Douglas Dakota III w. Willys Jeep 1/72 Airfix

[Scargsy]

I'll be building this...

Guess I'll need to leave the optional machine gun and howitzer for the Jeep out for this GB!

I'll do all the sprue shots, etc. when I get around to starting it - which probably won't be for a while!

[dogsbody]

Watching!

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Brad]

Great choice mate, welcome along.

[TonyOD]

Looking forward to this one taking shape. That Dak does look smart with those SEAC roundels, is this the scheme you're going with @Scargsy?

[Richard Tucker]

I have one of these in the stash that I hope to do for this GB. I'll be watching along.

[Scargsy]

On 20/04/2021 at 15:57, TonyOD said:

Looking forward to this one taking shape. That Dak does look smart with those SEAC roundels, is this the scheme you're going with @Scargsy?

Yep, just going to do it straight OOB with supplied decals.

Does anyone have info on why the scheme has some small patches of Humbrol 101 (Matt Mid Green) on the wings / tail fin? They appear to be mainly suggesting Humbrol 155 (Matt Olive Drab). I can't work out from the destructions whether it's meant to be some form of camo (doesn't seem enough to be so), panels painted slightly differently or weathering?

 

[dnl42]

I'll always follow a Dakota build! 

 

Here's some primary evidence of the fin, https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205207689

 

Fine diorama subject! 

[Andwil]

It’s a camouflage scheme, OD with medium green blotches around the edges of wings, tailplanes and fin.  Also seen on B-17s, P-40s and early Thunderbolts.

 

AW

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

27 minutes ago, Andwil said:

It’s a camouflage scheme, OD with medium green blotches around the edges of wings, tailplanes and fin.  Also seen on B-17s, P-40s and early Thunderbolts.

 

AW

I don't think Ive ever seen an early Thunderbolt in this scheme, but would love to. Are we talking P-47B’s or early C’s, and can you point me at a photo ? 

[Andwil]

9 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

I don't think Ive ever seen an early Thunderbolt in this scheme, but would love to. Are we talking P-47B’s or early C’s, and can you point me at a photo ? 

I think you may be right Dennis.  I was going from memory and it may be faulty!

 

AW

[TonyOD]

8 hours ago, Scargsy said:

Does anyone have info on why the scheme has some small patches of Humbrol 101 (Matt Mid Green) on the wings / tail fin?

Funnily enough I had exactly the same question about the Italeri Dak that I have in the stash. Rather confusingly the kit comes with two different callouts for the same D-Day scheme, one with these green patches and one without, i.e. OD all over. The scheme in question is represented by a Dak in a museum in France (not the actual airframe, another C-47 painted up to look like it) and this has the green patches. 

 

 

[Scargsy]

OK so I've cleared the decks (well the Golden Hind is a pain so will be getting shelved for now), so time to crack this one open...

So there's plenty of bits, large and small - this thing is larger than things I usually build even though it's still 1/72, still most of those sprues are gigantic wings and body sections!

Everything in one bag (other than the clearparts inside another smaller one inside) for the plane, the Jeep sprues were bagged up separately (again clear parts in a separate one). There's quite a few bits for that too...

Still a lot of the bits appear to be spares/variants, e.g. at least 4 propellers in the kit I've noticed and 2 bonnets (or should that be hoods) for the Jeep plus options for the roof up or down on the Jeep, etc.

The instructions are the modern black/white/red Airfix style, seem easy enough to follow - I'll not reproduce them all here, go look on Scalemates, etc. if you want to download them. Nice that the kit has options for wheels up (which I'll be building) - with the Jeep and trailer stowed inside - though I've no idea which way round they would load them.

Decals look nice, fingers crossed...

The only aftermarket stuff I've splashed out on is some window masks to save my sanity with all those windows!

So I've made a start on the Jeep, as mentioned it will be 'stowed' in transit inside the aircraft.

