You pre-shaded and then painted in black? I've seen it all now.

Amazing results on the wing walks , clever technique there.  As usual, your pit is first rate and the exterior paint is very convincing, a super job. Thank you so much for sharing the how-to's.

I've never tried to airbrushing the wing walks on like that but I love your results, I'm going to have to give it a try some day. And the 'black' looks great, love how it came out. 

Stunning work on the pit Dog as usual. I have to say that your pits are simply outstanding. Yes black is a PITA to properly weather and you did a fantastic job at representing the fading and weathering. It's always good to go less as you did with the chipping cause it shows up big time over black. 

I've been waiting to hear about how the fit goes and apparently it falls together very well so I just may pick up one of these unusual examples soon. 

Your paintwork looks great, and will inspire me on any black painted aircraft.  But for some reason, your black looks beown, and your red looks orange on my Ipad.

Best Wishes,

Gary

Excellent paintwork, Joe! I will have to steal that technique, since it looks so fantastic.

-BD-

Joe, I think you nailed the faded black just right. I also love the painted stripes, nice touch. You've given me some ideas for my widow when I build it up. I'll be using Vetor resin for the canopy on that since the kit one is said to be pretty bad. Hopefully, that will save me some greif. I too have thought about how to fade black, nice work, you hit it perfect.

BK

Thanks guys.  Moving right along now.  The replacement kit arrived the other day and I horked the canopy piece out of it (wouldn't we know it, the canopy from Dragon showed up today---impressive customer service...A++++).  After it was masked and added to the model, there was a small gap at the front (see pic).  I filled it with Perfect Plastic Putty (awesome stuff) after I sprayed the interior green. 

I decided to paint in the P-61's distinctive wing walk stripes as I figured decals would tear.  I first sprayed the general area XF-7 Flat Red. I then sliced Tamiya tape strips to the proper width and while using the instructions decaling profile as reference, I added them thusly. 

I then preshaded the airframe, but since it would be black, I'm not sure why.............der!

Heres where I decided to experiment a bit.  For me black is an extremely hard color to weather convincingly, so I said, why not use dark gray instead of black and lighten or darken accordingly, all while employing my streaking technique?  Off I went....I started with an eyeballed mixture XF-24 Dark Grey and a touch of XF-1 Flat black.  I then added some XF-66 Light Grey and shaded various panel lines.

I added more XF-66 and streaked the wings, followed by more and lightened the control surfaces....

Time to remove the tape.....

The P-61 had distinctive heavy exhaust staining across the upper wings which can be seen in many pics from the era. I started with the XF-66 Light Grey then followed up with diluted XF-57 Buff.  I wanted it to be prominent.  I think this looks about right.

I added some random silver drybrushing and silver pencil chipping around the intakes and cowls.  I'm not one to go overboard on chipping as I think its easy to overdo. 

I'll clear coat it soon.  I'm waiting on Eduard Brassin tires and Quickboost props. 

Joe 

Yeah I love those engines and the cockpit as usual for you is first class! 

Great to see her coming together. Crossing my fingers you get the replacement canopy soon. 

Great job so far as always. Hopefully that canopy shows up quickly so we can see you get to paint on this thing. It really is gorgeous, especially the pit and the engines.

-BD-

Thanks everyone.  JJ, I got it off ebay for $46.00 + shipping, considerably less than MSRP ($86.00 at Sprue Brothers-----they need to lower their prices if they want to compete with eBay).  The earlier "uncorrected" kits can be found a bit cheaper.  Owl, The pit is out of the box.  GW did a nice job here.  GAF, they finally replied and said they had the piece, but no word on when they would be sending it.  Okay...you have it, how about sending it to me...lol.  head scratcher.....we'll see.  I ended up buyng another one off ebay (also reasonable) and if the new canopy does arrive, I add it to the new kit....no worries as it will get built. 

Wingnut, great tune.  Cheap Trick reference aside, no worries about the seam police or snitches as this is a commission build and will not be subjected to their scrutiny... 

Anyways, I have a quick update.  As you know I discovered the main canopy was cracked.  I'm not sure if I did it or it was like that. GW tends to use way too many sprue gates which can present issues.  Either way, as I said, I have an email in for a replacement and another kit on its way. 

In the meantime, I masked off the remainder windows to be added to the airframe before paint, a technique I used on the Uhu and liked (normally I paint them separately and add later).  I must have gotten the wrong Eduard mask set because the masks for the rear were too short.  I had to supplement with some Tamiya tape.  No biggie but weird since it says for the GW kit.  

I assembled the airframe and had zero issues.  I'm very pleased with the fit of everything so far.  Will I jinx myself if I say this has been one of the easiest builds ever.  Not even one wingroot gap!  Here we are before a shot of primer to check the seams.   

