Official Natural Metal Finish Group Build II

Thanks guys!!!!  I may be back for more, later on!

Very nice stang and 80 there Stik!!!

Fermis- My Gawd, those two 'Stangs are absolutely incredible, well done!  I can't believe the stunning results you are able to achieve in such a short time.  Well done my friend!

Carlos- Love that F-80, gotta get one of those for myself!  I have wanted one for a while after seeing another one built last year, this is icing on the cake.

jmabx

Nice pair (of Mustangs) Fermis!   I see that you're rather fond of them.

BBD looks great! I've always wanted to build her but was afraid of those decals. And that ramjet job is a rare treat indeed. Well done on all of 'em!!!

Great work on both.....

Thats one hell of a stable dude

Richard, Nice progress on your 51, i see your up to the fun part....Now get those little green hands moving and lay some paint down

Stik, nice builds both of them anxious to see some pics of your current WIP...

Fermis Well Done Mate!!!!!!! They are outstanding builds!!!! They look great in the lineup which looks great in itself!!!!!!!

Stik those are some nice builds as well!!! Love the Mustang!!!

Wow! Nice collection of Mustangs.

I would like to share my two previous NMF builds. Both done years ago. First up is my Mustang... the old Monogram Ding Hao that I rescribed and finished in MM Metalizers. Non buffing for the wings and buffable aluminum for the fuselage. Done as Iowa Beaut with D-Day stripes.

And my first attempt at NMF/Metalizer, Monogram 1/48 F-80C, MM buffable aluminum overall. Leading edges polished to a high sheen with a polishing wheel in my Dremel. This was done about 12-14 years ago. The decals are starting to show their age as they were never sealed.

Nice pair (of Mustangs) Fermis!   I see that you're rather fond of them.

BBD looks great! I've always wanted to build her but was afraid of those decals. And that ramjet job is a rare treat indeed. Well done on all of 'em!!!

IBuild148

 

I did figure out how femis is staying awake and where he's getting all is energy:  

 

      +     

 Negative sir!!!   That $#!T will make my heart hurt!!!!  It's pure exuberance for the hobby that keeps me awake!

 That said......I'M done!!!!!

Finished BBD this afternoon and put the finishing touches on ramjet just a bit ago.

And into the stable!!!

 They aint no show stoppers by any means, but they look ah'ite on the shelf!!!

Now I got a pair of P-47s that got shelved a few years ago....just a couple days worth of work left on them.

A major milestone achieved today. I applied a coat of Future  overall, so now she is ready for decaling. Not really worth taking pics of yet, but tomorrow when some are on, I will get some pics posted. I am finally nearing the home stretch.

Richard she is coming along nicely!!! Yes I was going to say something about the gear legs as well hehe. Didn't notice they were on the wrong sides but what got my attention was the angle they are at. Should have a slightly forward rake to them, however, since they are just there for support and not anchored in yet, that's a relief!!

Kermit I like to use Q-tips for temporary gear legs, simply cut off the cotton on one end then thin the shaft with a pencil sharpener ( if needed) then fit them in for a nonskid gear leg. Just my   worth.

Actually...

No

I've been thinking about how to solve the problem on this one as the wheelbays are already finished. Was thinking about using masking tape and sticking some toothpics through as temporary landing gear legs? How do you guys do it?

Richard

EDIT: OMG... now i see it LOL, the wrong way round... How clumsy. I just stuck em on for the pics hahaha

Looks good so far Richard, but I have one observation to make.  Are the main gear legs glued on yet?  Please say their not!!!!!

I love this kit....

Cheers

DARN... (excuse my dutch...)

Just looking at my post i see the seam on the wings.... something i will sort out as soon as i can people....

Richard

Julez,

Great looking P38 and glad you sorted out the tail boom alignment. You convinced me that i am safe to buy a kit myself. Something i really always wanted on my shelf, a 1/48 P38.... *sniff*. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences. I really look forward to every new update.

As for my own Korean War P51 i can proudly announce the " pre black gloss stage " at this point I know i know, i usually build alot faster but i am particularly busy with preparations for my big USA trip, watching ashcloud reports, booking hotels, packing etc. etc..... I do apologize my friends but i can tell you i put in a few minutes wherever i can... Have to say that Fermis is even faster LOL. Hats off to you sir

Looking at all the pictures involving different shades of NMF on panels i think i might try some of that myself when i get to the NMF spraying.... Looks great!

