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1:72 Emhar McDonnell F3H-2N Demon


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Strangely enough, Bill, I bought the Pirate at the LHS I shopped at when I was going to university, so it was from a place I used to shop at when I was still actually a 'child'. Despite their very limited-run nature, I enjoyed the Meikraft models I had. I even finished all three I bought - a Grumman 'Fifi' (FF-1), a Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak, and the Vought F6U-1 Pirate. Yes, they were a bit rough, but they had good 'bones' and with a little bit of work built up into nice-looking models.

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

Edited by Learstang
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I have the Meikraft Caproni Ca3 in the stash. Having built one of theirs already I know what a challenge that could be! 

That's proper modelling!

 

Ian

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3 minutes ago, Brandy said:

I have the Meikraft Caproni Ca3 in the stash. Having built one of theirs already I know what a challenge that could be! 

That's proper modelling!

 

Ian

 

Yes, I suppose that's why I enjoyed them. They were rough, and certainly a challenge, but definitely buildable (I recall the decals on my kits being quite nice, despite the rough, limited-run nature of the kits).

 

Regards,

 

Jason

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Another plus for Meikraft.  JohnR's photo of his XF6U-1 prototype earlier, reminded me of this old Meikraft F6U-1 Pirate that I did years ago:

 

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Took some work, but turned out okay. (One cracked decal on tail).

 

Ed

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Nice diversion - makes me want to build that Admiral kit of the Pirate even more. It's a pretty basic kit, there are not a lot of parts - for instance, the entire cockpit is one resin casting. Seats, tub, consoles, sidewalls, etc. One piece. Nicely detailed, and should be fun (!) to paint. Once I start researching (I have the Ginter volume) I'm sure I'll find all sorts of things to add or fix. That's me I guess, just say no to shake and bake.     :drunk:

 

*****

 

Anyway, I received the Eduard AIM-9B Sidewinders From Sprue Brothers.

 

IMG_6473

 

As expected, sharply cast resin with wafer-thin tail fins, full striping and stenciling, and of course the tiny photoetched forward fins. These will be more fun to assemble than the rest of the Emhar kit. I just hope I can get the bodies off the casting block without damaging those translucent tail fins. Aye, aye, aye.    :doh:

 

Detail painting continues on the Demon. The Corogard and under-surface blast areas are finished on the stabilators. I fired up Corel Draw and drew some red lines and made my own stickers for the fuel dumps. These lines are 1.5 points wide, with a spacing of 1.5 points, and the entire pattern of 10 lines is about 10mm wide and should fit the length of the fuel dumps. The number of stripes matches photos of the surviving Demon at Pima. That's a US quarter dollar by the way. It shows some guy who doesn't know you should sit down in the row boat when you're crossing a river in the winter fog and snowstorm.

 

IMG_6474

 

(I made a few extra bunches off stripes. You never know when you might need some!)

 

I keep finding things I have to add. Today, I looked closer and realised that there are shields to prevent spent cannon shells from being ingested into the intake. They're pretty obvious now that I'm paying attention. What will be next?    

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Good choice on the Sidewinders Bill. I used their B's on an Avon Sabre, and their J's on an Iranian F-5E. IMHO, they are the best 1/72 Sidewinders out there.

 

The Demon is looking pretty cool so far, and can't wait to see her post stickering!

 

Terry

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On 06/07/2022 at 02:51, Terry1954 said:

Good choice on the Sidewinders Bill. I used their B's on an Avon Sabre, and their J's on an Iranian F-5E. IMHO, they are the best 1/72 Sidewinders out there.

The Demon is looking pretty cool so far, and can't wait to see her post stickering!

 

Thanks Terry. The Sidewinders look fantastic, especially when compared with the numerous AIM-9B missiles I have in the spares box. And those include the ones from the Hasegawa air-to-air weapons set. Those look downright anemic compared to those from Eduard.

 

*****

 

My son and his two daughters are up from Maryland and are spending two weeks with us, and that means lots of family time (museums, water parks, playgrounds, picnics, swimming, etc. etc.) I have been able to get the Demon prepared for "stickering" as Terry desires. All detail painting is done, I've applied a wash to the landing gear and arresting hook bays, and I applied some mild weathering to the airframe using my odd reverse pre-shading technique. What the squeak is that? she asked. Well, I'll tell you.

