Wow, that did come out extra nice! I hadn't looked at it lately. Not only was it a good build but the aircraft was one of those planes that looked good just sitting still. Nice job for sure!

Max

Now that is a blast fom the past. Exceptional build. I sure would not have attempted one my self but I am pleased that yours came out so beautiful. Cheers

Ohhhhh great work there!!!

Always love seeing a silk purse made out of a sow's ear!

So this project is now done. Here is a pic of my new baby at one of our local competitions.

I love this plane, and I love how my hard work has paid off!

Something different and an interesting model. I've never heard of a Moonbat.

I have already gone and put my decals on and flat varnish over the gloss on top of the decals, and (oops?) did not do the scalloping. I guess it's my own spin on it!

Modelsheek, it's coming along very nicely!  The XP-67, in my opinion, is one of the prettiest airplanes from back in that era.  It doesn't receive nearly as much attention in kit form as it should.

On a side note, I was wondering if you were going to add the dark green scallops around the edges of the wings and tail.

Eric

Hey guys !

Recently, while working on a P6M (vacuform), I added unscented talc to the auto primer to make it thicker.  Worked out nice filling some larger holes and gaps.  Locations too large for just primer but too small or shallow for auto putty.  After sanding I recoated with thinner primer and wet-sanded.  Nice thing is you can "dab" a spot and build it up with consecutive applications.  As others have said, super glue works nice with "pinholes".  I also noticed some issues with misalignment and different sized part halves.  Sometime you might find that you need to align as best as you can,  add filler and recontour.  Sometimes I glue thin plastic stock in layers to approximate the shape and then finish off with auto putty and auto primer.  YThose "splitter plates" may have to be made from scratch ato replace those in the molding.  Another thing....use car when working with thin resin parts.  They distort easily.  I find resin kits easier to build than vacuform.  But thats just an opinion.

Have fun......

I've built about 10 to 12 resin kits over time, mostly ships. Soap and water are a necessity for most kits. The cheap pink stuff from the supermarket that has nothing in it to make the plates shine after you wash them is my favorite. It gets the ejector fluid off the kit. In a few cases I've encountered a few kits from a manufacturer I won't buy again that after I cleaned them off they were nice and clean and I left them on my work bench. A few days later they were oily again, I suspect the resin was pourous and somthing was bleeding out. I ended up wipeing them down with denatured alchohol.  

Another item is that Gunze/Sanyo makes a nice resin model primer. Its in a red spray can.

Hey RealG,  at least your RarePlane XP-67 has metal parts!  I got one that has injected spinners, and that's all besides the vac parts!  

Nice to see paint on this Moonbat!

I did manage to salvage my two props. I had to hunker down, get the mask out, and tediously clean off the frosting with some ammonia. Like I said, that mistake won't happen again.

So I am just getting to the end of this build. Whew! It's been a ride!

I have gone and attached the props to my main body with no problems. 

I'm just wondering, am I the only one who balances my kit on any available tall, strong object?

*sigh

Now I just have to wait for this to dry overnight, then I get to flip this baby on it's gears and stand back to admire. 

At least your prop blades are useable!  If we go with Sherman and Mr. Peabody in the Way-Back Machine, your only option for years was the Rareplanes vac kit:

https://flic.kr/p/PUauH5][/url]XP-67-01 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

https://flic.kr/p/PUauc5][/url]XP-67-02 by N.T. Izumi, on Flickr

I pulled mine out the Stash of Doom, and boy the metal parts suck!

Now will someone please make an injected kit of this most beautiful plane!

Ouch that sucks about the props! Have you tried spraying them with more Future? Sometimes I've had it kill the frosting and turn back to clear and glossy again. Or worst comes to worse ammonia will take the Future right back off. 

The Moonbat herself looks great! 

And Pebeo matt varnish? I assume I can find this at the art supplies store? Sounds like good stuff, I've been using Alclad matte varnish but I have to mail order it which is a pain if I find myself out and have to wait for it to arrive.

So I did something that I probably should NOT have done. 

I have in the past as my post-Future dull coat used some Tamiya Flat Base thinned with Future Floor Wax. I know what some of you must be thinking. You did what?! Yes (*bows head in shame), I have so far had good success with this approach. Until today. The image below is my props pre-dull coat. I had a funny feeling this time, and I really should have tested it on one of my paint pigs.

