S-3B Viking finally finished

It's been a long time coming but it's finally finished. I actually started this project back in 2006 but with the amount of work it was going to need I soon got bored and the project stalled until the middle of last year when I felt the need to finish it.
So here it is, my interpretation of  Lockheed S-3B Viking (BuNo159413) call sign 'Beefsteak Seven-zero-zero' from VS-21 'Fighting Redtails' onboard the USS Kittyhawk during it's 'WESTPAC 99' cruise;

The base is an old Verlinden US aircraft carrier one that I bought years ago and finally opened today :)
The model threw up some challenges during construction and finishing, the one thing I'm pleased about is the tail seeing that the decal broke apart and would'nt conform to the contours. There are a few mistakes on it such as the canopy overhanging on one side (I think the ejection seat was pushing it out) which I did'nt notice until the model had been painted, and some silvering on the decals is noticeable in a couple of places.
Other than that I'm quite happy with it!

S-3 Viking

I'm in the middle of doing the panel lines using Migs Panel Line Wash. I got a couple to see what the fuss is all about but actually I'm quite pleased with the results so far;

After the washes are done the model will be matt varnished and I can move onto more weathering. Getting there slowly!

S-3 Viking

As you will recall I had some issues with the large decals breaking on the fin and upper fuselage walkway. The lightning bolt decal was more problematical as the black fin showed through in places plus it would'nt conform to the top (which I knew would be an issue).
To seal the decal I sprayed the fin with Tamiya X-22 Clear and when dry I VERY carefully masked the white outline with Tamiya masking tape and used paper to cover the 'NF' code letters and the five chevrons before taping over the top of them;

The 'double nuts' (or 00) and eagle emblem were masked with Winsor and Newton masking fluid, bearing in mind I had a nightmare with the stuff on the Miniman SS-23 a while back however with the design on the decal I had no other choice.
I mixed a near-as-dammit match of Tamiya XF-7 and white with a couple of drops of X-22 to give it some shine and sprayed the fin. After this I VERY carefully removed the tape as it could have easily ripped the decal and at this point things were either going to go very well or very badly (and usually for me it's the latter).
Therefore I'm pleased to say that it worked! I did rip a small part of the white trim but touched it in with Vallejo paint. YAY for me!!

This is a good as it gets and the model will be what I call a 'four-footer' (i.e it will look great from 4ft or more), anyway I can now get on with the weathering and try and get it finished.
Maybe next time I won't pick such complicated colour schemes :o)

S-3 Viking; Decals are on

I've managed to get the decals on the model yesterday evening and this morning and even these decided to put up a fight. The smaller decals were OK to apply (apart from folding up on themselves a few times) but the main decals for the fin and upper fuselage broke into a couple or more pieces. I knew I would have problems with fitting the decal around the fin top but I did'nt expect it to break apart.
I was hoping to get away with just touching in the fin top after the decal was applied but what this now means is after cleaning up the fin top I have to get a paint match to fill in the areas that broke, which should be fun as masking will be tricky;

The main thing is that the decals are on so the model will get a further coat of Tamiya X-22 to protect them while the model is weathered and to assist the masking of the fin;

Edit; No going back now;

I've trimmed off the excess decal and all I need to do now is get an exact match of red paint. How hard can it be? :o)

S-3 Viking and E-50 Heimdall

Happy new year people!
First post for 2017 and although I'm still plugging away at the S-3 Viking and E-50 I needed a new chair which will be kinder to my fat arse when spending time at the model bench as I am hoping to get more done this year;

First up is the E-50 as I've been attempting to make the four intake covers look rusty. For this I first sprayed them black then used a mixture of pastel chalks, Mig weathering powder and AK Interactive Rust Streaks to try and create a rust effect;

I'm happy with how they have turned out so I can progress the model to the weathering stage.
The S-3 Viking has given me some grief with that damned wing coming adrift and after two attempts at fixing it and thinking "that will do" it was still bugging me as I could see and feel the join.
Attempt number 3 has finally worked, the joint looks (and feels) much better and definitely 'will do' so I need to mask off the canopy, tail and wingtips as these are painted black on the actual aircraft and get on with painting it;

While reworking the joint I took the opportunity to rescribe some panel lines as I had put that much primer on some of them had flooded with paint.
I have lots of plans, ideas and techniques I want to try this year so hopefully this blog may be a bit more interesting to you lot out there, although of course real-life will probably get in the way at some point.

