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Painting the Fleet – Rivet Counter Guide #2 ISBN: 9798218121570 Dana Bell Dana Bell is a well-known researcher and author in aviation history, and this is the second of his eclectic series entitled ‘Rivet Counter Guide’, which is of course a reference to those modellers that insist on building and painting their models as accurately as possible, enjoying the research as much, if not more than the actual modelling. Some of their number have a bad reputation due to their unpleasant personalities, but the majority of rivet counters are well-balanced modellers that are easy to get on with and are more than happy to share their wealth of knowledge with the rest of their fellow hobbyists. Dana is one of the latter, and is now sharing his work by way of this ongoing series of books. The subject for the first offering was the cockpit of the F4U-1 Corsair, which should give you an idea of the depth of research that Dana is able to reach. We reviewed that book here, and it’s well worth looking into if you’re planning on building one or more of this WWII US fighter. This book follows the same format, arriving bound in a stapled card cover, with seventy-two genuine pages, plus a page of patches on the rear inside cover. The front inside cover has a brief description of what a rivet-counter is about, which is pretty similar to my own description above, but more erudite. The subject covered is much broader than #1, and covers the painting and markings of the US Naval fleet’s embarked aircraft during the early years post WWI, the text starting in 1925, ending with the short period of the 40s before America was drawn into WWII and camouflage became necessary, ending the yellow-wing period, and putting years of training to the test. Dana’s work has spanned a dozen years and many research archives, which he acknowledges at the beginning of the book under the brief introduction before the real chapters begin in earnest. Introduction Organisation & Experiments Launch and Recover Basic Colours Exterior Finishes Pontoons Yellow Wings Basic Markings National Insignia US Navy Markings Serials & Unit Markings BuAer Serials (NuNos) Flagplanes US Naval Forces Europe Special Service Squadron Squadron 40-T Asiatic Fleet Battleship Unit Colours Battlefleet Aircraft Colours 1925 Illustrations Battlefleet Aircraft Assignments Chart Tail Colours Fuselage Bands Chevrons Cowl Colours Colours Battle Force Colour Card 2nd June 1931 Reproduction Battleship Classes and Commissioning Dates Chart with Illustrations Battleship Division One Observation Squadron One-B (One) Battleship Division Two Observation Squadron Six Observation Squadron Five-S Observation Squadron Two-S Observation Squadron Two-B (Two) Battleship Division Three Observation Squadrons One (One-B) and Two Observation Squadron Three (Three-B) Battleship Division Four Observation Squadron One (One-B) Observation Squadron Four (Four-B) Battleship Division Five Observation Squadron One (One-B) Observation Squadron Five (Five-B) Cruiser Divisions and Aircraft Light Cruiser Division Two, Cruiser Division Two Observation Squadron Three (Three-S) Scouting Squadron Five-S (Five-B) Cruiser Scouting Squadron Two Light Cruiser Division Three, Cruiser Division Three Observation Squadron Three Observation Squadron Three-S Observation Squadron Eleven-A Scouting Squadron Five-S Scouting Squadron Six-S Scouting Squadron Six-B Cruiser Scouting Squadron Three Light Cruiser Division Five, Cruiser Division Four Scouting Squadron Nine-S Cruiser Scouting Squadron Four Cruiser Division Five Scouting Squadron Ten-S Cruiser Scouting Squadron Five Cruiser Division Six Scouting Squadron Eleven-S Cruiser Scouting Squadron Six Cruiser Division Seven Scouting Squadron Twelve-S Cruiser Scouting Squadron Seven Cruiser Division Eight Scouting Squadron Fourteen-S Cruiser Division Eight Cruiser Scouting Squadron Eight Cruiser Division Nine Cruiser Scouting Squadron Nine Tail Colours 1930-40 Illustration Clearly this book is incredibly information dense, and breaking it down into manageable chunks by Division is the only sensible way to do it, with each Cruiser and Battleship section containing assignment charts, photos of some of the aircraft, insignia and pennants as well as profiles, with the larger sections having the most of content and photos that have their own informative captions nearby. The photos are mostly black and white, which is to be expected, but the drawings by Tom Tullis, diagrams, pennants etc. all have relevant colours that should be a great help to the interwar US Naval modeller, and anyone interested in the theme or era. Note the separate card insert containing a glossary of terms to enable the reader to look up and acronyms they may not be familiar with. Conclusion Dana’s books are definitely a niche product, of which he’s doubtless aware, but he enjoys research so much and wants to share it with us, which is great news both for us modellers and aviation historians everywhere. It’s crammed with information, much of which was previously unavailable the last time this kind of research was undertaken, in earnest, and he admits in the introduction that there are still some areas where more information is needed, but as of now you’re unlikely to find anything like it on the market. Very highly recommended. It’s available via Amazon US here for our American members. From other countries you can buy it via eBay using their International Shipping service. The link below will take you there: Review sample courtesy of Dana Bell, who is also a member of our forum.

