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Welcome to the Jungle – RA-5C Vigilante - completed


trickyrich

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ok here we go, though I need to correct one thing it should have been RVAH-13 not 11 as I mentioned above. RVAH-6 & 13 were the two main squadrons to test the camouflage scheme but there is mention of RVAH-11 & 12 having aircraft in the test scheme as well.

 

For the initial trials RVAH-6 was deployed on the USS Constellation and RVAH-13 was on the USS Kitty Hawk. The camouflage scheme was to help protect the aircraft from MiG attacks but ground fire caused the most losses on the USS Constellation and the water based schemes were quickly removed. They were latter applied to aircraft on the Constellation but the results were the same. The finish was quite rough and dropped about 20kts of max speeds. As can be seen by the decal set they tried this on a variety of aircraft.

 

I haven't found any mention of the exact number of Vigilante's that were done in this scheme, popular belief is anywhere between 6 to 10 aircraft (which is also what Collect-Aire quotes). RVAH-6 used the colour mix of Dark Green FS.34079/Field Green FS.34079/Dark Grey FS.36081, there are also mentions of Field Green FS.34079/Dark Grey FS.36081 and Dark Green FS.34079/Olive Green FS.34102 (again Collect-Aire). These may or may not be correct, though all references to these scheme mentioned that they varied from aircraft to aircraft. The demarcation lies with the White undersurfaces also varied between aircraft, from straight lines to tight squiggles. RVAH-13 aircraft appear to have been camouflaged in Dark Green FS.34079/Field Green FS.34079/Tan FS.34201, though again documentation is hard to find so there could have been variations.

 

These are the aircraft I do know had the test schemes;

 

RVAH-6 – 702 – BuNo149313

RVAH-6 – 705 – BuNo150830

 

RVAH-11 – 602(?) – BuNo149313 (ex-RVAH-6)

 

RVAH-12 – 602 – BuNo ?

RVAH-12 – 604 – BuNo149289

 

RVAH-13 – 604 – BuNo150834

RVAH-13 – 606 – BuNo151727

 

RVAH-11's RA-5C was a replacement aircraft straight from -6 and was used to help rebuild the USS Forrestal's airways after the disastrous fire onboard in July 65.

 

CtA%20Welcome%20to%20the%20Jungle%20deca

CtA%20Welcome%20to%20the%20Jungle%20deca

 

Collect-Aire%20RA-5C%20painting%20Guide-

 

Hopefully this helps you, there are some good photo's on the internet but you do have to do a bit of searching.

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Ok update time.

 

Well I finally started painting here, of course the white had to go down first. Initially I used Mr Hobby Aqueous USN White FS.17875 (H-316) thinned right back with Levelling solution. It come out great, the panel lines and pre-shading were almost perfect straight-out.

 

IMG_1531-L.jpg

 

The only issue was it was a bit to grey! The USN white is Off-White to start with and the grey undercoat added to this! More coats really wouldn’t lighten it up.

 

So I thinned right back some Tamiya X-2 White with some Tamiya Lacquer thinner. Gosh this stuff is awesome and I thought Leveling solution was great. For the Tamiya Acrylic paints ( I haven’t tried it with Mr Hobby yet) it slows down the drying a wee bit but make the paint much harder. Sometimes Tamiya paints can be a wee bit soft. If you get the chance try it, it’s much better than their acrylic thinners of Mr. Hobby’s Leveling solution.

 

Unfortunately you really can’t see the difference in the photos! But it is there and I don’t have to redo the panel lines either!

 

IMG_1540-L.jpg

 

All the other parts were painted the same as well, though the U/c bits were given multiple coats to really whiten them.

 

IMG_1541-L.jpg

 

The hard part now is the demarcation line, for this particular aircraft the demarcation line was a fine even scallop from nose to tail! This will be hard to do!!! But hopefully I can start the camouflage scheme tomorrow...

 

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3 hours ago, trickyrich said:

USS Forrestal's airways after the disastrous fire onboard in July 65.

I think you mean ‘67 ? I was actually onboard the Forrest fire in 1990. I remember the plaque with the names well. I had the oppurtunity to be a guest of the U.S.Navy on board for 8 days. A memory i will cherish to my grave. 

 

Dennis

 

PS - I really need to upload those photos to. 

Edited by Corsairfoxfouruncle
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7 hours ago, Grey Beema said:

I think make yourself a small template for the wavy demarkation and use that to transcribe onto the masking tape.

 

I love this build - great work @trickyrich..  I think the Viggie looks so good in the Camouflage..

it's a good idea, my only issue is I don't quite know if it was a hard edge or soft edge wavy. Plus with the sheer length of her it's going to take some time making a mask, but bound to be easier than doing it with a BluTac sausage! I'll have to try and dig up some more reference photos.

6 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I think you mean ‘67 ? I was actually onboard the Forrest fire in 1990. I remember the plaque with the names well. I had the oppurtunity to be a guest of the U.S.Navy on board for 8 days. A memory i will cherish to my grave. 

