Completed Revell 1/72 C-54D Skymaster

scottrc

Happy New Year Toshi.

This by far may be your best work yet.  You have nailed the tricky de-icer boots on the first try.   Great job! 

Scott

 

It was quite the challenge as I experimented.  Instead of utilizing my special Tamiya tape to do the radius, I tried to replicate that by cutting Frog tape into thin strips for the radius.  It worked out well, not great but well.  I will continue to endeavor in my builds.  Thank you for your support in my builds and always following my threads!

Toshi

To my fellow forum members,

I would like to share these photos of the windows and cockpit Canopy.

Toshi

Happy New Year Toshi.

This by far may be your best work yet.  You have nailed the tricky de-icer boots on the first try.   Great job! 

Scott

ManCityFan

Looks to me like your patience paid off. The black looks perfect! You are doing a great job on this project,

 

As for the black, (I'm assuming the black stripes are either just black paint or wing de-icer's) I try my best to make it look perfect like the FSM Forum members here but I fell short on that as I accidentally bumped a wing tip against my paint booth and scraped off some black from one of the wings.  I had to go back and touch up a few spots as well as some black somehow got onto the NMF.  I touched up the NMF as well on the spot mentioned.  I was shocked at that, with all the masking I did!  Oh well, there is always something to correct or go back to fix in the world of modeling.  

I now am in the process of removing all the window masking and I am going to seal the C-54 to prep it for decal placement.  And then it's off to cleaning up a few things and to seal the decals in.  Finally to add things like the landing gear tires etc. 

Your kind comments humble me sir.  That's very nice of you.  I will continue to try and do my best on this exciting and wonderful project build.  Thank you for your support, read and reply!

Toshi

As you can see, three thousand feet of Frog Tape and newspaper were used to mask the Skymaster for the black stripes.  At least that's what it felt like.  LOL!  But seriously, a lot of taping procured a huge amount of patience.  

What would it look like after I remove the masking was the real question in my minds eye. So here are some photos of what was done this evening.

Toshi

Bish

Thats looking really nice Toshi. And impressed that you re-scribed it, thats somthing i still need to try.

 

To me, it's nothing to be impressed about compared to your most recent finished armour build.  Now that was a piece of art!!!  I'm just building a model kit with the help of you and forum members.  You forum members create an art form out of styrene media and other paraphernalia.  Now that is not only imppressive but astounding!  Thank you for your support in my WIP threads!

Toshi

M. Brindos

Well done, and BRAVO, my friend!!

You are certainly doing very well with the silver finishes! Love how you blended that canopy piece in.

Again, VERY well done.  :)

 

The toughest and one that took most patience was blending the nose cone in as the front landing gear bay is part of the nose cone.  Aligning that area was tedious at best, but with a little patience, it turned out great.  That's something I really needed to learn.  Patience!  LOL!  Thank you for your support in my WIP!

Toshi 

Thank you BrandonD!  The nose cone took me a week to mess around with. It wasn't really that bad as the canopy seam.  The canopy seam was the most work as I've never had to sand down a clear part so aggressively.  

For the nose cone, I went back to my first build of which was the Revell P-61 Black Widow to see how I blended in the nose cone on that WIP, and used that as a reference.  I recall the nose cone on that older mold was really bad!  LOL!  But that's to be expected on such an older kit.  Thank you for your support!

Toshi

Thats looking really nice Toshi. And impressed that you re-scribed it, thats somthing i still need to try.

Thank you Pawel.  I'm honored that you are following this thread.  This was my very first time dealing with a complicated canopy seam and nose as they both connect at the same point.  It was very interesting as I studied past members builds WIP on how they handled similar circumstances.  Thank you for your support in my project.  You have a nice day as well!

Toshi

Well done, and BRAVO, my friend!!

You are certainly doing very well with the silver finishes! Love how you blended that canopy piece in.

Again, VERY well done.  :)

That's quite a build, Toshi. Really nice job on blending in the nose cone. That didn't look fun, but you certainly pulled it off.

-BD-

Hello!

Good job on that canopy seam - it looks a lot cleaner now and the whole model now definitely looks like a C-54! Good luck with your build and have a nice day

Paweł

Here is the Skytrain with it's first coat.  I'm going to sand it down to get it really smooth and then add the second coat. Then I'll deal with the small details that always lights up a kit even more.