This is what happened to the prop that I sprayed. 

It is almost funny, now in hindsight, to spray something and watch it slowly devolve to go from that to this. I guess it makes sense. Flat Base is not really meant to be sprayed, probably also not meant to be thinned with Future and sprayed. I think I have learned my lesson-I will NEVER make that mistake again. I guess my previous goes at my models with that concoction have just been a fluke that they didn't turn out like this.

Well, if the above problem wouldn't have happened, then I wouldn't have gone seeking an alternative dull coat. I am glad, then, that the whole chain of events happened in that way, because I think I have discovered in my vast collection of modelling supplies the MOST AWESOME flat clear paint EVER! I inherited amongst a couple of bottles of art material some Pebeo Matt Varnish. It is a water-based clear coat that is the MOST DEAD FLAT EVER!! It is my new favorite find. 

So decals are on (little jump for joy!), wheels are attached with little effort, and cockpit is in. This image is post-Future decal-sealing coat, and also post-flat coat. I think I will let this dry and do another coat of matt varnish.

Nice! Good ingenuity with the prop blades. Resin kits can be quite challenging and you're showing your skills wonderfully.

I'm looking forward to seeing what's next.  :)

So I managed to track down a photo of the Moonbat where there does not seem to be the variance of color on the wings. It is a bit hard to make out, but it looks like the upper/lower wings are solid colors. 

Alas, I may also be wrong on the whole thing as someone earlier pointed out that it did have a variation of color.

I have gotten the rails painted on the canopy. I resorted to hand painting it because there were no raised/scribed details to get a cut off of with a no. 11 blade. I will clean up the crispness of the lines once the paint has completely dried. I have enhanced the 'clearness' of the glass by immersing the canopy in some Future, then letting it dry covered on a paper towel. I stress that it has to be covered or all of the dusties floating in the air will stick to it!!! 

To enforce what I had mentioned in an earlier post, the kit-supplied pitot is that thick hunk on the right. The painted brass wire is on the left. The original pitot was even fatter than the wing, and I am left scratching my head how that would get attached!!!

And finally, I have managed to finish with the props. 

This is one of the pair of them, and it doesn't look too bad, if I may say so myself. Fitting the blades on the spinner was a bit tricky. The blades came attached to a resin sprue by their pins, but the problem was in that, first of all, the pins were WAY TOO SMALL to fit in the holes provided in the spinner. The second problem was that the way the blades were shaped made the alignment on the spinner all wrong. They flared inwards, actually following the profile of the spinner. I was initially going to just go with how they were, but then I did realize that it was way too wrong. So I chopped the pins off, and did some reshaping of the ends. I then drilled a small hole and inserted a metal pin of my own to give it some structure. I then centered the pin in the hole, set the position and glued it in place. Once it was dry, I put in some filler. Then added some paint, and VOILA!!

Wow, she's looking great! The finish looks perfect, you did a great job on the seams and pin-holes. 

As to OD green, I'm not sure about the USAAF but with the army version there doesn't seem to have been a standard. Some factories used shades darker or lighter, more greenish or brownish than others. 

G: I'd love to see yours too! 

I dug out the Rareplanes vac kit, but the instruction sheet paint guide is blotchy!  This is probably more helpful:

https://goo.gl/images/fxNhCH

See the darker areas on the perimeter of the airframe?

That's looking very nice!  You are making great progress!

When working a vac canopy measure twice, cut a little bit, check fit, then cut a little more.  Repeat until the canopy fits perfectly.  If no spare is provided, you can pour some quick set plaster into the uncut canopy (still on its sheet) in case the unspeakable occurs.  Use the casting to vac or plunge form a new canopy.

The XP-67 had a two-tone upper camo, with greenish areas on the wing outer edges and O.D. everywhere else.  Does Anigrand's instructions mention this?  If not I can scan the Rareplanes instructions for you.

Heh, and while the oldie moldie vac kit is out maybe I'll look into restarting it.  Oops, sorry must be the cold meds talking.  . Cough-cough.

Anyway, keep plugging away!

Now for some paint! With the primer on, I take to the skies, er, spray booth for my lower grey/upper olive drab.

