Fermis ok dats it, mine are goin in the trashcan and I am starting all over

That my friend is one VERY VERY nice P-61 Blackwidow.  Love the paint job, the weathering is just outta sight, I really like all your added detail, and the CANOPY, the canopy, actually looks like it belongs on her.

fermis, Excellent job on the aircraft! Too bad the canopy hides your outstanding control panel work. The weathering is very realistic and I reall like the scratch built details on the wheels like brake lines. Are you planning to enter this build in any contests? If so I am sure it will impress the judges. Thanks for shareing your techniques and skills.

Jason ~ 

Much thanks again guys!!!

 All done!!!

 Finished her off by rebuilding the forward antennas with stretched sprue, along with the other antennas, masked and painted the tail #s, added a landing light and wiring to the nose gear. Unmasking the canopy revealed yet another mess. Had to strip and redo it. Didn't come out so great, but oh well! The nose art was a spare from a P-51 "pyn-ups" set.

And, that all folks!!!!

Fermis- WOW are you some sort of modeling machine or what!?!?! I wish I could get that much done that fast. And not as a rush job - she looks spectacular! I picked up some replacement decals for a P-61 off ebay the other week, now I want to run out and pick one up. Just what I need is to start on another project!

Fermis that looks fantastic mate!!!!!!

Got her damn close now!!!  Finished up the painting and weathering today, now it's down to a few decals and fidly bits.

I brush painted the walk lines and a few dry(ish)brushings took care of the invasion stripes.

HEHE!!!  Sorry bout that!!!!        

Awwww man Fermis you got me big time on that one, got so upset I had to take a nitro.  Then I scrolled down geeze glad you wus messing with us. Don't know if I will even try and do another P-61 after seeing your build. I too had to trim the elevator to get the booms to line up.

HEHE you had me!! I will admit to that I Just said' Ah no, you did......nt.. Looking good mate!!! Can't wait to see her in paint!!

 That huge milestone has finally been reached!!!!

I cemented the left wing, allowed to set, then dryfit the right side with the tail. NO GOOD!!!  My boom/wing joint is obviously off a bit.

Here's the fit

I got so damn frustrated....I threw it against the wall

 HAHA....NO WAY!!!!!! This is too easy!!!!

Something had to give. The tailplane being the only option, I broke out the razor saw and lopped off about 1/16", a little sanding and everything fit like a glove!!!

A bit of masking(gear bays and engines) and she'll be ready for paint!!!!!

WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Very nice!!!!!  Bright and colorful!!!

Fermis- you're working so hard I feel I should do less to counterbalance you

Good stuff man! Looking forward to seeing her done

Sorry I promised pics this weekend but ended up getting busy and let them slide. Well here they are. Actually I wondered about posting these close-up pics since they show up every little brushmark and mistake. The actual figure base is about 3 inches/10 cm in length.

2 MORE!!!! E-gads man!!! I get a headache just thinking about ever doing another ONE!!!!

 After sanding, lighter and lighter grits, I went to a piece of plain old paper, then toothpaste with a rag from old sweatpants, followed up with a few squirts of Metallizer sealer.

Fermis those canopys are amazing Yours is gonna be one sweet P-61. How did you polish the canopys, I cant believe how clear they came out. If I aint careful you will have me starting another one soon, I have 2 more kits ya know.

 Thanks SIM!!!  I think I was about the same ages for my first two!!! (give or take a year)

What gives....am I the only one building here????!!!!!!!

Anyway, I finally got this canopy whipped into shape. The bad news is, after all that grinding and sanding, the final polish revealed tons of crap and a finger print on the inside(have always had that problem)

So, I had to remove the boarding ladders and was able to squeeze in an angled dental tool with some poster-tac smashed on the end of it, and get almost all the poop out of there. For the finger print, I slid in a q-tip dipped in widex to take care of that....What a PITA!!!!

 I am the WINNER!!!!!!!

WOW Fermis that is looking great!!!!! I have had two of those over the years and NEVER have I put the effort into them that you are!!! Of course my first one was when I was 10! the second I would have been about 19-20. Looked much better but still doesn't compare to yours!!!

Lots of great work here peoples!!! Been meaning to stop by but I get distracted by so many threads in the forums lol.

Fermis WOW the 61 is looking great, cant believe how good all that scribing looks and the new screens in the booms look really good. That canopy is a nightmare isn't it, with all the work you are putting into yours it will look as it should look me thinks. Ya know I will be remembering your tips and tricks for my next P-61.

I am finding out why no one makes a vacuformed canopy for these kits. I have done 2 pulls sense we talked and still have troubles with it. Might have to try making it a 2 piece deal but that will mean starting over with more molds.

