Doogs, Great looking Wildcats, very well done I like the idea of doing them for your kids, i may do something similar with my next P-51D, like if i had a Mustang in the Garage what would it look like type of thing....

Very nice work on your 'Cats, Doogs

The Wildcats are DONE!

Overall, these two have been a very good learning experience, and let me experiment with a lot of new techniques. Some of which worked and some of which didn't.

I'll confess, I got a bit lazy toward the end. Left the telescopic sights off because they looked terrible, left the wheels less than stellar. I think if I were building these up as more than three footers I'd have gone resin for sure.

As for the kits themselves, definitely a mixed bag. The cockpits were phenomenal and I really liked the fit of the cowls. But IMO pretty much everything else that attaches to the forward fuselage is a less than satisfying, including the wing roots, lower fuselage, and landing gear. Not terrible and certainly fixable, but considering these were some of the more expensive kits in my stash (at $27 or so each, they're pricier than anything save the two Tamiya Razorbacks I've picked up), I expected more.

Anyway...pics!

Thanks for following along, all! I'll be popping in and out to see how the other builds progress, and should be back, oh, sometime in the spring with "Magic Carpet".

Owl - the upper speed brake looks a wee bit shinier to me, but that could just easy be the angle of the light.

Kudos on trying foiling...I know I'd never have the patience for it!

vetteman42

CallSignOwl hummmm did they even have any MiG's with nose art on them . I must say Owl you are fast becoming one of my heroes the way you are hangin in there with this build.

I don't think MiGs had nose art either, but I could always to a "What-If"!!      IN any case, it will have to be on a different bird. I don't have the decals for such a thing yet!! 

I have started the foil!!!

Here are the speed-brakes I practiced on. With the two forward brakes, I experimented with using the dull or shiny side of the foil to put the adhesive on, and which produced a more acceptable finish. The adhesive does spread much better on the dull side, but with a quick rubdown with 0000 steel wool, the shine is cut. Here are the brakes: one with the dull side up and nothing done to it, and one with the shiny side up rubbed with the wool. Is anybody able to tell the difference? 

and here is the main speed brake before the wool and after. It makes an obvious difference in person.

OWL

Ibuild148 Oh man I like that a bunch A very very nice job on Kansas Tornado, the finish is beautiful. And I really like the backdrop you used with the black and white picture. She is a show stopper for sure.

CallSignOwl hummmm did they even have any MiG's with nose art on them . I must say Owl you are fast becoming one of my heroes the way you are hangin in there with this build.

The front page has been updated with the 3 latest completed builds, you might want to check and be sure I got the info on them right.

Thanks for your well wishes to all I will get-r-done soon and be back to my old self.

Gamera

 Love the cheesecake nose art too though now I'm scared Owl will have to put some beefcake nose art on her MiG

Hmmmm...I might have to look into that!! 

OWL

Wow, what can I say guys!

Randy: sorry to hear about your health issues, hope you're feeling better soon.

Doogs: Love how the F4Us came out. As you said the yellow can be a pain but your finish looks flawless.

Julez and Ibuild48: Great job on your two warbirds! The NM finish on both looks perfect!

Eathis and Owl: Fantastic work so far, looking forward to seeing them finished.

Aggieman: Wow, still impressive how big the B-36 is even in 1/72nd scale. Great job on the different shades of NM, I'm going to have to try something simular. Love the cheesecake nose art too though now I'm scared Owl will have to put some beefcake nose art on her MiG

Randy - sorry to hear about the health issues, man! Hope you're feeling better soon!

IBuild - Kansas Tornado came out awesome! Love the way the blue canopy just pops! I can only hope Magic Carpet comes out as sharp...

Owl - Again, your perseverance boggles my mind!

I made a little bit more progress on the cats last night. Painted the machine guns and telescopic sights and did a total flub job on the wheels. Hoping I can touch up with my prismacolor silver pencil. Still waiting for the final decal sheet to come in so I can decal up Lola's plane...after that it'll probably be a short path to wrapping things up.

