Weekend GB: See you in November!

That Dora looks great David! Congratulations on. job well done.

GA bring it on! Can't wait to see what you do with that kit.

As for me, with 11 hours to go I finally have two blobs of plastic that look like aircraft. I'd forgotten how easily these little kits fall together. A couple of things I didn't know or forgot. If you want to do a late war or post war bird with the uncuffed prop, you have to get the F-51D kit. Fortunately, I had one in my stash. If you buy the Tuskeegee Airmen kit, you get a set of canopy masks. And finally, like Spitfires, you can never have too many Mustangs. If I get these done, these will make numbers 5 and 6. Four are US OD over gray and one Israei in blue and tan. One will be a post war Canadian bird and the other will be a Guatemalan bird. Glue should be set now, time for some filling and sanding. Pics will have to wait until I get to work tomorrow since I haven't figured out how to post from my phone.

Nice looking Dora!

Very nice! I'm going to get to my BA today. Got the extra stuff for it. So I'm ready to roll! :)

Looking forward to your double finale there lewbud.

I am calling mine done with a few hours to spare.  This was a pleasure to build after having several short run kits on my bench.  The only issue I had was with the fuselage band which if this wasn't a speed build I would have taken the time to mask and paint it. 

Thanks for letting me join so late into this build lewbud.  I had a blast.  I will have to mark it on my calendar for next November.

oh yeah... the finished pics.

Looking good David! I think you got this!

Going to have to have a talk with the quatermaster because I ran out of a paint that I had plenty of last night. I get off work at 2200 CST so it will be a late session tonight when I get home. Nothing pic worthy other than the proof of unstartedness. A double is being attempted.

Paint is on.  The splinter camo took longer than I had hoped but we should be able to get this done in time.

Sounds like a great choice lewbud.  Can't go wrong with these Tamiya kits.  Well... anything IS possible I suppose. 

Looks like you're off to a good start David!  I look forward to watching it come together. I've added you to the roster.  After I decided to do this last gasp, I started thinking about going out in a blaze of glory with something like an old school Revell 1/16 funny car or top fuel dragster. My mind tends to wander on my overnight shift, but when I got home this morning my sanity returned and I settled on Tamiya's 1/72 P-51D. I even managed to find an unused canopy mask set for it (I hate trying to mask canopies from scratch). Instead of boring OD over gray, this will be a postwar RCAF bird in gloss aluminum with high viz red wing and horizontal stabilizer panels, and blue pinstripes on the fuselage.  Should be a colorful addition to Buddy's Used Aircraft lot. Post more pics soon.

5 hours in.  Cockpit and major assembly complete.  Time to eat something.

Man I have not had to use a photo host since Photobucket went bat crap crazy.  Signed in to Flickr and finally figured it all out but I would not call their site user friendly.  (rant for the day)

Here is my start up photo.  Started a couple of hours ago and had to run some errands so have the cockpit assembled and base coat of paint.  Now that I have the picture host thing sorted I will get back at it and post more photos

Thanks Lewbud.  Started about an hour ago but had to run out and do some errands.  I'll post my start up pic shortly.

Glad to see you've kept this going and that you kept the Calvin theme.  That's awesome!

Thanks Chad and Caveman! This wouldn't happen without guys like you joining in.

Razor,

Welcome aboard! If you've got the time, this is as good a place as any to spend it! I was looking at my schedule and was thinking I might give it one last shot. Any one else care to give it one last go?

Hmm... just stumbled on this and it just so happens I have a realatively free schedule the next two days and since it is still open...    My weekend madness skills are pretty rusty but if you'll let me play I'll see what I can dig out of the stash .  

Sorry I didn't join in earlier but life happens.

Thanks for hosting this one Lewbud.  I look forward to it every year.  Seems to get more participation every year too.

Good job to all who finished!  We will see you all in November.

Now to start thinking about next years entries...........

I think this is the longest running Weekend GB!  Nicely done Buddy!

Alright gents, this thing of ours has run its course  This build will officially close at 0001 Monday 3/4/19. If you haven't started your last gasp build by midnight Sunday 3/3/19, it will have to wait until next time.  If you're like me and have unfinished builds, keep at them and post them when they are done.

Well, I have the parts! Just have to finish up my SSGB model.

Caveman,

It's still going. German Armor said he was waiting on parts for his BA-64 to arrive sometime this month so I told him I'd keep it open for him. If you're up for it, go for it! 

Bump.

We still going?  Never saw an official close for this one.  Long weekend approching and nothing better to do.......

Thanks Lost.

The Hasegawa kit is it's own mold. While it's an efficient way to do different variants, it does pose some problems. As for the paint, it's Tamiya Lacquer out of the rattle can, virtually idiot proof. It's dry to the touch in about 15-20 minutes and ready for masking in about an hour. If memory serves, there are about 5 coats of white on the airframe. Three or four mist coats and then one or two wet coats for a smooth glossy surface. Something I learned while painting cars. The blue is Mr. Color and looks to be a dead ringer for NASA blue should I ever find those decals. I left off the intakes for painting purposes and that was a mistake as they don't fit well and there will be an UGLY join to the fuselage. I wish Hasegawa had made an A/C variant, but they did G's, J's and S's only.

