From out of the Vault (Again) - SBD Dauntless - August 21, 2020

 When Bob and I started rehabbing old models from the 60's the first attempt out of his storage box was the afore mentioned Dive Bomber.  Bob had built an early "Battle of the Coral Sea" model, the theme of which was kept (I had some left over decals from my Sparrowhawk project).

Initially I cleaned it up, repainted the rudder and repainted the belly.

Note that i started to "clean out" the air brakes with my pin vise drill for some needed detail.

Not a bad result, but I also sealed up the flight stand slot and added some more color to try and even things out.

Here you can see the paint condition of the rudder prior to repaint, but the point here is that the roundel on this side of the fuselage was not salvageable so I scraped it off and painted in a patch.

This photo does not show exactly how rough the old finish was, but you can see my attempt to clean up the canopy moldings (with a lighter color).  I have also removed the rear machine guns in order to repair them and "clean" them up.

The guns reinstalled, radio wire mast added and wire (monofilament) installed.  Note that the new paint has been applied and the starboard fuselage roundel added.

I went back to my initial refurbishment, since it was the first one attempted, to further clean things up.  I learned a lot about detailing things as I took on additional rehab projects "from out of the storage box" as is documented throughout "The Atom Furnace"  For example I could see that the lead edge of the wing needed evening out, plus I was not now happy with the canopy either.

I cleaned up the edge, of course this resulted in me having to repaint (again) the entire topside.  I did have another motive for this which you will see soon.

The canopy now matches  the rest of the paint job.  I also have washed over the wings and elevators with a black acrylic to give some emphasis to the ailerons and the upper airbrakes!

Top view showing the result of the black wash.

I did a bit of touch up on the underside - bombs, wheels etc., but how will that be appreciated??

With a new custom Flight Stand, of course, by Vadim Bocharov, Moscow!  I found him on Etsy,  and had him customize his 01 flight stand (he also has 02 and 03 sizes for bombers and larger scale aircraft).  He sent this picture letting me know it has shipped!

On the Bench - Hon3 DRGW Parlor cars

Picked up a couple of resin cast carbodies and underframes for a decent price. They're a bit crude, but with some TLC and aftermarket parts, I'll add some varnish to the Narrow Gauge Empire. This will be an intermittent,  fill-in project. 

Oh, who am I kidding, all of my modeling is intermittent  ;-).

Anyways, I'll be adding to this post sporadically as progress happens. All Aboard!

Fill, sand, prime, repeat.

Did a little online research on Pullman Green paint. Long story short, I had Tamiya XF-62 so I used it ;-)

Followed by some clear gloss and when dry, can take decals. Still, so much to do....

A short shot in one of the car floor castings means a little scratchbuilt detail and structure will be required.

I was careless in crafting the missing steps. The treads are the same width, but I made the sides out of much thinner material. Doh.

At least you won't see them side by side. All in all I'm happy with the result. Need some NBW detail on the end sill, and drilled for handrails, but so far so good. 
Now to source some trucks.

Since this was planned on being a budget  build in keeping with the low priced carbodies, I went with some economical all-plastic pass-truck kits from MRGS. They take a bit of "crafting" to get them together square,  but once assembled they present well. They are also easily upgraded later if needs be. Once on trucks, I can worry about couplers, as that determines how much work to get the proper height. Knowing I was already planning on using Sergent's excellent narrow shank Sharon couplers and draft gear boxes to hold them from Smoky Mountain Model Works, I cut off the existing draft gear box. The trucks come with a bolster, so looking at how that was designed to fit, I cut of the "pad" cast into the car frame.

That is still raised up a little too far, so some exacto trimming of those "center beams" down to the bolster level followed. This was followed by rounds of trimming, fitting, checking, trimming, fitting....in order to get the trucks as close to the car floor as possible and still turn freely.

Then you temporarily install the couplers and check height against a standard. As low as it will go, the couplers need to go lower still. Will have to fab a solution on each end of the car.

On the platform end, an extension of the end bolster, and a bit of shim below that. 

On the vestibule end, the floor is short of the end of the carbody, so we'll extend that with styrene sheet and strip to fill the gap and provide more surface to screw and glue to...

Disassemble and spray flat black

Shouldn't be too noticeable once assembled.  Now to reinstall trucks and couplers to test 

That'll do.

Now to replicate that on Car #2...
In the mean time, some queen posts and cartop roof details on order along with some nice gold lettering decals.  Stay Tuned!

