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Hi, Ken!

The box art depicts Lt. Frank Klibbe's "Little Chief", of the 61st FS, 56 FG, and I'd like to do that one, but unfortunately, as a second-hand kit, it was missing the decals. However, we just had our monthly meeting Friday night, and a buddy of mine at the club got a MicroScale sheet, "P-47 Thunderbolt Aces", which includes the nose art and squadron codes. I told him I was tracking that down, and he said we could share the sheet. So, I have the nose art and codes. National insignia are easy enough to come by.

The P-39 is going relatively well. The biggest thing I've learned so far is to think more about assembly, to minimize seam cleanup. Our teacher uses a technique of gluing pieces a little section at a time, with liquid cement, and extruding a little line of plastic on the seam. That can be scraped away, and it helps fill the gaps, making filling and puttying much less of a problem. For him, it works, his model is so clean, it looks like it was assembled, panel by panel. I've had to spend more effort doing it the old fashioned way, but I've developed using putty and a solvent (Squadron white and acetone), which lets me put putty where I need it, and then wipe away the excess, minimizing sanding.

The Eduard P-39 kit, by the way, is a nice kit, but not without fit issues. We've all got one or more problems with it. One is that one fuselage half is not quite the same length as the other. Also, there is a nasty seam on the underside, where the lower wing fillets meet the bottom of the fuselage-not just two pieces butting against one another, but a step in 2 levels. I was able to fill it and eliminate it, though. And I found on my kit that the two fuselage halves are racked a little bit. That is, behind the cockpit, the starboard half sits proud of the port side, so the seam has to be filled towards the port side. But in front of the cockpit, it's reversed-port is a hair higher than starboard. The best way to deal with the poor fit was to start at the cockpit and true everything up there, and then work towards the nose and the rudder, and even out the differences there.

But apart from that, it has very nice detail, in the cockpit, in the wheel wells, the panels-there is a very nice pilot figure, too.

The Jug has a coat of OD on it, and I'm getting ready to put a quick pic up, here and over at Agape.

YbiC
Brad

<blockquote data-quote="the Baron" data-source="post: 3003" data-attributes="member: 75">Hi, Ken!The box art depicts Lt. Frank Klibbe&#039;s &quot;Little Chief&quot;, of the 61st FS, 56 FG, and I&#039;d like to do that one, but unfortunately, as a second-hand kit, it was missing the decals.&nbsp; However, we just had our monthly meeting Friday night, and a buddy of mine at the club got a MicroScale sheet, &quot;P-47 Thunderbolt Aces&quot;, which includes the nose art and squadron codes.&nbsp; I told him I was tracking that down, and he said we could share the sheet.&nbsp; So, I have the nose art and codes.&nbsp; National insignia are easy enough to come by.The P-39 is going relatively well.&nbsp; The biggest thing I&#039;ve learned so far is to think more about assembly, to minimize seam cleanup.&nbsp; Our teacher uses a technique of gluing pieces a little section at a time, with liquid cement, and extruding a little line of plastic on the seam.&nbsp; That can be scraped away, and it helps fill the gaps, making filling and puttying much less of a problem.&nbsp; For him, it works, his model is so clean, it looks like it was assembled, panel by panel.&nbsp; I&#039;ve had to spend more effort doing it the old fashioned way, but I&#039;ve developed using putty and a solvent (Squadron white and acetone), which lets me put putty where I need it, and then wipe away the excess, minimizing sanding.The Eduard P-39 kit, by the way, is a nice kit, but not without fit issues.&nbsp; We&#039;ve all got one or more problems with it.&nbsp; One is that one fuselage half is not quite the same length as the other.&nbsp; Also, there is a nasty seam on the underside, where the lower wing fillets meet the bottom of the fuselage-not just two pieces butting against one another, but a step in 2 levels.&nbsp; I was able to fill it and eliminate it, though.&nbsp; And I found on my kit that the two fuselage halves are racked a little bit.&nbsp; That is, behind the cockpit, the starboard half sits proud of the port side, so the seam has to be filled towards the port side.&nbsp; But in front of the cockpit, it&#039;s reversed-port is a hair higher than starboard.&nbsp; The best way to deal with the poor fit was to start at the cockpit and true everything up there, and then work towards the nose and the rudder, and even out the differences there.But apart from that, it has very nice detail, in the cockpit, in the wheel wells, the panels-there is a very nice pilot figure, too.The Jug has a coat of OD on it, and I&#039;m getting ready to put a quick pic up, here and over at Agape.YbiCBrad</blockquote>

[QUOTE="the Baron, post: 3003, member: 75"] Hi, Ken! The box art depicts Lt. Frank Klibbe's "Little Chief", of the 61st FS, 56 FG, and I'd like to do that one, but unfortunately, as a second-hand kit, it was missing the decals. However, we just had our monthly meeting Friday night, and a buddy of mine at the club got a MicroScale sheet, "P-47 Thunderbolt Aces", which includes the nose art and squadron codes. I told him I was tracking that down, and he said we could share the sheet. So, I have the nose art and codes. National insignia are easy enough to come by. The P-39 is going relatively well. The biggest thing I've learned so far is to think more about assembly, to minimize seam cleanup. Our teacher uses a technique of gluing pieces a little section at a time, with liquid cement, and extruding a little line of plastic on the seam. That can be scraped away, and it helps fill the gaps, making filling and puttying much less of a problem. For him, it works, his model is so clean, it looks like it was assembled, panel by panel. I've had to spend more effort doing it the old fashioned way, but I've developed using putty and a solvent (Squadron white and acetone), which lets me put putty where I need it, and then wipe away the excess, minimizing sanding. The Eduard P-39 kit, by the way, is a nice kit, but not without fit issues. We've all got one or more problems with it. One is that one fuselage half is not quite the same length as the other. Also, there is a nasty seam on the underside, where the lower wing fillets meet the bottom of the fuselage-not just two pieces butting against one another, but a step in 2 levels. I was able to fill it and eliminate it, though. And I found on my kit that the two fuselage halves are racked a little bit. That is, behind the cockpit, the starboard half sits proud of the port side, so the seam has to be filled towards the port side. But in front of the cockpit, it's reversed-port is a hair higher than starboard. The best way to deal with the poor fit was to start at the cockpit and true everything up there, and then work towards the nose and the rudder, and even out the differences there. But apart from that, it has very nice detail, in the cockpit, in the wheel wells, the panels-there is a very nice pilot figure, too. The Jug has a coat of OD on it, and I'm getting ready to put a quick pic up, here and over at Agape. YbiC Brad [/QUOTE]

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