Toon B-24J Assembly Ship 'Spotted A** Ape'

[MickE]

So I was at Telford looking for a kit to buy to make for a 'FlashMod' session my club had organised for two weeks after Telford. Basically. we all meet up somewhere and we have six hours to complete the kit, therefore I was looking for a simple kit as my entry.

 

I decided to get a Meng toon tank or an aircraft (I built a Sturm Tiger previously using Meng's toon Tiger and a conversion kit)and so I finally decided to get Meng's B24J Liberator and was inspired by a display of Assembly ships on a club display. I was going to pick a simple design but they were all B-24D's so in a mad moment I decided to make the Spotted A** Ape, shown below:

 

 

 

I figured that, as there were not many parts to the kit I should be able to crack it in six hours....maybe.

 

My original plan was to source some decals for the spots beforehand but, unfortunately, could not find any so went to Plan B, which was to get some small spot stickers to use as masks. This had to be amended as the only spots I could get were too big so I ended up punching out the centres with a hole punch!

 

Well the day came and I made a great start priming everything and painting the unspotted parts. However I was trying to paint red , blue and yellow areas for the spots to be stuck on but it was taking ages as I would have to put three coats on to get the opacity. In the end I reverted to Plan C and re-primed, painted the base white and Olive Drab then stuck the spots on instead!

 

I didn't manage to finish in the six hours and had to finish it off a few days later - I had to paint the vertical stabilisers, finish the mouth and eyes and make up some decals for the lettering, oh, and base it as well.

 

It was quite a fun build although I get having to repaint some of the white areas to cover some mistakes.

 

Here is the finished article.

 

 

 

 

I tried matting down the dots but it didn't work.

 

Thanks for looking

 

Mick

 

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by MickE

[kapam]

Very cool!

I like the idea of a "Flashmod" session - a way to have fun and put the "discipline" of the hobby to one side.

Great choice for such a theme too!

I hate to admit it, but I can expend six hours of scale modelling and still have practically nothing to show for it. 🙄

[billn53]

Your choice of markings is true genius! Love it!

[Orso]

Like it very much. It never came to my mind that an assembly ship would be a good option to build.

I built my B-17 as a Swedish airliner and the Lancaster as the Jet engine test bed.

 

[Snafu35]

Hi Mick.

 

You had a great idea to use self-adhesive erasers to seal this B24...toon!👍

This assembly ship is almost as well done as Shepherd Payne's!

Bravo for the idea, and the making of the base.

It's a pity that you were out of the proposed time challenge, but you had also chosen a certain difficulty: a four-engines! 😂

 

Regards,

Eric-Snafu35

 

[MickE]

Thank you all for the great comments.

 

Kapam, the Flashmod is great fun and gives some people a chance to get a day's modelling in whether they finish or not. We have been doing it for a few years now.

 

 

[georgeusa]

I have always wanted to do some formation models, but even in 1/72 it takes up some large amounts of space.  The idea of this toon B-24 is brilliant.  Thanks for sharing a great idea and a great build.

[Army_Air_Force]

I like it!

We did something similar to a friend's R/C 458th BG B-24 back in 2002. While it was stored in the marquee overnight and after John retired to his tent, we covered it with sugar paper circles stuck on with double sided tape. He did see the funny side the following morning!

 

 

[MickE]

Thanks for the comments

Georgeusa feel free to copy the idea. There are plenty of schemes out there.

Army_Air_Force I love it! 😀

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

Zany and mad but I love the concept and the execution! How refreshing an idea. Regards, Andy

[MickE]

Thanks Andy.

[Ozzy]

cracking job Mick.

[MickE]

Thanks Oz