Boeing F3B-1 Command Aircraft by LUKGRAPH

[Supercuber]

 Boeing F3B-1 Command Aircraft by LUKGRAPH bought at 2019. Moson model show , at LUKGRAPH stand ,  waited till  Jan.2020 to  start work on it ,

 

 

 

Overall, nicely enginered , well casted and finely detailed , one of easiest to build resin kits i work on, and i build it a lot , to mention just few labels , Preiser, MDC/RB, HPH, Legato, Fisher, Omega, Planet, NKR, Montex ...

Not counting my own, Aeropoxy range kits... (they are out of contention) 😞

 

Starting by the book, nice illustrated 16 pages A4 instruction. Cleaning and assembling, 

 

Cockpit, 

 

Fuselage, 

 

 

Engine, 

Subassemblies, 

 

Priming with Mr Surfacer, 

 

Wings, tail, struts, with copper wire made anchors for bracing , drilled and glued,

 

and painting,  Silver, 

 

 

Yellow, Revell 310 

 

 

Gray, Humbrol 175 (now discontinued , use any Hellgrau 76)

 

 

Blue, Revell 350

 

 

Windscreen, 0.1mm thin clear acetate foil, cuted using provided template and glued to the etched frame with MrColor gloss lacquer.

 

 

Decalling , over Humbrol Clear gloss varnished surfaces , 

 

 

 

Somehow, i do not take pics of rigging process, (which take whole sunday afternoon)  but this is done in usual way, using 0,2mm fishing line, and microtubing as a turnbuckles, drops of superglue and later spanned with hot screwdriver tip.

 

After decalling, started with final lacquer coats to gain high gloss finish, using recomended MrCollor GX100 ... what a disaster...

Dark blue instantly became light gray and dust white...,

 

 

 

Almost a month of work  , instead of RFI topic, was candidate for  RFTB , Ready for trash bin...

 

 

But, after overnight  drying, old, trusty Revell 01 gloss and Humbrol Clear brings salvation. Almost all the traces of dust removed , just few spots  i must to overspray with Revell 350.

 

After a subtle wash and weathering, Boeing Command Aircraft was ready for inspection, here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by Supercuber

[Supercuber]

Well,  at the end,  must explain, why not follow the LUKGRAPH painting and decalling instructions , and chose yellow top wing scheme.

First, its more colorful , and to me, represents 1930's Naval aviation "standard".

So, i do little research and found , that 7738 , from CV-2, USS Lexington, 1931/32, have few paint scheme incarnations , after some overhauls, and in part of its service life, have yellow topsides, clearly shown  at this photo, where wing topside is darker than silver undersides.

 

 

 

 

7738 photos found  at Papermodels forum, explaining source of these pics.

 

 

 

Also , was puzzled with paint description given by Lukgraph, Admiral blue ; Silver and Light Gray ,  generic, but not enough for me.

Found this Esoteric 1/72 scale vacuform Boeing F3B-1 kit instructions, and Colorslide decals , where exact FS is given and  paints stated as:

Orange Yellow FS 13538 ANA 506

Gray FS 16473 ANA 512

Strata Blue FS 15045

 

 

Using color conversion charts, closest paints i have in my stock are Revell 310 Lufthansa Yellow, Revell 350 Lufthansa Blue and Humbrol 175. With some  scale effect blending , hope this is real representation of Boeing F3B-1 from  USS Lexington.

 

 

[modelling minion]

That really is excellent work Nenad, nice and coloourful too.

Very well done.

 

Craig.

[Chaotic Mike]

Lovely job. I recently had a paint disaster where Humbrol Clear gloss reacted with Tamiya acrylics to leave a highly frosted surface. On a 1m wide 1/32 Lancaster, a year into the build, I was *not* happy! 

Repaired by stripping and repainting. 

[Roger Holden]

The colours of these aircraft present no mystery and there is a complete book devoted to them ('Blue Goose'  Command Aircraft of the US Navy, in the  'Naval Fighters' series by Steve Ginter.)  The complete official painting regulations for such aircraft are included at the back of the book.  The yellow upper wing is correct (but not those red bands....).  Lukgraph's kits are good quality, but some of their research is poor as some of the American aircraft are based on the not very accurate Wylam drawings which were made in the 1940s.

 

FS colour references are not 'exact' as the FS colour charts only came out in the 1950s (?), so they are someone's near 'guess'. Colour chips of the exact colours were in the Monogram series on painting US Navy aircraft and are the best guide.

[goggsy]

Jesus, what a nightmare thing to happen. Good save though and a really great finish in the end. Great work.