 

Pre-shading is a great tool to break up a monochromatic paint scheme and make the bird look more realistic. I never really cared for pre-shading though, as in order to make the dirty bits show up you have to make your top layer of paint partially transparent. Then you really don't get the full effect of the colour of the paint. What I typically do is to paint the main colours, in this case Light Gull Gray and White, and then I use a colour like Gunze H95 Smoke Gray, which is a transparent colour, to add the weathering where I want it. Then I will go over those weathered spots with a highly thinned, and therefore transparent, mix of the main colours. The result is a scheme that preserves the full LGG and White colours, yet breaks up the monotony. Plus, unlike pre-shading, if you muck it up (me? never!) you can just repeat the whole procedure until you get what you want. Extra steps? Yup. Crazed modeller who is only doing it this way to be contrary? Probably.   :drunk:

 

I did not go very heavy on the weathering, as the photo of the VF-122 bird that I'm using for reference doesn't look very weathered. Here are some photos - if you squint you should be able to see the subtle variations in the colours. As usual, the effect is more pronounced in real life. Silly cameras.

 

IMG_6475

 

IMG_6476

 

IMG_6477

 

You'll also see that she's had a coat or five of MRP Super Clear Gloss. She may get a few more prior to the stickers, especially the white. I'm going to try the wide orange band across the vertical fin, but if I don't like how those ancient decals are responding, I'll pull them off and use the scheme on the Xtradecal sheet. That will require painting the tip of the fin orange,

 

I hope to start the stickers tomorrow, but we're having the entire family over for my son-in-law's birthday, plus I pick up my new car and I'll probably want to play around with it. Yes, I confess, I bought an electric car. That's me, Mr. Early Adopter. But, hey, I have 40 solar panels that generate more power than I use. Might as well use it up!

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. At the science museum today, me and the grandkids got to go inside a Faraday Cage while two humongous Tesla coils fired artificial lightning bolts at us. Very cool.

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She's looking good, Bill, your "reverse pre-shading" is really effective. I'll have to remember to try that one.

 

Very cool indeed about the Faraday Cage and the Tesla Coils, a great way to get the grandkids into science :)

 

James

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The subtle weathering looks great Bill and like @David H the orange reminds me of one of my favourite F-4 Schemes for VF-114 in it's Aardvark form - I have the Finemolds F-4J waiting for me to make it, boxed in that scheme.

I've actually had the Microscale set 72-111 for some years, waiting for some decent F-4's and that sheet also carries the VF-114 markings as well as the colourful VF-51 screaming Eagles and the infamous VF-96 "Showtime 100" of Cunningham and Driscoll fame. Love all three of those schemes. Seems like I have a lot of work to do yet in this hobby!

 

A slight F-4 drift there, must concentrate!

 

Can't wait to see the Demon with the sidewinders on!

 

Terry

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10 hours ago, David H said:

The orange reminds me of the Scheme used by VF-114 "Executioners" (later changed to the less threatening moniker of "Aardvarks"....).

 

If I were an ant, I think Aardvark would be quite threatening indeed. If I recall, aardvark is Afrikaans for earth pig or something like that. That would be a cool name for a squadron - VF-114 Earth Pigs. Or maybe a band.     :)

 

4 hours ago, 81-er said:

Very cool indeed about the Faraday Cage and the Tesla Coils, a great way to get the grandkids into science :)

 

We have an annual family pass to the science museum that allows me, wifey, and all the grandkids to get in for free. It paid for itself after just two visits and we go all the time. The kids are mostly at the age where they can begin to understand many of the displays, and I think that is really important. My education was STEM all the way (until I retired when I decided to revisit the classics), and the next generation will need this more than ever.

 

Thanks for the nice comments on the weathering technique. I took one of the photos and applied a negative gamma correction to try and bring out the subtle weathering at the expense of a darker background. I guess it looks a little better, although now the LGG is too dark. The post-shading looks much more like it does in real life. I need a camera that has the same characteristics and specifications as my eye, then I could get a photo where everything looks right!    :)

 

IMG_6476_2

 

4 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

A slight F-4 drift there, must concentrate!

 

No need to apologize for that - you can never have too many Phantoms or too many Phantom thread drifts. Speaking of Phantoms, it continues to amaze me that the Demon is almost the same size. She was a big puppy. Thank goodness they didn't stick with the Westinghouse J40. That engine was evil.    :devil:

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Your "reverse post-shading" definitely shows up, Bill - and just the way you want it: enough to show some variations, not in-your-face at all. :clap: :clap: 

 

Looking forward to the stickering... :popcorn:

 

BTW, museum time with grandkids that actually enjoy it sounds like a great treat for all of you :clap:

 

Ciao

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On 11/07/2022 at 09:59, giemme said:

BTW, museum time with grandkids that actually enjoy it sounds like a great treat for all of you :clap:

 

For sure. Anything I can do to get them off the couch and away from their iPads is a good thing. So far, they really seem to enjoy the science museum. On the last trip Leah (8 years old) read me all the placards about the Mastodons that have been excavated near our town (there is one skeleton on display and another full scale representation complete with hair). I told her she should dig in her back yard and see what she can find. Her mom gave me a very nasty look.    :(

 

Only one of the grandkids (Carter - 6 years old) seems interested in airplanes and building models. A small victory for the hobby.

