Metal masters GB 2016 (1Feb to 31 July)

I gotcha.  That's about what I figured.  It is easier and in a lot of ways better to put down a base coat instead of just one solid opaque color.  So in referencing the nose, I agree, it's the smart way of painting that. You won't see it so much with acrylics, but with oil paints some paints have a bit transparency to them and take more of the color to cover something more completely.  But when you're putting down thin coats...a base coat goes a long way. =]

Thanks.

Well, "Metal Masters" does NOT apply to me and my painting skills. I loaded my airbrush too full of Alclad Airframe Aluminum, and I dumped some drops on the port wing. Tried to wipe them off with a paper towel, then tried drowing it in thinner to smooth it out. Nothing worked, so it was back to sandpaper and a new black gloss coat.

Fortunately, it was a small space and nothing too bad was done. Today I was able to use my lunch break to lay down the airframe aluminum and pull off the masking on the stripes. Looks like a little bit of touching up in the black/yellow areas (and a small amount on the red nose), but other than that, I'm happy with it.

Next step is to mask for the different metals on the wings, gun ports and fuselage, and then clears and decals.

-BD-

It looks like it's coming along pretty well.  Tackled those drips pretty well too. =]  Cleaning up the stripes ought to be easy pickings.  Who's the pilot for this bird?

Brandon, I had my AB spluttering some drops on one of my models before so I feel your pain. Nice save though and that finish looks good :-)

Theuns

I managed to beat the decals into submition and shoot a satin clearcoat over it so it looks like a well used plane but not loose the alclad effect.

In the bright sunlight in the pix it looks a little darker than it really is.

Theuns

Hey FSM, checking in with a small update.  First...the kudos.

BrandonD & Theuns, great work on your Sabres.  I've always liked the lines of the Sabre, and your builds are coming along nicely.  Great painting and detailing!

Now, what have I gotten done?  Well, honestly, not much.  

Haven't been able to make much progress lately.  Although, I was happy to see that my gap filling strategy worked nicely. 

Before painting, I stuffed some Silly Putty (yeah, the stuff we played with as kids) into the gear and brake wells as masking.

After that, I sprayed sprayed on Alclad's white primer.

I did some wet sanding with fine pads after the primer went down to make sure my surface was butter smooth for the NMF.

After that, I sprayed on Alclad's Aluminum.  I sprayed on an initial light coat then wet sanded some more.  I followed the sanding with some more Alclad primer to smooth out some of the rough spots, then sprayed a second coat of Al.

This is where things are at as of now.  I'll wet sand with a 6000 grit pad and respray any necessary touch ups before I call the base coat done.  Once I'm satisfied, I'll start working on varying panels with different shades of metals.  

Anyway, feel free to share your comments and criticisms.  I'm always interested in what you all have to say.  Thanks for looking, and stay tuned for more updates.

Cheers!

-O

Wow, Steve, that should be a beautiful bird when she's done. Looking forward to seeing this one completed. I'm hoping to get some more done on my Mig-21PF as soon as possible. This will be my first all NMF aircraft. I definitely have some work to do on the seams, especially where the nose joins the fuselage behind the cockpit.

Hi Steve, you are on the roster mate, welcome ;-)

Theuns

Welcome Steve.  Glad to see you.

Nice job so far O.  Quick question, have you used the Alclad White primer in the past?  Is there any real difference between that and the Grey?

Theuns.  That's come out great so far. I'm not generally sold on most Sabres out there.  I think that's a subject that is hard to pin down, but so far you've nailed it pretty well. =]

Wow, Theuns, that looks simply amazing. Those fuselage stripes are PERFECT, and I don't have the confidence to try those, even if my kit decals weren't a wrinkled mess. Excellent job.

