1/72 LF Models Curtiss A-18 Shrike II

[TheRealMrEd]

Hello.

 

While waiting for the various paints, etc. to dry on my F4H-1 Phantom Prototype build, I have decided to start another project, the LF Model A-18 Shrike II, in 1/72 scale, just to "fluff-out" my between-the-wars collection.  The box looks like so:
 

 

 

 

I looked around to see whether some other brave-hearted person had built this kit, to help show me the way, but an internet search came up dry.  So, here goes my uninformed shot at building the kit!

 

Like other LF kits, it is multi-media, as will be described.  To begin, here are all the given cockpit parts (control stick not shown), which consists of various resin parts, as well as a PE fret which includes the seats, seat-belts and foot petals:

 

 

As occurs too often with the LF kits, the directions are only a simple line drawing, and also in this case, some of the parts aren't shown at all on the drawings, and some drawings don't even resemble the included parts!  I wish LF would take a little more care in this department, but as it is the only game in town for this kit/scale, I guess "beggars can't be choosers", as the old saying goes.

 

Anyway, I'll try to  talk you through what I finally figured out. (Your adventure may differ!).  Above right, the cockpit floor piece needs to be thinned, but I didn't thin any more than absolutely necessary "A".  At "B" the front and rear bulkheads weren't shown on the drawings at all;  I put the one bulkhead with a headrest in the front cockpit, the plain one (shown later on) at the back.  The positioning of the bulkhead itself was actually determined by the fact that I aligned the cockpit side at the front of the floor "D" -- and THAT was determined by the little odd part  pointed to by the arrow, which nicely butted up against the "step" in the cockpit floorboard, behind the circular "pedestal" for mounting the pilot's seat.  The drawing seemed to show the OTHER cockpit side panel to be installed on the right side, but I couldn't make it fit the right side at all.  So, I used the side shown, with the longer cut-out to the front (near "C" above).  THE SEAT PEDESTAL WILL NEED TO BE SHORTENED, AS I WILL SHOW LATER!

 

Above the "C" 's actually show the area that needs to be trimmed off just a bit, to allow the cockpit sides to set atop the floorboard, rather than on the edge of the floorboard.  The "E" above shows where the bulkhead butts up against the cockpit sidewall, and that the cockpit sidewall is leaned in a bit so that the bulkhead and cockpit outside edges are aligned.  I hope that all this is clear as mud, but maybe the photos will help.  It actually took me  awhile to get this far!

 

The next photo arrows show hoW the "fit" is supposed to be.  The lower arrow also shows the little notch that I had to sand to fit the step behind the pilot's seat pedestal.  Figure "A" shows how the cockpit side glues atop the cockpit floorboard "B":

 

 

Above right, "X" shows the pilot's seat mounting pedestal, and "Y" shows again the talked about "step".  The headrest can barely be seen in the photo.

 

Next, the PE seat needs to be formed up by bending, and then a little CA glue, to hold all the seams together.  The little pointy end pliers shown on the left is what I used here, and will work as long as the two jaws align perfectly (and are long enough to fit the part).  The Tamiya bending pliers are designed purposefully for this task, if you have them:

 

d

 

Above right, after setting the newly-bent seat in place for a trial fit, I discovered that the PE seat was so tall the it wouldn't fit under the headrest, so the bottom half of the headrest must be sawn half-way, at the line shown by the arrow, and lpower half shaved off. Also, the seat pedestal must be shortened to be even with the step (red line)

 

Eventually, everything fit as shown in the next photo, which also shows the seat-belts having been painted and installed.  Almost everything was painted Alclad II Semi-Matt Aluminum, with some of the few details in other colors.  I managed to misplace the kit IP card or decal, so grabbed a decal from the spares box and mounted it on plastic card.  When dry, it was trimmed to size, and more-or-less shaped to fit.  It needed to be trimmed on the sides, so that it didn't protrude to far.  Luckily, my decision to install the cockpit sides the way I did worked out, because mounting the IP on that longer cut-out worked perfectly:

 

 

Above right, the dual-engine plane could use a few more instrument, but oh well, it seems I must pay for misplacing the kit IP...
 

A view of the other side of the cockpit:

 

 

Next another task that I've always dreaded is trying to fit a flat acetate window into a fuselage cut-out, and make it look like anything.  I'll try again.

