Plastic Modelers in the IL-2 Community

[Danziger]

On 9/22/2019 at 7:47 PM, Buglord said:

Well all done for this one. Iv`e still the rigging to put on but cant do that until iv`e got the Grant on the trailer.

 

I wasn't in WW2 but that thing is giving me flashbacks to driving the 5 ton tractor and goose neck while I was on loan to the permanently undermanned 88M section in my company. I can hear those chains rattling and those ramps squeaky hinges as they fall. I am imagining the hassle of getting all the BII laid out for inspection in the motor pool. 

 

Excellent work ?

[STN]

Monumental piece of work, Buglord. 

Feathered- very interesting subject... and insane as usual

 

Meanwhile... a bit of progress on my barrell shaped object.

[sallee]

Blitzen. What a beauty! First built one I've seen.

STN. Very lovely as usual. Real production line there!

[gn728]

3 hours ago, Blitzen said:

Yes ...definately.My fingers got tired of drilling rigging holes quite a while ago.

So - lol - just guessing the DH2 is not next up.....

[voncrapenhauser]

On 9/23/2019 at 1:07 AM, Blitzen said:

Nearly done - Wingnut Wings Gotha G.1 .Sort of looks a little "Steam-punk" doesn't it?

Steam punk or Dastedly and Muttlys "catch The pidgeon"._._._.I love it!

I just hope I am not The only one old enough to remember that old cartoon sieres.

[Hoots]

41 minutes ago, voncrapenhauser said:

Steam punk or Dastedly and Muttlys "catch The pidgeon"._._._.I love it!

I just hope I am not The only one old enough to remember that old cartoon sieres.

Don’t worry, you’re not. And it very much is

[STN]

Loved the cartoon as a kid
 

 

[sallee]

1 hour ago, Hoots said:

Don’t worry, you’re not. And it very much is

Ditto!

[Buglord]

Thank you everyone  now working on the Grant ..... Its a Miniart with 1110 parts ha ha ha Tracks alone are 632 parts.... ... but ive done them already and they are fully functional.. im quite impressed how well they work.

[Feathered_IV]

Smashing work everybody.  Really amazing stuff  

 

The microhawk is coming along.  I've got a public holiday/long weekend here, so I'm pushing through with a will.  Getting ready to start on the 3-colour USN scheme as we speak. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Feathered_IV

[STN]

Finito. As usual, with a lot of mistakes. Overall a nice little kit which leaves a lot of space for DIY corrections/improvments. Some of them I did, some I did not have the will to do.

 

F3F2 (BuNo 979)
2-MF-10, USMC VMF-2, Captain Carson A. Roberts
1940

1:72 Special Hobby

 

 

 

[sallee]

Quite amazing, Feathered.

STN, any mistakes very well hidden! 

[Feathered_IV]

That looks just perfect to me STN.  The colours look spot on.

I'm not 100% happy with mine, and I worry the red is too dark and the grey too light.   It was a tricky masking job too, and not one I'm looking forward to repeating.  Insignia is going to be a problem too and I have to make them by hand. 

 

 

 

 

[gn728]

STN - That is a beauty...

 

Feathered - coming along nicely - lol, guessing your optivisor is of the highest quality....

[A_radek]

Finally finished something, so I get to post ?

 

1/72 Revell (Matchbox) Hawker Fury Mk.I

 

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by SvAF/F16_radek

[sallee]

Wow. Nice job!

[Feathered_IV]

I remember that Fury kit well from when I was young.  It still stands up really well. 

 

The sparrowhawk is such a gaudy little nugget.  I can't get decals for it in 1/144 so I have to make them, painting plain film and cutting them out and applying in layers.

Need to touch up the red and add the dots at the centre of each star.  Also must start thinking about cockpit detail... 

 

 

 

 

[40plus]

My hands are shaking just thinking about how small those details are.

 

1:32 is hard enough. For these unstable hands. Very impressive work.

