Librarian's Banana

[TheChronicOne]

Whoa, dude!! That's badarse!!   Keep it up. 

[Librarian]

OMG!! I've plagiarised a computer game...the shame .

She's finished...finally ...leaving the decals to dry overnight then I'm going to try Humbrol spray varnish in the morning. Bit worried as its a new product to me but I HATE!!! varnishing so its worth a try.

Skyraider is next on the mat (as I'm a bit bored with the Beaufighter right now). I've removed the upper rear fuselage and replaced it with plasticard. Really want to put in some rectangular windows somewhere as many Japanese aircraft had them but feel that could **** up the work already done soooo... .

Post some post-brandial photos tomorrow.

[Old Wombat]

OMG!! I've plagiarised a computer game...the shame .

No prob's, mate, yours is heaps better!

[Librarian]

Finally some free time availed itself...varnishing with a rattle can is a dream. F5F-2 Bobcat of the 1st Air Commandos, 'somewhere' in Indochina, with overload ordnance for the siege relief of firebases Ho Lee Phuq and Dung Bang Fan:








The rear canopy has been cut back by the gunner/groundcrew to allow for freedom of movement.

Also managed to get some good work done on the Japanese Skraider. Four things that make a Skyraider to remove:

Lonely bubble canopy way out front...gone
Exhaust trenches behind cowl flaps...gone
Barn door airbrakes...gone
Weird and unique vertical stabiliser...gone:



Got some rescribing to do. Really battling with the wings...keep or go? .

[TheChronicOne]

 

Glorious!! That turned out like a dream.   

[zenrat]

I believe the name of the first firebase you listed is still used as a battle cry in some quarters...

Bobcat is amazing but is now reminding me of a Whirlwind.

If you lose the sky raider wings how will it fly? 

[NARSES2]

Come out really well 

I believe the name of the first firebase you listed is still used as a battle cry in some quarters...

Not so much a "battle cry" I would have thought ? Mind you, you are "down under" 

[Old Wombat]

Got some rescribing to do. Really battling with the wings...keep or go? .

Ah, chuck 'em! That leaves the, well, rather obviously Skyraider fuselage, so you may as well chuck that, too! So, what does that leave?

I'd keep the wings but round the ends off.

[Librarian]

Might go with the rounded wingtips...more Mitsunakachi as most Japanese a/c seem to have gone that route. B5N, B6N and B7A all had quite large wingspans too. Going to blank off the wheel wells though and put in some gear pods a la IL-2. Not Japanese but I'm working along the lines of this being a Kawanishi competitor to the B7A and the company has been influenced by the heavily armoured IL-2. The rearward retracting u/c giving more usable space for inboard ordnance. I suppose I could have just kept the Skyraider u/c design but that's too simple

[zenrat]

Come out really well 

I believe the name of the first firebase you listed is still used as a battle cry in some quarters...

Not so much a "battle cry" I would have thought ? Mind you, you are "down under" 

It's what i'd be crying if I was in battle...

[Old Wombat]

Come out really well 

I believe the name of the first firebase you listed is still used as a battle cry in some quarters...

Not so much a "battle cry" I would have thought ? Mind you, you are "down under" 

It's what i'd be crying if I was in battle...

Ditto!

[Librarian]

Gear pods fitted very nicely but even with judicious filing/sanding they limit the wheels to a small diameter and look dinky on this beast so I'm resorting to keeping the original wheel wells. The Skyraider is in many ways very unique looking and without prior knowledge and a lack of markings it would be difficult to spot the country of origin...canopy, wheel hubs and outer wing pylons (on a piston a/c) being the giveaways.

Rounded off the wingtips and filled/sanded plugs for pylons as they're going. Had to bring the build to a halt for most of the week as I had run out of Dymo tape which I prefer for re-scribing. All the usual points of sale had stopped selling, out of stock or shut down. had to wait for an order. Gave me some useful days to enter mentally dangerous territory...Japanese paint colours; major minefield. Thought "Bollocks to it...its a whif" but going to keep close to truth as possible. Really expensive part of the build would be sourcing correct torpedoes or bombs but then I noticed that Russian torps and bombs (GPW) were very similar to Japanese counterparts so....the B word again .

Very tempted to go with a Manchukuo colour/marking scheme.

[TheChronicOne]

Yeah I wouldn't lose any sleep over the Japanese paint stuff... from what I've read about it, a lot of it is "it's anyone's guess."

I ran across a really good article about it, a couple months ago. I wonder if I have it bookmarked..

Anyway, I think I've convinced myself that it's perfectly fine to just eyeball things (within reason). Like my SEA camo colors..  I'm just going to pick up the rattle cans that look the closest and roll with it. Homie don't mix much or airbrush.  lol  (that said, I have two dirt cheap airbrushes I got off ebay.. I just need to buy a little adapter and maybe a regulator then I can either hook it up to my big 10 gallong air compressor or my refillable tank.        )

Looking forward to next round of pics and progress, bud! 

[Librarian]

Mate, I gave up on the whole airbrush think ages back. Just TOOO much hassle .

There's that thread running on how you know you're getting old...weeeell, I'm going to add forgetting which paints you've bought. I was digging about in the shed and pulled out my tray of unused paint tins and lo and behold a whole bunch of virgin Japanese paint tins from White Ensign. Mitsubishi cowl blue-black, Mitsubishi navy green and undersurface grey-green being amongst them so YAY!! no arduous paint mixing to do. There's aotake too but really gone off that whole can of worms...stick to natural metal probably. Humbrol 160 is an almost perfect match for 'propeller colour' as Hasegawa keep naming it so no probs there either.

I'll try and post some pictures soon...photobucket is a PAIN!

[TheChronicOne]

Mate, I gave up on the whole airbrush think ages back. Just TOOO much hassle .

There's that thread running on how you know you're getting old...weeeell, I'm going to add forgetting which paints you've bought. I was digging about in the shed and pulled out my tray of unused paint tins and lo and behold a whole bunch of virgin Japanese paint tins from White Ensign. Mitsubishi cowl blue-black, Mitsubishi navy green and undersurface grey-green being amongst them so YAY!! no arduous paint mixing to do. There's aotake too but really gone off that whole can of worms...stick to natural metal probably. Humbrol 160 is an almost perfect match for 'propeller colour' as Hasegawa keep naming it so no probs there either.

I'll try and post some pictures soon...photobucket is a PAIN!

SCORE!!!  It's *almost* like going shopping to simply delve into ones own garage/storage/out building/ etc. and find things like that. The beauty is not having to spend a thing! Not only that, it's just what you need and you are saving materials from going to waste. Win all around.

I used to use photobucket, and yes, it became intolerable. Utterly unusable.

Might I offer a suggestion?  I've started using Imgur and I LOVE it. The learning curve was minuscule and it was no time at all before I could put images on there from any place I wanted almost instantly with minimal effort. It is extremely user friendly.

The beauty is that you can pre-select a size criteria that will automatically scale the pictures. With what I use to take pictures (a camera phone), if I were to just upload and post them, they would be HUGE and not appropriate.  Imgur solves that with a simple click.  I use the "  15 inch moniter" size and you can visit my blog or build pages to see those sizes. For awhile I was doing the 17" size but 15 is better.

Also, if you somehow have the picture turned the wrong way, you can re-orient it. Sometimes when the angle is severe, my phone can't tell if it is upright or not and when I upload my photo.. it may be upside down or turned 90 degrees. That can be fixed in seconds with a couple clicks with Imgur.