GW was kind enough to include a nose weight which fits in the radar cone.  This will keep it on its front wheels. It was secured inside with 5 minute expoxy to keep it from jiggling around and then the nose was Tenax'ed to the front.  Again the fit was great. 

As soon as a replacement canopy piece shows up I'll mask and add it.  Then it will be paint time..

I intend to paint on the red wing walk stripes.  I did it on my last P-61 and was pleased with how it turned out.  All I need to do is figure out how to convincingly weather a black plane.  I may start in the grey ranges and work up to black.....or vice versa . 

Joe

Wow, very detailed assembly, one word, Excellent!

Toshi

Any word on the canopy, Joe?

Fabulous detailing work so far, Joe! Look forward to seeing more...have fun with the rest of the build!

Cheers,

Martin

Joe! Very nice!! I've been MIA for a while.  In a couple more weeks I'll be able to explain why... ;)  Great looking kit so far. I've been eyeing up the Great Wall line-up for some time now.  Glad to finally see one build up.  Looking great so far! =]

you are one brave man. I salute you, sir!

fantastic interior detail, though! Is that all just from the kit?!

Beautiful interior as usual LD. 

I was holding off buying a P-61 because of the less-than-perfect kits out there, but I think I found one to get now , thanks to your post.  Where did you buy this one, if I may ask ?

Thanks for the kind words everyone!  Yes, the Monogram kit is still nice but the glass does not fit at all.  I seems that the mold has shrunk over the years.  I suspect of you can find an original 1974 example it would fit better.  I have a still sealed one in the stash complete with the $2.99 price tag on it.  The kit is still buildable but it takes some effort.   The raised panel lines have never really bothered me.  All that aside though, this Great Wall kit is outstanding so far.  Not sure I'd pay the $80.00 MSRP, but outstanding non-the-less (I found this one on Ebay for 45.00 which is more like it).     

Anyhow, I'm in for an update.  I added the cockpit innerds and thought the IP sat too far back.  I moved it towards the yoke and reinforced the back at the floor it with a chunk of styrene. 

Evetything fit very well.  I think the steering yoke seems a bit oversized but maybe it was huge on these.

I turned my attention to the double Pratt and Whitneys.  These are an absolute work of art.  Separate push rods, exhaust pipes and this version has the corrected can-like gear box and magnetos.  Everything was painted separately then it was glued together.  On this one I went against my normal wiring practice and used the included PE wiring harness, mainly because I the liked the ring and leads.  These also didnt seem as flat and one dimensional as Eduard examples. My main complaint was that if you bent them too much they tended to snap off.  Those were replaced with fine copper wire. I then painted the wires XF-6 Copper, Testors Gloss coated everything, which was followed with a Detailer wash.  A shot of Tamiya Smoke then Testors Dull Cote and they were done.  (Note: Seam police...the face of the gearboxes will be hidden by the prop hub so I didnt spend time there)...

I then started gluing the airframe together.  I did seam work on the center pod (note silver Sharpie marks) then the wings booms will be next.  The test fit of the wing to boom joints are outstanding.  So far this has all been a relaxing endeavor. Lets see how the glass fits first .....

Joe

Hi Joe! Very nice work on that pit!  Really looking forward to seeing this one come together.

steve

Joe

What a great start, this will be one BIG bugger and impressive when finished. I'm old enough to recall them flying back and forth from the factory to the test flight areas in the forties, I was just a little kid and didn't know exactly which airplanes they were, but I could distinguish their shape and sound.

Dynamite lookers and powerful sounding, sort of a high pitched whine was present on high speed descent, airframe drag noise I'd guess.

Thanks for the post.

Patrick

Another masterpiece in the making.  Will be following along, may want to tackle this kit myself one of these day.

Mike

Looking great so far. I'm watching too. I've got a couple of the Dragon 1/72 kits.

About the Mono kit, everything everyone has ever said is true. I built three over the years, it's good there's a better choice now.

One interesting weathering detail, that my F-in-L pointed out to me. His squadron in the ETO got them in later 1944 and they didn't get too dirty. But the tape used to seal up the gaps between the movable control surfaces and the airframe on the trip over took off the black paint when it was removed.

Awesome work. I was looking at this kit yesterday and was wondering how it compares to the Revell kit, which I just picked up. I will follow this for sure. Great work on the Pit, as usual.

BK

Heck yeah- Joe you're the Cockpit King baby!!! 

Will be following this for sure, I've got a 2/3rds finished Monogram P-61 and have been really thinking about picking this kit up now that you can find it a little cheaper than the release price.