First, I cleaned up a little flash in the window opening.  Then, I took the Clear sheet, given in the kit, held it in place on the outside, then scribed  the correct "glass shape" through the opening.  Later, I would trim it out of the sheet with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade:

 

 

Above right.  I then painted the inside of the fuselage halves with the semi-matt aluminum.  After that dried (sadly forgot to take a photo),  I placed a piece of cello tape on the outside of the window hole, and using a little Pic'N'Stic holder, I placed the glass into place from the inside, and pressed it tightly against the tape.  Then, using my fingers, I moved  it around to be as flush as possible with the outside of the fuselage, after which a tiny bead of G-S watch cement was added around the edge of the glass on the inside.  When dry, I cleaned off some excess G - S with 91%  rubbing alcohol, and let it dry.  After the fact, I wondered whether I should have just put a film layer of G - S across the entire inside surface of the glass, but I didn't.  I have also heard of folks using clear paint as a gluing agent here but since I am going to be masking the outside later and eventually removing the masking, I wanted something pretty substantial to hold things together.

 

One one side, I cut the acetate a little small, so I filled the opening with Perfect Plastic Putty, wiped off with a damp rag:

 

 

Above right, with all the "window work" done on both sides, it's time to install the cockpit assembly, making certain that it rest in the three little "shelves", one of which is show by the arrow,  Note that I also had to sand the cockpit floor sides almost dead flat along their entire length, to get a good fit to the fuselage.  Figure "X" above, shows where some Milliput of Plastic Putty will have to be added, to mount the tail wheel into, as there is no "shelf" or anything else provided by the kit for that purpose.  You will also kindly notice that due to my "serendipitous" choice of cockpit side placement, the instrument panel lines up exactly where it needs to be!!  (Self pat on back)!

 

Well, next time, I'll glue the fuselage halves together, and see what adventure that will bring!

 

Later folks,

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[billn53]

It seems that I am always learning something from your build. In this case, it is your technique for adding that small window in the fuselage. Thanks for the step-by-step description. 

[TheRealMrEd]

Hi billn53  --  not sure that this technique will be the final chapter on that problem, but it will do until I can figure out something better...

 

Ed

[TheRealMrEd]

Hi,  a little more progress on the A-18.

 

The plastic putty has been installed for the rear tail-wheel, and the fuselage has been glued together, a couple of inches at a time, being held while a "hot" or fast-setting CA glue is used, in my case, Zap Thin CA.  Then the major seam was sanded a bit, filled with putty, then primed with Mr Surfacer 500 to check for defects.  Then, more filling, etc.  Finally, the vertical stabilizer was also glued on with CA, with that seam also being puttied and sanded:

 

 

Above right, the vacuformed canopies were cut out, leaving them a bit oversize for final sanding.  Here they have also been dipped into Future/Pledge and allowed to dry.  They look better than the photo would lead you to believe!  Also, my kit had two of each canopy, which helps relieve a little tension...

 

At this point, I should mention  that I am in the habit of filling and sanding each seam as it occurs (more-or-less) during assembly.  I used to leave them all until the model was basically assembled, but then the seam filling and sanding became a sometimes monstrous and project-stalling problem.  This little psychological trick seems to make it a little easier to keep from creating another Shelf Queen (most of the time!).

 

Next, the canopies are set into place after being sanded and fitted as well as I could.  Then, they are held in in place by either fingers or tape, depending upon which works best, while tiny drops of CA are added to the canopy/fuse seam a little at a time.  I find that the coat of Future, IN ADDITION TO the TINY amounts of fast-drying CA applied at a time, help greatly to discourage canopy fogging from the CA.   Also, I like to start with one canopy side edge aligned as perfectly as possible, and when that is try, move to the opposite side canopy edge, as sometimes I have to use the tip of a #11 blade to pry the canopy out to fit the fuselage as flush as I can get it to be.  Again, I hold that side in place and hit it with the CA.

 

In the next photo the front and rear canopies have had the CA applied where the joint was good, but not where any larger gaps appear.  As you can see, despite my best efforts, there are a couple of gaps between the fuse and the canopies (arrows), and both canopies stand a little proud of the fuselage top ("X" s).  The lower side canopy rails are sanded about as far down as I want to go, so filler will eventually be needed later where the "X" s are shown:

 

 

Above right, the larger gaps are filled with some G-S Watch Cement, mostly to keep the later application of putty from getting inside the canopy.  I try not to use any more than necessary, but it doesn't have to be perfect here,   After it dries, I'll smooth the G-S cement with some 91% rubbing alcohol (99% is even faster, if you can find it).  Hmmm, where did I put that fifth of Old Grandad 180 proof........  No, that would be a sin!

 

Next up,  after eventually smoothing the dried G-S cement a bit with some alcohol on an old handkerchief, I added some strips of tape to the canopies, applied more-or-less half way up the side canopy rails, and a lower strip, just to keep the putty off the rest of the model a bit:

 

 

Then, a thin layer of Bondo Spot Putty is smoothed across the areas needing attention along the lower canopy frames.  You can see how fine-grained this putty is, and let me assure you, it will feather-edge very nicely.  If your putty won't do this -- well --  there's a message in there somewhere!

