Fil d'information

Neuling
Very good paintwork, chipping and weathering!

gorby
Very nice work for 1/72!

Thomas K.
I have a tip to you 🙂 : drill a hole in the front of the canon!

Treehugger
I already have so many work-in-progress stuff going on, but I need to finish this smaller project to get to try out making custom railings with wire and styrene, instead of doing that on that other heavy cruiser build from before with the USS Guam. Re. the Guam kit, to try re-work all that photo etch railings was a big mistake, just too much work and probably much harder to align than individual pins togehter with wiring for the deck railing.

The 3d printed turrets w. barrels really look nice, however I also have metal barrels in stock. I will try drilling out just a couple of mm's deeper and see if that works out, if it fails I will have to cut off the resin barrels and add the metal barrels. If I end up using the metal barrels, I must remember to make a "jig" to get the barrel alignment as good as possible without the barrels looking weird "not looking straight".

Hmm, maybe the ship ought to be less angled in the photo there? Not parallel with the "white" edges, but not as angled as this I think. Thinking about this now, I think an "angled" ship is all wrong with the mood of the still water, and I will straighten the model a little to avoid the obvious diagonal angle of the hull there in photo #01.

Not sure if I have larger "isopor" material around, will have to look. I just thought, this might work ok, to draw attention to the model itself, and not end up with a large ocean surface acting as a frame.

A photographer once wrote: "Frame what you love" I think what he meant was, to not add other things into the frame other than the stuff you like/love. A "closer framing" I think is also more "intimate and works better, and also makes the model seem taller as opposed to flat.

Hm, I forgot to think about maaaybe having additional models in the ocean. I do have a tug boat of the same era, I could use that. 🙂

Jörg Schäfer
Interesting, I'll stick with it.

Matti Thomaes
Interesting technique, following with interest. I also used aluminium foil when I made the seascape for my Tashkent, Soviet destroyer, but the way you are doing it is new to me.

Treehugger
Not sure what to expect. A danger here is the foil is so mallable, any accidental denting has to be smoothened out. Should "stabilize" after a few layers of paint and goo hopefully. Hm, if I keep adding goo on top, the goo will flatten and work the opposite way of shaping waves. Might have to just create a glaze close to the foil surface and not fill up with gransparent goo.

Although I have this "isopor" plate ready, I might add black cardboard ontop, as a base for the foil, then add paint on top of that and hopefully some water goo. Probably not a good idea adding too much transparent goo on top of this alu foil as it might look weird perhaps when the foil isn't at the very top of the surface anymore if adding too much transparent goo, unsure.

In computer 3d modeling, there are tools for modeling realistic water waves, but that is too complicated for physical models, unless somehow one starts carving out large waves, then smaller waves and ever smaller waves again, and somehow end up with a nice looking result. Ofc, here there just wouldn't be big waves at all, just smaller waves that slosh around, which is what the steel ball is for.

Steven Van Dyck
Nice project. I once used alufoil too for a 1/700 dio, Operation Torch | Project by StevenVD (1:700) . I found out that if I covered it in Stillwater, I could use water paints on that. But the end result remained quite metallic.

I've read books that described placing ships oblique in a frame as an error, trapping the ship in an undersized frame, so do this only if there is ample space for the bow.

Treehugger
Right, I personally think however that tallness of the model with counter will dominate anyway. Heh, I am willing to risk it. 🙂 Also the ship will be at anchor, so not moving, which works in my favor I think.

Ingmar Stöhr
As I will also soon face the cahllenge of creating a nice seascape, I will be following your approach.

Treehugger
I have some difficulty gluing the foil to the paper (dries, but then comes loose when bumping it with the steel ball bearing), which is problematic if the foil comes loose. Seems to me that, I might as well try dent the black cardboard directly, and leave out the problematic foil.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course!

bughunter
Welcome Robert! Which one you want to take, the yellow or a green one? 😉

Please do not miss the project description, for the _VERY_ important reason for this project!

Robert Podkoński
👍 A green one, please 🙂

Marcel Klemmer
Hi Frank, I am in and do not need a seat. 😉

Ludvík Kružík
I'll sit down too. If I'm not mistaken, one green seat is still open. 😉

Spanjaard
I am certainly in

Martin Oostrom
Green two for me

David H
Be rude not to join in. 👍🏻

gorby
I'll join the audience as well. 🙂

bughunter
Hello my friends! A warm welcome to each and every one of you!

Working on the parts of this kit can be considered bodily harm! The bright yellow hurts your eyes and you can't see any details or damaged areas that need work. I would have preferred a more common gray!

Michael Kohl
Moin Frank. Nimmst mich mit?

bughunter
Aber sicher doch, wenn Du eine wilde Fahrt aushälst 😉

Kenneth
Hallo Frank, the set with lap belts only could be intended for the US Navy variant of the Stearman, the N2S. Until US entry in WW2, US Navy aircraft mostly did not have shoulder belts. I read this in a review of a 1/32 Vought Kingfisher while looking for seatbelts and wondering about the same thing for my 1/32 Revell/ICM N2S Stearman kit.

