Welcome back! We all have our own demons that attempt to meddle, and our vulnerabilities are so myriad that I won't try to prescribe a remedy. However, I will tout the value of wrestling in "public" with those modeling demons, as the support & encouragement here a iModeler is some of the absolute best therapy available! It is a safe place, and these comrades seem to know just what you need in a given moment - a push to get through, some insight to solve a problem, a shoulder to cry on, an unorthodox perspective to gladden the heart!

I'm looking forward to watching your builds materialize.

Share the pain, Don. We are all here with you - as Greg says, getting your demons out in public is a great way to learn in a safe place. For me, I’d much, much rather watch someone struggle through a WiP than see a beautiful and flawless creation.

Bring it on, Don.

I'd hoped to be airbrushing today but no go. I got sidetracked by sub-assemblies and its too hot and humid for painting anyway.

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A little more fettling of the cowling was needed to thin the trailing edge in order to make a separation with the fuselage.

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That's better!

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I assembled the engine in two parts, cylinders and crankcase, ready for paint. I'm adding nothing extra to the donk, no wiring etc. Not this one. I tried the fit onto the fuselage and found that it didn't seat properly due to that ejector pin mark in the rear of the firewall. That has been removed and with a bit of luck the whole thing, engine, cowling and prop, will be square and true.

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Time to find me a pilot. I wasted ages looking for a USN figure before I remembered that I'm doing FAA aircraft! I'm always surprised how much figures vary in size.

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This is the one I'll be using.

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He is a little short because neither seat nor pilot had the parachute pack included. I glued in a couple of pieces of sprue to jack up my Jolly Jack Tar.

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and then made certain that the canopy would close over his head!

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some panels were added to the center section and I had to find out what that opening was under the belly. It turned out to be the supercharger spill outlet so there wont be much muck coming from there when I get to weathering.

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Scissor links added to the u/c legs on the sprue made it easier to align them correctly. I noticed that the locating pins are too long and needed trimming. Perhaps the holes have lost depth as the moulds wore down in use? The kit was introduced in 1995 and then repackaged FIFTEEN more times with new decals/parts until mine was made in 2005. The Eduard kits were released in 2008. It will be fun to see how they compare with a thirteen year gap.

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Exhaust stubs drilled out. Could be thinner but good enough for this one!

Painting tomorrow? It's forecast to be the hottest day ever in the UK so probably not.

Thanks for the encouragement George. Yes, the paint on these cabs was very interesting. The aircraft were built by Grumman and painted with paints made in America, sometimes specially mixed to resemble the British colours and sometimes using the closest available match. Grumman didn't import paint from Britain for sure. There's a ton of discussion on the subject over on Britmodeller (two 'l's). Sometimes though, these debates get a bit too pedantic for my taste. I know that there were detailed specifications and records of these survive. Also I know that in a busy factory no-one was going to reject an aircraft because the grey was a little bit too red. So I will give myself as much artistic licence I want.

I'll use something close to the US colours such as olive drab and then I can do touch-ups in the British slate grey. Also, I'm pretty certain that paints in the 1940s faded fast, especially in a tropical maritime environment. That's when they weren't darkened by being wiped over with waste oil to keep the salty water off them. I'll be modulating, fading and dirtying everything anyway!

I also believe in scale effect, which you don't hear about much these days. For those unfamiliar with this idea the thinking goes that a 1/48 model is viewed from 2 feet away so the colours should look like they are nearly a hundred feet away. Far off colours are a bit less saturated and a little blue to the eye. Whites are blue grey and blacks are dark grey. This is why I think pure black or white look wrong on a model. It's a personal taste thing, I know.

These are the four schemes that I'll be 'representing'.

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The first one. This is the Hasegawa kit as a Hellcat II. Eduard call this colour Navy Blue but isn't it something like Semi-Gloss Sea Blue? Anyway, blue all over so easy for number 1 model of the New Age of Smith. Ha! This is the almost OOB kit with closed canopy, pilot figure as in the old days of my modelling, rockets and a belly tank. I think it's a bit dull but the white stripes will add some interest. This was a tough paint designed for the ocean life so not too much fading.