[sallee]

Good God, man.......

[A_radek]

19 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

I remember that Fury kit well from when I was young.  It still stands up really well. 

 

 

 

I think it does. I’m sure more modern kits ad surface details and perhaps easier wing assembly, but this build was enjoyable and there’s no doubt the small plane decorating my desk is a fury. All I need.

 

Feathered how do you even paint a model this small without an out of scale spray pattern (grain) all over? Quality airbrush or a magic paint formula? And do you have any giant scale (1/72) work uploaded somewhere we can see? I'm Guessing a 1/72 model from your workbench would look indistinguishable from the real thing

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by SvAF/F16_radek

[voncrapenhauser]

Liking The Fury Radek,I remember the old Matchbox kits too.   Nice job.

[Feathered_IV]

On ‎10‎/‎3‎/‎2019 at 8:04 AM, SvAF/F16_radek said:

 

Feathered how do you even paint a model this small without an out of scale spray pattern (grain) all over? Quality airbrush or a magic paint formula? And do you have any giant scale (1/72) work uploaded somewhere we can see? I'm Guessing a 1/72 model from your workbench would look indistinguishable from the real thing

 

 

I haven't made a 1/72 scale kit in more than 30 years

I've got a few 1/32 kits stockpiled though (I'm a person of extremes).  If I hook into them I'll be sure to post some shots.

 

With painting, I use an inexpensive Chinese double action airbrush that I got on ebay for about $30.  I use a .3mm needle and wherever possible use lacquers rather than acrylics.  I usually spray with the paint thinned way down and also use some retarder in the paint to slow it down further so that the paint is still wet by the time it lands.  For the Sparrowhawk I've been using Mr Color Levelling Thinner for the first time and it has been fantastic.  It mixes both lacquer and acrylic too, which is crazy.

 

I spray outside, as I find there is much less ambient dust around.  Plus I always prime and wet sand with 1200 grit beforehand.  It's good to avoid spraying towards wingroots and such as much as possible, to avoid overspray settling on the surface and causing grittiness.  Also using a quick on-off motion with every pass of the airbrush rather than waving it over the surface continuously.  I also spray with the nozzle of the airbrush very close to the model surface and use very rapid strokes to avoid pooling or dust.

 

I was able to get the red dots on today.  Some decal film was painted in XF-7 and a quick circle punch made by sharpening the inside of an appropriate bit of brass tube.

 

 

A quick dunk into water...

 

 

Ta da!  I'll never fear running out of US insignias again. 

The whole thing looks pretty garish for now though and I'll have to tone it down later once the other details get added.

 

[A_radek]

Invaluable information on techniques Feathered! Thank you.

 

[Feathered_IV]

Added some more details.  Test fitted a new set of wheels, data plates and struts etc. with more to come. The black pinstripes either side of the red bands is made from scrap decal material, cut to 0.15mm wide.  It nicely covers that slightly fluffy edge to the red! 

 

 

[gn728]

Welll - for a few reasons - My H-34 build went South. I could have started over with the much better Gallery kit I have of it, but no, lol, went another way.....

[AKA_Big10]

New here and just now found this topic so I will share some of my past and current work. Mix of 1/72, 1/48,and 1/32

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently working in Tamiya 1/48 P-47

 

And cannot forget my 1/32 Wingnut Wings Gotha. Hope they will release this kit again some day.  

 

 

Edited March 15, 2021 by AKA_Big10

[voncrapenhauser]

Nice colletion big 10. Have not s een a big F14  in a while.

[AKA_Big10]

40 minutes ago, voncrapenhauser said:

Nice colletion big 10. Have not s een a big F14  in a while.

It's Tamiya 1/48th and a very very good kit.  Thanks. 

[AKA_Big10]

21 hours ago, gn728 said:

Welll - for a few reasons - My H-34 build went South. I could have started over with the much better Gallery kit I have of it, but no, lol, went another way.....

Hasegawa P-40?