Took a few minutes to add "glass" to the clerestory windows:

Micro-glaze is a good solution for those tiny panes.

I procured some Grandt Line 10" queenposts and installed them, adding tunbuckles on some fishing line truss rod.

On the rooftop, an assortment of vents and stacks, and the external line and boxes running the length of the roof were added, the latter being a strip of Styrene cut in 12 pieces, drilled, and threaded together on thin styrene rod, all glued down to the roof.

Some paper and tamiya tape, flat black spray, and the roof is done.

San Juan Decals provided the gold letter decals. Very thin film, so be careful/gentle with them. The car length DRGW was cut into three pieces, spotting "Rio Grande" in the center, and then adding the others to either side. I felt the full length would be too fragile to move in one piece. This car started out as the Chama, but being incautious while using decal set destroyed one Chama decal, so Durango it is ;-).

Here's a glamor shot before I add handrails and grabirons.

Handrails were cut and bent to fit out of some phosphor bronze .015 wire.

Some fairly simple, some more elaborate 

After placing the first rail, I used a piece of Tamiya tape behind it, and placed the other pieces. The while assembly was then put on the bench and the uprights soldered in place, then the assembly was glued into the end beam with ACC. It is now quite sturdy.

Excess was trimmed and filed down, and the railing painted semi gloss black

The tall uprights are part of the car mechanical systems,  the tallest waiting for a brake wheel. The car would look good with a drumhead on the rear....

In the mean time, I obtained and added a brake wheel...

...and a stirrup step, from Precision Scale and Grandt Line respectively. 

Exterior car details are far enough along that I can now matt spray the exterior and move on to the interior. 

The interior is rough, but the windows, though numerous, are small. After matt varnish-ing the exterior to seal the finish and decals, I made a simple jig with a piece of foamcore and styrene strip to more easily cut basic window shapes.

That, a steel straightedge, and a fresh #11 blade and soon you have 2 dozen small rectangles that fit the average depression inside the carbody. Due to imperfections and irregularities in the casting, individual trimming to fit was often required. Additionally, the original owner had replaced or repaired some of the original muntins ( those strips between panes of glass) with bits of balsa, which stuck up inside, meaning I'd have to cut into separate lower and upper panes :-(. Using Testors window glue,  I got them all installed and began to paint the interior in Modelmaster natural wood. It should be a darker varnished wood, so I'll see how it looks when dry, and cover it with a thin brown wash if it needs darkening.

From the outside, it's hard to get clear view inside.

Now for those little drawn curtains between windows...

Here's a few glamor shots of its current state (keeping in mind there's a second waiting for the same upgrades)

I like the remaining imperfections, the slight swayback, dents in the exterior, scuffed windows, it's clean but well-used.

On the Bench: Aichi E13A1 Jake

This kit was chosen for a Group Build hosted by the Scale Aircraft Modeling with Detail & Scale group on Facebook. We have six weeks from breaking the shrinkwrap to judging, for any aircraft in the CBI /  PTO theaters ~ 1936 to VJ Day.

I have selected a vintage 1/72 kit from Hasegawa, their Jake with catapult. 

I wanted to model a specific Jake, floatplane #4 from IJN Cruiser Tone on June 4, 1942, delayed for 30 minutes due to catapult issues, and filing an incomplete report on detecting the American fleet.

The kit does not include decals for that particular Jake, so an online search found a sheet of PrintScale decals which included that notorious airframe. 

The kit consists of 3 sprues of gray plastic aircraft parts, 3 sprues of gray plastic catapult parts, and one small sprue of clear canopy parts. It is molded closed, which I'll need to change. ;-)

This is gonne be fun

Stay tuned.

8/17 updates:

Kit canopy is molded closed, one piece. So many iconic photos of flyers in the PTO show them with canopies back....do I "open" it?

I can find no aftermarket details for this a/c, but I should at least be able to model the gunner's flexible gun, right? So, what kind of gun. Online research indicates a naval Type 92 mg, not to be confused with an Army type 92 ;-)

Anybody make one, or is it scratchbuild time?

I'm lucky in this case-the Type 92 was a copy of the British Lewis aircraft machine gun which it almost completely resembles. 

That I can get....so it looks like the gunner gets a gun!

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In the mean time, here's modeling OCD Moment #1.

You never know where it will strike: what grievous inaccuracy will slip by, and what minute, secondary factor will lurch into view, and overthrow your carefully considered plans. In this case, thread. 

