News Feed

Dave Flitton
I didn't know how beautiful the new Airfix kit was. You have done some really nice work!

Evan B...
Thanks Dave. It truly is a wonderful and well thought out kit. Some parts are a bit fiddly, but I'm so glad I decided to grab it on a whim at my local hobby shop.

Finn
Looking good

Rui S
I agree👍

Nicolas
👍

Nicolas
Following

Villiers de Vos
Flawless.

Robert Podkoński
All SpikeSpiegel's models look like real cars. It's a pure wizardry!

Neuling
I agree!

Rui S
Excellent as always 👍

Bruno
Looks awesome👌

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? 🤣

bughunter
Don't worry, I'm okay. I still go the extra mile, but where it makes sense and is visible.
The fuselage is now closed and other small things done.

Alec K
You are making a lightning progress Frank. I can barely keep up! The added detail is, as usual, superb 👍

babak chalangi
definitely watching this

bughunter
Alec, that is a Revell Level 4 kit with only 58 parts according to the box. Ok, the PE set and the belts doubles the number and there is room for a little scratch work, but the fit is fantastic! That saves a lot of time.
I have the Mr.Paint True Blue on order and hope it will arrive soon.

bughunter
Some more little details are prepared, for example a Venturi pipe. This idea is maybe useful for other types.
But I also decided to go the extra mile to meet all expectations and made it possible to mount the rudder in an angled position for more liveness.

Martin Oostrom
Great work from the master

Ludvík Kružík
Your work is gaining momentum. It's a pleasure to watch the model grow under your hands.

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
How could I miss this build .... very very nice progress so far and kudos for the soldering work!!!! I was thinking of this approach very often, but I´m too scared and always came back to CA removing the excess with debonder. Watching this build with interest 😊

bughunter
Thank you mates for your very kind words!
@Thomas I was lucky enough to have been drilled in the art of soldering at a young age during my training as a telecommunications technician. Even though my studies were more theoretical afterwards, I now have 45 years of soldering experience. It was therefore obvious to use this experience in model making. This is also how I soldered my strip downs (see projects) 🙂

TH SCALE MODELS (Thomas Haberl)
Well, that explains it all - you can be glad having this kind of skills man 🤘

bughunter
Today the MrPaint "True Blue" arrived - exactly the beautiful shade I hoped for! Not too dark and not as bright as some of the actual airplanes flying around. With a hint of turquoise as often discussed.
The paint shades of the Mr.Paints are very nice, some examples: the Dark Chrome Yellow on my Piper (I was asked during the last exhibition about it), the PC12 on the Sopwith Triplane (some chocolate brown), the linen color shades .... and this True Blue is no exception 👍

Desert Marlin
Looking great!

Kenneth
Tolles blau 👍 Sieht sehr richtig aus!

Juergen Klinglhuber
Spitze !! 👍

bughunter
Thank you mates!
After some clear gloss coat I started to apply the decals. I also had an idea for a little scratch work - stay tuned!

Martin Oostrom
Marvellous work

bughunter
Thanks Martin!

Alec K
Scratch work?! Can't wait!

bughunter
Alec, you will need a bit of patience as I have to do other things first.
The wings are decorated. When the decals (and softener) are dry I can add more clear coat. The fuselage is not yet completed.

Desert Marlin
Nothing more pleasing than a fine "yellow-wing" from an era long passed!!!

Ricardo Reis
Another beauty? Arriving late, but I guess still on time! 👀

bughunter
Thank you mates!
Ricardo, it will have to be a beauty if my wife wants me to build this machine! There is still a lot on the ToDo list ....

Alec K
Patience I do have 😉. Your progress is superb 👍

Kyle DeHart
I am late, but I am here!! Up to your usual fantastic standards so far, my friend. Beautiful work. My father recently got to take a ride in a restored Stearman and had a blast with it!! So I think this is very cool indeed.

bughunter
Very nice to see you here Kyle and thanks! A ride in a Stearman would be nice indeed.

bughunter
After the wings was painted with satin coat to protect the decals I could realize my idea for which Alec has been waiting! Maybe some others too?

I had read somewhere that the position of the bracing on this model is incorrectly marked. Think again, when I leafed through the original manual I saw small windows to enable the check of control linkages etc instead of rigging points!

If Eduard has already realized the pulleys under windows so nicely on the Camel wings, something should work here too.

Desert Marlin
Looks fantastic. I like when these little treasures get found!

bughunter
Thanks!

There is still work to be done on the fuselage, but I was more tempted by the engine. Its done but ignition wires needs to be added.
I mentioned the thick push rods, here a ref pic for comparison (Source enginehistory.org):
[img1]

Landlubber Mike
Wow, this is incredible work man! The Eduard PE has some nice details, but your scratch details take this model up a few notches for sure. Well done!

Kyle DeHart
Beautiful work. I very much like how that engine looks. Will add nicely to the finished build with so much visible. Your replaced pushrods look perfect. An excellent touch.

Alec K
Great work on the engine. I also like the position light idea! One always learns something from your builds 👍

bughunter
Thank you mates!
Alec, there are typically six different sizes on the Eduard PE frames. Since I used the larger ones, the smaller seem to be usable for you 1:72 guys.

bughunter
Next chapter was the undercarriage - I'm happy with the look!

Juergen Klinglhuber
You can be happy - it is looking alright & very good. 👍 👍

bughunter
Thank you Juergen! I wanted to have the bird ready by the end of the month, but that could be tight.

Martin Oostrom
I know a certain Spanjaard, who bought the exact same kit today, in the hope of emulating your great build

Spanjaard
i was following before, but now I am certainly even more interested!!

Spanjaard
emulating will be great, but it will be far from it,no doubt 😉

bughunter
Thank you for the info Martin! Luckily I know you both 🙂
@Spanjaard That was a great decision! That is a wonderful kit! I was really positively surprised. The yellow plastic is bad, but the details and fit is great. It is not very old and seems to be created by Revell USA. You will have fun with this kit!
BTW I have an unused set of the colored Eduard PE set (the little one FE785) as I found the bigger set later.

I added new pictures as the wooden prop is in shape 🙂

Spanjaard
i just ordered Boeing Stearman PT-17 (HGW Models 148549, 1:48) and PT-17 (Eduard 49785, 1:48) 😄

bughunter
Oh, someone would like to go a long way, or even the whole way?

Lorraine Lin
Wow, the wood airscrew really looks great👍

bughunter
Thank you very much Lorraine!
Real wooden propellers are my trademark on the biplanes. The propellers with different kinds of wood look even nicer (see my other projects), but that would not have been authentic on this type.

Spanjaard
all the way, as far as i can 🙂

Martin Oostrom
Maybe you can order a custom made wooden propellor Spanjaard. I think I know just the guy, from Germany.

Spanjaard
or try to make one myself 😉

bughunter
It looks like I'll have to come up with something here and there to make the task not so easy 😉

Steven Desmet
hi, i just ordered it. What's your first impression?