Also had myself a little exhaust party last night and painted up the exhausts for both Wildcats and the Yak-3 and La-5 I've got going on for Ostfront. Absolutely love Alclad's Exhaust Manifold finish, and it's nice to knock out so many little fiddly bits at once.

Julez and IBuild: those are some beautiful birds, good sirs!!     Very nice.

Moving on from the canopy debacle, I deepened and re-scribed the panel lines on the MiG--the were faint and rather soft looking. while sanding down the plastic, i ended up dropping the plane.....

WE HAVE A CASUALTY ON THE FIELD!!! Dun-Dun-dunnnn!!!

---yeah. I'll fix that. 

OWL

Randy, Mike and 48, thanks fellas i'm glad you liked her

Owl, good save

48, WOW your Jugs a beauty, very well done buddy

Randy, sorry to hear about your health issues mate....I I expect you to kick it in the *** and get back to the bench real soon my freind Oh yeah if you need my build details here they are, Tamistang finished with Alclad aluminum, duraluminum and MM metalizer aluminum plate, all other paints are MM enamels and decals are from superscale....I'll be back with another build in a couple of months, this time an Avon Sabre....

giddy up! Those horses turned out great!

Doogs,

Those cats look great! I do need to get used to that pink though!

FINALLY - The Kansas Tornado is done!!!

I thought I would never finish. I had a canopy malfunction which required a NEW one.

Then I made a feeble attempt at creating Major Curran using different figure pieces which was a waste of 2 weeks.

I want to thank Doogs for the star insignia idea for the landing gear wheel hubs. It worked.

This has been a fun GB especially seeing all the terrific builds, tips and techniques! Keep up the great work.

Julez -- I've been meaning to say, I truly wish I built Mustangs as good as yours! Your finishes look flawless and very, very metallic! And smooth, as real metal should be. To my personal taste, a superbly done metallic paint is more realistic than foil, and these Alclad paints are remarkable in the hands of someone who knows what they'e doing!

Owl -- brilliant save on the canopy! You're a fearless modeller, inventive and enthusiastic, and that's the best way to be!

Randy -- sorry to hear of the ill-health, buddy, hope you're doing much better real soon.

Cheers, M/TB379

DoogsATX the canopys look great from here, especially being posed open. Its the only way to go IMHO. The decals look very good too, cant wait to see more of them I still cant get a vacuform canopy for my T-6 so I am gluing the kit ones on this afternoon.

Scorpiomikey thats a very nice job of foiling, nice and clean well done. I cant wait to the next set of pictures.

Julez72 a beautiful build Grim Reaper is one to be proud of, you did her justice, the panel shading and markings are spot on. Hey if you should ever get tired of her ..................

Eatthis you have a good start going on the Tonka, I am intrigued with your ideas for this build.

Aggieman man this build was worth waiting for. The panel shading I really like, and your decals came out perfectly I like the premise of your build too, a nice story behind it. I will tell ya if I had a place to put a model this large it would be inspiration to build one of my own.

CallSignOwl a stroke of genius on the instrument hood . And now this ??? Gave me that empty feeling in the pit of my stomach when I saw thew picture of your canopy. Now I see you have done it again and made a beautiful save . You go girl.

Aggieman and Julez I will get the front page updated today, as soon as I get the info on your builds. Lost my data base on the groups when my old computer crashed and burned.

Sorry to all I havent been around as much as I should be, my health has been going down hill for a while so I am thinking its time to get roto routered again. Doc seems to like doing that much more than I do, I just wish he would install a valve as this will be number 13

well...I tried a bit of water (but that scared me---I have this fear of growing mold/mildew in one of my models!) and a wet napkin inserted into the hole to try to get the dust....but nothing worked.  So I decided to pop it off and do an Open canopy. 