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2. Olive Drab and Grey (of some kind) over a greyish version of sky. Much faded. Another dullish scheme so I'll do a bunch of chipping to zinc chromate primer and then touch ups and so on. This is the Eduard weekend edition. Again pretty well OOB but I'll make a wiring harness, seatbelts etc from whatever I can find. Old fashioned extras.

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Number Three. Operation Hoops. Carrier based attacks on German forces in occupied Norway May 1944. This aircraft shot down a FW190 and a He115. So no belly tank on this one. Now I'm onto the Eduard profipack editions; photoetch! resin! Complicated stuff. This time I'll try to find some paint that's closer to the British 'official' colours, just to keep the shelf interesting.

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Finally (!) No4. It's got a red nose and striped pyjamas. I guess the FAA had this for at least a year before D-day so I'm claiming that it was resprayed in the proper UK colour at some time. I will have fun with the stripes which I'm betting were nowhere near as tidy as this picture suggests. (Sorry about the orientation) This will be, with luck, the victory over the imps of ennui who have held up my model making for so long. I'll build it in whatever way pleases me the most. Probably without the photoetch, especially the pieces that I can't actually see.

(All 4 of these will have the cockpit in the RAF/RN interior green, not the US bright green version. Apparently that was how they were delivered.)

It's been too hot here to do anything except research and planning, sorry.

I need to make my photos smaller!

I need to make my photos smaller!

you say - I usually make mine 1200 wide, that makes them a useable size for the screen, and they are fast to upload.

Apologies for picture orientation

- what do you use to take them? I have no experience with smartphones, but as far as I know (AFAIK for future purposes) if you take the picture with the phone "laying down", it will be posed that way too? - I may very well be wrong here!

Anyway, no matter the format, keep the posts coming - followed with interest!

I could no longer put it off. I was at the crossroads. If today went well, I knew I would finish not just this bird but ALL of them. If today was to go awry, I'd likely never build another model. Da da daaaaaaah!

First Challenge: Airbrushing.

That heaven or hell technique. When it's good it's very, very good but when it's bad...

I couldn't revert to spraying Humbrol enamels as I haven't got an extraction system and didn't want to destroy the dog's sense of smell. Also, it's so long since i have sprayed Humbrol, I'd likely mess it up anyway.

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This was the set up. I didn't do the washing up, I just moved it out of shot! Note the essential plug rammed tightly into the drain!

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Materials. The paint is a half bottle of Sky with a little darker green added. To be honest, Sky would have been acceptable to me but later kits in the series will have Sky on the outside and I want some variation in shades. X-20A thinner because it's the lightest smell. I have Tamiya Lacquer thinner, which I prefer apart from the smell and price. I think it gives a tougher finish when applying direct to plastic.

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It went like a dream. I missed the noise of extraction fans but that was quite pleasant really. The window was open and the draught was blowing outwards today, so the smell was minimal. The finish was fine and appeared tough enough. I practiced on a scrap piece from the spares box, always good insurance.

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Clean up was easy using neat Isopropyl Alcohol. I sprayed a couple of loads through the brush and out of the window before stripping down for the full clean. I buy this stuff by the gallon from Amazon, which makes it very cheap.

So, I passed that part of the test.

Second Challenge: Detail painting.

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Shall I squawk like a Rhode Island Red and use the transfer? It's not bad but it is old and the panel is bumpy. And anyway, I want to know if I can still paint a cockpit.

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Yes I can. I give myself 6/10 for this one as I didn't bother with washes or placards or anything other than that artist's paint and some very fine brushes. And why bother? With Flt Lt 'Tubby' Lardarse in the cockpit, you ain't going to notice.

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As you see, or rather, don't.

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I've had to cut his feet off, but that's hardly noticeable. He's glued in position after yet another check that the canopy will close over him. Tomorrow, when its all hardened, I'll fit the stick and gunsight and zip up the fuselage halves.

A good day.