MONOGRAM MAFIA II GB

Yeah, they're big... Always thought the reports given by Jap recon scouts at Coral Sea and Midway would sound something like, "No, we didn't spot any Yankee planes headed our way, but we DID see dozens and dozens of white stars below us, Admiral Yamamoto."...

Before Pearl Harbor, when USN aircraft had by reg.'s only small fuselage stars, a medium size star on the one upper wing, and black  ID numbers, that paint scheme was excellent for camouflage against the sea. Very low key. But then they added the "HEY LOOK AT ME" stuff....

Thank you Don Hammer

I got Shep's book and am very glad you talked me into it. I would still like to see your deal on casting figures because this is mostly what I am interested in and plan to start doing so next year.

The Devastator is looking good!

You could say it looks devastating!

Did some work on the F-82 and it looks like I've rounded third and I'm heading for home on No. 4.  The Black laquer is kind of shiny so I'm thinking of dirtying it up just a tad.  Do you think there is to much shine on this bird?

Nice twin Mustang there 68GT !!!!!!!!! MIght be a tad shiny but none the less its lookin really good

I like it too 68GT. Very neat job on the paint scheme.

Cheers

Tony

Thank you MK and 68. But those danged wing stars are giving me fits. They have more pin holes in them than a 40 year old heroin addict and even with solvaset & micro sol treatments almost 2-3 times every day are still having bubbles I cant get out. Old ones leave and new ones pop up... Quite vexing (I love that seldomly used word)

stikpusher

Thank you MK and 68. But those danged wing stars are giving me fits. They have more pin holes in them than a 40 year old heroin addict and even with solvaset & micro sol treatments almost 2-3 times every day are still having bubbles I cant get out. Old ones leave and new ones pop up... Quite vexing (I love that seldomly used word)

Gave the F-82 a sludge wash and some flat.  I'm going to follow it up with Testors clear since I think the Future comes out to glossy.

Hey Hans,

I just committed to the upcoming Twin Boom GB with the Revellogram P-38J. At first, I was figuring I'd do it later in the year after finishing a couple of other projects. But now I'm thinking I'll do it as a crossover build, move it up in the rotation in order to meet your Jan. 31 deadline and get myself "made" in the Monogram Mafia.. Sound agreeable?

Here is number four Hans.

Nice Twin `Stang 68GT! Good looking build. Got that one in my stash but I`ll have to find my "cheaters" before I can build it....

Thanks,

I was thinking of trying to build a 1/48 F-4C/D I have in the closet but I'm not sure if I'll get to it by the end of January.

Ed, the twin 'Stang looks great!  Things have gotten crazy for me lately.  I'm working 150 miles away from home right now and staying at work.  I get home on the weekends.  I've only been getting a few hours here and there to finish build number 4, but.....

It's Done!  Took long enough.

It only fought a little.  I'm just happy that it's complete.  I also got a started on build #5!  It's the ProModeler F-84G(E) Thunderjet.  It's not really a G but more of an E.  

The office was pretty sparse.  The biggest hurdle was fitting enough weight in the nose so as not to resort to the support peg for standing on the tricycle gear..

Starting number five today.  Weather is supposed to go down hill as the day goes on so that could be a good thing.  We'll see how far I get buy the end of January.  Going to build it as a NJ ANG jet of the 177th FIG Jersey Devils.

LOL... Looks like a Do335 "Arrow" I did last year! Had to pack weight everywhere to keep the nose down.

Greetings,

I pulled the, um, venerable Revellogram P-38 out of my stash for the just under-way Twin Boom group build, but thought I'd also cross over with it to get made in the Monogram Mafia.

How venerable is this thing? Well, I was reminded as I started sanding off the 1964 copyright notice thoughtfully molded on the horizontal stabilizer that I first built this kit when I was in maybe 7th or 8th grade. At the time, I thought it was pretty hot. It was also the last kit I built in the mid 70s before leaving the hobby for more than 30 years. So how hot is it now? Not so much. I'm already finding at least moderate fit issues, of course, and major lack of detail. I considered picking up some aftermarket goodies, until I realized I'd be spending 40 bucks for a seat, wheels and vac-form canopy, to try and spruce up a $15 kit. So I'm going straight out of the box save for Aeromaster decals on the way. I'll finish it either as Black Market Babe in an OD/neutral gray scheme, or as the NMF St. Louis Blues, which might be my first choice as my hockey-playing sons and I are all Blues fans.But the decision will rest on how the surface looks once I get this beast together and clean up the seams and such.

Onward and upward!

I realize I haven't been around lately, BUT if I can crank out the two kits I signed up for by the end of the month, will it still count?

Greetings,

Moving along on the Lightning. As mentioned previously, I'm going strictly OOB on this one, as I don't feel like spending three times more than the kit price in order to marginally spiff up what will definitely be a shelf queen.

Cockpit. Nothing much to see here, folks. Move along:

The more I work with this thing, the more I long for my Tamiya stash. Brittle plastic with giant attachment points, flash EVERYWHERE, 60s engineering and fit that is mediocre at best. Note the ragged leading edges:

Plowing ahead, though. Adding plenty of weight to the nacelles. I actually added more after taking pics.

Starting to put the puzzle together:

Like I said, plenty of weight in this bird.

OK, at least beginning to look like a Lightning:

I'm trying to do my best on cleaning up the fit and seams without being compulsive about it. It's funny, I'm willing to go the extra mile on seam cleanup (if there is any) on the Tamiya kits because I know a little extra work will make it perfect. But with this, I know that no matter what I do it will still be mediocre. The P-38 is still one of the coolest kits ever, but I guarantee this will be the last Revellogram version I do.

