Official Natural Metal Finish Group Build

Same here buddy! NMF is on, future is drying overnight... Then some last paintjobs like the yellow fuselage stripes and wheelwells and its decalling time. Photo's will be coming soon.

Richard

Thanks for the compliments Randy, and yes you can betcha i will take you up on your offer if i should decide on foil finishing a model somewhere down the line. I understand a bigger model is more suitable for learning the technique (bomber or 1/32 scale)?

Yes, you can put me down for the skytrain. Might just be stubborn and make a very gentle start on it later today...

I will be visiting friends in Washington state. Can't wait to go as this will be my first peek across the pond and also my first flight EVER. Might as well do it right the first time Everybody keeps asking me if im afraid to fly but i'm very confident i will LOVE it. After the first turbulence i might walk up to the pit and ask for another go

Richard

Kermit What can I say your detail work just continues to get better and better, fine work indeed. Its just too bad you have to cover that gun bay, it may be time to add an ordiance figure reloading so you can leave that bay open ? Just a thought ya know. It does look like we will be adding another fine build to the front page soon that has been Kermified

Richard you are right foiling does take quite a bit longer than painting does, I spent around 12 hours on the P-38 knowing it was not going to be an easy job. On this build I did have to pay special attention to panel lines, seems, and grain direction in the foil due to the fact that I foiled this one dull side out and cant hide any mistakes by burnishing it with steel wool. However I did a Revell P-51D shiney side out in around 5 hours total time not too long ago so it does truly depend on the airframe you choose to do. It can be quite tediuos and frustrating at times, but for me it is worth the extra effort in the end. If you should decide to give it a try I will offer you all the help and advise I can give you.

Did you want me to add the C-47 to the roster now ? Also what part of the states will you be visiting ?

Mid weekend update time...

Like i said, i continued on the gunports (again, never to be seen again after closing it up with paneling...)...

And detail painted the airbrake area's (retouched after taking this pic and final weathering to be done later on)...

Kinda liked the detail on this area so i decided to leave these open.

Afterwards i continued on the (partial) landing gear assembly, leaving off some hatches and deciding to handpaint the main landing gear wheelbays after the NMF airbrushing job. Once this was done i finally could fill up gaps and seams using putty:

After sanding this lot tomorrow (pics are taken before sanding ofcourse), i still need to put putty on the wing edges, attach the already painted and masked canopy section and finalize with some sanding before this bird is ready for the spraying booth (yay...!) Gonna use the revell paints again but this time the airbrush ready enamel variant instead of the acrylic paint i used before.

Also received my AMD decals earlier this week and appearantly i ordered the wrong ones as the markings for McConnels AC are not on them (pic on the website i ordered them from did depict them...) Still need to decide weather to model a different AC or to partially use the Academy decals and the AMD ones...

And latest news to share would be announcing my next build for the NMF group. The revell C47 Berlin airlift kit (wingspan of 24+ inches!):

Experimental "new" thing would be trying/ attempting adding some custom decals on this build; something i have never done before... Hope to be able to make a start on it (and wrapping up the sabre) before i go on a two week holiday to the states to visit friends there early october.

Hope you enjoyed my latest and see you peeps again soon!

Richard

Every modelers has "just-one-of-them-days" every once in a while...

But from my end it's looking great so no harm done. Sometimes things like this even give me interesting new ideas. For instance, i once painted an engine aluminum, decided i didn't like it and coated it with semi gloss black afterwards.

In those days i used enamels ONLY and so drying times are longer. Forgot to wait long enough for the black to dry out and when i handled the part i rubbed off some of the black paint, revealing the aluminum underneath. It made my engine look like a charm in the end, nice and worn. So, moral of the story: if it turns out ok, you can FUBAR all you like

From what i have read about interior colors on p38's i would (myself) think both neutral grey and zinc chromate yellow would be acceptable and plausible for the turbo housings. Most material refers to interior colors of the pit and wheelbays anyways...

Richard

Neu Front page is updated with your builds so you are all set.