 

Dennis

 

PS - I really need to upload those photos to. 

Oops typo, i was getting late when I wrote this one up. That would have been an amazing experience and definitely one you'd never forget. I was lucky enough get onboard the USS Kitty Hawk when she visited Sydney in 1999, it was just a general public thing but gosh she was so impressive. We don't get them here anymore as the "fun police" won't allow CVN's into Sydney harbour, scared it may upset someone!

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1 minute ago, MarkSH said:

I’d never have thought of using a lacquer thinner with acrylic paint, good tip.

it works really well, I've only tried it Tamiya with Tamiya for the moment, I suspect it'll also work with Mr Hobby's acrylic range as well. The other true water based paints...well not too sure it will or not. I guess if you can thin them with alcohol then lacquer thinners should as well.

 

I only tried it after seeing it mentioned of other forums, those that use it swear by it, and now I'm inclined to agree. The big deal with it is that it changes the drying time plus makes the final finish much tougher.

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well the next big hurdle is done, the paint job!

 

Prepping for the top colours did require quite a bit of preparation which mostly involved the demarcation line. These varied greatly from aircraft to aircraft, from a near straight-line to a tight scalloped line, which mine had. Now how to do it, I originally thought I might be able to do it with BluTac sausages but it would be very hard to get it even, plus the demarcation line appears to have had a sharp edge (or near sharp), not something I could do nicely with BluTac.

 

So it would have to be done with tape. To get the even scallops I made a mask out of plastic sheet then used that as a guide to cut out the mask. It was a long slow progress but it came out quite nicely, so now mask up the beast.

 

IMG_1542-L.jpg

 

The scallops could have been a bit finer but I’m happy with it.

 

IMG_1543-L.jpg

 

Next the main colours, Tan, Field Green, Dark Green in that order and freehand for a change. I really don’t knew if she had a hard edge or soft edge pattern, there was no info on it and the photo’s are not really clear. Having read that each scheme was different I decided to go with a slightly soft demarcation.

 

I’m pretty happy with how it came out, a wee bit uneven which I wanted. It would have been a great help to have known how the sea air and exposure affected the finish? 

 

IMG_1544-L.jpg

 

IMG_1545-L.jpg

 

Next I need to mask of the nose radome and paint it gloss white, then add the scallop mask, a bit lower this time and then paint the top black. Then it’s just a case of glossing up the camouflage decal and panel line it before a flat topcoat. The wing leading edges also need to be done in clear-coated aluminum but this will be done right at the end.

 

I never thought I’d say it but the end is insight! The only scary thing is how the demarcation line will look when the mask comes off!

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Great airbrush work Rich.

 

Ill definitely be giving the Tamiya lacquer thinner a try as a change  to Gunze self levelling thinner.

 

Look forward to more progress.

 

James

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43 minutes ago, Grey Beema said:

Superb looking Rich.  

 

Looks a great finish from here.  I wouldn't worry too much about fading - how long did they wear the scheme for?

Thanks.

 

From what I gather for the length of the deployment only, though they could have been removed earlier. From what I can gather it was water based paint and the colours and patterns depended on where the re-painting was done. By the sounds of it it was just sprayed on top of the original paint, as RVAH-6 removed the camouflage from their aircraft mid deployment using solvent soaked rags!

 

I won't go too crazy at all with the weathering, most photo's of RA-5C's of that time period show the aircraft to be quite clean as they were brand new. So just the panel lines and maybe a wee bit of staining on the underside around the engines and that's it.

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21 minutes ago, franky boy said:

Great airbrush work Rich.

 

Ill definitely be giving the Tamiya lacquer thinner a try as a change  to Gunze self levelling thinner.

 

Look forward to more progress.

 

James

just be careful James, the camouflage paint is Mr Hobby and I just used Levelling solution with that as I haven't tried thinning it out with lacquer yet. The underside is also a mix of Mr Hobby USN White then a coat of Tamiya Gloss white thinned with lacquer. If I get a chance I'll try thinning with lacquer tomorrow and report the results.

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Some more progress made but I’ve come across a few more issues!

 

She was given a clear coat and allowed to bake in the sun for most of the morning. Once that was done it was time for some decals. I ended up using a mix of the Collect-Aire decals and the CtA ones. On the national markings on the CtA decals the blue was to pale, plus the decal sizes were wrong, the wing markings were too small. Even the Collect-Aire ones were incorrect as well when compared to photographs.  

 

The underside wing marking were kept at the original size, so they were the same size as you would see on a normal Vigilante. 

 

IMG_1561-L.jpg

 

The upper wing one were about half way between the size of the under wing and fuselage markings. The Collect-Aire ones while the right colour are a bit too large, I may need to look through the spares box for a replacement.

 

IMG_1559-L.jpg

 

Most of the rest went on pretty well. I need to add the Modex number (604) to the nose and I’m not too sure how to do this. It sits just on the scallop demarcation line and the camouflaged areas needs to be very Matt but the white needs to be gloss. I’m not too sure how I’m going to do this. I actually need to finish the few remaining decals so I can give the camouflage area a good coat of flat. The original finish was reported to be quite rough to touch with a real sandy feel to it.

