Boeing F4B4 biplane

[raafif]

I've got the old Hasegawa 1/32nd kit started but the decals are totally shot, not even Microscale's decal solution has saved them.

So what do I do ?  As Yellow Wings don't have any F4B4 decals in stock, do I fudge another country & use up some of my decal bank (have Dominican & Manchurian) or do a civilian one ?
I've already painted the top wing yellow 

Any ideas for a crazy (but easy to apply) civil scheme ?

[Frank3k]

fudge! Use whatever decals you have that may fit, bend reality to match.

[GTX_Admin]

Paint it all yellow perhaps as a equivalent to the Grumman G-22 Gulfhawk II (see below):



Perhaps as a advertising mechanism for something like Yellow Cabs:



Or if you want a darker tone, perhaps something tied to the Taxi Wars.

[raafif]

I did google the Gulfhawk but not much else came up - other than a pic of an Aurora F4B4 in overall red.

Fudge it is !  As a fan of Latin American wars, I think it will be a Gran Chaco participant.  Now whose markings will it be in - Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia or something else 

I do have markings for all those countries but maybe not big enough for 1/32nd.

[raafif]

Just like any Hasegawa, the build is progressing fairly smoothly.  Considering its a 1960’s kit, interior is basic & accurate just a bit crude for this scale today.  Fit of the cockpit needed some hacking of the floor mountings – eventually managed to get it & the instrument/gun panel glued inside the fuselage but broke the pedals & stick off so it was tricky to add them again.  I’ve had to shim the area in front of the windscreen as the instrument-panel held the fuselage apart here and had to deeply scribe the inside of the front deck/strut panel in order to make it easier to spread it to fit the fuselage.

[perttime]

Wait!!!
Doesn't that look like a mean vintage racing car?

[raafif]

Wait!!!
Doesn't that look like a mean vintage racing car?

YES ! the struts would support Spandau machine-guns !

[raafif]

Cam under way .... Gran Chako War

The decals I chose were from Hobbycraft but they disintegrated as I lifted them out of the water too so its back to finding something else 

[raafif]

A little progress ...

[finsrin]

My build progress is glacial, yours is faster.

[raafif]

Basically done. Boeing’s biplanes all seem to have double rigging for some reason & I’m just waiting on some EZ-Line to finish it off.

A few problems with mounting the port N-strut & the angles of some of the exhaust pipes.

After having two sets of Hobbycraft decals fail, I switched to a spare Cartograph sheet for Greek F-104s.  The roundels aren’t as large as I wanted but look good, I added the fin-flash to the roundel to represent a whif South American country.  I offset the R.H. one as, like dazzle painting, it somewhat misdirects the enemy as to the true height & direction of the aircraft.

This kit pissed me off a bit having gone to great lengths to get such a beautiful finish painting the upper wing & engine face in yellow only to have to change the subject matter & cover it all in beige.  But Hey, I will NEVER paint anything yellow EVER again !!

[Frank3k]

I like it! The offset roundels are a great idea.

[apophenia]

I like it! The offset roundels are a great idea.

Ditto 

[KiwiZac]

Delightfully different. Lovely job!