Guys been dealing with a bucketload of computer problems. Work continues slowly but surely on the B-29.

MaXFax: WOW! Your P-51 is spectacular! Love the scheme, NM looks great, great weathering, all around sharp job!

JMart: Love those belts! I use the PE ones but your scratchbuilt ones look MUCH better.

Vetteman: Great work on the Texan, looking forward to seeing her all painted up.

Steven: I knew a B-36 in 1/48 would be a monster but . The guys over on the A/C forum seem to keep going on and on about a new 1/48 B-17. Dang, I'd love to have one but I haven't even bought the Monogram kit since I don't have anywhere to put a 1/48 four-engine bomber. Looking forward to seeing your giant completed!

hey guys, dont worry. Im still lurking around. Life got really hectic all of the sudden (getting ready for school, Mom and Step-dad divorcing, and my Dad moving to live across half way across the country) and I was unable to get a lot done on my Mustang.

EDIT: one of my paragraphs decided to dissapear....weird:    I used a Testors rattle can for the Olive drab, let it cure, furured it an then re-sprayed the chrome. it looks great! (Not as great as MaxFax's 'Stang, but tons better than it did!)

I did forget one of the black ID stripes, but I hand painted it in later.

Now, should I Future it again before the decals? All the paint is glossed right now, but I do not want to muck up the Chrome paint again.

OWL

Hey Guys i'm back, i've been moving house.....

I've just gone through the last few pages and checked out everyones work and there is just way too much to comment on individually so i just have to say....

Great Work One And All

Richard a question sir, I just recieved my decals for the mirage(16 days to come from  NSW to QLD and it only takes 10 days to get Squadron orders from Texas, go figure huh..) Anyways the decals are in a bad way and will fall apart in water....Did you put future over your Mustang declas????

Steven: I knew a B-36 in 1/48 would be a monster but . The guys over on the A/C forum seem to keep going on and on about a new 1/48 B-17. Dang, I'd love to have one but I haven't even bought the Monogram kit since I don't have anywhere to put a 1/48 four-engine bomber. Looking forward to seeing your giant completed!

It's actually a 72-scale kit.  It is big though.  I can't imagine this beast in 48 scale.

Owl your stang is looking great!!!! Hope all goes well for you!!!

back Julez!!!!! Knew it was quiet around here for some reason. Looking forward to seeing more work from you when you get settled in!!!

Steven: Whoops!!! Sorry, for some reason I was thinking she was the Monogram 1/48th kit. My mistake. Yes, she does look pretty honkin' huge in 1/72. Again kudos for tackling such a monster.

Owl: The invasion stripes look great, I can't even tell which one you hand painted.

Time to play catch-up on group build posts….

doogsatx - Thanks for sharing your technique on doing wing stripes. I shall try it. Beautiful Mustang. What a fine showing for your return to modeling!

maxfax - Regarding your panel line and rivet technique: 1) did you thin the paint with water?, and 2) how did you manage to wipe off the excess w/o removing the paint sitting atop the raised detail? I would think that paint would be the first to go. 

Did you crank out ANOTHER beautiful P-51 while I was sleeping? It looks awesome too. Great job on the optional gun display and the weathering. Wow!

vetteman - Congrats on getting a new computer! I hope you enjoy it. Regarding my AT-6, I took a break from the fuselage and worked on all the remaining assemblies (landing gear, engine, propeller, etc.) Soon I'll be back on the fuselage and try out that Bondo stuff you recommended. Speaking of landing gear, I see that the struts have brake lines. What is a typical color for these lines?

Your AT-6 is looking great. Nice job on the seat belts and the IP. (I took the easy route and used the IP decals.) Pastels are something I need to research - they seem to have many applications. Thanks for posting photos. I can't wait to see more of your progress.

jmabx - The True Details interior on your P-59 provides some nice detail. Your painting of it is very crisp too. The interior looks fantastic. Well done!

kermit - Congrats on getting started with foil. I may have to follow in your footsteps some day. The Mig looks like an excellent place to start. Man that foil is SHINY!

aggieman - That B-36 is HUGE. If were my build, I'd have to "fly" it as there's no room on the shelf for something that size. That's a nice modification you did to the outboard jet engines.

jmart - I like your scratch built seat belts. I would like to try your technique myself. The metal hooks look more realistic than the masking tape ones I've made.

owl - Nice job on the invasion stripes. I have yet to build a kit with them but would love to try. It looks like you're about to wrap up this baby - what's next in the queue? Another NMF?

