Official Natural Metal Finish Group Build

Ok here are some WIP for the Amodel Tu-128, Hint when you buy am Amodel kit make sure you have some freash putty. couple of bad joints on the top and bottom of wings. still I think it will turn out to be a pretty good looking model when done.

This was a big fighter, almost twice the size of Su-15, have a lot of sanding and filling before primer, but been a fun build so far.

Dioamator I used to use a simiular product when I was building RC airplanes. It worked quite well and sanded easily, it was however very soft as you have said. I did find when used over what would be considered a large area that it tended to dent very easily. To prevent that I would finish sand it the apply a thin coat of CA glue then it would not dent as easily. You more than likely wont have that problem but I thought I would toss that your way.

Sherman1111 Thanks for the pictures. Looks like you do have a good start going there, and it appears you have some sanding do do, my least favorate aspect of modeling. Are you going to use Alclad on this build also ?

Wow at this rate sherman you should be able to do 6 or 7 builds in the time alotted. That is a good size blob of filler you have there. I can see sanding sticks in your future.

I have the fuselage and the wings all glued together on the Ha-1112. I am definetly goint to be doing my share of filling and sanding too. The Acadamy kit is not horrible it just need a bit more attention to achive a nice smooth finish required for a good NMF. Tonight its sanding time and then adding the filler where needed. I really can't wait to see what results I can obtain with the Talon paints. I have been avoiding the NMF kits in my stash for a while now. If I can get good results with the Talon paint I am going to be very happy as it will open up possibilities for many other builds I have waiting in the wings. 

                                                                                 Soulcrusher 

 This is getting depressing,, is winter ever gonna get here. I tried again, just can't take the snips to the sprue. I've got tons of inspiration, time enough, for an hour or two, here and there, just can't do it. Sad. Summer's dumb!!! (It's even raining today....all day....nothing to do)

   Glad this GB is a year long deal, I'll knock out a few, when winter decides to come back!!!

Fermis You really gonna make us wait that long ??? sheesh.

heres where iam at just waiting for stuff to dry.

fermis wrote:

This is getting depressing,, is winter ever gonna get here. I tried again, just can't take the snips to the sprue. I've got tons of inspiration, time enough, for an hour or two, here and there, just can't do it. Sad. Summer's dumb!!! (It's even raining today....all day....nothing to do)    Glad this GB is a year long deal, I'll knock out a few, when winter decides to come back!!!

Winter over here is June, July August.

Don't worry about the snips, make this your first step

I've put in a couple of days at the bench on my B-58.  Airframe construction is complete but I've opted to not attach anything until I'm done foiling (I will foil all the components like the wings and the engines separately then attach everything).

I've done foiling once before and this job is reminding me why I opted for Alclad on later NMF finishes I did after that 1/144 B-47 a few years ago.  Foiling is definitely a patience tester.  But I've managed decent progress, albeit only on the fuselage.  I've yet to touch the engines or wings.

I drilled a hole into the bottom of the fuselage and inserted a short length of brass rod which will later help elevate this into a landing approach, where I hope to be able to attach the wheels in the act of descending.  Hopefully I'll be able to pull that off.  I opted for this display since, when dry fitting the gear doors to fully in-flight closed position, I noticed that they were horribly too small to actually fill the gear door area, and my initial efforts to produce suitable replacement pieces did not go over as well as I expected.

Looking good there Aggie. Man thats alot of work. I think your right Alclad might have been the way to go but its always nice to learn new stuff too.

I am plugging away at the Ha-1112. This is your typical Academy kit. Good basic detail and a good price. Downside typical Academy fit which means lots of filler on every jiont and lots of time spent with the sanding sticks. Still its the only HA-1112 in 1/48 scale. The took the sprues from the 109 kit and made a new fuselage sprue. Unfortunatly the shape of the wing where it meats the fuselage is not even close. The wing is almost a good 2mm narrower than the attachment points on the fuselage. I ground down the fuseage stubs and then glued up the wings and layed down a thick layer of Squadron putty and worked it iinto shape. Now the front intake is coming up about 2mm short on both sides and does'nt meet the cowl. More putty and sanding for tomorrow!