The kit calls for it, to be used as a proxy for steel cable, on the catapult. In photo enlargements, no matter how I prepare,  install,  or paint it, it always looks like...thread.

You can't eliminate the Fuzz to my satisfaction.  So what to do? Stranded wire? Hard to get a piece of a small-enough gauge, of sufficient length.

I'll make my own. Next time you're about to take a wall charger to the electronics recycler, don't. Crack it open and keep the transformer. It provides a near lifetime supply of fine gauge wire.

Downsides: it's copper, and it stretches. Looks great as a scale radio wire. Somebody bumps it. It stretches, never to be taut again. Or it breaks, in the middle. Start over. Also, it is coated with a lacquer to insulate it, which some paints struggle to cover.  PSA Over. Back to work. Take three strands, tie a knot in both ends. Place one knot in a vice. Hold the other in a pliers. If you have aviation safety wire pliers, even better. 

It's too fragile to use the normal way. Just cradle it with one hand enough to make taut, and begin turning it until.you get the amount of twist you desire. Give it a few gentle tugs to "set" the wire (so it doesn't curl or uncoil).

Lay out on your bench and hit with some grey primer. Let dry,  paint as desired. Real cable for your cable.

Installed, it looks more "cabley" in close-up, no?

Starting to look like a catapult. 

Construction was straightforward. The instructions were little more than exploded views, so frequent checking and test fitting are recommended. There is little flash considering the age of the kit, and only a few hideable ejector pin marks mar part finish.

Fit is good, but beware, there is little to go by to ensure you're assembling correctly - almost no helpful tab/slot indications. I'll prime in black and overspray in gray, leaving the dirt and shadows....

With the aircraft cradle added.

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Now let's take a look at the aircraft

Modeling OCD Moment #2: Panel Lines.

It's an older kit. Raised panel lines. Something must be done ;-)

In progress....

Thankfully it's 1/72 ;-)

Still, a lot of scribing, sanding, and Oops filling.

Done scribing for now. I'll be moving on to cockpit details next, including a mount for the rear MG.

But first, let's get some cockpit framing. 

Now to fabticate a mount for the rear MG.

In the mean time, beware old decals. Some yellow, some tear, some take forever to come off the paper. And now this.

Front panel is a paper printout. Decal stuck better to the solvaset brush better than it stuck to the panel. Fatal problem for the decal. On the up side, the replacement is an actual Jake panel drawing.

More uses for stretched sprue:

A little test fitting

Now for some painting. Prime in silver; panel lines preshaded in black, Then IJN Dark Green over IJN grey. Phase one:

Once dry, I'll flip and do the other side.

While the aircraft is drying, I've blackened the catapult, before its final color of IJN Naval Gray.

And some preshading for the now-recessed panel lines.

The aircrew is prepared....

and the canopy attached

Time for some careful masking, then I can lay down the yellow recognition panels on the wings.

Note, the retracted portion of the pilot's canopy had to be fabricated because 1. The removed section is too thick to fit down over the remaining canopy, and 2. I broke it in half trying. :-(

Some clear sheet bent and cut will stand in nicely, as it is a simple flat panel piece.

Not so with the gunner's internally retractable section, which I will simply omit :-)

A little love for the Mitsubishi 14 cylinder radial:

Mask for color one:

Color one, done.

Color 2, Modelmaster IJN Green.

Color 3: Tamiya acrylic IJN light gray

Now I can continue assembly....

Finally, a floatplane!

Tomorrow,  anti-glare paint on the nose.

Color 4: Vallejo acrylic German Grey, for a blue-black antiglare nose.

Now, some detailing and touch ups before decals.
Ready for decals.

WIP

Decals applied. Had to see how it looked on the cat.

The cat couldn't look factory new, so some paint was removed and grime added

Pontoons and radio wire rigged with stretched sprue.

Comin' at ya....

Matt spray completed, canopy unmasked, homemade pilot's retracted canopy installed.  Now when will that rear MG arrive?

The Gas Patch Models Lewis Gun is (understandably) a dead ringer for an IJN Type 92, as it is a license-built copy. I left off the spent casing chute as I cannot see it in photos of Japanese use. 

Installed on my DIY ring and mount, it really adds to the depth of detail.

Here are a set of test "glamour shots" I'll be using to showcase it on the D&S page. It does tend to amplify flaws, so here goes: