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pjman792 last won the day on June 5 2013
pjman792 had the most liked content!
About pjman792
- Birthday 29/02/1960
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Gender
Male
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Location
Biloxi, Mississippi, USA
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Interests
1/48 scale US Navy and Marine Corps aircraft
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Here’s my rendition of the Arii (originally produced by Otaki?) 1:48 scale F4U-1A Corsair. Even though it was first issued in 1972, the Arii kit builds into a nice Corsair. The good points are very accurate outline and shapes, finely recessed panel lines, and great parts fit. Drawbacks are a simple and inacurate cockpit and wheels, and an engine that doesen’t remotely resemble any engine used in any aircraft. Here’s how I upgraded the kit: I replaced the cartoonish engine with with a resin R-2800, updated the cockpit with Eduard photoetched insturment panel, seat and sidewall details, and used seatbelts and wheels from True Details. I replaced ther kit tail wheel with a more accurate-looking one from the spares box, and attached it at an angle for a more candid appearance. I also cut away the flaps and dropped them, added exhaust stacks made from drilled-out styrene rod, and added a small whip antenna to the fuselage spine. I couldn’t determine if this plane had the tail hook removed or not, so I left it on. VF-17’s Corsairs didn’t have the usual antenna mast, and some had unusual field-modified antennas. Based on photos, I built an antenna that runs fron the top if the vertical fin down to the tip of the right horizontal stabilizer. From there, it runs into the usual antenna lead-in on the right side of the fuselage, behind the cockpit. I don’t know for certain if it’s accurate, but that’s how I interpreted the antenna arrangment in photos. I used a Pasche VL airbrush to apply the three-toned camouflage scheme, though most photos of the actual aircraft indicate it was very weathered, with almost no distiction between the non-specular sea blue upper surfaces and the intermidiate blue sides. For markings, I used an old SuperScale sheet to portray “White 29”, the plane flown by Lt. Ira Kepford of VF-17 while based at Ondonga, New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands in late 1943. I made a mistake in not placing the kill markings at the correct angle to the tape covering the seams of the forward fuselage cell. VF-17 was the first navy squadron to be equipped with the Corsair. Assigned briefly to USS Bunker Hill, the squadron was soon transferred to the Solomon Islands to serve as a land-based squadron. In its two tours of duty in the Solomons, VF-17 was credited 156 aerial victories and produced 12 aces, the most of any squadron in the Navy. Kepford was the U.S. Navy’s 6th highest ranking ace with 16 victories and 8 probables.
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A-7E Corsair II Hasegawa 1/48
pjman792 replied to Arkady72's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Beautiful SLUFF! Your finish and weathering are incredibly well done and realistic. -
Douglas A-4C Skyhawk, VA-153, `Blue Tailed Flies`
pjman792 replied to russ c's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
A stunning build - and your weathering is just superb! Bravo, Sir! -
F4U-1 Corsair, 30th Servicing Unit, RNZAF
pjman792 replied to Peter Marshall's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Outstanding work! The weathering is just spot-on - extremely realistic. I need to master the techniques you do so well when it comes to weathering and aging an aircraft's finish. -
F8F-1B Bearcat, L`Armee De L`Air, Indochina
pjman792 replied to russ c's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Your Bearcat is just superb - the weathered finish is among the very best I've ever seen. Bravo, Sir! -
I love jets from the late '50's and 1960's, and your builds are superb!
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Great job - the Crusader is my favorite jet.
