Thanks Nicefit you guys do keep me busy with all the building going on here, actually its easy though because I really enjoy watching them all. Hard to believe its been a bit less than 2 months and there are 7 completed builds on the front page. My hat is off to you guys.

Hey the Badge looks good on you

Your finished picture is now posted on the front page where it should be. Again very well done my friend.

Well done NiceFit and great write up of how you went about building it. Sharing some of the smallest building info can be extremely helpfull to other and especially those newer to the hobby. The subject matter is preety cool too.

In reguard to the sanding sticks I would get a couple of the course sticks and one each of the medium fine and extra fine sticks. Also the next time you are in your local Walmart or any ohter similar store make a stop in the cosemetic section and find the nail polish section. Among the many types of fingernail files you can find a stick that should be called a polishing stick. They have three more even finer grades and a polishing side that are very usefull and inexpensive. You can actually repair scratched canopies with these or get that extra smooth finish on a seem repair so when you spray that NMF you will not see the fine sanding marks.

Soulcrusher

Gamera using silver paint as a seam checker is an old trick that I am sure alot of the other boys use to. It really makes spoting the ugly areas a breeze. The same reason any little imperfection shows up on the NMF planes. My NMF build are not perfect but I have found the Talon paints are the most forgiving and easiest to repair so I end up with alot less ulgy spots in the end.

Julez it seems like I have sold a couple of you guys on the Talon paints. I guess my work must look pretty good in my posts!? Alclad is a good product also but I try and stay away from it strickly due to the fumes. I prefer to work and paint in the bedroom in the summer because of the air conditioning so the lack of fumes are one of the greatest things about the Talon paints.

Soulcrusher

NiceFit that is a beautiful recovery!!!! WELL DONE mate!!!

Nicefit: wow after all the trouble you ended up with astonding results. She's one of the best looking P-51s I've seen in a long time.

Kudos sir!

I have not been able to get work done on my B-47 yet, but I hope this pictures might inspire you!

I went to the SAC Museum for my birthday, and as I took these, thought of you guys. Enjoy!

WARNING! PIC HEAVY!!!

OWL

SAC Museum part 2:

and you can bet your bottom dollar that I crawled all over the B-47 they had there!

OWL

Wow Owl! Great pics. I didn't even know there was a Goblin still in existence.

Hello fellow natural metal finishers!

Sorry I haven't posted for along time, but I have been watching the progress.

Nicefit- that is an awesome Mustang!

Anyway I will see if I can post some pics tonight.

Nicefit, very cool Mustang well done Boy i bet it must be a relief to get her done....

Crusher, mate i think i have found my niche with NMF so i would like to try as many products as possible to see which i like the best....And yeah the alclad really is fume heavy so i amlooking forward to useing the talon paints.....Hope i get a finish like yours....

Owl, Very nice pics, thanks for sharing em

 Just started on this Revell kit, not much probably a waste of picture, but we are supposed to post WIP right? I am going to put gloss black on the cowl(the only metal on the plane). I have been watching the masters here, and have learned many things. Thanks for posting, it teaches amateurs like me.

Owl, thanks for the pics!!!!! REALLY REALLY COOL!!!!!!! Gamera there is another Goblin at the USAF Museum, if that isn't the one there in the pic Owl shows. Museums lone each other stuff all the time. If not, to know there are at least 2 of'em is good news. A rare pic of a B-45 Tornado as well.

Raptor, what would really be cool is if you foiled that bit of cowl on her then did the circle-burnish finish with some 0000 steel wool or a viry tiny bit of very fine emery. Looking forward to seeing your progress!!!!

hey, I was wondering if I could add another plane?  I've been getting pressure to build a P-51 for my aunt (who is a pilot and has gotten me airplane stuff since I can remember, and who loves P-51s).  She likes the Blue nose Mustangs the best, so I wanted to get started on it.

I have the Revell/Monogram 1/48 scale Mustang. Can I add it to the list?  I still do want to get my B-47 done.

Do you guys know where I can get decals for the Blue nose mustangs?  would Squadron or SprueBros have them?

Thanks,

OWL

Hey OWL,

I bet Vetteman will let you add another plane.

here is a link that might help you with your mustang.

http://www.squadron.com/SearchResults.asp?offset=0

Hey Raptordriver hows things goin buddy ?

CallSignOwl what another Mustang build ???? One can never have tooooo many Mustangs ya know, of course you may add a Mustang. What model is it the D or B/C ? I have the retooled Revell P-51B/C on the bench almost finished, the kit has improved a bunch but still has a few problems. Anyway let me know which model 51 it is and I will add it to the roster.

