March 2010 Ping!

[Oceaneer99]

PING!


STATUS REPORTS! ALL HANDS REPORT!

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[lastvautour]

Ah March, the promiss of spring! Completed the Aeronca Champ last month and realized that was my first completed project of the year. Regardless, on the bench for 1 March:
1/144 HMCS Bonaventure. Cutout for boat station started using jigsaw and drillpress
1/144 Travelling display hangar. Floor and wall completed. Ceiling rafters in progress using bamboo placemat.

1/72 Yukon horizontal plane carved but not contoured yet. Fuselage wood has been selected.

1/48 Argus - horizontal plane carved/sanded and needs primer/sealer. Sanding has started on the fuselage

1/32 Bolingbroke - Low priority project that requires much sanding after first application of primer
1/32 Luscombe 2A - fuselage cutout in block form. Materiel selected for wings and tail plane.

1/24 BAe Hawk - shelved awaiting renewed interest



I have tons of ideas but little time to do them. Need longer days and shorter naps.

Lou

[Balsabasher]

The two Sikorsky S.38's are currently undergoing sealing and filling in readiness for paint finishes,the cold damp weather has held things up with a backlog of projects awaiting similar treatment viz-

Pitcairn Autogiro.
2x Colonial Skimmer amphibian's.
2x Stearman Hammond Y-1's.

Undergoing carving and sanding are-

2x Miles Mohawk's.
2x Nardi FN305's.

Drawings in progress for making solids are-

SAAB Scania.
Percival Provost large scale.
GAL 56 Flying Wing.
Arnbalete experimental aircraft.
Flying Flounder.
Cornelius Mallard.
Potatoe Bug.
Arup.
Arnoux Simplex racer.
AW 52G Glider.
Akerman 1936.

Solids planned soon-

Fleetwings Seabird amphibian.
Atlas H-10.
Argonaut Pirate.
Aeronca low winger.

Plenty of ready cut blanks to work on.

Barry.

[Will]

Hi all,

- ID P-40 is now painted and hand-marked - I will not be hand painting US cockades again in a hurry!!!  Photos to be uploaded soon.
- Parts cut for a Skybird-style SE5a.  Luckily(?) Tilly our Jack Russell stole the fuselage blank off the table BEFORE I'd done any work on it.
- Templates set up for Skybirds-style Hannoverana.
- Having fun, although solid carved WW1 parts seem somehow smaller than I remember injection moulded ones.

Cheers all,
Will

[cliff strachan]

To All of our Members:
Possibly I'm one of the slower builders of the Group:
- I've got my Vedette completed (last year) and more recently my P61 (started about 1946);
- Currently rectifying an error in masking the canopy of my CF101;
- Experimenting with airbrushing Testors Silver enamel to be oversprayed with Model Master Spray Flat Cote then re-silvered then Sprayed over with Model Master Glosscote and masked - where required to be painted using enamel - on a B29, a P51 and two Mariners.
- two Hellcats on hold.

Cliff.

[Boomerang]

                Greetings all,

                Miles M20/2 - 1/48th - Up to the finishing stage

                Miles Hawk Speed Six 1/32 - Blanks cut out
                Hammod Model Y - Blanks cut out, wings and tail shaped and sanded

                Curtis XP- 55 1/48 -  Pushing on with this. Wings attached and working on fillets. Fins are next

                Supermarine Type 224 1/48 - Still on hold .
         
                Boomerang 1/48 - Display stand completed. 

                Congratulations to Garet and Barry

                Cheers

                Gordon

[Ken Pugh]

Work still slowly progressing on the Fireball XL5.  While catching up on the activities of the Osaka Model Club, I have been contemplating creating an interior for the XL5 with a clear canopy.  Looking at taking things to the next step.

I also want to get up to speed on better joinery, so I plan to mass-produce some ID models, ala Barry the Balsabasher.  If all goes to plan, this could be a big completion year.  Of course, then I have to figure out what to do with all those models.  I thought of giving them to a friend of mine who has two small boys, but he might not let them have them and keep them for himself!

I got a bottle of gesso from Walmart and will give it a try.  I am finding a lot of uses for it from other modelers.  That stuff is very expensive at craft stores but much cheaper at Walmart.

Ken Pugh

[lmsjim]

I am finally getting back to some wooden items. I am currently working on a Stormbecker B-24D spotter model. Putting on decals now.

Jim

[Paul]

I've started painting my Mitsubishi Ki-15

Still carving superman, I've made a goof in carving his arms and I'm trying to figure out how to fix it or if I should start over or if I should amputate and transplant.

Plans are scaled and printed for:
a 1/72nd scale defiant
a 1/48th scale albatros C.V
a 1/700th SS Almeda Star

[Balsabasher]

I got a bottle of gesso from Walmart and will give it a try.  I am finding a lot of uses for it from other modelers.  That stuff is very expensive at craft stores but much cheaper at Walmart.

