Dan Hayward

Thank you all for the nice comments! -Dan

This is Arma's New P-39Q which went together with no real issues. Hopefully I've solved my image linking problem. -Dan

Me too, but I can't get them to load. Will probably delete this until I can figure it out. -Dan

Not a bad year! Lots of Arma Hobby and Airfix on the list. First done was this Roden British Pattern 1920 Mk. II Armored Car… Then the fantastic Arma Hobby P-51c… I always love Dekno’s resin kits, this is the Howard DGA 15… The P-51 got me going on an 8th Air Force kick, this is an Academy P-47D… Once in a while it’s fun to see what I can do with an oldie, this is Airfix’s H.P. Hampden… Another Arma Hobby Mustang… I like to do the occassional armor kit, this is UM’s Panzer IIIN… A new kit from Dekno last year was the Travel Air 6000… Another P-47D, this time the Hasegawa kit… Back to Dekno to do one from the stash, the Marcoux-Bromberg racer… IBG’s Lancia 3ro was next… Arma Hobby has another winner with their Ki-84 Hayate… I used some old Microscale decals on an Airfix P-51D to do Claude Crenshaw’s “Louisiana Heat Wave”… Another Airfix P-51D with markings I’ve wanted to do for a long time… Here’s Airfix’s Spitfire Vc in Aussie Clive Caldwell’s markings… Pavla’s Westland Whirlwind was a bit of a challenge.. Had to do some Luftwaffe to go with the 8th A.F. stuff, this is Airfix’s FW-190… Back to Arma Hobby and their Yak 1b… Another oldie that took a bit of work, Airfix’s Fairey Firefly Mk. V… This is a Trumpeter M4A3 Sherman… Academy’s FW-190 A-8… ICM’s Bf-109e… And finally, Italeri’s Spitfire Vb in Ian Gleed’s markings… Thanks for looking at all that! -Dan

Japanese aircraft aren't my forte but I've become a bit of an Arma Hobby fan so I had to get their new Hayate and have a go at it. The kit is on par with their other recent releases and goes together with no problems. I kept weathering to a minimum, basically just a light wash on the panel lines to make them stand out and some light scuffing on the wing root below the cockpit. I think I may have made a mistake in painting the rollover structure the same interior green as the rest of the cockpit, I think now it should have been black. The green propeller was news to me but apparently some were that color later in the war. Always fun to learn and build something new! -Dan

I've built quite a few Dekno kits over the years and have never had problems like pinholes or bubbles in the resin he uses. Never any real issues with casting other than a few spots that might need a bit of filling and sanding. The 3D printed parts in this kit were a huge step up compared to small parts which would have been cast in resin in the past, they are finer, stronger and much more detailed. -Dan

Here's my effort on one of Dekno's latest kits, the 1/72 Travel Air 6000B. The 3D-printed parts in this kit are very nicely done! -Dan

This is my second build of this excellent kit and I enjoyed it as much as the first. I went with the standard canopy and the OD over gray scheme of 4th FG ace Nicholas "Cowboy" Megura. -Dan

Thank you all for the positive comments! -Dan

I wasn't sure about those large panels either and almost didn't use them. But once painted, given a dark wash and dry brushed with a light color, they looked much better and to be honest they look pretty neat in there with the light from the skylight on them. -Dan

I just recently completed the old Airfix kit of the Hampden with most of an Airwaves PE interior installed. The PE parts really help with an otherwise bare interior. Falcon vac transparencies were used except for the nose, the Airfix part was used there after all the framing was sanded off. I also sanded down the exterior rivets until just a hint of them remained. Markings are for a 408 Sqn. RCAF machine, summer 1941. Thanks for looking! -Dan

I should shoot myself for not getting 2 or 3 of these kits when I had the chance! -Dan

I've built Arma's Hurricane Mk. 1, F4F-4, and now the Mustang and I think they might now be my favorite manufacturer. -Dan

Thank you all! I'm looking forward to seeing a lot more of these showing up here in the future. -Dan