 

 

Anyway, where the "X" s are, the vertical faces will be sanded down with a very fine grit sanding twig, until I start to dig into (but not though) the tape, at which point, I am done.  Since these are where a sliding canopy meets the fuselage, I am not trying for a perfectly filled edge.  A little bit of a line left will be just right.

 

When all this is put to rights, I'll remove the tape and then do the vertical fuse/canopy joins the same way, as well as build up  the top of the fuse to meet the canopy.

 

More later,

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Back again.

 

After a little sanding on the lower canopy edge, she now looks like this:

 

 

After removing the tape, and adding a  little Mr Surfacer 500:

 

 

I then start to fair in the top and front, with the front being filled with Perfect Plastic Putty:

 

 

After various sanding and such, it's coming along.

 

The line atop the fuselage and between the canopies is starting to even up a bit:

 

 

 

 

Above right, after a little more filling and sanding, looking better yet.

 

Next up, masking the canopy.   I took a pair of dividers and measured the distance of the width of one row of canopy windows.  On most models, the width of the panels will be the same, all the way around that row.  Exceptions would be like the FW-189 or B-18 Bolo.  Then, using the handy Inifi Models Type A Easycutting mat, I just compared the varying widths of lines to find the size needed, laid down some tape, and with a NEW #11 blade, cut strips of the needed width for each separate canopy row, having to the trim out only the horizontal canopy frames -- a 50% savings in labor over just cutting the little squares out of plain tape chunks:

 

 

After about a half an hour, everything is masked up, ready for the next step.  Note that I outlined the front windscreen area with vinyl masking tape, because it is much more flexible to get to fit properly, and then the vinyl tape outline was filled in with micro mask, rather than trying to fight bits of tape to make them lay down over the curved windscreen.  Had I needed any slight fill on the other window panels, I would have applied Micro Mask, and then trimmed with the #11 blade as needed. 

 

 

I prefer to do the fiddly window masking before adding the wings, as they just get in the way.  Otherwise, I might have just put on one or two layers (two is always preferable, if you can make out the canopy frames through them) of Parafilm "M", and then just trimmed out the frames.  However, in this case, with still having to add the wings and then fill and sand (probably), I felt the tape would stand more handling, and any disruptions to it would be easier to spot, than if I were using a more transparent medium.

 

Well, more anon!

 

Ed

 

 

 

[TheRealMrEd]

Another update.

 

There are a couple of problems with the wing.  First off, the nacelles aren't totally round.  The cowling will hide some of this, but I had to do a little filling on the worst parts.  In addition, no wing landing lights (even their positions) are mentioned in the kit.  The actual aircraft had sort of semi-circular leading edge lights on both sides.  Hard to determine the exact shape from the few photos I could find, but definitely not squarish!  I took some rough sandpaper around circular shapes to make the wing cut-outs for the light, later polishing the indentations down with smaller grits of abrasive:

 

 

Above right, an ld sheet of 1/2 Lucite acrylic plastic that I had laying about was used to create the light lenses, one edge of the Lucite being sanded to fit the left wing indent, and the smoothed and polished.  The Lucite is thick enough, that when cut in half horizontally, it will provide enough material for the lenses in both wings.

 

Next, the wing light indents are drilled for the light bulbs.  The left wing had two lights (don't know why), but the right wing had only one.  Therefore, the left indent is a little larger than the right one, hence sanding the Lucite to fit that.  Later, the cut-off half of the Lucite will be sanded further, to fit the smaller right side indent.  The two larger bulb holes ones were drilled at about 6" scale diameter, while the smaller was drilled at 3" scale:

 

 

Above right, the bulb holes were each given a drop of gloss black enamel, and when dry, a drop of Alclad II Chrome For Plastic (ALC-107) was added atop the gloss black.  The little red dots along the leading edge of the wings were smutz and pinholes left from snapping the pour blocks from the front of the wings.  I originally filled them with putty, but eventually had to go back and fill the with CA, to get a smooth edge.

 

Next, the Lucite lenses were glued into their respective indents with a rather messy shot of CA:

 

 

Above right, when sanded to final shape and polished, they look pretty good.  Next, the wings were glued on with CA, and await a little filling with Perfect Plastic Putty.  A little final sanding and inspection, and she'll be ready for her NMF!

 

Later,

 

Ed

[Andwil]

I have to remind myself what this is that you are building, as every time I see it my brain says Kawasaki Ki-45 “Nick”.

 

AW

[TheRealMrEd]

Andwill,

 

Would you believe they were switched at birth...?

 

Ed

[SoftScience]

5 hours ago, Andwil said:

I have to remind myself what this is that you are building, as every time I see it my brain says Kawasaki Ki-45 “Nick”.

 

AW

I'm glad it's not just me, then.

 

Ed, you're a very brave, And very skilled man.

[TheRealMrEd]

Thanks, AW!

 

Back for another brief update.  Her she is after an all-over coat of Krylon Gloss Black:

 

 

And, above right, after an all-over coat of Alclad II Polished Aluminum.