S-3 Viking and Trumpeter E-50 with Heimdall turret

I'm still not happy with the join at the wing root so I've filled it again;

Instead of using Mr Surfacer 1000 I've gone for the 500 grade stuff as it's thicker so *hopefully* the join will disappear when sanded down.The E-50 has been touched up here and there and I've decided on utilising the old modelling cliche of having rusty metal panels. These will be the four covers over the engine air intakes so I sprayed them black prior to applying various rust colours;

And that is that for another year! I started a few projects but most of them have ended in disaster for one reason or another (Airfix C-47), proved troublesome (Dragon Fokker E.V/ D.VIII) or I just became bored with them and they have ended up on the Shelf-Of-Doom.
I did actually finish two models this year, the Trumpeter E-25 and Revell Leopard I;

At this point I WOULD like to say I won't be buying any more kits as this year alone I received around 30+ for review plus all the ones I bought but you KNOW that will never happen.
Thank you to everybody who has taken an interest in my work and ramblings for the past twelve months, it is very much appreciated that so many people look in and hopefully I've been able to provide some hints and tips to you.
2017 will still see me trying to finish stuff started this year, the E-50, S-3 Viking and Fokker E.V/ D.VIII plus currently being looked at is the Revell 1/32 Hawker Hunter FGA9 and Tamiya 1/32 Mosquito FB VI. Quite where I'm going to store them (if I finish them of course) is anybody's guess but what the hell :o)
Happy new year people!

S-3 Viking

Further to the mini-disaster with the port wing breaking away from the fuselage, the joint has been filled, sanded, sprayed with primer, filled again, sanded and finally resprayed with primer;

And after all that there is STILL a bloody visible line in the joint so another rethink is required about carrying on with it. The plan at the moment is to spray the overall grey top coat but when dry mask off the wings where they join the fuselage and spray them in a slightly different shade....either that or drown the bloody thing in black primer!

S-3 Viking

After a bit of swearing and throwing my toys out of the pram the wing was eventually fixed back into place, this time using cyano glue and left overnight to set. There was a bit of a step between the wing and fuselage so this was sanded back and the wing joint filled with Milliput which was smoothed out using a soft brush and water;

This will be left to cure for a couple of days, the area will be polished to get any scratches out and  resprayed with primer to check for any gaps that may have been missed then MAYBE I can start painting the thing.

S-3 Viking

Wow more progress! Today was spent fitting the engine pods to the wings, spraying the canopy interior with Tamiya X-19 Smoke (the real aircraft had quite a heavy tint) and making better fairings for the windscreen wipers.
The engine pylons had the locating peg cut down substantially as the indents in the Wolfpack wings are very shallow, this applies to the stores pylons too. Also the curve underneath must be shallower than the kit wing as there was a huge gap between the pylon and wing;

To save destroying any surface detail I stuffed Milliput into the gaps;

The Milliput was then smoothed out using a brush and water and left to set;

The windscreen wiper fairings in the kit are a bit of a funny shape and after gluing them to the fuselage forward of the canopy I decided I did'nt like them. I found alternatives in the shape of 1/72 Mk82 bombs from an old Airfix A-7 Corsair that were in the spares box so a flat was filed on one side of two bombs then the noses were cut off and glued into place on the Viking after removing the kit ones;

Far better! New wiper blades will be made from scratch and added after painting. You may notice a hole next to the left fairing and this is for a navigation light that will be glued in after painting.
As I said above the canopy got some extra tint and this will be fitted when I glue in the overhead instrument panel.