Whew! All caught up on your posts...

Hey Nicefit,

I took an old paint bottle and added about 1ml of flat black paint, then enough water to make it quite thin- I had to play around with it to get it right, then added a couple of drops of dish soap. Using a fine brush, lightly dabbed after dipping it into the paint, then touched the panel line, and dragged it aling the panel line- the paint was so thin that it fairly easily filled and darkened the line. I sometimes had to do this a few times. If the brush is getting dry, it will draw up all the paint- so keep it moist! Same thing for the rivits, just touch it gently with the wet brush tip and the paint will fill the hole. I usually got paint out of the lines and used a Q-tip to mop it up after drying for a minute. The P-47 did not have raised detail like the P-51. I had to be more carefull with the P-51 and couldn't hit many of the panel lines, but concentrated on the rivits.

Good luck!

Rob

maxfax/Rob - Thanks for the additional info about your panel line technique. My AT-6 kit has raised panel lines and detail that would be appropriate for your technique. I will give it a shot.

Hey guys,

Yes, i am still here and still busy on the MIG. But to be honest i am not very pleased with the overly shinyness of the foil..... Also haven't done alot more panels since my last update ages ago (work....lady...etc etc...).

So,... i will take a deep breath.... strip all the foil and clean everything up and restart but now with the dull side of the foil.

I do seriously like working with the foil altough it makes your project a long term one. You know how i like to go fast LOL

Please bear with me gents while i try to sort out this foiling job while coping with work, life and all the other groups i am committed to at the moment. This is going to take longer than usual...

Richard

No worries Richard, as I know how good a well done foiling job can look. Take your time and do it right to your liking is key!!! The duller side is what I used for my F-86 many moons ago. Looking forward to your next pics!!!!

Sim.....

Gamera sorry to hear of your problems, especially the computer troubles as it seems to be an epidemic of late. Both my sister's and nieces computers have pets now, aka Malware. Hope you can get things sorted out soon because I cant wait to see WIP of your build.

CallSignOwl I really like the camo scheme you have going, keep up the great work. Your build looks better each tine I see the WIP pictures. Personally I think I would be very tempted to shoot another coat of future before the decals, if for no other reason but to keep the surface consistent. I really cant say if it is needed at this point.

Nicefit I was wondering what happened to you and your build. As for the brake line I was planning on painting that aluminum down to the oleo, then black where it goes through the fork to the wheel brake as that is a flexible line.

Kermit using the dull does create a great effect of aged or used aluminum but you will have to pay special attention to panel lines, because you don't want to burnish or polish the dull side with steel wool. Burnishing with the steel wool will hide some imperfections. I found out the hard way that if you do steel wool the dull side that it will end up shiner than the shiny side does. Go figure huh. You can tone down the shininess by final coating with semi gloss clear.  An idea I used was to use both sides of the foil, say the shiny side for a replaced panel and the dull side for older panels. So maybe the nose panels were replaced so you don't have to strip them off ??

Thanks for the comments on my build guys. I am finding it hard to stay slowed down and take my time on the T-6 as I really want to try the NMF paints. I got the wings and tail feathers glued on this evening with the usual Revell gap at the wing roots. Shouldn't be a problem though because I have seen much worse. The only hurtle I for see is the canopy, I want to build an open canopy but feel the kit canopy is too thick and clunky.  Squadron is out of the vacuformed canopys for the AT-6

Doogs – Shame about the Michael’s near you; many of them are actually increasing/expanding their modeling section. I have slowly (one coupon at a time) been getting Prismacolor pencils, indeed they are fantastic!

Owl – stang looking good, nice invasion stripes

Will get some work done this weekend, hopefully!

Thanks guys, and great work so far. 