 

Next, after another couple of metallic colors, and some Olive Drab anti-glare:

 

 

Above right, all the masking removed, and some decals applied, along with he engines, and on this particular aircraft, a nose pitot has been added, bent from thin wire.  It should be noted, by anyone else attempting this kit, that the surface of the model is somewhat rough.  I guess this is a product of older resin casting or insufficient master surface prep.  The model would benefit greatly from an overall sanding with finer grits, even on the propellers.  This, unfortunately, I did not do.

 

It should also be noted  that the decals are two part.  That is, the roundels, tail flash and unit emblem have white decals which go on first, and the the colored decals are added after the white ones dry thoroughly.  The decals are very thin, and I would recommend at least one coat of your favorite decal sealer before you start cutting them apart, as they tear somewhat easily if you have to move them at all.  Also, make sure to trim around the edges, leaving a 1-2 mm band of clear, as most are printed on a clear one-piece backing sheet.

 

The engines are installed with a sort of CA gel and positioned as near as possible to center, on the irregularly-shaped nacelles.

 

Next, some smaller details.  First, the cowlings are painted aluminum on the insides, and then when dry, they are placed upon rolled-up bits of notepaper, to mask the insides, before being sprayed Insignia Red (I probably should have put one coat of white underneath to help "pop" the color, but I neglected to do so:

 

 

Above right, there is a bit of a quandary.  Both the engine fronts and the propeller hubs have a male shaft, with no hole to insert either one into the other.  After temporarily affixing an engine to a nacelle, I determined that cutting the "shaft" of the front of the engines would be easier than working on the propellers with the shaft removed, so that's what I'll end up doing.

 

Well, that's it for this time.  More later,

 

Ed

[Marklo]

Looking very smart indeed. I love  the way your builds look so rough early on and then come together to such a polished model. I fear mine are the other way round  

Edited February 20, 2021 by Marklo

[TheRealMrEd]

Thanks, Marklo!  Keep at it, it gets better!

 

 Now we're rounding the final curve.   Next up, the cowls are glued on with R-S Watch Cement.  It is tacky, and holds pretty well so I can position as needed.  I just tried to get the cowl rings centered on the engines:

 

 

Above right, I've always had better luck starting a drill hole in plastic by using the top of a new #11 blade to start the hole. rather than trying to start with the drill bit... always seems to wander off that way.  I mention this here because the kit gives 4 tiny exhaust stubs that mount on a casting block.  While shaving them off the block with a straight-edge razor blade, I managed to lose two!  Therefore, I had to sand down some sprue to the correct diameter, and slice off some replacements.  Sadly, I forgot to take pictures.

 

They mount two to a side, immediately behind the O.D. anti-glare panels on the nacelles. You'll probably be able to spot them in the final pics.

 

Next, the kit propeller hubs had little "cups" that the prop blades are to be glued into.  I couldn't imaging trying to align all this while waiting for the glue to dry on each, so I drilled the hubs and prop ends for tiny music wire, using a #78 drill bit:

 

 

Next, the front view of some A-18s show the little early blue Curtiss prop logos, and some (not all) of the A-18's had sort of add-on looking covers on the landing gear, somewhat like the front part of the P-40 gear doors, while the retracted wheel was left exposed:

 

 

Since the aircraft I was modeling for sure had the doors (not supplied in the kit), I will give them a shot, by cutting  small pieces of an aluminum microwave meal container to the needed shape, and them forming a slight curve around a pencil:

 

 

Above right, after a LOT of searching, I finally found the early Curtiss Logo.  The image shown (I think) has a transparent background, and the propeller blade shapes are also transparent, so that the aluminum would show through.  A finished set of actual 1/72 scale images are provided below (320 dpi image, so appears larger. In reality, each prints at around 3mm across):

 

 

Next up, the landing gear and leg doors are added.  Here I should mention that a little voice in my head told me to replace the landing gear legs with something from the spares box, but I did not.  Sadly, all three legs broke at least once, and one broke twice, shattering where the wire reinforcements had been added!  Save yourself some grief, and replace the darned things, as the resin in this kit is very brittle, especially on the very small parts.  YOU HAVE BEEN FOREWARNED!

 

Eventually, after adding the antenna (the DF loop was not installed on this aircraft, which is a good thing because the DF loop was broken in the kit box when I received it).  Little nav lights were added to the wing ends, using first small drops of white glue, and later transparent red and green were added atop that.  The real-life pictures show some little bumps atop the horizontal tail planes that may be white nav lights.  I couldn't find out, so I just added a couple of drops of white glue, and left them alone...

 

Anyway, I've done the best that I could figure out how to do, so here she is, with a teaser pic.

 

 

As usual, more will be added over at RFI  HERE

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2021 by TheRealMrEd