 

IMG_1558-L.jpg

 

IMG_1560-L.jpg

 

The other issue I had was the masking tape looks to have reacted with the gloss paint and now has some texture to it. It’s the second time this has happened to me with a gloss finish. Even allowing it to cure for 24 hours as well! It’s fixable, I’ll give it a light rubdown with 6000 grit, then maybe a wee bit of gloss paint will cover it up nicely.

 

 

I’ve had a sneak peak at the scalloped demarcation line, it looks really good!

 

 

Plus I did a bit of work on the U/c. I reckon there’s about one weekends worth of work left on her, I’m away from home most of the week so I won’t have a chance to do anything at night. But the end is in sight finally!! 

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9 hours ago, Mike said:

That looks great Rich - any reason why you've left the scallop masks on?  teasing us? :owww:

not quite :D

 

The camouflage areas need to be quite Matt while the white needs to be gloss. At the moment the camouflage areas is sort of glossy for decalling and panel lining. Maybe tomorrow night I'll get a chance to finish off the decals, then I can give that area it's final flat clear coat.

 

I have to admit I'm dying too to see how it all came out as well...... no photos if it was bad....or am I really teasing then! :wicked:

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8 hours ago, trickyrich said:

I need to add the Modex number (604) to the nose and I’m not too sure how to do this. It sits just on the scallop demarcation line and the camouflaged areas needs to be very Matt but the white needs to be gloss. I’m not too sure how I’m going to do this.

Hello Rich ... Id place the modex # after the flat coat. Then just brush the gloss . That or mask the area and spray the gloss on the numbers. You get a matt aircraft and gloss #’s. 

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22 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Hello Rich ... Id place the modex # after the flat coat. Then just brush the gloss . That or mask the area and spray the gloss on the numbers. You get a matt aircraft and gloss #’s. 

I think I'll have to place it on the gloss surface first after thinking about it a bit more. The decal film of quite glossy and the matt surface needs to be very matt or close to it. So I'm thinking I'll gloss the decal once it's on then carefully lay the scallop mask over it then do the finally Matt coat. A bit tedious but it should work...I hope!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Gosh this 9 to 5, Monday to Friday stuff is killing my modeling Mojo!!

 

Right this will be the last update with luck before she’s done. This build is starting to get to me, as much as I’m super happy with how a lot of it has turned out I am quite unhappy about a few things which are starting to bug me.

 

Lots of little things have been done since the last update, the U/c is on and almost completed. It wasn’t the easiest of tasks either.

 

IMG_1566-L.jpg

 

The nose frame/support is way to thick but considering the weight it has to support I can live with that.

 

IMG_1567-L.jpg

 

The tail pod/cover….well I’m still not too convinced with it shape wise, it’s almost too round in shape. I may end up cutting the whole thing off yet and scratchbuild a new one…..will depend on how I feel, or whether I can be bothered.

 

IMG_1565-L.jpg

 

One thing I can say about those CtA decals is that once they’re on they’re not coming off again! The upper wing one was way to big and I found a replacement so I figured it’d be a simple job to remove the old one…wrong! I ended up having to rub back part of the wing to remove it. Least it looks right now, I just need to Matt clear coat it again. The leading edges of the wings were aluminum with a special coat. I’ll give them a fine coat of Tamiya Smoke, that will give them the correct look.

 

IMG_1564-L.jpg

 

The cockpit is pretty much completed, I just have to add the Joy stick (something I often forget to add) and the front canopy mirrors. It came out actually looking quite good, a huge improvement over the original offering.

 

IMG_1568-L.jpg

 

IMG_1569-L.jpg

 

The only bad things are that you won’t see much of the details with the canopies on and I managed to damaged the front screen as well. The second canopy had issues in the moulding and was of no use.

 

IMG_1570-L.jpg

 

IMG_1571-L.jpg

 

And how does it all look?

 

IMG_1572-L.jpg

 

Probably a bit better if I remember to fit the tail….

 

IMG_1573-L.jpg

 

IMG_1574-L.jpg

 

And now you can see what annoys me the most…the scalloped demarcation lines! They are too severe and too coarse. As a mask and with the masks on they didn’t look to bad, but now……I don’t think so! As they are now they’re not correctable, I really need to strip back that area back and redo it from scratch. And……I may have to leave that for another day, as this build is almost becoming work.

 

Just a few little odds and ends to finish, U/c doors etc and that’s it.

 

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I think it looks superb Rich.  I can see what you mean about the scalloping and with hindsight it might have been an idea to lightly lift the  edge of the tape mask to allow the demarcation to be softer but I don't think I would go back and redo It - there is always the chance that it might ruin an excellent model.  

 

Looking forward to seeing the reveal in the gallery...

 

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It looks damn good Rich but I can see what you mean about the masks, like you need to mask the top colours with white tac sausages & respray the bottom colour to give a softer demarcation. I'd leave it for a bit too. :D

steve.

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