Hi Duke,

Would love to add you to the honour wall, but can't see your pics!

M/TB379

Here is the aircraft I managed to get done in the last couple weeks for this Group Build. This one is the Fujimi 1/72 scale F-86 F Sabre Jet "MiG Mad Marine" I finally got it built up after some bothersome roadblocks.

I appreciate being a part of this Group Build; it has been a fun ride. I hope you enjoy my submission.

Thanks all for looking and comments are welcome.

Greetings from Aus, chaps!

I've been away for a while, a couple of weeks in England. I would have posted before I went but fell ill with about three days to go, and am not properly over it even now. I was unable to sort through forum posts while I was away, internet cafe time comes expensive, but I've read up now I'm back. I believe I have a completion to post to the roll of honour!

While I was in the UK I got to the Northeastern Air Museum near Sunderland, and found that their focus is largely on early jets, at least in their standing exhibits, featuring: F-86D, F-84F, T-33, Meteor, Vampire, Sea Venom and Canberra. I got photos and will post a selection here as research references (and for the heck of it!)

It's good to be back and I hope to find my way to the bench this weekend, I'm already there in spirit.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Tom: Great job on the Fury, love the way the pre-shading came out.

Simon: The Meteor is looking good.

Jeremy: Wow, the P-59 looks terrific! Great cockpit and the NM looks flawless, I wish mine would come out that smooth.

Jmbax,

Nice work!  There is/was one of those on display at Edwards AFB (at least back in 1970 when we were there).  My Dad indicated that when it was delivered, apparently by rail or truck, it had a wooden propeller mocked up on the nose to throw off the public that it was actually a jet-powered aircraft. 

I'm not sure if it's still there, and the one on static display did not have the prop, just mounted on a post, gear up. 

Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas

Thanks guys!!!

Tom - Take the sick day... I wanna see that Fury! Gorgeous plane!

Jeremy,

Wow! Well done sir. The NMF looks great as well as the front office detail. Maybe I need to take a sick day to finish off the Fury

jmabx - just lovely.  Hope my P-59 variant comes half as close.

Latecomer, but opting to use this group build as motivation to finish my 1:48 Hobbycraft P-59B "Trailblazer," a version which I will finish in the blaze orange of tghe US Army version of this aircraft, circa 1946.  Will post pictures of build to date shortly.

Status is 40% complete: Interior painted and cockpit and jet exhausts installed, will close interior tonight.  Canopy in the midst of masking.  Will need to putty seams behind front wheel well and at rear jet exhausts - I sacrificed the bottom of the aircraft to get clean seams on top.

Eduard PE belts on order and will be installed before canopy is glued.  Some re-scribing will be necessary.  This will be the first build on which I attempt pre-shading, and yes, I am avoiding metalized finish as I'm still in the early stages of learning my airbrush.

This will be my first completed aircraft in nearly 30 years.  Been building 1:700 scale Waterline ships since getting back into the hobby.

Sick today so I stayed home and finished her off. Glad I got to be a part of this group build!

P.S. - Sorry for the wierd purple color. One of my lights blew out and all I had left was one of those "reveal" lights. 

Duke, Tom and Simon, great work so far! Looking forward to seeing the finished birds!

I haven't been at the bench much lately but I managed to get a little done to the P-59. She's been decaled and given a dark wash for the panel lines so far. On the home stretch now!

Closeup of the nose art... pretty cool!

Simon, very nice work indeed, love the Aussie Meteor

Tom, thanks for that information buddy, the paintwork on you build looks very smooth I'm going to have a look on squadron and see if i can order some of that micromesh

Jeez that end date is creeping up, gotta get some more done on the arado...

Duke - Can't wait to see some pictuers!

Simon - Wow the Meteor looks great. The 2nd attempt at the NMF out of the rattle can turned out great and I like the markings.