Toshi

Thank you sir.  It's much appreciated.  Maybe you could commission one from Art Instructor.  He did a great job for you on this last build of the Hayate (Frank), especially on the Corsair!  Thanks for the visit and support!

Toshi

It looks so far so good, Toshi. A nice kit to have. It's too bad that I don't have this one.

The cleaning up of the seams and rescribeing the panel lines turned out well.  I'm very happy about the outcome.

Toshi

After watching Monday Night Football between the Detriot Lions at Dallas Cowboys 21-42, I couldn't sleep.  So in the wee hours of the morning I decided to prime the Skymaster and see if there are any discrepancies.

I utilized for the first time Model Master Gray Primer #4680.  A quarter of the bottle was all I needed to primer the C-54D.  That's not bad at all for such a huge model.  Some issues were the canopy.  Nothing but some little Tamiya White Putty #87095 could repair.  

There are some minuscule areas here and there that I still would like to take care of but other than that, I think it's time to lay down the coat.  I still have to decided if I want to go with Model Master Aluminum #4677 or Vallejo Metal AB Color Chrome #77.707.  

I purchased two types of NMF colors as I still have a Academy 1/48 P-38 Lightning that needs to be done in NMF as well.  I didn't want two planes looking the same.  I'm looking for two in this case three, my Revell B-17G Visible Flying Fortress to give it a stark contrast from each other.  The B-17G was done in Model Master Enamel Chrome Silver #1790.  By the way, the other two paints mentioned above are both acrylics. 

Until this time, thank you my fellow forum members for visiting, reading, and replying to my threads!

Toshi

Here's a quick shot of what was done this evening.  I still need to clean up a few things and adjust my masking.  This does give me an idea on what or how my masking needs to be adjusted.  Thank you forum members for your support!

Toshi

goldhammer

Coming right along.  You are doing a nice job with it, in your usual style.

A suggestion for masking the engines, doorways and pit...  get a piece of soft foam (I got mine at Walmart, fabric section, used for chair pads).  Cut to thinner thickness and gently fit into nacelles and doors.  Soft enough not to damage details, and in the case of the nacelles will give a soft edge on the lips.

 

As for the cockpit, I'm just going to glue the canopy into place and mask it with Tamiya tape.  Plus I have all those little windows to mask as well.  That should be fun!  LOL!  Thank you goldhammer for everything!

Toshi

Coming right along.  You are doing a nice job with it, in your usual style.

A suggestion for masking the engines, doorways and pit...  get a piece of soft foam (I got mine at Walmart, fabric section, used for chair pads).  Cut to thinner thickness and gently fit into nacelles and doors.  Soft enough not to damage details, and in the case of the nacelles will give a soft edge on the lips.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday.  At the house of Toshi's, it was a quiet visit with the kids and grandson.  Dinner served was prime rib, baked potatoes, broccoli, and egg custard pie.  

During this time I fiddled with the very delicate landing gears.  I finally figured out how to keep everything sturdy enough.  It took all day, but what better way to enjoy than to sit with family while building my C-54D.

Everyone was intrigued by it and loved that I was dedicating this kit to my dad.  Here below is what I've done so far.  I still have a very long way to go before I can even consider priming the Skymaster, until then please view the photos below.

Toshi

To Keyda81,

A Merry Christmas to you to and a Happy New Year!  You have a great husband!

As for the kit, it has close to a 400 parts count.  It puts together extremely well.  The only issues are that the tolerances are minimal at best.  So a lot of dry fitting is involved at every section.  As they say; "Measure twice, cut once"!  In my case; "Measure three times cut once"!  LOL!

This is a intricately detailed kit for me at least.  Lots and lots of steps.  Make sure you choose which version you want to build first before glueing anything.  There are several different parts spread out through the assembly sheet for either C-54D's.  Other than that, this is a great kit.  One of the best Revell kits out there.

Toshi

To Thuens,

I wanted to add that if you buy this kit, get the aftermarket metal landing gears.  The ones on the kit are simply fragile.  

Toshi

Theuns

Very nice, how was the parts fit sofar?

 

Theuns

 

Toshi