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Stickers soon. I promise.

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On 7/5/2022 at 8:48 PM, Navy Bird said:

sit down in the row boat when you're crossing a river

 

Duly noted, but the Durham boat was quite barge-like and presumably not so prone to tipping that a little grandstanding would create a health and safety issue.  Certainly no more dangerous than the Phase 2 rout of drunken Hessians on Christmas. 

 

 

On 7/11/2022 at 8:52 AM, Navy Bird said:

That would be a cool name for a squadron - VF-114 Earth Pigs. Or maybe a band.  

 

This outfit seems appropriate.  🙂

 

 

Your Demon is shaping up very nicely indeed, Bill.  I still do a black base sometimes, and sometimes I'll go through the motions of pre-shading, but more and more I'm just painting whatever thing I'm working on in the basic colour scheme and then "fixing it in post," as they say.

 

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On 12/07/2022 at 15:58, Jackson Duvalier said:

Your Demon is shaping up very nicely indeed, Bill.  I still do a black base sometimes, and sometimes I'll go through the motions of pre-shading, but more and more I'm just painting whatever thing I'm working on in the basic colour scheme and then "fixing it in post," as they say.

 

Thanks. Fixing it in the post works for me - if I screw it up, just do that spot over again until you get what you want. No need to strip the model, etc. Routing drunken Hessians on Christmas? Yikes.

 

On 12/07/2022 at 17:55, VT Red Sox Fan said:

Bill—I love it, stickering—my new model term for the day😎. I really like the finish developing on this Demon—great job!  Best, Erwin 

 

I think I heard that term from someone else in another thread. There was this "debate" over whether it's an appropriate term, based on the definitions of decals and stickers. Aye, aye, aye. It's just a model, it's not like it's anything important.     :)

 

*****

 

So, I'm a bit under the weather having come down with pneumonia. Negative for Covid, but I sure feel pretty miserable. I'm prone to these types of infections due to low IgG levels caused by all the chemo I've had since 2002. Another delay, sorry about that. I'll be better soon.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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On 7/11/2022 at 2:59 PM, giemme said:

Your "reverse post-shading" definitely shows up, Bill - and just the way you want it: enough to show some variations, not in-your-face at all. :clap: :clap:

 

Ditto Bill.  Just catching up and would echo what master-painter-G says :D

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Sorry to hear you are under the weather Bill. We have a family member who post chemo, has had Covid 3 times now in just over 6 months. Imune system has to fight that much harder I guess.

 

Rest up, keep smiling, and get well soon, the Demon can wait.

 

Terry

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20 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Imune system has to fight that much harder I guess.

 

Thanks Terry. That is what's behind it for sure. My immune system was pretty much hosed from all the chemo, and specifically my IgG levels have never recovered. (Immunoglobulin G are those antibodies that help fight upper respiratory infections.) We had been on a schedule of IgG infusions every three months, but my oncologist is not happy that I got pneumonia so we're switching to every month starting next Monday. This is good news.

 

19 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

I hope you are back and at everything very soon, Bill :)

 

Thanks. Shouldn't be too long.    🤞

 

19 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Take care of yourself, and hope you get well soon! The Demon looks like it’s in a happy place and can wait for you to get well again.

 

Thanks Adrian. The Demon is waiting patiently in the photo booth. However, the water that I put in the bowl in preparation for stickering is slowly evaporating. I hate to waste water like that...maybe I can sneak a sticker on in-between coughing fits.   :)

 

1 hour ago, giemme said:

Hope you get better soon, Bill 🤞

The Demon can wait, and so do we.

 

Thanks Giorgio. It's a bummer having to delay the project again - it's so close. When I get to this stage, I usually start to hurry up, with my unbridled youthful exuberance bubbling up. No, wait, that's someone else...I usually just go have a lie-down.    :drunk:

 

51 minutes ago, Martian said:

Get well soon Bill.

 

Mr and Mrs Martian 👽 👽

 

Thanks Martin. Just curious - do Martians get pneumonia? How many lungs does a Martian have anyway? One for each tentacle?

 

*****

 

On another note, my gob is truly smacked with the photos from the James Webb Space Telescope. And these are just the first "quick" shots. Can't wait to see what will come once the real science kicks in. Taxpayer cash well spent.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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