FINISHED - F4B-4 and P-6E by LandlubberMike - Accurate Miniatures 1/72

[Landlubber Mike]

Well I've finally completed my first plastic models since I was a kid.  I bought the Accurate Miniatures double box as a reintroduction to the hobby.  I figured the kit was fairly inexpensive from eBay (Accurate Miniatures is no longer in business  - though they did rebox certain models including these two from Monogram I believe) and had aftermarket upgrade sets, so I figured why not take the plunge.  Along with the kit, I used the Starfighter resin cockpit, decals, and PE rigging set upgrades:

Well, starting with WWI-II interwar biplanes (and their assorted rigging) at 1/72 probably wasn't the easiest way to get back into plastic modeling, but I learned a ton.  These biplanes are fairly small at this scale!

 

Next two posts will show the completed models.  I was a bit hesitant to start a build log on here as I was worried the two would turn into a disaster, but I probably should have to at the very least provide you all with some comedic relief   My apologies in advance for the poor pictures, I don't have a good lighting set up and am using my iPhone.

 

[Landlubber Mike]

F4B-4

 

This one didn't come out too bad.  I primed with Mr Color, then used mostly Vallejo paints for the rest.  For the yellow wing, I used Tamiya camel yellow in a rattle can which aside from a Mr. Color paint, seemed to be the most spot on color for these planes.  Dummy me, I accidentally bought the PS line for polycarbonates (generally used in remote control models).  Had no idea that there was/would be such a difference.  I had to spray a number of coats to get an even coating, but then it worked out fine.  Completely different story for the P-6E as described below 🤯  I used Pledge floor polish for the gloss coats, Vallejo washes for the weathering and shading (light and dark grey for the body, yellow and brown washes for the yellow wing), and then Mr. Color Matt rattle can for the final coat.

 

The biggest issue I had was that the engine cowl from the kit was super warped.  I tried heating it to get it in decent shape but to no avail.  I ended up creating my own using strip styrene that I glued around the engine.  It's not exact in that the engine cowls were slightly conical in shape and the edges curved inward, but it's the best I could do and doesn't look too bad at this scale - which, by the way is a bit small for my liking.

 

Also, I'm not sure I loved the aftermarket rigging.  You had to bend the tabs, and the lengths seemed to be just slightly off.  Also, I had a big issue with the two pairs of rigging that intersect between the wings.  If you run the rigging at the attached points as directed (directions were minimal, I had to look at pictures online), the pairs of rigging not only intersect in the X pattern, but they actually run in between each other as well.  The PE set gave you pairs of rigging that were attached together at the top and bottom.  So, ultimately I just cut through one end of one of the pairs so I could weave it in between the other set.  Given that this is PE (stainless steel perhaps), all this bending and cutting resulted in lines that were less straight than I would have hoped for.  Was very frustrating!

 

[Landlubber Mike]

P-6E

 

So this one was a snake bit build if there ever was one.  The plastic did not want to take the Tamiya PS camel yellow at all.  I don't know how many coats I ended up using, but I lost a touch of the wing details from all the layers.  Then I noticed a funny thing - it does not like acrylic paint either.  When i tried to touch up the wings from some errant paint from the bi-wing supports, it dissolved the paint and made what looked like a smudge.  Ultimately, I got passed that, but that required adding even more layers of the paint.

 

Eventually I got it assembled and painted.  Added the Future gloss coat, and was ready to use washes and add a little weathering.  I had used the Vallejo wash on the F4B-4 with no problem.  I could leave it on for a good 5-10 minutes, then come back and wipe it off.  Well for whatever reason, on this model, the wash dried almost immediately on the yellow wings!  Looked absolutely terrible.  I almost resigned myself to having to go with a very dirty plane, but remembered how the Tamiya PS paint reacted with acrylic and brushed it on.  It pretty much stripped all the weathering off, hooray!  Wasn't perfect, but worlds better than where I was earlier.

 

By this time, I had rigged the F4B-4, so I knew what I was getting myself into here.  The rigging went on pretty smoothly, and last night, I completed it.  Only had to apply the final matt coat which I was going to do today.  Well, brilliant me, I had the model sitting on a piece of cardboard.  When I lifted the cardboard to put the model away, it slid off the cardboard and onto the kitchen island where I was working.  Mind you it only fell about a foot, but the upper wing popped off, two pieces of rigging completely detached and were lost, and the rear landing gear broke off.  My brain saw all this happening in super slow motion, and I didn't know if I should scream, cry, put my fist through a wall, or what (I just stayed quiet thankfully because everyone was sleeping).  I found the missing rigging pieces, but the landing gear was a good 30 minute search.  Finally found it about 10' away in a corner of the kitchen.  I couldn't go to bed as I was all amped up, so I just glued it all back together.  Only took about an hour - thankfully, most of the rigging was still attached on at least one end, so i just had to glue the other side.  What a pain though!  

