popeye the sailor

thanks Ken.......I received the Special Hobby kit, and it opened up the wider implications. I haven't seen anything to suggest that it was an either/or. I did find an interesting article on the Stuka development Tools of War: The Stuka — The Military Historian this article shows from the JU 87A up to the G variants. the role of the dive bomber dates all the way back to the later part of the 1920's, when all it amounted to, was the pilot tossing grenade size bombs out of the cockpit as he flew over. as thought, this wasn't always right on target, and plans were in the works to make the practice more precise. here is another article that is pretty interesting: Junkers Ju 87 Stuka the Special Hobby kit shed light on the early variant, and is more of a multimedia kit...very different from what I've built in the past. I will post this one separately because of this.......I think you will agree. the looks is what drew me to the model. anyone who has built of of their models knows that they are a Czech Republic company. this kit also includes resin parts....the complete cockpit and accessories. the first thing I noticed with the kit, are the landing gear 'boots'.........the tires are molded in them...not something I expected. the canopy is a rather stiff cello, and not the usual clear plastic. they include two of them, so it's an assumption that the mistake ratio is pretty high for them to do that. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be 'yellowed', but ist is to some degree. there are plenty of small parts.......the dive flaps are assembled separately {that will be fun}. the decal sheet is colorful.........kidding has markings for German or Spanish ....and the resin parts..........the boots can be modified to house the resin tires. I haven't looked at this with any depth, but so far, I didn't see any locators or marks to give direction for fit. as a matter of fact, there are few pins or locator tabs on any of the parts, so dry fit is a must should be an interesting kit when I get to it

nice to see that the engine tests are going along splendidly .........looks super! the mods on the fuselage is looking really good too. I'm in awe at those who can do it without much fuss. great progress .......keep up the good work! glad your feeling better!

great job Kevin..........always wanted to see one of these painted doesn't take away from it at all! you can cut some sides for the trailer and give it some graphics........really neat stuff!

I have an update on the G 1....... the landing gear 'boots' have ben assembled, along with more paint. the instrument panel is shown as well with the decal applied. the molded detail was trimmed off the panel before the decal was added, which made it much easier to apply. the instructions tell you to simply cut the panel out of the decal sheet and glue in place over it, but I thought that was a silly thing to do. the area under the fuselage, between the wings appears like an indented 'well' and could possess the detail for a bomb rack, but no parts for the bomb rack is included in the kit....too bad I also noticed that there is a screen for the front of the fuselage intake, but nothing is supplied for the back of it. two pin locators are there to suggest that there is a part, not not the case. this can be seen in the picture above..........the prop is in place, and it does spin. the tires turn in the 'boots' as well, even though I view things like this as redundant........a nice touch, but whose gonna sit around and spin the things? I'm looking into these two things.......the bomb rack and the screen.........I'll certainly let ya know if I come up with anything. with the completion of the landing gear and the cannons, I added them to the underside of the wings. with the wings in place {dry fit} the indented belly can be seen. more soon

that's a big girl! love the large scale aircraft.........they take up a lot of room, but there's a lot more to them

you've made some very good progress on the Hellcat Chris! looks fantastic!

really nice looking tank there are a lot of different 'motorized' kits out there......some have the gearbox and the motor, and some just has the gearbox. on the one I did, the gearbox was plastic and didn't hold up very well, and neither did the remote. great paint job!

wartime here on the fourth of July..........a huge upheaval for Gibbs poor guy was under our bed most of the time........some folks not realizing that evening hours is the best time to view fireworks. the camo work on the upper part of the wings was under way......I stayed with the jagged camo design. once the upper surfaces of the dive flaps were painted, the wings were assembled the stabilizers and fuselage were being painted as well. added here is the yellow stripe..........I also painted the spinner yellow too that's the Chrysler 300 in the box.........doing some maniacal things to it I should do a log on it...perhaps later on when I have more to show the wing work continues...... once dry, I spilled the camo on the flaps this is where I am at the moment

the assembly isn't much different than the Fujimi kit.......I went with a forest green and a navy green for the darker camo color. I stuck with the basic light blue for the underbelly. the underside of the wings was painted and the areas for the intakes were painted flat black. the gun pod brackets were added as well. the gun pods were cleaned up some more and then painted later on.. the cockpit was partially assembled and painted