Juergen Klinglhuber
Schau ich mir auch an,...

bughunter
Welcome! Thanks Kenneth! That makes sense, as the kit offers also a yellow Navy plane with red stripes. Luckily my wife want it blue-yellow. All the pictures I found shows also shoulder belts, but that was mostly still flying machines and I guess the shoulder belts was added later.
I had already downloaded the ICM manual as an additional reference and looked at reviews because of an oddity on the upper wing. More on this later.

bughunter
Because I was still in soldering mode after the seats, I immediately turned my attention to the tank on the upper wing. I like the look of the metal fuel tank now.

Robert Podkoński
Perhaps you will find my photos useful for your build:
Hangar 10 | Album by podkon

bughunter
Yes, definitely 👍 Thanks!

bughunter
Found a nice page: stearman-aero.com/

bughunter
The wing is yellow again, but now the look is better!
I used here MRP-142 Orange Yellow. If someone remembers my Piper: the yellow was "Dark Chrome Yellow" also from MRP. Even this one here called "Orange Yellow" it looks more yellow compared to the Piper.

Ben M
👀

Alec K
I was just wondering where the heck is Bughunter, and here he is! Lovely progress and topic, following of course 👍

bughunter
Welcome Ben and Alec!
The lower wing is now also painted yellow. I only not sure about the blue. I want to go with the darker later blue, tried AK Pure Blue, but I will also try others.

Jakub Fiala
Nice work on this interesting type of aircraft so far 👍 Following for sure!

Ben M
Love these old trainers. They used to show up at airshows a lot when I was a kid.

Greg Baker
Sign me up!

Zbynek Honzik
A joy and pleasure to follow such a project! 👍

Christoph Kunz
Ui, da habe ich den Start ja irgendwie verpennt. 🙁
Aber jetzt bin ich dabei.

Kenneth
Noch was, je nach dem, was das Vorbild ist: Part 71 in Point 4 of the instructions is in my opinion not correct for a WW2-era Stearman. Such a box typically houses a radio, intercom, transponder etc. on modern, restored examples

David Taylor
Watching.

bughunter
In the spirit of "Piano man": the regular crowd shuffled in ...
Welcome!
Oh, can someone wake up Kyle? 😉

Juergen Klinglhuber
Kyle! - come on, you will miss a good portion of the show and have to put the stool again in the back... 😉 Just kidding. It is never to late for a bughunter-show

bughunter
Kenneth, thanks for the hint! Interestingly the Eduard manual of the PE set here on SM told me to remove the mount points for this part 71. After that hint I checked some pictures of original machines and found the modern equipment. So thanks for the confirmation! After my PE set arrived I found out the remove of that mount points is missing in my paper version! Luckily I have checked the corrected online version first.

I would like to build a original equipped plane, but this is somehow limited. I have only the kit decals for a US Army plane "136" dated 1941. There is no serial number mentioned. I have not found photos of that plane yet. So I will build it according the information I have, with "educated guesses" on some points. Later more.

bughunter
I made the instrument panels. May be you know the Eduard sandwich method of multiple PE parts? Here we have a special thing!

Kenneth
Fuselage innner side colours are also totally wrong in the instructions (overall aluminium). See flugzeugforum.de/thr...103126/post-3062086 where I posted some thoughts about this.

The „thick" plate on the instrument panel which you chose is correct for the period, it's a padding saving an unfortunate student pilot's face when smashing it against the instrument panel…

bughunter
Kenneth, thank you very much for your great support 👍 Highly appreciated!
Now I understand, why the bolts of the instruments are hidden by this padding.
According to your picture I painted the fuselage halves bright linen and added the read brown tensioning varnish. It will not be very visible after closing the halves.

The inner structure is not in scale: much too thick! As it will be not very visible later I do not go the extra mile to replace the structure by brass wires!
Did someone say Jehovah? 😎

bughunter
The seat belts (what a fiddly job), the seats and the cockpit as a whole are finished. What beautiful interior!

Have I forgotten something, or can the fuselage halves be glued?

Ben M
Pancakes! (IYKYK)

gorby
Lovely work on the cockpit Bugs. 🙂

Kenneth
Looks perfect 👍 I was wondering whether there shouldn't be a fuel cock (the red lever on the lower left side in the front cockpit) in the rear cockpit as well, but found quite a few photos were this indeed not the case (but also some with one).

And while the ICM fuselage structure is indeed very delicate, it stops short of the rear cockpit!

bughunter
Thank you mates!
Beside the thick structure it is a nice kit (and Eduard PE set) with great fit. Sometimes even with the famous Tamiya click 🙂

@Ben Pancakes?! You say if you know you know, but I do not know 🙁
If you mean the upholstery of the seats - I think that this task was taken over by the parachutes.

bughunter
The kit includes a clear lamp to be installed on the back of the fuselage for Navy and Army. I have not found a reference photo.
Is this perhaps an anti-collision light on modern aircraft? Add it or leave it out?

Kenneth
That fuselage lamp (probably a modern strobe light) does not appear in the manual available on the Stearman Aero site (p. 105)… from which I've also just learned that the red lever I mentioned earlier is control lock and not a fuel cock.

bughunter
Thanks for the confirmation of my guess Kenneth! I glued stretched sprue into the socket for later sanding.

René "Lord Bilbo" Bartholemy
Bughunter "not going the extra mile"? 🤔
Usurper!
What have you done to the real Bughunter? 🤣

Treehugger
Any relation to the movie Where Eagles Dare? 🙂

Steve
I think this is so cool!

Villiers de Vos
A very interesting subject.

Mr James
Looking forward to seeing this

Tim
Great film