant 2) testing my brass working skills, as the landing gear looks scale-accurate, but weak for the weight of a 3D-printed kit (and also by Lukgraph’s own admission) Hubert

Happy +1 birthday, Carl ! Hubert

This rigging is really adding presence to what is already a great-looking Scharnhorst 👍 Hubert

What a great result on a challenging build, with all this rigging … As usual, following your progress has been a pleasure as well as an instructive read. Hubert

It looks like a low-res .obj file … I’d be curious to see how you can improve this, as the fight between resolution and weight of the files (especially .stl ones) is always there Hubert

This is how you end up with Carl’s « neat and tidy » workbench … Hubert

You're going to get a direct comparison with the ZM kit soon, Martin (finally found a way to circumvent the Portuguese Post website security issues) Hubert

Here is my finished Fisher 1/32 F7u-3 M Cutlass. This one has a looong protracted story, having been started on LSP in 2015, and then shelved for almost a decade, as life took precedence. Now, a change of country, four houses and five moves later, I completed it at last. This is a great (and weighty, but no fear, Fisher got the LG legs cast in brass by G-Factor) kit, with its difficulties, but not any more than an IM kit. A lot of modellers are afraid of resin-cast (or nowadays 3D-printed) kits, but apart from the different glues, nothing really difficult when the kit has been well engineered, and with Fisher, you are in the top-league of resin kit manufacturers ! Talking of gluing, I used epoxy for the strong joints, or CA-glue (and we're not really friends with CA) and also UV-resin, which is great, as long as you can find a way to have the UV reach where the glue is. It has the strength of epoxy, and cures after a few seconds in the UV torch-light (mine is the great DSPIAE one). The only area of difficulties was the leading-edge slats, where Fisher's choice has made the fitting and seam-cleaning difficult. In the end, I decided to do without the Fisher slats, and designed and printed my own. With hindsight, I'd probably still do things slightly diffrently, by also designing the wing part of the slats integrally with the slats, and graft the whole assembly to the wings, duly butchered, at the end. I decided to finish the Cutlass as a NMF bird, because I believe this was representative of the iconic nature of the revolutionary (for its time) Cutlass. To add difficulties, I chose a scheme worn in 1956 by VA-83's F7U-3 M, i.e. with blue trims with white cheat lines. I chose "301", which was the squadron leader's bird, and differed from the rest fo the squadron by the diagonal white stripes on the wing tips. The NMF is a mixture of Alclad, MRP metallics, and foil for the areas which were "metallite" - a composite panel made of balsa sandwiched between aluminium sheets - and displayed a very high sheen on the 1:1 Cutlass. I tried to replicate the variations you can find in NMF, and hopefully did not do too bad a job of it, although it certainly could have been better. The blue-and-white trims were masked and painted, and operator's error caused some aggravation and swearing in applying it ... The Squadron and aircraft specific markings like the number, Buaer, squadron number, and the "E" worn by VA-83 in 1956 were custom-designed and printed at home. I chose to represent a saynette inspired by this photograph, probably taken during the Mediterranean cruise of USS Intrepid in 1956 : Only, as Fisher's Cutlass does not have folding wings (which I do not like any way), I transferred the idea to the ground, i.e. NAS Oceana, where VA-83 was based on-shore. I decided to show the "other end" of this photograph, by adding the photographer on the scene, in this case a lady, which one can suppose is the girl-firned of our sailor. By the way, I checked, and NAS Oceana did not have "open-days" in 1956, but one can always imagine the lady had special permission to enter. The sailor figure is a custom-pose sailor I ordered from Aladdin Models, but subsequently "frankensteinised" by changing the pose (my mistake in confirming to Aladdin the initial pose), and grafting a new head from a 3d-rpinted sailor, itself modified and resculpted, as were the hands. The lady comes from a 1/35 "women of the 40s" by Miniart. In 1/32, this make her even slimmer and petite, but this is ok. I added to her outfit a typical 'reflex" Kodak camera of the 50s; designed and printed in 3d, and a scratchbuilt handbag. I am not too happy with my figure painting-skills. i may revisit those, but not now. After 10 years, I am a bit "burned" with the Cutlass The access ladder, wheel-chocks and tow-bar were designed and 3d-printed as well. The base is a cheap 40x60 frame bought in the local Chinese shop - a standard local feature in Portugal and Spain -, and customised with a concrete base done with AK "concrete" acrylic paste. Ok. Enough for the prose; on to the (many) pics ! I hope you like them. A final huge shout-out of thanks to Paul Fisher. His choice of subjects, and the way he kitted, them is simply oustanding. His kits are fantastic and deserve to be built. I just hope I did justice to the - and his - fantastic Cutlass. Hubert