Thanks again guys!!!

 I'm gettin somewhere finally.

Got my mmesh in and replaced the detail on the forward bottom of the booms.

Really poor fit of the boom to the wing was delt with by slipping in some strips of styrene in the larger gaps and stretched sprue in the smaller areas.

Attached the engines/cowling and replaced the louvers in the intakes. Completely forgot that I was going to put in the ductwork inside before closing up the wings  Too late now!!!

 Those issue are quite minor compared to this canopy. Of the past 3 61s that I have built, not one of them came close to being this bad. I shimmed all the way around the front canopy and around the top(openning portion), and a few shims for the rear canopy as well. A lot of grinding with the dremel and a lot of sanding. Now , it looks like it was meant to be.

 Still got more sanding and polishing. I taped up the clear parts, inside and out so the CA wouldn't fog it up. Doesn't really matter on the outside, cause I'm sanding the hell out of it!!!

Heh fellas! Still alive and kicking...Started a j-o-b out of town and been without a computer for the last few weeks...anyhow have weekends off and looking forward to rain out days to get building again! Glad to see this GB is still active.

Still looking plain out awesome Fermis!

Update: Maria is finished! I sprayed her with an overcoat of matte varnish tonight. Unfortunately by the time I finished I didn't have the light for good photos. I've try to get some taken and put up this weekend.

My compliments on your patience.

That kind of kit is one reason I got out of the hobby in the early 90's.

 Thanks for another ego stoke Randy!!!!

 I hate brand new brushes, I like em after the tip had flattened out a bit(about a millimeter wide), with a bit of a curl to em. Then the trick is to dip the tip in the lid of the paint, wipe of the majority on the lip of the lid, then just touch it to the part. Very tedious and time consuming, but the results are worth it!!!!

 This rescribe and rivet job has been a real test of patient, sanity and my overall well being!!! But I finally pretty much got that all wrapped up. Just needs a light sanding to knock down all the scribing ridges. If my order from Squadron feels like showing up anytime(ordered last tuesday) I can replace the mess on the bottom of the booms and in the wing intakes. Then I can proceed with getting thing together.

 Flaps up for this girl, I think it looks better that way, that or it's the reverse psychology from them being offered in the down position. So, I had to add a bit to the flaps to fill in the gaps.

 I also removed the molded on cowling, to make it easier to deal with the big gap there. I cut a styrene disc to make up the difference.

The gap on the other side will be easy enough to deal with, with a bit of styrene.

Fermis OMG all I can seem to do looking at your latest WIP pictures is shake my head in amazement. This is gonna be one awesome P-61. When are you going to start doing how-to videos ? BTW I went and got my mitts on a couple of 000 brushes to see if I can paint an IP half as well as you do.

 I was doing a terrible job on the rescribe, so I took a step back and CA'ed over all my lines, sanded her back to smooth and went back at it. This time using a needle in a pinvice instead of the knife I tried the first time. Needle is definetly the way to go!!!! I'm really into this project now, so much so, I decided to break out the rivet gun (needle) and rivet her one by one!!!

 Just needs a light sanding.

Fermis: Looking great so far!

SuppressionFire

Interisting sequence of construction fermis. Was this a older build you decided to take apart and detail further?

 I'm building a new one, to replace the old one. The kit comes with 2 different cowling/boom arrangements, one side has open flaps the other is closed. So, I cut off the closed side from the old one and will graft it on to the new one. I'm saving the fuse and wings of the old one for a future "what if" build. (thinking some A-10 engines / nacelles slung under the wing and a tail similar to the Cutlass(attached to the wings)

Interisting sequence of construction fermis. Was this a older build you decided to take apart and detail further? Im sure it will be fine in your capable hands. I have a box full of old models I built as a kid and one day would like to rebuild one or two. Kind of bogged down on my Trumpeter 1/32 scale P-51 D right now and vowed not to start any new kits untill this one is finished. Vacume formed 5 rear bubble canopys and still not 100% happy. Hopefully #6 will be perfect, last one almost was but a piece of lint marred it!

Accurate Miniatures ~ If the molds are tooled in the USA and packaged with the instructions there then I would consider it made in USA. Thats probally 75% of the effort to produce the kit and they probally inspect the sprue frames domestically before packageing. I hear they have a great IL II Stormovik kit in 1/48 scale.

Well, the deed has been done, the hammer has fallen!!!

The cowl has been cut off along with the engine and bulkhead.

Wired up the engines, will close them in shortly.

More Power Scotty:

Am looking forward to your comments about the kit as I've always liked the old Auburns.