I went ahead and applied another coat of Future....after discovering the sliding canopy was painted shut!  With a pit pf prying I was able to pop it off (luckily without detaching the canopy from the frame!) but in the process, the little stick at the back broke off!  Oh, well. I just glued it open. I think the following coat of future "painted" it in position, so I dont thnink it will pop off so easily!

The Future is dry now, so net time you see the mustang, it will have decals!

OWL

CallSignOwl

Guys and lady I just couldn't wait, nope couldn't do it, no way. I have 3 builds going at the same time, geeze I gotta be nuts or sumpthin here. Anyway I had detail parts to paint aluminum for all three models, A MiG-3, an F-5, and the AT-6. As you all may know I am going to paint the T-6 with Talon paint, my very first painted NMF by the way. Well I decided to load up the air brush and try it out on the detail parts, that are now drying. Man I am sold on this NMF paint big time. I have airbrushed with a few of the metallic paints out there and let me tell ya this Talon paint goes on like a dream, and really looks good to boot. Not grainy at all. I followed the tutorial video at Hawkeye's site and had no problems at all. And let me tell ya I am no where near what I would call good with an air brush. I misted on 5 coats of the stuff, the first coat thinking aww man what have I done now , that doesnt look good at all geeze. Second coat very lightly misted, hummm getting better but I dunno . Coat number 3, well its starting to look like aluminum. 2 more coats and I am styling, looks really good now I will be getting more Talon paint the end of the month. It cleans up very easily, almost cleans its self out of the airbrush and cup. I had no trouble with clogging at all, and my sister walked into the Mancave while I was painting and asked what air freshener I had used, it really does have a nice citrus scent to it. I don't have pictures of the parts yet but just had to share this info with you all. Oh and thanks to Soulcrusher for pushing me to try the Talon paints

Oh I wanted to ask if anyone has checkout in FSM magazine on page 52 in the questions and answers section, someone asked a question about what color olive drab really is. In that answer Mark gives a site address I checked out because I wandered the same thing. Well worth the read let me tell ya, and does raise some interesting questions about painting our models and color choices. 

Wow that was long winded, hope I didn't bore ya

That's GREAT to hear, vetteman! 

I literally just ordered a bottle of Talon Aluminum last night. Didn't mean to, but you know how things just tend to jump in your cart!

I think I might use the Wildcats as an opportunity for something of a NMF-off. Alclad II vs. Talon. 

Randy, Sounds like you had a good session with the AB, lets see some buddy...Are you going to be useing the polishing powders on her???

DoogsATX thats a good idea I will be looking forward to the comparison, due to health reasons I cant be spraying lacquers.

Julez72 I do have the aluminum polishing powder and tried it on a gear door a few minutes ago, and like the result. I will try and get some pictures of my little experiment posted tomorrow. I tried this evening but alas the batteries took the weekend off and are hanging out on the charger now. I hope to spray the AT-6 this week but you know how the best laid plans workout sometimes.

DoogsATX, Yeah that will be a very interesting comparison, 2 types of NMF on the same kit....Looking forward to seeing the results....

Randy, Yes i understand about the best laid plans...Speaking of which i feel like i'm in a little slump so i'm going to shelve the mirage for a bit and nail another slump killing Tamiya P-51....this one will be 9th AF P-51D "Grim Reaper"....my 3rd pony for this GB....

Looking forward to seeing pics of the work being talked about!!

Hey Vetteman,

I can't wait to see the pics with the new paint. Excellent work so far- makes me want to get one of those "Harvards"! I have started another GB, but keep getting drawn back to this one. It sounds like I should shelve the Alclad and try Talon for my next build.

Rob

This talk about NMF paints and especially the intended test with Talon vs AlcladII is extremely interesting to me and comes at a very convenient time. My online LHS just sent me an email last weekend telling me they finally have Alclads in stock again. Been waiting for more than half a year for it and am very eager to try them out on a next build.

The revell aluminum paint i normally use is nice enough (slightly grainy though) and is very easy to work with but i have seen planes with alclad on here that were so so much better and lifelike... The talon paints elude me sofar as i have still to find a store overhere that sells em (ordering paints from outside Holland is hard considering all the hazmat laws and stuff; i have been advised not to) but it sounds great

Vetteman, can't wait to see the results you get with the Talon paints! You sure know how to get a dutch froggy on the edge of his seat But seriously...... citrus smell??