                                                                            Soulcrusher                   

Smokinguns Nice start on that F-86 cant believe how fast some of you guys are.

Aggieman The foil on that B-58 is lookin sweet, you are another of the fast builders. I know the foil takes a lot more time than painting does but really for me the effect is worth the time spent.

I havent been able to sit down and work on my P-38 much, I am hoping this week I will get the rest of the airframe togeather and maybe a bit of foil work done but I will have to see how my days go I guess.

Great work in here... love those old Codl war era bombers, look forward to seeing them finished!

I just came back to the bench after some months off due to health/work issues, and was going to re-start with a couple P-51s (what else? ;)   Can I join this GB? The "NMF" finish, I was going to use the MM Metalizer series AB different panels. Not sure if that qualifies?

The kits are the old Revell 1:48 scale, one finished as the "doll" one a green nose. I recon both have at least 50% NMF?

Cheers

JMart back to the boards, I know I hadnt seen you around in a while. And welcome to the shiney group.

It was the old Revell P-51D Mustang kit that got me thinking about this GB, and both of yours would fit in perfectly. I will add your builds to the leading page today. Are they both the Revell kits and in 1/48 scale ?

The B-58 is looking pretty darn sweet!  And I thought that I had a lot of area to foil!

Here are a few shots of about 6 hours of cutting and foiling progress on my F-86F.  Think that I am slowly going crosseyed!!

You can also see the meager progress that I have on the Mig-17 for this GB in the background of the last photo.

After these pics were taken I added more panels to the wing bottoms, and finished the front windscreen.  This method really requires a massive amount of patience, but when it is finished it will look way sweet!

Thanks for looking,

Matt

Blkhwkmatt That is gonna be one sweet looking F-86 ! Nice job foiling you are doing, I like the fact you are doing a panel at a time. It does take lots more time, yup I go crosseyed too, but its well worth the extra effort IMHO.

WOW....These builds are looking great.  Outstanding work gentleman....

I got around to working on her again.  Completed one of the inboard engines using the virgin inboard engine as a guide for panel seams.  I removed the kit elevons, and attached the tail.  Since these pictures were taken, I attached the lower wing to the upper wing.  I wasn't going to do this until the engines were attached, but the seams would have been very difficult to work with....Oh ya...This thing is BIG

Thanks for looking

Cheers

Matt looks like you are makeing good progress to me. The foil looks great so far. Man I really need to add a F-86 to the stash. Also a Mig 15, if you have a F-86 you gotta have a Mig too right?

Rob it looks like you have your work cut out for you. After seeing that I'm glad I bought the Talon paints for my Ha-1112!

Jmart good to see you back buddy. Its nice to have a local boy here in this GB! How about this %@## rain everyday. Did we get relocated to Seattle and not get told about it?

Well I'm off to the bench to sand away at the Ha-1112 for probally the rest of the night. I can't hide the ugly spots under the camo like I usally do with a kit like this.

                                                                                   Soulcrusher

Lancair IV Nice work on that engine ! That Hustler does look to be very large ya think you may hafta go get another roll of Reynolds Wrap ? Or maybe two of them ? <evil grin>

Soulcrusher You have any pictures yet ?? cant wait to see some of your build

Ok Randy here you go. All of the silver spots are all of the places that needed putty and sanding. Tonight I am going to do the final sanding on the seams and lay down a primer coat to see if I got all of the seams.

                                                                            Soulcrusher 

Soulcrusher Thanks I have been wanting to see what this kit looked like, nice looking airframe and doesnt look like a bad kit either. I may hafta see if I can find one of these. You have a good start going hope you can post more soon.