Beautiful kit, went together with no problems. -Dan

Thanks! I used Tamiya paints- Sky lightened with a little white for the undersurfaces, XF-24 Dark Gray in place of the Extra Dark Sea Grey, and a mix of XF-65 Field Gray and black for the Slate Grey. I was going for a slightly sun-faded look. -Dan

I enjoyed the Arma Hurricane Mk. 1 so much that I took advantage of their pre-order offer of their new F4F-4 expert kit with an additional set of sprues included. I dove right in when they arrived and just finished the first kit as a Martlet II of 888 Squadron using the markings included in the kit. The plastic parts are nicely molded and fit is excellent, I had no trouble and used minimal filler. I was a little worried about assembling the landing gear based on build reviews of their earlier FM-2 kit but the little plastic jig included with the F4F-4 kit worked liked a charm. I was actually able to build the complete landing gear assembly on the the main keel piece and then slide it out of the fuselage prior to painting. It slid right back in afterwards, no glue required. Not a great photo, but the cockpit is quite complete. The engine and accessory section also go together very nicely. Here's the assembled landing gear. I really enjoyed this one, looking forward to building the other kit in USN markings! -Dan

The key to that is the kapton tape. I believe it has a silicone based adhesive that the epoxy will not adhere to.

Funny you should mention that, I felt that I was channeling Moa while I was working on it! I'm a fan of his work so I know I've still got a ways to go to reach his level though. -Dan

Thank you all for the nice comments! -Dan

I’ve built quite a few vacuform kits over the past few years but never felt I had the skills needed to tackle an Execuform kit. They offer many interesting subjects but are devoid of all detail, they are basically a blank canvas. I decided to challenge myself with their 1/72 Howard DGA-15 kit. Read on for construction notes and photos… The first big hurdle was cutting out the fuselage windows and windscreen opening. There are no indications on the plastic parts to help with this. The drawings included with the kit were a big help and I eventually pencilled in the shapes. I cut them out by drilling a hole in the center of each marked area and then slowly carved the openings to shape with a sharp blade. At this point I decided to experiment with a method involving clear casting epoxy and kapton tape to make the cabin windows. I’d previously seen someone on one of the forums show how it was done but couldn’t find the thread. No matter, the epoxy and tape were readily available from Amazon so I gave it a try and found that it works quite well! The kapton tape is applied to the outside of the fuselage and the epoxy is poured into the window openings from the inside. I put a perimeter of thin stretched sprue around each set of windows to act as a dam and put enough epoxy in so that it flowed out level. In my first experiments I tried filling each window individually but it was hard to get the exact amount of epoxy in each one and any curvature of the inner surface resulted in an obvious optical distortion. After the epoxy cures, pull off the tape and you’ll find perfectly flush windows! Photo shows one of my early tests with a piece of scrap plastic, not bad except for a few air bubbles. I made an interior based on photos found online, the seats were carved from basswood. The next challenge was to replicate the fabric and stringer detail that Howards have on the lower rear fuselage. I did it by glueing down lengths of stretched sprue and then covering it with multiple coats of Mr. Surfacer and sanding in between. I was able to use the kit parts to make the wheel pants but had to carve the legs from plastic sheet. Time to tackle the windscreen. I filled the kit’s vacuform windscreen with Durham’s Water Putty in order to make a master to form new ones over because I figured it was going to take me multiple tries to get it right. The first one I made turned out to be too wide so I shaved down the sides of the master pattern and things fit pretty well after that, just lots of tedious trimming to get it to mate up to the fuselage. Pretty basic assembly, priming and painting after that. I chose an existing modern aircraft to replicate since it had the standard Howard fuselage stripe and wheel pant design in black which I could print decals for on my home laser printer. I drew them up in Photoshop and found the Howard logo for the tail online. Definitely not the easiest vac I ever built and there are a few things that aren't quite right but I'm pretty happy with it! Thanks for looking, Dan

Actually now that I think about it, I did not vac- form them, I "smash molded" them by heating a square of plastic sheet over a candle flame and pulling it down over my wood master which was mounted on a stick.

The new kit really helps a lot, it is very nice. -Dan

Oh you're right- I hate it when the scale isn't mentioned and then I go ahead and do it myself. I've just edited the topic to include it, glad you pointed it out! -Dan