I am waiting for my new cockpit, as the Tamiya is rather lacking.  But in the mean time, here are parts of the build. 

I have found that cementing the stabilizers in from behind while the ship is about works better.  I then use Bondex to fill and smooth any gaps. 

Hi Don,

It looks like I might be a little late with this, but I thought I'd share how I did the paper tanks for one of my Mustangs.  First, I sanded to eliminate the seam.  I'm sure you're aware that doing so also eliminates the scalloped look of the paper at the front and rear of the tanks.  I was able to replace the scalloped look by using scraping the parts with a #10 General Purpose Xacto blade.  I scraped from the forward-most strapping towards the nose, and from the rear-most strapping towards the tail.  A couple of scrapes was all it took to restore the subtle indentations.  After the scraping was done, I took some fine sandpaper and rounded the "peaks" that resulted between scraped areas.  The great thing about this process is that  you can vary the depth of adjacent indentations to give the tanks a little more "personalilty."

If you're interested, here is the post showing my Mustang with its paper tanks, and a larger picture that better illustrates the final results.

Good luck with your build!

Cheers,

-O

(Edit for broken link to Mustang build post: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/153434.aspx )

You're both better people than I am. I looked at the tanks for my P-51D and said, "Nah, I am building this as it sits after a combat mission in which he dropped the tanks."

It's the lazy way, haha.

-BD-

O, 

Very nice indeed.  Nice soft edges on the overall, paint as well! 

BD, 

If it meets you end goal, and you are happy with it, well, mission accomplished! 

I used a Dremmel tool, at VERY LOW SPEED, to grind off the Tamiya detail.  

My Aires cockpit kit.  Typical Aires, as they won't insult you with including any kind of instructions worth a darm. 

Nicely done so far!

Toshi

oortiz10

Hi Don,

It looks like I might be a little late with this, but I thought I'd share how I did the paper tanks for one of my Mustangs.  First, I sanded to eliminate the seam.  I'm sure you're aware that doing so also eliminates the scalloped look of the paper at the front and rear of the tanks.  I was able to replace the scalloped look by using scraping the parts with a #10 General Purpose Xacto blade.  I scraped from the forward-most strapping towards the nose, and from the rear-most strapping towards the tail.  A couple of scrapes was all it took to restore the subtle indentations.  After the scraping was done, I took some fine sandpaper and rounded the "peaks" that resulted between scraped areas.  The great thing about this process is that  you can vary the depth of adjacent indentations to give the tanks a little more "personalilty."

If you're interested, here is the post showing my Mustang with its paper tanks, and a larger picture that better illustrates the final results.

Good luck with your build!

Cheers,

-O

(Edit for broken link to Mustang build post: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/153434.aspx )

 

O, 

All I can say is TANKS a bunch for the good tip! 

DD 

Looking good Don.  I'm guilty of the same with the paper tanks.  They are certainly are an exercise in patience.  That said, they were basically made out of paper mache then painted silver, so in reality I doubt they were perfect to begin with.   I may try O's idea next time though.  Also with the new cockpit, make sure you sand the sidewalls paper thin or the new addition will cause a flat dihedral.  Here's my recent build if you need a loose reference on Tamiya P-51

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/162455.aspx

Joe

lawdog114

Looking good Don.  I'm guilty of the same with the paper tanks.  They are certainly are an exercise in patience.  That said, they were basically made out of paper mache then painted silver, so in reality I doubt they were perfect to begin with.   I may try O's idea next time though.  Also with the new cockpit, make sure you sand the sidewalls paper thin or the new addition will cause a flat dihedral.  Here's my recent build if you need a loose reference on Tamiya P-51

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/162455.aspx

 

Joe

 

Thanks Joe, 

There will be a gap between the fuselage and the cockpit, but a little Bondic will fill that in.  I love that stuff! 

Great job, Mr. Eisenhart! Looking forward to seeing the finished product. Unlike a lot of modelers, I think that you can't have too many P-51 kits............

Devil Dawg, 

Thanks, and please my name is Donnie, or Danger Don to my Cowboy Friends. 

I feel the same way about Spitefires! 

DD

Everything looks fantastic.  I await patiently for your finale of your Mustang build.

Toshi

Lawdawg, 

Yeah, after a day or so of fitting, I went with what I had, which was not a perfect fit. 