However that left the matter of the hole to fix. I couldn't use the other canopy in the kit because I had spilled super glue all over it ( ) so I did this instead:

I took a bit of scrap plastic, headed it with the hairdryer and formed it to shape around the spare canopy. I then detailed the underside a bit to help hide the jagged edged edges of the hole.

OWL

Yeesh, Owl! That canopy seems to be giving you absolutely zero breaks! I think the idea of getting some water in there might be the best? I honestly don't know. Good luck with it...

Julez72

Owl, wow thats a real bummer, i can't imagine you would want to take off the canopy to fix it, maybe you could squirt some water in the hole to clear the dust and then fill it....

with the fix. Think I'd be tearing up if I had done that.

Owl, wow thats a real bummer, i can't imagine you would want to take off the canopy to fix it, maybe you could squirt some water in the hole to clear the dust and then fill it....

CallSignOWL

Aggieman:    Excellent work on that monster!!

WELL DONE MATE!!!!! Love that nose art!!!

so yeah...I goofed. Again.   I was sanding away to get it to sit flush at the canopy and before I Realized it ...I got a hole!    And dust inside the canopy !    

OWL

CallSignOWL

Aggieman:    Excellent work on that monster!!

OWL

Awesome, awesome work! Love the alt history approach to the markings, too!

Aggieman:    Excellent work on that monster!!

OWL

that is an absolute beast i love it :)

The B-36 takes flight!

And now for the final photos.  A bit of a background story here - this B-36 represents a fictitious bomber in an alternate reality where WWII has played out quite differently than it did and England has fallen in 1940, leaving the US with a pressing need to develop long-range bombers capable of making the round trip from the continental US to Europe and back.  Hence the B-36.  And in keeping with the tradition of bomber crews in WWII, there is nose art on this warbird.  It is somewhat custom nose art - the girl is not my original work but I put her in the particular pose and designed the bomber's name, "Texas Squaw".  A word of caution - these photos render this portion of the thread R-rated.

This was a fun build for me even though it required a lot of time, patience, perseverence - and massive quantities of liquid glue, Alclad and masking tape.  I was able to keep from breaking any of the gunnery up until I was nearly done, at which point during some final touch-up painting I broke off one of the forward machine guns and the piece promptly disappeared.  Never fear, I replaced both guns with Minimeca tubing I have in my bag of tricks, and then last night broke those off as well doing final assembly (attaching aerial antenna wires and bomb-bay doors).  So I had to replace them again.  But all is well that ends well.

heres some wip pics of the 1/48 tonka

the pit isnt great but i am improving iv since tidied the belt up a bit

its my 1st attempt at nmf

Julez: LOOOOOVE the Mustang!  Great job!

DoogsATX:  that little bird looks very nice. Im sure your son will love it!

I didn't get too much done, just glued on the canopy with the shims in place. Its gonna take a bit of filler to get things smooth.  And I also noticed these cracks in the canopy...what caused that? They seem to be superficial, however, and do not go all the way through the plastic.

OWL

Nolan's Wildcat got the decal treatment last night. Happy to say the Yellow Wings stripes and bands worked flawlessly. Think I may need to hit a few select areas with Solvaset tonight, but for the most part they went on and snuggled down without difficulty.

The ID letters (I realize that's AAF convention, not USN...) on the side are his initials, and the "23" on the wings represents his birthday (3/23).

I was going to do up Lola's cat, as well, but the numbers/letters sheet I ordered only had two complete sets of letters in the smaller size I needed (four complete sets total, versus a gazillion numbers). 

Amazingly, the wife suggested I order another sheet. Had a few other items happen to fall into the cart before I made my way to checkout...a Zvezda T-34 for a whopping $15, ICM Spit IX with ground crew, aftermarket gear doors and decals for the Yak-3 I've got in progress over in the Ostfront GB, etc...

Julez - AWESOME Mustang! So much variation in Mustang markings that you could build dozens and still keep things interesting...

Have to admit, I'm terrified to do my P-51D. The metal finish, the curving blue nose of the 352nd...I've got the supplies I need, but I'm still not convinced that I have the skill.