Doogs yes the kit barrels are going to the bin for sure. I've been lurking on the thread for a while and saw your tutoral on the replacement technique,very useful thanks! Not sure what I'm using to replace them with yet tho,leaning toward some a/m just hate to do that all the time.

Spark did you forget to use the rich formatting? Not seeing the pics either

What color primer is best suited for the D the yellow or green Zinc?

Office is a wrap,not a very accurate molding I might add. A lot of missing and misplaced components .Still trying to avoid resin replacements with this build so in it goes.

OK, they should show up now on that post... i used the wrong link type.

Yup they are there now, thats a colourful scheme, looks cool!

Spark: Cool! Always loved those diamond nose Mustangs but never built one. Super eye-catching model!

Trey: My Revell Promodeler P-47 has the same cockpit, wasn't too crazy about it but it works.

Spark looks really sharp!

Cliff I hear ya ,really hated sticking with the kit supplied pit but trying real hard to stay away from the resin on this one. Keeps tempting me the more I look at it tho

I'm still cleaning up the fuse and opening up tiny vents

Does anyone have a good detail picture of this area?Been searching for hours and coming up dry. Would be greatly appreciated

cheers Trey

B-17 in the stash gave up a turbo(more to come on that build later) and using the donated part I finished up the aft turbo vents.





 I also used some sheet styrene painted black to block light from passing thru the opened vents and installed the office.



Glued the fuse halves together


started working on the gun sight

after it sets up it will be time to decide what to do about the raised panel lines,not really wanting to rescribe this thing. Geuss it depends on how much detail I loose sanding the seams

The wings next,opened the spent shell ports ,landing lights and ID light holes

Cleaned up the engine and firewall,opened the intakes and removed areas around the cylinder heads

Joined the wings and set the dehedral,its close but not exact

filled the minor gaps with green squadron putty

smoothed out the filler and painted a guide coat of thinned grey to highlight imperfections

I just had to touch up a few panel lines at the seams avoiding a major rescribe job.

Thinned MM enamel applied to get a uniform base before the NMF

canopy added

NMF is next,cheers Trey

hurry up, dude, :-0 you only have 6 months to finish it .

How the hell do you lot build em so fast? 

lol I do'nt sleep much at all,btw is that a Tesi in your avatar?

sure is, nice little bike and a bit different to the norm.

PICT0066 by omgpainful, on Flickr

Sweet Tesi ,saw one in person at bike week in Daytona a few years back. Love the Bimota line,especially the old 2 strokers!

I'm going with Testors aluminum for the base of the NMF. First shot some Testors clear over the canopy to help seal down the mask and avoid 'creep'. Followed by a shot of the green interior color. Then the aluminum went on. I had to stop and fix some blems inspite of all the extra care I still missed a few spots. I then shot some Testors clear over the aluminum ,hopefully this will keep me from damaging the finish as I add some various tints to access panels and the anti glare areas.

The props almost ready to hang

Panel color modulation followed by Invasion stripes and anti glare next,cheers Trey

The testors spray looks like a really nice finish, ive never used testors. How resiliant is the finish against fingerprints and the like?

Well my NMF painting is done! Had a couple of problem areas in the tail as well so that set me back a bit. I also got the squadron markings on. Now its decal time!

Some panels are diferent shades, but I went with a light variation so they might not show up in the pictures.

Talentless ,not so well!

Looks spot on B-17pilot,nice results!

Had an EPIC fail on the NMF. Masked up some panels to spray some different shades of aluminum and the clear pulled away from the base. So I grabbed some really strong tape and started using it to 'pull' the remainder of the clear away.

then wet sanded everything with 1000 grit,loosing a little detail but its better than binning it at this point.

Then sprayed it semi gloss black to check for flaws . I'm going to try Tamiya ts-30 silver leaf as I've had good results in the past with it.

If that does'nt work I'm returning it to kit form. Gee I'm so glad I got back into this hobby to relax.

TREYZX10R

 If that does'nt work I'm returning it to kit form. Gee I'm so glad I got back into this hobby to relax.

That sucks bad keep your pecker up, im sure the ts30 will be better.

Those are some colorful birds you have there, Spark. 

Hang in there Trey, they can't all be that bad. Right?

I just finished putting the decals on the Mustang.

All that is left now is some touch up, a clear coat, and the canopy.

Nice one dj, what metal spray is that and what clear coat r u using

Wow DJ, looking good! Love how those nose checkerboard decals came out, one thing I'm not very good at all.

Thanks for all the praise on my blue diamond mustangs, i love the color scheme as well!

I'm also looking for a good clear coat, any suggestions?

Talentless - Thanks!  I used Model Master Metalizer Lacquer Aluminum Plate.  I'm going to use Future to seal the decals and see how it looks.  I may put Testors Dullcote to take down the shine.

Gamera - Thanks!  those decals were tough.  There are a couple of spots that didn't sit well, but the seams look good.  

Talentless thanks I'm trying to stay positive.

DJ that is looking sweet. Awesome job on the NMF.

Well I have made a partial recovery to were I wanted to be. I shot tamiya ts-30 first followed by Model Master aluminum plate metalizer. Then I buffed everything out by hand and shot automotive 2part urethane clear thinned about 30% over the whole thing. I'm not going to attempt to mask and spray the invasion stripes,just too worried everything will pull up again! I tried using the kit supplied ones but ruined them putting them on,totally my fault. So 'elsie ' will have to live without her belly stripes,oh well.

Decals are Aero Master and are working great

Monster Prop is ready to hang

...And... They're done!

Trey: She looks good to me! I wouldn't have noticed the missing stripes if you hadn't told us about them.

Spark: Wow, love those diamond nose Mustangs! Really sharp work there!

Spark a pair of beauties for sure,very nicely done Sir!

Cliff thanks appreciate that!

I'm calling it done

Added some gunsight details

I used watercolor mixed with Formula'560' canopy glue for the id lights after drilling them slightly

also used the same canopy glue for the clear position lights

I used aluminum tubing for the exhaust and punched out disc for the pressure valve that goes in the outlet

cheers Trey

looks damn good to me !!

Talentless thanks!

and a big thanks to Bigfoot01 who took the time to point out that the gear angle needed a tweak!

the fix,looks a lot better thanks John

Very nice work Trey!

Thanks DJ!