FOund the right GB, mods please delete my previous post :-)

Theuns

You mean I am in the wrong place....again!? Must be the paint fumes LOL. I really need to start keeping log of what builds I have placed where!

I will look into it

Theuns

AlterEcho no apologies needed man ! I am just glad to hear you are alright and back with us I am sure your build or the next one would be welcome in NMF V that is going now. I am not hosting that one but have a build in that round.

Hey Theuns I have heard most have troubles with the alclad gloss black I think most of the guys are using Krylon gloss black from a rattle can. Didn't you mean to post this WIP in the round V group ? This here be round II my friend.

I tried alclad gloss black on this model and it was a dismal failure! I must have done something wrokg with the aplication thereof. SO I sanded it back andre-spraid with the gloss black straight out the bottle. To you guys thin the primer atall? 

I will try to sand it with some wet 2000 paper and see the result before I shoot the pollised allu on.We can't get micro mech here :-(

Attempt # 2

 I just wanted to post a quick reply...Sorry, I could not complete my build here. My disease took a turn for the worse, so off to the hospital I went. It is been nearly two years of touch-n-go and I am finally a bit more stable. The only thing I kept thinking was how I just dropped off of here...and thought you guys deserved an explanation. Sorry about that...but I couldn't even sit up to do a proper build. And I can tell you I was missing doing my build, more than anything. Though, looking through the posts you guys did a bang on job. Big congrats, to everyone.

 My daughters, son and wife have moved my modelling equipment for easier access (what a team, eh). I still have my uncompleted P-47, but not sure if all of the parts are there. Hoping my paint is still usable, but who knows. I am like a child at Christmas while going through my tools and paints...just like starting over.

 Anyway, thought you guys deserved an explanation, so there it is.

 Now, time to pick a model and finally finish my second build.

Thank you your word means alot to me and I'm absolutly shocked at how it turned out!

And I'll be sure to carry over to NMF3

ColGray let me start this off by saying, you have learned well young man. I can honestly say that I have never seen a better weathering job on a NMF build, your P-51 does look to have been put to hard use. You should be very happy and proud of this one, my hat goes off to you.

Now a request I didnt know if in the pictures you posted before these were calling the build finished, so it wasnt listed as completed. NMF II was closed back on May 1st, but all is not lost. I do allow carry overs in NMF III So my request, would you please cross this build over to NMF III so I can show it off there ?

OK...Finally I finished the weathering the diorama the whole everything sorry it took so long its a lot of work but anyways...

This was my first, 1/32 scale, and diorama ever so I'm very happy

you can really see what the weathering can do for you!!

I put the diorama as east Europe around mid spring when the snow is still melting and the grass is barely showing through

I like this one the best for it shows little streaks that i didnt see before

WOOHOOO!!!! What great builds you guys have done!!!! Randy, mate you have certainly done 'Streak Eagle' justice!!!! That looks awesome!! WELL DONE!!!! All builds look awesome!!! WOW!!!

Thanks Julez I wish the pictures did her justice.

No worries mate I will get you and your son listed on the front page of NMF III in short order. I havent been around much this week either so I do understand life getting in the way of modeling.

I have posted the finished pictures from here in the aircraft thread so this round is officially closed. I would like to thank one and all here very much, for a fun and very educational group build. The number of quality builds here are second to none IMHO. And we had a very successful build with no less than 41 finished builds ! You all rock and I humbly thank you. 3 to you all.

Vette, love the streak Eagle it looks wicked...Well done mate thats a fine looking bird

Gamera, man i love the look of the B-29, you have me eyeing off mine now after seeing yours...Lovely build buddy it looks awesome

Randy, well i see that this round is finished and i'm sorry to say that Tyler and myself havn't finished our Mustangstruth be told we went for a holiday during the Easter and Anzac day long weekend and we ended up extending it until the labour day holiday so we havn't done any work on our builds in nearly 2weeks....