Julez - Sorry it's taken me a bit to reply about Micro Mesh. They make super fine abrasive sheets and polishing compunds. The car modelers use this to get those deep gloss shines. I picked up a polishing kit from my local hobby shop. It consists of 1 sheet of each of 3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000, and 12,000 grit sanding sheets. Also included is a small bottle of polishing compund and a flannel polishing cloth and a nice set of instructions. Since I was not going for a super gloss finish I stopped after the 3600 grit sheet. I was so happy with the results that I ended up doing the upper half of my Fury this weekend. Here's a few pictures.

Here's an overall shoot of the Fury. Before I used the micro mesh there was one panel line I wasn't happy with from my first attempt to scribe it. So I filled it with super glue, re-scribed, and primed. Then I polished with the micro mesh. This was followed by a light coat of gull gray thinned one part thinner to one part paint. Each panel was sprayed individually at 10 to 12 PSI.

Here's a close up of the wing.

This probably isn't accurate but I thought it would look cool. Painted the panels around the gun tubes with Alclad Aluminum.

Next up is a gloss coat, decals, and a wash for the panel lines and rivets.

Thunderbolt I have been lurking here in this group and must say there are some very nice builds going on here, very well done one and all

I made a score although too late to join the group, I scored a 1/48 Dragon Horton Ho229 finally, I have been trying to get one for a year or so now, well at my price anyways. Still its the most I have paid for a kit at 29 bucks including shipping from China. I also ran across  a video you all might like, the first flight of the XP-59, I am sure some here have seen it but thought I would share it anyway for those who havent.

http://videosift.com/video/Americas-First-Jet-Flight-October-1942

Thanks for the offer Simon, but this is the 1/72 scale Hasegawa model. I have since finished it but haven't had the time to get some photos. Hopefully sometime this week.

Is that a 48th Sabre Duke, cos if it is, I havea full set of spare decals from an Academy kit you are welcome to, has the full yellow striping per your picture.

The Meteor is nearly finished, here's a few pictures :

With nacelles on and sanded. The fit is not fantastic on this kit, so lots of putty and sanding required. Still not 100% happy with the wing/ fuse joint.

Canopy on and masked.

Things went a bit pear shaped after that, I applied Tamiya AS12 from a rattle can and rushed it, applied too thick and ended up with 'fish eyes', so I rubbed it all back and started again, with the correct application of several misted coats. Next photos at decalling stage, I'm about 60% there, and then I'll tackle the undercarriage.

Duke, i know how you feel, trust me i've had my share of builds like thatpaintwork looks very nice, she's gonna look sweet with some decals on

Tom, very cool build...micromesh eh, very interesting...I've heard of it before but never seen it in action...tell me more

Duke: Sorry to hear about the decal mess. Nothing worse than getting to the end of perfectly good build only to have the dcals bite you in the *##. Hang in there. I'll bet it's gonna look super anyway.

As for me still making slow progress on the Fury. I laid down the gull gray on the upper surfaces. I did a better job on the gray. Thinner mixture and less air pressure. I ended up with a smoother surface but still covered more of the pre-shading than I wanted to.

Prior to the gull gray I painted the leading edges of the wings, stablizers, and rudder with Alclad Aluminum. Love that stuff!

I wasn't satisfied with the flat white on the underside. I covered too much of the pe-shading and the finish felt like sand paper. Not a good base for a gloss coat and decals. So I tried something I've never attempted before. I picked up a Micro Mesh polishing kit. I sanded the white with 3200 grit and it came out perfectly smooth and at the same time revealed some of the preshading. I then mixed 1 part flat white to 1 part thinner and sprayed at about 10 to 12 psi. I was very happy with the results. I'm almost thinking about doing the same to the gull gray. Here's some pictures. 

Thanks Mac! I've got the decals completed. next up is adding the landing gear, gear doors and drop tanks. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and this time it's not a train!

Gotta pack up the modeling supplies tomorrow and I won't see them for about three months!  I guess that I am officially out of the build now  I was afraid that this would happen but that is the chance that you take sometimes. 

Duke, your Saber is looking nice!  I agree with Gamera, just do it without the stripes and it will be a showstopper.  Your finish looks too good to cover up.

