Plastic Modelers in the IL-2 Community

[Finkeren]

I can't ever hope to match the quality of craftsmanship I see demonstrated here, but i still want to share some images of my first brushes with scale modeling in almost 20 years. Recently I bought my oldest daughter an Airfix kit (at her request) and that sparked me to try to revive my interest in this hobby.

 

As I said, I haven't touched paint or glue since I was a teenager, but I tried to pick up where I left - I used to focus on WW2 aircraft in 1/72 - and given my preference for Soviet aviation, I wanted start out with some models of VVS aircraft, already making things difficult for myself, as Soviet aircraft are criminally underrepresented among the WW2 kits.

 

It was an exercise in frustration to put it mildly!

 

I started off with the Zvezda 1/72 La-5FN. Easy build - horrible kit (raised panel lines, not engraved  ) . I build it and painted it in a day, thought I did okay for my first try, and then promptly decided to ruin the model by spray-varnishing it without masking the canopy, resulting in a nice layer of frost and a completely opaque canopy! 

 

 

Undaunted, I went and bought Academy's 1/72 P-39N/Q instead, planning to build the VVS version of the N model. Slightly more advanced kit, beautifully detailed and quite easy to build. However, during assembly I realized, that I hadn't put enough of a counterbalance in the nose for the model to stand by itself, and in my attempt to surgically implant small pieces of metal through the cockpit, the glue reacted with the metal and literally melted the effing nose of the plane!!!   

 

 

I'm now on my third attempt to make something worthwhile, and while this one is so far turning out okay, I still continue to make my own life difficult. I bought Roden's early series LaGG-3, and oh boy: The kit is fairly detailed and with a crapload of options, but it is a nightmare to build. No pins-and holes to line up the pieces during assembly, the fuselage halves were warped and did not fit at all. Pretty much not a single thing fit without me having to perform significant "surgery" with my old, chipped scalpel and no filler. Still, I got it all to kind of stick together and the fuselage is almost straight now.

 

I'm making Leonid Galchenko's unique and very recognizable LaGG-3 series 3, as it appeared in winter 1941 - 42. It's so ugly and yet so appealing, and Galchenko must've been one of the best fighter pilots of the entire VVS, because he achieved most of his 24 kills and 12 shared fighting in this piece of junk, which was kept in constant service for well over a year without ever getting shot down. 

 

 

I hope it turns out all right in the end.

[Feathered_IV]

I reckon you've done a very fine job, though I grieve with you for that P-39.  That would have come out beautifully.  Definitely grab another one if you can.

The La-5 can most likely be saved.  A brushed coat of thinned down acrylic Clear such as Mr Hobby H-30 will cancel out the matt and set things to rights again.  Avoid lacquer based clears though as it will be too aggressive. Or you can leave it alone and content yourself with it as a very convincing museum piece on outdoor display 

 

The LaGG is looking excellent.  Be sure to keep us updated on that one!

[Finkeren]

Thanks for the kind words Feathered. Praise from Caesar is praise indeed (coming from a guy who builds better models in 1/144 than I can do in 1/48)

 

I might try your suggestion about the canopy, otherwise I'm thinking of doing a diorama covered in hoarfrost - one side of the canopy is worse off than the other, making it kind of look like the sun is melting away the frost on one side of the aircraft.

 

Likewise I plan on using the P-39 for a diorama, where it has suffered a collapsing nosewheel on landing, leading to the crumbled-up nose.

 

Who knows? I might also get an attack of the lazy and just buy a new kit after the LaGG is done.

[sallee]

I think things are shaping up very well! The droop-snoot P39 is a great idea!

LaGG looks terrific.

[Feathered_IV]

Finished comrades! 

 

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

Incredible work, Feathered.

[Finkeren]

Very nice Feathered.

 

That's a hard act to follow, but as per your request, I finished Galchenko's LaGG-3 s. 3. I was just about to ruin the whole thing once again, as I was sawing off the sliding portion of the canopy (which was removed from Galchenko's aircraft at this point in time) the whole thing splintered, including parts of the windscreen. However, I managed to patch it up and got the model completed. There is still a bit I need to brush up, but just in case I screw up with the filler, I want to share the pictures beforehand.

