Greetings Everyone,

I am Brian Fendley (bf443) I wanted to take a moment to explain what is happening with “Air over the Sea” The previous group leader Mike Roderick (MAR) has gone M.I.A. nobody has heard from him and according to his profile he has not visited Armorama since February 14th lets hope nothing bad has happened to him. I visited with the forum moderator Jim Lewis (Gun truck) about this. After seeing the time come down to the wire with no success in contacting MAR and the resulting frustration I offered to assist as a replacement group leader. Gun truck accepted my offer.
We will continue with the rules as set by MAR with the exception of the build being extended to August 15th, 2005. I needed to do this because nothing has been done with the build since it started so I can do needed administrative things and create an award. The added bonus is it allows anyone who has not finished a chance to do so and encourages anyone new to still have time to join or for those done to start another model. “I may even start another aircraft myself.”
I will be consulting with Gun truck about reactivating or starting a new topic thread for us if that is possible. In the meantime I will start a new thread in the Campaign Forums called “Official Air over the Sea Thread” Lets direct all discussion and pictures to this thread please. I am in the process of trying to find all the posts about the build scattered on the various forums to make sure I have contacted everyone.
This is the first group build I have participated in so being leader while new is not unmanageable. I have very high expectations of myself. I will not let any of you down. I will keep in contact and advise all of you as things evolve.
For those who have finished their models lets be a source of inspiration for those still working or just starting. I look forward to having fun with this build and if you have any questions or concerns please private message me. I will get back with you.

Sincerely,

Brian Fendley
(bf443)


P.S. disreguard the AGE 2 build topic, not sure how I selected that. Sorry...........................

Hi Brian....thanks for your offer and i admire your courage to take the burden!
Good luck !









ps: maybe you can ask guntruck to move this thread to CCC mainpage or to create another subforum......

To start things off here is my completed entry. Monogram 1/48th F6F-5 Hellcat. I built it out of the box and used Humbrol Sea Dk. Blue and Aeromaster decals to represent an aircraft from late 45 raids on the japanese mainland. The weathering was kept to a minimum. It was a relaxing fun build, the last Hellcat I built was back in 76 its been a nice return in time.

Hi everyone,

Here is some of the work by members of the group build. There is some great talent on display. I encourage everyone to visit the builders galleries for more terrific models.

Betheyn:



Davecox:





007:





Mother:



Polar Bear:

Heres my entry:

Thank you Brian.
So, here is my entry: A Zero Fighter Type 11.

PS: I liked to see the guy swiming. :-)

Hi everyone,

Polar Bear has sent in several new photos of his seaplane diorama. In particular he has reworked the diving mechanic. It is well worth looking at and while were on the subject how is everyone doing on their projects? Lets see some in progress pictures.

Sincerely,

Brian
(bf443)

Greets All,

Here's my sea-sortie, Heller's (now Revell AG's ?) 1/72 Arado 196. The crummy kit cockpit is about 90% scratchbuilt. Otherwise, out-of-box--just finished it last night, started it in 1990!

















Yes, the kit was complete 15 years ago except for the canopy and fiddley parts. Then I started decaling, and woe! The kit decals were bad. I wrote Heller time and again--even sent in their lil' request card--and never received a reply. The only thing I lacked were unit codes! Regardless, the poor bird was put in its nest where it suffered four moves, a new job, a new wife, and all that model-supplanting stuff. Parts disappeared, rediscovered, misplaced...broken...does this kit qualify me as a warbird restorer????????? Then I got everything together in Tupperware bowls, got new decals....and it set there for years again. Until last month.

The model mostly went together pretty well, I used no filler wing+fuselage or stabilizer+fuselage; I recall using a smidgen on the fuselage. The cowling halves are glued together around the engine, and there was alignment problems. I busted apart the 15 year old seam, sanded, and refit.

The floats are another story. I recall that the struts are six pieces. They do not fit flush into the pontoons and fuselage unless you want them dangling off at obtuse angles. Nowadays I think I could carve-n-fill them to set better, but the thought of breaking them dissuaded me.

The cockpit. Bare, nine pieces including the MG and pedestal, no floor for the rear. Couldn't have that under that huge canopy! So numerous bits and pieces of Evergreen and Plasti-struct. The pilot seat was scratched out of .10 styrene. Then the fifteen year banishment. Next the gunner's seat is the kit chunk with an Italeri(?) ME-110 rear seat on it. Then the computer parts. Yes, the brown parts, I've noted the Luftwaffe seems to have used bags for some ammo storage, so I stuck some around. The resistors, oxygen bottles, though I just realized that these machines probably rarely went that high. I considered painting over them to remove the multi-colored stripes, but got distracted by the canopy...too late! ;-) Metal bits from electric parts make the throttle, mixture, and various handles and knobs. Styrene chunks with P/E radio faces for the back seater to use. Finally, mere tape for the belts.