Oortiz - That's a sweet looking P-80. the time and prep work is really paying off. I can't wait to see more. On the subject of masking, I usually use the kit-supplied doors as masking, but on this F-86, I couldn't due to the attachment points, so I traced them onto some Evergreen sheet styrene and cut them out, then press-fit them into the bays. It worked, but your solution seems much better. Does it continue to stick even after it's painted, or is this a one-and-done approach? I like Blu-Tac for the same thing, but I find it's messy to clean up out of the recessed details.

-BD-

Quick update: I got the decals on. Some of them gave me fits (mostly the fuselage ones around what I suppose are speed brakes - sorry, this is my first jet and I am not 100% sure what they are ). I held the panels in place using Blu-Tac, and then put the decals over them, used setting solution, and then gently cut them with my knife. It worked well for the most part, but required some touching up (I've found that Model Master Dark Sea Blue is pretty much a perfect match for the blue in the star-and-bar decals on most kits).

Now for the gear, tanks and other bits. Hopefully I can finish it up this week.

-BD-

Hey FSM,  

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my build.  Let me go ahead and address a couple of the questions thrown my way.

bvallot - I've primarily used the white primer until this build.  I (unsuccessfully) tried the grey primer on a couple of parts.  (The failure wasn't the primer's fault.  Total user error.)  It goes on the same, if not, a little smoother.  The only difference is the final sheen of the metal coat.  To my eye, the grey gives it a bit of a "shinier" finish.  Other than that, I really haven't seen any differences.

BrandonD - In regards to using Silly Putty as a mask, I can say that it's way better than Blu-Tac.  I've tried BT for masking camo, but I don't like how it leaves an oily residue when you peel it off.  Also, it seems to lose some "stick" when it gets "dirty."  I don't have that problem with SP.  It peels off cleanly and easily with no residue.  Also, even after it's been painted, it still sticks well.  As a matter of fact, I just knead the old paint back into the SP ball and reuse it.  I've been using the same SP for a few builds now.  Pulling SP out of recessed detail is easy.  BT likes to stick to other things as much as it likes to stick to itself.  I know that makes it tough to pull out of deeply recessed detail.  Not so much with SP.  It likes to stick to itself more than the plastic; painted or not.  Even if a little SP gets left behind when you pull it up, using a bit of SP to pull itself out of the recessed detail works like a charm.  

Give SP a try.  I promise you won't go back to using BT.  

Anyway, if there's anything else I can answer, feel free to ask.  Again, thanks for dropping me a line.

Cheers!

-O

OK guys I’m starting the B-47. This is a rudimentary kit with raised panel lines, some flashing and very basic cockpit. This build should be a quick one as there are very few parts. The time consuming part will be the painting.

Oortiz - thanks! I'll pick some up and give it a shot.

-BD-

Well, I finished this one up last night and got thephotos shot this morning, so here she is:

1/48 Hasegawa (with Verlinden cockpit) F-86F-30 Sabre flown by Maj. James Hagerstrom, a two-war ace. This is "Mig Poison," in which he became a Korean War ace. This plane is from late 1953, so it still sports the black cockpit (the switch to gray seems to have been made on new machines in November 1953) and has the earlier style drop tanks.

The painting was done by priming in Gunze Mr. Surfacer 1500 black, then laying down Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black as a base for the Alclad. At that point, I used thin vinyl tape to mask the black lines on the stripes, then shot the interiors with Model Master Insignia Yellow. After masking, the whole thing got a shot of Airframe Aluminum, and thanks to reading Theuns' post, I tried out using different numbers of coats for the color modulation, so there's nothing but Airframe Aluminum on this one (except for the interiors of the gear doors and speed brakes, which are White Aluminum).

The decals are from Super Scale, and I would rate them ok. The stencils on the port fuselage seem different than every other set I've seen, and there was some trouble with them settling down, but I am happy with them overall.

Ok, the pics:

Thanks all for having me in the build. I look forward to seeing all of your great work continue. What I've seen so far in here is really quite amazing!