There are so many weird details on this aircraft:

 

The gradual overpainting of all markings except the cat (this one still has the number and the stars under the wings)

 

The slightly crooked, hand-painted red star on the spinner

 

The strange lines painted over the left rear window (absolutely no idea what they are, but they appear clear as day in the photographic evidence)

 

I still like the overall color scheme

 

Notice the small size and weird placement of the underwing stars

 

Overall I'm mostly satisfied with my first successfully finished built in 20 years.

 

Next project is going to be my all-time favorite: The MiG-3.

 

 

[Smouch]

Great work Feathered!!!!

 

Nice first up effort Fink, I still manage to stuff things up

[sallee]

Finished comrades! 

 

Staggering. I assume you've made it radio controlled and fully functioning so you can shoot down annoying flies.

Good stuff, Finkeren! Soon you'll have a stash of the blinking things!

[Finkeren]

Started on the next project yesterday. I went with the only MiG-3 model I could get my hands on, which was Hobby Boss' extremely simple "easy assembly" kit. I was pleasantly surprised with the overall shape of the model and some of the details are quite nice - the landing gear parts are appropriately flimsy, and the canopy (with option for it to be open) is quite thin and transparent. However, some details are completely missing and will have to be added, for some reason the underside of the wings shows no indication of flaps at all , but the big thing was the cockpit: The fuselage came as one piece and the cockpit is simply a square hole cast into the fuselage with an acceptably detailed seat and a simple rod representing the flightstick as the only features, the rest was just plain, straight walls, no dashboard - just a wall blocking around where the pilot's knees would be. Most of this day was spent constructing a cockpit from scratch. I salvaged the dashboard from my ill-fated P-39 (so I won't be reworking it into something else), added the tube framing along the sides and fashioned radio equipment, a throttle quadrant and a handle for the flightstick from stray pieces of plastic. This is such an extremely easy build - a nice change of pace from the horrendous Roden LaGG-3 - that I feel I can spend the time working on details like this.

 

For camo scheme I went with a personal favorite: The low contrast green-on-green used early in the war and later on the MiGs serving with 7IAP during the Battle of Kuban, which is what I'm building. I ordered some custom decals to make "White 28", which should arrive from Germany one of these days: http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/mig3/white28.html

 

Edited September 26, 2017 by Finkeren

[ITAF_Rani]

Nice kits Finkeren

[Feathered_IV]

Nice work Finkeren.  I have to say, your brush work is excellent.  The white distemper on the  LaGG came up really well and the feathered edges make a very believable contrast with factory applied camouflage underneath.  It really does make it look like the two layers were applied by different hands.

 

The MiG is looking a beaut too.  Again the brushwork is very nicely done.  Nice job on the cockpit too.  Must have felt like keyhole surgery in there! 

 

 

Thanks everyone for the kind words too.  Sallee, I only contented myself with doubling up the control wires on the forward rigging.  The flies remain unmolested. 

[THERION]

 

 

Hello guys,

 

I started building the YAK-3, a kit from Special Hobby Hi-Tech Edition 1/32. It is not comparable to kits like Tamiya, Hasegawa or the like, it's more like

a short run kit. So there are plenty of detail done nicely, but also fit problems you have to fiddle around (landing gear bay, wing-fuselage etc.).

 

Well, finally, I've got some pictures about the nearly finished cockpit assembled with fuselage and wings. Canopy will be another challenge as

it doesn't fit really good (a bit too short leaving ugly gasps), hence I will have to use the three piece canopy which also has its flaws.

 

Btw. the blue gun sight support bar will be painted grey - I had to build it from scratch as the piece of the kit was too short and too thin. Will do

this after airbrushing the whole model and adding the missing seat belts.

 

Hope you like my WIP. Thanks.

 

Cheerio

Edited September 28, 2017 by Therion

[Finkeren]

Beautiful cockpit Therion. Can't wait to see the final result. The Yak-3 is such an elegant little thing.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Finkeren

[Finkeren]

Assembly complete - except for the canopy. Now applying panel lines.

 

[Orfanik]

 

......Nice to hear the Mirafiori is still around, I used to work on those a few years back, would love to see some pictures too.....

