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Everything posted by pjman792
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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
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Hasegawa F-8E VF-162 Hunters
pjman792 replied to Hardtarget's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Great-looking Crusader! The F-8 is my favorite jet. -
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…
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AD6 skyraider VA155 Corée 1954 monogram 1/48
pjman792 replied to paul coudeyrette's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
A stunning build - hard to believe this is the old Monogram kit. Outstanding work! -
This is a jaw-dropping build. Superb in every respect.
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1:48 Hasegawa F-8E Crusader MiG-killer
pjman792 replied to pjman792's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Thanks, Bill!- 40 replies
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1/32 scale Trumpeter Skyraider
pjman792 replied to mireson's topic in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft
Terrific work on your Skyraider! I especially like the fact that you chose to build it with wings folded and engine access panels opened. -
Here’s another of my collection of F-8 Crusaders, a 1/48 Hasegawa F-8E. I finished it in the markings of 'Superheat 210', a jet flown by VF-162 commanding officer CDR. Richard Bellinger from USS Oriskany, when he downed the Navy’s first MiG-21 of the Vietnam War in 1966. I used a mix of Eduard and kit decals, a Cutting Edge cockpit, and Aires resin gear wells and underwing bay. I scratch-built the boarding steps and ladder, and added brake and hydraulic lines to the gear. In the cockpit I added a flap handle and emergency canopy release to the insturment panel, a grab handle and standby compas on the windscreen bow, and added a canopy restraint strap and the canvas cover to the hole in front of the gunsight. As per my research, the jet carries a dissimilar weapons load of an AIM-9B and an AIM-9D, since there was a shortage of the newer sidewinders at that point in the war. While Hasegawa's F-8 is the best in 1:48 scale, I had numerous fit issues, most likely due to all the aftermarket parts I added and my own building errors. It’s no contest winner, but it’s finished, and on the shelf!
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A beautiful build on this A-4, Jens! I built a 1/48 Monogram A-4E and also finished it in markings of VA-144, from their 1969 Vietnam cruise aboard USS Bon Homme Richard.
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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.
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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.
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