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Hello folks,

Here will be my first GB, a nostalgic and hopefully not too embarrassing foray back into modelling 👍 (that doesn't involve n guage railway track). 

 

My first kit related memories are from the very late 70's. After moving house my Dad found a couple of boxes of kits including a bunch of made up ones he shared with me for my model railway layout. (I've rediscilovered them recently, albeit worse for wear). After he built a few more himself from his rediscovered stash we were visiting my grandparents in Bridlington and he went into a shop we later frequented often, Cropper's Models, who had numerous old stock items of Airfix, Novo and Frog. These were pretty cheap since I'd consider them with my £2 'holiday money', (especially the bagged Airfix Trackside kits).

 

Dad would sometimes buy 1 or 2 kits as a bit of a nostalgia thing, partly getting me interested, and one day gave me an old battered Frog Skua to have a go at. I recall the canopy must have been hell for the pilot, fogged up and draughty at the same time! 🤣 I certainly developed an intetest in the aviation art from the older boxes over time, I can even recall being a tad dissapointed at getting a Heller-Humbrol Focke-Wulf 190 branded kit with a photo of the model on the box, nothing like the Bombs Away! artwork of Roy Cross 😁

 

Hopefully this explains the fond nostalgia for these older kits, treasured shared time with my Dad which cannot be re-visited. He's still with us, but after a stroke and wheel-chair bound things are more of a challenge. I'll be taking the kit to show him once I'm done though! ☺️. I've bought one in the gold token box which I remember and am researching the colour schemes at the moment before a foray to get paints!

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/188996048@N07/shares/3Lc987

Edited by frogmodeller
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Welcome aboard!

 

The back stories that accompany a lot of the builds here are always interesting, yours included. 

 

I've never built a FROG Skua so this build will be especially interesting for me.

 

Tony.

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I hope you have a fun build here, it sounds like you will. Thanks for the wonderful intro and sharing it with us. feel free to bombard us with frog info along the way and any memories that present themselves its great to hear about ;) 

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Thanks folks. You'd get a few photos if my new flickr account was as easy to use as the photo faqs wpuld have me believe. After years of dropbox I find it won't work out for me here, and neither,  it seems will the free flickr account, at the moment. Ah well. I've wasted nearly 2 hrs modelling time faffing with it and given up for now. (And no, pasting the url into the insert image box doesn't work)

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Hi Fm,

 

Know what you mean about posting pics, though I have to say  Flickr usually works for me, except when it is in irritating Chinese Panda mode (ie not working due to a fault). I built the Frog Skua when it first came out, and still have it albeit refurbished. Not perhaps the most accurate kit these days, but for many years it was all there was. Here is mine together with an Frog Swordfish.

DSC01032

Pic a bit washed out in the sunshine, but Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey over Sky Grey. Some earlier ones may have been in a different scheme.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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Thanks folks. 

Pete, I may have to build a stringbag later. I'm looking at colours now, uncertain but probably going for the very pale (sea?) grey with half black / white undersides, early(ish) 1940 FAA. I've had a lot of interesting reading on the plethora of insignia and camouflage changes during that period. I'm not sure how certain it is that the sometimes seen overall silver wasn't actually very pale grey as seemingly in the cellon advert.

 

But I'm getting on with it slowly.

 

20200617_211807

 

At least it was all complete and with the nice larger Frog stand too. 

With spare time today I've been able to do some of the basics of assembly. I'm building mostly straight oob as this is a nostalgia-fest really. As usual it will need a basic fettling and with a fair gap at the wing roots a little bit of filler skimmed in to try and help it look respectable!

 

I still need to obtain appropriate sea grey colours which will have to wait a day or too, but for what its worth I painted the internal cockpit area. It's such a void there is room to insert fuel tanks etc if I was going down that route. I'm debating whether to get a vac form canopy or just leave it this time!

 

20200620_202124

 

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The overall silver (or grey) scheme had gone before 1940.  I don't think I've every seen one such with black/white undersides but never say never.  There's a very good guide in Stuart Lloyd's book on early WW2 FAA camouflage for Verdun publishers, covering the range of early variations.  Plus a lot of other FAA types, too.

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Hi FM,

 

The green/brown scheme on the Frog box may just be correct for very early versions, but I think it has to be suspect. Original Silver/Cerrux Grey may be more likely pre-war. During the Frog GB Steve mentions I said I may have read somewhere that Dark Sea Green might have been used during the Norwegian Campaign, but I think @Graham Boak thought not - must try and find that magazine article! I went for a fairly safe colour scheme but you do whatever you want. I suppose the Skua lasted just long enough for the Sky Grey to be replaced by Sky, but it was phased out pretty quickly.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited by PeterB
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Thanks.

My understanding if I've read correctly is the Kőnigsburg raid aircraft era possibly had the cerrux grey, with the colour unit markings on the wing tips? 

I've also seen the picture of a slightly later ditched aircraft being recovered where its noted the black wing half has been painted over but not the inside of the wheel bay, which is still black! More reading to do!

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Great to see another Frog kit getting built, I see you are a Frog fan so have a look at the recently completed Frog Squad GB here on BM.