Thanks Gamera. I appreciate the compliment. I was going to shove it back into the box too, but I'd done that so often and I'm tired of it cluttering up my workbench. I'm getting this thing finished, and I'm finishing it sans stripes. I don't want to wait for aftermarket; I'm still waiting for a replacement canopy for my other Sabre.

I got a few more decals on it. I hope to finish the decals soon, and then I can declare this finished once I add the landing gear and underwing tanks.

Duke: I know what you mean about large decals being a PITA sometimes. There were plently of sabres that operated without the stripes. Your NM finish looks flawless and frankly the stripes just cover it up!

If I really get irritated I tend to just shove the thing back in the back and shelf it for a week or two. Maybe order a set of aftermarket decals to replace the krappy ones that went bad on you.

Tom, that Fury is looking awesome! Well done! Looking forward to seeing more.

Jeremy, fantastic! I can;t see anything in the Alclad, it really looks sharp! Keep it going man!

As for me, I tried to apply the decals to my Sabre. I got some of the stencils on...





...and then ran into a major problem. I'd soaked the yellow and black fuselage stripe and when I went to add it to the model I found this:






Now I'm fed up with this model already. This one and the Japanese one I was supposed to be building alongside it have been giving me nothing but problems all this time. I've decided that enough is enough; I'm building this without the stupid yellow stripes on the wings and fuselage. It may be inaccurate, but I've had it! I'm not going to go through the hassle of trying to paint them on since painting yellow is tough enough. On this model, that is tantamount to setting up a full blown catastrophe. I'm just going to add the rest of the decals and that's it! I've already applied a layer of decal film to all the rest of the decals on the sheet to insure this doesn't happen again!


Thanks all for looking in.

Jeremy- I love the Alclad!  I haven't messed with it much ( I kind of shy away from NMF ) and every time I see results like that I kick my self for not giving it a go.

Tom-  I can't wait to see your FJ finished.  Every time I see one I think, Oh yeah, I forgot that I really like those things.  I think that the preshading will really work well with the gray upper surface.

Gamera- It was worth it to get around a BUFF and a C-123 for the first time.  I got some shots of one of the Makos' F-16s there as well.

Jmabx -- that Alclad looks FANTASTIC! up close you can see your dust and such, but it is absolutely not visible in the pics! You really make me want to add one of these to my own collection!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Gamera - The Kikka looks awesome! Nicely done!

Well, life has been throwing me curve balls lately so I haven't been around much. I just wanted to pop in for a quick update on the P-59. Alclad is on and she looks alright. I'm a little disappointed with the fact that, despite my best efforts, I have lots of dust and crud in the paint. I don't know whether to leave it alone or try to repaint it again. I suppose I'll ponder on it awhile. Couple of pics...

I sure love the look of Alclad!

Mac: Well at least you got to see part of the show, dang. The last one I went to was in June/July and was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. Still it was a great show aside from that.

Tom: She's looking good so far! I notice that you're doing the pre-shading the same way FSM says. Sometime back I started pre-shading the panel lines with paint only slightly darker than the base coat, say on a light ghost grey base useing dark ghost grey for the pre-shading. Then I mist the model with thinned about 50% thinner base coat to tone everything down. It just seems less work to me than using black pre-shading on a light model and then having to cover it back up again.

Hi everyone,

Gamera, love the Kikka, especially the finish. I assume you did some pre-shading which looks great. It's a skill I've yet to master as you'll see in my update. Any tips appreciated. Nice start on the Vampire as well.

Simon - Like the Meteor so far. Look forward to future updates.

Duke - Gotta love those shiny Sabers!

As for me the Fury is coming along slowly but surely.

Her she is with the primer coat.

I pre-shaded the underside with a dark grey which will be over sprayed with flat white.

I would have thought more of the gray would show through the white. The shading is pretty subtle.

I pre-shaded the upper half in black as a flat gull grey will be sprayed over this.

That's all for now.

Not too bad.  The kids got tired of walking around, so we ended up leaving before the Blue Angels flew.  I did get to see the Snowbirds though.  I was impressed with their precision.  They weren't as spectacular as the Blue Angels but the formation flying that they do is impressive.