Landlubber Mike

Made some progress on the Vindicator the last couple of weeks. Put together both the front and rear cockpits. Lots of nice little details from the kit, especially when enhanced by the Eduard PE set. Quoting myself here as the next stretch of the build -- assembling the cockpit and fuselage -- has not been fun at all! I probably had a good five or six hours to slowly shave back material to get the fuselage halves to close. The rear cockpit essentially is too wide so you can't close the fuselage halves in the rear, and if you try to squeeze things together, you run the risk of bending and breaking some of the cross pieces in the cockpit. Had to use a combination of two-part epoxy, plastic cement, and CA. Managed to get it together finally, just need to fill and sand in a few spots. Apparently others have had similar issues. Definitely not the quality of the F3F kits for sure. What made it more complicated was you had to fit the two cockpits into the fuselage halves, and also fit the instrument panel on the front cockpit -- yet the front cockpit doesn't have a good way to secure the IP in the proper place. Looking at the cockpit, the IP is a touch crooked so I'm going to have to figure out if I can actually rework it in place. So literally you're trying to hold about five pieces in place at once to glue everything, and that doesn't include the bottom of the fuselage which is a separate piece. I also worked on the 1000lb bomb, enhancing it with the Eduard PE. Looks a touch nicer than had I built it from the box. Required cutting or sanding off a bunch of the kit details to add the PE. Next up, I'm going to work on the wings. I'll be doing two things - cutting out the flaps and adding the Eduard PE for open flaps, and then cutting the wings to display the model in the partially folded position. Will need a stiff drink or three to get through that part I'm sure. Thanks for looking in!

Ho203, thanks for looking in. And thanks for making me your first post on MSW, welcome! I hear what you mean on the water based primers. I would never try to sand Vallejo, that's for sure. For models where I need to sand down things, I usually go with Mr. Surfacer or sometimes Tamiya (rattle cans). Those are my base primers for car and plane models. And then once the body or fuselage are done, I often use Vallejo primers and paints on top. On my F3F builds with the aluminum bodies, after getting the bodies primed and prepped using Mr. Surfacer, I used Vallejo Gloss Black Primer before spraying their Metal Color line of paints and it worked perfectly. For my 1/700 Hatsuzakura build, I just went with Vallejo as there was no need to sand primed areas. For this 1/350 Shimakaze build, I used Tamiya primer (rust I think) for the lower hull. I have Mr. Surfacer in black and will probably use that for the upper hull. For metal, I used the Mr. Surfacer for PE from the rattle can to spray down the PE frets for the railings on my 1/700 build (like you to pre-paint before installing them on the model), then used Vallejo after it. Worked nicely. For colors, I have a few of the IJN specific colors from Tamiya - Kure, Saisebo, Maizuru arsenals, etc. I couldn't source them from Mr. Color so went with Tamiya. I'll probably use them for the upper hull on the Shimakaze. Vallejo takes a lot of grief, particular on their primers. Funny thing, I was just on some FB groups last night and one had a very angry thread on Vallejo primers. If you're not going to sand, I think Vallejo is perfectly fine. I use Vallejo primers on most of the smaller detail items on my models without any issue. Clean up is much easier and you have no smell issues as with Mr. Surfacer, Tamiya, etc. That makes them very worth using in the right circumstances - i.e., when one doesn't have to sand. Post your Shimakaze when you start working on it. I've been focusing on a couple of plane models I have going at the moment, but otherwise have most of the deck structures completed. I wanted to get as many of the deck items completed so I can paint in one big session. With the linoleum deck on the Shimakaze, you can't just paint the whole ship in one pass unless you are ok with masking off the linoleum areas which I didn't really want to do.

That came out fantastic! The diorama really brings the model to life. Well done!

That's really looking sharp Kevin - nice job with the build, the colors, etc.

Great PE work Biggles!

I'm in too Edward, this is going to be a goodie

I'd probably build the AV-3 over the CV-1. I love the seaplane tenders, and the 3/4 deck won't hide as many details near the bow as the CV-1 version. How do the support girders look? Just curious about your impressions of those and other details as to scale. The PE set for the AV-3 doesn't seem to include a wood deck like the CV-1, but not sure if the AV-3 had a wooden deck. Looks like the Trumpeter upgrade set has more PE than typical for kits, but I think I would be more inclined to buy it if Pontos or Infini or some of the other guys came out with a set for it. For whatever reason, the kit manufacturers seem to be a bit skimpy when it comes to adding PE. It's a welcome development that folks like Pontos are coming out with full kits/PE -- as they did with their Soya kit -1/250 - so you can have a one stop shop and not need to cobble together upgrade packages, have multiple sets of instructions to wade through, etc.

I haven't had too many problems on my Charles Morgan. It's not the easiest to work with, but looks fantastic.

Really nice work!

Wow amazing work! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks. I had seen concerns about wood deck adhesives but didn’t know if they were borne out or not. Good to know, thanks!

