The Future coat looks quite good, no orange peal at all.  I seem to get a good finish with it usually just straight from the bottle, but I think I will try the drop of soap idea next time.  The Jake looks great.

Looking good Simpilot- looking forward to seeing her with some hinomaru on!

My US Marine Sherman isn't quite finished but let me post some pics so people actually know I'm still in this build...

The business end with the cool palm tree I found...

She's close to being done. When I attach her to the base I'll nail down the floaty fore and aft road wheels. I'll put the pastels on then as well and a final coat of matte varnish to flatten everything down.

Thanks guys!!! Got my first decals on and so far so good!! Just a couple stripes on the floats. Will be posting more soon.

Gamera the Sherman is looking great!!!!

The elves have been taking it slow so far this year.....but Jack is progressing....

Now heres an interesting "what -if".....

NIGHT FIGHTER JACK!!!!????!!!!

HMMMM???

Going to try the same tecnique as I used for the Rufe except with NMF....lets hope for the best...

Carlos

The Jack is looking good Carlos!!!!!! The elves are doing you proud!!

Carlos, nice job on the Jack!

Are you going NMF on this one?

Karl

Thats what Im shooting for Karl.....something along the lines of how I weathered my Rufe a while back.....hopefully I can get better results.

CS

Gamera...the sherman is looking good...i still have never built a 1/35 tank and might have to make it my next project...

carsanab...the jack looks good in black...

I have been looking everywhere but cant find any realy great wheel bay photos of the f4u-1...i have a few good ones but nothing great..anybody know a good spot?...they would really help with my plumbing...

Sf plane nut, here is a link to one site. has a couple shots of the wells. HTH!

http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f4u/f4u_walk1.shtml

Thanks guys!

Only thing is the guys on the armour forum just told me the sand would polish the treads so now I need to pull off the treads and repaint over the rusty brown with metallic grey....

Sigh...

The Academy Sherman is a good kit, I know most people would go with Tamiya or Dragon/DML but I've always had good luck with Academy.

Fine looking Raiden Carsanab! Looking forward to seeing her all metallic and shiny!

It was so quite on this thread for a couple of days I was almost considering a "Bump" post to stop us falling off page 1 and then wow, so much progress.

Richie, great stuff that Future isn't it, I had a mate on this forum a couple of years ago who sent me over a couple of bottles which has kept me going.  Rather than using a couple of drops of detergent I usually add a couple of drops of windex (which I also use to clean up with) ad spray at around 18-20 psi.

Gamera that Sherman look outstanding, great work.  As for the tracks have you tried using graphite on them?  just shave a pencil down with a sharp blade until you have a nice pile of graphite and then rub it with you finger along the metal portions of the tracks to simulate wear while leaving the rust color in the recesses.

Carlos if the Jack comes out anything like the Rufe then we are in for a real treat, keep the updates coming.

Cheers

Thanks Darren! Will keep that in mind for next time! Have been slowly applying the decals on th eflots first and will be starting on the wings shortly. I really can't stand the process of decalling when you apply the sol to the things and they bloody wrinkle!!!! but Patience prevails and they settle down and conform to the job LOL!!! just uncomforting is all!!! anyways coming along well and will post progress soon! After I clean the 3 Whiting I caught tonight, lunch will be GOOOOOOD 2 mora!!!!

simpilot34

Sf plane nut, here is a link to one site. has a couple shots of the wells. HTH!

http://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/f4u/f4u_walk1.shtml

 

thanks man...i dont know why i didnt already have that place bookmarked...i do now...found some good stuff...going to start the plumbing soon...

Just to prove I am actually making some progress on the Hase 1/48 Raiden...

I did take some close ups of the pit before I closed the fuselage up, but for some reason they came out really fuzzy.

Shame as this is a great little pit out of the box, being composed of around 20 parts!

Gamera, really nice job on the Sherman.

Karl

Karl the Jack is looking great my friend!!!! As you said, the pit looks very nice indeed!! Gotta love a good pit OOB!

Richie, that is one impressive gloss coat. Looks flawless - applying the decals will be a breeze on that surface.

Carlos, never seen the Raiden in black before - looks very cool. Should be the perfect base for your NMF.

Gamera, very nice work on the sherman. Not sure what still needs to be done - looks great to me as is.

Karl, stunning work on the Raiden. The office looks top notch. I've got that kit in my stash as well, and you're right about the kit cockpit - it's a gem, and needs little in the way of aftermarket goodies.

Karl...

Nice looking pit there....our Raidens are neck in neck.....Im getting ready to add the NMF...so far so good...

