Neu's KUTA builds (5/12 completed)

[-Neu-]

So, I guess I'm cursed with not being able to focus on a model, and being committed to a lot of GBs. Inevitably, kits get put aside, usually sitting forlornly in a book case near where I work. Its starting to get to be a problem.. time to fix that. I decided to put them all into one thread because most are not lengthy works: decalling, oil wash, and final coat, then its done... probably four photos total.

These are some of the 12 or so I have incomplete.



There is also this one too:




1.Revell Lancaster B I/III (Modified to a RCAF MR variant)
2. Hasegawa F-16C Blk 30 - decaling stage
3. Hasegawa F-15A ASAT - decaling stage
4. Hasegawa CF-18
5. Hasegawa Ki-61
6. Fujimi FGR2 - Painting stage
7.Hasegawa Avenger AS4 - Finishing stage
8 AZ Spitfire II
9 ESCI C-47A
10. Italeri F6F hellcat. - Final detailing.
11. CMR Sptifire 21 - Painting stage
12 Hasegawa TA-154 - reassembly and painting.

So twelve kits... Most are straight forward except the Lancaster... I lost the bomb bay doors in a move and I need to obtain a replacement.

I started working on the C-47 and the avenger...




The C-47 needs its flaps, radio aerial, pitots and props installed. Should be a fairly easy job... hopefully.

The Avenger has been a bit of an issue. Its suez decals shattered at several places. First I tried to fix it by hand painting but that didn't work. Apparently the Mr Gunze mild retardant reacts with the decal and underlying blue paint, then turns into a wrinkled mess. I've been forced to do a very careful masking job to paint them out. You cansomewha see the wrinkled mess in the photo below around the window beside the roundell.





There are some overspray issues that I'll need to correct as well.



That's that for now... This should be fun.

Edited December 31, 2013 by -Neu-

[Col.]

That's a rather nice sellection of subjects you have there, Look forward to seeing them getting finished.

[Alex Gordon]

G'day Neu,

If you're having the bomb bay open you can have my Revell ones,if closed then I've a spare Airfix part going begging.

[-Neu-]

Really?!?! That's awesome. Its supposed to be in flight and I want it to be closed... will the Airfix one fit?

[Tomjw]

Good luck mate. Lots of interesting stuff to do there.

[-Neu-]

Thanks Tom. It should be interesting.

That's a rather nice sellection of subjects you have there, Look forward to seeing them getting finished.

Thanks! there's a smattering of everything... I'm actually looking forward to getting that Lanc off of the bookcase. It was meant as a christmas gift to a friend a few years back but its languished because I was without the Bomb bay. But there is also that FGR2 that needs finishing, among other things.

Last night I only had time to glosscoat the CF-18... it was the easiest 5 minute job I could manage before going to bed.

Edited November 6, 2013 by -Neu-

[Col.]

Any progress is good progress. One less job to do next time.

[Alex Gordon]

They both look much the same size.A little light fettling at the most.I won't get to the post office until Friday or so,PM your addy and I'll get busy.

[Alex Gordon]

Goodies on the way.

Comes in at slightly less than the price of half a pint of beer to do the P+P.Beer is only rented so it's money well spent.

[-Neu-]

Well I've been able to put some time into some of the builds... the MR10, Ki-61 and the C-47.

On the C-47 there was some gaps that I didn't like so I puttied them.

I also added the underside masts... as you can see in the photo below. However I then broke it off and can't find hte part. So I replaced it with something looking like it from the spares box. Its not that noticeable, so I'll live with it.

I had a similar problem with the Lancaster's spine. Alclad is really touchy and some fixes I had made several years ago were apparent. So I basically sanded down the centre line in some areas.

I also attached the rear turret, and its housing, which I coated in mr surfacer.

finally I decalled the Ki-61...not bad for 20 year old decals. All it needs now is a top gloss coat, weathering and final coat... and we might have a finished model!

Thanks for looking!