I finally got to sit down for most of the day and work on my builds, the P-38 for this group and a P-61 for the P-61 group. I think I must be mad at me for working on both these kits at the same time. Loads of fit troubles and seems like never ending filling and sanding an filling an san.......... well you get the picture. Just may have to do an easy one for my next build, I do have a couple of nice Tamiya kits in the closet. Hopefully I will get the booms on the P-38 and have a few pics Thursday

Ok here is the Ha-1112 with a coat of Talon alluminun paint polished with the Talon alluminum polishing powder. I gotta tell you guys I like this stuff. Now the Academy kit is no show winner and I was now trying to sow a silk purse from a sow's ear here but the results look very promising. I managed to have a couple of scratches show through the paint and I accidently pressed the nail from my thumb down agianst the cowl when I was buffing which left a faint line in the paint. These paints come already thinned for airbrushing but they are thinned a little bit more than I usally thin my paints. Therfore I layed down a bit to much paint probally. I sprayed them at about 30 psi. I think lowering it to25 psi would yield even better results. I am really excited now that I have learned the basics of using the Talon acrylics I want to tackle all of those kits that have been sittingin the stash forever because I was not confident about spraying the NMF. I hightly recomend this stuff. It was very easy to spray, no fumes and a snap to clean up. Polishing it is no harder than polishing your silverware for Xmas dinner!

                                                                             Soulcrusher 

Hi SC -- WOW! Now you've got me excited for all the same reasons! I bought the same paint and polish last month but haven't had a chance to get to them yet. The finish is very attractive indeed and it sounds pretty straight forward to use. Oh, I can SO see that AMT YB-49 in this stuff! And that Monogram RB-36H, and, well, you get the picture! I have a Hasegawa B-47E en route after an eBay win, and while she's an old kit that will need rescribing (so's the B-36), this paint should produce a fantastic finish!

Can't wait to see her done!

Cheers,

Mike

Soulcrusher WOW!!! THAT LOOKS AWESOME!!! Cant, just cant wait to see it finished. Very nice work. Do you apply a sealer of some sort for weathering and such ?

I gotta talk with that Hawkeye guy about getting some of that stuff. It doesnt look grainy at all. I wonder how it would work with raised detail, I am not too sure the foil will work on the P-38, had to do a bunch of filling and dont know if it will stick to the puddy around the radiator intakes.

Some really fine work going on here!

Foiling an aircraft .... I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall while trying to run in quicksand.  I've made progress but still can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I've completed about 2/3 of the fuselage and have started covering the wings and engines.  I think the most frustrating thing is that I'm using regular house hold foil rather than BMF, so I have to apply the cement and then sit doing other things while the cement dries to a clear glaze.  Takes about an hour or so.  I've read that BMF comes ready to apply and is actually stronger than regular house hold foil.

But I'm committed to my current course.  No additional photos at the moment, but I will be AWOL for the next couple of weeks as we are getting ready to head out next Saturday on our summer vacation.  Actually that'll probably do me a lot of good in getting me away from the frustration I'm finding at my bench.

Aggieman WOW an hour for the adhesive to cure ?? What are you using, I use Micro Scale Micro Metal Foil Adhesive and only takes 5 to 10 minutes to dry on Reynolds Wrap. Sorry you are having so much trouble. Hey Aggie I hope you have a great vacation, enjoy and see you when you get back.

My trouble has been with the subject I choose for the build I spent most of today foiling the radiator housings on my P-38. Glad I decided to do them before mating the booms to the wing, would have been almost impossiable to foil them otherwise.

Aggieman Ahhhh ok. Well I would suggest the Micro Scale Metal Foil Adhesive and you would be much happier. Its not expensive 3 bucks and change for a 1oz bottle that goes a long way, got mine a bit over a year ago and still have 2/3 of the bottle left after 3 builds, its kind of like white glue. Cleans up with water when wet and 91% alcohol when dry, and is dry in like I said 5 or 10 minutes. I apply a thin coat with a very soft 1/4 inch brush. I have used the BMF and found the strength about the same as aluminum foil and it seemed to stretch a little better but is way more expensive. Also with the Micro Scale adhesive I found I can apply it to either side of the foil with the same results allowing me to create both dull and shiney finishes. I have been seeing it in the LHS around here and Squadron carries it also. I am nowhere near the modeler most of you guys are so it has to be easy to use if I can get the results I do.