1:72 Airfix Douglas A4D-2 (A-4B) Skyhawk

[Navy Bird]

12 hours ago, cpoud117 said:

Great job so far, your buidling speed is impressive. I see that you haven't painted the red part around the intake, are you going for a decal instead?

 

Thanks! Not sure my speed is impressive though - I only get 5-6 kits done per year. Probably will be less this year as not only does my grandson need mentoring in his fledgling kit building, but now my granddaughter has informed me that she wishes to build a "pink airplane." Any ideas? She could paint any old kit pink, that's not a problem, but if there is a kit of a real pink airplane I think she'd get a kick out of that. I thought about the pink submarine from that old movie but she wants an airplane. Anyway, it does my heart good to see these kids want to build. Keep 'em away from TikTok and all that nonsense.

 

Oh, right. I'm going to try stickers for the intake warning stripes - if that doesn't work then I'll paint them on. Which I've done before but it's a royal PITA. Especially in Lilliputian scale.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Dave Slowbuild]

18 minutes ago, Navy Bird said:

the pink submarine from that old movie

That’ll be Operation Petticoat (with Cary Grant & Tony Curtis).

One of my family’s favourite movies

[Johnson]

1 hour ago, Navy Bird said:

Any ideas?

 

Well, there's those RAF Gulf War Tornados, Jaguars and Buccs, sort of pink.

 

How about a recce Spitfire? My daughters liked Spits.

[cpoud117]

2 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Any ideas? She could paint any old kit pink, that's not a problem, but if there is a kit of a real pink airplane I think she'd get a kick out of that.

There was a Mirage IIIC which got a very temporary pink livery. 
I’m sure hasegawa has a pink idolmaster jet of some type, it might be expensive though.

[Andrew Patmore]

2 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Thanks! Not sure my speed is impressive though - I only get 5-6 kits done per year. Probably will be less this year as not only does my grandson need mentoring in his fledgling kit building, but now my granddaughter has informed me that she wishes to build a "pink airplane." Any ideas? She could paint any old kit pink, that's not a problem, but if there is a kit of a real pink airplane I think she'd get a kick out of that. I thought about the pink submarine from that old movie but she wants an airplane. Anyway, it does my heart good to see these kids want to build. Keep 'em away from TikTok and all that nonsense.

 

Put them on here!

From what I have seen on here, there are very few trolls. Act as guardian angel and you could teach them about internet safety and they can have fun demolishing some cheap kits.

I have an old 1/12 Tamiya F1 Honda in the (very small) stash that I was thinking about doing in pink. I know, right. Blasphemy.

Get the lad to do a Warthog with twice the amount of bombs/rockets/lasers possible.

Get the lass to do a pink Spitfire.

I will do a pink Honda.

 

P.S. I mostly made the Airfix A4. It went in the bin.

[Tailspin Turtle]

20 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

 

Thanks! Not sure my speed is impressive though - I only get 5-6 kits done per year. Probably will be less this year as not only does my grandson need mentoring in his fledgling kit building, but now my granddaughter has informed me that she wishes to build a "pink airplane." Any ideas? She could paint any old kit pink, that's not a problem, but if there is a kit of a real pink airplane I think she'd get a kick out of that. I thought about the pink submarine from that old movie but she wants an airplane. Anyway, it does my heart good to see these kids want to build. Keep 'em away from TikTok and all that nonsense.

 

Oh, right. I'm going to try stickers for the intake warning stripes - if that doesn't work then I'll paint them on. Which I've done before but it's a royal PITA. Especially in Lilliputian scale.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

https://www.classicwarbirds.co.uk/articles/air-zoo-founder-sue-parish-and-her-pink-p-40-warhawk.php

 

There are more pictures on the web.

[David H]

I know Roy Sutherland built a pink PR Spitfire from Eduard for Military Modeller illustrated a while back....

 

-d-

[billn53]

How about Sue Parish's pink P-40 Warhawk?

 

 

[Navy Bird]

Wow, I never realised there were so many pink warbirds! I'm pretty sure that my granddaughter (Leah) is thinking of a nice bright pink, kinda like the Barbie Corvette. (I think she got this idea because she saw a bottle or two of Gunze H19 in the rack - now that's a bright pink.) That P-40 might be the ticket, as she likes the shark's teeth on some of my models too. I'll bounce these ideas off of her and see what she thinks.

 

I'm curious myself about that pink Mirage III. Time for some research...

 

*****

 

Stickering is continuing. I managed to make the red around the intake lips with decals. Airfix think that a 2mm wide stripe that is straight as an arrow will somehow conform to a surface that has dissimilar curvature in two directions. Someone needs to go back to geometry class. My solution, convoluted as it is, was to take 1mm wide stripes and use two, adjacent to each other, on both the outside and the inside of the intake lip. These narrow stripes will curve, and the resulting wrinkles can be eradicated with Micro-Sol. The inboard straight red stripe on the fuselage side is from the kit and is about 1.5mm wide. It was way too long however, and had to be nipped. The forward edge of the intake lip was painted with Gunze H23 Shine Red as it matched really well. The Danger chevron came from the Xtradecal sheet.

