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No. 75 (RAAF) Sqn. "Tomorrow-Hawk, Never-Hawk" Kittyhawk


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On 11/20/2018 at 6:30 AM, JOCKNEY said:

Nice one, or should that be two Dave !

 

I couldn't help but think of you recently when I was watching an old episode of "Only fools an 'orses " I do hope you had this down under, enjoy

 

cheers Pat

Yeah - Its been on the local Tele but  can’t say I’ve ever sat down and watched it Pat.. perhaps I should? 

On 11/20/2018 at 12:03 PM, trickyrich said:

hmmm she is starting to look nice, I may just have to get one, maybe that new Eduard 1/32nd one! :hmmm:

That line got me thinking Rich! With all the talk of the new 1/24th Hellcat, I pulled out the Tiffy the other day and started to take a second (or was that 201st) look at it. Now besides a 1/48 V1, all my completed kits so far have all been in 1/72 scale. I took this photo the other day just to show a mate the size difference between 72nd and 24th and then scratched my head thinking how on earth am I gonna build this monster. Anyway - besides the silly comparison the photo shows my P-40 its idark olive drab upper colours. Still a few details to add to bring out some contrast however it’s slowly getting there. 

 

Cheers.. Dave

 

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Looking good Dave. I see you have shared the control surfaces a different shade.

I doult I would ever build a plane in 1/24 scale. Just too big for me. I find 1/48 suits my eye for detail while small enough to fit into my cabinet.

I always felt 1/72 is too small for fighters and my eye sight. I have a 1/72 P40 in my cabinet which gets lost. Now the big bombers is a different

Story. 1/72 suits them. If I had my own house I would do them in 1/48 to, but as I'm stuck here I just do what I can. Mind you here on the farm is rather

Nice. Iong views over Green hills, 300m Tree lined lined driveway. It is all very pretty and I don't have to maintain it. 

 

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Yeah 1/24th is not really my bag either @Greg Law, but a few months before the Typhoon was unveiled I was thinking about the big Airfix 24th scale Hurricane. I kind of liked the idea of slowly gluing small bits and pieces together every day or so on a project that would probably take me a good year to build. Then the Typhoon was announced and I started seeing all these lovely sprue shots. I just had to have it, although have been a little gun shy to make a start. Like a lot of us I grew up with 1/72nd and really like the comparison that you can achieve when you display a Me163 against the wingspan of ‘say’ a Vulcan. So here’s another silly photo I took a while back (sorry for the thread drift, who’d ever thought these two subjects would ever appear in a Pacific GB??)

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

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Update #4 - Paint and ‘some’ weathering.

 

This P-40 is slowly chuffing along and now it’s almost time for a clear coat and decals. Paints used so far are mainly Gunze Lacquers C12 Olive Drab (1) and C13 Neutral Gray. When applied straight out of the tin, both these paints are really quite dark and IMO did not look right on such a small kit. I had thoughts of that urban myth called ‘Scaled Colour’ and although I tend to err on the slightly sceptic side of most things decided that this must ring true for this particular example. 

 

I mixed these base colours to C62 Flat White (always adding the base colour to the white) and applied these lighter tones where required. The Fabric control surfaces have been picked out with lighter base colours again to help break up the boring uniform look. 

 

Now I normally clear coat at this stage and try to weather after decalling, however I’ve tried something different here and started this weathering process quite a bit earlier.  I’ve made very subtle use of a few powders (white and smoke) and starting some chipping which in some areas is probably not as subtle as I would have liked. 

 

Either way, I’m confident it will all settle a bit once the clears are applied and a pin wash added here and there - although most of Hasegawas nice faint panel lines have virtually disappeared? 

 

Heres some progress shots and I hope to have some decal photos in a day or two. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

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Looking good Dave. I wouldn't worry about the chipping. By the time you put the weathering on they will blend in nicely. I think I need to do a few more on the Zero's fuselarge and wings. They are I bit to clean. I think the panel lines are more of an issue for you. I'm having the same problem with the Dornier. In my case it was too much clear coat filling them.

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Great progress Dave,

 

Your P-40 has come together quickly.  

Chipping in 1/72 is difficult to do but I reckon yours looks pretty good at this stage.

 

Keep up the good work mate.

 

Cheers Greg :clap2:

 

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no she looking good, the paints fine.

 

"Scaled Colour" is a real thing and you don't really think about it until put something in 1/72 (or 1/144th) along side one of the big scale beasts that has been painted in the same scheme. The colours look completely different until you touch the colours together (it's just not with models either, same thing in nature). 

 

You can either try lightening up the paint a touch (to easy to too far) or you could try "misting" and extremely thinned down coat of white (90:10). That way you can control the effect and lighten up the colours gradually, oddly though a little bit more in the "shadows" to help reduce the contrast. You basically are tricking the eye to make thing look lighter, even if it really isn't.

 

Even the panel/pin wash is going to change the whole look of the model. I think she'll look rlly nice when finish, well done. :thumbsup: 

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Thanks Rich, I appreciate the advice.

 

Funnily enough I was doing a quick and simple experiment the other day. Now if you place my kits ‘lightened’ tones directly over the Gunze paint bottle tops you will see a noticeable difference in colour tones - with the bottle top being quite darker. View the same image from a metre or two back and the difference is not as great and amazingly they almost look the same? This surprised me somewhat however also made me  think that lightening these colours was the correct action to take. I’ll admit it’s not a perfect experiment, however the effects of ‘scale colour’ must be lurking somewhere in my example. I’ve never noticed this much contrast before although it’s also the first time I’ve used proper US OD and NG paints as well. 

 

Something to consider for the future and possibly why white paint is always in short supply at my LHS. 