[gn728]

2 hours ago, AKA_Big10 said:

Hasegawa P-40?

Yep - 32nd E

[40plus]

Here's a progress update on my IL-2 single seater. I'm using the game as my primary reference except for feature such as open hatches and engine details which, of course, aren't shown in-game.

 

It's a 1:32 Hobby Boss kit and has great detail but I'm experimenting with adding additional features. I'm start, as is standard with the cockpit.

The main detail I wanted to add was the cables that wind around the trim crank and run up the left side of the cockpit, seen here, top middle:

 

 

The kit includes the crank already with good detail:

 

I used 0.2mm copper wire that I salvaged from an old toy DC motor, stretched some sprew to make small pegs to stand in for pulleys and ran the wire as close as possible to where it should be:

 

 

Added some 0.5mm lead wire for the fuel lines:

 

And here it is with some other parts dry fit.

 

I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out but I couldn't quite get the red wire as taught as I would like it to be. I think I'll try to make it tighter now that all glue is fully cured but it's solidly in the good enough camp. Not everything is quite to scale but we're talking fractions of millimeters here so again, good enough. I'm no Feathered_IV. I can't work on atomic scales. ?

 

I think it'll look great once it's all painted but for now I've started assembling the engine and researching where to add wires n' tubes.

[Tyberan]

Wow that Gotha looks great. It's a big kit I saw one at a model show this year. I've got one WnW kit, they are nice but so expensive.

[Feathered_IV]

I really like that Gotha too.  I've been wondering for a while if I could scratch one up in my scale.

[voncrapenhauser]

Waiting for more De Lorean parts to turn up , So I was catching up on my Fantasy figure build in 1/4th scale.

 

Its a figure conversion with mostly sculpted Appoxi sculpt added deatail.

 

Never done sculpting on this scale before, It's a real challenge..

Edited October 18, 2019 by voncrapenhauser

[Feathered_IV]

That figure looks amazing VC. 

 

I've been having a go at making my own home-printed decals for the stencil work on the Sparrowhawk.  Turns out it is actually quite easy.

I also discovered I can use painted decal to represent raised panels on the airframe.  A light wash of artist oils brings them to life and it's a very useful alternative to scribing.

 

 

Edited October 20, 2019 by Feathered_IV

[A_radek]

Feathered what did use you for that wash. An issue I've been having with the mig enamel washes I've tried is that they apply and dry very coarse/gritty even at twice the scale. Perhaps a good thing for a 1/32 tank but not at all what I was trying to achieve. Tried some cheap artists oils instead and they behaved beautifully but took days to dry.

[Feathered_IV]

Hi Radek.  I used very dark grey artist oils for the wash, but thinned it down until only barely noticeable on a white surface.  It does take a while to dry, but this is often a good thing as I get to tweak it a bit the next day.  A lot of people use a clear coat to seal it before it fully dries to continue working.  I find that is very helpful, particularly when multiple colours are being used.  That way the previous washes don't melt into one another.

[STN]

Another one finished. I hesitated whether to even upload it here. The kit is such a P.O.S.I was near to throwing it to the ground and stepping on it.

The cockpit was a joke. The material of the kit is a soft rubbery plastic. The instruction manual with several mistakes including incorrect part numbering.

But the worst part were definitely the upper wing supports. None of them fit. With some adjustments and tons of superglue I somehow managed to put it together but had to use filler to give the joints some shape. All of this filling shaping and sanding I was doing with fuselage upper and lower wing already glued together. The result was a mess.

Best description of this kit would be- designed by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Some parts were nice, and some really horrid (mainly the smaller ones).

 

Sorry for my whining, here is the finished thing.

 

Fiat CR-32bis,
"147", I/JG 138,
Luftwaffe
Aspern
1938

 

1:72 AZ Model

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2019 by STN

[sallee]

Well, you do make 'em look good, STN.

And they say you can't polish a turd!

[STN]

The turd sentence made my day. Thanks sallee