Then, the welds on the bottom seperated, so filler to the rescue. 

And, I have not even address the raditor intake... 

OUCH! And she was going so well, I hope you're at least able to save that beautiful cockpit you painted. 

So did the Alclad craze the plastic or was it the Tamiya gloss you sprayed over it? Just wondering, I've used Alclad for years and never had any issues with it. Though it does say it will craze unless you lay down an undercoat, I always use Testor's MM gloss black. 

Gamera,

I am thinking the Tamiya never really gassed out. 

On the painted wing, you see here and having nothing really to loose, I shot Alclad black primer, base coat gloss black, and airframe aluminium within about 4 fours or so, just to see what would happen.

Rough finish to be sure as there was no polishing, but no crazing issues.

Which remindes me, how do you polish (which grit) inbetween coats?

Thanks,

Don

Hey Don,

I know you posed the question to Gamera, but if it's OK, I'd like to chime in with an answer.

As far as sanding between coats for a NMF goes, here's what I do.  I use Alclad's proprietary primer as a base coat.  Once it's on, I like to wet-sand with a 3200 pad.  The Alclad primer goes down pretty smooth on its own, but I like to wet-sand to make sure it's butter smooth and to even things out.  If I need to, I'll respray the primer; touch-up any spots that I sanded through.  Then, I'll wet-sand again to even things out.  Once everything's nice and smooth, I'll spray my first light coat of Alclad.  Again, wet-sanding to make sure everything's even and smooth.  (Notice I keep repeating smooth?)Then I'll spray a second light coat and repeat the process.  Usually, I'll continue my NMF with a third light coat, followed by a final wet-sanding pass with a 4000 grit pad.  Finally, I'll spray again and finish with wet-sanding again with a 6000 grit pad.  Yeah, it's tedious and a bit repetitive.  Might even be overkill and wasteful, but I've been very happy with my NMF results.

Hope this helps!  Good luck with SFS.  I think you might be able to salvage her with a good base coat (primer) and some sanding.  Good luck!

-O

Ahh ok. I normally just shoot the MM gloss black on the bare plastic as a primer. Find and fix any rough areas and then shoot more MM gloss black to get an even shiny undercoat. I've  had few issues with painting like this so I rarely ever polish it at all. I let this dry overnight at least though generally I leave it for a few days. Then I hit the model with Alclad, let it dry overnight, decal, and a few days later hit the model with a light coat of Testor's Metallizer overcoat varnish, it seems to dull the shine less than other brands of finish coat. Bad thing is it's out of production now so when I'm out I'll have to find something else.  

PS: Looks like O and I posted at the same time . Good advice there, and his NM finishes look great! Look up some of his work here, he's a heck of a modeler. 

oortiz10

Hey Don,

I know you posed the question to Gamera, but if it's OK, I'd like to chime in with an answer.

As far as sanding between coats for a NMF goes, here's what I do.  I use Alclad's proprietary primer as a base coat.  Once it's on, I like to wet-sand with a 3200 pad.  The Alclad primer goes down pretty smooth on its own, but I like to wet-sand to make sure it's butter smooth and to even things out.  If I need to, I'll respray the primer; touch-up any spots that I sanded through.  Then, I'll wet-sand again to even things out.  Once everything's nice and smooth, I'll spray my first light coat of Alclad.  Again, wet-sanding to make sure everything's even and smooth.  (Notice I keep repeating smooth?)Then I'll spray a second light coat and repeat the process.  Usually, I'll continue my NMF with a third light coat, followed by a final wet-sanding pass with a 4000 grit pad.  Finally, I'll spray again and finish with wet-sanding again with a 6000 grit pad.  Yeah, it's tedious and a bit repetitive.  Might even be overkill and wasteful, but I've been very happy with my NMF results.

Hope this helps!  Good luck with SFS.  I think you might be able to salvage her with a good base coat (primer) and some sanding.  Good luck!

-O

 

O,

Thanks.  I have not scrapped her yet.  As you know, I have a lot of work into her already.  I have already bought another 8th USAAF 1/48 (along with a 1/72), and I am planning on swapping decals.

What is NMF?

Don

Don Eisenhart

...What is NMF?

Hey Don,

NMF means Natual Metal Finish.  

Hey Gamera,

Thanks for the compliment!

Happy Modeling!

-O