Area 88 project

[strobez]

The XP-55 Ascender seems to be a great choice for the X-29... But looks to be a hard-to-find kit in 1/72.

In that vein (and given that Shin IS Japanese), I think I might go with Hasegawa's 1/72 Kyushu J7W1 18-shi Shinden offering. It might be easier to get my hands on.

UPDATE: Apparently too easy... a J7W1 is now on its way to my house from Japan.

[strobez]

Besides the Crusader/Corsair project, I'm also working on a set of MiGs for "Project 4" (the main 'bad guys' in the Area 88 manga). I figured I should get some practice with some of the "cannon fodder" forces before I tackle the Gary MacBurn build. So I've started with a MiG-23 (Academy) and MiG-3 (Zvezda) build to prepare for a more intensive build with a MiG-23PFM (RV) and MiG-3 (Hobby Boss).

The project page is here - with build log albums for both planes.

[strobez]

Got some work done on the Corsair cockpit. The dry brushing seems to have worked well, I love when I feel like something actually worked. I wish I could say the same for the vents I drilled out. I should've dry-fit the wings first. There was a bit that was in the wrong spot and the PE mesh cover got a bit squashed.

https://www.scalemates.com/profiles/mate.php?id=26441&p=albums&album=30345#1

[DogfighterZen]

This thread made me go through the whole series in a couple of days, and also the OVA version.
Looking forward for some progress on this project.

[TheChronicOne]

Awesome.   

The indoctrination begins!!  lol   

[Spey_Phantom]

ive just remembered, Roundell flies a Blackburn Buccaneer in the anime, maybe a Sea Fury would be a good WW2 alternative

[silverwindblade]

Wow, I had a lot of fun reading through the thread to this point, and I have to echo what was said in the first few posts - I love anime, manga and game related builds, and I always like to see more of them on the forums and around in general too.
I really like your idea of transposing the Area 88 characters and their aircraft to WW2 as well and I like all of your choices for aircraft too.
I'm really looking forward to seeing what you produce and I'll be watching this thread eagerly.

[strobez]

ive just remembered, Roundell flies a Blackburn Buccaneer in the anime, maybe a Sea Fury would be a good WW2 alternative

Oh, that's a really good point.  I mainly chose the Spitfire because of Roundell's British connection, but I agree the Sea Fury is a better fit.  Looks like Trumpeter has a nice 1/72 kit that's reasonably easy to find, so that makes the choice easy.  What makes it even easier is that, since Boris is also a Brit, it's an easy thing to shift the Spitfire I really want to build on to his project.

[strobez]

This thread made me go through the whole series in a couple of days, and also the OVA version.
Looking forward for some progress on this project.

That's awesome! Unfortunately the manga/comic series in English only goes 4/10 of the way into the series, so a lot of the builds are based off characters who appear later in the manga.  Some of them show up (originally or adapted) in the OVA anime and/or the animated television series.  Whenever possible though, I'm sticking to the manga versions - although since it's black and white, it allows for some built-in extra creative freedom.

[strobez]

Ok, so I updated the project list a bit.  I edited the original post as well, but thought I'd repost here to cut down on the back-clicking.

The main changes:

• I split the list into "good guys" and "bad guys" (might be helpful for those following along).  I also added a couple of the "no name" Anti-Government Forces build projects.  Namely the Yak-38/Yak-3 which appear in the manga, as well as the generic "cannon fodder" MiG-21/MiG-3


• I moved Micky's F6F Hellcat to pair with the F-100D Super Sabre, which made room for the F7F Tigercat to pair up with the F-14 Tomcat. I'm not sure if the Hellcat really matches up well with the Super Sabre, but I can see a transition from the F6F to the F7F that matches the upgrade Micky gets when he starts flying the Tomcat. The Area 88 timeline is originally basically 1979 to 1981, so all the planes fit into that time period.  My "imaginary time shift" is basically 1946-48(ish) so since the Tomcat was a real coup for a mercenary to privately own in 1979 (took a little McCoy magic for it to fall off the back of a truck bound for Libya I think), I think the Tigercat matches very very nicely with that theme.  Also, the fact that I have a good-looking Academy F6F in my stash already makes it must to keep in the project.
  


• I added the Kyushu J7W1 Shinden as a perfect match for the experimental X-29.  I think it will look great painted in the Grumman stripes and the fact that I can stretch Shin's Japanese connection to get some interesting Japanese WWII planes into the project makes it easy.  I'm still considering what I match up with the F-20 Tigershark... more to come on that.


• I also added the SAAB J21A to the project to hook up with the Draken.  I don't have a Draken in my stash yet (Hasegawa's offerings seem overly expensive for some reason), but that awesome Heller J21 kit makes me want to search out a Draken by association.


• I moved the Spitfire from Roundell's project to Boris'.  They're both British, so the slide over is easy - especially since I wanted a spitfire in the project and Boris didn't have another strong candidate to match with his Crusader.  I think the Sea Fury is a better match with the Buccaneer anyway, and the fact that I can get a Trumpeter 1/72 kit relatively easily makes it an easy choice.