-BD-

Man we've got some fast building SOBs in here!! =]  Unbelievable some times.  Steve is right.  You definitely killed it.  I'm glad to see someone repeat this approach with similar results.  Very rewarding to see and it's exactly what you hope to have in a GB like this one.  

It seems you have some silvering with your stenciling on the wings and fuselage.  I find that nearly impossible to get rid of on a NMF.  I'm always cutting mine as close as I can get to the words as possible to eliminate this.  Have you tried any Solvaset. Stuff works wonders for me. I don't ever have the problems I hear people describing with decals.  I'm not sure how it reacts with the Aircraft Aluminum, but I've carefully applied it in small drops in the past when trying something new. Haven't ruined anything yet. Most of the regular Aluminums work just fine with it.  I'll bathe it on with those colors. =]

Very nice!  Anything else on deck?!

Theuns,

I'd like to jump in with a 1/48 P-51D that will be a crossover with the Mustang group build. I plan to mark it as Charles Weaver's P-51D from winter 1944 through spring 1945 (see http://www.cebudanderson.com/357profileweaver.htm) using decals from KitsWorld.

Brandon, that Sabre looks amazing. I'll be happy (and more than a little amazed) if my D comes out half as nice.

Best to all,
Larry

Hey Larry, good to see you over here.

Brandon that looks just fantastic mate ,well done! The metal to my eye looks just right and the decals finish it off well.

You beat me to the punsh with completion....I just completed myne last night LOL.

I will put a pic on the pix page, thanx allot for joining in ;-)

Are you gonne do another one? (come on....you know you want to)

@ Larry, you are very welcome to join in, I will update the roster.

Theuns

Welcome aboard Larry. =]

C'mon Brandon! Pull the trigger. That Airframe Aluminum is just to pretty to stay all couped up in a bottle. =]

BD, that looks sharp!  Great finish!  Very nicely done.  Kudos!

Cheers,

-O

I am calling it done....

I did not go for the airshow finish but rather a used but well maintained "line" aircraft.

It is actually a very nice kit and I enjoyed building it.

After looking closely I see I forgot the pitot mast! Just added now LOL 

Theuns

Theuns, wow!  Great NMF.  The decals look great!  

2 great Sabres in as many days!  Boy, between you and BD, I'm almost embarrassed to show my NMF effort.  Next to these two metal finishes, my F-80's going to look like silver painted plastic!

  Cheers,

-O

No Omar, I do not believe that for a second ;-)

Theuns

Very nice Theuns. I still can't believe y'all knock these out so fast.  They certainly don't look rushed.  Is this all just one color Alclad? Airframe Aluminum??

Are you up for another?

Larry, I forgot I wanted to mention that Lawdog has a pretty nifty way of painting anything checkered. I believe he's got a little tutorial of it on one of his mustang builds...Berlin Express I think. Fairly, simple and works like a charm.  Maybe if you dig through his posts or send him a message he could point you in the right direction.  I'll see if I can find it later on myself.  I plan on trying it his way when I finally pick a subject  that's checkered.   I think you'll like it. =]

Yes just airframe allu over gloss black enamel.

I spray the whole thing till I get a dark allu look, mask of pannels and spray more to make it lighter. Then the difference is not so dramatic.

I am sure I will do another , just don't have one in the stach, need to go get one.

Theuns

Thanks, all!

Oortiz - No, no, no - Your P-80 looks way better than my F-86, and you started with a less-polished kit to begin with. There's a ton of skill there, and I'm envious.

Theuns - We basically finished at the same time. I finished mine up on Tuesday night as well.

I stole Theuns' method of using Airframe Aluminum over gloss black as well. I just masked as I went for the different shades, as he described.

As for another metal plane, I don't think I have one in me before the close of this build. The only one I have in my stash is a P-38, and while I do want to build it, I have several in front of it for various reasons.

But I will definitely be watching this as you all add to it. I do live a shiny plane!

-BD-