Beautiful, Rod, and, as per your usual, fantastic photography to enhance the finished effect. If I may venture a criticism, your work rating is 110 %, and the final note is 100 % : -10 % for Italeri’s trench-like panel lines, which your great finish just puts in evidence … Still, I wish my NMF Cutlass could show as great a finish as your 104 Hubert

I translated, for posting on LSP, the article on a 1/32 scratchbuilt Bre-941, done by the very talented French modeler Emmanuel Gato (who also did a Mirage 4000 and many others interesting French aircrafts). As Ernie mentioned, the Bréguet 941 was a technically successfull aircraft, which did not find its market, besides a few civilian examples, and a handful ordered by the French AF. Hubert

I really like your weathering style: very realistic and nothing like the quilted look of the so-called « Spanish school » 👍 Hubert

I always thought that the Dornier Delphin would make a pretty cool scratchbuilt subject … http://www.aviastar.org/air/germany/dorn_delphin.php Hubert

Horten, not hot deg …. 😉 Hubert

I always was sure that a cheeky intern hid the lofting curves of the Blackburn design office in the early 20s, and then another intern re-discovered them in the 50s, and they had an orgy with them on the Buccaneer … Anyway, we French, never had that problem of producing ugly aircrafts 🙄 (This one does not count. It was an attempt to grow plants in high altitude conditions … ) Hubert

Thank you Rob, Kevin, Martin, Paul and PW. The scheme I chose was difficult to reproduce, but it sure is spectacular on this bird. I wish I could have avoided some of the small blemishes I unfortunately cannot help to see on the finished Cutlass. Still, I could not want anything else than a NMF on that bird, a fitting tribute to an advanced design of the 50s. Paul Fisher has done a great job overall to produce this kit, and building and finishing it as also a tribute to his work. Hubert

Old memories for sure. I was also a teenager in the 70s (born in 59), and was listening to Black Sabbath LPs on the hi-fi set I had bought with the money I earned with my summer jobs … Hubert

Want a Zoukei Mura SWS 1/32 Ho 229 for USD 50 + P&P ? I have got one … Hubert

Well, after a long break due to vacation and other trips to France, I have resumed the build of the Cutlass. I can say now she is finished, at long last ! In fairness, I am not totally happy with my work, and although the overall effect is there, there are plenty of small details and finishing areas which I could I have done better... However, I want to call this one quits, and move on, notably to the Lukgraph Duck When I last posted there were some small areas to finish off : The MLG drag links as designed and molded by Fisher were a bit vague in shape. I redesigned and printed some. I took the opportunity to also design the links that command the closure of the MLG doors. ... and in situ. Not sure it was worth the effort, but "I know it's here". One area I was dreading was how to reproduce the prominent seal joint around the canopy and windshield. Trying to paint it seemed like a daunting masking challenge. Then it dawned on me that I had some very fine masking tape, and of the right color to boot ! That was then quick work, with 0.7 mm wide masking tape. As I do not trust the capacity of the masking tape to remain sticky over time, it was sealed with UV-curing clear resin. Et voilà ! Mt first attempt around the windscreen, with 0.4 mm masking tape was so-so ... Not that great, and not wide enough to match the 1:1 pics. I redid the work with 0.7 mm tape, but kept 0.4 mm for the windscreen per se. Again the whole was sealed with UV-curing clear resin. Then it was just an issue of adding the final bits and pieces, like the wing pylons, the leading-edge slats, the tiny retractable steps tha allowed an acrobatic cockpit ingress when the ladder was not there (they deployed automatically with the front landing gear, and retracted with it). The ejection seat did not really want to get to its low position in the cockpit, but the Cutlass had a "down" psotion for the seat for normal flight, and "up" for take-off and landing. So this is about good for the "high" position of the seat. The 3d-printed ladder is just posed in position, as on the real birds. And there she is, finished : The pics on the bench show how big a bird whe was. With flaps and slats, these wings covered a lot of acreage. I will now work on the small saynette i have planned, and the Cutlass, in the saynette, with better pics, will be posted in the RFI section. Hubert

DSPIAE circle cutter … https://www.hobbyworkshop.co.uk/dspiae-integral-stepless-circular-cutter-pt-c.html?srsltid=AfmBOop6fpaes0m6rLbLoD3nkd69aew4orwzRRG8liOZFWQ3sBSd3u2c Hubert