"Dash for Dot"--The Journey Begins (déjà vu all over again)

For the past 5 years I have been trying to build a replica of Dash for Dot, the A-20G Havoc in which a friend's father served as upper turret gunner.  I am finally gaining traction on the build after many false starts, falling down numerous rabbit holes as well as investigations of new technologies like 3D CAD modeling software and both FDM and resin-based 3D printers (see separate pages at right on the build itself, references used, photos & line drawings and new technology explored). 

Follow my build of "Dash for Dot" here

Long time coming...

 Wow! Last entry more than 8 years ago! I retired from my third career 5 1/2 years ago to spend more time with my grandkids and my hobbies: scale modeling, fishing and computer games and 3D printing. I also committed to building a model for a friend, a replica of the plane his father served as top turret gunner. That was 5.5 years ago.... I have actually started that build at least six (6) times over the years, always balking at the amount of detail to add. And I got side tracked with other projects-- a big one is fishing for sturgeon, salmon and steelhead here in Washington state, from a kayak! I am hoping to jump start the modeling and related projects this month. 

Vancouver's WWII Connection: Gambier Bay CVE-73

What really got me interested in returning to this hobby was attending a lecture last spring on the role of the Vancouver shipyards during World War II. It turns out that the Kaiser Shipyards in Vancouver turned out over 50 (!) CVEs (escort carriers). As noted earlier, the size of these carriers was constrained by the winding course of the Columbia River: these Jeep carriers were just over 500 feet long so they could maneuver down the river to Astoria, Oregon where they received their final outfitting for sea duty.

In today's issue of my local paper, The Columbian, this important role received front page coverage "Local veterans recall service aboard ships built at Kaiser in Vancouver" It's a fascinating and inspiring read including interviews with those who built the Gambier Bay and a veteran of that ship who watched her sink.

UPDATE: Part 2 appeared today, 19 Aug."Working on the war effort at Vancouver's Kaiser Shipyard."

I went out and bought the 1/350 scale Hasegawa kit of the Gambier Bay, CVE-73, --the only US aircraft carrier to ever be sunk by surface and built right here in Vancouver 70 years ago but more on that when I build the kit! That Mavis may have to take a place behind this kit when I finish the Yellow Submarine!

A big "Thank you!" to our veterans and the men and women who built the arsenal of democracy.

Reboot Redux

OK, so I got off to a halting start with the Mavis. As the anniversary of my first date with my wife approached, I got to thinking of this kit by AMT/ERTL, "Yellow Submarine" (1999 issue) that I had promised to build for her ages ago. I scored the kit on eBay some time ago and decided to do this first, especially since the Mavis will involve a lot of detail work to rescribe everything and add desired extra details. I needed an easier reboot into the hobby.

First up was checking out the parts: turns out there are more parts than needed--apparently these funny flowery-shaped thingies

are supposed to be used to create a stand for a cardboard poster of the four Beatles as indicated by the newest reissue (2012) of the kit by Round2 models.

The kit was intended to roll across the floor via a wind up rubber band and to have doors that opened to reveal "'Old' Fred" and "Jeremy, The Nowhere Man." I decided to delete these functions and fill the resulting gaps. This turned out to be a challenge.

The doors didn't quite curve right to fit flush with the body. Rather than shim it up and then file and sand it to the right curvature, I elected to deeply score the inside of the doors so I could flex the plastic to the proper curvature.

Then I had to mount the doors into place. I found a use for those flowery-thingies:

The left side of the sub had a warp in the bottom such that it wouldn't flush up with its mate when the halves were joined. So I fashioned a prop to spread the base out a bit to get a better flush surface.

Once I got the doors in place and relatively flush with the hull, I had to fill the gaps. I used Evergreen styrene strips and gap-filling superglue. An interesting technique I came across in the Mavis issue of the ModelArt magazine used Scotch tape laid over the superglue to create a smoother surface requiring "less" sanding. 

I tried it out and it really worked nicely... except that a gummy residue was left behind (the tape adhesive). I had to scrub the surface and use a tape adhesive remover to get rid of the gumminess but the end result was pretty nice:

Next: assembling the conning tower scopes and hull halves. 

Mavis Research I

I want to detail the gun positions, so I needed to do some research. I acquired a copy of Model Art #541 on Japanese Flying Boats that proved to be a treasure trove of detail!

DORSAL TURRET

I found that the dorsal turret is probably a sliding cover affair represented by Part # 67 in the kit (this part will need to be scaled down as it's way to heavy looking) and appears to have a wind deflector that Hasegawa represents as a window with clear part # 78.

20MM TAIL GUN MOUNT

Mavis and Emily both use a clam-shell like enclosure for the tail gun. The mount for Mavis seems most similar to the 20mm cannon on the tail of the Betty . So here's a comparison of detail views from the Model Art special and the instruction sheet from Tamiya for their kit of the G4M Betty:

Reboot!

After a hiatus of nearly 20 years, I want to return to my early passion, scale plastic modeling. My inspiration came this spring when I attended a lecture on the role of the Vancouver Kaiser Shipyards in WWII--I like to model things that I can deep background research on (e.g., meeting and interviewing the radio operator of the B-29 "Eddie Allen" and building that model and presenting it to him some 30 years ago was my favorite). At the lecture I learned that nearly the entire class of escort carriers (CVE) were built right down the road on the Columbia River and that their length was constrained by the bends in the River itself since they had to be sailed down the Columbia to Astoria for final outfitting for sea duty.

I have a stash of nearly 100 models accumulated over the years--including an H6K Mavis Flying Boat I started on over 30 years ago and it is this model with which I decided to reboot my modeling hobby and will post my progress.

H6K5 Mavis

While surfing the net doing research I came across an old modeling acquaintance from 30 years ago. I look forward to renewing our fellowship in modeling!