Edited November 10, 2013 by -Neu-

[-Neu-]

Had a few hours to spare this afternoon so I spent it getting some work accomplished. Tried something new. I really don't like the Alclad black primer. I used it originally when I primed this model and it had a lot of issues. So I made a mix of mr Surfacer and gunze black and sprayed it on. We'll see how well it works.

The grey on top was because of poor mixing in the cup.

Also I painted the cargo bay door of the C-47 and took a shot of the replacement aerial.

And that's that.

[Ghostbase]

So, I guess I'm cursed with not being able to focus on a model, and being committed to a lot of GBs. Inevitably, kits get put aside, usually sitting forlornly in a book case near where I work. Its starting to get to be a problem.. time to fix that. I decided to put them all into one thread because most are not lengthy works: decalling, oil wash, and final coat, then its done... probably four photos total.

This is brilliant and inspirational! My focus lasts a week or two at best and that is that. Yet I have several kits which just need a small bit of work and they are completed.

So I am going to do one thread as well. KUTA VI here I come!

[-Neu-]

Thanks Ghost!

I'm looking forward to your (nearly completed) builds.

I'm pretty much like you. I seem to get distracted by new ideas or kits in my stash. I'm probably closer to 20 unfinished kits but I wanted to make it somewhat manageable. I got to say that this GB has been inspiring... I'm actually going at a much faster pace than I expected. The C-47 is almost done, I glosscoated the Ki-61 last night, started decalling the CF-18, and moved forward significantly on the MR 10. More photos later.

[-Neu-]

Hey all...

Sorry for the lack of updates this week, I've only been able to do small work, really not worthy of taking photos. The CF-18 recieved some love, as did the Avenger, Ki-61 and the C-47. However the CF-18, Avenger's work was minimal. the KI-61 got a gloss coat and sludge wash. Might be able to finish it tonight.

The C-47 is nearly there. I added the cargo doors, and the radio aerial.... which you can kinda see. I had to add a bit of evergreen to create clearance from the fuselage. All I have left is the flaps, and the props and its done! well... maybe. I might add a figure into the rear cargo doors just to give it some focus in there, rather than just a gaping hole in the fuselage.

[-Neu-]

One down! Not many good photos of it yet, but I finished the C-47. I fixed the spine with some putty, and correctly masked the astrodome.

And here is a preliminary final picture.

More tomorrow... or something.

[kwaterous]

The first one looks good

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Natural metal uppersurfaces with black undersurfaces... that's a very striking colour scheme!

[Atom.uk]

Nice build. I have seen a photo of a C-47 with black undersides like this from the Korean war. What is the story of this one?

[-Neu-]

Short version: Its called a firefly. One of the most effective tactics utilized by (Chinese) People's Volunteer's Army during their 1950 offensive was the human wave night attacks (like at Chosin Reservoir) In early 1951 the USAF started tasking C-47 to drop flares out the back in order to provide battlefield illumination. This was one that was used in this role.

Long version: About two years ago I was given a tub of documents from a close family friend that contained his grandfather's war documents. I was asked to make sense of it, as he had never really discussed that time of his life. What I discovered was fascinating... I've done this sort of research on the side for colleagues and friends and Martin's journey was by far the most impressive. Basically he was a gifted pilot who volunteered right after Pearl Harbour, and found to have exceptional abilities. Unfortunately he suffered an severe injury during OTU for B-24s, then washed out. He worked hard to regain his operational flight status, then was sent to Italy and flew a demanding set of night missions in the last month of the war. He was recalled into active service, and volunteered to fly to Korea.

In Korea he started flying the firefly missions because of his night bombing experience in Italy.

Then he would go onto fly Classified night reconnaissance missions in RB-26s.

This is the third of five builds I've been working through over the past year and a half. The first was a B-26 that he trained on, the second was an italian campaign A-26.

So yeah. If you're interested in more, I built them over at that certain other forum with a much more detailed history:

B-26

A-26

Next up is the two RB-26s. I might hold off on one with them for the Korean War GB... if that gets voted in of course.

