Old Warbird
Started with the cockpit and the seat.
The walls of the cockpit had nice detail for what I am used to.
The floorboard of the cockpit.
Wonderful detail on this body. I love Accurate Miniatures molds.
This bird is going to be wheels up so I glued the wheel wells shut.
I've never had to glue fins to bombs before! Tweezers where a must.
Here's my paint brew for the interior colors.
Floor board painted.
Yoke painted
Interior shell painted.
The radio's batteries?
The radio and O2 cannister.
Floor board with details.
Detail painting on the wall controls.
The seat was blah and I wanted to try making my own belts. I planned on using this A-36 as a dry run for another model. This bird is in the air so it has a pilot. Most of the these details won't be seen.
I designed belts using Corel Draw and printed them on my printer. I made plenty of copies, it's only 1 sheet of paper!
Cut out the belts and begin assembly. I used CA Glue.
Belts on the seat.
Never had a gauge panel like this. I just followed the instructions...
Per the instructions I painted all the metal surfaces with black.
A decal placed on the back side of the gauge panel and lines up very well with the clear lenses.
Fuselage coming together.
Those details look nice!
One last glory shot of the interior details.
Tail wheel is up for flight but the kit's part is not meant to seal up this well. I cut styrene and scored it to fit the area.
I was surprised at how well the body came together. The wings are in two halves, the body is in two halves but it worked pretty well. I had some gaps to fill but nothing to cry about.
The body is together. A beautiful silhouette!
Panel lines... I hate panel lines. I need a tool for this I think!
The plane needs a pilot! None in the kit so I had to whip something up. Another pilot from a Revell kit, at the same scale, was to tall so I had to get creative. Forgive me little dude!
That's a good height now!
His hand wasn't on the yoke and this bird was going to flying real low so I felt like I had to make it real. This project needs another sacrifice!
The Frankenstein pilot!
That's good fit!
Time for paint, tried to do a glaze technique.
He looks serious!
Placed in the cockpit, Cpt. Frankenstein is ready for canopy
I
I used tacky to hold stuff while I apply the clear panels.
Once the canop
I'm diggin' how the wings came out.
I'm diggin' how the wings came out.
Time for sponge chipping. I need more practice with this. I used Tamiya Flat Aluminum.
Chipping
Chipping
The chink in this kit's armor are the decals. Almost un-usable, almost.
Every decal broke in the water while it was soaking. I tried warm water, I tried holding the decal to it's shape. They did not care, they just broke.
Perseverance!
I should have stopped here with the yellow stripes. No way they would sink into the vents on the wings but I tried, because I can be stubborn.
There it is. Doing what I thought it would do, covering those beautiful molded vents.
Pulled em' off! This began a comedy of errors...
The roundles and bombs on the fuselage. Quick note, every single bomb represents a sortie the real plane flew. Quite the mission list it must have...
Decals are all on! now on to the stripes. What a mission, I should get my own bomb decal for this sortie!
I thought: "I'll just mask off the plane, prime the area and then follow with yellow.
The model gods got angry, my primer reacted with the gloss clear I used.
I was under a time crunch and I didn't want to strip the whole wing. Sooo, I striped the area with rubbing alcohol. It cuts right through the gloss clear I used.
I then waited a day, because I was spooked about how it would look. I then stripped the mask off, re-masked it slightly bigger so the yellow would cover the messy line left from the stripping. I primed with Tamiya white, then shot Tamiya yellow. The model gods were appeased.
I had the same issue on the tail, took the same process as the wings.
Some bleed through on this side. That's ok I can work with it.
Oil wash for the panel lines and rivets and stuff.
The plane was re-glossed and the oil wash was applied.
oil wash on the wings. I let it dry for a couple of days. Oil's take forever to dry.
Then the plane was shot with matte clear, to dull everything down and seal the details in.
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this album!
Comments
13 21 May 2023, 02:28
Jennifer FranklinVery nice work, I love the pilot, did he come with the model or did you add him yourself?
21 May 2023, 03:40
Album info
This is a model that was donated to my club by a modeler's family who passed away. The goal was to finish it for the local Flight 19 Model Show as part of a group build to honor the deceased modeler. I took the project seriously and finished 3 subjects from the same time period on time. This is the A-36's journey on my bench.