 

Fiat Mirafiori is complete. It's like building a model in a 1:1 scale. Here are some photos.

And another car is also finished - Lada 1500s.

[Smouch]

Just a couple of quick shots of the Fortress.

 

The area in front of the Port cheek gun was rebuilt with a bit of Green Stuff.  Need now to hit her with the clear coat.

 

Second shot is her sitting on the base. Basically a large picture frame base. I hope in the next day or so to lay down some static grass on the edges and sporadically along the "concrete block" joins and then add some more dirt, oil etc.

 

Hope you like what you see.

[Finkeren]

That looks like it is going to be very impressive indeed. Can't wait to see it done.

 

I take it the sand coloured upper surface is an undercoat? Looks a bit light for an olive drab.

[Smouch]

I take it the sand coloured upper surface is an undercoat? Looks a bit light for an olive drab.

Thanks mate,

 

The Olive Drab is Lifecolor's UA 232 (FS34088) airbrushed on.  I have some acrylic Humbrol Olive Drab (66) that I might airbrush onto something else and compare them.

 

Maybe it was my processing or the light I shot it in.

 

Your MiG looks great.

 

Cheers.

[Finkeren]

I also use Lifecolor, though I don't own an airbrush.

 

For my unfortunate P-39, I used UA 005 for olive drab, which created this result, which I personally think is closer to the real thing:

 

image3.JPG

 

.

Obviously that's just my opinion, and the Fortress looks great either way. Just offering my own experience.

[Finkeren]

At long last the decals I ordered arrived from the UK, allowing me to finish the MiG.

 

 

As previously mentioned, it is the well known "White 28" from 7IAP during the battle of Kuban 1943 (so we are very late in the MiG's service life) There is some debate over whether these aircraft were painted the standard black-on-green camouflage or the dark-green-on-green low contrast camo, which were widespread on MiGs but rare on most other types. I went with the latter option, because I think it looks cool.

 

Next project is going to be AML's expert kit of the P-40B/C in Soviet service.

[Smouch]

Very nice piece of work Fink, looking forward to your next build.

 

[Finkeren]

Thanks a lot this is the first one I've been really pleased with.. Please do keep us updated on that B-17. Looks like it will be an awesome project.

[ITAF_Rani]

Finkeren I like your Mig

well done :-)

[Feathered_IV]

Fantastic work on the MiG Finkeren.  It looks bang on.  Very inspiring, and had me digging through my references for drawings to see if I could do one to go with my '153.  Great brushwork again too.  Mine never looks as good as that! 

[Finkeren]

Thanks a lot Feathered. I was pleasantly surprised by the cheap Hobby Boss kit. For all its simplicity and shortcomings it really captures the overall shape of the MiG beautifully - unlike many other MiG-3 kits I've seen - it's a bit hard to see in the pictures though because my crappy phone camera fisheyes everything out of proportion at short distances.

 

I'd love to see you do one of these. Regardless of what you might think of your own brushwork, your work in 1:144 is absolutely astonishing.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Finkeren

[Finkeren]

Underway with my next project, the P-40C. I have never built an expert kit like this before and getting used to all the tiny photo etched parts and the brittle resin is a huge challenge for me. 

 

The amount of detail in the cockpit is insane for a 1:72 kit. The parts for the pit make up about 3/4 of the entire number of parts going into the model. I wanted to grab a picture of it during assembly, because noone is ever going to notice any of this, once the fuselage is assembled (which is making me seriously question what I'm doing with my life sinking hours into this)

 

 

As much of a pain as it is, it is definitely fun fiddling around with these microscopic parts with a fine pincer.

[STN]

Another one made as a present. 1:72 Mig 29C  9.13 from Trumpeter. Built out of box without any upgrades. Time to move on and start building a proper plane. With propeller and such

 

 

[THERION]

Underway with my next project, the P-40C. I have never built an expert kit like this before and getting used to all the tiny photo etched parts and the brittle resin is a huge challenge for me. 