For the grey I used simple toll paints, thinned probably 80-20 with Tamiya universal thinner. I have also had good results thinning it in the same ratios with straight water and rubbing alcohol. The alcohol is nice because it quickens the drying time, whereas the water gives it a more rough texture.

Ok, am I the only one who gets peeved off at the sheer differences in all of the companies' olive drab color? Humbrol is different to Testors, which is different to Model Master, and so on. Well, this paint that I used is also different. For my olive drab I decided to use Badger's ModelFlex paint (as there are no actual color photos of the Moonbat, I rationalized that there was a bit more flexibility in the coloring that I used). What was nice with the ModelFlex color was that it was pre-thinned and ready for the airbrush. It went down nicely, and gave a very smooth finish.  

Wohoo! I got the body put together without too much swearing! What do you think about the shape of this guy! It's awesome!!

The fit between the nacelles and the fuselage were a little poor, and there was a lot of sanding and reshaping required. As you can see, I have filled along the join lines, and did some filling as well. 

I can just see the light at the end of the tunnel!

So I am happy now. All of the niggly bits are painted, weathered, and ready to be glued on when the time comes. 

Because the control panel had no sort of details on it, I aqcuired a decal from my spares box and modified it to fit. 

As to the canopy, I have only built one other kit with vac-formed parts. This canopy, alas, is also vac-formed. My last experience was less-then-pleasant, so I hope this one turns out better. The detailing on it for the rails is not very prominent, so I have attempted to use some liquid mask on it. 

modelsheek91

Don, this is the image that I think you couldn't see. Is it working now?

 

Yep, works fine now.

I have been busy painting my smaller pieces. After a good coating of Tamiya primer, I started to add the colors.

Silly me, I guess I should have thought about this one a little better. In hindsight, I should probably have cut these before painting, as I am sure I will mar the topcoat somewhat when I cut it for the landing bays. 

*shrugs

Can't do anything at this point. 

My gears have their colors done. I wasn't happy with how the the top part of the front wheel joined with the gear intself. I decided to very carefully use a no. 11 blade to make a space between the top of the tyre and the gear. All that is left with them now is some weathering and a couple of bolts. I am not going to go too heavy on the weathering, as the plan for the plane is to be one which mostly sees the inside of a hangar.

The pilot (obtained from my spares box) has been started. My propeller tips are done, as are my two main tyres and the pair of exhausts. Now, neither the exhausts nor the pilot fit into the spaces that they gotta go. I will have to ream out the opening to allow the exhausts to fit better, and, alas, the pilot's feet may have to go. 

Now, as a better explanation of the horrendous pitot provided in the kit......tadaaa!

Like I said, it is AWFUL!! Scale that baby up 72 times!!

Agreed on an injection molded Moonbat!  I figured MPM or Special Hobby would have done one by now.  An XP-54 Swoose Goose too.

The other 1/72 option for an XP-67 is the Rareplanes vac kit.  I have one somewhere in the stash, and it seemed to have nice surface detail.  I do remember that the wheel wells were way too rounded on the edges and that the plastic sheet was pretty thin.  When I bought the kit, some of the problems seemed insurmountable, but they don't seem as intimidating now.  Back in the day, I had no idea where to get things like replacement wheels and such.  It's been that long. 

The Anigrand kit offers its own challenges as you are aware.    I look forward to seeing yours built!

Sheek, it looks like you're making good progress with this kit.  I built this one about four or five years ago (maybe more).  I, too, remember all the little pin holes in the resin.  I ended up using a wide brush and brushing on a layer of Mr. Surfacer 500 to really level off the resin and fill in the holes.  A good sanding really made for a more acceptable surface.  A couple of holes needed an extra drop or two of the primer but it made for quick sanding.

This was my very first resin kit as well.  I love the XP-67 and our kit choices of this amazing plane are woefully limited.  The Anigrand kit is a good one to get your feet wet in the world of resin kits.  I also have the 1/48 scale Collect-Aire kit of the XP-67 but that one is a real mess.  Each time I get up the nerve to think about starting it, I take it out, look at it, then put it back on my shelf.  The modeling world needs more XP-67s, not more Spitfires, German planes or Mustangs.

Eric

Don, this is the image that I think you couldn't see. Is it working now?

I was unable to open the latest image, which is a .webp file.  I'm not familiar with this type of image file- what software is needed to open it?