August's Toybox

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K5083
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by K5083 »

Finished the Chipmunk this weekend.

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August
A good model is any model you can walk away from.
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Clashcityrocker
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by Clashcityrocker »

Nice. I like the big bubble canopy.

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ronbow
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by ronbow »

Really nice work! I still prefer the older sliding canopy on the chipmunk's of my Air Cadet days back in the year dot. :lol: :lol:
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giulio_gobbi
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by giulio_gobbi »

Nice and great painting job! :)
Sometimes the talent consists exactly in that: try five dozen times when others stop at three dozen...! (F.Labelle)
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K5083
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by K5083 »

I took a couple of years off from plastic modeling and got absorbed in micro radio control, but am toying with entering the hobby again. I left several projects half-completed back in 2015, and decided to start by finishing those.

First is a Hobbycraft Tutor that was stuck half way through the painting stage. In completing the model, I learned a lot about the subtle changes that occurred over time in the Snowbirds paint scheme. This represents the scheme in about 1981 or 1982.

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Then, just for practice and despite the half-builts awaiting completion, I got out an old-tool KP CS-199 for a quick build. This took a couple of weeks, and is stock except that I experimented with using a knife, rather than sandpaper, to remove the Airfix-like lines of rivets while preserving nearby detail that I wanted to keep. The experiment worked well and I will be doing it again.

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Next up, I have a Monogram Do 17Z that was abandoned in mid-GB here, which is almost done but waiting for delivery of some new decals, and an Airfix ragwing Hurricane to be finished as L1669 "Collishaw's Battleship" in Africa.

August
A good model is any model you can walk away from.
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splash
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by splash »

Great work I love the Tutor such crisp lines.
My work bench is starting to look like Portsmouth Naval Dockyard.
ShaunW
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by ShaunW »

It's good to see your work again, August and what a fine pair of models.
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iggie
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by iggie »

both look really smart builds
Best wishes

Jim
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59North
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by 59North »

Glad you're back into the plastic side of the hobby.
I had a look through your window and there are some wonderful models in there.
The Tudor is terrific. I was able to take a series of Snowbird photos at a Namao airshow about that period (early 80's), but they are all 35mm slides. I've always liked the Tudor.
Well done!
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Hobby Boss P-40E Correction/Build

Post by K5083 »

The Hobby Boss 1/72 P-40E is a copy of the Academy kit, which you don't hear much about. That's probably because it was one of those Academy kits issued in the 1990s when Academy was making kits with nice fit and detail, whose only fault was that they were designed by someone with no idea what the actual airplane looked like. The P-40E was not the atrocity that their Spitfire XIV was -- I still have 5 or 6 of those Spits in my stash, bought when Squadron was blowing them out for $2.99 on the assumption, which turned out to be mistaken, that at least some detail parts would be accurate enough to us on another kit. But it was bad enough that modelers who cared what a P-40 looked like were not tempted to replace their stashes of less-detailed Hasegawas, at least until the newer Legatos came out.

Why does the Academy/Hobby Boss P-40E not look like a P-40E? For me it starts with the cockpit/canopy area of the fuselage. The scooped area behind the sliding part of the canopy was clearly the wrong shape. And something else, harder to put a finger on, was wrong too.

But somehow, a couple of Academys and a Hobby Boss ended up in my kit stash, and I have a lot of P-40 decals that are not central to my building focus, but still would like to be use. (Heck, if you bought any of the Sky Models sheets, as I did, you had to figure out where to get about 75 kits of the subject to use them all up.) So I pulled out the Hobby Boss recently to see if it could be corrected.

The incorrect scooped area was obvious. The color scheme diagram for the Hobby Boss, which admirably reproduces the inaccurate shape of the real kit, shows the second problem.

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Note (with the aid of the red line I have drawn on it) the problem. The Academy/Hobby Boss pretends that the spine of the fuselage slopes in a straight line from the tail, and the sliding portion of the canopy continues that slope, making it taller at the front than at the rear. This is wrong - the sliding part of the canopy is of constant height - and the Academy error results in the windscreen being too high as well.

True Details gets the canopy shape right, as shown in the side view accompanying their vac replacement canopy for the Hasegawa:

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And this is reflected in the fact that a P-40E with its canopy open has the canopy tipped slightly:

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OK, so part of the correction is to discard the kit canopy and fit a True Details. In addition, the shape of that scalloped area needs to be corrected. So here's the original fuselage (btw note the incorrect position of the antenna mast, which would make it impossible to open the canopy if it were really there!):

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Here's the fuselage after I put a cylindrical grinding bit in my motor tool to enlarge and correct the outline:

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And here I'm test fitting the True Details canopy (not quite fully trimmed and fettled):

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I think it will look a lot better. This is not, by any means, the only issue with the kit, but to me it is the most glaring. And I may not have got the shape of the scalloped part perfect, although just the fact that it no longer looks like an Academy should count for something. It is good enough to proceed with the Hobby Boss, use up some decals, and see if it looks enough like a P-40 that the Academy kits become candidates for proper builds.

The issue with the canopy incorrectly continuing the slope of the fuselage line also exists, by the way, with the Academy P-40N, judging by pics I have seen of built-up models. Correcting that kit should be simpler, since there is no scalloped cutout to reshape. Just adapt for the True Details canopy.

Stay tuned for future updates!

August
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Stuart
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by Stuart »

Welcome back into the fold, the Tutor looks wonderful.
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K5083
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by K5083 »

Finally finished another couple of long-incomplete kits.

First was my Monogram Do 17Z from http://uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=328&t=12275, a Battle of Britain GB thread from 2015.

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August
A good model is any model you can walk away from.
K5083
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by K5083 »

Here's another completion. Around 2015 or 2016 three of us challenged each other to an Airfix Hurricane build. I think I may be the first to finish! Anyway I'm not the last. This is the Airfix ragwing Mk.I marked as "Coly's Battleship," the Hurricane that WWI ace Raymond Collishaw, by then in charge of the RAF in Africa, flew from base to base to persuade the enemy that the British had more modern equipment in the theater than they did. The plane was an early Mk.I leftover from desert testing, thus the tropical filter which I pinched from a Revell Mk.IIc. Decals are from the IPMS Canada Canadian Aces of WWII decal sheet. Sources differ on whether this plane retained its armament and participated in combat in Africa. It is also not clear whether Collishaw actually flew it or merely ordered others to fly it about. He would have been 49 years old in 1942, which is certainly not considered too old to fly a Hurricane nowadays, especially if you had 60 kills in Sopwiths.

August

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iggie
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by iggie »

Two very nice finishes indeed; the Do-17 especially so, that looks very sharp 8-)
Best wishes

Jim
If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing
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Old_Tonto
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Re: August's Toybox

Post by Old_Tonto »

There is some really superb work going on here. keep the picks coming.
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