Official Natural Metal Finish Group Build

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

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

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.

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

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 ?

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

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.

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                   

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.

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

heres where iam at just waiting for stuff to dry.

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

 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!!!

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 

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 ?

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.

thats flippin sweet! let me know how it works out. if its good ill pick me up some and try it out.

Well,

Got the foil in the mail yesterday, promptly spent 3 hours at the bench yesterday so I should be able to get a pic or two of the progress.  I will say this, the Bare Metal Foil is sweet!!!  It is going to make finishing the kit take longer though. 

Matt

I found the filler I was talking about, It's called "Micro fill, ultra light filler" It goes on as a paste, and doesn't shrink when drying. when dry it is soft enough to sand back with your finger. It is recomended as a balsa filler, so I expect it could still be used on plastic, as long as no movement occurs (and would be great under a layer of foil).
http://www.hobbytools.com.au/prod70.htm

I have also found a similar product called 'Model Lite' "Use only where a strong joint is not required. Bonds wood, foam, fibreglass."
http://www.deluxematerials.co.uk/pages/fillerproducts.htm

Unfortunately the Australian supplier is currently out of stock

dioramator wrote:

builds are lookin good! Can anyone suggest a non-solvent based filler to fill the gaps between the wings and fuselage?

i thought it was apoxiesculpt so i went to their website and it says you can clean it up with either their solvent or water. i hope this helps cause i am really lookin forward to seeing your stuff

Matt and Sherman -- great work, guys! That Sabre is coming along very nicely (I have this one in my stash so am watching with interest), and the Tu-128 has always been a favorite piece of hardware. I've never bought Amodel yet, so working through the 'limited-run' issues will be most interesting.

I had a look at Prime Portal and the gear bays of the F-84C seemed to be bright yellow! I'm thinking maybe zinc chromate...? I don't want to get too bogged down with research, the object after all is to get to the NMF, so I'll wait for the Sq. Sig. book and see what it has to say, then jump into the project.

Cheers,

Mike/TB379

Brett right now I have a Yamaha Royal Star Tour Deluxe. I started riding when I was 8 years old so there arent very many I havent ridden at one time or another. Ducati is one of those that I havent had the chance to ride, however they do look like a very nice ride, love the sound of them too. I have only known one guy that didnt like his so to me that says alot for the bike. I see you like the lets go fast bikes we call them crotch rockets here.  Feel free to PM me if you want to talk bikes

Its a good Idea you have to practice with the foil some before you tackle the P-51, I finished one a couple of months ago and It was a bit of a challange. I did find I got much better results putting the foil on a panel at a time. I had the worst trouble with the wingroot, I did figure out a trick and will be more than happy to share it with you if you like, will have to figure out Photoshop I think.

Thanks for that vetteman42. I didn't want to use the solvent filler in case it marred the surface of the plastic, as well as having to sand off rivets and detail. A friend once showed me a tub of waterbased plastic model filler... clean up with a wet Q-tip, I'll try to get hold of the name of it and post it here on the forum.

My P-51 has currently moved out of rotation (but not for long), My other WIP is a diorama I am building for the Model Expo here in Adelaide, I'm panicing a little as I would like to get it finished in time for this years show (if not, there is allways next year)... however I am really looking forward to starting the foiling, as I now have all the materials I need, but time is the factor.
So much to do, so much enthusiasm, and just not enough time to do it all. I will have to manufacture some more spare time.

As this is my first go at foiling, I have pulled out an old model bike fairing to have a first attempt at, I figure if I can experiment/ practice on the complex curves of the fairing, the big flat panels of the plane should be a piece of cake.

Now just getting off topic for a minute, what type of bike do you ride?
I have 2 passions in life, Model building and Motorcycling, currently have 3 road bikes, Ducati 996, Ducati Paso 906, and a Kwaka GPZ 900R.

Brett 

Smokinguns3 Thanks This kit is turning out to be a bit of a bear lots of fit issues and I think I will have to add lead to the nose seems it will be a tail sitter. Its coming along slow but sure.

Thunderbolt379 Hurry up cant wait to see some WIP from you.

Blkhwkmatt No problem I will change the front page for ya. You have a very nice start going there, but I do have to comment thats only one evenings work ??? You are FAST and do nice clean work too. Maybe I just have to stop thinking about what I am doing and get the work done huh.

Sherman1111 That is a cool looking Flagon, I really like the finish and the markings. Wish we could have seen WIP pictures of it. I am looking forward to seeing WIP pics of your Fiddler, looks like you have some work ahead of you on that kit.

Dioramator Wish I could help you out but I have only used Mr Surfacer or Squadron puddy thinned with Testors Lacquer Thinner

Soulcrusher Great ! You recieved your Talon paints now work can start I take it. Nice to hear that Hawkeye guy is a fast shipper, I am still waiting to see his finished pictures of his build I will be waiting to hear and see how they work out for you. I am planning on using the dull side of the foil, hopefully it will look like it saw service, I have already built two shiney show planes. The tough part of it all for me was having to stop working and stop flying, they were 2 things I really enjoied doing. I can however still ride the motorcycle once in a while, cant go very far only 50 miles or so but still feels good to get out there.

Randy thats got to be tought two heart attacks at your age. I feel for you buddy. At least you P-38 is looking good so far. Are you going to make her shiny or weathered alluminum?

Matt looking foward to seeing the F-86 in foil. It looks like that kit required some filler in alot of the seems.

I received my paints from Hawkeye Hobbies today. Great service they arrived very quickly. I actually started on the  Ha-112 tonight. Just some basic stuff like removing the wings and fuselage from the sprues and cleaning them up. I also opened up all of the holes for the undewing rockets and wing fences. Going to start on the cockpit tomorrow. Just the basics. I really want to concentrate on the finish of this model and keep the rest of the build OOB. I can't wait to try out the new paints. I have not build to many NMF planes so I am excited about learning.

                                                                                        Soulcrusher

builds are lookin good!

Can anyone suggest a non-solvent based filler to fill the gaps between the wings and fuselage?

OK here is # 2 for the build Amodel Tu-128 Fiddler

as with all amodel kits you get 1/2 lb of flash on the parts, but it should be a fun build