1/48 P-61 Black Widow, "Moonlight Serenade" - Revell kit - Work in progress

Thank you!

I'm having all sorts of new problems with this build. I put one more coat of Future to seal in the decals before moving to the bottom, and it hazed up around the decals. You can see it at the corner of the triangle here. It's all over the areas where I applied decals.

Could this befrom the Micro Set/Micro Sol that I used on them? I didn't do anything to clean it off before brushing on Future over it, but I've also never done it before.

Should I be cleaning that off with something before applying another coat of Future?

I agree!  Looks like you took care of business.  That green on black looks awesome.

Long, thin decals are too stressful.

the Baron

take a weak ammonia solution, like Windex, and use a paint brush to apply it to the dried pools and puddles, till you can see them dissolve.  Then you can remove the excess acrylic as necessary, and let the remaining liquid self-level.

Hey, thanks! This worked a treat. It took the Future off completely in the high areas, so they should blend back in with the next coat.

ManSkirtBrew

Got the first coat of Future on to prep for decals. I have a few spots where it puddled a little thicker, which I've never had happen before. Guess I've got to be more careful!

I assume I should hit them with fine sandpaper before the next coat, yes?

If you haven't addressed the Future puddling yet, I recommend instead that you take a weak ammonia solution, like Windex, and use a paint brush to apply it to the dried pools and puddles, till you can see them dissolve.  Then you can remove the excess acrylic as necessary, and let the remaining liquid self-level.  That will be easier on the details than sanding would.

Thanks John. I was going to give it a few days.

I was wondering if the next coats would self level, but I don't want to find out three coats down the line that I've still got raised puddles at the edges of my wings.

I mean, I know this isn't exactly a show quality piece here, but I'd like to make it look as nice as my current skill set allows.

Not unless you let it dry real hard first.

Got the first coat of Future on to prep for decals. I have a few spots where it puddled a little thicker, which I've never had happen before. Guess I've got to be more careful!

I assume I should hit them with fine sandpaper before the next coat, yes?

MR TOM SCHRY

You can never go wrong with "worn & weathered" in my humble opinion.

True. Then I can call my painting mistakes "weathering."

Meanwhile, slow but steady progress continues.

You can never go wrong with "worn & weathered" in my humble opinion.

TJS

It's always nice to see a classic come back to life!

Looking good.  Encouraging to watch your progress - I too have this one in the stash

Thanks Tom! I know there's a lot to nitpick, but hey, it's still pretty damn cool. Just got the last coat of black on. Next is touching up the cowlings, then Future, then decals and weathering.

I haven't decided if I'm going to do the museum-shiny Moonlight Serenade, or if I'm going to make it look more worn.

Great progres on this"vintage" kit.  Everyone on youtube puts this kit down but you are doing a great job with it.  I've had this kit in my stash for so long but seeing your build has made me want to get my kit out and start working on it.

TJS

Definitely a learning experience. I honestly have no idea what was going through my head when I glued the drop tanks on before painting the kit. I put in the gear because they're trapped between the fuse halves, but I think I had a moment of temporary insanity with the drop tanks.

Ah well. Progress continues. Got the clear parts in as best I could, managing to break one of the small windows in half. It was molded very, very thinly. Almost paper thin. The other side was normal thickness.

Overall, I'm pleased with progress and enjoying it. This is the second coat of black acrylic brushed on. I feel like I can thin the paint out even more than I have been.

Has it really been over a year this thing has been sitting on my bench? Time sure flies.

Picked things up again. Attaching the last of the gear doors, flaps, antennae. Getting the last bits painted up before doing the main fuselage black.

As many folks have noted, the clear parts are almost unusable. I'm going to see if I can make them work, but the fit is abysmal, to say the least. For now, I'm pretty happy with how we're coming out.

I painted a few of the panels gray-black in the hopes that it'll give a little depth to the final black on the fuselage.

Looking forward to further details.  Hope you haven't given up.

Nice work on your kit. I'm fortunate enough to have sevearal of the older Monogram kits from many yerars ago. I have yet to build one but at least I won't have to worry about the molds being so used up.

Keeping my business running during this pandemic has kept me pretty darn busy, but I found the time to paint the frames on my canopies and start installing them.

Little more work inside the wheel wells before buttoning up the booms.

Hi ManSkirtBrew, 

I wouldn't worry much about that at all. Just enjoy it as it is a very fun kit to build, as you probably already know :).

Use it as a good practice kit as you will learn a lot from it due to it's well known issues.

That's how I approached it anyway. :) 

Best, 

Nikola

It's difficult to tell about the seat accuracy. I tried to see if a 48 scale pilot would be able to sit in the seat and I found that I had a little trouble.  I'm guessing that the seat might be off just a little but not by enough to worry about.

Night Fighter

Very nicely done.

Thanks! I'm up to the part where I have to sand all of the putty I had to apply to fill all the huge gaps and misfits, without rubbing off too much of the raised detail.

It's kind of making me wonder if I should just scribe all new panel lines and rivets, or just leave it be and let this kit be what it is. I'm thinking it's going to be that second one.

Total aside, I was just watching PLASMO paint a 1/48 P-51 interior, and I notice the seat seems like twice as big as the one in this 1/48 P-61. Is that a scale accuracy issue with this kit, or is it just my eyes?

Mine then his:

Very nicely done.

Okay, few more for you. First, after getting all of the ignition wires (thanks, KnightTemplar5150) bent into place:

Then after painting them black, which made me a little sad I have to admit. I left just a bit of copper peeking out at the ends to suggest the connectors I've seen in many reference photos.

And here's the other engine with the larger wires for comparison. This one is very deeply hidden in the cowling, so only a tiny arc of it will be visible anyway.

What you are referring to as copper rings and fuel lines are actually components of the Bendix low-tension, high-altitude ignition distributor and harness system. The lines running from the distributor ring to the front and rear of each cylinder are ignition lines to carry power to the spark plugs.

Thank you! I like sharing because I know how much I like looking at other peoples' work.

I've become obsessed with the copper ring I'm modeling on the engine (I'm assuming that's the fuel lines, but please correct me if I'm wrong).

I've seen it in many different configurations for the same engine. For example:

Notice how the center ring goes around all of the electronics on the second one, but behind them on the first. Obviously I chose to model the first style, but it's interesting to see all of the variations.