Following an article in a 1989 or 1990 Fine Scale Modeler about using auto buff pads in lieu of gloss to prep the paint for decals, I so tried that over my old Pactra International Colors RLM 70/71. The RLM 65 is Polly S. Most everything else is now Polly Scale, but just the fiddley parts.

Telling on myself: I had no info about these when I placed the markings. The unit badge should not be on the cowl, but right behind it. The swastika should be on the rudder. The pontoon rudders--I can't figure out how/where to mount them.

I may put some further weathering on her and will string the antennae wire. Otherwise, I am debating how to display my teen(age) angle.

WOW!
First: congrats on finnishing the 15 year build :-)

That's a fine looking model!! I like what you did to this kit. The cockpit is very detailed! I specially like the gunner seat and instrument panels.
What's the story behind those electronic parts? The condensators look like they could be some bags, but the resistors I don't like it that much this way. That would be my only nitpick on this gorious model!

Paul

Progress reports on your aircraft

Hello,

How is everyone doing with their projects? New photos have appeared and I thank you. Would anyone else like to sumit there works in progress to date?

Sincerely,
Brian

Here is my 1/72 Monogram Yak-38 Forger.

Sorry I do not have any in-progress shots...this kit kinda sucks! :-)

Anyhow, I did do a few changes to it:

1. Ejection seat replaced from spares box.

2. Made a instrument panel decal from spares.

3. Added AS-10 KAREN missiles from DML set. (Those 500lb bombs were just so darn wimpy!)

4. Added special nose-art from spares.

Otherwise, OOB. Not my favorite kit by far, but it does look like a Forger when done. Maybe I should have painted some "splashed" tomcat markings on her... :-)

Jacques,

Thank you for posting the update! Sorry to hear the kit was difficult. But I do enjoy what you accomplished with it. Its a unusual subject in my book.

Brian :-)

Thanks for taking this over and the extention. I have a seafire which is giving me majot problems and I was about to box it up for a rainy day...but this might just be enough to save it.

Thanks again.

Hello all, when does the Air over sea end? Is it in Aug?
Do I post my info in this thread?


Thanks Rigger

Rigger,

Hi, the campaign was extended until August 15th. Until or if we are given a dedicated topic link it would be helpful to post your progress works here. That way everything is in one thread when it comes time to figure out who did what. That does not mean you could not post your work under another catagory as well. I just ask for the sake of keeping track of things you please post here as well.

Sincerely,
Brian

Hello Air over the Sea members,

Polarbear has been working hard on his seaplane dio. It is titled "Splish Splash II" and in the diorama forum. Hats off to him we can learn much from his efforts.

Sincerely,
Brian

HI all..

i forgot this thread! sorry for that.. but i have posted my progress photos on this thread .. Please click here

will post some more progress next week

Working on my second entry for this campaign; a F/A -18A Hornet scale 1:144 from Revell.

MAN THAT'S SMALL

Bought the kit in the local drugstore (!) for less than 3 euro. They had a whole bunch of old Revell 'dump' kits.

Plane is sprayed white. Now the blue 'fields' have to be sprayed. There are little blue lines parrallel with the field borders, and those lines are NOT on the decalsheet... That means I have to spray them too!!

This is gonna be one of my first attempts to spray hard-edged lines, so keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

another Yak-38, 1/72 from Kangna (korea)

Eman, that is a great looking model!!

Hi everyone,

Another week has past and just wanted to see if anyone would like to comment or add photos of your progress. Eman recently added a nice looking Yak 38.

Sincerely,
Brian

Hello Brian!

As I'm probaly the last one to have enlisted, I still didn't started the build of my kit! But at least I have choosen one! As there was nothing in my stash that would have interested my for the campaign, I bought Revell's (Hasegawa reboxing) Vought F4U-7 Corsair in French Navy markings of the "canal of Suez" war. I will build the beast OOB and it will be my first attempt at an all "navy blue" finish...
I'll post in-progress pics as soon as I've started!

Jean-Luc

Thank goodness someone is building an F4U!!! I think I may have gone into withdrawl without at least one.

:-) Whew...........

Brian

Hello Brian!

Yes it's a F4U... but French! :-)

Jean-Luc

Just back from Kansas City I bought Italeri's SH-60B Seahawk, something I've wanted to get for a while. Given constraints with school upcoming in less than a month and entries for Medic and the Toad Tour build, I may or may not get this done in time, but either way I am enlisting and will attempt a write-up even though the kit is 2 years old.

Jeff