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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

GWH Hawk 81C AVG decals. 02/18/23


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8 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Ernie

Excellent point. Just think GWH got it wrong plus the sizes of the roundels are incorrect and not consistent with the kit's instructions and placement color marking/painting guides, if I remember correctly. What I should have done is go the route you are and have used Eagle Editions decals - big mistake on my part. 

 

Not a mistake on your part, I was going the same way until I happened to remember the Eagle sets I had.  I haven’t looked at the roundels size, but I do think they missed the mark on colors of the shark mouth on a couple of the birds. 
Jerry Crandall’s research is highly regarded, so I’ll take his word for it over some Government appointed Communist worker’s take on it. 
One thing I will definitely do is build up that engine and super detail it for display beside the model.  

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Ernie agreed.  So far, I've built up so many Merlins and will be doing four more for the Lancaster and Tamiya's P&W, I just didn't want to display another engine in the display case. Yes, that was another mistake on my part as GWH did do an exception job on the Allison. 

 

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1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

Ernie agreed.  So far, I've built up so many Merlins and will be doing four more for the Lancaster and Tamiya's P&W, I just didn't want to display another engine in the display case. Yes, that was another mistake on my part as GWH did do an exception job on the Allison. 

 

You can always go back and build it later. All the parts for an independent display are there. 
Plus, it’s a unique version of the Allison with that massive reduction gearbox and the itty bitty little single stage supercharger. 

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4 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Ernie agreed.  So far, I've built up so many Merlins and will be doing four more for the Lancaster and Tamiya's P&W, I just didn't want to display another engine in the display case. Yes, that was another mistake on my part as GWH did do an exception job on the Allison. 

 

Peter, one other thing:  I’m not smart enough to read the supplied corrections list included in the kit, so many of the surprises were avoidable for me. 😂

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Great progress, Ernie, and nice to see everything fit.  Amazing how a big company can't get the research right, but a couple of people working on their own can do it.  Agree with Jerry Randal's research with one notable (and early) exception - the nose checkers for their 1/32 Big Beautiful Doll set.  They just don't fit.  They sent me two addl sets from the one I bought and no matter what I did there were clearly gaps between the panels. I showed them the pictures of the decal placement and they said they scaled up the Tamiya BBD 1/48 decals to 1/32.  Except Tamiya changed the shape of the nose slightly.  We never got that settled and I ended up using Zotz BBD nose checkers, and Eagle's everything else.  But the quality of their decals is terrific.

With the research done by you and Peter, I'm looking forward to seeing how your painting comes out.

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3 hours ago, CANicoll said:

Great progress, Ernie, and nice to see everything fit.  Amazing how a big company can't get the research right, but a couple of people working on their own can do it.  Agree with Jerry Randal's research with one notable (and early) exception - the nose checkers for their 1/32 Big Beautiful Doll set.  They just don't fit.  They sent me two addl sets from the one I bought and no matter what I did there were clearly gaps between the panels. I showed them the pictures of the decal placement and they said they scaled up the Tamiya BBD 1/48 decals to 1/32.  Except Tamiya changed the shape of the nose slightly.  We never got that settled and I ended up using Zotz BBD nose checkers, and Eagle's everything else.  But the quality of their decals is terrific.

With the research done by you and Peter, I'm looking forward to seeing how your painting comes out.

Thanks Chris. I haven’t done a lot of bubbletop Mustangs at all. My interest is with the Allison powered versions along with the B.  Highly underrepresented….  I never knew that about BBD, but it makes sense.

Zotz stuff are also great, no complaints whatsoever from me.   

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Well, it fits.

The only thing I did differently is to push away the temptation I had to build the nose first (OK the nose looks way cool and it was hard), and carefully double check the alignment of everything ahead of time.

It fits, but it’s extremely snug. The gap may be a bit excessive on the one side as well.

This will be permanently attached, not removable. 

9861A81E-1912-4C7B-B221-F69D67FD0B1C.jpeg

E751CDC9-3AFB-4847-B25E-3B85C8B36874.jpeg

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Ernie

Nice work on getting the nose on - looking mighty good. A few gaps to play with and maybe smooth out a panel or two and that's it. A tough area to build and you pretty much nailed it.

On my P-40 once I had the nose about the same as yours, I still wanted to close up all the seams and that took a lot of time and scribing. 

GWH didn't think out the small MG cowl in front of the windshield and it never seemed to fit right - they just over engineered that area. I always thought they should have made each half of the fuselage one piece right up to the engine cowl panels. If the builder wanted to show off the details under the MG cowl, it should have been a cut out panel from the inside and would have made life so much easier.  

Did you find the 3D printed MG barrels in the small box with the clear parts? It's not shown in the instructions, nor the reason they went with the four PE covers. I completely missed it but you could leave the MG's off and add the 3D printed ones at the end of the build. Such a good idea and it isn't show anywhere in the instructions - just on the box they are in and I never looked.

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Wow, so all that was done on the road. Truly impressive.

I've got your next challenge for you Ernie. Build one on a transatlantic flight with just the fold down table. :D

Might be just the reason I need to visit Auckland. 

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3 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

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. 

Welcome home!  I think that brown is way too dark. 

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3 hours ago, Clunkmeister said:

Might be just the reason I need to visit Auckland. 

LA to Brisbane is 15 hours...   imagine what you could get done.  Not to mention the arterial thrombosis!  But once you get here, you can see the Giant Pineapple.

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4 hours ago, GazzaS said:

Welcome home!  I think that brown is way too dark. 

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

 

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Ernie

The final color all depends on the degree of weathering and fading you want. Other than either a factory fresh or newly tied down on the flightline, P-40, which is how I tend to go, the brown would need to be lightened up. For the most part, the only way to see the actual color is to compare it to a color chip that has not been exposed to the sun or room light (to prevent fading) and absolutely never on computer monitor. Color photographs from that era never had the capability to reproduced colors that were accurate - Kodak just didn't have the technology yet.

Just go with what feels good🎯

 

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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. 

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