But if it's ok with you i'd like to shunt the builds over to round III and continue with them there....

Thanks V-Man, even though she gave me fits the end result turned out better than I hoped. Yes, I used Alclad- about a 50/50 mix between regular aluminum and polished aluminum which gives a shiny but not too shiny look. Looking forward to your huge B-29 and any tips on handling the thing- this one at 1/72 was a pain in itself.

Gamera what can I say I mean OMG shes gorgeous !!!!!!  You used Alclad right ? A fine job indeed, man I dont know what to say, just hope mine comes out half as well as yours did. I will get the front page updated shortly I think gonna be hard deciding which picture to place there.

Ok, here are the 'finished' photos:

The canopy doesn't fit that well, guess I should try to sand and fit but I've broken clear parts this way and am paranoid about this.

And for some reason the elevators keep wanting to droop even though I've glued them several times. And I left the tail fin and wings unglued so I can remove them for transport. Maybe I should glue them on - I dunno.

Gamera thank you sir, she was worth all the troubles I think. I cant wait to see more of your B-29 your teaser pics were a cruel pleasure to see.

Wow, V-Man she is a stunner! Great job man. Definate stand out from your average 'plain jane' Eagle.

Will try to have the good photos of the B-29 up Sunday.

Thank you Miss Owl and Casper.

Here are some better pictures taken in natural light, I have to say this model as all NMF builds are really hard to photograph. For the weathering I tried water color washes and pastels, didnt like the effect at all, so then I tried Talon powders. They worked great ! I used aluminum, steel, and a custom mix that Garald  sent me, that custom mix by the way worked the best and I hope he can remember what he used to make it. I am quite pleased with this build and I really need to thank Gamera for the decals he sent me for it.

Here is a picture of the real Streak Eagle

I also wanted to add that the Talon polishing powders, as I discovered on this build do work very well over Future so should work great for weathering or shading over foil too. I will be trying that trick in round III.

ooooh, very nice. Cant wait to see those extra pics!

Vetteman looks great!

Cheers

Heavens Eagle I thought so, those tool marks on the clamps are a dead giveaway of someone who knows what he or she is doing, a craftsman.  Some very nice work on that fixture.  I was a machinist for 35 years, still am just no longer for a living.

As promised earlier I have finished the F-15 Streak Eagle Here are a couple of pictures for ya, I will get some better ones in the morning as these are not my best work with a camera. Not that I am all that good anyway.

I am really worried the camera wont pick up the weathering

Gamera: This wing (the yellow one) didn't shrink at all far as I can tell. The wing that shrunk was the WW1 Hanover wing and it didn't just shrink.  Parts shrank more than others.  It is really toast.  I did remove the huge curve from the Hanover bottom wings without damage.  Thus I have at least some handle on the process.  The top wing messed up so bad the rib lines are not even straight.

VETTEMAN42: I am not a machinist as such.  I am a watchmaker which basically means that I am a machinist, toolmaker, technician, diagnostician, and a few other things.  The clamping bars and the base plate I made.  The brass nuts are purchased from the local Lowe's or Ace Hardware. The clamps and base plate are made from 3/16 thick aluminum.  Would have used 1/8th on the plate but didn't have a piece that was flat enough.  Besides the 3/16 has a little more meat to avoid giving in to a heavy warped part.  As far as the tool goes this is only the beginning part of the design.  It started out as just a tool to hold warped parts straight while heating and aligning.  It has also become the base for a much larger tool set that will be a precision jig for assembling models too.

As to the usefulness of the tool as it stands, I just bought another new kit and the wings on it have about a total of 3/8" too much dihedral as well due to warpage.  One last thing, It isn't a PE tool. I guess you could use it on PE in a pinch, but I would rather use one of the PE tools that "The Small Shop" puts out. they are well made, quite precise and have a hard coating which will help prolong tool life.  (That folks was a non solicited plug).  Will probably be starting on several builds here soon as I have the base tool done. (WooHoo!)

