Why Not?

The rules had to be broken eventually right? My two build slow down has been compromised by me adding another kit to the workbench. The idea of building the Canberra PR.9 instead of its American cousin B-57G wasn’t sitting too well with me. Now there’s certainly nothing wrong with the PR.9 and I’m happy to have the chance to build it. My reasoning for the add on other than just “I want to”, is that I think it will be a fantastic opportunity to see the differences in such a similar design. 

So the Italeri kit is the same kit that I built a few years ago. The only difference that I can see so far are the FLIR and LLTV blisters on the nose. If I remember correctly, I had a decent time with the “B” variant so I would expect the same out of this kit. I did forget to add nose weights and I won’t make that mistake again. This will be a fun parallel build.  

    
 

Adding More To The Paint Docket

The Harrier and Wildcat are coming along quite nicely and it’s looking like they will join the backlog of kits needing their skin very soon. Last night provided a mini-session at the workbench that reaped satisfying results. Starting off with the Wildcat, I really didn’t get a whole lot accomplished. It really comes down to what I accomplished. The wing roots were sanded and look pretty good to proceed. They still need primer but in my own judgment, they’ll pass. The horizontal stabilizers were the other facet of my brief time with the Wildcat last night. With those affixed and after a good coat of primer, it will be time to move on to paint. 

 Onto the Harrier, I am quite pleased with the progress from yesterday. The exhaust nozzles, air intakes, and the belly cannons were installed. There will be a little bit more prep work involved before I can transition into final paint, but not too much. The interior of the air intakes need to be painted beforehand as well as masked off. I think I will take the very easy way out and use silly putty for this task. The only other major item is the cannons. The halves kept snapping in half when I was trying to sand the seams so I decided to attach them first to provide more support so they don’t continue to break. So obviously I need to finish sanding them down and add some filler in a few tiny areas. Not a big job. I better get moving on the airbrush soon or I am going to be in a pickle very soon. We are supposed to get a snow storm this week so I am starting to sweat it. 

 

Moving On

Even with my struggles to make my way out to the airbrush, I’m always in a progressive frame of mind. I hope I don’t bury myself with halfway finished kits awaiting paint but the wings are officially on the Wildcat and Harrier so I will be foregoing with the next two builds. 

The only criteria involved with my decision was to build post WWII. There are quite a few piston driven aircraft filling up my shelf so I need to balance out a bit. My first choice has been a finalist too many times to count here at my workbench. I do this quite often and eventually they make there way in. So first up is Hasegawa’s 1/72 F9F-8 Cougar. The kit looks great so far. I can’t see any issues with flashing or problem areas so I’m excited to get started. 

   
The second kit will be one of my newest editions to my stash in Revell’s 1/72 Canberra PR.9. The original plan was to get this kit built sometime this year, I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. I was leaning towards the American B-57G Canberra but I have already built a “B” version so I thought it would be prudent to go with the British variant. I think I made the right choice. The only problem I see is the starkness to the kit. I’m going to have to figure out a way to add some details to the exterior. I’ll be looking for a boarding ladder for sure and maybe some new landing gear. Other than that, this should be a fun kit. 

 
 

Slowly Gaining Momentum

Okay. This weekend hasn’t gone exactly like I originally had hoped for. That said, I don’t think it has gone terribly. The airbrush remains dormant even though we had an amazing day of 65 degrees yesterday. I was gone for most of the day so I will use that as my excuse. Today is back in the thirties so it was yet another day of not getting any paint flowing. 

All the underachieving aside, I have been fairing pretty well on the Harrier and Wildcat. I have just been trying to keep a good pace going and working as diligently as possible. I finished up the fuselage seams on both kits yesterday and went ahead and attached the wings. The wing roots looked fantastic on the Harrier so I also affixed the horizontal stabilizers. The wing roots on the Wildcat aren’t terrible but needed a small application of filler. 

It is feeling like I am on the home stretch with both builds now. If I get some time tonight, I want to get the nose section attached on the Harrier and fill any gaps where needed. I would also like to try and get the Wildcat’s wings sanded and primed. Not a massive to do list so I think it’s achievable. 

  

  

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

Instead of continually complaining about how I can’t get out to the airbrush to get some much needed painting completed, I will embrace the opportunity to use the extra time to devote towards the Harrier and Wildcat builds. They remain the only positive on the workbench for now. I hope the weekend will bring better results but I have plenty of work to keep me occupied with the Wildcat and Harrier. 

The Wildcat is extremely sparse in the cockpit department so it was basically just skipping that step and attaching the fuselage halves together. It looks like it will sand well and I think I can make it without any filler. Fingers crossed! The wings were also assembled and await the sanding of the leading edges. The wings look worse than the fuselage so that is kind of encouraging. 

 The Harrier is coming along nicely as well. The main fuselage was assembled a few days ago while I worked on the cockpit/nose section. I finished up the cockpit last night and installed it this morning. The seams look promising on this one as well so I’m hoping for an easy sand and onto wing assembly. The weekend looks extremely open for progress and I plan on size in every bit of it.