Carlos

Thanks Ruddrat but , it has not been smooth sailing as I thought it would have also. In my haste, I have not let the decals dry thouroughlly and put the sol on and the resultant wrinkling has stayed longer than normal so will keep at it with sol and try to make them settle down. The wing and fuse Hinomarus are next and am going to apply them and wait a couple days without anything then assess and apply sol as necessary. I am a patient natured person, but sometimes impatience bears it's face and always bites me in the keester! This build has been a guinea pig really as well so not sweating it just frustrating lol!

floats went ok

however the large film for the horiz stripes wasn't as forgiving, nor was the flap borders

Richie: Love the gloss coat...well executed

Carlos: Great idea for a night fighter. Those HAsegawa Jack kits are great, aren't they?

Karl: We'll never doubt you again! Great work on the cockpit. Right on par with the Tojo!

Gamera: Great looking Sherman. The figure really adds to the build.

darson

Gamera that Sherman look outstanding, great work.  As for the tracks have you tried using graphite on them?  just shave a pencil down with a sharp blade until you have a nice pile of graphite and then rub it with you finger along the metal portions of the tracks to simulate wear while leaving the rust color in the recesses.

Thanks Darson- you know that's the best advice I've had all week! I may use some gunmetal paint as well. I was dreading going back and reworking the treads from square one and this saves me a pile of extra work!

Simpilot, you may have stated this and I missed it but did you use Hasegawa decals? I've found that if you use the red label Micro decal solvent (I can't remember if it's Set or Sol) it will wrinkle Hasegawa decals and they won't smooth out as it dries. I use the blue label only. I've had some good luck with Gunze Sanyo's brand- Mister Softener or something like that as well.  

Hey Darson,

I just spotted this GB, and noticed the June 30 cutoff date. I seem to remember having both a Zero (Academy) and Tony (Dragon?) in 1/72 scale that I could sneek in under the wire, OOB I would expect. Id like to try the salt-weathering technique that I've seen in FSM on the Zero, probably a natural metal on the Tony. (I've got a kit on the bench right now for the Winter Warriors and Eye in the Sky GBs). Can you put me down as a "probable"? It'll get me motivated to finish things up before softball season keeps me out of the house!

Vance

Hey Richie...

Ive had 2 kits (Val and Seiran) with those rear stabilizer stripes....its usully one decal so there is a lot of the "clear carrier" that shows. I have never been able to hide that carrier under flat coats...it always shows thru, kind of foggy, May i suggest a new exacto and metal straight-edge and cut off the clear decal part tight along the white line....its a bit tricky so as not to cut too deep, just score the decal then peel it off. You might have to rewet the portion to remove easier. Trust me.. in the end its well worth it. A final shot of dullcoat and they will look painted on.

Over all...nice looking floatie thingie...

Carlos

Thanks for the comments and advice guys!!! I am using alchohol for the sol and vinegar for the set. I saw my fault  when I got home from work today. I didn't let the decals dry long enough. I put the first stage Hinomarus on last night and let them dry over night. I hit them with the alchohol this morning and just looked and they have snuggled right down with no wrinkles. So i have to say I think the wrinkles are my fault for not letting them dry properly. Will take in the remedies and hopefully salvage them. Thanks again!

Well I have pressed on with the decals and will tackle the tail feathers later. Almost there finally!! Have a couple more decals to put on then will try and paint the prop stripes rather than try to use the small decals provided. Here's a few pics, like I said, getting close now!

She's coming along great! Glad you were able to work out the problem with the decals- there's not much as frustrating in modeling as to get the model 95% complete and then have something like the decals go bad on you.

Richie that's a major bummer with those decals on the tail, but the rest of them look really great.  I love when a model get to the decaling stage, it really comes alive when you get some color or markings on it.

As for the tail feather decals, try a sharp No 11 to remove the carrier film excess and then a very gentle sanding of the wrinkled areas followed by a quick touch up.

Hi there Vance and  to the build, I'll put down your build in the roster on page 1, so start those updates rolling in.

Thanks guys! Will try the tips and see what happens. I keep applying alchohol and it is way better than what it was!!

Here's an update on the IJN wharf.

The I-400 is allmost finished. The water in the harbor is a bit stormy, but no problem for the tugs to do their job. The decals did as Darson said, it makes the dio comes alive.

Today or tomorrow I'll place some crew around, make wiring (cables) on the crane and than... I think it'll be it! finished!!!

Cheers for now

Paul

Hi Darson & thanks for the "permission to land"! I plan on pulling those two kits out of the stash and getting them started up shortly, the cockpits & general cleanup can be done in between stages of my Storch. Good to be aboard this one, I haven't added any Jap a/c to the collection in a while. I'm working my way through the earlier pages, trying to get myself caught up. I've seen some great photos of WIP, a general thumbs up all around folks,

Vance

Looking forward to some new pics Paul!!! Like Darren said, when a build gets to the decal stage it just comes alive!!!

aboard Vance!!!! Looking forward to seeing your Storch and your builds here!!!!