Valkyrie Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 Getting onto the final approach and looking on course. Neat work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 (edited) Yesterday I managed to scale down the 1/48th sheet to 1/72nd whilst at work and showed to a colleague wo had not seen this done before, only to realise that I had copied it onto the wrong side of the paper (Top photo). So I went back to the photocopier and copied it to the correct side with the results in the second photo. Although it looks a disaster it is not that bad at all as the parts that I really wanted have come out fine. I do have another spiral on another decal sheet that I am able to use. With one step forward, I have now taken one back. Looking on the net for some pictures of the actual aircraft to find some finer details that the decal instruction sheet does not show I found one big detail that the instructions do not show and that is that the aircraft is painted white on the lower surfaces and is not all grey, as the linked photo below shows. The photo is dated Sept 1991, so is a few months after the time period that I am wanting, so now I will have to repaint the lower and flying surfaces. Yes I know that I should not have assumed that the decal sheet instructions were correct, but I do feel that they have let me down a bit. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Grumman+E-2C+Hawkeye+162619&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizr8zvpdbbAhVCD8AKHehDCxgQsAQIJg&biw=1600&bih=783#imgrc=3tBYOcQpVa0WbM: Edited June 15, 2018 by Jabba Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 is that just decal sheet gone through a colour photocopier? Is there anything else you need to do to it now? I've never tried this or even though about doing this, maybe it's time I start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 That is the decal sheet having gone through a colour photocopier and then I applied a coat of Micro Scale decal film, plus then a coat of Klear to seal the printing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 White areas now painted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 a nice save, but most of us wouldn't have noticed, we would have been too busy admiring the model! She's going to look awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted June 19, 2018 Author Share Posted June 19, 2018 Thanks for that, some people at work do say that I am a bit pedantic when it comes to detail so that is maybe why I could not let it go this time. I have now applied the majority of the bigger decals from a combination of the Vagabond/Superscale/Bingo decal sheets. I still have a few to apply from the kit mainly the walkways on top of the fuselage and wings, then I have to find the stencilling from somewhere as the kit decals are mostly having Japanese characters on them. I think that the Superscale sheet has enough to suffice. One that I have to compromise on though is the A/C number on the tail. As you cane see from the last photo the correct number that I require from the Bingo sheet is too large, especially when compared to the Vagabond sheet. So I am going to cut and shunt several numbers from various sheets to get the correct number, which will mean that I will not be that pedantic on this. The largeness of the decals on the Bingo sheet seems to be for most of the decals, which I have reduced from 1/48 by the correct percentage, perhaps they were too big in the first place. A comparison between tail numbers of the Bingo decals (Top) and the Vagabond decals (below). Although not the number that I require it is just to show the differences. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 21, 2018 Share Posted June 21, 2018 gee she looks good with the decals on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted June 24, 2018 Author Share Posted June 24, 2018 All decals now applied, so with a few touch ups to do before adding a varnish. I am thinking of using a satin one for the main airframe, with a matt one for the walkways and leading edges. Does anyone else have any different ideas? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted June 28, 2018 Share Posted June 28, 2018 that would sound about right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIGHTS ON Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 just tried some "scaling up" of some scanned decals. Before printing, I sprayed on (Humbrol) matt varnish, then printed, then sealed with micro scale. ink held beautifully, and have now been used on my F/A-18. great choice of scheme by the way - from 1993 - 95 America was our "buddy" carrier and seemed (like us!!) to be stuck on back-2-back deployments to the Eastern Med (Bosnia). I have some phots from a cross deck, but none of the Hummers I'm afraid. I did get to work with VAW-123 on the BigE in 2010, but they were onto the newer 8 bladed props by then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted June 29, 2018 Author Share Posted June 29, 2018 Thanks for the comments and the tip about the scanning of decals. I will try that next time, although I am not sure if it was the photocopier at work as it is the first time I have done this on this machine. It is a bit more modern than the ones that I have used in the past. I have now added a few more parts including the U/C, and I will add the wheels tonight. I have also added the resin parts for the wing fold mechanism to the wings as can be seen in the last photo, these hook onto the small mounts that stick out on the tailplane endplates. I will also have to a small bit of painting to the walkway on the wing as there seems to be some paint from somewhere else on there. Hopefully I will get a rough paint match. Then will come the fun of adding the outer wing panels to the main part of the wings. I will have to devise a plan for this. After that I will have to have a look at some pictures of the real aircraft for the placement of the aerials and the such like. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted July 3, 2018 Author Share Posted July 3, 2018 Almost there. I have now fitted the wings, U/C doors, Rotordome (Radar) and the props. I was a bit worried about the fitment of the wings, but in the end they fitted very easily. I still have several aerials to fit, a few odds and sods, plus I would like to apply a wash of some kind the white areas to tone them down a little. The model for all the weight that I have fitted to it still is finely balanced. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIGHTS ON Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 that is looking really smart. You've even got the red edging o the undercarriage doors in 1/72 (the right way round, unlike that idiot building the 1/48 C-2 Greyhound!!!) VAW-123 is always my favourite E-2 sqn - with that cool spiral on the radar dome and the black paint scheme around the cockpit in their earlier pre-2000 painting. Your build is clearly going to win my vote Is the white cross on the tip of nose correct for a Desert Storm (1991) machine? I thought is was added much later (as a visual indicator for the LSO) when the mixed fleet of improved Hawkeyes entered service, so as to distinguish the latter variant? (Similar to Prowlers that when operating on a mixed deck with Intruders had that radiation symbol on their nose to show the LSO it was a heavier aircraft about to trap)........not being either an LSO or an E-2 pilot I am probably talking out of my a***. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 20 hours ago, FIGHTS ON said: Is the white cross on the tip of nose correct for a Desert Storm (1991) machine? I thought is was added much later (as a visual indicator for the LSO) when the mixed fleet of improved Hawkeyes entered service, so as to distinguish the latter variant? (Similar to Prowlers that when operating on a mixed deck with Intruders had that radiation symbol on their nose to show the LSO it was a heavier aircraft about to trap)........not being either an LSO or an E-2 pilot I am probably talking out of my a***. No you are not talking twaddle at all. I have just looked on Dstorm.eu at a picture of a sister A/C (Strange no pictures of the actual A/C that I am building) and there is no white cross. I think that I put it on as it was on the Vagabond decal sheet which has the better instructions, but I did not look at the variant of A/C properly. So it is back out with a splodge of black paint tonight, and thanks vert much for picking this up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 WOW she does look great, they are such an impressive machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted July 11, 2018 Author Share Posted July 11, 2018 I am calling this one finished. I managed eventually to get the wire fitted once I had found out where it fitted on the tailplane. Thanks for all the comments and help along the way with this one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 well done on finishing her Jabba, she looks fantastic! I love the base you have for her. If it wasn't for the last photo with your hand in it you'd be very hard pressed to figure out what scale she was. I really enjoyed following this build and was glad you joined the fun. I hope it was an enjoyable build for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted July 13, 2018 Author Share Posted July 13, 2018 Thanks it certainly was an enjoyable build, especially the wing fold which to be honest was a lot easier than I though it would be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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