 

Well, here is the final product.  All things considered, it's not too bad.  I'm not as happy with the white areas, as the Vallejo white I was using didn't go on very smooth (typical of white paint from what I remember decades ago from painting miniatures).  A learning experience for sure, and a cool marking scheme with the Snow Owl.

 

[Old Collingwood]

Pics arn't showing Mike.

 

OC.

[mtaylor]

Mike, I think it's the format of the pictures.  I saw one "link" for an HEIC, file (I think that's what it was).   Try JPG or PNG.

[Landlubber Mike]

Yeah sorry guys - my iPhone changed default picture setting to HEIC.  I'll upload new ones in a bit.

[Landlubber Mike]

Since I'm a glutton for punishment, I think I'm going to build two more yellow wings next - the Accurate Miniatures F3F-1 and F3F-2.  I have the Eduard PE and Yellow Wings decals.  These are 1/48 scale, so hopefully should be a little easier to handle.  This time I have the correct Tamiya paint 👍

[Canute]

Really like those Interwar biplanes, Mike. Trials and tribulations working in 1/72 scale bi-wingers, especially for those of us needing visual assistance and some loss of manual dexterity. Well done.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thank you!  And yes, lots of tweezer work and wearing the Optivisor for sure. 
 

I’ll be interested to see how the 1/48 scale goes.  I don’t know that I’ll be going back to 1/72 any time soon, but Eduard, Roden, etc. have lots of cool subjects in 1/72, so who knows.  In the meantime, I’ve picked up a bunch of 1/48 WWII kits, as well as added a few of the 1/32 Zoukei Mura kits to the stash.  I’ve found some really good deals on eBay where you can get a kit and lots of its aftermarket for good prices.

[CDW]

Very impressive work Mike! The fact that you built them in 1:72 scale makes it all the more admirable. That's a tough scale to work in, everything so small.

Can't wait to see your 1:48 scale work. Indeed, yellow is a tough color to do. 

[ccoyle]

I have the P-6E in the same squadron markings in 1/33 scale card format. Kinda low on my build priority list, though, despite the cool color scheme.

[Edwardkenway]

Good looking aircraft Mike,  I'll look forward to those Grumman bi-planes.

I think 1:72 scale may be a bit small for my eyes even with my glasses 🤓

[Landlubber Mike]

24 minutes ago, CDW said:

Very impressive work Mike! The fact that you built them in 1:72 scale makes it all the more admirable. That's a tough scale to work in, everything so small.

Can't wait to see your 1:48 scale work. Indeed, yellow is a tough color to do. 

Thank you for the kind words.  You're right about things being so tiny.  While there are fewer details, you have to be very careful with glue as any imperfections show up in a bad way.  It's funny, the Starfighter cockpit resin set came with two right panels.  Freaked me out, and I spent a ton of time trying to figure out what to do.  Ultimately chopped it up and reassembled it so that it looked like the left panel.  After gluing the cockpit in the body, everything pretty much disappeared anyway so all that time I spent was for naught.  Not sure if the cockpit resin set is worth it.  The kits though come with no seats, and you just glue the included pilot via a pin into the sidewall.  Aside from the seat and stick, you really can't see any of the other elements of the resin package.  If you are showing it without a pilot, you'll probably want the resin to at least add the seat.

 

I should have mentioned that the kits fit together fairly nicely.  I believe they both are reboxings of older Monogram kits.  The one annoyance I had was that the pins on the supports between the wings weren't angled, but were generally straight with the piece.  Since the supports fit on an angled basis, you would think that they would have molded the pins on the ends to be angled as well.  It didn't necessarily affect the construction, but the joinery doesn't look as clean as it could have been had the parts been molded the correct way.

 

Thanks for the earlier tips on the yellow - pre-painting with a white/flat yellow coat, and then adding the final yellow color.  I'll be trying that this go around.

17 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

I have the P-6E in the same squadron markings in 1/33 scale card format. Kinda low on my build priority list, though, despite the cool color scheme.

That would be a really cool looking model at that scale.  One thing that I wasn't sure about was how to do the paint scheme in the front.  The decals gave some of the black for the owl feet, but not the nose (all they gave were the white "eyes" that had a touch of black next to them.  I wasn't sure what to do to make the painted colors match the decals.  What I ended up doing was adding the white "eye" decals, then painting over them with white paint so that they matched the white "feet" at the bottom.  There are probably better ways of doing it, but that's what I ended up doing.  Post a build log when you start it!