Ken Pugh

Well Ken if it was good enough for artists like Picasso it is excellent for filling wood on our models,I use Bob Ross gesso which comes in white,grey or black finish,it sands really well.
The basic ingredient of traditional gesso is chalk,the old masters used to build up the gilding ridges on picture frames with it then carve the detail in,likewise sculptors use it as well,a great material.
Barry.

[Oceaneer99]

I'll provide a full update on each started model.  February saw me put some work into the USS Preston and VKA-23 spaceplane models.

1/48 Speed Spitfire: fuselage shaped, wing roughed out
1/72 Bristol LRQ-1 Seaplane glider: parts cut out, kitted up
1/72 Bristol Spaceplanes Ascender: primed, some final paint on
1/72 VKA-23 Spaceplane (USSR): white, black, and orange paint finished!  Need some touch-ups, then on to painting the canopy and making decals.

1/500 USS Preston: Lots of progress!  I made a full set of ship's boats, then cast another from molds, which unfortunately destroyed the molds.  I need to mount the boats and then do some work on the masts.  All guns and other details are complete and glued on.
Comet plans full-hull PT-9: needs cabin-top detailing.  Other parts are primed and ready to install

Haven't quite started projects, but plan to work on:

1/72 or maybe 1/48 Cessna O-2B Super Skymaster gathering scale information, photos, doing research on serial numbers, etc.

Plans considering:

SIPA S.70 (1/72 scale)
SS Ancon 1939 civilian version (1/1200 scale)
1/600 USS Hartford: Civil War sailing/steam vessel: parts laid out; I may switch to 1/1200 scale, though.  Need to solder up the masts and yards
1/1200 USS Monitor versus CSS Virginia (ex Merrimac): Dave T. pointed out these wonderful plans in Popular Science: parts laid out, ready for cutting
Bristol Racer Interesting race plane from the 1920s

Other related projects:

• Helping three children make pinewood derby cars.  I'm considering making a semi-scale of model of an old-style racer
• Bought some Gesso to try it out as a wood sealer; will report back
• Need to make an airbrush stand
• Bought a book on clever wooden boxes for ideas for tool chests and "box project" boxes
• Looking into making a small display cabinet for tiny models (my 1/1200 ships and 1/288 Heinkel keep getting lost on a big bookshelf)
• Going through my old model magazines and tagging interesting articles
• Nearly completed inventory of my (mostly plastic) un-built model kits, each printed on a 4x6 card with a photo

And some barely-related projects:
Building two wall-mounted bookshelves that will go up near the ceiling of my study, either to store my model magazines or my Winston Churchill and Home Mechanics books.

Garet

[lastvautour]

Labour unrest at Lou's shipyard has caused workers to walk of the job. Talks are scheduled for July 2010.
The Bonnie has been reassembled and will remain stationary til later this year.

http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4059

[lastvautour]

Kind of quiet on the site the last week. Not much going on in my workshop either, at least not much that can be reported. Sanding and sanding some more with very slow results. The Argus fuselage is 3" in diameter and over 2' long so hand sanding it to a round shape is long tedious work but it is starting to show somewhat. The skunkworks has begun a secret project and that too is at the sanding stage. I am attempting to use the motor tool I inherited from my brother-in-law. I am not well versed in using one although I have had one for 10 years. The new one has a flex drive and that makes all the difference in the world. Everything else is languishing on the bench. Even my plastic are at a stand still as the decals provided were crappy so I ordered some and they won't be here for another two weeks. The bright light is that the sun has been out the last few days and sitting outside without a parka is now possible. I nearly forgot, the Skymaster fuselage has been relegated to the kindling wood pile and a new one is been fashioned out of pine. Although the person who gave me the block of wood said gelutong, it carves more like oak. I hope others are fairing better. I decided to send out this motivational ping and see what gives.

Lou

[Will]

Some nice weather over the weekend gave a chance to photo my P-40.  It was a bit windy so she nearly tried a few ground loops.  The markings are from a profile in the back of a book of preserved warbird photos and are for a P-40E of the 11th FS, 343rd FG in the Aleutians in 1942.  All markings are painted on.  The leopard's head on the nose was considerably easier than the US stars!

Decals would be more accurate and quicker, but so would a plastic kit - and that's not why we're here!

These should be the links to the photos:
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4062
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4061
http://smm.solidmodelmemories.net/Gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-4060
I tried inserting the actual photos to a message last night but it all went wrong.
Cheers
Will

[cliff strachan]

A very nice P40. Especially the insignia and markings and again especially as they were done by hand - a real art & a way that I could never do again.
Cliff.