It's absolutely tiny (for someone who usually builds 1/35 armour or 1/72 aircraft), but quite nicely detailed - for example there is the petrol (gas for Jeep I guess!) tank - which unnervingly sits underneath the drivers seat, plus the gear and drive selector sticks. Pity it's probably not going to get much visibility in my finished kit!

 

I need to decide on the colour, apparently the Dakotas were painted by the US before entering UK service but in colours as closely matched to the British standards as possible, so hopefully that would mean something like ANA 611 Interior Green for the inside - not sure if it should be that or Zinc-Chromate? I may go for the latter if it provides more of a contrast to the body colour.

 

[Scargsy]

The jeep, airborne trailer and artillery piece (which won't be included as 'unarmed') were built up - quite nice pieces, I think this is effectively another kit that has just been reboxed by Airfix with the Dakota. I'd be tempted to do more 1/72 armour but it's not good for my aging eye-sight trying to paint it!

The interior was also mostly built up for painting - I attached the doors into the hull sides too, as I'm going for an 'in-flight' look.

Yes I did mask those headlights for the jeep - and both sides of the clear, foldable windscreen. The headlights are a single clear piece attached through the back so I just attached the tape over the bits that poked through and roughly hacked it to conform, rear side then painted with silver before attaching.

I gave the cargo pieces a coat of Tamiya Olive Drab mixed 50:50 with Mr Hobby self-levelling and the interior a coat of this to start. Thought it looked a bit dark with scale though so mixed a little AK real color US interior yellow-green with some and over-shot the jeep, etc. once semi-dry from a distance/height to give a bit of modulation. The interior was similarly given a coat of yellow-green (again mixed 50:50 with the thinners, but just the yellow-green) trying to leave some of the drab in the darker corners, etc.

I didn't bother using any primer - since this is all internal it won't get any handling and the paint should hopefully bind well enough.

I did a bit of detail brush painting on the pilots, seats, tyres, etc.

It's quite a nice kit, the fit seems good and there's plenty of interior detail. I forgot to add the control sticks before gluing the interior into the body half, so only the guy closest has one - had to cut the co-pilots off (also forgot to drill the holes for the antenna - oops, still I'd only end up snapping them off later!) I also lost the control yoke for the pilot, after trying to glue it on - it maybe on the cockpit floor or my carpet! I'm not too fussed there's not going to be much visible given I'm modelling it all 'buttoned up'.

Even without the windows in, it's hard to see much inside...

 So on with the wings...

Then the engines.

Even though this kit has some great fit, there were still a few gaps and seams to fill and sand, not my greatest skill but here goes...

There were a couple of sink marks in the top of the engine parts (intakes?)

A few bits left to add: exhausts, antenna and clear parts, then onto paint - I might initially prime in black to see how bad my filling is before trying to pre-shade with some grey primer!

[Scargsy]

So another quick update (been busy this weekend!)

So I got the final pieces attached - some of the clear parts were a bit of a pain, the cockpit side windows (trying not to push them in too far and lose them inside!) and the top 'dome' needed a bit of sanding persuasion.

I'd dipped them in Pledge first, I have a plastic pint glass reserved for this - just fill it up then dip the clear sprue in, I had to break it into 2 parts to fit first! Then I just allow the excess to drip off, before placing them above a paper towel and putting a box over them to stop any dust settling in it during drying! Then pour the contents from the glass back into the bottle!

Anyhow once everything was attached I shot some primer, however things soon went south. Not sure if it's the weather (urgh it's hot and humid here at the moment, I did it at 9pm but my thermometer in the house was still showing 25C!) but the airbrush was spattering and I've ended up with a very textured finish. It was lacquer primer - black first then some light grey over the top, so possibly drying before it hit the surface given the heat and drying in/on the airbrush...

So I'm guessing I've got an awful lot of sanding to do in order to smooth out this great speckled bird, not too worried about the colour speckles - hopefully may give a bit of variation to the final coat, it's just the lumps!