Got my decal situation sorted out. Returned the mistakenly ordered 1/72 sheet and now have the 1/48 sheet I wanted in hand. At the moment, leaning toward doing St. Louis Blues in NMF, but I'll have to see how I feel after finishing cleanup and what kind of surface I end up with. Other choice is Black Market Babe in OD/neutral gray. Onward!

Nice job so far Stoutfella.  I got 3 of these hanging on the wall about 90 percent done--a J, an M nightfighter and the recon version.  Figured I couldn't go wrong at 5 bucks apiece.  You might consider drilling out the small airscoops with a pin vice it adds a lot.

Nice work on the P-38.  I have this done do far on the 106.

Great work on the Lightning Stoutfella, that thing sounds tough. The cockpit looks got on the F-106, I'm sure I owned that kit at one time. Never got around to it.

Cheers

Tony

Greetings,

Well, I'm already worn out. I've had just about enough trimming, filling, sanding and tweaking. As I said earlier, I'm just not gonna be obsessive about trying to make this perfect, but some things just weren't acceptable, such as the abysmal "fit" of the fairings on the big scoops on the booms. I mean, these just weren't even remotely close. Out came the Tamiya putty.

The gun bay doors and the nose piece were particularly hideous.

I've been fighting the good fight on those, and I'll try to do some more smoothing, but there's only so much I can stand. I know this kit can be turned into something excellent, but my skills aren't yet at the level where I can compensate for and correct brittle plastic that just doesn't fit.

So a little more smoothing and fiddling (not to mention about a cubic yard of damp TP to fill those wheel bays) and it'll be off to paint.

I'm still leaning toward the NMF "St. Louis Blues." I'll use MM Metalizer because I've used it before and it's what I have on hand. Which means I'll be spraying OD for anti-glare panels and blue for stripes first, as I don't want to mask over the delicate Metalizer. And that means I have to try to match the blue of the other markings. Unless I call an audible at the line and switch it to "Black Market Babe" in OD/gray, which would probably be the far simpler choice.

Stoutfella, Everything is looking good to me. It`s definately a challenging kit and I`ve built it several times, each time I had the same problems that you are having...lol. I had just started that kit a few days before "Sandy" and had it spread out on my bench...now  it`s spread out in a landfill somewhere...

Don`t give up, your hard work will pay off in the end!

Len

Thanks for the encouragement, Len. My problems with the kit pale in comparison to yours!

A quick update on the P-38. I primed it with Mr. Surfacer 1200. Didn't look terrible, but there are enough remaining surface and seam flaws that I just don't feel like investing vast amounts more time addressing. I figured the NMF scheme would only spotlight the flaws, so I'm switching to the OD/neutral gray scheme for "Black Market Babe." I'll save the "St. Louis Blues" decals for the day Tamiya puts out a Lightning.

I sprayed MM enamel insignia yellow for the tail stripes and back half of the spinners. While I was at it, I tipped the props, then sprayed the blades with Tamiya flat black and decided to do a little preshading. I've never done much preshading and as the photos can attest, I didn't put a lot of steady-handed precision into the task. I'm only looking to create a bit of variation in the top coats.

A busy weekend awaits, with a Boy Scout campout and hockey games, so I won't be getting much done here until next week.

Greetings,

Moving along on the 38. After preshading, I sprayed the underside with Tamiya neutral gray, heavily thinned with 91% alcohol, then went back with a slightly lighter shade on the control surfaces and randomly elsewhere.. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out. And I'm beginning to really like my new Iwata airbrush that Santa brought.

After the gray I did the topside with Tamiya olive drab, which seems really dark, darker than the pictures appear. I built it up very gradually with the paint again very thin, and then hit it with a lighter mix for variation. I spent an hour or so on this, as it's not the easiest bird to paint, with all the nooks and crannies created by the booms. But again, I'm fairly happy with the overall look.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Of all the things that have changed in this hobby since my early days in the 60s and 70s, Tamiya tape just might be the modeling equivalent of sliced bread. What great stuff! I remember trying to brush paint canopies and anti-glare panels with Scotch tape masks. The results were predictable and unsatisfying, even to my less-critical 12-year-old self back then.

Now that I've got the base colors down, I'll plan to hit it with a gloss coat later today. I was thinking of trying to use Future again (the first time I tried it didn't go well), but I just got a bottle of Micro Gloss from Microscale, so I may give that a shot. Gloss coats have been a weakness for me. I've been using MM acrylic gloss and can never get it as smooth and shiny as I'd like for decaling. But I'm actually starting with a pretty smooth finish here with the Tamiya colors, so I'm hoping for something good to happen.

Well I did get the AVG P-40 done finally. I was away from the bench for over a month so its dio and the P-39 will not make it in time. The pics are rather rough as it had done got dark by the time I glued the last piece in place but I did want to get some taken as proof of completion. Looking back there will be a few things I do differently on my next P-40 I do, but over all I am more or less pleased with these results.

Well I guess 3 out of 5 aint that bad, since it is over 50%. I look forward to the next one of these as I really love these old classics even if they sometimes take a bit of work. If nothing else they are cheap enough to experiment and improve ones skills on.

stoutfella- I highly recommend testing out the Micro Gloss on something else before attempting it on that gorgeous paint job on your P-38. I only tried Micro Gloss/Flat once and was so unhappy with the stuff that I threw it away. I suggest giving Future another go in a test and then on the model before the Micro Scale stuff.... 

And yes, the Tamiya tape is very sweet stuff! I love it!

Nice,

This is the F-106 as of today so I'm not going to make the deadline with five builds.  Maybe I can just call it 4-1/2 or 4-1/4 builds.