Might even tackle a 1/48 B-58 Hustler for NMF3. 

Eagle: Great save on the warped wing. Having it shrunk is too bad but I'd think it's much less noticeable than the warp. I assume that's a PE bending rig? Never thought about using one to bend a kit part back to normal.

V-Man: Ah, good. Not good that the decals messed up but good that they've been lying in a box for ten years and I wasn't sure that they'd still be usable. Looking forward to the photos.

Doogs oh I wanna see a blinged out shiny KV-1 big time

Gamera awwww man from the picture your B-29 is a beauty for sure and really looks huge next to the 190. This one has been worth waiting for. Cant wait for better pictures.

Hey no need to be sorry about the decals buddy, the model wouldn't have come out half as well as it has without your generous help. Actually it was more than likely my own bone headedness that got me in trouble. The smaller ones came off fine but were a bit touchy and the larger ones I should have been a bit more careful with than I was with the smaller ones. Anyway it all worked out in the end and I thank you again for the decals. Oh I should have finished pictures tomorrow evening, I weathered the NMF and it came out great, hope it shows up in pictures. Gotta run to the LHS and get some semigloss clear for it in the morning.

Heavens Eagle that is one impressive fixture you have designed and built there, I have to ask are you a machinist ? The looks of the clamps and thumb screws make me ask that question. Thank you very much for sharing it with us.

Hey guys great builds!

Well I thought since I mentioned my current project on here I would show you folks just how it is turning out.  There is even some natural metal finish to it!

Remember my showing some photos of some badly warped wings? Some were so bad that the kit was basically not build-able.  Well I have SUCCESS!  

First the before photos.  The upper wing from an AMT 1/48 Beechcraft Staggerwing.  Nothing flat or straight about it. 

Fuzzy but you get the picture.  Another shot.

Definitely NOT flat.

Now for some Natural Metal Finish,  THE TOOL

And now The Results!

Definitely a vast improvement!  Very usable and will glue just fine to the underneath sections.  Might need another tweak once the wings have been assembled.

This project was not without some casualties though, the upper wing from an Eduard Hanover became a partial shrinky dink. It ended up about 5/16 of an inch shorter than when I started and was already too short to begin with.  Definitely too much heat and too much time.  Only consolation is that it wasn't quite in scale before I started and  guess a little scratch building never hurt anyone.   This wing had no deformation or shrinkage though it took a couple of passes in the heat phase.

Finished!!! Sorry it's too dark now to take good photos but here is one just to prove that she is done. Hopefully will have some good photos up by the weekend but wanted to make sure I beat the deadline for the end of the GB here!

Don't have a 1/72nd Zero so here is a 1/72nd 190 for size comparisons.

Doogs! I wanna see the chomed out 'bling-bling' tank!!! I'd be tempted to do one if I could figure out how to set the thing up so it would jump up and down.

V-Man: Sorry about the decals. I swear they looked ok when I pulled them out of the box even though they were kinda old  Still looking forward to more photos.

DoogsATX

With a  KV2, I'd be tempted to track down some spinners from the auto side and do a dropped, blinged-out version with way too many subwoofers.

That would be cool to see! Don't forget the flame on the sides

Ok great I will get the rules changed this evening thanks for the interest and input you all rock.

Now for the bad news I just finished the last of the decals and well................... One of the Streak Eagle logo decals came apart on me so badly I couldn't save it, just exploded apart. I even used a decal saver on it. The good news is I got lucky and saved one of them by piecing it together on the model, was touch and go for a while but its on there now. So I will have a lop sided Streak Eagle

kermit

Doogs,

LOVE the idea of an armor build in NMF. A big turret KV2 would look very nice on my desk

Just my opinion. Ofcourse it is your call Randy

Richard

With a  KV2, I'd be tempted to track down some spinners from the auto side and do a dropped, blinged-out version with way too many subwoofers.

EDIT: Oh, and a big wing on the back. You know, for the downforce...