Richard

Wow! Kinda surprised by the level of interest in my Alclad/Talon NMF-off! 

Hopefully I'll be starting the Wildcats soon-ish. The Dauntless is just about done with main construction. Only few bits left before it moves into filling/sanding, and I think once it hits the paint stage I may be able to break away and start some prep work on the 'cats.

Also, a question for the group. Anyone know a good source of just straight up letter decals? Since these Wildcats are going to be for the kids, I'm planning to stray from accuracy and apply personalized markings - N-LN for Nolan and L-LA for Lola.

Yellow Wings decals has some squadron markings, but it's only select letters. I've also found some dry transfers, which I can use if I have to, but I'd rather go with decals so I have the wiggle room to fix alignment issues.

Maybe not what you're looking for but if you have an inkjet printer you could make custom decals? A great website for custom letters and insignia's is this one:

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/downloads.php?do=cat&id=3

Just a thought and maybe a last line of defense solution if you can't find aftermarket stuff.

Richard

Arrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh ya'll are getting me to the point of being sorely tempted to try out the Talon paints as well! I love the Alclad but hate the fumes. Please post any results you guys get showing the difference between the two brands.

Doogs- Richard has a great idea there. Another way to go about it if you don't have a good quality printer is to pick up some press-on stickers you like at a general hobby/art store to serve as masks. Paint the model the colour you want the letters to be and then after pressing the stickers to your hand to lose some the tack put them on the model where you want them. Then paint it as you normally would. When finished peel off the stickers and you should have perfect letters.

Thanks for the ideas, gents! I'm really digging the stick-on-letters-as-masks idea! I think my wife might even have some lying around in her various scrapbooking supplies. Just need to make sure they aren't some fancy, loopy font, otherwise the Wildcats might be mistaken for Soviet planes...

At some point I'm going to have to sit down and develop a masking plan for these kits. Yellow wings, colored tails, fuselage and cowl rings with black borders, wing stripes, now maybe the lettering...fast-on, fast-off methodology isn't gonna work here.

Drum roll please!  Presenting...my finished P-51D Mustang!!

No specific Mustang represented here, just my own markings! 

OWL

Wow, Callsign!  That's a gorgeous 'stang!

I've been kinda slow progress on my Peacemaker lately.  Still some issues with the mis-carriage + my dad needing to get in for some neurologic procedures last week + I'm simply exhausted and have little energy to spend at the bench.  Until tonight at least.

My first effort at masking the canopy appears to be a total failure - I used Tamiya tape to cover the entire canopy with the intent of scribbling over the raised framing but so far I can't seem to get the framing to transfer to the tape.  I'll keep trying a bit more but probably will end up using a combination of small tape pieces and liquid mask.

Then there are the engines, or lack thereof, in this kit.  It's not so much the engines but rather the big open space that is somewhat visible behind the rear-mounted props.  I think I mentioned earlier that I have a disdain for open space where none should exist.  Short of scratching engines for this bad boy - not going to do that, I elected to install some sheet styrene to block off the opening behind the prop mounts.  I took a picture of one wing with a prop installed but I don't think it really shows the opening that clearly.  The next picture is of the styrene mounted.

CallSignOwl congradulations on your first NMF build, and if memory serves me your first group build completion You have done a fine job of it and came out on top of a difficult finish to pull off  with this build.  My hat goes off to you young lady.

 I love the color scheme and markings, the stripes came out to perfection. I like her name too thats a cool one. I do hope you attempt another NMF build because the improvement I have seen with this build has been no less than amazing. OH OH and love the backdrop you chose, I spent a few minutes trying to read it and figure out what chart it is, actually I am suprised I still know how to read one. I will get your build on the front page tomorrow because when my computer died I lost my builders spread sheet so I will have to go back and find your info. My apoliges for having to take that time.

Aggieman thats a nice touch on the Peacemaker, closing those naugicles up with plasticard will improve the looks of it a bunch. I too hate seeing nothing where something should be on my  models