13 minutes ago, Edwardkenway said:

Good looking aircraft Mike,  I'll look forward to those Grumman bi-planes.

I think 1:72 scale may be a bit small for my eyes even with my glasses 🤓

Thank you!  Optivisor is a big must!  There are lots of colorful subjects during this era.  Less so when you get to WWII.

[jwvolz]

Nice work Mike!  You certainly were a glutton for punishment with both the subject and scale for your first efforts!

 

If you want a great yellow wings subject, try to track down on eBay an AM SBD-1 Dauntless. One of their nicest kits and it looks great in that paint scheme. 

 

My finished one is somewhere in my attic. I'll try to find it and get a picture.  

[Landlubber Mike]

11 minutes ago, jwvolz said:

Nice work Mike!  You certainly were a glutton for punishment with both the subject and scale for your first efforts!

 

If you want a great yellow wings subject, try to track down on eBay an AM SBD-1 Dauntless. One of their nicest kits and it looks great in that paint scheme. 

 

My finished one is somewhere in my attic. I'll try to find it and get a picture.  

Thanks Joe!  I'll have to look for that one.  

 

I got on a WWII kick recently.  I read Ian Toll's two books on the Pacific theater in WWII (I think a third is expected in the near future), and have watched a few documentaries on Netflix.  I think the general perception is that America has always had a mighty military, but we were being in terms of technology and tactics in the early parts of the war.  Amazing thing was how quickly we advanced during the way to achieve technological parity with the Japanese, and even superiority in some areas.

[Egilman]

If you like Ian Toll, you will love John Toland...... Look him up..

[popeye the sailor]

I recall building the F4B4 as a monogram kit in my school days.......I built a number of those small scale planes.   they are delicate,  aren't they ?!?!?!     you did some very nice work ......please don't be shy next time.  we all make our little bloopers.....best is just to laugh and move on     it's all we can do really.........any more and it would make one throw in the towel.  not too sure you want to go Roden........they are a nice kit,  but as I'm finding out,  I'm having to fit everything.  it might have been different if I didn't get a defective kit.  read my log on the Dr 1.

 

hope to see more of your fine work  

[Landlubber Mike]

46 minutes ago, Egilman said:

If you like Ian Toll, you will love John Toland...... Look him up..

Awesome, thank you for the suggestion!  Actually just looked him up - I read his The Rising Sun.  Very good book that provided a lot of insight into how various aspects of Japanese society and government contributed to their imperial war posture.

37 minutes ago, popeye the sailor said:

I recall building the F4B4 as a monogram kit in my school days.......I built a number of those small scale planes.   they are delicate,  aren't they ?!?!?!     you did some very nice work ......please don't be shy next time.  we all make our little bloopers.....best is just to laugh and move on     it's all we can do really.........any more and it would make one throw in the towel.  not too sure you want to go Roden........they are a nice kit,  but as I'm finding out,  I'm having to fit everything.  it might have been different if I didn't get a defective kit.  read my log on the Dr 1.

 

hope to see more of your fine work  

Thanks for the very kind words.  I'll get some logs up.  If you think planes at 1/72 scale are tiny, you should try ships at 1/700 scale.  The PE is practically hair thin!  I think I've posted this before, but here is a picture of a funnel - kit funnel on right, PE-modified one on left.  I swear I'm going to go blind finishing this one.  Maybe I'll add a build log for it.

 

Thanks for the scoop on Roden - I've been watching your Dr.1 log, very nice work!  Have you tried ICM kits?  I've heard good things and they seem to have lots of interesting subjects.  If you like WWI kits, I've been picking up Wingnut kits where I can, as they are out of business unfortunately.  Love the subjects they offered, and by all accounts I've read, the fit and details on the kits are impeccable.  I'd rather spend more money on a kit than buy a cheaper one and have to wrestle with fit issues.  

[Old Collingwood]

Well worth waiting for the pics  to come through  - loverly work Mike  and as others have said  - so impressive at 1/72.

 

OC.

[Landlubber Mike]

Thanks for the kind words OC. I was able to learn a lot from the build logs from you and others on here, so thank you!  I still have a ways to go to get better.  My problem is that I'm mostly a lap modeler, which gets hard when you are dealing with such small models.  One thing I need to learn to do is to be a lot more careful when handling or otherwise near my models - I can't tell you how many times I've broken off, bent, or otherwise had to rework a part.  I probably busted the rigging on my Badger build no less than two dozen times with errant elbows, etc.

