Vince Blackburn

Completed FM-2 and Martlet 3 just in time for Milton Keynes model show 2022

Corrected FM-2 prop After chatting to a friend on another site he high lighted that most FM-2 in Atlantic Schemes had white hubs and white propellar cuffs

Happy Easter all Exhaust stains applied with oils, Tamiya Smoke and Dark Earth A pair of drop tanks weathered ready to go in. The rest of the little bits all painted up Martlet 3 catching up

Evening All With the paint job repaired it was time for some decals from the spares box for the stars and bars these however took several coals of set and sol a quite a bit of patience to get them to conform to the fuselage sides curving in two directions at once that was no mean feat once on the camo of the grey was touched up to look neater. I de tacked the vinyl masks for all the number 20's to the point where if you blew too hard they would fall off not wanting to repair the paint job again these got sprayed with Nato black from the Tamiya LP range, very pleased how the numbers came out on the edge of the cowling especially Once all the marking's where completed it was time for some oils on the underside and just started the top when time ran out for today The Martlet 3 also got its paint job completed and now awaiting more decals from the spares box once the gloss coat has dried.

Hello everyone With the paintwork almost completed its time for some markings. I had a little trouble with the masks on the fuselage side and opted out using decals for the Star and Bar this still required a lot of Set and Sol with the Sol have three coats before the decals conformed properly. All of the numbers where sprayed on using vinyl masks kindly supplied via a great mate, however they did require de tacking to within an inch of their lives as a previous attempt of the fuselage Star and Bar required respraying not once but twice once rectified they all got a nice coat of Tamiya LP-60 Nato Black

Good evening All The FM-2 is finally ready for some painting and this was started by a a full coat of Tamiya Black LP1, once dry a coat of Tamiya White LP1 was applied using Ushi Van der Rosten Spatter masks followed by Hataka Insignia White using free hand mottles and clouds this was layered and layered until I was happy with the coverage The same process was applied to the top coat using Hataka Dark Gull Grey until I realised I didn't have the decals needed to do the markings a web shopping order was placed with Hannants and the 1/48th decals will be enlarged to some nice 1/32 vynil masks I need to do the rest of the top camo around the markings so that will be all for a little while.

Evening all, it seems that in my haste to get started on this project the masking set was not ordered and although I'm quite capable of doing canopies for my self it's just easier to use a nice Eduard set when they are available, with that now rectified it only took minutes to clean up mask and then attach to the fuselage using Micro Crystal Clear. Hataka interior green was wisped on with my trusty old Badger 200G. The airframe was now ready for some seam checking and the port wing root required a little filling and sanding with this dispatched it could then be recoated, followed by the initial coat of Hataka Insignia White along with further checking for imperfections having done quite well this it could left to dry over night.

Got the wings on today and also worked on the gun sight

Evening all not a great deal of progress but a lot of work The extended rudder required a little re shaping and thinning out as well as the top hinge being filled and moved higher up next to consider was the ribbing effect that needed to added to the extension this done with plastic strip that was thinned down, shaped and sanded several times before a satisfactory finish was achieved. Lastly the trim tab required extension. Now the fuselage could be joined using Tamiya White glue, before joining, each half was given a bevel edge which would later allow black super glue to have a nice v shape to fill and leave no ghost seams

Todays session concentrated on finishing the scallops and adding the exhaust pipes there was even time to work on the wheel well and undercarriage

Todays work ended up being very time consuming but I'm getting there with the fitting of the exhaust scallops, initially the fuselage was marked with a pencil to get a rough idea of what was required here is where I have deviated from the plan drawings as they just don't look right compared to quite a few pictures from references I've been looking at. With the initial cut having been made and backed with plasti card as well as tiny plasti card triangles. New panel lines and a square box added by scribing. The first round of blending and smoothing completed Another round of the same with still more required before I'm happy with the result.

After completion of the engine a better picture of an FM-2 Engine was found in the newest book which means the Air intake was incorrect some more intakes were scratch built and all were positioned in the correct place Quiet please with the end result

Happy New Year folks have a great one. On with the Wright engine and nice coat of Tamiya LP-11 Silver Gloss for the outer portion of the heads followed by Tamiya LP-20 Light Gun metal on the inner portion. Push rods painted black and wiring harness Silver and then rubber with brass ends for all the leads. The crank case head Neutral Grey. Routing around in the spares box I found a couple of suitable decals that would do for data plates. Then it was time for a test fit within the cowling a light sanding of the push rod heads made for a better fit.

Well not a lot of progress during the Christmas festivities, on the plus side I did find the resin engine from Vector which had turned up whilst at work and subsequently misplaced. It has very crisp mouldings which were relatively easy to clean up and assembly although the building instructions are little vague. Push rods are made from 0.5mm wire which had to be supplied by me Here a couple of pictures during progress and primed in a demonic black

With the extended rudder completed it's time to have a good look through the books and find the schemes that I intend to do The Old but gold Squadron F4F Wildcat gave a picture of the Martlet scheme I wish to do with Black underside many people have corrected this and done Azur Blue that looks way too dark to be Azure Blue I'm going for Black