 

 

Anyway, it'll do. Although working with the thin strips of red stripes was a pain, I think it was easier than trying to mask this. The checkers are on the port side of the fin, but I can't show them to you until I apply the remaining 2 litres of solvent to get them to snuggle down onto that rudder. Getting the wing decals to go down over the vortex generators was bad enough...

 

Cheers,

Bill

[giemme]

Looking purty despite the fight!  

 

Ciao 

[Nickthebrief]

Looking really good Bill. Interesting to read about the decal solvent needed for the rudder - Skyhawk rudders are a decal-ist’s nightmare, I imagine. I have really enjoyed catching up with another of your immaculate and highly entertaining builds. Proceed!

Nick.

[Navy Bird]

Stickeration is complete, and I'm not a real happy camper. The decals (from Xtradecal, although printed by Microscale) were very difficult to conform to the rudder and vortex generators. The fin decal was worse, as it has a white under-layer to ensure the yellow and red "pop." And for sure the geometry of the rudder means that any decal, regardless of where it came from, needs a lot of solvent to "snuggle down." I ended up with multiple applications of Micro-Sol, Mr. Mark Softer, and MIG Ultra Decal Fit (I was trying everything I had) and I still had to slice the decal in those areas with a new #11 blade. That meant touching up with paint that matches the yellow and red. Ugh.     😬

 

Luckily, Testors (who?) 1169 Flat Yellow in the little 1/4 ounce bottle that I used to buy for $0.25 at the local craft store (I think this bottle was a bit newer...) is a pretty good match. Gunze H23 Shine Red is serviceable for the red. Gunze H5 Blue was OK for the national insignia. I used a Mr. Brush 20/0 hairy stick which has about four hairs on it. Or is it 20? I didn't count. The end result is OK, but just barely. The other decals presented no difficulty, even the national insignia wrapping around the in-flight refueling probe.

 

 

 

Some observations on the stickers:

1. The blue in the national insignia is too bright. It should be a tad darker. I could have used the kit decals, where the blue seems the proper shade, but Airfix provide smaller stars and bars for the wings and forward fuselage. But...
2. This particular aircraft seems to have larger stars and bars. Compare the model above with the following photos and note the size and longitudinal extent of all the markings in that area. If I had used the smaller Airfix versions, I don't think it would look right. Now that the colour of the national insignia is bugging me, I probably should have used the kit stickers. At this point it's too late - they are on!

 

(from the Skyhawk Association)

 

Consequently I used the Xtradecal stars and bars. They are not so far off as to be objectionable, but one would think this is a pretty common marking and the manufacturers should get the colour right. Xtradecal notes that several of the schemes included on their sheet (but not this one of course) should use the larger national insignia on both the wings and fuselage. They provide two sizes measuring 10mm and 12mm on their sheet, approximately 28" and 34" in real life. The Airfix national insignias are 11mm or 31".

 

You may note that the forward pitot (right in front of the windscreen) has magically disappeared from the model. No, I didn't accidentally send it into the ether, I deliberately snipped it off and sanded the fuselage in that area smooth. Why? I plan on replacing it with a photoetch version that is more to scale, and at some point I need to add the anti-glare area (being flat black I plan to add it after the model has received its final semi-matte varnish). I thought I could use the kit decal, which I tried after removing the pitot, but it is the wrong shape for this specific aircraft. But of course.   

 

Next up is the repositioning of the flaps, as they interfere with the drop tanks. This is something I should have checked earlier - I made a guess on the angle of the flaps based on photos, but it obviously wasn't right.

 

Even with all the trials and tribulations, we're getting close. Which is good, because Mr. Mojo Risen' wants to Ride on the Storm.      🚪

 

Cheers,

Bill

[giemme]

Tail checkers look the biz even on the big screen, Bill  

 

I agree that the blue in the roundels look a bit too light and bright ,while shape-wise is spot on.

 

Heck of a job anyway

 

Ciao

[Terry1954]

Despite your sticker challenges, they look pretty good from here. Coming along great I would say.

 

Terry.

[RidgeRunner]

She is coming alive, Bill! She looks great in those colours

 

Martin

[RidgeRunner]

15 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

At this point it's too late - they are on!

Its nothing a length of tape wont remove

[David H]

Looks great, Bill.

 

I had kind of a similar issue with the insignias on my A3D. I bought the Fundekals US National Insignia, Post 1947. IMHO it's worth the money. However, the blue on your insignia isn't as far off to be considered objectionable.

