Official Natural Metal Finish Group Build

Kermit well done, and it wasn't even for the Weekend madness GB. I find there is something rewarding about a fast build... participating in Weekend madness reminded me of that. I built a 1/72 Hasegawa Ki-84 Hayate out of the box. It was a fairly straightforward build; the toughest part was rescribing the entire aircraft in less than five hours (a process that typically takes me about five days.) Also I had to remove the silvered, yellow decals after they didn't sit well under the final coat. I feel really good about it actually; I used a new shading technique with alclad; different tones to give panels a bit more differentiation. Here's some photos (sorry about the quality... my regular camera is out for a month.)

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

looks good.

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

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

Hi y'all

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

Richard

fermis wrote:

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

How about these ?

Brian 

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

Kermit It looks fantastic... I don't know how much more to say.

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

 Ok.   Back to modelling!!!!!

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

 Nice Gooney there Kermy!!!

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

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

well i already have a MiG 21 and 3 P-51's in the stash that are going to be NMF. And i plan on a MiG 15 and 17 and a B-17G, so the MiG 19 will be a good starting point.

Bish Good glad to see you are taking the plunge And hey its not as hard as it looks or seems to get a nice NMF finish. You just may find yourself hooked on them after this build.

Thanks. I have been putting off an NMF for ages, but now i really must take the plunge. 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.

 

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.

 

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

Kermit I have no doubt in the world you will beat that C-47 paint job into submission, I am sorry to hear about the setback though. I guess I will just have to talk you into using foil huh I have been really really looking forward to seeing this one finished.

-Neu- Thats a sweet looking Gloster Meteor, very well done. I also like your weathering effect, not over done but makes the surface detail stand out nicely. It is posted on the front page. I have always found the Meteor an interesting aircraft because the wings look like they have been clipped, kind of short and stubby. They must have had very high landing and takeoff speeds for their day. Can you tell me what paint you used so I can post that info on the front page, I think everyone likes to be able to compare finishes too, I know I do. I understand you needing a break from the VF-11 as I have that trouble sometimes too, but I hope you dont have to make us wait long to see it finished.

Unfortunate to hear about your problems Richard, I hope it turns out for you.

Well I'm done my Gloster Meteor. I'm actually really happy with how it turned out... the only thing that really didn't go to plan was the rockets which involved putting PE in a perfect cruciform. Its not going to happen. I'm putting the VF-11 off to the side for awhile, its canopy problem is ticking me off.








Fixed that smuge on the side of the engine there.

Randy,

The C47 is being built on, i assure you. After my initial painting session i waited for 24 hours before starting on the engine cowlings. It turned out to be a disaster as the NMF paint sort of melted and became soft under my fingers as i handled it while painting the engine cowlings red gloss.... Painting with Chrome alkyd spraycans looked good initially but came with its own set of disadvantages or so i learned It will work but needs alot of time to cure.

So i decided to go ahead with the engines, dealing with the NMF later.

BAD mistake.... The red came off along with the NMF layer as i masked the subsequent yellow striping along the red....

So i roughly repainted the red colour and left it for an entire week. This morning i gave it another coat of red and will leave it for another few days before i will attempt the yellow stripes again, dealing with the NMF layer once this is turning out ok

Richard

Neu Wow they are getting close to finished, you have been busy I can see. Only problem I can see in the pictures on the VF-11 is the canopy fit and I know you can take care of that in short order, unless I am missing something. The Meteor is really looking good, I like your masking jig too a good idea that is. I can see I will be putting 2 more on the front page soon.

Kermit I gotta know hows the C-47 coming along ??? I really want to see it.

I started work on the F-104 again this morning got some bulkheads glued in and will start the wheelwells a bit later today. I will get some pictures up in a day or two.

 

Thanks smoking guns and Richard... that DC-3 looks amazing. Recently I was thinking of building one as a christmas present for a friend who works at an airport, with a civilian all metal finish. The quality and sheen of your paintjob is so good it looks exactly like the photos of the ones that plied their trade in the 1930s and 40s. You're drawing me into building a DC3 one post at a time.

So I've moved a bit ahead with the Meteor, while the VF-11 seems to be stalled because of cockpit issues. I did the undercoat on the Meteor and got the overcoat done... then decaled 'er up. I ran into some trouble when I tried to fix the tail and I pulled off and tore the tail decal... so I tried painting a new national flag on, as you will see. It went well, until I realized I did the colours backwards and did the French flag instead :p. Its all good as I don't really care. Nobody will notice anyway... unless if you're from down under; then I apologize for my ineptitude.




You can see the tail slightly off, which required reworking.

The masking contraption I made and reused.

And the offending tail




And finally, her drying after her final wash before the top coat.

wow nice jobs all .

 Neu . can only agree to what randy said. especially looking forward to what you do with the Gloster

Vette Thanks for the compliment. I used alkyd based spraypaint again for the NMF. Turned out quite ok but found out that it is a bit fragile...after airbrushing the cowlings with ordinary enamels the masking tape (tamiya tape, so it cant be that) tore off some of the metal... so i sprayed it over again and am gonna leave it for awhile...

And modeling is a hobby my friend, its supposed to be fun so if youre not feeling like it, dont do it. Im sure your starfighter will be stunning!

Richard

Neu your builds are coming along nicely. I am really impressed with the figure in the VF-11, my hat goes of to anyone who can paint figures that small.

Kermit WOW thats a bright finish !!! Glad I have my welding glasses on looking at it. Had to get them after seeing the finished Spitfiretron in the air racer group. The finish came out perfectly ! Frankly I was worried about the seam on the spine showing up big time, but low and behold I cant see it in the pictures. Did you use the Revell paint for the NMF or something else, I cant remember.

Sorry I havent been around in a few days guys been feelin lousy. But I am back again and ready to model on . The 104 has been waitin on some work.

Cool looking planes you have there Neu! Cant wait to see them finished.

Wanted to show you guys how the NMF turned out. Im so pleased...

In this last pic you can actually see the reflection of my hand on the wing.

Next thing is to paint engine cowlings, anti glare patches and wing edges. And im happy to announce the fact that i received white and clear decal paper along with a bottle of liquid decal film from microscale. Cant wait to work with it!

Richard

That Douglas is looking mighty fine Richard. Whether your undercoat enamel or a lacquer doesn't matter...the black undermine is humbrol enamel and it works just fine.

Progress continues on the Meteor and the VF-11... Meteor has been more final sanding and shaping. I finally got the canopy on the meteor, not without adding a HUD from a piece of vacuform. The VF-11's cockpit is almost done, but I trimmed the vacuform a bit off and I guess I'll need to fill the gap with white/wood glue before I can continue with it. I'll also clean up the pilot a bit too because its not as crisp as I'd like it to be.

Kermit that is one shiny black finish you have on that C-47, I havent messed with acrylic lacquer but will most deffiantly keep it in the memory banks for when I try alcald paints for a build, or could be Talon paints. Cant wait to see how this one turns out and I am really anxious to see the markings you will be making for it.