I opened this one back up.........my chance at a larger scale has occurred. a couple of weeks ago, we were at Hobby Lobby, taking advantage of a sale on model kits {I just can't resist a bargain}. I picked up two 1:48 Revell kits, one being a Stuka JU 87G-1 Tank Buster. the Fujimi kit at 1:72 scale was a huge pass around kit for a few companies......this one I feel was no different. the molds for this kit were tooled in 1963, but this is not an original kit. it was produced for Revell in 2018, but the model itself was made in China there is some added detail with the larger scale, but not as much as I would have liked to see. one of the idioes with the kit was with the cannons.......the barrels weren't hollowed out. it wasn't too hard to open them up. I made sure to go far enough down the throat to make it look hollow the kit also comes with the exhaust pipes that would be seen on Stukas during the African tour.......they would need a bit of modification to make them look the real deal. I don't plan to use them. the other model I mentioned is a Spitfire MKII it looks a nice kit, but there is some work to do on it. on the underside of the wings, the openings for bomb racks and fuel tanks are exposed. they would need to be filled in. on most models I've dealt with, these slots and openings would need to be drilled out or cut with an x actor.......I had to drill the holes for the gun pod brackets on the Stuka. I haven't seen anything else on that one yet, but I'm sure I will when I get into it more I have another kit on it's way to me......a kit produced by Special Hobby, a company I haven't modeled yet.......a Junkers JU 87A, a variant I haven't seen in kit form....same scale , 1:48. bear with me...........the 1:32 kit is coming................the 'Snake' if I'm lucky

....so, what are you doing for wheels now OC? not familiar with them called by that name....interesting. funny.........I was going to look in a Home Depot for something to use. thanx for the head's up!

the car is up and running again..........after spending almost $500.00! good thing I do my own work sadly, there is no new update, but I do have a question. I have been looking for the brass pedestals to support the model, but no matter how I describe it, all I get is everything but....... is there a good place to be looking, or can anyone tell me where they get them. thanks for the good word OC......and thanks to those who are following along.

oh Roger.........what are you saying!!! are you saying that molded deck detail is out of scale! ROLF!

yea.......that's what I thought too I'm still trying to nail down the exact color used, but it's looking more like repaint at this point in time. not only that, I've been wrestling with car issues of late........be nice to devote a little time to the model. today I was left on the side of the road waiting for a tow.......the A/C clutch pulley seized and ate the belt. I was on my way to my brother's shop. he has a scanner that can shed more light on my EVAP issue, which was an issue since I bought it. can't wait to see what happens next while I'm here though........I can post the pictures that I've been sitting on since the beginning of June. as I mentioned earlier.....I redid the big guns, after adding the PE I thought would add more to them. there are two casements that on both sides of the main superstructure.......figured I'd add them. I also added the first bit of railing detail, which went rather well. of course it makes it imperative that I find the correct deck paint I went out and bought a different type of CA......something a little bit thicker. I've yet to try it out. the Admiral and I went to Hobby Lobby.......I got some supplies and couldn't pass up the sale on kits. I got two 1:48 scale aircraft kits @ $11.99 each {40% off}. I also made an effort towards a better stand for the model........all I need now are the pedestals! stained and lacquered, it should look OK.........better than that plastic abomination the kit supplies I touched up the big guns again......... I started to add PE to the Tomahawk missile launchers........a bit clumsy, but they worked out reasonably well. I almost lost one of these bits.......wicked hard to find on wood floors. I still have ladders to add to them and then they will get touched up again. I added range finder pedestals on an upper deck and added a bit more railing to another deck placement......I think for the Phalanx guns. so this brings us up to date......love to have done more. I really need to get the hull touched and painted, so I can continue getting it suited for the new stand........but I suppose I can do that now and touch it up later. I'm holding off on paint, since the admiral is using the spare room for her puzzles...don't want to choke her up 😷 more soon!

superb job on her Jav........folks don't do enough eastern front aircraft. love the paint!

sure......I could go out and see if there's a deck set for this model, but likely I would still have to dismantle it. I wouldn't be overly concerned if the color was a little bit off...it's not like I'm looking to put it in a museum. I made a few advances on the model........I should be posting the pictures soon.

the guns have been redone again.........added the little railings and the range finder parts. I confirmed that I found the correct antifoul red used on the bottom, but I've hit snags in other places. the deck tan used on the decks has been elusive, and further hindered by ghosting from the colored plastic. even if I found the correct paint, it would show like a sore thumb when touch ups are done. I'm not looking forward to it, but I may have to try and break down the built up super structure. I'll only run into the same problem over and over again. it's an odd start, but it's doable

thank you good sir I'd love to get another........call it something else or try to get a better body paint job { I only gave it one coat}, but the budget director is a hard sell I did locate another kit......still in the bags...perhaps for the future

at the base of the section you have in the putty..........I noticed in the picture before that one, there is a round section of the complete bridge {that this section sits on}, that has what looks like windows as well. curious you didn't open them up. it would be too risky now.

yea.........Tamiya did a great job denoting what paint and where. would have made it easier if the gent wrote down what he used. I do, but resorted to leaving the paints with the model. this led to the problem of having multiple bottles of open paint, so I got away from that practice. yes again, that the use of PE and aftermarket is a personal taste, depending on what one would like to see in their models. my original thoughts........now coupled with the idea of adding PE, has put me in a sort of 'groundhog day' which is sending me back to the beginning again. so far, I've refurbished the main guns, only to go back to them again. the ladders are quite visible, so I will leave them...........I started to add the railing bits to the roof of the #1 gun, fumbling and dropping the first piece a number of times. getting use to PE will be fun

your usual fine job with the PE Greg! are those windows in the base?