 

 

[PeterB]

I had the same problem with a spray can of acrylic primer on my Canberra - as you say the weather does not help, though I suspect part of the problem was that I was getting near tyhe bottom of the can and it mybe did not mix very well.

 

Pete

[PattheCat]

I waited for the temp to fall under 30 c. before priming the Connie but still had to fight for a good liquid flow (constant dry tip and paint quickly drying/thickening in the cup, this with water based Stynylrez primer). Putting a lid over the paint cup helped.

Hope you got it sorted out.

[Scargsy]

So after what seemed like an age sanding all the lumps back with 1000 grit wet-and-dry I managed to hopefully get it all smoothed out.

The underside then got a coat of Tamiya Neutral Grey XF-53, I thinned it 50:50 with some Mr Hobby Self-Levelling Thinners and it went down great (thankfully) :

After that, the masking - not inconsiderable job given the size of the thing...

Then on with the Tamiya Olive-Drab (XF-62), lightened slightly with some of their newer lacquer paint Olive Drab 2 (LP-29), again the mix thinned 50:50 with self-levelling thinners.

I have to say though it still looks pretty dark to me (scale effects, what I expect - I have no paint chips, etc. to compare), I may use this as the colour for the darker patches, mask some off then spray over with a lighter mix. Unfortunately it looks like some of my tape has come loose near one of the engine nacelles - hopefully not too much overspray though, I guess I'll see once the masking is all removed. 

[Scargsy]

So I masked off the front edges of the wings and vertical stabiliser then gave it a few coats of lighter green - a mix of more of the lacquer lighter Olive Drab with the standard XF62. However giving it quite a distant dust coating (and such a huge plane) it doesn't seem to have made a huge change in the colour though hopefully it will show through.

 

 

[Scargsy]

The front wing edges and nose I masked off and hand painted the black - however I did get a fair amount of bleed under the tape, so I've touched up as best I can.

I brush applied a couple of coats of Microscale gloss (thinned with Tamiya alcohol based thinners). It really showed up the 'roughness' of the paint (due to my previous woes with the primer).

I applied most of the decals, though I've left off a lot of the smaller stencils underneath - this build is dragging a bit now and I really want to get it finished to make some room for other GBs!

Once the decals were on, I gave it another coat of gloss, again thinned with X20a and added the wheels and props.

The decals haven't conformed amazingly to the panel lines but that maybe due to lots of primer/paint/gloss filling them up, rather than them being overly thick, since the walkway strips have conformed very well to the raised bumps.

I applied a coat of Mr Topcoat Flat from a rattle can (first time I've used the flat) - it initially looks glossy when it goes on (as can be seen in the photo above) though after some time drying it flattens off. I'll need to give it a second thin coat of flat I think - even though it was touch dry I managed to get a few rain spots on it whilst moving it indoors from the garage and that seems to have removed the flat where I wiped them off.

I do like their gloss clear, I believe it's acrylic based so not harsh on decals but I have sealed them so hopefully not an issue, though using rattle cans does get expensive I've yet to manage doing a great job airbrushing clear coats.

So hopefully it's almost done - another flat coat (the gloss really shows those bumps), remove the window masks then add some decals to the windows and maybe some washes if I get time.

 

 

[CliffB]

It's nice to see this one approaching the finishing line.  It'll spring to life once those window masks come off 

[Scargsy]

So I made the finish line!

Adding those window decals though - wish I hadn't; the transparency does show against the windows, it may have been a better idea to have attached them on the inside (or have put the decal on before dipping the clear parts in Pledge).

I added a bit of a grey filter/wash but it kind of added too much of a dirt layer so I spent ages cleaning it up / thinning it out!

Overall a fun build - the kit went together very well, the paint issues I could have done without but it's all a learning experience!

[Brad]

That's come up really nicely mate. well done.