 

The amount of detail in the cockpit is insane for a 1:72 kit. The parts for the pit make up about 3/4 of the entire number of parts going into the model. I wanted to grab a picture of it during assembly, because noone is ever going to notice any of this, once the fuselage is assembled (which is making me seriously question what I'm doing with my life sinking hours into this)

 

image1 (3).JPG

 

As much of a pain as it is, it is definitely fun fiddling around with these microscopic parts with a fine pincer.

 

Your cockpit looks great - I still wonder why you torture yourself with the scale of 1/72. I love micro painting too as I showed last time, but this scale is definitely too small for me.

My eyes are gone and therefore I switched from 1/48 to 1/32.

 

Great job, Finkeren

[Finkeren]

Your cockpit looks great - I still wonder why you torture yourself with the scale of 1/72. I love micro painting too as I showed last time, but this scale is definitely too small for me.

My eyes are gone and therefore I switched from 1/48 to 1/32.

 

Great job, Finkeren

Thanks.

 

I always built 1:72 as a kid and just continued from there when I picked up the hobby again two months ago.

 

1:48 is definitely nicer, but the models just take up way too much space. 1:72 suits me well, even if it is sometimes a pain to fidget around with.

 

As it turns out, I managed to screw up this model as well, I have never built a kit with resin parts before, and I just didn't have the tools for it. When I tried to cut the part for the chin radiator intake, the whole thing shattered between my fingers, impossible to salvage.

 

Today I went and bought Hobby Boss' simple P-40B/C instead, and I plan to salvage some of the nicer details from the expert kit to pimp out the Hobby Boss kit. Amazingly the Hobby Boss kit actually has at least as nice details on the external model as the one I broke.

 

I'll still get to make the P-40 I intented, just with an easier kit.

[voncrapenhauser]

Awsome to see a 131 still living and breathing Pilsner thanks for the pics.

 

I have not posted in a while as i had a heart attack and am staying with family recovering at this time after haveing a tripple bypass opperation.

 

Hopeing to get home in a couple of weeks and back into my E type as I Will have some packs of parts waiting.

 

Will update as soon as i can.

Graet work all.

Edited October 15, 2017 by voncrapenhauser

[Hoots]

Awsome to see a 131 still living and breathing Pilsner thanks for the pics.

I have not posted in a while as i had a heart attack and am staying with family recovering at this time after haveing a tripple bypass opperation.

Hopeing to get home in a couple of weeks and back into my E type as I Will have some packs of parts waiting.

Will update as soon as i can.

Graet work all.

Get well soon Von.

[sallee]

Awsome to see a 131 still living and breathing Pilsner thanks for the pics.

I have not posted in a while as i had a heart attack and am staying with family recovering at this time after haveing a tripple bypass opperation.

Hopeing to get home in a couple of weeks and back into my E type as I Will have some packs of parts waiting.

Will update as soon as i can.

Graet work all.

Of all the rubbish excuses for not updating us..really!

 

You get better, voncrap. All best wishes.

[Smouch]

I have not posted in a while as i had a heart attack and am staying with family recovering at this time after haveing a tripple bypass opperation.

Hopeing to get home in a couple of weeks and back into my E type as I Will have some packs of parts waiting.

Will update as soon as i can.

Graet work all.

Speedy recovery mate

[voncrapenhauser]

Good one sallee I needa good laugh right now as recovery is extremely painfull at times.

 

Thanks for all the support guys.

 

Keep up all the great work I am seeing.

 

Keep up the good work Fink each model better than the previous, way to go.

As you have demonstrated you do,nt need to have an airbrush to get great results.

Edited October 16, 2017 by voncrapenhauser

[I./JG1_Deschain]

I love warhammer 40k here s head of primaris captain im doing now, its a bit messy yet, but im gonna work on it more  (height of the head is arround 5mm)

 

Edited October 19, 2017 by I./JG1_Deschain

[Buglord]

Great work everyone.... been away from here for a while , great to see some fantastic builds again.

[sallee]

Like most of us, I'm sure, I have been utterly inspired by Feathered's incredible work and I have now dared to emulate it. I whittled this from the tail wheel of a 1/48 scale Lancaster and one of my toenails. Behold the 1/700 scale Thunderbolt.

[Buglord]

Which parts are your toenails... the tail section   

[von_Greiff]

...prob blades, maybe?