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Accurate Miniatures’ Avengers, along with their SBD Dauntless and F3F series, are among the best 1/48 scale aircraft kits ever produced. Everything – from surface and interior detail to fit of the parts – is about as good as it gets in injected molded plastic. The fact that almost no aftermarket parts were made for these kits is a testament to how good they were out of the box. The only drawback to the Avenger kits were the instructions – the drawings were crudely done and hard to follow, but this was rectified in the SBD and F3F kits. Aside from some True Details photo-etched seatbelts and an antenna wire, this kit was an out-of-the-box build, including decals. I used no filler – just careful assembly and seam sanding resulted in a near-perfect fit of the main airframe parts. I did find that the lower dorsal gunner’s clear part didn’t fit very well, but that’s probably as much my fault as the kit’s. The rudder is a seperate piece, so I installed it offset to the left for a more candid appearance. I armed my TBF with a standard anti-submarine load of two 500-lb. general purpose bombs and two aerial depth charges. I also cut out and dropped the flaps. For the Atlantic anti-submarine paint scheme, I used Model Master Dark Gull Grey and Floquil Reefer White enamels. (I really hate that Floquil is now out of business – Reefer White was the BEST!) I used kit decals to depict a TBF-1C from VC-55, deployed aboard USS Block Island in the North Atlantic during the summer of 1944.
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Thanks, Andrew! It usually takes me a few months to finish a kit, so I don't have much recent work to post, which is why I submitted pics of the older Monogram Skyhawk. Thanks again for your comments! Cheers, Drew
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Thanks very much for your constructive comments! You're right about the wash being too stark - this is one of my older builds, completed about ten years ago, and I have since altered my wash technique using the methods you suggest. Take a look at my 1/48 Hasegawa A-4C Skyhawk I posted on here and see if you think the wash I applied looks any better. Best regards, and thanks again, Drew
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Here’s one of my older builds, the Monogram 1/48 A-4E Skyhawk, that I converted to an -F. I think the Monogram Skyhawk is is second only to the Hasegawa A-4′s, and is probably the best A-4 for the money. The biggest drawbacks are a very basic cockpit with the seat molded as part of the cockpit tub, and a too-wide forward fuselage, which makes the canopy and windscreen too flat and squashed-looking. My model was Monogram’s ‘high-tech’ boxing of the Skyhawk, which came with a small fret of photo-etched parts to help dress things up some. I replaced the windscreen with a vacu-formed replacement, and cut away the integrally molded seat and added a True Details ESCAPAC replacement seat. The kit’s photo-etched parts provided canopy locks, catapult bridle hooks, pitot probe, and an AOA indicator (which I have since lost!). The AGM-12B Bullpup guided missiles came from the HobbyBoss FJ-4B Fury kit, which replaced some less-accurate examples I had scrounged from an old Monogram F-100 kit. I added an in-flight refuleing probe light to the right intake, and tried to make it more resemble -F configuration by adding a UHF antenna to the upper spine and nosewheel steering mechanisim from a Hasegawa A-4 kit. The -F version also had wing spoilers and armor plate around the cockpit, but I didn’t try to recreate those. The markings came from a long out-of-production sheet from Third Group Decals, which depict an A-4F from VA-144 ‘Roadrunners’, deployed aboard USS Bonne Homme Richard in 1969.
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Outstanding work! I really like your finish and weathering. I have two Tamiya 1/48 A-1H kits, and plan to use the same VA-25 markings you used, and the 'bumblebee' markings of VA-176 for the other kit, since both aircraft are MiG-killers.
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1:48 Hasegawa F-8E Crusader MiG-killer
pjman792 replied to pjman792's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Thanks for your comments, Jonners. I used Model Master enamel Flat Gull Grey, FS 36440 for the topside color.- 40 replies
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1:48 Hasegawa F-8E Crusader MiG-killer
pjman792 replied to pjman792's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Thanks for your comments, David! You are correct, the wing and flaps of the Hasegawa Crusader can be demanding. This was my first Hasegawa F-8, and I had such a difficult time with fit on the wing and flaps that on the second one I built, I decided to go with flap/droops up, and wing down.- 40 replies
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1:48 Hasegawa F-8E Crusader MiG-killer
pjman792 replied to pjman792's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Thanks, Jonners! I used Model Master Flat Gull Grey, FS # 36440- 40 replies