[Atom.uk]

Short version: Its called a firefly. One of the most effective tactics utilized by (Chinese) People's Volunteer's Army during their 1950 offensive was the human wave night attacks (like at Chosin Reservoir) In early 1951 the USAF started tasking C-47 to drop flares out the back in order to provide battlefield illumination. This was one that was used in this role.

Long version: About two years ago I was given a tub of documents from a close family friend that contained his grandfather's war documents. I was asked to make sense of it, as he had never really discussed that time of his life. What I discovered was fascinating... I've done this sort of research on the side for colleagues and friends and Martin's journey was by far the most impressive. Basically he was a gifted pilot who volunteered right after Pearl Harbour, and found to have exceptional abilities. Unfortunately he suffered an severe injury during OTU for B-24s, then washed out. He worked hard to regain his operational flight status, then was sent to Italy and flew a demanding set of night missions in the last month of the war. He was recalled into active service, and volunteered to fly to Korea.

In Korea he started flying the firefly missions because of his night bombing experience in Italy.

Then he would go onto fly Classified night reconnaissance missions in RB-26s.

This is the third of five builds I've been working through over the past year and a half. The first was a B-26 that he trained on, the second was an italian campaign A-26.

So yeah. If you're interested in more, I built them over at that certain other forum with a much more detailed history:

B-26

A-26

Next up is the two RB-26s. I might hold off on one with them for the Korean War GB... if that gets voted in of course.

Fascinating. i like to model planes with a specific history like this, although my completion rateis rather poor! I like your KUTA project, and i may well throw in some of mine.

[-Neu-]

Hey guys.

I'm really terrible about updates, but I've been making significant progress. Unfortunately no final photos of the C-47, but I have some other ones nearing completion.

So lets get some of the smaller updates out of the way:

The CF-18 has been decalled and I've finished the first weathering pass (Mostly adding spots to weather the aircraft):

Next step is an oil wash then final coat. After that goes on the other details like the tanks, sparrows and sidewinders. This one is actually a gift so I'll need to get a move on so it arrives in time for christmas.

Next up is a one photo update of the TA-154. I built this kit probably 12 years ago and I wasn't a great modeller back then. I added weights but apparently not enough, as the aircraft became a tail sitter. So I disassembled it and added enough weight to the nacelles to get it to the right position. Next step for her is to dress up the cockpit a little bit and then fix up as many seam lines as possible before repainting her.

The next is the Spitfire 21. Let me start by saying that I suck at doing vacuform cockpits. I've talked to some friends and learned of some new techniques (I'm getting gator glue) but it was a real struggle. Here it is with the masks,

Close up of the issues.

I got it smoothed out eventually and ended up here:

I found out that I've lost the undercarriage doors, but I'll rob the second set from the Airfix Mk22 and go from there.

The Avenger has been gloss coated. All it needs is its exhaust smoke added and then its done.

The Ki-61 is ALMOST done. I need to attach the last UC doors, some sort of cooler on the bottom, the exhausts and fix some small errors.

[-Neu-]

And finally... here is the Lancaster.

I received two key parts, one from Alex Gordon on the forums, and the other from a small manufacturer in the US.



The Bomb bay was essential... Its probably been the biggest block for me moving forward with the kit.

And here is the result!

Many thanks to Alex for this.... This kit would have gotten nowhere without him.

With that out of the way, its time for decals!

I also took some photos of the crews I added.

And that's that. Hopefully I can finish the Avenger and Ki-61 over the weekend.

Thanks for looking!

[Alex Gordon]

That's looking the business.Any problems with the fit?

[-Neu-]

It generally worked. I needed to clamp it (which is tough given its shape), and I was considering adding a shim to the front, but decided against it because the gap isn't that big.

Truth be told, the bomb bay doors makes me want to build the old Airfix kit more and more. I love the realistic riveting. Thanks again though Alex.

[-Neu-]

Well finished the ki-61.... I strung the line and added some final details. I need to dab a bit of smoke on the starboard when I use the stuff next... but its a relatively minor issue.

Also these two are allllmost done. The avenger just needs some wheels and the propeller warnings... the CF-18 needs a final coat and a landing gear.

More later...

Edited December 11, 2013 by -Neu-