[Old Collingwood]

24 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

Thanks for the kind words OC. I was able to learn a lot from the build logs from you and others on here, so thank you!  I still have a ways to go to get better.  My problem is that I'm mostly a lap modeler, which gets hard when you are dealing with such small models.  One thing I need to learn to do is to be a lot more careful when handling or otherwise near my models - I can't tell you how many times I've broken off, bent, or otherwise had to rework a part.  I probably busted the rigging on my Badger build no less than two dozen times with errant elbows, etc.

Part of the modeling world I think we have all gone down  - "Sods Law"  loves to play us a visit"

 

OC.

[jwvolz]

Here's your inspiration to build the Dauntless as promised Mike. 

 

I just looked, there are nine listings for the kit on eBay, many with pretty good prices. Go for it!

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow looks fantastic!  Will have to add that one to the stash 👍

 

[lmagna]

I like your idea to build up a collection of "yellow Wings" Mike. They will make a very impressive collection and be somewhat unique at the same time. If you are able to pick different squadrons they also each have their distinctive look with the red, green, blue, or whatever other color was needed so they don't all look the same.

 

One you may give a look at is the Eduards "The boat" JRS-1. Even though it is 1/72 it is a fairly nice kit and can be modeled in a number of configurations. I have the kit and it looks like a pretty clean model even though reviews say that it does have issues with the canopy fit. There is also a fair amount of inline research/sources to work from including some video of the restoration, (Still in progress) of Howard Hughes's JRS-1. 

 

The planes you have built so far have turned out great in my opinion, and I have already commented on how fantastic your 1/700 Destroyer is. Are you certain you don't want a 1/700 Fletcher to go with it?😈   

[Landlubber Mike]

Lou, a collection of yellow wings would be fun.  Not sure how many I'll build after these two (and possibly the Dauntless), but something to keep in mind.  On the F3F kits I'm about to start, I bought some aftermarket decals for the chevrons, etc.  The tricky thing with adding stripe and other decals is what do you do with other areas that have to be painted the same color but there are no decals for the section?  Sometimes painting all sections and not using decals might work, but for some of the colored stripes, there might be a very thin black and/or white border which is impossible to replicate by paint.  All things to plan in advance

 

I'm going to have to keep an eye out for the JRS-1 - what a cool looking plane!  The kit is discontinued unfortunately, and the one on eBay is going for $130 😳  Will have to be patient to find one at the right price.

 

So the Fletcher class destroyers look fantastic - some fun PE kits are available:

I have about 10 more ships in this scale in the stash. Not all ships in this scale have upgrade sets unfortunately, so I selectively picked the ones for my stash that had full PE upgrade sets (and decks where available).  Half of those are auxiliary class ships which are on the simpler end of things. The goal is to get enough experience so that I can start on the 3-deck Akagi IJN aircraft carrier from Hasegawa and the ISE carrier battleship from Fujimi (see below).  Depending on how these models turn out, I'll likely put them into some kind of diorama setting since they typically are waterline models at this scale.  

 

 

 

[Egilman]

51 minutes ago, Landlubber Mike said:

The goal is to get enough experience so that I can start on the 3-deck Akagi IJN aircraft carrier from Hasegawa and the ISE carrier battleship from Fujimi

I salute you sir! you are one brave soul.... I can't even see that stuff anymore.....

I looks with trepidation at my TF 18 kits and the PE they are going to entail (1/350th scale) at twice your size...

 

[lmagna]

The JRS-1 is still available on Amazon for $130. https://www.amazon.com/Ltd-Boat-Jrs-1-Model-Kit/dp/B01M2ZU5EZ . But that would only save you the shipping cost from eBay. It is also available from Austria for about $90 with shipping to the US if you are willing to wait for the shipping time. I just sent a package to Europe and it took 17 days to be delivered. The PO says it was delivered today and I shipped it on the 13th. If you don't get it for some reason at least eBay, (and PayPal) protects your money. https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-72-Eduard-The-Boat-JRS-1-Limited-edition/162788229416?hash=item25e6ef4128:g:s48AAOSwYDZaVPaB

 

No need to thank me. I'm ALWAYS willing to find ways to spend someone else's money!

[Landlubber Mike]

Well thank you Lou - my wife appreciates it   I have to be careful as I'm running out of stash room.  Need to get going on working the stash down 🥴

 

Not sure I can see it that well either Egilman - lots of close up work with the Optivisor.  I found I need to take breaks on working on it so I don't get cross eyed or have a neck ache.