Sikorsky JRS-1 with AM (Eduard) 1/72

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Chris for the kind words!  

Honestly, none of this is rocket science, but it did take me a while to think through how to do things.  The brass tubing made things a lot easier.  A while back I saw that Albion sold tubes in 0.2mm diameters that fit inside one another.  That helped to make the sliding LG parts with different diameters work well together, with a little music wire inside for even more stability.  

We'll see how it all looks painted up.  It's tricky gluing all those tiny pieces together without having excess glue.  In some areas, I felt like I needed to add two-part epoxy in areas that aren't seen as a way to help give a little extra adhesive power to the assemblies.  

[HubertB]

Great work on the landing gear 👍 ! I concur on the greatness of the Albion Alloy tubes and rods. I have a supply of them always available.

Just a tip : Tamiya pink primer ( yes, Barbie pink) is a great base for yellow / chrome yellow wings.

Hubert

[KevinM]

I really like the tail wheel Mike looks fantastic!! I think once the main gears are painted it will more than satisfy what is needed kinda looks like a skeleton made out of a bunch of different ones.

[Landlubber Mike]

5 hours ago, HubertB said:

Great work on the landing gear 👍 ! I concur on the greatness of the Albion Alloy tubes and rods. I have a supply of them always available.

Just a tip : Tamiya pink primer ( yes, Barbie pink) is a great base for yellow / chrome yellow wings.

Hubert

Thanks Hubert!  I’ve used Tamiya Pink primer as a base for red and it worked really nicely.  I’ve heard people are using it for yellow as well and will have to try it sometime.

[Landlubber Mike]

2 hours ago, KevinM said:

I really like the tail wheel Mike looks fantastic!! I think once the main gears are painted it will more than satisfy what is needed kinda looks like a skeleton made out of a bunch of different ones.

Thanks Kevin!  I’m hoping it looks better with some paint as opposed to a skeleton!  😆

[Landlubber Mike]

Back to the JRS-1 after a really fun family trip to the beautiful Smokey Mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  I added the remaining PE grab handles to the fuselage and have a few rounds of primer on the model.  I really like using Mr. Surfacer as it helps show any gaps, extra bits of glue, and other imperfections.  Plus it's sandable and provides a really stable base for when colors are to be laid down, taping, etc.

One annoying thing about this kit is you have to fill two windows on the right side of the model.  I used a Dspiae circle cutter to cut out two plastic discs and everything looked fine.  I was worried, however, that the primer coat would show outlines of the discs, and that is what indeed happened.  I managed to get one of the discs sanded/filled where it eventually disappeared, but one stubbornly refused to go away.  I realized that the problem was it probably wasn't fully seated into the fuselage and kept lifting up no matter how much I sanded.  So, late last night I tried pushing it in a bit to see if I could glue the the raised edge down, and the stupid disc popped into the fuselage 🤬  I freaked out and said a lot of not nice words, but 20 minutes later I had a new disc cut and glued in via superglue this go around, and after the primer coat, both discs are now gone ✌️

I still have some very minor cleanup and a few panel lines to re-scribe, but otherwise I'm happy how it's looking.  I was a bit worried how the scratched landing gear would come out after being painted, but thankfully it's looking better than I expected.

I still hope to finish it before the GB ends.  I've mapped out what I need to do over the next few days, and although it will be tight (and I'll probably need to put in a few late nights), I think I can finish it in time.  I've been agonizing a bit over the order in which to paint the fuselage - aluminum first then colors, or colors first then aluminum - but I decided to do the colors first and finish with the aluminum.  I've already put an undercoat of Mr. Surfacer 1500 - white for the red band near the tail, so will try to get the red band, green tail, and black underside and top side markings done today.

Thanks for looking in!

 

[KevinM]

looks much better with a coat of paint Mike.I am glad the you and the family had a great holiday.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Kevin!  Hope all is well with you and yours!  Football season in full swing?

[Peterpools]

Mike

So glad you were able to perfectly fix the needed disc repairs ,  primer looks perfect and smooth as silk. Looking forward to seeing the paint work completed as your Big Sikorsky is going to be an eye catcher and a Queen in your display case.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Peter!  I guess the modeling gods were with me that night and things worked out.  I think the issue is that I used Tamiya cement, and part of the first disc wasn't fully adhered.  Using thick CA this time around not only helped with adhesion but filled any gaps.

