Group Build: Historical Warships of WWII

Thanks for the heads up.....

What's got me worried is painting the canopy frame.
 
kevin said:
Just for general knowledge, Trumpeter's 1/200 Kingfishers in the IOWA kit are on clear sprues.
Click to expand...
The Trumpeter 1/350th kit was the same. Mine was an older (BB-35) but I think they do that as a regular practice.

The argument in favor is it makes the canopies look better. But there are many arguments against. Mine fit VERY poorly. Clear plastic is hard to cut/cast/glue/manage in general, at least IMO. The clear part ended up fogged anyway, gray or silver paint would look better.

I thought I'd do well making them, aircraft are my main subject of modeling. But they came out REALLY bad.

I could claim they did not fit right, I could claim the casting was jacked up, I could claim there were not enough stickers. All of those claims would be right. But in the end I am the one who painted 1943 fighter (3-color) paint on them, which is wrong.

I'll show the old ones I ruined next to one of the new ones when I finish one.
 
Edbert said:
The clear part ended up fogged anyway, gray or silver paint would look better.
Click to expand...
That's because of the glue, right? Would that be CA , or Testors tube glue......or both?
I haven't messed around with clear parts since my thing has been armour. Would Elmer's white glue work without fogging I wonder.
 
kevin said:
That's because of the glue, right? Would that be CA , or Testors tube glue......or both?
I haven't messed around with clear parts since my thing has been armour. Would Elmer's white glue work without fogging I wonder.
Click to expand...
I'll accept all the mistakes but...

Mine was 1/350th, so 1/200th might be different. The fit was not good enough for the top/bottom halves to fit and hold with benign adhesives. I tried white (PVA?) initially and a huge gap showed, so I went to the modern ultra-thin with the same result. So I escalated the affair and used CA. That held, but obviously fogged the "glass". To be honest the canopy bit looked okay that way, but the bad fit and wrong paint and incomplete decals killed the overall thing.
 
Well I'm glad @Edbert went into a bit more info about the clear plastic aircrafts...lol. I didn't want to come across as knocking the wind out of your sails. Clear plastic has always been an issue, hard to cast for tight fits and clean up if there is any flash. And forget about cutting wings to fold etc. I understand why Trumpeter went the cost effective route in clear instead of plastic birds with a small clear canopy.

I prefer the YZM Models for 3D printed aircraft where high detail is wanted. There are some in 1/200 on eBay if you're interested.

1/200 OS2U Kingfisher
 
Last edited:
I got a long way to go before I get to the aircraft on this build, I appreciate you guys schooling me on this.
I really like the one you posted a link to that has the open canopy and pilot figure. I was thinking of getting some figures to crew this ship, so those planes would fit in nicely.
I'll cross that bridge when I come to it......:)
 
Edbert said:
The argument in favor is it makes the canopies look better. But there are many arguments against. Mine fit VERY poorly. Clear plastic is hard to cut/cast/glue/manage in general, at least IMO. The clear part ended up fogged anyway, gray or silver paint would look better.
Click to expand...
^this

I am going through a nightmare of tying to glue a bunch of tail fins, fuel tanks, and landing gear on 1/700 Hornets and Super hornets from the Trumpeter 1/700 Nimitz. The effect of the clear canopy is nearly lost anyway at that scale, especially when nothing is inside
It doesn't glue as well as regular plastic and it is super hard to actually figure out the glue points/mating surfaces with clear parts that small

And masking the canopies at that scale is an undertaking in itself. I have resorted to masking liquid, but I have to still touch up the rough edges by hand anyway

on the flip side, the 1/350 Yorktown and 1/350 Nimitz I have are actually very nice because there are actually separate clear canopies for many of the aircraft (at least for the F-14s and all the WWII stuff) and the other parts regular plastic. The only ones that are all clear are typically ones like the helicopters since if would be much harder to have a separate clear pieces
 
Just poppin in here to show the juice was worth the squeeze.

1744759141304.png

If by squeeze you mean effort. I think the silver (plain old XF-16) looks better as a canopy. I'll admit that the one on the right is not finished, I gave up on that, and the color being inaccurate was the final straw or kicker.

If you include cost in the squeeze calculations, maybe not, YMMV!
 
Edbert said:
Just poppin in here to show the juice was worth the squeeze.

View attachment 144210

If by squeeze you mean effort. I think the silver (plain old XF-16) looks better as a canopy. I'll admit that the one on the right is not finished, I gave up on that, and the color being inaccurate was the final straw or kicker.

If you include cost in the squeeze calculations, maybe not, YMMV!
Click to expand...

That silver canopy does look quite good. I may have to try using silver on the 1/700 stuff I am working on

Also, great color for the Sea Blue on that new one
 
I never understood why the Trumpeter Kingfishers looked like they had flat fuselages and grossly out of scale wings. I have replaced them with aftermarket on every kit I built that had them. They are the same on this 1/700 Texas. I have some old resin one's I am using that look much better.
 
scottrc78 said:
how they turn out
Click to expand...
... nice!
Have been wondering about that as well... don't have a printer, but our public library has a bunch I could use for the cost of the material.
I'd have to figure out if the printer is good enough for 1:35 scale parts.
 


Write your reply...

Similar threads

TimM63
Airfix 1:72 RNLI Shannon Class Lifeboat Starter Set - GROUP BUILD
11 12 13
Replies
244
Views
8K
BarleyBop
BarleyBop
BOATMAN
Part scratch build of R/C HMS NORFOLK TYPE 23 FRIGATE F230 in 1/72 SCALE
5 6 7
Replies
124
Views
4K
BOATMAN
BOATMAN
Si B
Si-B’s ICM 1:350 WWII German Multi-Purpose Boat KFK Kriegsfischkutte
Replies
2
Views
292
Steve Jones SMS
Steve Jones SMS
kecurroj
Looking for someone to build Tamiya PBR diorama
Replies
5
Views
415
TimM63
TimM63
K
K7 bluebird 1/43 scale build
4 5 6
Replies
104
Views
5K
Down Time
Down Time

Latest posts

Back
Top