Your kits looks a really early one so it will be great to see how it comes together, the decals should work fine as Frog put everyone else to shame with the way their decals have lasted !

Good luck with the build

 

Cheers Pat

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Thanks folks, and yes Pat, cheers, I shall indeed go and have a look over at the Frog Squad GB in due course! I have been doing a bit of reading around here and elsewhere as I have waited to continue progress on the kit, luckily I have had a bit of downtime at work which helps too.

 

I'd forgotten how long it took Blackburn to begin series production on the Skua, no doubt partly causing the feeling that it was soon obsolete. The first prototype flew 9th Feb 1937, but the second one with what was to be the production longer nose and intended for the Bristol Perseus XII engine didn't fly until 18 months later on 28th Aug 1938!

 

I hope that the decals do work ok as commented (fingers crossed on that Pat), the serial number for the aircraft provided is L2928 which indicates an airframe from the first production batch of 69 aircraft which commenced delivery on 14th Sept 1938. Some of the early aircraft has two landing lights but the kit only shews one so I hope they got that right in their researches! One thing I like about this early (ish) model is the connection is the time period. The first kit model of a Skua was by Frog in their Penguin range and it came out whilst the Skua was actually a front line aircraft .

 

I've used Google to look for image info for colour schemes which helpfully landed me on John Dell's comprehensive aviation pages regarding the Skua and Roc. https://dingeraviation.net//skuaroc/skuacolours.htm This has helped guide me as has the thread here on Britmodeller at https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234950022-skua-l2928-s-of-801-nas/ about the actual aircraft serial number of the Frog kit. I am not following the artwork on the Frog box for my production, but the discussion was informative to me.

 

Now I need to start the small amount of filler I want to disguise the gaps in the wing area before I do anymore assembly.

 

20200620_203121

Main fuselage halves now glued  together and the wing upper and lower halves ready for fitting. 

 

Edited by frogmodeller
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Today's progress has included getting the wings to look like they fit by eye, hopefully the gaps (which come as standard) won't look too bad or uneven! 

20200621_200731

 

I have also assembled the cylinders in the cowling. Even with its bare minimum detail I've tried to assemble it with what I suppose is the air intakes (?) at the top as you see them under the cowl in photos. Given the lack of detailed pieces I've tried to make the exhaust look more 'correct' by drilling out the end of the very solid bit of moulding to give the impression of the open end, even though its not quite in the right place. 

20200622_171303

 

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Had to grab what was to hand, my modelling tools are limited. Usually they are paint stirrers or whatever, but then the paint pots sometimes have other uses too!

I must admit even though it is a very basic build I am enjoying myself with it and the subject matter reading.

But then, I guess that is what it is all about!

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This evening's tasks have included assembling and fitting the basic undercarriage. No locating pegs on the struts, no recess holes in the wheel wells and no instructional pictures is fun! Its together but seems pretty fragile. Now I know why some people use aftermarket metal parts! 

20200622_184935

 

I'm happy I think I've got its upright stance with the main u/c legs being vertical. The other parts aren't really very accurate so I'm not going to worry that it's a bit of an approximation. :)

 

 

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I too have this kit in the stash, and its one of my intended subjects for the 'under a tenner' GB if it comes to pass, so I'm watching this build with interest. looking good so far.

Mark.

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Thanks for the encouragement. 

The finishing is likely to be the worst part of the job. I've got loads of old paints but being unsure of them after 15 or 20 years in the loft I thought I'd go and buy some 'new' paints. 

 

The Fleet Air Arm seems to be all about 50 Shades of Grey and looking at an old post I obtained some colours recommended as equivalents from.the Tamiya acrylics, which I've barely ever used before. Browsing the paint section didn't help :) Lol. Almost too much info! 

 

That aside I'm think8nthinking that this evening's ambient temoeratire didn't help as its warm and I found the paint hard to control, doing the wings and after making a godawful mess of the canopy I'm giving it rest whilst I understand what I need. 

I note there's several posts of opinion that these are useless for brushing. On the other hand there's folks who manage ok. I shall have to look at paint additives and thinners needed I think. (In my little flat and careful budget I can't countenance an airbrush).

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I'm new to acrylics as well.

I struggle getting an even surface with them. My best results so far have been with a wide, flat brush and thinned out thin coats with as little over brushing as possible. Three thin coats seems to be about right. The paint seems to dry at an alarming speed!

 

I much prefer old enamels but my stocks are getting depleted somewhat. New Humbrol enamels are a bit hit and miss in my experience and their clear coats are to be avoided!

 

Try out new techniques on a bit of scrap, I've abandoned what were perfectly good models because my new painting methods let me down.

 

Tony

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Thats coming along a treat.

 

Agree about the painting, ive bought joblots of old enamels and they are great, yet i also bought a joblot of sealed acrylics and they were dry inside when i opened them ! 

 

Paints from different manufacturers seems thicker than others, i recently started using Revell acrylics and found wetting the brush with water and going back over areas i had just painted gives a nice smooth finish. 

 

As Tony said experimenting is the key, if you dont have a spare kit the inside of wings is a good place to use for trials.

 

cheers Pat 

 

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