Ok guys heres what happened to me errrr to the P-38 . I decided to use some Model Master Aluminum Plate Buffing Metalizer Lacquer ( having never used it before) to paint some small parts that would have been almost impossiable to foil, namely the tubros and the turbo intakes. So that I did a couple of days ago, and frankly was very happy with the way the paint went on right from the rattle can. Yesterday I felt good enough to do a bit of work on the model so got out my tamiya red brown and smoke paint to finish up the turbos, got them all painted up, and set aside to dry, and procieded to paint the props. A couple hours later I checked the turbos to see if the paint was dry, low and behold true to tamiya style the paint was dry, so I picked up one turbo and got it ready for a wash to weather it a bit. I set the part down to get a bottle of paint and noticed on my thumb was a silver patch of what looked like paint, then looked at the turbo and yup there was a bright patch of silver where it had been a bit dull before. Now i am in a sudden state of confusion at this point as to what happened and what the heck did I do wrong. Then it happens, the light popped on as bright as a 1000 watt bulb. I had forgotten to buff my buffing metalizer !!!!!!!!!!! All that lose powdery stuff is under the paint I just applied ! Now after calming down from my bit of rage I decided to try and buff the exposed parts of the metalizer and then clear coat all of the turbos thinking maybe I could save the paint job. I used a Q-tip and started buffing and discovered the red brown was coming off and the smoke was coming off as I handled the parts ! Aw nuts so I just kept buffing and rubbing paint off. The red Brown paint being on the turbo bodys and the smoke being on the wastegate tubes. Anyway heres what I ended up with after this adventure.

This misadventure turned out pretty well I think and quite by accident I must admit. Althou I still have to figure out what color to paint the inside of the turbo housing as the instructions give me no idea. Maybe a dark grey ? Let me know what you think and if anyone else has run into this problem.

I want to thank all you guys for you complements and encouragement on my build. This one has been a fight all the way and I think will be a battle all the way to the end of it. While working on the turbos yesterday I had a case of brain fade and made a mistake that I am not sure what to do about, will post a pic or 2 of it later and see what you guys think.

Nue your 1/72 VF-11 Macross is in I will get it on the roster today for ya. Will you let me know the kit manufaturer is ? It looks like it will be both a different, and interesting build, I look forward to seeing it progress. Are you planning to use foil for a finish or paint. Also I wouldnt complain if you built the Gloster Meteor either maybe you can do both ??

Dioramator An excelant build !!! Love it, the weathering is spot on to my eye. If I may be so bold I think you should consider submitting it to the reader gallery in FSM. You dont see, at least I havent seen any Aussie built P-51s. Man I love posting finished builds on the front page.

Brett I will tell you, hosting a group build has been a blast for me, I have learned alot and made some friends along the way, and it really isnt that hard a thing to do as I first thought. This one is my first and I have started another already, the Air racer group build. So I would say jump in the water is great ! If there is anything I can do to help you out along the way just let me know.

Brett,

That's a very well done Mustang indeed! A model to be proud of, certainly considering you have added your own touch by making your own decals. Something i am going to try myself

Weathering is subtle but very effective as this model really gives me that aged metal feeling. The brown accents along the panellines really look nice. Wouldn't mind some more pronounced exhaust trails but that is a very personal thing. Well done matey! Arrr

Richard

So here it is, done and dusted.

I am quite happy with the final result... not too bad for my first attempt at a BMF.

Actually this is also my first attempt at making my own decals (éclat, the serial No. and the one on the tail)...that is something I will try to avoid doing in future.
It is also my first group build, which I found very enlightening, and am toying with the idea of hosting my own GB in the future (when I clear out some of these existing projects... and get the weekend madness GB out of the way).
Also the first plane I have built in 8 years (and only my second one ever).

If I was to build this kit again, there are a few things I would do differently, but that's always the way, you never know how the kit is going to go together until you have built it.

Thanks to all you guys for your suggestions and feedback I received during the build, and thanks to Randy for giving me the opportunity to participate in the group.

I won't be doing another BMF for a while, as I have a few other projects on the go (but I will still be lurking in the background).

It seems I am building a lot more for other people than myself these days, so I don't often get to pick the subjects.

Cheers

Brett

 Dioramator : I agree on the "should i paint that invisable bit?" issue, but i always seem to still do it anyways. It also happened to be a very nicely detailed engine so i decided to "kermiefy" it. Keeps me off the streets...

Looking forward to your end results!

Luftwoller : 75% of the time i spend on FSM i just read and catch up without posting myself too. I think that's normal. Looking forward to your latest though...

Neu : SWEET tempest there!. Very clean build and a fine paintjob. I could have missed it but do you have some idea on what you want to model for the NMF group? As far as i'm concerned i'd say welcome to the party and more is better

Vetteman : Great job at foiling and your canopy looks like it fits like a glove so mission accomplished. Im really interested in the foiling thing but i'm afraid i will loose interest if applying it will take me to long, all these nice kits in my stash....*sigh*.

Ask anything you want buddy! Drybrushing alone makes a world of difference sometimes.

