OFFICAL NO AFTERMARKET Group Build

I sort of did a mental double take after my last post. If I applied Future I would find it hard to scratch down to the aluminum undercoat.

So I decided to do the whitewash.

Nice effect, very very subtle hint of camo underneath (in parts) hope I didn't over do it, I can re suggest the lines with some post shading later on.

Turns out it's a bit harder to scratch through 2 or 3 coats down to the metal. Some bits turned out better than others but I can hide that stuff better with weathering. Also a nice subtle pre-shading effect with the whitewash.

Cheers

vetteman42

WOW Casper you are a building machine ! Both fast and very high quality That tiny little engine is

Thanks Vetteman, nice looking chopper you have there as well.

Cheers

Ok I applied a nice upper coat of Medium Sea Gray 2

After an hour or so sticking cut out bits of paper (thank you Tamiya for the templates) and sticking them onto the bird with blu-tak, time for some green.

I think it turned out nice.

Pity I'm going to whitewash it all!

I like the way the aluminum sparkles a little on the surface with the top coats. Also the chipped paint effect is very effective, just need to use a blunt metal object like tweezers, no silver pencil or sliver dry brush needed.

Ok a coat of Future later then leave it till Tuesday. First lot of decals and stencils. I want to make sure the plane is exactly how it was prior to the whitewash.

Cheers

WOW Casper you are a building machine ! Both fast and very high quality That tiny little engine is really nice work, especially all the added detail. Very very well done indeed

My build is very close to the paint booth, just need to do a touch of finish sanding and add the crystal.

I do have to admit disappointment in this kit. Lots of poor fits, lack of locating pins on any of the bits hanging off the nose, or the raydome under the nose. Also the landing gear was a tough one as it only has 2 pins that don't locate parts very well at all. I did get lucky, they are even and the chopper does sit level

Next went the coat underside of Medium Sea Gray. I only had IJN Light Sea gray so I mixed in some RLM66 and it looked fine.

I wasn't too careful to get 100% coverage as I wanted a tiny hint of the aluminum to occasionally get through in places and when this bird is camouflaged and decalled I'm going to cover it in white.

White Meteor

When the British delivered these to the Belgium airforce they looked slightly like ME262s at a distance so they were whitewashed over the camo and new insignia was hastily painted on top. The white topcoat also should be just thin enough to show a slight hint of the camo underneath.

Also added a pressure hose to the front wheel. Paperclip painted black.

Weird though I noticed the wheel had developed a crack in the last few days. I have never seen this before. I only painted these last week and am not sure what could have done this.

Cheers

Ok, filling and some sanding done. Also I remembered why in the pat I have forked out for masks, the canopy took forever!

Everything's masked off and ready to go

I went for a flat aluminum primer this time, I remember somewhere reading that as aircraft have basically a painted aluminum skin it can help models achieve a more realistic look. We shall see...

Cheers

SuppressionFire

Casper the Chihuahua,

Excellent work on the scratch built engine details. Odd looking coin, I take its a Australian 5 cent nickle?

Yep, that's the smallest coin we have, I am pretty sure it's nickle sized.

Cheers

Casper the Chihuahua,

Excellent work on the scratch built engine details. Odd looking coin, I take its a Australian 5 cent nickle?

Pawel,

Your aircraft turned out great, the bright light washes out the picture. Unless you use 100% outdoor light its best to moderate artificial light to bring out the details in model photography. The display stand and rotors turned out perfect!

vetteman42,

Thanks for your kind words, I too am looking forward to getting more done as there are just the external stowage bits to finish up. Final weathering (lots of light gray dust ie. weathering powder) will need to wait for being attached to the base to avoid any finger prints.

MrSquid2U

Casper, el poquito pero.

 Gotta love that engine all by itself and even more in it's home. Oughta be a cool plane all done up.

Gracias

Casper, el poquito pero.

 Gotta love that engine all by itself and even more in it's home. Oughta be a cool plane all done up.

Tried the engine in the nacelle, fits well!

Can't say this is the best fitting Tamiya kit I've seen, I am building the 2008 release Zero 1/48 and that kit snaps together like a dream!

Nothing a bit of patience and Milliput can't fix.

I have used Future for the first time on my canopies and I have to say WOW!, I get it! So the glass is drying and I'll let the Milliput settle, probably time to prep the bird for her first coat of primer tomorrow.

Cheers

Nice build Pawel!

Ah, so many GBs and so much time!!

Ok, back to the Meteor, I got some reference pics of the RR engine and decided only to detail one engine. I decided to detail the port engine and use the clear cowling, the starboard engine will be completely covered up. Can't do too much scratch on this because of the tight fit and the scale but I managed to scrounge some stuff to pipe it up a bit and add some small rivets.

Bit of paint for the hoses and stuff...

...but an engine is not an engine until it's been used! It comes alive with a dirty lamp black/umber oil wash.

Cheers

Hey Pawel great finish! Love the prop blur and that is something I might try one of these days! I'm giving you a thumbs up right now!