Richard

WIP Pic......It took a little effort but i got the booms aligned

Actually i just heated the plastic with a hair dryer.......

maxfax

Hello everyone,

I'm pretty close to starting to paint my P-47D. I am going to use Alclad II Polished Aluminum. I want to do some variation on a few panels. Would the flaps and/or ailerons be a different tone as well? I have Alclad II Duraluminum and thats it. I can't get anymore Alclad unless I drive 40min. I have MM aluminum also. Would it be better to paint a few panels with white or grey, and use only the polished aluminum to get some different shading, or paint it all gloss black, and use  the duraluminum and MM aluminum for variation?

Any suggestions?

Rob

Rob, Thats not an easy question to answer and as you can see in 48's test alclad tones vary greatly depending on the undercoat........ i reckon keep it simple, i'd gloss black undercoat then cover it all in your Polished aluminum...If you want to pick out control surfaces in duraluminum i'd future coat the polished aluminum and then put the duraluminum straight over that, the duraluminum may come out too dark over polished aluminum if you undercoat with black again....

This was my first NMF, the control surfaces and gunbays were picked out with duraluminm with a black undercoat, but with polished aluminum it may be too dark.....

Hope this helps, the best thing to do maybe is to test it out on an old model....

Hello everyone,

I'm pretty close to starting to paint my P-47D. I am going to use Alclad II Polished Aluminum. I want to do some variation on a few panels. Would the flaps and/or ailerons be a different tone as well? I have Alclad II Duraluminum and thats it. I can't get anymore Alclad unless I drive 40min. I have MM aluminum also. Would it be better to paint a few panels with white or grey, and use only the polished aluminum to get some different shading, or paint it all gloss black, and use  the duraluminum and MM aluminum for variation?

Any suggestions?

Rob

IBuild148

Frank,

Sorry to here about the F-16. Why did you have to strip it down? Good hearing from you.

Since I had used the Tamiya PE reinforcement plates, I decided to prime the model (which I never do) and took a friends advice and sprayed it with Tamiya gray primer.  No matter how much paint I threw at the model after that, the primer soaked it all up.  With all of the paint on the surface, the finish was quite rough.  I sprayed it with Future, hoping it would help level the surface out.  Thought it might be OK, but after the decals and another Future coat, it looked terrible.

So, I stripped it!

Sorry for the photos fellas!   I'll go back to my F-86 now LOL.

Hmmm! Where have I seen this! Oh yea in my F-86F.

13 years is a long time to punish a model. However I will admit the worst punishment I have given a model was a Tamiya Avro Lancaster. Horrible fit with the nacelles, fuselage and some other issues. I trashed it. Only kit I ever let beat me.

Hi Randy,

Will re-post better photo of the test panel. Thanks for the "positive" motivation.

Someone asked how it would handle masking tape so last night I placed a piece of Tamiya and then 3M Blue on the painted surfaces,  and "ripped" them off and no NMF was removed.

Now I only use Tamiya and when I remove masking I always remove "slowoooooooooooooly! 

Frank,

Sorry to here about the F-16. Why did you have to strip it down? Good hearing from you.

Julez,

Thanks for UP brother!

I did figure out how femis is staying awake and where he's getting all is energy:  

      +     

Almost forgot to add my humble WIP photo.  With all of the stunning progress pics and lightning speed builds, one photo seems a bit inadequate!

Finished the intake, and spent a good deal of time smoothing out the seams.  I had glued these parts together 13 years ago when I bought the kit, and did a poor job on it so the kit was shelved.  Have always wanted an F-86 on my shelf, so I dug this one out and am fixing the boo-boos of my youth!

IBuild148

Hi Frank,

Hope all is well in Badgerland.

Mano-a-mano on the F-86F's. Now I have to really pay attention to details since I know who I am up against!

Sorry!  Missed this post before.  Don't worry about me, never built an F-86 before, and this is also my first NMF job LOL!  'Sides, you finished that stunning 115FW F-16 (LOVED that build!) and I am still working on mine.  Had it all decalled and sealed, then had to strip it back to bare plastic.  Still touching up a couple of areas which needed attention.

