Official Natural Metal Finish Group Build

Neu, Let me congratulate you with finishing that smashing gloster meteor. Somehow it has always looked good to me and im pretty sure i will build one myself in the future. Great job my friend! Can't say anything negative about it really. Keep it up and keep em coming

 Ok.....

I finally managed to get my Skytrain up to the point that i can work with it again. Regrettably the damage the tape did to the NMF is at some places still showing under the new layer. The C47 lost a bit of the blinding shine it had before.... Nevertheless i think its looking good enough to continue on. Besides that the paint layers are starting to get a bit too thick for another one, so i decided to compromise with, but not be defeated by a big chunk of plastic...

My solution was to sand down the worst places, clean the plane and spray a new layer of the same paint. After a few days i gave it a coat of clear gloss varnish and left it again, hoping that the varnish would protect the NMF.

And that it did! Masking and painting the cowlings, wing leading edges and anti glare patch went like a breeze after that. Needs some slight retouching but thats a matter of a few hours I would call this Gooneybird almost ready for decalling.

See you next time gents!

Richard

Hi guys, soem awsome builds you got there. Blkhwkmatt i really like the look you got on the J15.

 vetteman42 sorry i haven't been about much, i tend to stick to the GB i am building at the time. I can confuse easy . I plan on starting my build as soon as my Me 262 is done, so should be in the new year at the latest. But if its ok with you i'd like to make a change. When i checked my MiG 23 i realised it had a nice 3 tone scheme i would like to stick with. o instead i'd like to build a Bilek MiG 19 with Extrach PE and i still plan on useing Alclad II. I have never used any of this 3 brands before and the Bilek kit looks a bit of a challenge so should be fun.

Kermit Good save Richard !!!! She is lookin good from here and the cowlings came out great. Now if the decals will just be friendly to ya and behave. Have you done any tinkering with them yet ? Lookin forward to seeing a Kermified Gooney Bird.

Bish yeah the front page is looking really good isnt it, lotsa talant here in this group. I will bbe lookin for ya after the first of the year then. No problem on your build I will change it today.

Bish, welcome to the shiny corner buddy!. Looking forward to your Mig 19.

Ok, peeps...i have made you wait and wait for it because of the problems i encountered but i can finally announce that my Gooneybird is finally finished! (yayyy)

Decalling went like a breeze, just like im used to with revell decals and i have even put some custom ones on...Hope you guys like my noseart and my work. Made some pics already in lamplight as i couldnt wait to share the happy news but i will make some in daylight too. As you can see my photocorner was woefully inadequate for this size of model

Richard

 Nice Gooney there Kermy!!!

 BTW; what's that strap attached to?(the one on the left in the second pic!)

Thanks Fermis

what's that strap attached to?

Ummm that would be either my Fender strat, my Epi 335 or my Epi LP Custom

Richard

 Ahhh, I was hopin you might say Jackson!!!!! nothing compares!!!!

 Ok.   Back to modelling!!!!!

Thank you Neu, appreciate it. I can btw highly reccommend this kit, its old and will have some seams to overcome but building it was great fun. I believe it is the same mold as the Monogram offerings. Great value for dollar i'd say

Will definately do this one again but then a customised operation Market Garden version.

Richard

fermis wrote:

Ahhh, I was hopin you might say Jackson!!!!! nothing compares!!!!  Ok.   Back to modelling!!!!!

How about these ?

Brian 

Hi y'all

As promised, some more pics taken in the afternoon autumn sun...:

Richard

Kermit Wow ! Thru all the trials and tribulations "Cindy" came out great, I really like the colors and the nose art came out spot on, I cant even see the edges of them. On the nose art what did you seal the decals with ? I remember you had ordered something from Microscale. Must have taken forever to put on all those stencels, man there are a bunch of them. Now I have the task of picking one of the pictures for the front page. Very very well done Richard, oh and do tell, did the other half like the Goonybird ??

Fermis Hummmmm you must be in a band from the looks of your collection

Thank you Randy Yes, it all worked out in the end. Paint layers came out a bit thick having to do it over and over but you really have to look closely to really see it. Never taken this long on a plastic model and part of me is glad she's on the shelf now...

The stuff i use nowadays is called liquid decal film. Its the same little bottle as the microset and microsol you use from the same company. You can use it to restore old decals but it is also a sealant for custom made decals. You apply it with a brush after the printer ink has dried. At first it looks awful as it is very thick goo but after 15 minutes you will see that the layer has leveled nicely without stripes. Really nice stuff to work with

And i didnt really count the decals but yes, there were a hell  of a lot of em.

The Mrs watched me build it but i kept the decals a secret untill the very end. She loved it.(yay me)

Richard

Randy,

I can see my C47 made it's way to the front page...Chalk up number three(yayy) Thanks buddy.