SuppressionFire - thanks for your kind words!

Jon - thanks for reading, I'm glad you found the info you were looking for!

Randy - sorry to hear about your flu, I hope you get better soon! This 1/144 scale isn't too hard - parts are just a bit smaller than 1/72, because you can get away with many simplifications and the model still looks okay. If you don't magnify the view too much, that is

Encouraged by all the positive feedback, I finished my build! here are the pictures for your viewing pleasure. Note: I put one additional layer of a satin clear (Humbrol 135) on the model, leaving out the props, stand and the windows (using maskol).

1.

Hope you like it, thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Oddmanrush thats a really cool avatar you have there

Sorry I haven't been around in a few days, even though I did get my yearly flu shot it still nailed me. I am finally feeling better geeze.

Casper that pit is looking really good I love the IP and belts and cant wait to see more.

Supressionfire such impressive work on such a tiny scale. Everytime I see your WIP all I can say is wow ! All that scratch built detail in 1/72 scale is no less than amazing . Cant wait for the next set of pictures.

Pawel the Hawkeye is looking no less than fantastic, love the decal on the raydome and the blurred props came out very well indeed.I cant even see me building anything in that small a scale my hat is off to you sir.

Hey Pawel, nice lookin' Hawkeye! How did you scratch build the prop blur?

Edit:   Oops, I read the caption above the picture but not below it! Well done and a very good idea!

Excellent improvisation & scratch building Pawel!

The days are numbered for CD's which is a modeler's gain! This spring I used a 'dust' cover CD for modeling ice, I retained the round shape to outline the vignette.

The hook detail is a good addition, the camera catches more tiny flaws that eyes will miss. Some use this to review their work as well. I like to enter my work in contests and hope the judges will miss a few errors.

Dang, is it quiet here...

I'm movin' on with the build. I put on the decals, and with the help of MicroSol they went down with no problems whatsoever. After that I sealed them with future and it all looked like this:

After decalling I tried some weathering with washes, oil, and acrylic, and my main goal was emphasising the panel lines a bit, but I can't say I got the result I wanted, so I removed most of the wash, while it was still wet. Some of it didn't want to come off though, so the aircraft doesn't look squeaky-clean...

And here comes my scratchbuilding. I went on to do the "rotating" props:

I took the stock props and cut the blades off. Then I cut two discs out of a CD box. After temporarily fixing the disc to the hub, and posing the hub on a cut down toothpick, in turn driven by a motor tool. I applied low voltage to the motor tool, so the RPM's of the tool were unusually low, and then I could use a fine brush to paint the warning stripes.

The remainders of the CD box were put to good use while building this stand:

I also went on to build the arrestor hook. I didn't like the kit hook at all:

So I cut off the actual hook and replaced it with a piece built out of a styrene shaving:

Then I painted it white and gun metal with black stripes:

It's scary how sloppy it looks with this magnification! The further, the better:

That'd be it for now, looking forward to your comments - thanks for reading and have a nice day

Paweł

Casper - nice cockpit! That weight is so huge because it is placed too close to CG - so the lever is pretty short. If it was to be placed far forward, in the nose, it could be a lot smaller and put a lot less strain on the undercarriage by the way.

I, for myself went on and painted a few things on my "raw" model:

I also covered the rotodome with future and then I put the big decal on it. Before that I went to experiment and foun out that the Revell decals from this kit react to Mr. Mark Softer and best to Micro Sol. Humbrol DecalFix and Micro Set don't seem to work as well on them. The rotodome decal has an opening for the hub to facilitate the fitting of the decal. This opening has to be painted with a color to match the decal. I used a mixture of Revell 61 green and Humbrol 24 yellow. Now the top of the rotodome looks like this:

Now I'm going to put the rest of the decals on, on top of the future layer. Thanks for looking and have a nice day

Paweł

Can't say I've done to many kits that start off with the fuselage and not the cockpit!

Very big ballast supplied in this kit.

Cockpit slides in with a part of the front landing gear attached.

Next time I should read the instructions very carefully, the fuselage should have been attached to the lower wing THEN attach the upper wings not the other way round!

I just had to squeeze the plastic stubs in at the side and slide them in and under. Worked out in the end.

Cheers

Yeah Suppression, that was the one. They delivered 4 fighters to the Belgium airforce during 1945 and whitewashed them so they wouldn't be confused with ME262s. They apparently were built to engage the 262 but never faced them in combat. They only left the squadron markings on these white birds and painted over everything else including safety stencils. I plan to paint mine up in its original markings complete with stencils and then to apply a thin slightly see through whitewash to achieve the same affect. You can almost get a hit of camo shapes under the white.

Cheers

Casper the Chihuahua,

Good looking cockpit for your Meteor. Was this this same aircraft that served as the first operational British jet fighter? If so there is a very interesting action that happened when ones guns jammed chasing down a VI Buzz bomb. The pilot flew beside the VI and flipped it off course with his wing tip! Talk about nerves of steel.

