Very, very good P-38 Mac.

Cheers

Tony

That's a pretty P-38! One of these days I'll build one of those devils through to completion...

Updates on my two North Americans...

B-25...

Had a bit of a stall-out whilst waiting for the metal gear and then for the rain to ease up so I could paint them. Now that they're at least Alcladed, I figured I needed to go ahead and attach them since 1) the nose gear has to go in anyway and 2) the main struts are extremely wobbly, and I need them not-wobbly to gauge how much weight to add. Some tape and some 15-minute epoxy to the rescue.

Up next will be figuring out weights (got some big lead fishing eggs and a carton of BBs...), then finished out the last of the fuselage interior.

P-51B...

Got the gear bays base-painted:

Finished office:

Fuselage assembly complete:

Next up...

- Add clear lens piece for wing light. Thing I'll pick up an MV lens to drop in there, too.

- Drill out kit guns or replace them outright with slide-fit tubing.

- Wings together.

- NMF on the upper radiator and aft center of the wing undersides. This area's always been a nightmare for me to paint on past Mustangs, so figure I'll do it ahead of time this go-round.

- Finish assembly.

Casper the Chihuahua

Awesome work, Mac!

Cheers

Mac: really nice job on the P-38. I've got the Revellogram version in the stash. I may give the Alclad a go whenever I get to that one.

Doogs: more great work, as usual.

I shot the gloss black as a base on my Jug and it is so cold here I just hope it dries!

As a matter of interest, would you get stains like exhaust and gun soot on pollished allu? I know it stains paint, but would it actually stick to a smoothe pollished surface?

Theuns

If it will stain the stainless steel exhaust tips on my car, it'll bet it will stain bare aluminum.  There's some pictures of NMF P-38's with staining on the tops of the boom, too.

Mac: Terrific looking p-38! Funny I started one with the same paint scheme years ago and she ended up beat half to death by Murphy's Law. Still haven't finished the thing. Great work with yours though!

Doogs: Saw the 1/32 B-25 at a model show Sat. Gee friggin' whiz I knew the thing was big but it's hard to comprehend how big until you see one in person.

CaptBigMoney

Thanks!  After all that, I'm afraid to do much weathering for fear of ruining it.  I feel kinda obligated to do dust on the wheels and exhaust stains behind the turbine outlet, tho.

Just remember on P-38s the staining on the supercharger outlets was grayish/tan versus dark and sooty...

Gamera

Doogs: Saw the 1/32 B-25 at a model show Sat. Gee friggin' whiz I knew the thing was big but it's hard to comprehend how big until you see one in person.

My gloss black enamel from yesterday was not a succsess so I sanded it with 2000 paper and repainted with matt black. To get a "depth" and gloss I put future over it.

I left it in the sun to dry as itis very cold hre, but then somehow the trailing edge warped! It couldn't have gotten that hot to do so :-(

How do I now fix that problem ? WIll hot water work, but will it damage the future?????

Theuns

Talentless me thinks your nic is a bit deceiving  Nice work going on in that tube man  I have to agree with Gamera a bit of silver dry brushed will make those vanes pop out.

Casper yup looks like you will be using a tube or two of putty on those wing roots man However I am more than sure it will be worth it in the end. I really like that airframe.

CaptBigMoney that is a tough kit to build I know and you have pulled it off beautifully, I just cant wait to see the finished pics. For weathering my NMF builds I guess you could say I take the chickens way out. I have a set of water colors in the tubes I use. I thin the first color of paste with distilled water then mix in the other colors I need to get the shades I want. Then once happy with the shade I add a drop of dish soap to brake the surface tension and use it like a wash on surface details. The soap also makes the paint come off easily with a damp rag or q-tip. For exhaust stains on my P-38 I used a medium tan on the boom, then once I was happy with the water colors I sprayed future over the model again to seal the water colors. Then I took wood chunk charcoal ( don't use briquets as they have wax in them to hold em together so they smudge and don't come of with water well at all ) and brushed and rubbed that into the exhaust pipe opening and lightly dusted it over the tan on the booms. The charcoal also wipes off with a damp rag or q tip in case you don't like what you did. Just my worth.

Doogs what can I say, your usual fine work in progress. I have both of those kits in my stash and am even more afraid to try them after seeing your progress. Keep the pics coming man

Hey is that a work bench I see under all that stuff ? I know my bench is lost in a black hole somewhere. Good idea for a paint box BTW. I had the same problem with paint bottles and jars an such so I invested in some plastic storage drawer sets they work great. However I like your idea better.

Theuns Awww man that black went on smooth as silk man, what a bummer the wing warped. I dont know if hot water would hurt the future my guess would be no but I am not sure. The good thing is I would think if the future does fog or is damaged in most cases I have seen, just respray with future and it should correct the problem as it seems to be its own solvent so to speak. I know I have had it fog up badly and resprayed and the fogging was gone leaving a crystal clear finish.

I tried some humbrol gloss black first but as I said it didn't want to cure well and the whole surface was covered in very small pinholes or it could have been dust I don't know. Weather here is rather crummy.That it why I want for the matt and future option.

I will play arround with that warp todat and see if I can sort it out.

Theuns

Theuns: OUCH! I don't know what to tell you, I've never seen a model warp like that.

Good luck, I'd be very tempted to fling the model into the brick wall there...

Is it too late to join? i just started two P-51Ds from the 361's FS, 356th FG.

