Hi folks,

Some of those tiger liveries are great- Tiger Meet liveries on aircraft pop up a fair bit on Aeroscale- yous may get a few good tips and ideas over there.

@ Shaun- thanks for the heads up on the alighments for the landing gear covers- I'll be very careful, though it will be a while yet before I'm at that stage!

@ Sal: Can't wait to see the Sabre- I recently got one or two Academy kits but I haven't built them yet- let me know what they're like.

Enjoy the builds!

Eoin

Well, look at that! I’m in bed for two days with the flu and I miss out on all the fun!

Hyun-Jae nice choice. I’ve built that set before. With a little work it can be turned into a real gem. Too bad DML discontinued their Korean War Series…

Wayne nice add-on. Quite common in Korea, and lots of ammo was necessary considering the communist tactics…

Quinn your choice looks familiar… We will certainly have enough M46 builds to learn from echother!

Mark I wouldn’t dare doing it with CA, mine always goes milky when it dries. But might depend on the manufacturer.

Sal looking forward to your experiences with wingy things. Haven’t built one in years myself…

I am proud to announce that we now have 68 signed up starters! Here’s the updated chart:




Cheers!
Stefan

Stefan, thanks for the heads up on the CA. Mine usually dries clear and too hard to sand so I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for updating the list too. Kinda fun to see what's going on. Eleven wing wipers! Not bad for a campaign that started on the armor side...

Before shots of the Tamiya Willys MB Jeep to go along with the DML G.I. Pusan Perimeter 1950 figures





First progress shots to follow soon

Stefan,

Seeing as everyone else is cracking on I thought I'd post a cheeky "before" shot of my M36! The Italeri Calliope underneath will be donating a lower hull & running gear for the gas-powered M36 since I cannot find any real proof that diesel M36B2s were actually fielded. Besides, I already stole the diesel hull from the Academy kit for another build...



Next time I might even get round to opening the boxes!

By the way, that mess in the background is exactly why I can't build at the workbench at the moment. I daren't post it to that "Your workbench right now" thread out of shear shame...

Tom

(I might even get to start it in the next few weeks!)

I shan't comment on the dismal state of my bench, with four Group Builds/Campaigns going at one time..............

Here's my M26 in all her glory. Early Korean War Marine Pershing.











A few details to be added, and I'm calling this one finished.

G

Fantastic Wayne. Congrats on finishing

Thank you Greg.

Now for the "Glamour Shots".











G

Ok boys and girls, I'm a dumb @$$!

I cannot remember how to resize the photo so I can post it in the proper campaign gallery.

Help, please..........

G

This is what I have chosen for the group build


Thanks
Tom

Ok guys,
Started my 1st Academy kit. Plastic is softer than Tamiya's and the spruce connections are thicker, but from what little I have done it seems like a great kit. Here is my little progress


By the way nice job G-man

tiny progress:

Got all the windows opened up, backed up the side windows with some strip styrene and painted the opening black. I've started filling with CA. Filliing is generally OK so far, my original applicator (a .7mm pencil lead) was removing the paint, so I've gone to single drops from the tube to fill the windows.

Another participant reporting in!

First of all, a huge thank you to MEBM for making this entry possible by donating the kit I'm building. I'll do my best to give it a good new home.

So, the kit in question: Tamiya's 1:72 scale Mustang F-51.

To follow the campaign rules, here's the kit still unstarted. Photos taken last Friday.



Seems like a typical Tamiya kit: great mouldings, good detail all-round, superb fit. Not too many parts in this one: I ended up with the great majority of parts off the sprues after the first building session.

I'm planning to build this one mostly straight from the box, with just a few additions. Starting with the cockpit, I added a simple seat harness from left-over PE straps.

While I was at it, I drilled out the machine gun blast tubes and exhausts.


Now painting the interior. More to come soon.

3 warbirds on one page.. sweet! You guys just may convince me to build my 1/72 Sabre yet

Yo G, are you asking about resizing it on your computer, or after you've uploaded it?

@ Sal: nice looking plastic there.

@ Mark: what adhesive did you use?

@ Eetu: the exhaust looks great for kit parts and the belts are nice.

Bob

Hey Bob. I just used Tamiya extra thin cement for the clear panel and Strip styrene. I'm filling the windows with CA. Drop by drop...

I'm glad this campaign has taken off so well, congrats everyone! into our second month now. The history installment should be up by this evening I hope...

Tom, that looks familiar... Have the same kit in the stash.

Wayne great show on the Pershing. Looks mean! Good to see a clean vehicle once in a while. And congrats on being the second finisher for this campaign! As for the pics, you can resize them in any photo program and just add them to the gallery as per the instructions in this thread.

Tom, a Chosin dio I presume? Those are nice figures, require a bit of work but still, nice figs. Built them for a Korean War Dio two years ago.

Sal, nice start. Even though it's logical, I never realized the pilot is sitting right on top of the engine... Must be a nice thought...

Mark, looks like the CA is still clear, good luck!

Eetu welcome to the campaign. Good to see an F-51. And the first time I see a Tamiya 1/72 scale kit being built, so I'm looking foward to your progress.

Cheers!
Stefan

It looks great so far! I can't wait to see it finished!