Hi everybody, Five weeks ago I started building a P2V-7 Neptune.While it had been om my project list since 1989 (when I bought the Hasegawa kits and the Falcon"glass" and P2V-5 conversion) it became reality now because of a chat with a fellow modeller here in Britmodeller. This chap was interested in, among other things, Argentine Navy markings for the grey/white P2V-7 neptunes... Since I had the same hankering I decided that I was going to crib together a decal sheet (a part of the project since the beginning since there are NO decal sheets for this subject) and share! However... the more I looked at pictures of the original the clearer it was that the Neptunes bought in 1977 had been painted in different fonts than the standard used in other aircraft. I ended up drawing an entire sheet from scratch, including the stencils in Spanish. Sorry for the intrusive watermarking. Some of my earlier work was plagiarized wholesale and sold without so much as a by your leave... Not contented with that I was publicly vilified by the ripoff artists for protesting the theft. He'll be doing 2-P-111 and I'll be doing 2-P-112 So we'll both end up with unique models No risk of getting to an exhibition/competition just to find out that there's at least one chap with exactly same model as your latest pride and joy! So now to the plastic! Hasegawas kit is 45 years old but fully buildable - it has better fit than any number of modern kits I could mention. It needs detailing though... and it has two errors that become very visible once pointed out (quoting Thommy Thomason - USN Aviation researcher and modeller extraordinaire). Nosewheel well is NOT centered and it is broader than the kit parts - however the nose geat itself is aligned with the fuselage centerline. https://tailhooktopics.blogspot.no/2014/02/hasagawa-p2v-neptune-kit.html So I widened the opening and added a 0.9 cm plastic strip on the port side to adjust the well opening So I went on to measuring and cutting the first bulkhead (back wall in the observer's compartment The pieces for the new wheel well Using part of the original wheel well was an easy way to keep the landing gear leg centered as per the original. Here's the wheel well getting "squared" Since the roof of the new wheel well is going to be the cockpit module floor I sanded the resin part very thin and then I glued plastic sheet to the bottom - making the glueing of the wheel well much simpler. I hate cyanoacrylate glue. The measuring wheel well notes: And here's the finished wheel well & observer compartment before detailing The big opening is the entry to the aircraft; the crawlway is visible just beyond. The grey plastic is what's left of the original part. Here's a view of the three modules together and the way I used to get them to stay in place: A view of the whell wel in place before detailing and being glued to its place (it is NOT glued in this photo)... ...and the observer's compartment After some light detailing: And the view from the front Finally this is what the "Works" looks like! Cheers, Moggy

The aircraft in which 'Winkle' Brown made the first landing of a pure jet aircraft aboard a carrier.

Something of a walkaround of the FAAM's example

The FAAM's Short S.27 replica

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.

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.

Here’s my version of Tamiya’s 1/48 F4U-1 ‘birdcage’ Corsair, finished in the nondescript markings of a Marine squadron based in the Solomon Islands in 1943. This build was almost straight ‘out-of-the-box’ – the only things added were seat belts, a rearview mirror, and some brake lines to the main gear. These kits are real treats to build – if you are careful, you won’t have to fill a single seam. I realize a Marine Corsair based in the Solomons would be probably not have the wings folded, but I really like the look of a plane with dropped flaps, folded wings, open canopy, etc. I also kept weathering to a minimum, mainly because I don’t know how to portray a heavily weathered effect properly. These Tamiya Corsairs are arguably the best in 1/48 scale - I just wish they’d do a -4 version…

Here’s another Crusader that I built several years ago. It's the old reliable Monogram F-8E that I converted to a 'J' model, which I have ugraded over time. I added an aftermarket seat, and an out-of-production flap/droop/underwing bay set by High Flight. I scribed lines on the leading edge droops to at least depict the appearance of the extended droops of the 'J' version. The UHT’s (unit horizontal tail) are larger on the J version, but I didn’t correct that (yet!). I also extended the main and nose gear struts to correct the too-low stance of the kit gear, and later used parts from a Hasegawa Crusader kit for the ‘football’ ECM antenna on the tail. I added scrap plastic rod and wire to busy up the gear wells, and scratch-built steps and a boarding ladder. In addition, I added a canopy restraint strap, replaced the plastic pitot probe with wire, and added an afterburner nozzle from a section of an old F-18 exhaust cone. I used SuperScale decals to depict the VF-211 CAG jet from USS Hancock, circa 1972. The Remove Before Flight flags are from Eduard, and the Sidewinders are from Hasegawa’s weapons set (which I need to replace with a later variant!). Monogram’s Crusader is a great value for the money, with the biggest innaccuracy being the cockpit is a few scale inches too wide, giving the canopy and windscreen a flattened appearance when compared to the actual jet. But with a little extra work, it can be buit into a fine model.

Here’s my attempt at Hasegawa’s A-4C Skyhawk. It’s the best-detailed 1:48 Skyhawk available now, though quite expensive and hard to find now. It’s an out of the box build, except for the True Details ESCAPAC aftermarket seat I added. I used kit decals to finish it the markings of VA-15 Valions deployed aboard USS Forrestal, on their 1969 Mediterranean cruise. For weapons, I wanted something different, so took a bit of artistic license and an educated guess and loaded it with a B43 nuclear weapon on the centerline pylon.