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Kinetic 1/48 E2C Hawkeye Build Series, Part 6


ipmsusa2

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Hi all,

It's been a while, but here's the sixth installment on the E-2C.

 

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Here I needed a little more seam work than just a light touchup.  So, as I frequently do in order to protect adjacent detail, I laid down a couple of strips of blue masking tape before sanding the seam.

 

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With the seam taken care of and the tape removed, I still needed to finish the seam with 600 grit or so sandpaper.  Going that fine wouldn't have any deleterious effect on the surrounding detail.

 

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Taking a break from the fuselage, the  side windows and overhead hatches were tinted a translucent gold color by mixing a combination of Tamiya X-22 Clear, X-26 Clear Orange and X-24 Clear Yellow acrylic, along with the tiniest dot of X-19 Smoke acrylic.  This was strictly an eyeball mix.  When I had something that looked right, the windows and hatches interiors were airbrushed while they were still on the sprue.  

 

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Next up is attaching the outer wings.  Believe it or not, they slip right into place with minimal adjustments.

 

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Here you can see how the finished installation looks.  And yes,  the fold joint forms a perfectly smooth connection as it should.

 

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I ran into something when installing the horizontal tail that I didn't expect.  When you're holding the part in place before applying solvent, the locator pins fit as they should and you can hold the horizontal in the correct position.  But, as soon as solvent is applied, the little beast wants to cock to one side.  I wound up having to use a rubber band to hold it in place and even then I wound up checking, rechecking and making minute adjustments until the solvent set so that the entire tailplane would be correctly level after final assembly.  I have no clue as to why it behaved that way.  All I can say is watch it!

 

 

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Good tips! Is this difference in the colors of the assembly (outer wings look much lighter) due to some primer you've applied, or are some parts molded in different colors?

 

GIL :cool:

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Gil,

No paint or primer.  Kinetic used two different shades of gray for their moldings.  Nothing in the E-2 build so far has been painted or primed except for the cockpit interior and the gold tone on the canopy side windows and overhead hatches.

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The specific aircraft being modeled belongs to VAW-125.  The squadron was originally assigned to the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt  and the model was intended to represent a TR plane.  However, the unit has now been reassigned to the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan,  which changes the tail markings (and a few others).  Who knows, by the time this model is finished, the squadron's assignment may have changed again.  Will keep you posted.

BTW, the fact that you have three kits that are all molded in a single shade of grey will make for an interesting trivia bit in my ebook.  Mind if I use your name in relation to the comment?

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No problem at all. I have two moldings of the early version (with the 4 bladed props) and one later with the "blender" props. If I can help with markings, let me know as I have most of the Bingo Decals sheets for these and I am only doing ones that were stationed on the USS Carl Vinson

 

Dave

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