Stikpusher and Simpilot you were successful in your endeavors to find a victim with the pictures of the NMF F-15, so its your fault.  I had a 40% coupon for Michaels and had to go shopping for a model. Well low and behold there all nice and shiny and on the shelf  was a Revell F-15C Strike Eagle calling to me in  soft whispers, " Buy me and build me, I am the last one, you know you want to, I will give you many hours of pleasure, I promise I will "   I became so seduced by the soft whisper that the next thing I remember was walking across the parking lot with a box held tightly in my hands. Upon looking down I saw the F-15 had won and was going home with me. So with your permission I would like to change the P-51D I was gonna build to the F-15. Geeze

PS Got it for 12 bucks with my coupon

sure Vetteman, the mustang is a D model.   it has the raised panel lines.

thanks for the link RaptorDriver!

OWL

CallSignOwl Done your build is added. Thats a fun one to build I still have 3 of them waiting in the closet.

soulcrusher, simpilot, gamer, raptordriver, julep, vetteman, Thank you all for your comments on my build and my write-up. It seems there's a number of P-51 builds going on and I can't wait to see the results. You guys are pros!

On to my next NMF build:

vetteman42

Stikpusher and Simpilot you were successful in your endeavors to find a victim with the pictures of the NMF F-15, so its your fault.  I had a 40% coupon for Michaels and had to go shopping for a model. Well low and behold there all nice and shiny and on the shelf  was a Revell F-15C Strike Eagle calling to me in  soft whispers, " Buy me and build me, I am the last one, you know you want to, I will give you many hours of pleasure, I promise I will "   I became so seduced by the soft whisper that the next thing I remember was walking across the parking lot with a box held tightly in my hands. Upon looking down I saw the F-15 had won and was going home with me. So with your permission I would like to change the P-51D I was gonna build to the F-15. Geeze 

PS Got it for 12 bucks with my coupon

Muhahahahahahahahahahahahaha

stikpusher

vetteman42:

Stikpusher and Simpilot you were successful in your endeavors to find a victim with the pictures of the NMF F-15, so its your fault.  I had a 40% coupon for Michaels and had to go shopping for a model. Well low and behold there all nice and shiny and on the shelf  was a Revell F-15C Strike Eagle calling to me in  soft whispers, " Buy me and build me, I am the last one, you know you want to, I will give you many hours of pleasure, I promise I will "   I became so seduced by the soft whisper that the next thing I remember was walking across the parking lot with a box held tightly in my hands. Upon looking down I saw the F-15 had won and was going home with me. So with your permission I would like to change the P-51D I was gonna build to the F-15. Geeze 

PS Got it for 12 bucks with my coupon

 

Muhahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Hope you have plenty of referance material Randy!!!! Remember the Streak Eagle was one of the prototypes or at least a pre-production model. Which means more than likely it will have the short speed brake. Plus other minor changes. I can't wait to see this one come together!!!!!!! GO EAGLES!!!!!

Randy, looking forward too seein that eagle come together.....Don't you hate it when you get inspired by other forum members

Nicefit, very cool choice for a second build i like it

Owl looking forward too seeing another Pony on the front page BTW drop me a PM if you can't get decals for your kit, i have 3 sets of Tamiya decals for Petie 2nd with a blue nose....

Here are some links I have accumulated regarding seam work:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT068_gluing_Wilder/tnt068.htm

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT066_filling_with_plastic/tnt066.htm

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT029_Filler_WO_Sanding/tnt029.htm

http://www.modelshipwrights.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=2078

This is the one I have used with success (from Swanny’s):

http://www.swannysmodels.com/Seams.html

Finally, Gerald wrote a great seam tutorial in here (FSM):

/forums/p/90330/882350.aspx#882350

NiceFit – Thanks for taking the time for your write up and congrats on the finish! Looks very good, much better than the one I made couple years ago (see Sig ). Do you have a Michaels’ craft shop near you? They carry a very limited selection of Revell kits, including this one…with their 50% coupons, you can get the kit for 6-8$, can’t beat that!

Hope my current Revell builds come out half as good!