The last day of 2010 and I made modest progress in the long strange trip that I call Chwat in 1/72 scale.

Decided to not rush completion as it would not suit the previous efforts. Here are some WIP's (I know almost 2 months sense the last ones)

Reworked the skirt armor hangars in aluminum this time. If this fails its going to be tin for the last try...

A coat of Krylon 'Buttercream' and blue poster tack for masking, the black pen is to hopefully align the camouflage to the hull.

Last picture of the upper hull interior, some detail will never be seen once its together.

Scratch built a fire extinguisher out of a 1/35 stick grenade top, paper strips, a brass crimp & a strip of lead foil.

Lower hull & upper. Shown is fire extinguisher in place.

Hulls together, not glued yet as need to paint over tracks. The skirt armor was sanded then a coat of Future before a wash of Raw Sienna oil paint. Then chipped, scraped and dull coated. Hulls will need to be joined before attaching as hangars are not very strong.

Tanks for checking out Chwat, I hope to complete soonish and get working on the display base.

Hi Vetteman,

    I'd like to do another bird for this build. I started on the Tamiya 1/48 Meteor today and it lacks a bit of detail. It's a nice little kit but not the most detailed I've seen. I chose to make harnesses as I hate decal harnesses and they look bad.

As you can see the cockpit is a bit sparse.

I'm also going to add some detail to the Rolls Royce engines as this kit features see through cowlings to display them. I'll also add hydraulic lines to the wheel assemblies as well.

Cheers

CallSignOWL

That is looking good, Pawel. The smaller scales make for some cute little airplanes, dont they?

Miss Owl, thanks for your kind words. Yeah, I think "cute" fits this model 100%. I like your Dauntless a lot, the Kittyhawk too. What's your secret to brushpainting? When it comes to covering or shading larger areas I only get good results with airbrush.

vetteman42

Pawel wow you jumped in with both feet auh runnin The micro mini Hawkeye is looking great so far, my eyes crossed just looking at the pictures so tiny. Looking forward to the next set of pics you post.

vetteman42, thanks a lot. My eyesight is OK, at least to this one . It is worth it, too, because the detail is good on here. That Seahawk is lookin' good too. I have a soft spot for things with rotors...

And here are more pictures:

I put almost all parts together, ang gave the whole model a coat of white primer. Had to sand some of it off though - imperfections showed. As you can see I fabricated a nice holder for the whole model out of a bicycle spoke. The rotodome sits on a length of sprue with a socket drilled out to accept the axis of the dome - I want it to rmain rotary after it's fixed in place.

Then I went on and airbrushed a coat of Humbrol 129 over the whole model. Looking at the screen, the gray came out a lot darker  on the foto, than it is in reality - that artificial lightning... Before that I had to correct the tail a little, I noticed it was a little crooked, when looking at along the vertical axis of the aircraft. Too bad I only checked it for symmetry along the longitude before, but now it's OK.

Have a happy new year 2011, and 'till next time

Paweł

PS. Kermit - I'm for the top design too - more elegant, IMO. And good luck with your project!

Count me amongst the 'Owl Fan Club' too.

Heck, I like the avatar alone and then we add the skills and fact that she represents the 'other gender'? Yup, worthy of a fan club.

aww, thanks vetteman!!  I really do appreciate the comments, you people are the only ones I can really talk to about modeling stuff. When you say I am doing a good job I know tjhat you guys know what you are talking about!

I have 3 mustangs in the stash now and I know two of them are gonna be NMF. They should be started shortly! I'll pop on over to the NMF GB now. YOu sure know how to run some great group builds!

OWL

Thanks for the comments on the Seahawk all. I think this one is beating me up a bit because I had high expectations for the Revell Germany kit. Its not all that bad really considering the kits that I build.

Kermit some of my favorite colors on NMF are red, black and blue. your are 2 for 3 LOL. The jug is looking good from here my friend.

The putty I use Richard is Bondo Glazing Putty, it doesnt flake off or set as fast as the normal modeling puttys most use. For me its much easier to work with and sands much better, and due to the color is much easier for me to see. I dont use a primer on my builds, what I do is brush a dark color paint over the putty after sanding and then sand the paint off, I use Tamiya paints for this. If all the paint doesnt sand off, some left in a shallow pit or someplace like that I brush on a different color and sand those spots again. It only takes 2 or 3 times to fill most times.

Oh and the top one gets my vote for your nose art, she seems to have the right attitude for the name you are going to use. " Too Hot To Handle " needs an aloof, princess, attitude and that one has it.

Miss CallSignOwl what can I say without gushing all over the place. Your builds ROCK !!!!!!!!!! You can and DO run with the Big Dawgs here. I went back and looked at your builds from the first one I saw, the MiG to these last two, and the progression of your skills is nothing less than astounding. I think I am an official member of the OWL fan club.  The front page has been updated with your latest builds. I am looking forward big time to see your NMF P-51.

Cool to see this GB still truckin' along! Kermit, I agree with Owl, I like the first one best.

i like the top one best, Kermit