I'm a bit behind where I wanted to be, but the top wing is painted and I painted the colors on the body so hope to get the aluminum painted tonight.  Tomorrow will be gloss coat and decals if all goes well.  That will give me three days to weather, attach all the remaining parts, and add the rigging.  I decided for the rigging that I will just use cut-down steel pins - I have these insect pins that I think are stainless steel, so they actually might look the part without having to paint them.  The holes are already pre-drilled so hopefully won't take too long.

[Peterpools]

Mike

Nothing as good as when you're riding with the modeling gods. 

Your POA for finishing the Big Sikorsky sounds perfect and the rigging is absolutely the way to go. Looking forward to the ceremonies as you cross the finish line.

[Landlubber Mike]

I've made some good progress the past couple of days.  I'm a bit behind where I was hoping to be, but I think I should be able to get this one into the GB by this Saturday's deadline.  

I managed to finish painting all the parts, including touch ups just a bit ago, and have started adding a gloss coat for decals and weathering.  Lots of Tamiya masking tape was used!  The kit gives you decals for the upper black stripes and anti-glare at the nose, but I decided to paint them instead since the underside of the fuselage and the floats is also in black, and I wanted to avoid potential color mismatches.

 

Paints used:

Primer:  Mr. Surfacer 1200

Red:  Tamiya Flat Red XF7 with a bit of brown mixed in to tone down the bright red look.

Yellow:  Decanted Tamiya Camel Yellow TS 34

Green:  Vallejo Game Air Sick Green with some Vallejo Model Air Green mixed in.  The kit shows a very emerald looking green, but I wanted mine toned down a bit (similar to how I used a more toned down red color).

Aluminum:  Mr. Color Super Metallic 2 (SM 201) - Super Fine Silver 2 (for undercoat, I used Mr. Color GX 2 Ueno Black gloss).  I really loved how this paint sprayed!  I like Vallejo's Metal Color range, but I've had issues at times with getting a smooth coat and sometimes it doesn't adhere very well.  I'll probably keep using Vallejo for smaller items like engines and details (and I used it for touch ups on this model), but this Mr. Color line might be my new go-to. 

Black:  Tamiya Nato Black XF 69

 

Thanks for looking in!

[HubertB]

Great-looking bird ! You can’t get enough yellow wings, IMHO.

Hubert

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Hubert, and I agree!

[KevinM]

Nice! 48hrs left little one....the pressure is on

[Landlubber Mike]

Ha!  More like 52 hours and 25 minutes!  I already started the decaling, hopefully can wrap up most of it tomorrow and rig it on Saturday.  Fingers crossed!

[KevinM]

You'll cross the line I am sure Mike got my fingers crossed for ya.

[Peterpools]

Mike

Amazing progress and the Big Sikorsky is looking so good.

Pulling so hard and absolutely fingers crossed, you'll be across the finish line before the deadline.  

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Peter!  Making more progress in the last few days than it seems like I did in months!

[Landlubber Mike]

Productive [late] night yesterday.  Got the decals on the underside of the wing, fully assembled the plane minus the antennae on the top of the canopy (which is too fragile to really install at this stage), and sprayed the fuselage and top of the wing with a gloss coat.  Almost to the end finally!  Just need to add decals, a little weathering/shading/highlighting, and then the rigging.  Fingers crossed the tape comes off the windows ok.

This kit fights you all the way, but it's looking like a nice model in the end.  The struts in particular where a pain the posterior to try and fit and glue.

Thanks for looking in!

[Peterpools]

Mike

WOW - absolutely a stunner. What a build.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks Peter!  These were quite colorful birds weren’t they?  I’m glad you suggested I build this kit for the GB - very cool subject.

[Peterpools]

Mike

Absolutely - for my two cents, those were the most colorful days in American and world aviation. 

 

[Landlubber Mike]

Agreed!  This build has me so jazzed up on yellow wings, that depending on the what's and when's of the next GB, I've been thinking about starting either the Kingfisher or Devastator that you kindly sold me.  Though, I might start with the Trumpeter SBD-1/2 Dauntless that I won in the LSM Christmas raffle a few years ago since that should be a quicker build.

As a glutton for punishment, I also picked up some of the old Hasegawa and Williams 1/32 interwar kits (BF2C-1, F4B-4, P-12e, P-26a, Sparrowhawk).  I really love that time period for plane coloring.  Am waiting to see when Lone Star Models re-releases some of their cockpit sets before starting them.

[CANicoll]

Mike,  Beautiful build!!  You'd never know the travails you've had to endure to get to this point.  The colors look terrific.  I don't mix paints as much as I should, so I need to follow your example. Nice on the Green in particular, but that yellow wing really stands out.  Your masking is terrific.  I'm sure Mr. Tamiya loves you for using all of that tape.