One month into this campaign and we have already added 5 pages to the thread. I like it! Thanks for your participation guys! Thisway it is sure to be a great campaign!

So, it's time for another history lesson. February saw the turning of the tide once again, but this time in a more permanent way:

1 February 1951 - In the Battle of Twin Tunnels the 23rd Infantry Regiment of the US 2nd Infantry Division with the attached French battalion inflicts severe losses on Chinese troops.

1 February 1951 - Operation Thunderbolt continues south of Seoul.

5 February 1951 - US X Corps (now part of 8th Army) and ROK III Corps launch Operation Roundup, a continuation of Thunderbolt on the center front, which together with Thunderbolt leads to the recapture of Wonju and UN troops advancing well north.

11 February 1951 - The Chinese launch their Fourth Phase Offensive. In the Battle of Hoengseong the ROK 8th Division is destroyed. The attack forced other units to withdraw and left the US 23rd Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division with the attached French battalion and other supporting units exposed at Chipyong-ni behind enemy lines.

13 - 15 February 1951 - In the Battle of Chipyong-ni, the 23rd Infantry Regiment (some 4'500 men) once again mounts a stout defense against overwhelming Chinese forces (some 25'000 men). The Chinese offensive's momentum is broken. The battle is often considered the "Gettysburg of the Korean War".

20 February 1951 - Operation Killer is launched. It is aimed at eventually bringing 8th Army back to the Han River and across the 38th parallel but even more so at inflicting as many casualties to Chinese forces as possible. It continues into March and is followed by Operation Ripper. Though it is hampered more by terrain and weather than by the retreating Communist forces, it is considered a success both in terms of terrain gained and casualties inflicted on the enemy.

Ok I figured it out! Pic posted!

At my age using a computer is like watching monkeys use tools for the first time.

G

Time for another update:

Out of the box, the drop tanks attach to the wing racks by two small nodes. That seemed quite flimsy, so I cut away the locators from the tank, drilled some holes and glued in brass wire for some extra sturdiness.


Working with the cockpit components and following the instructions, I painted the floor to represent wood.

Naturally, I went looking for outside references after finishing the floor. Turns out floor, along with the rest of the cockpit interior, were painted black in most Mustangs used in the Korean war.

Following the opinions expressed on several internet forum discussions I came across, I airbrushed black for the pilot's working space and interior green for the rest of the interior. The oil cooler outlet area is still to receive a coat of aluminium at this point.


Wanting to show at least some of the wood imitation on the cockpit floor, I sprayed the black on the floor unevenly and chipped away some paint from the high-traffic areas.


In the next update, I should have the interior components painted and for fuselage assembly.

Update time again. While the kit goes together very well, I've run into some difficulties with primer.

Here's the cockpit interior painted up and ready for fuselage assembly. Note the light chipping painted with interior green to represent the original interior colour under the new black finish.



Not much to say about the fit, as it's great. Not flawless, but quite close. The only places that needed filling and sanding were the left wingroot near the leading edge of the wing and the underside fuselage-wing seam where there was slight gaps. The fit of the stabilizer locating tabs was a bit loose out of the box, so I used a piece of 0,2mm styrene sheet to make it snugger.


The cowling panel line on the nose wasn't depicted in the kit, so I scaped the edges of the fuselage halves prior to assembly to make the recessed line and pressed on the rivet detail with a needle after assembly.

There I was ready for primer. Turned out to be that inevitable little disaster for this model (just hoping it's the first AND the last...).
Starting with the spinner, I had already tried out airbrushing several metallics over a grey spray primer, but I felt it could look better. So I stripped off the paint from the parts once more and tried a gloss black spray paint. My test spraying on a piece of gloss cardboard went on smoothly, but on the actual kit parts, the finish developed some inexplainable roughness, like fingerprints.
Obviously not wanting to risk ruining the rest of the kit with that, I grabbed a can of grey primer, with the idea of applying a light coat, then airbrushing black acrylic to make the actual primer surface for the metallic coating. I of course just had to grab that one can of sorry excuse for a primer I should have thrown away a long time ago...

^ The seat assembly snapped off while handling the model. I'll glue it back in later.

This is just bizarre stuff. Despite being sprayed relatively close to the surface, it seems to dry on the way, making a rough finish. And despite not covering well with a few light coats, it nevertheless finds a way to fill in recessed details. Needless to say, I wasn't amused, having to rescribe some panel lines and open up recessed rivets.

I sure wish HLJ would still ship those Mr. Surfacer spray cans overseas...
Fortunately, this stuff I used seems to sand and buff pretty well so I think I can airbrush the black over it.

Note to self: get rid of that can of junk already...
Now off to sand and buff those spinner parts some more for a decent finish. And getting rid of that rubbish primer!

I recently finished a book called "Marine Corps Tank Battles in Korea". In it the author mentioned the practice of turning Pershing fenders upside down so that the lip on the bottom was facing up. They would load the fenders with 30 Cal ammo cans so their supporting infantry could grab a resupply right offf the outside of the tank.

Eetu, nice progress on the F-51. Sorry about the primer. Looking forward to more progress!

Guy, makes sense to have ammo for the supporting infantry, especially with the Communist tactics of mass attack. Never thought of that, always thought it was for the tank.

Cheers!
Stefan