Beautiful work Mark as always. Really loving your build! Good luck and get well soon.

Beautiful work there Craig. Can I ask - I wasn't sure if you went with the wooden deck or just painted the kit deck, but if you did use the wooden deck, did you use any additional adhesive?

I’ve seen folks use Tamiya Clear for the same purpose (X-20 I think?). I haven’t tried that yet, but seems like a great idea. I haven’t had too many issues with CA though - I apply it to the part via a pin, and then use either a toothpick or folded paper towel to pick up any of the excess.

Very cool! How are the clear cockpits on these kits? Being such a focal point, they'd have to be well done and blemish free.

They did man, thank you! Should be a fun build.

EG, thanks for the information and the pictures as always! I agree that the cowl flaps have some of the limitations from plastic injection. They aren't too thick (the ones in that SB2U-3 picture seem twice as thick as mine), but still overscale. I'm almost glad Eduard didn't give replacements - they were a real pain to glue on my Wildcat. I'll probably sand them down a touch, but otherwise not worry too much. Looking at some other build logs, the closed flaps are still a touch open, so I could still show off those Eduard brackets underneath. Going with the closed flaps will also help minimize the scale issue, which is quite apparent with the open flaps. I have the following two books as references which have been very helpful: They have some really great pictures. Sometimes I don't know if these books are a help or it's just better to have blind ignorance where kit flaws become plainly exposed. Here are a couple of pictures from In Action that show the cowl flaps - the second one is the same plane I'm planning to model: The second book by Dana Bell has some really crisp photographs. Here is one that shows off the wing fold on an SB2U-1. The kit wing inserts for the wing fold are close, but are going to need to be spruced up a bit with additional details. The Bell book had some cool photos of the USS Wasp elevator mechanism. Thought this was kinda neat to see: So I think I might go with the box cover edition with closed cowl flaps. I'm still debating the wing fold, but will probably go for it with the partial fold and wings splayed out. That would be distinctive I think, and I just ordered some brass tube and small threaded rod to create the external jury strut that pulls the wings into a folded position. I have a great picture in the Bell book of the assembly which helps. With the wings in the partial folded position, one could still see the detail in the cockpits, etc. I'll probably still add the Eduard open flaps - might be technically inaccurate, but it's a cool detail and will give me some more experience for when I get to more complicated models. I'll probably also add a 500 or 1000 pound bomb in a bomb cart alongside the plane. Accurate Miniatures had come out with a bomb and weapon set, which I must have picked up at some point. There are some bomb carts as part of the set, so I'll either use one of them or scratch my own using the kit's parts as a sample. The Eduard PE set has some cool parts to dress up the kit bombs so I'm inclined to show a bomb in some form or another.

There aren't too many models of this one out there, and even fewer with the open cowl option. Here is one of the SB2U-3 I found - I suppose it doesn't look too bad open, and will look better with the Eduard detail pieces (I think they must be hinges) filling in the gap. Here is one of the kit engine - I think the Eduard wiring details are a big improvement:

I spent some time last night working on the cowl. The two halves come together fairly ok, but are thin and you end up losing the metal braces along the two seams. Never fear, Eduard to the rescue with replacement braces. I also replaced the exhausts with the set from Quickboost. They are a little crisper and have a deeper hollow to them. I'm trying to decide on the cowl flaps. The kit gives you a closed and open set. I'm thinking of going open to add these Eduard opening hardware. I'm not fully sure about the open cowl yet. Kinda reminds me of frilled lizards 🙈

This one is moving along pretty quickly. I've got the front and rear cockpits just about assembled. Am waiting on some paint to finish the oxygen bottles, then can and then can go ahead and add washes, etc. I'm using Vallejo metal colors - for the interior, I'm using Duraluminum since it's a touch darker and will make things easier on shading the interior a touch. Vallejo's metal line is awesome - so easy to spray and clean, and hand brushes really nicely as well. The Eduard set has a lot of nice upgrades for this kit. Along with the typical cockpit details (which are in color), there are things like the straps for the life raft. Also made a start on the engine, which is a Pratt & Whitney R 1535-96 Twin Wasp. The kit engine wasn't too bad, but the ignition wires were too thick. With the Eduard set, you add individual wires and then add control rods. Looks pretty good thus far, just need to add the details, washes, grime, etc.

Great buoy Eamonn! Really nice job!

I feel your pain - those small support triangles are crazy. I had a few on my destroyer build. Somehow I didn’t find those too bad but had problems with other similarly sized parts. Sometimes I think that the PE maker feels like they can scale the things down so why not include them and see what the builders want to do with them.

That’s a great idea. I’ll have to try that. I’ve used paper towel before but a cloth towel with more area sounds like a better plan. I don’t have a problem so much with the kit parts but the PE can be a real pain when it drops or pings off the tweezers.

Still waiting on progress pics on the 1:1 Chris Coyle to go along with it!

Those brass barrels really dress up the guns for sure. Nice job!