Jump to content

1/48 Vacuform F3d Skynight Pics


ghodges

Recommended Posts

This is the old White Eagle 1/48 vacuform kit. I picked it up for less than $5 a couple of years ago at the 10,000 kit sale in NC. Having built the Czech Master Skynight earlier this summer (commission job), I decided to tackle this for myself while I had all of the reference materials out.

 

Overall, this was NO more difficult than the injection kit; with the addition of the work all vacs need to prepare them for building. The intakes/exhausts had to be scratchbuilt, but then their fit was less work than the CM kit! The same held true for much of the project. Many things had to be built or pirated from the spares box, but I didn't really have to do much extra filling and sanding in compparison. The only other difference was that I decided to fold the wings and drop the flaps (for that more "candid look" :smiley2: ), but that only meant the addition of 2 bulkheads, 6 detail parts, and the support strut for each side. The support struts were made from plastic rod with pieces of plastic insulation from a length of wire cut and slipped onto them

 

I also decided to opt for the "early" F3D version in overall gloss Dark Sea Blue. I used a small bottle of Testors dark blue and added about 5 drops of gloss black, mixing both in a standard MM mixing jar. It was cut with lacquer thinner and airbrushed on until I got the blue-black I wanted. My interpretation of '48-53 Navy DSB is pretty wide; some being almost black while others have a sea-green/gray cast. This mixture allows you to add coats until you get the hue you like. By the way, I use a different mixture for the more grayish DSB. Also, there is some countershading on the model, but it's difficult to get it to show up in pics

 

The markings are from the CM kit. The interesting twist to that was that CM gives you 2 LEFT side squadron flashes! I didn't realize this until I started to apply the second one on the right and realized it would be upside down! The solution was simple enough: I cut a new one from solid bright yellow decal film. The CM decals worked well overall, especially the stencils. The borderless stars/bars came from the spares box. The wingtips and fin cap were painted MM bright yellow (over a coat of aluminum). The wingtip lights are clear red/green pieces of plastic sanded to shape and polished. The position lights on the top and bottom were made by Premier and are out of production to my knowledge.

 

And, the final product!

100_1329.jpg

100_1347.jpg

100_1343.jpg

100_1338.jpg

One final thought....man does GSB show EVERY little white speck of dust and "stuff" that gets into the finish! Maybe it's time to invest in a spray booth.....Cheers! Comment and critiques welcome!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The forum wouldn't let me put all of the pics I wanted in one post, so here's some in progress pics:

100_1163.jpg

100_1157.jpg

100_1160.jpg

The 3 pics above show how the intakes/exhausts were made and installed.

100_1199.jpg

100_1202.jpg

The 2 above show the basic wing assemblies and the wing-fold bulkhead structure.

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Continueing.....

100_1175.jpg

100_1165.jpg

100_1169.jpg

100_1294.jpg

100_1298.jpg

The first 3 pics show how the cockpit was made from sheet plastic, spare PE, and spare resin parts. The next one shows the assembled and painted cockpit. The last one shows the vac canopy masked and ready for installation. Note the open canopy hatch.

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And last of all....

100_1225.jpg

100_1311.jpg

100_1306.jpg

The 3 above show the various detail parts that were scratchbuilt. Sheet plastic, brass and plastic tubing and rod, as well as various pe parts and spare parts were cobbled together to "git 'er done".

100_1315.jpg

The sanding and priming (and sanding and priming, and...) stage. Note the piece of sponge used to plug the hatch opening.

100_1325.jpg

The final wing fold detail parts added towards the end of the assembly sequence. All that's left is to brush paint them DSB!

 

By the way, there seems to be about a 5 image limit to posts (for future reference). As stated above all comments/crtiques are welcome. Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...