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

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Agreed!

I like your next project, too. The Skyhawk always looks a little incongruous next to the Harvards and Chipmunk etc but it's so nice to have one at Ardmore (I'm in South Taranaki but try and visit once or twice a year). And the link with Mark is cool - I've not really met him but I've heard him speak and he seems like a very cool dude.

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13 minutes ago, KiwiZac said:

Agreed!

I like your next project, too. The Skyhawk always looks a little incongruous next to the Harvards and Chipmunk etc but it's so nice to have one at Ardmore (I'm in South Taranaki but try and visit once or twice a year). And the link with Mark is cool - I've not really met him but I've heard him speak and he seems like a very cool dude.

Yeah he was a great guy, really accommodating with my son who is a bit of a warbirds nut! I just wish they had put the Skyhawk on display the other way round so you can see the front from the mezzanine. Great little aircraft though. Looking forward to starting the build and attempting to replicate it as closely as possible. One major drawback to the Trumpeter kit I ordered is it has the straight refueling probe... have seen after market bent one made by AMS but not in current production and not even ebay has any! Might be an experimental scratch build...

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The Skyraider is almost complete.

Made an attempt at the "infamous" engine smoke down the fuselage. I took a while to decide on the best technique, read posts on other skyraider builds and then decided to combine a few.

I stared by putting a layer of gloss on the area to be weathered the did the initial pattern with Tamiya flat black, diluted and sprayed at a low pressure. I then sanded back to detail more and achieve the look I was after... kind of. Then various  Tamiya weathering palette colours were used to add some more detail... I'm sort of happy with it and sort of not, but looking at archive images of skyraiders there seems no perfect look to the pattern... so it is what it is!

Now to finish the wings, get them attached in the folded position and attach some ordinance!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Complete, or as complete as I'm taking it for now.

The kit itself was excellent, I don't recall having any issues with parts going together. The Eduard PE cockpit adds some nice extra detail that you can almost still see with the wings folded. (I had to fold the wings as I wouldn't have anywhere big enough to park it otherwise!). Radio antennae is a section of 11 gauge guitar string.

Wing support struts were scratch built using brass tubing. These seem to be present on parked up spads with a full load on the pylons but are not included in the kit for some strange reason.

The weathering was really just a composite of many reference pictures. They were dirty, but not always dirty. I could probably have taken it further... Tamiya weathering palettes used for the majority of weathering along with some AK interactive stuff. The entire plane was given a wash of Flory clay wash which works well in helping create that tired weather worn look I was attempting.

Anyway, big learning curve on this. My first proper big build to this level. On to the RNZAF A4-K Skyhawk.

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What a nice "Baby" you built there. I like the appearance of the bird, specially with the wings folded. It adds to the "busy" look, with lots of eyecatching areas to explore. To my eye there are some areas of the Spad, which seem to "new" in the general picture, like the prop if this "very" little critique is allowed.

Cheers Rob 

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10 hours ago, DocRob said:

What a nice "Baby" you built there. I like the appearance of the bird, specially with the wings folded. It adds to the "busy" look, with lots of eyecatching areas to explore. To my eye there are some areas of the Spad, which seem to "new" in the general picture, like the prop if this "very" little critique is allowed.

Cheers Rob 

Thanks Rob. I thought about the prop for quite a while and looked at a lot of reference images. the props on Navy spads didn't appear to get as worn as their ground based cousins. The attached image shows the lack of wear on an otherwise weathered and used looking spad. It may of course varied from plane to plane, and I could probably/should have aged the prop down a bit more. Where else do you think looks to new as there are a couple of places I think the same.

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Hi Watts, you pushed me in a difficult position, who am I to be picky on your very nice Spad, but hey, you asked for it ;).
For my eye the contrast between clean and durrty (like Cees said) is to sharp, for example the engine cowlings look like new, at least on the photos. On a white / light grey airframe I think a little shading would reduce that sharp contrast, maybe with a subtle oil color treatment. I believe in blending colors and try to achieve a translucent effect with very thin layers of paint, specially on monochromic surfaces. A very good example on what I mean can be found in this WIP by ajcmac
https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/5302-mitsubichi-a6m5c/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-67397

But please don't call me picky, I'm not a master modeller myself and I really like the look of your bird.

Cheers Rob

 

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3 hours ago, DocRob said:

Hi Watts, you pushed me in a difficult position, who am I to be picky on your very nice Spad, but hey, you asked for it ;).
For my eye the contrast between clean and durrty (like Cees said) is to sharp, for example the engine cowlings look like new, at least on the photos. On a white / light grey airframe I think a little shading would reduce that sharp contrast, maybe with a subtle oil color treatment. I believe in blending colors and try to achieve a translucent effect with very thin layers of paint, specially on monochromic surfaces. A very good example on what I mean can be found in this WIP by ajcmac
https://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/5302-mitsubichi-a6m5c/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-67397

But please don't call me picky, I'm not a master modeller myself and I really like the look of your bird.

Cheers Rob

 

Totally agree regarding the cowlings and appreciate your honesty, they were the part that I thought looked to new as well. I will give them another "wash" to blend them more. I think the photos may exaggerate their whiteness a bit as well. I had so many issues with the paint on this that my original plan went out the window and was replaced by one of simple survival! To put it dramatically. I had pre-shaded initially but the MM paint peeled and I changed my entire painting approach. Big learning curve with best aged effects and how to achieve them... Thanks again.

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  • 6 months later...
54 minutes ago, Sgt Shultz II said:

I have a question. On the bottom picture the inner wing seems to be covered so the gun does not show. Is that correct?? And it's painted black...

Hi there, yep in that image you are correct. I have seen other images where the covers are grey or absent completely

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

...A few years back now I had the exact same problem with Trumpy's 32 Thud kit...and then I discovered there were (and this is just hearsay amoungst us, and nothing confirmed through Trumpeter itself) probable quality control issues in that mold release chemicals were not being removed at the manufacturing phase. This resulted in any application of paint - acrylic or enamel, separating from the pieces.

It was only after washing ALL parts with detergent and water did the issue resolve itself.

I haven't put together anything from Trumpy lately so I am unqualified to comment on their more recent releases, but it would be interesting to see whether you other guys out there have had similar issues...

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2 hours ago, Dennis.E said:

...A few years back now I had the exact same problem with Trumpy's 32 Thud kit...and then I discovered there were (and this is just hearsay amoungst us, and nothing confirmed through Trumpeter itself) probable quality control issues in that mold release chemicals were not being removed at the manufacturing phase. This resulted in any application of paint - acrylic or enamel, separating from the pieces.

It was only after washing ALL parts with detergent and water did the issue resolve itself.

I haven't put together anything from Trumpy lately so I am unqualified to comment on their more recent releases, but it would be interesting to see whether you other guys out there have had similar issues...

Hi Dennis, I haven't had any issues with Trump builds since then, but have been careful to prime everything before paint.

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I'm may be paranoid but I tend to wash everything in a mild detergent solution before I start any kit having had issues with AFV Club and Trumpeter stuff in the past. The AFV Shot Kal was definitely the worst I've ever experienced. Probably didn't help it was Vallejo paint but you could just about roll it off with your finger. Mucho frustration.

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