JamesP

Great work on the skin tone and camo

Nice attention to detail. A great model

Cheers Matt, but I think it’s more by happy accident 😁

Your work is very neat and tidy which is very hard at this scale with diverting fiddly.

I got this completed just before I went away for a week, and then had to wait for some sunshine (which promptly disappeared behind a cloud). Finally, here it is.

Given the issues I had with the kit I'm quite happy with the result, apart from the rear bulkhead/canopy, which bulges out too much and crowds the rotor mast. In an age of CAD and 3D printing, even for short-run/cottage industry manufacturers, it's easy to scoff at the issues with this kit. The Wasp in 1/72 is also one of the toughest challenges to take on. Everything is on display, so my hat is off to anyone even contemplating mastering such a kit. Only some of the problems stem from the scratchbuilt master, some from probably due to its long on/off gestation and some from frankly poor moulding. With the release of the LF models kit, many had hoped that a 1/72 Wasp was now a done deal, but it's evident from reviews that the short-run IP nature of its manufacture is not up to the job either. You may find it strange but I've enjoyed building this kit, the challenge has been interesting but not insurmountable and I have a model I'm pleased with. The lack of flotation gear and weapons may be a negative to many, but the Wasp served in many configurations and this clean variant has its own charm ... and dayglo! Thanks to @Colin @ Freightdog Models/Rotocraft for the opportunity to build this kit. Here you can see the extra detail the kit provides as well as how all the wheels touch the ground 😉

An excellent homage. The WIP prompted me to repurchase and reread the story.

I'm sure you could cobble something together from generic titles sheets.

It has been a bit of a protracted start to painting as I kept finding minor issues and jobs that needed attention. Thankfully, once I was ready things have gone very smoothly. I used Xtracolour Blue-Grey which though very thin in the tin and probably rubbish for brush painting, sprayed beautifully. The Orange Crop antenna was added at this stage. For the dayglo, I based coated these areas in yellow, then made a 2:1 mix of Xtracolor Roundel Red and Hu 209 Fire Orange. I'm very happy with the result.

Oh this looks tasty.

Beautifully captures the look of the real thing. Well done.

It's been a long week... Firstly, time to get the rest of the airframe together, but that required untwisting the tail boom. It's hard to see, but the stiffeners are not at the right positions either, but it looks better than before. The other parts that are going to be painted blue/grey got stuck on as well. Now the (un)fun part of building the undercarriage. The legs themselves were far too chunky and were sanded to a more slender shape. The wheels, being too wide, were sawn in half and rejoined, then completely sawn off and repositioned with the bracket angled. I had already discarded the upper V sections with the intention of replacing them with plastic rod. I was keeping the lower parts as they were moulding hard resin and would rely on them for strength. So I needed to make new parts to match. I started by drawing out a plan, where it quickly became apparent that the front legs weren't in the correct position. The log pencil marks show the kit's locations, and the short marks are where I think they should be. The incorrect position was fixed by the location of the underside surface detail, so this had to come off and be repositioned further forward. Note the geometry of the back and front legs should be similar. The kit's front V struts are narrower than the rear, but I went along with this. I then made some new upper struts... What happened to get to here is too traumatic to recount. Suffice it to say things were redone many, many times. Despite plans, the combination of many small errors quickly compound into something that needs each part to be individually tailored. Even though the kit has its errors, one quickly learns to respect anyone trying to scratchbuild something as complicated as the Wasp, at this scale, by hand. There was a moment before this when all the legs were on, though the front legs weren't glued to the fuselage to aid in applying the paint scheme I want to do. However fate decided that it would be better if I pinged the parts across my modelling room.

I had the very same graphic novel, I leant it and never got it back. Great inspiring stuff and the kit immediately put me in mind of it, so was quite stunned at the coincidence when I scrolled down. I’ve a feeling it’s going to cost me to replace the book.

Cheers guys. The next major hurdle is the cockpit glazing. Two resin sides and vacformed roof and nose. The sides (and fuselage) were settled to get the best fit and I made a small spacer to keep them the required distance apart. With them in place the roof could be trimmed to fit as best as possible. The nose had already been cut out to determine the length of the floor extension I'd added earlier. The vacuum parts were tacked in place with CA before flooding the joins once I got the best fit I could achieve. Unfortunately, the best fit was not great. The rear had to be bent inward and the nose is not deep enough to meet the windscreen. A "spare" set of vacform parts would have really been a great help here, as you learn a lot from the mistakes you make on the first. The gaps were initially sealed with my rather gloppy Mr Sufacer 500, which stopped anything from getting into the cockpit. I could then use actual filler to level things out. The bottom of the windscreen was now too deep, so some more filler was used to try and build up the nose. The rear of the canopy though is the worst part, being far too bulbous. I considered replacing it, even getting out the Airfix kit. The canopy is that kit's weakest feature and would've needed a scratchbuilt rear bulkhead to match the width of this one. I've added the small chin to the underside of the nose, which was missing from the kit altogether.

I can see this being indistinguishable from the photo above. Are the lourves separate parts?

Here's the cockpit all finished. I think the interior is meant to be Dark Admiralty Grey, which is a neutral medium grey. I just used the closest thing to hand. Army Painter dark tone wash, a few bits of detail painting and a quick drybrush. Though a lot of glazing the roof is tinted dark blue and the curved side windows obscure stuff so no need to go to town.

Gorgeous

What does the Al powder do to the resin?

A challenging build if only of your patience. I do like the tweezer stands I've not seen them before. I've clipped a clothes peg on my in the past to achieve the same.

The cabin sides are supplied in clear resin. The window are a bit cloudy and need a polish. A small felt wheel on a motor-tool with some plastic polish did a reasonably good job. The engine needs to be painted separately from the airframe, so I got that done. The shallow exhausts were drilled and then reamed out. Every engine appears different from burnt-out to brand-new looking exhausts, so take your pick. The body of the engine is painted DSG intake, LG centre. Tubes and wires are black and metals. One of the unidentified doohickeys is an electronics box on top of the engine with black cables. I also added an exhaust tube to the other side. Other than that, there is more than enough detail at this scale to make it look right. If you want to go further, I'm sure the LF 3D printed accessory would satisfy anyone, though very steep at £18.

A really interesting build. It’s great to be pleasantly surprised by a kit. Too often it’s the other way round.

In the grand tradition of posting questions on a public forum the answers become suddenly apparent shortly afterwards. The thin parts are braces for the rotor mast. The other thingamy sits atop the engine on near the front.

Ok time to play guess the parts. Maybe @Colin @ Freightdog Models can shed some light. The two thin rods in black resin one appears to have some dials on. I think the thick part in the middle is a pouring stub. Finally, the doohickey marked by the blue dot. Looks hydraulic-y.

The seats are a bit wonky-donkey, the seat pan is at an odd angle and the legs are "trim to fit". I found my Airwaves Scout/Wasp PE, which has new seats, but I felt it would be easier to adapt the resin parts. I also made a bench seat for the rear and modelled it folded (saves me painting a whole bunch of belts). I added a new cabin floor which allowed me to extend it into the nose. To aid in detailing the cockpit we are lucky that @The Baron has undertaken over the last couple of years to create an extremely detailed CAD model of the WASP for printing in 1/32 and 1/24 scale. I'm in no way going to try to recreate that detail in 1/72, instead just suggest that it's there. The CAD and reference pictures are most helpful in accurately locating things. The PE came in handy for the IP and centre console as they are devoid of detail.

Well if you can’t buy it build it yourself. Well done mate.