Landlubber Mike

Beautiful work as always Peter!

Nice start on a cool subject! Hope had a nice holiday!

Cool looking subject. Model looks fantastic!

That's a cool looking kit Hubert, never knew that existed.

Thanks Harv, I kinda do too!

This one has been close to the finish line for quite some time as I got a bit bored with it and moved on to other projects. Just about done though now, just have to add the wings and finish the diorama. Want to clear the bench before the 2023 group build! Warning - even though the kit instructions say you can model it with the canopy open, the sliding piece just does not fit. I came to find out that others had a similar issue, with one person cracking the part to get it to fit. Thankfully, the eBay auction seller included a Taurus canopy, and I was able to replace the kit part. The Taurus canopy was a bit loose though, so when i pressed it to the fuselage, a bit of glue spread further than I was hoping. 🤬 Oh well, not much I can do. I almost threw the whole thing out when clear coating it - I ended up getting spiderwebbing in a few places when using one of the Mr. Color clear products. Even got it when trying out the rattle can version. I think it just pooled too heavily. My spray booth has these really bright LEDs, and sometimes I can't tell how much of a coat is being applied with certain colors and with the clear products. Live and learn. The good news is that was able to lightly sand off the clear coat, reapply a bit of dark wash, and re-apply the clear coat with no issue. Whew! I did spend a bunch of time trying to figure out how to put it in a diorama on a carrier hangar deck, as there aren't many pictures out there of what the flooring at least looks like. I did get a diorama base finished though, and at this point, just have to finish painting some of the mechanics to go along with it. Thanks for looking in!

Well, I'm trying to wrap up my builds so that I can start (and finish) the upcoming 2023 group build. After a bunch of rounds of filling and sanding, I have the camo scheme painted on the model using Mr. Color paints. Was quite a tricky time getting to this point with all the AM but I'm pretty happy with where things are. The wing gun panels are just blue-tacked in place to take on the camo scheme as they will be removed and put next to the model to show it under maintenance along with the engine. I found a Montex set of stencils to paint the insignia and numbering, so those will go on next. The landing gear and wheels are also painted, so hopefully this will get wrapped up by the end of the year. Thanks for looking in!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to Martin and all my friends here

Looking great Harv!

That is really great!! What a funny gift!

Nice looking - and I'm not just referring to the pin up! Great job!

Nicely done! Not easy with those colors I'm sure.

I'm good with January 1, thanks for organizing it Ernie. How long is the group build expected to last? I'm a super slow builder, so might have to do prelim work in December if it's a tight deadline 🤫

Nice work John! Glad you didn't need to wear a cup! 🤣

Good luck John. Hope you don't have to resort to the, uh, techniques shown in Martin's video. I'm still not quite sure what the hell that was.

I'm just getting around to catching up on here, and came across your log. What a beauty Peter!! Really nice job!

Looks great Chris, very nicely done!!

Came out really great! For as fantastic as it looks, amazing it sat on the SOD.

How did I miss this?? What an awesome job Martin, congrats on a beautiful build!

Wow, that looks really fantastic! Nice job!

I considered picking this up a month or so ago as it looks like a cool, not often modeled subject. But, I'm in the middle of a SH 1/48 Brewster kit, and the fit issues are such that I don't know that I have it in me to do too many more of these - took me forever to get to the point of filling and priming! I do have a 1/32 Buffalo on the shelf as well, hope it's a little easier to put together.

It's your hobby, do it the way you want to. I have multiple builds going. Probably less efficient in some ways in getting models done, but then again, I feel more engaged and energized in the hobby if I work on different things at once. Sometimes too I just need a mental break from a particular model, so rather than stop modeling for weeks/months, I'll just pick up another and stay active. I found that happening a lot with wooden model ship building. After spending weeks planking the hull, or rigging, I'd just get burned out and step away from the bench for long periods of time. Having something else to work on keeps me at the bench.

Thanks Hubert, I haven't used SAC landing gear yet. Isn't it marketed as being stronger than kit plastic?? That's disappointing to know...

Yeah, pretty big if you know what the plane actually look like. Some also say the side bubbles aren't spaced apart correctly (one person thought it was because the bubbles are too big and thus look too close together), and also something about the orientation of the engines.

I'm sure the model doesn't think it's that easy when the last 15% is lopped off! I didn't realize that the floats on the plane actually folded down from the wingtips. That's pretty cool!