For the Soviet Union group build i just finished up a Revell NMF Mig 21 in 1/72 scale and i promised Randy to post it here too as a sort of crossover thingy... Started it just before the weekend and it's finished already...Call it mach 2 building... Some pics to show the process:

(btw, thats a penny in the pics to show how tiny it was especially after the C47 in my hands...)

Thanks for the future-in-dials idea btw, Vette:

Thanks for looking peeps

Richard

Kermit I see you decided to ummm crossover, very well done I might add and such a fast build too. I really really like the weathering on this one Richard, you are really mastering the art. Some day when I grow up maybe I can build em that fast too Thanks for posting the WIP pictures too thats what made it acceptable for the cross over.

Neu Nice build I like it. Your effects with the Alclad really work for this one. What colors did you use ?

Well guys I finally got some work done on the F-104, well actually I have been trying to get things to work and fit right, the scratch built parts that is. On top of trying to stop smoking, its been a week now and I am still somewhat sane I think. So on that note here are a few pictures of what I have been up to.

To start of with as a reminder this is a Testers 1/48 kit with no detail at all so I have been making an attempt at scratch building some. In this first picture I dont like in fact I hate looking thru a model, especially jet intakes so I took the foil seal off of my trusty Folgers coffee can glued them into the intake wall then folded them over and glued tham back over them selves. Worked out very well, when I look down the intakes now I see what looks like an intake duct, sadly my camera refuses to take a picture of the inside on the finished intakes. Hopefully from the picture you will get an idea of what it looks like. You can also see the wheel well floors and bulkhead I made for the cockpit.

This next one you can see how the gear bays came out. now to add a few bits of detail to make em look bit better and not so bare.

This is my first jet build, well I did build a couple back when I was like 13 years old. Anyway I got my grubby mits on a north west burner can for the hasi kit and did some trimming and cutting and lots of sanding so I could use it on this kit. I used Testers steel enamel then brushed on heavely thinned Tamiya smoke. Looks pretty good to me what do you guys think.

Heres one with the burner in place, just had to see what it looks like ya know.

I think I am finally getting close to putting foil on this build.

Just saw this GB.  I have a B-17G and three P-51 Mustangs painted in NMF.  All are waiting to be weathered, some almost done being weathered.  I used MM Alunimum (Non-buffing) Metalizer on all.

Here's some shots of the B-17G

After the NMF was applied

Masks removed

Decals applied, no weathering

Don't have any pics of the Mustangs, yet

Neu I really like the finish on your Ki-84 ! Very well done. I did take the liberty of blowing it up and brightening it a bit.

B17Pilot Very nice NMF !! That must have taken a pint of paint man, that thing is huge. I love how the markings stand out against the metal finish too.

Guys if you have any WIP pictures of these builds I would really like to include them in the group. If not  do, feel free to post here we do like seeing nice work.

Hey VetteMan42 -

Sign me up for the Group Build. I'll be building a Revell 1/48 P-51D.

All -

This will be my first NMF kit and it will strictly be an Alclad paint job - no foils, etc. I have a couple of newbie questions:

1) I'd like to use a main color and then highlight some panels with another color. Any suggestions on what Alclad colors to use for the main and highlights? Which panels are best to highlight? For this build, my focus is the NMF process more than aircraft authenticity. I'm considering aftermarket decals so I do not yet have a specific paint scheme in mind.

2) What kind of sandpaper and polishing clothes would properly prep the surface for Alclad? Where do I purchase such sandpaper and polishing clothes?

I'll get all these supplies lined up while I work on the cockpit.

Hi Randy and all,

Thanks for the invite to join this GB (my first). I would like to build a 1/48 Fokker D XXI in Danish Air Force colors with a NMF finish. The kit is a Classic Airframes model. I plan to use the SNJ powder approach as described in this thread. My plan is to try to make the model look as close as possible to the illustration on the box. I will post a start pic on Sunday.

It will take a while (probably a month) to get to the exterior finish. The kit has both resin and PE parts for the engine and cockpit. I have not yet worked with either. I understand you use CA for the resin parts. Any suggestions for the PE? I have CA, white glue, and regular MM glue for polystyrene. Probably CA, right?

The cockpit/interior fuselage has a huge number of parts, so it may take a while to get past that. Plenty of time to get the powders and anything else needed. Any suggestions appreciated.

Well I'm underway! Everything is primed on the sprue and the canopy is coated in Future. VetteMan - I won't do the level of detail I did in my Spit posts, but I do want to let you know I've started. My next post will probably be the completed cockpit, unless I have a question before then. Here's the box art for my kit:

Vetteman, Thanks for the heads-up about the lower cowling. One way or another, I'll get that bad boy to fit. I haven't decided yet on open or closed cockpit.

Happy Thanksgiving and a BIG THANKS to you for this Group Build!