S-3 Viking

I've had enough of detailing the main gear bays and it's time to get moving with this build so tonight I've started to glue the inner Wolfpack wings to the fuselage. As they are quite a big chunk of resin I'm using a two-part epoxy resin glue for strength as for something this heavy I do not trust cyanoacrylate;

It's a five-minute epoxy resin glue but it won't be fully cured for at least 24 hours so I'll repeat the process tomorrow night. Although I've had enough of detailing the gear bays those sonobuoy tubes underneath are still bothering me so I need to have a think about them :o)

S-3 Viking

I've done a bit more to the bays, this time I've added hinges to the upper gear bay doors;

They hang a LOT better than if I had glued the doors directly to the fuselage. I drilled holes into the roof of the gear bays and although it looks a bit naff you won't see them unless you turn the model upside down.
All that is needed is connecting rods from the doors to those white round bits with sticky out bits attached to it during the final assembly after painting.
Trouble is I keep looking at those sonobuoy tubes as they are starting to bug me....hmmmm.....

S-3 Viking

I added a bit of detail to the main gear bays as there is'nt any in the kit apart from the fictional lumps of plastic either side that are supposed to represent part of the retraction system. So a few happy hours have been spent cutting styrene rod, tube and strip to jazz them up a bit and 5 amp fuse wire will be used for the hydraulic piping, some of which has already been fixed in place;

When cutting the main gear legs from the sprue I managed to break one of the legs, not a problem as it was easy enough to drill a couple of holes, insert a length of brass wire and glue it together again. While I was doing this it occured to me to do the same to the other gear leg as the weight of the resin wings is giving me cause for concern as to whether the undercarriage will be strong enough so a bit of metal in them will help (hopefully).
The nose gear bay won't be getting any superdetailing as you can't see it but the nose gear leg will get some hydraulic piping added where necessary.

It's a funny old hobby sometimes...

I was weighing up another project recently invoving a 1/72 Fujimi A-7E to do as a quick build (in between the Fokker D.VIII, E-50 with Heimdall turret, Leopard I etc etc etc) and while looking at bits for the A-7 I came across ESCAPAC seats and included in the list of aircraft that used them was the dear old S-3 Viking.
Now this jogged my memory of the old Italeri (originally ESCI) 1/48 Viking that I had started a few years ago but abandoned due to the sheer amount of work involved to bring it up to scratch so guess what came out of the loft today?

I originally got the Paragon wing fold set not long after I bought the Viking but since then I had heard a few horror stories about the amount of cutting required for it to fit properly so a couple of years ago I got the Wolfpack wing fold set instead plus the D704 refuelling pod.
The cockpit is by True Details (Formerly KMC=Kendal Model Company I believe) and luckily I found it again yesterday while having a sort out. I say luckily as I was looking at a Wolfpack cockpit set on Evil Bay and very close to buying it because I had forgotten all about the True Details one.
Originally boxed by ESCI this kit is YEARS old (at least 30+) but to be honest it's still a good basic kit and I've seen some beauties made from it over the years. It is billed as an S-3A/B but to get an accurate B you need to add a few bits and delete others such as chaff and flare dispensers, bits to the wing tips and aerials. The biggest challenge is to fill in some of the sonobuoy holes under the rear fuselage from 60 to 16 and make it look decent, fortunately I have an update set from Two Mikes resin on the way which provides a new underside panel plus the chaff and flare dispensers and wing tip bits as previously mentioned.
I don't know how far I'll get with this one but it's been an interesting afternoon looking in the box again and digging out the references and I suppose the point of this post was how modellers (well...me anyway) can go from one subject to another while looking for something else.

Edit; I've just looked at the Wolfpack wing fold set and it has all the lumps and bumps for the wing tips included, I suppose I should really check these things beforehand :o)