Author Topic: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"  (Read 6055 times)

Offline rhallinger

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #30 on: August 01, 2021, 10:32:32 PM »
Looking good Lance!  Thanks for the roadmap on this one. ;D

Best regards,

Bob

Offline Alexis

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #31 on: August 04, 2021, 01:51:09 AM »
Nice work in the pit Lance !


Alexis
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Offline lcarroll

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #32 on: August 14, 2021, 01:03:58 PM »
Bob, Alexis, Thanks for looking in and for your comments. I'm afraid I've run well ahead with no updates on this one for far too long so I'll try to do a bit of "catch up" here. I have finally completed the fuselage which required a long session of sanding and re-scribing of the details to get a satisfactory fit and result. I took a couple of photos just before closing it up as a lot of the interior detail, as usual, was about to disappear.





    The aircraft fuselage was finished in a dull aluminum lacquer as opposed to the standard USN light grey, I used Tamiya Flat Aluminum. Next in the sequence came the tail components and most of the decals.





   Masking of the tail area was a challenge but worked out very nicely. The square slot above the stabilator is for the adjustable (trimable) stab.



    I've also got the wings almost finished and ready for assembly. I added some stainless aileron push rods for detail.





   Last, the cowling is painted, it still requires a strip of white piping to separate the black and aluminum areas.



    Earlier today I got the upper wing mounted and completed the decalling, almost there! I'll try to be a bit more regular with updates, hopefully a small one tomorrow.
Cheers,
Lance

Offline gedmundson

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #33 on: August 15, 2021, 06:29:59 AM »
Looking great Lance!
Cheers,
Gary

Offline lcarroll

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #34 on: August 15, 2021, 08:39:04 AM »
    Thanks Gary, finally got it moving again. Here's the upper wing on, last decal (Wing Number 10 on wing), wing walks added, (lower wing is posed for the photo) landing gear with a bit of shading and the white piping on the cowling.





   Next is rigging the cabanes.
Cheers,
Lance


Offline Borsos

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #35 on: August 16, 2021, 12:20:01 AM »
It just looks fantastic!
Andreas
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Barbusse.
"Ein Berg in Deutschland kann doch einen Berg in Frankreich nicht beleidigen. Oder ein Fluß oder ein Wald oder ein Weizenfeld."
Remarque.

Offline Petie2nd

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #36 on: August 16, 2021, 12:16:56 PM »
Looking great, Lance! I hadn't remembered too many details about that old kit I built as a teenager. From your photos, I can see it doesn't have a fixed fillet for the stabilizers, which makes showing the adjustable tail difficult. On the wing root, the gloss black on the top of the wing fillet should cover all the way to the point at the rear, and the non-skid walkway on the wing should cover the entire wing front to back.

As for the aluminum-painted fuselage, Dana Bell has covered that history pretty thoroughly over the years. Early on, the USN standardized on Aluminum enamel for metal surfaces. With the early primers, the enamel developed a problem sticking to metal and wood surfaces, so they switched to gloss Gray enamel, which became known as Aircraft Gray. By the mid-30's, they switched to Aluminum lacquer, which did stick. During the time of gray metal surfaces, several types would have fuselages with mixed metal and fabric surfaces. On those planes, you would see the metal in gloss gray, and fabric in Aluminum dope on the same fuselage.

Grumman's earlier fighter, the F2F-1, began production during the time of Aircraft Gray fuselages, but was in service long enough that they were often repainted in Aluminum lacquer. By the time the F3F's were in production, Aluminum lacquer was the standard, and all of them were finished in that color. For some reason, when the F3F-2 at the US Naval Aviation Museum was restored, the fuselage was painted gray, which was incorrect.

When I built it back in the day, the Monogram instructions said to paint it gray, so that's what I did.

You're making that old kit look really good!

Pete

Offline Monty

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #37 on: August 19, 2021, 02:55:45 AM »
Great work on this iconic kit Lance! I'm enjoying your build progress and loving those inter-war colours! Regards, Marc

Offline Manni

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #38 on: August 19, 2021, 09:22:34 PM »
Wow, Lance, this looks great. Beautiful painted and so clean built. Very interesting model.
Bye Manni
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Offline lcarroll

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #39 on: August 22, 2021, 11:46:38 AM »
   Thanks, everyone, for your encouraging and much appreciated comments! Pete, I've redone the anti skid portions of the lower wing filets and upper surfaces, thanks for the advice!
   I've completed the wind screen and canopy frame work as well, will try for a few photos tomorrow with some natural light.
Cheers,
Lance

Bughunter

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #40 on: August 23, 2021, 06:15:22 AM »
Wow Lance - very beautiful color shades!
I love those colorful birds! 8)

Cheers,
Frank

Offline lcarroll

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #41 on: August 23, 2021, 06:55:59 AM »
Quite a contrast to PC.10 for sure Frank! It's a nice change once every so often, not just the colors as you say but also many of the designs. I enjoy the American "Yellow Wings" subjects and find others even more attractive; hard to beat many of the British designs of the period, the Fury for example.
Cheers,
Lance

Offline pepperman42

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #42 on: August 23, 2021, 09:07:29 PM »
Beauty!!  Those Monogram kits made you pay attention. You've done a great job getting her all together and that scheme is awesome.

Steve

Offline lcarroll

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #43 on: August 23, 2021, 11:52:08 PM »
Beauty!! Those Monogram kits made you pay attention. You've done a great job getting her all together and that scheme is awesome.

Steve
 

Steve,
   You are very insightful with that comment; as recently as yesterday I found myself removing the first bit of rigging from the cabanes to go back and do it right. (Reading the instructions correctly always helps.........) Not the first time on this little project either! They are very decent Kits though, especially given their age.
Cheers,
Lance

Offline lone modeller

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Re: Monogram 1:32 Scale Grumman F3F-3 "Yellow Wings"
« Reply #44 on: August 27, 2021, 04:09:46 AM »
I had missed some of the updates Lance, so have just caught up. Oh my you are making an old kit into a real gem of a model. So colourful too.

PS: reading the instructions before carrying out a construction sequence was always something that I found difficult...

Stephen.