Twin Engine Fighters GB

I've run into a major snag on the Widow now... I gave it three coats of paint on the upper surfaces and STILL have these goofy "color swirls" in the plastic showing through the paint.  I used Tamiya OD for the uppers, and everywhere the plastic is showing some kind of color variation, it comes through the paint.. It did NOT happen to the undersides, which was sprayed in a custom mix of small bottles of Testor's greys...

I'll be stripping the OD off in the next few days and doing a sand and rescribe-job, then shoot it with enamels.. I've never seen this behavior before in the Widow kit, although this is the first one I've done in Tamiya OD... This particular one is the Revell release, BTW... It may boil down to it becoming a "hangar queen" and I'll be starting over with the '91 Monogram kit I have in the closet... I've got another Revell Widow in the closet as well, so I'm not particularly concerned.. YET...

I also have an idea about the P-61's nose... There's one photograph of a Widow in which the nose plexiglass isn't painted or frosted and the radar is quite visible in it...  I'm seriously considering modeling that bird, after vac-forming the nose out of clear...  There's also another in which the setting sun is behind the nose and the radar's visible through the nose in that one as well, even though the nose is frosted... I'm thinking that the "short-nosed" -61's weren't frosted over very heavily, it just looks that way in the photos... Standing up in front of it, one might be able to see much of the radar..

Think I'll have to study those pics a bit more...

*EDIT* Upon further review, it appears the noses were mostly painted.

Thanks, man.. I finished up the nacelles today, I cut off the "display" engine nacelle on the left boom just forward of the cowl flaps and vacuformed another cowl from the right-side cowling... Can't stand the "one open, one closed" configuration of the kit as is...  I ground down the cowl-flaps to a taper more or less the same as the right boom's as well, to make the new cowling fit.

I also cut out the carb and oil cooler intakes from the wing's leadin'-edges and installed some individual intake vanes, six in the outboard, three in the inboard intake and painted them green zinc-chromate... Speakin' of which, I was lookin' over the Black Widow Group build, I noticed that most everyone had the interiors in overall green zinc-chromate, but I didn't have a warm-fuzzy about that, so I checked my reference (Wings of Fame, volume 15) and it showed several birds with the green primer in the wheel-wells and such, but a mix of black sidewalls and green zinc-chromate floors & seats in the cockpits of the black-painted Widows... I felt this was more accurate, since US nightfighter crews usually had the cockpits re-painted in black or dark gray after they reached operational units, to cut down on reflections on the interior of the canopy and windscreen.

I also considered cutting out the screens on the bottom of the nacelles and replacing them with mesh, but decided against it, since I didn't have a good look at them on the real bird..

Anyway, here it is with the sub-assemblies put in place (not glued) and I'll start adding wieght to get it to sit on it's nose-gear tonight.  It should be ready for paint by Saturday if I get all the sanding and filling done, although I'll likely hold off for a bit longer.  Once it's ready for paint, I'll start construction on the diorama base... I haven't yet decided on ETO or PTO though, nor if I'll do a historical P-61 or make "me" the "pilot" and do a custom nose-art of some kind (I do this a LOT).  There's just something about seeing MY name on the canopy rail of a bird I like, LOL...  If I win the Powerball, I'll do it on a real Warbird, for sure, lol...

Hans,

The Widow's looking good.  Made a little progress on the Tigercat.  Got the landing gear, bays and wheels painted gloss white.  Was getting ready to shoot another model and discovered that my airbrush was kaput.  Gotta go to the LHS and pick up a rattle can of Dark Sea Blue.  Will post pics when the paint is dry.

Finally started on the fuselage pod of the Widow, and with a little putty, it's goin' ok...

air superiority fighter  :)   Your F15 with it's twin jet-holes (lol) will be most welcome

Hey Everyone,

I've made some progress on the P-38J, painted the twin booms & wing area interior green (near the wheel wells & cockpit), also finished painting & assembling the 'pit.  Nothing fancy, just straight out of the box Revell cockpit.

Got the gaps filled and sanded on the nacelles.  Mocked up the landing gear, added a few more BB's to the nose and the inside of the nacelles.  She's sitting on all wheels for now, will see what happens when I add the tubes and wire for the wing folds and the wing tips.

http://public.fotki.com/lewbud/aoshima-f7f/

The 'cat is starting to look like an aircraft now.  The wings are glued in place and faired in.  The nacelles are attached with a few gaps to fill.  Attached the horizontal stabilizers and they move the cg aft and now I have to add more weight.  The cockpit is just about full, so I'm hoping the fronts of the nacelles are far enough forward so that when I add weight to them she'll sit proper.  If not, I'll take John's suggestion and prop her up with a 55 gal drum and a crate.

http://public.fotki.com/lewbud/aoshima-f7f/

here's my painted 219:

next, Ill be doing a clear coat and doing some weathering.

please comment!(this is my first airbrushed mottled camo so go easy on me)

I've started and almost finished my he219, and ill be airbrushing tomorrow.  ill have pics up then.

this gb is a really nice break from the corsair I've spent the last month on...

Well I guess this will be my first GB!

 Count me in. I have The Pro Modeler F-4 that I want to take a crack at.

BGuy wrote:

Oh SNAP!  Dude, that's coming along awesome!  It looks like you're doing an airbrush project on paper and you're going to scan/PhotoShop it later on?

My Son is making it for us :)

tempestjohnny wrote:

Bud.  Don't worry about it sitting its tail.  They did that in real size too.  They used to prop up the tail with a 55 gallon drum and a crate.  JOHN

John,

I knew that, but thanks for the encouragement.  I'm lazy enough as a modeler, but I'll correct things that don't look right. A plane sitting on its tail that ain't a tail dragger just don't look right.

Badge - progress on the Badge can be seen here....

A shout out for Lewbud, his Factory is up and running!

Got the fuselage together but still have some work to do on it.  There is a gap along the top of the nose which I've filled and am waiting for the putty to dry.  There's a mismatch along the leading edge of the tail which I still need to take care of.  Put about 30-40 BBs in the nose for weight and it will stay on its nose wheel, but when I was turning it so I could get the nose on shot it reared back and sat on it tail.  Since I'm going to mask the framework and paint the inside of the canopy silver, adding more weight won't be a prob.  Here's a couple of pics that I've added to the folder

http://public.fotki.com/lewbud/aoshima-f7f/