 

Cheers and thanks.. Dave 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update #5 - Decals and a little back story

 

Trying hard to wrap this one up, however it's been a bit of a slow grind to be honest. Not really sure why but I just seem to always get bogged down in these latter stages of each of my builds. Perhaps it's just not knowing when to stop or looking at the model far too long and finding too many flaws that still need correcting? Anyway a few coats of clear, a session or two of decals (one in between a power outage!) and some not very convincing pin wash treatment sees this P-40 as shown in the photos below. The fine panel lines did not really accept my usual oil paint / turpentine mix, so I resorted to a Tamiya paint / water / isopropyl alcohol mix. This seemed to be thin enough and I was happy that it found what fine panel lines were left, however it also dried in next to no time so now I have a few areas that I'm not entirely happy with that still need some form of correction. 

 

Now a little history lesson. There's not a lot of photographic material that survived this period of the Pacific War, which is hardly surprising once you read the book and understand what these lads were going through. I've chosen one of the earliest RAAF P-40's here with A29-6, a P-40E (not E-1) still finished in the US colours of Dark Olive Drab over Neutral Gray. The E-1's built to a British order were camouflaged, however (from what I've read) a surprisngly large number of early Aussie Kittyhawks were coloured as per the standard US orders of the time.

 

A29-6 had a brief but rather spectacular service career with the RAAF. It was allotted to No. 75 Squadron on 8 March 1942 and coded 'F', eventually arriving at Port Moresby's 7 Mile strip on 21 March. That same day, piloted by F/O Wilbur Wackett (the son of Lawrence Wackett - head and driving force behind CAC (Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation), it was involved in the very first air-air Japanese kill over Port Moresby, delivering the final blow to a lone Betty bomber sending it crashing into the sea to the many cheers of the Army personal watching below. At a stroke, the 'Tomorrow-hawk, Never-hawk tag was never mentioned again. 

 

The next day, Sqn. Leader John Jackson made plans to launch a surprise and daring early morning raid on the Japanese held base in Lae. Reports indicate that of the 20 enemy aircraft parked on the Lae strip, nine were considered destroyed or significantly damaged, however two RAAF P-40's also did not return - one being Wackett and his A29-6. Post strike, a standing patrol of Zero's engaged 75's Kittyhawks, with Wackett being hit from behind whilst attacking another Zero. The damage sustained was enough to force Wackett to ditch approx eight miles off shore in shark infested waters. Having negotiated this episode, Wackett swam to shore and eventually found help from two locals who helped him trek his way back to safety, however not before a torturous two week jungle trek with badly blistered feet and blood sucking leaches!  

 

So here she is so far. Hoping to finish her off before we take a family holiday this Saturday? I've also attached the only known photograph of A29-6 and an image of A29-28 in similar colours taken in Townsville (I think?) just before it was sent to join Port Moresby as an attrition replacement aircraft.  

 

Cheers and sorry for the long winded post.. Dave 

 

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image

 

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44 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Id be very happy with that Dave. However its your build and we are our own worst critics. Please try to enjoy the family holiday. 

 

Dennis

Thanks for that Dennis, I appreciate that. I’ll do my best to enjoy the holiday, with two wifi sapping teenage kids to keep entertained, things could get a little interesting. I’ll be taking a small selection of modelling items with me, however have already been warned to leave the AB, compressor and smelly paints at home! I’ll see what I can build up in seven days without getting too far into the paint stage. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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Lovely job all round, Dave - very realistic looking with the faded olive and chipping on top and the engine oil streaking and gun smoke staining underneath - I must have a go at weathering. Remember to do a prop spinning shot if possible! I recognise the action history from the '44 days' book and it makes me want to read it all over again. Excellent build so far. All the best. Mike

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The colour scaling has worked well for you as has the weathering David and I like the effect given by doing the fabric areas slightly lighter.

As for the length of your post; please don't appologise for what I personally found to be a facinating and informative insight to the subject.

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Dave take a break. Have a Kitcat and earn some browny points. The P-40 is looking good. I see what you mean with the wash. Looks like it needs some work (after your break......) Although once you add some good exhaust staining it should come together more.

Listen to me, anyone would think I'm an expert...............................

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm afraid I'm going to declare this build as a non finished entry - apologies to host Rich and all other GB participants. 

To be honest, she's about 95% complete and I could possibly drag her over the line later today however prior to me taking holidays in early December I put in a big effort to finish her off however am not happy with how it looks. I also tinkered away with my troubling Airbrush and in the process made it worse. I've ordered a new one, however it's not going to make it in time so I think it's best I park this one to one side for another (and hopefully better) day. 

 

Most of the issues occurred when I placed the canopy on. I swear the fit around the front was much better than it ended up being and I was left with quite a raised ridge where this should all have been blended in. I could not stand looking at it so applied a bead of superglue to the gap and started sanding away. This was always going to spoil my paintwork and as I used a combination of mixed paints ended up with a totally different look and colour to what was first there. I'll need to repaint the whole front end once again as what I have looks like a well weathered machine but not appropriate for an aircraft that was only in the war zone for the better part of 24 hours! 

 

Anyway - this GB has produced a number of outstanding entries, so I'll take the time in the next few days to leave some comments where I can. 

 

Cheers and once again (apologies).. a mojo sapped Dave  

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that's a shame Dave, but it's better to take your tie and get it right rather than just rushing things for a deadline.

 

It's been great watching this build and look forward to seeing her done later on.

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Sorry to hear that Dave 🙉

 

however it's totally understandable that you don't want to end up with something your not happy with. Any models I have rushed near the end of a project end up not looking right, and they inevitably get filed in the bin!

 

I look forward bro seeing the end result once your back in the zone.

 

cheers and Happy New Year (when it comes) 

 

all the best Greg 🍺

 

 

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