Richard

Lookin' good there Randy

I've got a few spare hours to spend on the Mustang today
I'll see how far I get with it, but it is getting close to finished

Brett

Neu Looks great glad we were able to help you out with it. But did you end up using future as a gloss coat ? Also how did you buff it. I look forward to seein you join up and your build

Kermit Thanks I am sure I will be asking you some questions as we go along. This weathering thing seems to elude me,but with each build I try to weather it gets better so I will hang in there and maybe one day it will click.

Luftwooler I dont feel I have been adding to the builds and mostly lurk LOL, so dont feel bad about that as there are builds going on that are very much worth looking at and following. I hope you can do another build for the group and look forward to seeing more from you.

Ok guys time (finally) for another WIP picture. I finally got all the foil on and the canopy. Cant tell ya how happy I am I had a Squadron vacuform canopy for it as the kit canopy was lousy to say the least. I did have some fit problems with the vacuform but was able to fake it so that it looks pretty good. Tomorrow I will paint the antiglare and red wing tips and stuff like that but wont be able to finish it until next week because I need an ink cartridge for my printer to make a couple of decals.

Still tryin to figure out if this build kicked my but or if I kicked its but or maybe it was a draw.

Sorry ive not been around lately. Dont like to be a poster and runner. So much great stuff.

Neu, the Typhoon looks fantastic.

Hopefully if time permits ill add another to the roster. But i have so many others on the go. Ill still keep looking in here though. To much quality to miss out on.

...Guy

Kermit: that build looks like it is going together well. Pity about all that hidden detail. One point of constant amusement to myself is how much time should I spend on detail that will never be seen.
I'm not going to bother with the centers of the decals, the plane will be displayed on a shelf, and the underside will not be seen (see previous paragraph). At one point I was going to cut circles in blank white decal sheet, but after fitting  the home made decals on the tail I decided not to. I had a bit of trouble with the material curling up as the final coat of Future was drying, and decided it was just going to create another headache. (however I didn't use microsol on these in case it caused the colour to run).
I do plan on doing some weathering, just a light wash with oil paints to make the detail pop, and a dusting with pastel chalk around the landing gear, to take the starkness of those horrible rubber tyres. (It ain't no WWII tank), just something suttle.

Randy: the engine cowlings were a little warped, and the fit was not perfect, but a few clamps, a couple of rubber bands, and a bit of glue (and filler) straightened everything out.
The prop and spinner are kit parts, the whole thing is built straight out of the box, with no extra detalil from yours truly (except a few custom made decals).
The finish is common household grade aluminium foil. I was impressed with the finish considering it is the first time I have used this technique, although there are one or two visible creases (it was a learning process), so it is not perfect, but all the same is quite an impressive looking build.

Brett

Randy,

If you want any details cleared out for you you are very welcome to ask or send me a PM. Happy to help you out with the limited knowledge at my disposal

Dioramator,

Wouldn't do anything about those decals myself as extra painting will always show i think, turning things from bad to worse. It's the underside so no harm done standing on a shelf after finishing. Are you planning on any kind of weathering? It's ofcourse a matter of opinion and personal taste but i like mine dirty and used Just out of curiosity...

Ok, time for the kermie sabre update...

Like i said, next in line was the inside of the fuselage and subsequent closing it all up. First i airbrushed the inside of the fuselage in the appropriate colours: Dark grey for the pit, gunmetal for the exhaust area's showing after finishing and interior green for everything else (all was done using enamels from humbrol and revell). Ofcourse the whole lot received a white drybrush and the black wash too:

Then came the hard work: Fitting the pit-and-engine assembly into the hull. This required lots of patience, cutting away pins and fiddling around, accompanied by some colourful language referring to bodily parts and nasty diseases, not appropriate for a decent and civilised forum. Think i managed it though...:

Once that was done i sat back for a minute, earning myself another morning coffee and a cigarette. Modeling, at times, can be hard work...

The instructions called for adding 15 grams of weight into the nose. Luckily i had some fishing lead in my tackle box from a long gone hobby. Glued it down with CA:

Time for the closing up the fuselage milestone! Fit could have been worse, even though it took some fiddling around again. I used less colourful language than usual here...:

(The masked area with interior green is the airbrake area, will be getting into that on a later stage as i will build this one with the brakes deployed)

Fitting the wings was a breeze afterwards. Things that may look like gaps are really residue black paint from the washes i have applied. The leftover seams will ofcourse be filled and sanded. Planning on using a black coat of primer before the NMF layer (thanks to Lufty for the inspiration on that) so i left it like this:

Last news i can share is the fact that i ordered some aftermarket decals from Aeromaster decals called "sabres over korea pt. 1". It contains the same markings for McConnel's aircraft. Using Academy decals sofar has always been a pain in the you know what sofar, hence these AMD decals...

