GB-70 1/72 Tupolev SB 2M-100 - WWII Spanish Civil War to Fall of France

[destrozas]

Looks quite challenging Sergio, but it looks loke your winning. I'm looking forward to hearing your grandfathers story.

These model kits from those years, Russian or Ukean-made, are the kind you suffer with, becoming a body shop worker, repositioning parts, modifying profiles, and using kilos and kilos of putty... You have to be really good to get them perfect, I hope I can get a 5 out of 10! My grandfather's story is as long as the years between 1918 and 1978... It was an odyssey for the poor man, a Republican, a Communist, and scarred by the fascists who tried to beat him to death 11 times after his release from prison in 1952... During the period of this conflict in Spain, he worked as everything from a communications engineer in the Republican sappers to commander of anti-aircraft batteries at the air bases, the government's safe haven in case of a fascist advance.
He didn't experience epic battles and such things, but he was always there when needed. One anecdote that led him to become a good friend of Francisco Meroño Pellicer is when Meroño was returning to the Senia airfield above Llíria and was ambushed by Italian fighter jets. My grandfather, who was always looking at the sky, heard the engines and saw that it was three against Meroño. He alerted the battery operators to provide support for Meroño, and luckily they managed to hit an Italian fighter, which crashed, allowing Meroño to escape and land in Llíria. From that day until 1995, they were in contact every week, either by letter or by phone. My grandfather even wrote to him from prison. I have thousands of anecdotes; this could go on forever...

 

[A4K]

Please do go on!

 

[destrozas]

Please do go on!

My good friend Evan, my grandfather was in the air force, but he didn't fly except when he had to flee because of the arrival of the rebels. I think his adventures during that time are better suited to other topics than airplanes. And there will be people who are offended by his ideology or by the accuracy of some of the details.

Like the horrific case of a Russian bomber pilot who was shot down at the Jarama front. The Nationalists pulled him from the plane with serious injuries, riddled him with bullets (they fired directly on the same field where they pulled him from the aircraft), and the next day they threw his body into Madrid in pieces, some with grenades that exploded as they tried to collect them, and others with leaflets warning that this would happen to anyone who didn't rebel against the government... Since my grandfather was a sapper, he had to go and collect the pieces of that pilot.

Or how the bombers strafed the columns of refugees, and how the bombers and super bombers swooped down on the roadside verges where women and children sought refuge.

I can also tell you how the political commissars expelled or ordered the execution of anyone who did the same things as the Nationalists. And how the anarchists and anarchist-syndicalists ran secret prisons against all living beings. In Aragon, many communists died in those prisons for not sympathizing with the anarchists.

 

[destrozas]

Let's get down to business and heal these wounds once and for all.

The SB2 is a problem factory, which I solve as best I can, even though I know more; my hands aren't what they used to be... Everything is ready to touch up the masking and close the remaining holes. The thing is, like with the Italerie F6F, the clear covers don't come with the option to leave them closed, but they need to be closed for the painting process, so here I go.

But not before fitting the exhaust pipes and the top cover, which, curiously, in this model has to be modified to fit the shape....

 

[fubar57]

You have lots of patience,Sergio

 

[A4K]

What Geo said... well done so far Sergio.

 

[T Bolt]

A lot of work ahead of you Sergio

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far!

 

[destrozas]

Thanks everyone, I'm busy testing and adjusting the plane's colors. It's a very controversial topic because some say it's done by eye, that each one was a different shade due to a lack of homologation. But what ADAR has told me is that the colors weren't so different, since the sand color was from one distributor, the dark green or black green was from another, and the shade was the same... They gave me an approximate reference for the colors, and that's what I'm working on.

 

[A4K]

Love the attention to detail Sergio

 

[destrozas]

Well, Evan, I was looking at different brands of paint, and the sand tone always ends up being the color of the rebels and not the government, so I looked for sources that could give me some references, and I think they were right.

Well, this is the color according to the color chip they showed me and the parts they have from devices.

Regarding the model, I started applying the red bands, first using a white base to give "life" to the tone.

and I gave it a minimal coat of the sand color to see how the tone would look.

 

[destrozas]

I'd put info I have, but in the email they sent me it says the following:
"This message is intended exclusively for the addressee and may contain privileged or confidential information. Any unauthorized use, dissemination, distribution, printing, or copying is legally prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please delete it and notify the sender. The sender accepts no liability for any damage arising from interception, virus contamination, or any other tampering by third parties.

 

[Crimea_River]

I'm sure their lawyer copied that statement from another site - ironically.

 

[destrozas]

I'm sure their lawyer copied that statement from another site - ironically.

Well, don't be surprised if it's as you say... people really like threatening others to be the coolest.

 

[destrozas]

Well, fellow plastic junkies, here's the little I've managed to get done, thanks to this brutal heatwave. At my place we hit 41°C in the shade with 68% humidity – the mere act of breathing had you sweating buckets. On top of that, the summer festivities are kicking off, and since I'm on the committee I've got to help organize them, and being the treasurer means I have to handle all the accounting with everything that entails... But as a saying goes around here, hard work done gladly doesn't sting.

I laid down a white base coat before hitting it with the red – applied 4 very thin coats in total. Then I masked it off to start painting the rest. As for the clear parts that were meant to be painted in raw metal, I've given them a coat of C104, and that's where it's at for now.

 

[fubar57]

Beauty

 

[A4K]

Yep. Very nice Sergio

 

[destrozas]

Thanks Geo and Evan.

Now I'm spotting a few flaws I'll need to sort out before hitting it with paint.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[destrozas]

Thanks fellas.


So here's the first part of the painting work – the base colour. The aircraft I'm representing wore a three-tone camouflage, using the factory base colour (close to the one I gave as the base), followed by a blackish green similar to Nakajima's D3 but greener than brown, and the earth colour I mixed based on the sample you explained and showed me.

We're in the middle of a heatwave – 34°C at 22:30 as we speak, so painting gets a bit tricky. Maybe Thursday the temperatures will drop – fingers crossed, so the paint doesn't dry too fast. I'm not sure if this heat will cause adhesion issues, even though I added Gunze's leveling thinner and it still dries like Tamiya...