Official Natural Metal Finish Group Build II

kermit,

Will send photo's soon!

Julez that office is really nice!!! Looking forward to seeing more!!!

Julez72 thats a really really nice start you have going there, the pit looks fantastic I have to admit never seeing the Hasegawa offering of the P-38, I have built the Revell version. Just a comment but the Hasi kit looks a lot like the Revell offering but with lots more detail. I would like to see if it has the same fit issues too, and hope it doesn't. The booms on the Revell kit and the nose were a nightmare, took a tube of putty to fill the gaps and canyons errr seams.

 Got em all assembled, just about ready to make shiny.

I left the control surfaces alone on the ramjet bird(out of laziness!!!)

The other (Big Beautiful Doll), I repositioned the elevators and removed the flaps, they will be replaced with resin, (saving the resin elevators and rudder for a future Tamiya build)

Had to do some carving on the flaps to make em fit. The package says "for Hasegawa kit", but it took a fair amount of trimming and reshaping.

The one on the left has been fixed to fit.

Oooooo your stable is looking nice Fermis!!!!! Looking forward to seeing them shiny!!!!!

Fermis your paternal twins are looking really good, still cant get over how fast and well you build. Did the ramjets come with the kit or are those AM. It sorta resembles the Mustang Cavalier that was offered on the general market after WWII.

Randy, Yeah buddy this is the Academy kit, i read a reveiw which stated that the Academy is a better fit than the Has but i don't know first hand....It's already obvious to me that there are some fit issues mainly with the nose and i'm expecting to have to rescripe the diagonal gun panel seam...suprisingly the booms seem to be ok, i spent about 90 min on each of them sanding and tesfitting untill i had a reasonable fit which will be fairly easy to fix up with a line of putty....It's a far cry from the putty fight i was expecting...

Wow- Fermis- I can't believe how fast you got those together! They look great. Don't you sleep?

Rob

Julez,

Beautifully done on the office.

fermis,

Giddyup! Those look really nice and heading to the paint "stable" soon!

 Thanks guys!!! I do view sleep as a HUGE waste of time!!! Modeling is about the only thing (with the exception of deer hunting) that I can focus on for hours on end.

Randy, the ramjets are included in the kit, they are fairly rough, nothing a bit of sanding can't take care of though.

 Got em both painted, very disappointing, so I went with the "sealer" to help hide a ton of flawed areas. Came out less than superb. Ramjet is all decaled, starting on B-B-D. Will have some pics for ya tonight.

Holy crap Fermis, that's amazing progress!

I can't believe how fast and how well you build, it's mind boggling!

fermis or anyone,

Are you going to what sand between coats?

What brand of NMF are you going to use?

Do you lay a clear coat down over the NMF before you place the decals?

Thanks

48, With my Mustangs i wet sanded with 1200grit and then applied a couple of coats of future before laying down the alclad11, when that had dried i noticed a grainy are in the wingroot where the allclad had dried before hitting the model so i rubbed it out with a soft cloth(flannel) and then i gave it a heavy coat of future to seal it in...After that declals.......

 I used Model Master, metallizer, aluminum buffing. Then a coat of metallizer sealer, decals, sealer again. I don't usually use the sealer, but my pre-paint prep was horrible. It did help (only help, not eliminate) the imperfections. I'll try to pick my pic. angles carefully to hide all the crap!

 Anyway, here's where they are now.

 B-B-D decals are from super-scale, I was not impressed!!!

 Tis it, for a few days anyway!

Fermis they look pretty darn good to me there buddy I too have a set of SS decals for BBD, may I ask what you didnt like about them ?

I think I pass the blame unfairly.  Trying to get a flat decal around a complex curve is a pain. I ended up having to slice the decal four checkers deep around the nose. I had to do the same thing with monograms decals as well(years ago). Several applications of micro-sol got em down, a tad wrinkley, but down. A fair amount of touch up paint was in order to fill in around the exaust and lower nose areas. Same deal on the wingtips, although I didn't do any slicing. My main beef about em is at the back end on the bottom of the nose checkers. I just brush painted a few more checkers and red outline all the way back to the gear doors. Don't know if that is correct, but it looks better, IMHO.

 I think I was just in a bad mood. The decals aint all that bad!

fermis

I think I pass the blame unfairly.  Trying to get a flat decal around a complex curve is a pain. I ended up having to slice the decal four checkers deep around the nose. I had to do the same thing with monograms decals as well(years ago). Several applications of micro-sol got em down, a tad wrinkley, but down. A fair amount of touch up paint was in order to fill in around the exaust and lower nose areas. Same deal on the wingtips, although I didn't do any slicing. My main beef about em is at the back end on the bottom of the nose checkers. I just brush painted a few more checkers and red outline all the way back to the gear doors. Don't know if that is correct, but it looks better, IMHO.

 I think I was just in a bad mood. The decals aint all that bad!

Fermis, I like your Mustang build and give you credit for trying BBD. I chickened out of messin' with that checkboard decal scheme for my current Revell build. And man, you sure can crank out the work. Makes me feel like I'm standing still (which sometimes I am).

Fermis they are looking GREAT!!!!! Sorry to hear about the hassle with the decals but still a very nice job with them!!!! I hope I'm wrong but the jets on the tips look like they are backwards? The narrower end is usually the exhaust. ramjets are entirely different creatures though!

Fermis, Both builds look just fine to meVery nice work......

WIP Pics....

Richard expressed interest in building one of these kits so this post is aimed at him....

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

Anyway everything was going well with the booms until i glued in the wheel wells, getting them into position pulled the booms a little sideways and out shape....The forward section fits quite well so i used a generous amount of glue and only glued about halfway down...Once the glue is dry i'll heat up the plastic and twist the tails into position, if i only get a 50% improvement that will be enough and i'll force it the rest of the way....It should be an easy fix...

This pic is a little fuzzy but you can see how twisted it is......

I said it once, and I'll say it again.  His name is Dr. Fermis..........

 Much thanks again!!!

simpilot34

 I hope I'm wrong but the jets on the tips look like they are backwards? The narrower end is usually the exhaust. ramjets are entirely different creatures though!

I thought the same thing, but it is correct.

fermis you are a Mustang manufacturing machine!

Interesting version of our beloved 'Pony' How about you tackle a 1/48 NMF B-52 to slow you down a bit so the rest of us can get something finished? jk jk jk

Regardless your tireless efforts at the hobby bench are impressive!

I have been bogged down in another quagmire of scratch build details on my 1/48 scale Sherman. Its ready for paint today! Progress will be swift here on in... Hopefully later on in June I can get the boxed P-51 out again!

kermit,

As you requested:

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!!!!

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.

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.

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!

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

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!!!!