 

Go Man, Go. Your signal is Charlie.

 

-d-

[CJP]

Hi Bill - I can sympathise re the rudder checks - a few years ago I tried masking and painting red/white checks on the rudder of my 1/32 RAN A4G but ended up giving up as I found it beyond my ability to get a nice clean result so ended doing a later scheme with the checks on the forward part of the fin with a white rudder - even that was a challenge for me but at least I did not have to mask over those rudder ribs.

Your Skyhawk is looking very neat as is usual with your models

CJP

[Navy Bird]

15 hours ago, giemme said:

Tail checkers look the biz even on the big screen, Bill

 

Thanks Giorgio. There's a reason why I didn't post a close-up...    

 

11 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Despite your sticker challenges, they look pretty good from here. Coming along great I would say.

 

Thanks Terry. They should look good from where you are - a few thousand miles away, eh?    

 

7 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

She is coming alive, Bill! She looks great in those colours

 

Thanks Martin. There is something about checkerboard colours that I like. Not sure why, as I don't particularly like checkers and I don't understand chess.    

 

7 hours ago, RidgeRunner said:

Its nothing a length of tape wont remove

 

True, but I don't have duplicates for most of the adjacent decals which would come off at the same time. Plus, with my luck I would pull up some paint too.

 

3 hours ago, David H said:

Go Man, Go. Your signal is Charlie.

 

Since my last name is Gilman, my call-sign should be Creature. Get it? Gill-man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I'll get me coat.    

 

1 hour ago, CJP said:

Hi Bill - I can sympathise re the rudder checks - a few years ago I tried masking and painting red/white checks on the rudder of my 1/32 RAN A4G but ended up giving up as I found it beyond my ability to get a nice clean result so ended doing a later scheme with the checks on the forward part of the fin with a white rudder - even that was a challenge for me but at least I did not have to mask over those rudder ribs.

Your Skyhawk is looking very neat as is usual with your models

CJP

 

Thanks. For a few seconds I thought about masking and painting the checks on the rudder to fix where I sliced up the decals. But it was only for a few seconds, then I returned to reality.

 

*****

 

Flaps have been re-positioned and will now clear the drop tanks. I'm working on the arresting hook stripes at present. Fun, fun, fun.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[David H]

1 hour ago, Navy Bird said:

 

Thanks Giorgio. There's a reason why I didn't post a close-up...    

 

 

Thanks Terry. They should look good from where you are - a few thousand miles away, eh?    

 

 

Thanks Martin. There is something about checkerboard colours that I like. Not sure why, as I don't particularly like checkers and I don't understand chess.    

 

 

True, but I don't have duplicates for most of the adjacent decals which would come off at the same time. Plus, with my luck I would pull up some paint too.

 

 

Since my last name is Gilman, my call-sign should be Creature. Get it? Gill-man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. I'll get me coat.    

 

 

Thanks. For a few seconds I thought about masking and painting the checks on the rudder to fix where I sliced up the decals. But it was only for a few seconds, then I returned to reality.

 

*****

 

Flaps have been re-positioned and will now clear the drop tanks. I'm working on the arresting hook stripes at present. Fun, fun, fun.

 

Cheers,

Bill

Masking and painting checks on tails is hard. I speak from experience.

[Johnson]

Looks great Bill.

[Navy Bird]

Meanwhile back at the bench, Navy Birdman is running out of parts. What to do?

 

 

 

 

The model was subtly weathered (I hope) by post-shading with Gunze H95 Smoke Gray. I usually over do it, but I really, really tried to keep it subtle. Gear doors, drop tanks, speed brakes and arresting hook were then added followed by a few coats of MRP Semi-Matte lacquer. Which seems more matte than semi - maybe I should switch to MRP Semi-Gloss.

 

Speaking of arresting hooks, as I was adding it to the model, my 6 year old grandson Carter explained to me how the hook catches the rope because the boat isn't long enough. I swear I never told him anything about aircraft carriers. He then told me all about catapults with "super rockets" in them so the plane doesn't fall in the water. The kid's in bloody first grade - what are they teaching him?

 

I think all that's left is to install the seat and control stick, paint the anti-glare panel and detail/add the canopy bits, paint the light on the spine, and finally paint and stick on the exhaust nozzle.

 

Cheers,

Bill - currently annoying wifey with The Infanta by the Decemberists. Five score pachyderms!

[David H]

It looks a lot more "normal" to me now, but i can't get past the unpainted glare shield and antiglare panel....

[Navy Bird]

7 minutes ago, David H said:

It looks a lot more "normal" to me now, but i can't get past the unpainted glare shield and antiglare panel....

 

Patience, young grasshopper. All will be revealed in its time.    🙏

 

Cheers,

Bill

[heloman1]

Just catching up with your build Bill, looking impressive...

 

Colin