• Finally, one thing I forgot to mention in my original project outline is that I'm in it~!  In a nutshell, I've also added up a Super Etendard and a Typhoon Mk.IB under the "GREG BAKER" category of the project.   I thought it might be fun to project myself as a mercenary pilot in the employ of the Kingdom of Asran. My criteria for choosing a plane was basically a) something that would semi-realistically fit within the 1979-81 time frame (so no stealth bombers) and b) something not already in the project.  I thought the Super Etendard looked pretty cool (and fits both A/B criteria).  At this point the Typhoon is mainly because I ran across a cheap kit... but Shin's switched planes 4-5 times, so there's no reason I can't too.

The "Good Guys"

NAME	JET PLANE	PROP PLANE
GREG BAKER	Super Etendard	Typhoon Mk.IB
SHIN KAZAMA	F-8E Crusader F-5E Tiger II J35J Draken F-20 Tigershark X-29	F4U-1 Corsair A6M5c Zero Fighter SAAB J21A -- Kyushu J7W1 Shinden
MICKY SIMON	F-100D Super Sabre F-14A Tomcat	F6F-3 Hellcat F7F-3 Tigercat
SAKI VASHTAL	KFIR C7 F-15C Eagle Rockwell B-1B Lancer	P-51B Mustang P-38 Lightning B-25G Mitchell
SIREN BARNACK	F-104G Starfighter	Focke-Wulf FW-190A
GREG GATES	A-10A Thunderbolt II	P-47D Thunderbolt
KIM ABBA	Harrier FRS.1	Hurricane Mk I
MAJ. ROUNDELL	Buccaneer S2B	Sea Fury
NGUYEN	F-105D Thunderchief	P-40E Warhawk "Flying Tiger"
WARREN COLDMAN	A-4E Skyhawk	A-1H Skyraider
MORRIS	T-6G Texan	Dh.82a Tiger Moth
McCOY	C-130H/E Hercules	C-47 Skytrain
BORIS	F-8E Crusader	Spitfire XIV

The "Bad Guys"

SATORU KANZAKI	F/A-18C Hornet	Messerschmitt Bf 109G-14
"PHOENIX" CHARLIE	F-4E Phantom II	--
GARY MacBURN (Project 4)	MiG-21 FPM "Fishbed D"	MiG-3
COL. KILVICK "Wolfpack"	MiG-27 "Flogger D"	Il-2 Shturmovik
Anti-Government Forces	MiG-21 "Fishbed"	MiG-3
Anti-Government Forces	Yak-38	Yak-3
"THE ESCAPE KILLERS"	Lightning F Mk.6	Tempest V

[strobez]

This will give those not familiar with Area 88 some idea of what the finished projects will look like (hopefully!)

Shin's F-8E Crusader


Shin's F-5E Tiger II


Shin's J35J Draken


Shin's F-20 Tigershark


Shin's X-29


Micky's F-14A


Saki's KFIR C7


Greg's A-10 Thunderbolt II


Roundell's Buccanner S2B


Kim's Harrier


Kanzaki's F/A-18


Nguyen's F-105D Thunderchief


Siren's F-104G


MacBurn's MiG-21


McCoy's C-130H

[strobez]

I should mention that Rose-Ridge does have a selection of Area 88 decals for sale.  However, I'm not quite satisfied with the quality, so I'm going to attempt to make my own decals.  We'll see how that turns out.

One thing I thought I might mention is that if anyone else wants to play alongside this project, they're more than welcome to.  Just like I chose the Super Etendard and Typhoon Mk.IB for "my" planes, if you want to pretend YOU're a mercenary pilot and design a plane combo yourself, I'd LOVE to see it too.  I specifically chose a jet/prop that wasn't already in my project so that I could build new things, but there are lots of planes that overlap, so feel free to choose whatever you wish.

The "rules" of the game are basically any jet up to about 1982(ish) and any prop up to about 1948(ish).  They need to have thematically related paint jobs - they don't have to be the same, but at least inspired by each other.  We'll see how the decal creation bit goes (I'm very comfortable on the design side... it's the inkjet paper/spray technology I'm a bit wary of), but if it works I'd be happy to help work up some custom decals for other participants as well (time and energy permitting).  I doubt I can commit to a full decal sheet... but if you want something to stick on the tail it would probably work.  I could stick a small decal sheet in an envelope with with a bit of cardboard and mail it off wherever and a small PayPal transaction to cover the postage and materials would probably be fine.

I'll admit I'm thinking out loud a bit at this point, but if it works well, I think it could be fun to widen the scope here.  Would anyone else be interested?

[strobez]

Updated my build log with a few more pictures of the cockpit. Check it out here! Has anyone else built an Academy Corsair 1/72? Why do the rear stabilizers feel like they're going on upside down?

[strobez]

So, now that the F4U-1 Corsair cockpit is done and buttoned up inside the fuselage, it's time to turn my attention back to the F-8E Crusader. I'm using Eduard's colour PE (SS227) and I'm wondering about the grey in the cockpit.  Apparently it's supposed to be a dark gull grey, but the colour PE looks too light.

Anyone know a Tamiya acrylic mix to match?

[kerick]

I just read through one chapter and it looks pretty good manga. I'm looking forward to your progress!