Revell 1/48 Lockheed PV-1 Ventura
I guess I can't just work on one model at a time. This is Revell's Lockheed Ventura. The kit is nicely detailed externally with a nice representation of the front office. The only low point is the area aft of the cowl flaps. I simply carved a radius on the nacelle sections here. Unfortunately, this isn't like the older Monogram kits where the rest of the interior was finished. (Lone Star Models makes a very nice replacement crew entry hatch complete with a life raft, however, the rest of the interior would need to be made from scratch.)There are parts for a nose compartment and the forward fuselage is a separate part as is the section of fuselage surrounding the turret. When the kit came out there was much speculation on future variants being released. Now we know for sure as the RAF Hudson has just been released!
The kit goes together without any issues. My wings and tail were painted off the plane to make painting the nacelles and tails easier. The horizontal tail joins the fuselage at natural breaks and the fit is superb. (Mine in fact isn't even glued on, just pressed into place!) The only fiddly bits are the bomb bay doors. I would suggest not following the instructions like I did. Instead, glue the inner and outer doors to each other, then attach to the fuselage. (LSM also makes a one piece part should you want the doors closed.) The tricolor scheme was a fun one to do, and was done freehand. Getting everything nice and tidy and straight was a chore for Mr. Caffeine here! I just wish I would have pre-shaded the lower surface a little bit, especially the flap sections. The decals went on without any gloss coat and settled down to the flat paint with no silvering and look painted on. They are glossy however. I simply brushed some Testors dullcoat from a jar over them as I didn't want to cover the whole plane. The three colors have different sheens to them and are not all flat.
I look forward to doing the Hudson and I hope a PV-2 Harpoon is in the works! (If possible. They are similar, but not the same. The Harpoon might be a little bigger!)
Now I just need to find out what I did with the gear doors on the starboard side! I think they fell off during one of the post restoration flights!
very nice Josh 10 out of 10 on the free hand air brush work mate
well done
Looks good, Josh..nice paint job. I modified my Ventura to represent a "transport".
Love it especially the paint work.
Wonderful finish! A blessing to see a non-wheathered surface.
[No silvering of decals on flat paint - this is really good to hear, as I'm not a fan of glossy coats, too. Even with a final flat coat above of the glossy one ... it's not the same. The Tamiya decals I currently use silver heavily. After many testing and trying I found that polishing the spot where the decal is applied delivers a fairly good result.]
I pretty much build all my planes not as they were, but as they would be today as a restored and flown aircraft. In other words, pampered. I did do some light staining on the nacelles because it has radial engines and the white won't stay white very long!
The decals in this kit were very good. The same is true on the new C-47 re-release I am currently working on.
Yes great Job! I have been curious about the kit as I almost bought it, being in stock locally. I said 'if it was just a Hudson, I'd buy it" ...
yours is quite well done, beautiful paint and finish, congrats!
Well, now the Hudson is out! Go get it! I'm going to as well.
stunning work josh...just beautiful
Thanks Bob. I just can't wait to put these colors on my Helldiver. Your post got me itching to get started on it! I just have to tie up a few loose ends on my C-47 for the D-Day build first!
Nice clean build. When you said "painted freehand" you mean with a camel hair brush? If so, you have quite a talent! Fantastic paint scheme and application.
No, with the exception of the canopy frames, I airbrushed it but I didn't use any type of masking. All the demarcation lines were laid down by hand. I did brush paint the drop tanks on my P-61 with MM Acryl neutral grey. It leveled out nice and you cant tell they weren't sprayed.
Bad News- Its NOT a Hudson. Its an RAF Ventura with the same BoltonPaul turret as fitted to the Hudson. The box art shows the Ventura of Leonard Trent of 487 (NZ) Sqdn, probably meant to depict the Eindhoven/Philips Factory raid in 1942 where he won the Victoria Cross. (before they flew the DH 98 Mosquito Fb VI, 487 flew the Lockeheed Ventura Mk 1.)
Oh, and the PV2 Harpoon was about 80% a new aircraft- different fuselage, tails, wings and engines NZ had 1 on strength in 1945. It was returned to the USN later that year.
It is also a bit bigger I believe. It definitely needs a kit done of it! One was just restored in the States here. It had a whopping 800 hrs total time on the airframe, so it's almost brand new!
Nice build Josh, looks good.
Well done mate.
Josh,
I love it. You did and excellent job on this. There is one of these for real at an airport in Sonoma County. At this point though it does not look as good as yours. A number of years back there was a fully restored Ventura at the same airport. Unfortunately it stalled out over a lake and went in. No one survived. One of the persons aboard was a member of our them model club. He was very excited about the ride and could hardly stop talking about the upcoming flight. It was a sad loss for his family and our club.
I agree with everyones' comments about the build, Josh, but I'd like to add that the outdoor photographs are great, too.
I just need to be taking them at the airport!