Enough talk and back to the bench for the next stage: the gunbay. Hope you guys enjoyed my update and see you back soon.

Richard

Kermit thanks for telling us how you made that engine look so good. I did take the liberty of writing it down in my new little modeling note book for future use. Found I cant remember all I learn here with out writing it down somewhere.

Dioramator only one word comes to mind to discribe your work on the Mustang SWEET!!!!!!!!!!! You did a beautiful job on the nose, those cowling panals can be a nightmare to fit closed, especially on a model as large as yours. Are the prop and spinner kit parts or AM ? They look really good too, that is one thing that really makes a Mustang stand out for me The finish is flawless IMHO, is it alclad ? I am sorry abouyt the decals on the lower wing surfaces what a bummer. Maybe you can fix them with some white paint ?

Vetteman Thanks buddy! I was quite pleased with the outcome myself

I basically applied everything i did on my 1:72 Thunderbolt: The aluminum is sprayed on with a spraycan from the local DIY market (always do that with large surfaces or parts that need the same colour). Then i continued with gunmetal on the engine and insides of the exhausts (humbrol 53). Once that dried i painted the tubing and wiring with revells aluminum paint (99), the various boxes and things flat black (revell 8) and drybrushed the whole lot with flat white (humbrol 34). Humbrols being enamel and the revells being acrylic.

The wash is a very thinned down plain black watercolor, like i did on the t-bolt too. I considered going over the top and doing a rusty wash too but i could stop myself just in time. Maybe it's some residue armor building fever

Neu I never used alclad myself either but from what i have experienced with other brands and methods myself the future will make it even shinier. I have to concur with Vetteman there.

Dioramator Nice work there! Pity about the decals though but thats not your fault

Hi All

Thought I'd do a WIP update

I've now laid down the future, and applied the decals.

Someone forgot to print the carrier film behind the white centres under the circles on two of the decals.

Since these photos were taken, I have airbrushed the anti glare black. I used Tamiya XF69 Nato Black. It is a touch softer than straight matt black, and the effect is excellent.

Brett

Kermit that engine came out great !!! Beautiful work there. You have got to be kidding me you wont be able to see the engine and all the fine detail once the fuse is closed up. What silver paint did you use for the base and what color wash did you use. The mag and aluminum parts really look real.  

Neu I have not used any of the Alclad paints yet so I really cant offer any advise there, hopefully some of the guys here can answer your question and mine too for that matter. I am planning on using alclad on the turbo chargers on my P-38 build for this group, then some washes. I have used future on Tamiya silver paints and didnt find it degraded the color or shine of those paints, in fact it improved the shine so much that I had to go over it again with a semi gloss to tone it down a bit.

You are very welcome to join the group, just let me know when you want your build listed on the front page, and if you would let me know what kit and scale so I can list that also. I look forward to seeing your build.

Randy Waaay ahead of you there Is this soon enough for ya?

Ok, been away from the group (and my sabre) for a while primarily trying my hands on a few armor builds with varying succes... But this model never left my thoughts for long and two days ago i picked it up again at a casual pace...

Next in line was the engine/ exhaust assembly and painting. Did a bit of an exploded view pic along with the pit i already worked on. These will be assembled together later on:

Nice detail on there, lots of painting to do:

And one Kermit, two evenings, some spraying, drybrushing and a black wash later it looks like this:

On that first pic you can see a bit of aluminum paint has flaked off but i don't really mind it that much because, and here's the fun part: Almost nothing of this bit of work will be visible once it goes into the fuselage. Ah well... it's a hobby

See you guys on my next update: the fuselage insides

Richard

Kermit thanks for the good wishes, this being sick is getting old I am tellin ya. I am hoping you will look at your Saber more and more then maybe start in on it again very soon. I always like seeing your work.

My 38 has been comming along slowly of late, finally got the canopy glued on and its waiting for the final bits of foil, props, wheels and such. Just havent felt up to working on it. Hopefully I will get back to it very soon.

Sounds bad Randy, hope you'll fully recover soon and get back inthere

Been watching over your shoulders here at the NMF corner and must say i am impressed with all the goodies on the workbenches. Makes me look at my unfinished sabre a lot more lately...

Richard