Spark84

Is it too late to join? i just started two P-51Ds from the 361's FS, 356th FG.

Nope its not too late to join Just give me kit and scale info and you are in, and welcome to the shiny side.

Alright folks here is the latest on my P-47 saga. I straigtened the wing as much as I could and will have to just live with the slight warp.

I then sanded the damaged future due to hot water. Re-sprayed the matt black wit a few grey pannels and will future tomorrow.

Here is my cowl that is matt black wit future over it, you can't really see it from the pix but I am rather pleased with the result. it looks to have "depth " to it :-D

If you guys do a pannel line wash, do you just go with normal way of powdered chalk pastel/water mix?

In the pix there seems tobe a "grainy" look to the cowl, maybe I should up the presure from 18 psi higher to better attomize the Alclad??? 

Theuns

When I started this P-47 I thought working with Alclad will be a breeze, I was wrong :-(

Since I don't know the stuff I have allot to learn and it does seem that masking on it it rather crytical.

I  will have to fix all the little spots the masking lifht the paint on the red aswell a few spots on the alclad itselff.

Theuns

Sorry to hear that, Theuns. I've never had lifting problems with Alclad before, but I'm very careful to detack tape as much as I dare before laying it down.

For what it's worth, on Jugs I also paint the cowl ring over primer, then mask it and do the Alclad.

A few updates to the P-51.

I wasn't happy with the MM Green Zinc Chromate in the gear bays, so I busted out my recently-received Gunze Interior Green and darkened it up with a few drops of Gunze RLM 80.

Before:

After:

Also painted the exhausts. Mix of Alclad Exhaust Manifold and Alclad Steel at about a 2:1 ratio.

Looks good, Doogs! I'm also starting to find the MM zinc chromate a tad too bilious. Your solution looks much better. I just did the exhausts for the Spitfire I'm working on. I started with a base coat of aluminum, then mixed a bit of dark rust with bronze and sprayed lightly, then hit it with a very thin coat of MM metalizer exhaust. I like the way it turned out. I'll post some pics of it later.

Nice approach! I'm actually thinking of going back and redoing. I've had great luck with the Steel/Exhaust Manifold before but these seem too dark to me. Think I'll have a second go and maybe toss in some Dark Aluminum this time or something. I also play with pigments and washes on the back-end, rust, blue burnt metal, etc, so these are far from done...

Theuns: Ouch! I've had the paint peel over Alclad a little but nothing that badly. As Doogs said you can cut the stickiness of the tape by sticking to your hand before using it on the model. I've also been going back and washing everything with detergent to make sure there isn't anything  where the paint is going.

Doogs: Nice, now that you point it out the earlier green does seem a little too green. And nice job on the stacks there too!  

Looking excellent Doogs, as always. I concur with your thoughts on the Green Zinc Chromate, but it looks spot on now.

Cheers

Tony

Doogs,

Here's a couple of pics of the Spitfire exhausts I mentioned. The photos really accentuate the texture and make it look pretty grainy. It actually appears much smoother to the eye.

Lookin' good stoutfella! I totally understand about the grain - I can control the ISO really well on my DSLR, but if I'm using my iPhone or point-and-shoot I'm kind of at its mercy...

I redid the Mustang exhausts last night - Exhaust Manifold + Magnesium, topped with some Alclad Transparent Smoke. Pretty cool steel/brown/blue look to it all. Didn't get a picture last night but will this evening.

Also finally got the wings glued. Got a start filling the panel lines, and finished laying down some Airframe Aluminum around the radiator scoop. Getting paint into that area after things are all together has been a nightmare on every previous P-51 I've tackled, so getting it out of the way!

I am calling tis Jug done! Warts and all LOL.

The kit's decals were not bad atall, I had to use a little microsol on the nose art toconform to the cowl.

Interestingly the antenna mast as installed on the kit is to far forward, the canopy only slides bac a little then fouls against it soI had to move it back.

This was by no means as simple a build as I thought it might be, I did however learn allot about Alclad though!

Theuns

Stout - nice work on those exhausts! The effect is very real - I'm gonna have to try that one myself.

Doogs - the 'stang is turnin'  into a real looker. I'm getting more and more intrigued with that 'black base coat' method of painting every time I see it. Those wheel wells really look nice!

Theuns - congrats on the finished build - it's a beauty, and here's a tip of the cap for stickin' with it after all the wing issues you had. Very nicely done sir!

Nice work guys!

And great job there Theuns. Beautiful great clean build there!

Doogs and Stoutfella great looking exhaust stacks. There seems to be an unlimited number of ways to do them but thanks for sharing your methods as both are good ideas.

Doogs your 51 is looking really good buddy. I to like the way you played with the interior green, I haven't really liked any of the shades offered by the manufatures, always seemed to me the should have had a bit more yellow in them.

CaptBigMoney were you calling your P-38 finished or are you going to weather it first.

Theuns for the life of me I cant figure out what warts you are talking about on your P-47. The save on your wing looks better than great and the finish is flawless as far as I can see. Fantastic work fixing the paint lifting problems you had too. You now have a very very nice representation on the venerable P-47D Thunderbolt to show off. Well done sir Your build is marked as finished on the front page and your Group Badge is there waiting for you, hope you like it. Oh BTW I love that you used a chart as a backdrop for your pictures, a nice touch for sure.