Hello fellow Modelers!
Adding onto my 1/48th scale Jolly Rogers 320th BS / 90th BG themed builds (in honor of my grandfather who served in the 320th) I decided to build another aircraft that was used in the squadron. A Piper L-4 Cub known as "Moby Dick Jr.".
I had already built a B-24J in my grandfather's markings,
Along with a model of our 1942 Jeep my father and I own and operate.
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Maybe a little bit of manifest destiny but, if I (or the museum) ever acquires a real L-4 at some point, I'd love to paint it like this one! Here are the only two shots I can find of the original. Pictured next to her big brother.
Kit:
I used a Smer kit for the Piper Cub. I found it to be a pretty straightforward build. The crosshatched fabric pattern was especially nice on the kit. I didn't end up with any major issues as I went along with the build., Just more of the usual start and stop issue with motivation on my part. I was searching as I built this post, but for the life of me, I cant find any early pictures of me building this darn thing!
I glued the entire fuselage together (sans canopy) as well as the wings separate. I painted them in subassembly since the canopy was the giant lynch pin for all of it and that had to wait to be installed. I ended up making some simple seatbelts from tape, and a little paper checklist left on the forward seat in the plane. Other then that, no additions or modifications were made to the model.
Paint:
I initially painted the model in primer grey. Then I painted the fuselage and wings with a trusty rattle can of Olive Drab that we ordered for our full scale Jeep! I ended up using some Valeijo OD and neutral grey to touch up areas and paint the canopy. I masked off the tail section and shot a few coats of white until it was solid. I used the Valeijo US Dark Forrest Green that I had used on my 1/7nd B-17F for the splotches that appear on the topside of the wings.
Decals:
Originally I had intended to design and draw my own decals in Illustrator, but then (thankfully) DK Decals came out with a wonderful set! https://www.aviationmegastore.com/en/modelling/piper-l4hne-1in-usaaf-and-raaf-service-8-camo-schemes-dk-decals-dk48019-160721.html I found the decals to go on very easily, though it took a little force to eventually break them away from the carrier film on the decal sheet. After all the decals were on and melted down with solveset, I hit it with a flat coat of clear spray. The one nail bitter of a situation was the black paint you had to paint on the nose BEFORE the shark mouth was added on both sides. Getting the right shaped black background was tricky, as the starboard side was not enough, and had some Olive Drab poking through. I had to go in and carefully add black with my thinnest brush. I did my best to adjust the black on the port side and wouldn't you know it, it worked! No touch ups necessary!
Final Assembly:
With the motivation to try and finish up a few choice projects in my old office / workspace before we moved into a house, I decided to try and get this model done and out the door!
Using the tiniest amount of super glue on the ends of the canopy's stubs for the wings, I glued them on, and used a decent amount of Krystal Klear to attach the canopy to the fuselage. I ended up getting the wing struts backwards, as they were not going on correctly, and had to take them off and re-glue them in the correct orientation. I also went back and added some additional PVA glue in the open gaps with the canopy and the fuselage / wings. One of the last things I did was used some stretched sprue for wires for the tail and horizontal stabs. After that I called it good!
And I asked my dad to take a few shots today with the Jeep in tow. I think it came out alright! Once we have a place in the museum (or another external location) I'd like to put our 90th BG display back together someplace and this L-4 will definitely be in it!
Hope you enjoyed the build! I'll make sure to take more in progress shots next time!