hello gents........the mailman smiled today........I was due to get it on Thursday. Mega Hobby hasn't let me down yet I'll get into it in a moment........but first... it will OC........but due to the pre assembly, I may have to pick and choose what I put into her. I still don't want to mar the work done already. in fact, I am a bit surprised that this gent didn't order it. while that statement may be true Egilman, what makes it so is how much {and how fast} the use of PE has grown. still, there are some kits, that without it, might look a little bland.......this is one of those kits. the big thing is the missing detail......the most obvious is the railings. the only ones in the kit are the collapsible ones at the stern. I thought it would look strange not having railings, let alone weird as for resin, or aftermarket parts, the kit doesn't really need them.........there is enough detail that it can hold it's own when finished. but for reasons that a lot of other folks cite for using it, is that it will give the model more detail. you can go either way though....by using PE, it negates the use of aftermarket parts..........and just as much the other way around, except that you'll need to get some railing PE. I know Lou........I don't want to go all hot 'n heavy either......I don't have a lot of experience with PE. I got a chance to delve into the history of the New Jersey.......and it's pretty interesting. at first, I couldn't put my finger on the timeline for the model, other than the dating for the kit being 1984. when she was first launched in 1943, she had quite a compliment of weaponry 20 Quad Bofors 40mm 49 Oerlikon 20mm were on the main deck and lower upper decks 10 twin 5 inch secondary gun turrets {totaling 20 guns} as time went on and her needs changed, some or all the placements were removed, to make way for the missile age. I found this article which will better explain it all, there are some pictures in it that I don't think I can print. Full History - Battleship New Jersey when you get to the war with Japan..........WOW! even in the condition that this kit is in.........it is worth every penny spent the kit depicts the timeline in the '80's.....she was decommissioned for the final time in 1991. the PE I got is from Eduard's three sheets of some really detailed stuff .....and the instructions.......head scratch'in good time! there's a lot more............ there is some that I probably won't be able to add, but what I can add will really add to the model. I did most of my chores today.......mowing and did my own decommission to my car, the Toyota, due to go to the scrap on Friday. I'll see what I can get done tomorrow

it's about to get more OC. I was browsing through the site that Lou linked me. it appears that they favor British and German ships, than US ships......... very nice stuff though I got an e-mail from Mega Hobby yesterday, so I took a browse though there. I saw a PE detail set for this kit! interesting because I have noticed that there are no railings at all in the kit. I ordered it........in my experience with them, I will likely see it within the week. it's a good thing I haven't assembled too much yet. I'll work on cleaning up the hull until it arrives I guess I'm jumping into a deeper rabbit hole than I thought

we all gotta break a few eggs Ken

thanks to the moderator who updated the title.......I was unaware of all the changes. I'll keep it in mind....thanks for all you folks do it wasn't hard to remove the gun barrels from the turrets...all but one. rather than risk damage, I painted it on the turret....not too big a deal. one of the range finder nodes was missing on one of the turrets...luckily there are a couple extras. going out on a limb, I used a testor's color that looked very close to the original color. but when I was finished touching them up, I saw that the difference could be seen, so I painted them all over completely. the Tomahawk missile launchers were already assembled, so I painted them. dry fitted is the deck plat form for the rest of the Tomahawk launchers and the Harpoon launchers. the step structure for the Vulcan/phalanx launchers is also seen here. I painted the screws...I was going to paint them Brass, but stuck with the instructions and painted them gold. the decking I'm pretty sure was painted in Teak........the instructions suggest deck tan. this is to get a sense of the direction that was being taken with the model, and the relationship of all the loose parts. as this progresses, I'm seeing a lot of the parts that are still missing, and locating them on the sprues. the funnels are partially assembled..........still more to go with them. this structure here will go on the forward section... also seen here are the 5 inch gun turrets.......these have also been assembled, but not painted. they have specific locations, so I need to figure out which goes where and label them for future reference. good that the guns haven't been added yet. I did a little clean up at the bow....the anchor chain is molded detail. I have quite a bit of chain, but might not be correct for the model. I am thinking of removing it though. then I wanted to see the built up model more of the forward structure dry fitted, as well as the aft funnel...I didn't go any further. I can see the direction he was taking, and to me, it looks really good when one can see through the shadows, it is realized even more. I've done a few touch ups...the rest can be done as accents. adding in what is missing will further enhance it. the bollards need to be painted.......add them to the list. curious about the two placement circles towards the bow and the stern tubs........wish there was something to add, but it wouldn't fit the model. more to come