Great painting Bud, the white on blue has come up a treat.

Don't know if they shared moulds, but the old Heller TF/F 104 had the same break up of the fuselage to do both variants.

How do you get to be masking off gloss white an hour after the last coat? Takes me hours before I can even look at it, masking takes a couple of days...

Thanks Ed.  Been offline for a couple of days. 

Nice, I have decals of this subject in 1/48 but havnt found a suitable kit on the cheap for them.

I got home last night after work and started on the wing gap problem. Since there were other problems with this build and it will only see the light of day in the back of Buddy's Used Airplane Lot, I used gap filling superglue to fix the problem. I applied the superglue from the underside, which minimized the amount of sanding (there was still a good deal of it) on the visible top.  Once that was done, I installed the bang seat, masked the canopies, primered it and went to bed. When I got up, I applied the base coat of Tamiya gloss white, and waited for that to dry. About 45 minutes after the last coat, I masked off the top half of the fuselage so I could paint the light blue lower.

Crappy phone pic follows.

After about 45 minutes to an hour, I pulled the tape off and was rewarded with this.

As I was touching up the blue underbelly, the can of air ran out leaving me with the intakes and landing gear doors left to paint. Will pickup a can this weekend. Since I was at an impass regarding paint, I started to add the decals. I don't understand how Hasegawa had a problem with the color white on decals, but they do (or at least did in this case and in many others in my stash).

In the morning I'll trim the decals, add the horizontal stabilizer, wheels and nose gear. Hopefully will be done by the weekend.

Front page is updated! A total of 20 models have been completed so far. Not bad gents, not bad at all.

Nice job Ernest!

Tim,

That sucks about the decals. Hopefully you can find a work around.

Ernest,

Congratulations on completing the double! They look great! The frontpage will be updated shortly.

Now for my adventure. I originally started to do a double, but as I was working on one, decided to go with one build instead. The kit in question is Hasegawa's 1/72 F-104G/S Starfigher with special markings. You have a choice of three specials, an Italian bird with standard camo on one side and a cat chasing mice on an orange and white background on the other, a German blue and white bird, and a red Canadian special with white markings. I elected to go with the blue and white German bird.

Proof of unstartedness:

The cockpit is installed.

The main landing gear.

The rear half of the fuselage.

The front half of the fuselage. This is done so they can share molds with the TF-104G.

The fuselage together.

Now we have something that looks like an airplane.

Now the fun begins. I've got another one of these under construction and I had very little trouble getting the fuselage lined up right, the wings to fit, etc. I was originally going to do the German scheme on that build, but I attached the T-tail and I needed it left off to apply some decals to the vertical stablizer. So, it will become the Canadian F-104G instead. As I said, I had no problem attaching the wings to that build, other than the fact that it might have too much anhedral for the wings. On this one, no such luck.  Although it's not visible in the pic, there is a step on the left side of the fuselage where the front and back halves meet. I don't know if something got misaligned in construction, but something's wrong there. I also had a problem attaching the wings. The right wing refused to even try to fit good. I thought I might have gotten something in the way of the mounting tab so I trimmed it down and the wing still wouldn't fit. So I trimmed some more until there was almost nothing left and it still wouldn't fit. I grabbed a right wing out of my TF-104G, and it fit somewhat better, but there is still a good sized gap to take care of when I get home tonight. I might try some strip stock or gap filling superglue to fill the gap. You don't even want to see the wing alignment.

The right side.

The left side. Not much better.

Right now I'm thinking about hitting them with some gap filling superglue then zapping it to cure it quickly. The only problem with doing that is that it after a certain time (usually about an hour) it gets too hard to sand. One thing I did learn from my earlier build was that canopy masks are a must as I couldn't pick out the canopy frames under my Tamiya tape masking attempt. If I can get her into primer before I hit the sack tonight, I think I'll be golden. You still have a few weeks to get a build completed before this thing of ours ends.

Caveman, that bites about the decals. Hope you can finish in time.

Bufflehead, those are both real gems you got there. I know what you mean about the decals being a PIA but you made it work. Well done.

Whoa!!  Too bad about those decals Caveman, hopefully you can figure something out to still get the A-4 done in time!

Even though my 48 hr deadline for the 2fer is 9 AM Monday, I wanted to get these both done by 12 AM last night (Sunday) as I have to work tomorrow.  Ah well, it took a half hour longer than planned!   Finished at 12:30 AM this morning with proof of deadline completion:

Both are 1/72 Hobby Boss Easy Assembly kits.  Yeah, easy assembly...PIA painting and decals!

And, of course, The Celebratory Libation Pic!

Basil Hayden bourbon (the bottle is too tall for the pic!)

Lewbud, thanks again for another great Weekend Madness GB!!  It's always a blast to see if we can do these quick builds!  I'll be back later this year for the next round!