Thank you for the photos of your Alclad experiment, very interesting! 

Fermis- Obviously, you NEVER sleep!  Simply amazing...

Thanks Randy, I hope to have it ready for paint by the end of the weekend....

48, please do post up another pic of your experiment, very interesting and your Sabre is looking sweet

Richard,  just checking

Dr Fermis Good I am glad the SS decals weren't as bad as you had first said, I was giving serious thought to trashing them. If they drove you to madness with your skills they would have sent me screaming into the darkness  for sure.

Julez72 looks like you are well on your way to having a P-38 on your shelf. I had the very same trouble with the Revell kit I did last year, those booms are a PITA but worth the trouble in the end.

Ibuild148 Yup looks like you have the right idea for this NMF stuff. Your F-86 is lookin sharp, nice job painting the bottom Hey and thanks for posting your test panel and the little tutorial you did, thats what makes this group so much fun, and we hummmm learn from one and other too

Hey Richard you feelin picked on yet LOL

48, hehe unfortunately no, I didn't live at the airpark but used to ride over there on my bike ALOT!!!!! Put it this way!!!!! I saw a PT-17 on base for 31, hopped on the bike, and by the time I got there it was just lifting off after a pit stop. I was that close. From ur area, just get off at the Cambridge Rd. exit cross the bridge, turn left on Country Club Dr. and we used to live in the house half on a hill just across from the creek. I went to High School at Oak Ridge. BTW love the experiment and ur Sabre!!!!

BTW where is our green furry freind? havn't seen him around for a couple of pages, kinda miss him

LOL Awwww Im here im here and read every new post as soon as it hits my email inbox Im just very busy packing and prepping for a six week holiday overseas... Trying to get some modelling in inbetween but it's slow going. Hope to be able to post an update coming weekend Thanks for the kind words.

IBuild148,

Thanks alot for the pics. I take it there are two possible finishes with this kit? The boxart one and a more "generic" one with the yellow fuselage bands? Looks pretty much like the same one i built...

Very interesting reading about your primer experiment too. It's stuff like that and sharing it here that makes this group fun and informative at the same time

Richard

IBuild148 - Thanks for sharing your research. Is the NMF adhering well to the base coat? Does it stay in place if masking tape is applied? With Alclad's gloss black base, I found that it didn't adhere. But thanks to suggestions from Alclad and GB participants, an intermediary coat of Future should do the trick. That's the plan for my P-51.

Have fun with the rest of your build. I can't wait to see the finished product. Btw, I like your login name!

simpilot34,

Did you live at the airpark?

Beautiful area but the expansion has taken away some of its allure! But that's progress, right? Still a great place to live as far as recreation and weather-wise.

When I signed up for my first GB I figured that the GB NMF was a great time to jump in since I had never done a NMF but always wanted to. Sure I have a couple of mustangs and a P-38 but I used regular silver paint on those.

Of course this brought on a lot of "how to" achieve positive results questions.

So using my usual approach I asked questions here on the Forum and searched the net for tips and how to videos before the GB started.

Then I placed my Alclad order. For me personally in today's economy being frugal is priority 1. When I received my product and the receipt I decided that I needed to try an experiment to see if I could save some money and achieve positive results.

Following is what I came up with. To cut costs I decided to see what would happen if I used "WALMART" brand spray paint @ $.99 a can as my primer. I use this method on my other aircraft and armor with positive results.

I took a white sheet of Plastruct and painted 1/3 Gloss Black, 1/3 Primer Gray, and 1/3 Flat Black.

I took 5 - 6 pics in hopes that 1 would accent all variations. For example the 105 Polished Aluminum is much brighter on the Gloss Black then in the picture. I will retake to see if I can get a better shot and will  post if anyone wants.

The bottom line is that the WALMART primer for me works and you can see variations in colors when using different primer colors.

      Here is my F-86F in Gloss Black:

           And here with 2 light coats on the underside.

thanks for looking.

There you go, a picture speaks a thousand words eh? hehe Thanks Fermis

48 looking forward to seeing that one come together!!! I also saw something in you avatar area that got my attention!!!!! El Dorado Hills!!!!! I used to live right up and over the long sweeping hill of I-50 in Cameron Park!!!!