Owl – great pics, thanks for sharing! And Ditto, nice surprise to see an actual Goblin! I know Aeromaster makes P-51D decal sets of Yellow, Blue and Green nose P51Ds. Squadron usually has some of them on sale each month. Depends which one you want in particular. Tamiya re-released their P-51B “Blue Nose” with a figure and new Cartograph decals: http://www.greatmodels.com/~smartcart/cgi/display.cgi?item_num=TAM92216

Vetteman – I have a Michaels basically within biking distance (pedal bike type ;) I get the weekly 40-50% off coupon and go shopping to my “LHS” (Michaels). I basically have almost all the Revell kits they sell, also get my Winsdor oil paints there, markers, blades, thin wire (floral section), cheap solder, I mean, you name it, they have it….

thank you for the offer Julez, but I was able to order decals I wanted yesterday.

Glad you guys liked all the pictures, I had a blast running all over the Museum. If any of you are in Nebraska, you should definitely check it out!

OWL

Nicefit, great job on the mustang! It feels great to put another on the shelf! I have just finished putting the Alclad on my Revell mustang, and I hope to start putting on a few different shades on the flaps, elevators and rudders.

Does anyone know the colour to paint the fabric covered parts(elevators/rudder)? I am assuming for a NMF plane, that silver would have been used?

I sanded off alot of the raised details (some raised panel lines and rivets) while fixing seams, and rescribed them in with a knife-it seems to look fine whether the panel is raised or ingraved. I also discovered an excellent rivet placing tool. The rivets on the Revell mustand are largely round and raised, versus a small dimple I have seen in other kits. I used the non-business end of a 22 gauge needle, removed the plastic hub, bent the sharp end, and tapped it onto the surface of the plastic using a paint bottle. It creates a nice round rivet, slightly raised in the centre. I wouldn't do a whole plane with it, but for the replacement of a few here and there, it works great. The size can be varied using different gauges.

Rob

Jmart, Thanks for the links!!!!!!!! Some very helpful information there!!!! I had forgotten about the melted plastic technique I have read about a few times. The autobody fillerwith a nail polish remover soaked q-tip is another i will have to try. I have used the auto filler before but sanded it back, that technique sounds much easier. Thanks again!!

Jmart what Simpilot has said thanks for taking the time to share with us. I use glazing putty for my filler and will give the nail polish remover a try later today and let you know if it works. I don't like the modeling puttys (squadron putty) because they dont stick very well for me.

Stikpusher and Simpilot I have to admit this F-15 will be a huge challenge just getting the NMF to look right, an even bigger challenge will be getting the right markings or making them. But hey we modelers just have to push the envelope ya know  Not knowing much at all about modern jets maybe I need to do some homework to see if the kit i have will even work as an A model.

Off the top of my head, the main visual differences for an F-15A/C are the main landing gear doors, the turkey feathers on the afterburners, and antennas on top of the vertical stabilizers.

Randy -- the markings should be the least of your problems, superscale released the Streak Eagle markings in all three main scales, I'd be astounded if you couldn't run them to earth somewhere.

Best of luck, the conversions sound fairly minor and the afterburners may be available as resin mods.

Cheers, Mike

Randy I found this info in my book F-15 Eagle Engaged.

F-15 Streak Eagle (72-0119)

This airframe was used for two weeks from January 16, 1975 to establish the capabilities of the F-15 in a controlled and instrumented environment. Three USAF pilots' flew the jet to very precise parameters during this time, thereby achieving several speed and climb world records. The aircraft was heavily modified to reduce weight as much as possible. Among the list of items removed were: a generator, speed brake and flap actuators, utility hydraulic system, non-crirical cockpit displays and radios, landing and taxi lights, and radar/associated LRU's. The aircraft was a Cat II airframe and was already 800lb lighter than Cat I aircraft prior to any modifications. In all, th ejet was reduced to 1,800lb less than other Block 6 aircraft. the program cost was $2.1 million.

So, a cockpit photo is going to be a must and if possible some detail shots, trust me I'm looking mate! HTH!!

Simpilot34 thanks buddy, your info helps a bunch. I havent been able to find much on the internet so far other than some in flight pictures. I am including your info in my F-15 referance file I have started along with the pictures I could find. I think I bit off a huge chunk with this build and will take all the help I can get. However I am really looking forward to the build.

Thunderbolt I checked Superscale and Sprue Brothers and found nothing What I did find though was Revell did make, way back when a 1/48 scale model of the Streak Eagle but the kits are a bit on the pricey side on Ebay. However I am thinking about bidding on a couple of them for the decal sheet and supposedly they offer some reference materials in the kit. Those old kits sometimes aren't the greatest so don't know if I would use that or not. BTW I did find and win another ICM MiG-3 finally.