   

Poor Effort

Okay, the past five days have been like walking through molasses. I can’t seem to find an edge to grab ahold of to get a good grip on all of my pending builds. The weather has been my biggest enemy thus far with cold temperatures making an unwanted appearance. It’s 32 degrees out today so I may be able to head out to the airbrush today. The Fw-190 and Polikarpov need they’re bellies painted and the Macchi has it’s underside finished and masked off for the initial upper painting. The Harrier and Wildcat builds are slowly coming around. I have completed preliminary paint and hopefully I can get deeper involved later tonight or tomorrow. Little gains are all I can expect for now. I don’t want to get ahead of myself and be left dissatisfied with my efforts. 

    
  

We’re Getting Closer

The hope for the start to this week was to piggyback my weekend success into the same progress that I so very much enjoyed. Here we are three days into the week and there hasn’t been all that much activity at the workbench. At least not as much as I had planned for. I came into work early today (9a-9p) and the same goes for tomorrow so any actual model work getting accomplished is a bonus now. 

The temperature keeps playing head games and has dropped back down to a frosty 19 degrees. The Fw 190 will remain grounded until at least Monday. 

The Polikarpov is fairing well with all the filling and sanding complete. The engine cowling was installed yesterday and I passed the sanding test on my first attempt. I primed it this morning with excellent results. There are a few little projects like ordinance to address before I can begin final paint. 

    
The Macchi is doing just as well. I finished up with sanding yesterday and primed it along with the Polikarpov. Great results ensued so I am very happy with this build. Final paint will take place so with this kit. 

   
I’m doing great at sticking to the two builds at once rule that I put in place a few weeks ago. It’s hard at times and I do have a stack of kits ready to be started. The Harrier and Wildcat have not been started yet, but I think now is as good a time as any to begin. I’ll only have about an hour in the morning to maybe get them on their respective work boards for preliminary paint. My best bet is to hold tight and get started over the weekend. 

Great Weekend

To measure how successful a weekend was, I don’t normally base it off of how far I actually get. I tend to be happy with little quality gains and anything else is extra credit. This past weekend was one of those rarities where I get farther than I really planned for. 

The Fw 190 could have gotten a little farther for my taste but I’m still sitting pretty good. The waist band was painted RLM 23 on Saturday and then masked off yesterday. The underside needs to be repainted due to some color differences from the initial painting. I’m not exactly sure how it happened but the fact is that it did and it needs to be fixed. Certainly not my worst mistake. I’m thinking tomorrow will be a great day to get that addressed. 

 The true success came in the Polikarpov and Macchi builds. Both kits have performed quite well and as you can see are almost finished with construction. The Macchi has a few gaps to fill and the Polikarpov has just the wing roots to address so far. The picture was taken before I attached the fuselage to the lower wing. I’m happy with my progress and feeling very motivated to keep up the pace. 

   

Two More on Deck

With the Bv 141 wrapped up and the Fw 190 on the cusp of finality, it’s time to really dig in on the Polikarpov and Macchi builds. The weekend will be a perfect launching pad to achieve my desired jumpstart. While all of that is going on, I thought it would be a great opportunity to choose my next builds. 

Lately the theme here has been all WWII aircraft. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing but as you know I like to have some diversity in my builds. With that in mind, it was off to find a jet age aircraft. There was no other criteria that I was going with other than basically no propeller. I like times like these when I don’t have an immediate inspiration for an airplane and just dig through my stash and build. It gives me time to really look at my inventory and 99% of the time, a kit just sticks out to me and gets me excited for the build. This kit happens to be Hasegawa’s 1/72 Sea Harrier Mk.1. Who doesn’t love the Harrier? After I built my AV-8B Harrier II a while back, I wanted to get a British variant on display. Here’s my chance and I am very enthused about it. Opening the box you’ll find typical Hasegawa quality. I’m not sure of my paint scheme just yet. A little more research should solidify that decision. I think this build will be lots of fun. 

   
The criteria was met with the Harrier so I thought it would be fine if I slipped another WWII era plane into the mix. I chose to go with Academy’s 1/72 F4F-4 Wildcat. It has been about five years since my last Wildcat build and that is far too long. The first one was built when I first started back into the hobby so it’s not that great of a build. It’ll make for a nice side by side comparison when I am finished. Back to the kit itself, it’s not the greatest Academy kit but it certainly isn’t awful. My biggest complaint is the lack of any landing gear bay detail. Other than that….game on. I’m not too sure if I want to go with an early, mid, or late war paint scheme. I am leaning towards the early war markings but it’s still a toss up. 

   
   

Blohm and Voss Bv 141B

With Airfix being my only available option for the Bv 141, this wasn’t as bad as I originally thought. It would be nice to see a re-tooled kit but as is, I really can’t complain much. The biggest downfall is the cockpit. An opened up canopy with a high detail cockpit would be great. I know it’s asking a lot but I can dream. 

So I really enjoyed this build. There were no headaches to deal with. It was just an overall good kit of a very interesting airplane. I am very happy with the turnout of the paint scheme. Its overall color is RLM 02 which is not seen covering the entire aircraft much. It worked out well I think. I want to try this kit again with the traditional German camouflage sometime in the future. Maybe by then there will be a better option. If not, I have learned enough from this build to make my own improvements.