Mighty 8th GB 1-Nov-2010 - 31-Oct-2011

That's looking really nice, jbrady.  It's turning out very well.  As for the "all HELL" marking, FSM has had articles about people printing up their own.  I haven't tried it.  Maybe the decal forum on this site has some helpful information.  On the purely complaining front, it's always hypertensive when all the markings are not included on the sheet. 

Evening Gents, I just returned from from Afghanistan and have internet again. I just ordered the Hasagawa 1:72 B-24J so hopefully in about a week it will get here to Germany. The B-24 that I am modeling mine after was an H model but due to a lack of conversions or quality conversions I should say, I'm just going to use the J model. This will be my first build using a natural finish so I'm a little nervous about that, guess I'll be spending some time reading through the natural finish GB. All the builds so far look great, can't wait to get involved!

Welcome home Hook. I just finished a hase B-24J that i converted into an H. Its not that much work. Which decals are you useing. My build is on the IMS IV GB but if you want i can send you more details of the conversion.

I'd love the details of your conversion. I'm looking at having the decals for the 329 93rd group custom made, and I'm also looking at just hand painting them.

Its not to difficult. For my conversion it was all around the front area. If yours has the enclosed waiste position, you may have to add that, might didn't. I will sort some photos out for you. You won't need to buy anything, but some polishing cloths would be handy.

I would love to get some decals for a Hardwick aircrfat. I want to build aircraft from all the airfields in Norfolk, and that is one i haven'g got yet. And it will have to be a B-24.

Welcome home Hookdriver.  For your B-24,I found a couple things.  First off, there is only 2 major differences (their small though) differences from the J model to the H model, and both of these halve to do with the nose.  The H model had the "Ford nose" which is just a difference in the fairing behind the nose gun turret.  The other difference is the bombardier's aiming window.  I'm sure there were some other difference between the two models, but these are the only visible ones I could find.  Plus, like Bish said, it may have the enclosed waist position.

I found a decal profile that i have below that illustrates these differences quite clearly.  I know it's only a decal profile, but I have confirmed this with various pictures around the internet.

The red circles show the difference in the fairing behind the nose turret, and the orange circles show the difference in the bombardier's aiming window.....hope this helps you ( the H model is the bottom one)

Thanks for the photos RedRaider, the S fairing behind the turret should be easy enough to fabricate and as for the aiming window, the Hasegawa kit has a clear plastic nose, so some masking and styrene should take care of that.

Thanks red, i was just trying to explain that in PM, but a pic paints a thousand words.

Hook, as i mentioned in the PM, the area in the upper red circle, i just straightened it out and then filed out the notch. And you can see there what i meant by the antenna and the bulgded window, both of which come with the kit and are easy to fit.

I'm going to answer my own question about stencils... not many. I don't really see the need to add something that has to be viewed with a magnifier to identify. Hell I needed a magnifier just to tell if some of them were right side up.

jbrady

I'm going to answer my own question about stencils... not many. I don't really see the need to add something that has to be viewed with a magnifier to identify. Hell I needed a magnifier just to tell if some of them were right side up.

IMO it depends on the aircraft, scheme, quality of the stencils, etc. 

They usually work best when they contrast with the main color - so black stencils over light gray, white over dark green, etc. Black over OD seem to get lost in the mix, and with those I usually focus on those stencils that'll provide some visual interest (usually about half of them).

Also, anything around the cowl and canopy, since those are typically the focal points of any aircraft.

I'm working on an Academy P-38F right now that has a ridiculously daunting stencil sheet. But it's still a cakewalk next to putting 300 or so "NO STEP" stencils on an F-15...

That's about where I fell out. I figure these planes were so overpainted with changing ID schemes, ID stripes, damage repairs that not many of the original stencils would remain for long. I've added more than I needed to and most of them are hardly visible at all... live and learn.

The Tamiya P-47 continues to live up to it's great reputation. I started to do a bit of test-fitting last night - cockpit, fuselage halves, wing spar assembly...and everything went together like it was attracted by magnets! 

Of course, the wing spars seem to "lock" into the fuselage, so I couldn't pull the halves back apart. I can pry them some way, but I'm worried about breaking something if I try to separate the halves. The only downside is that I didn't install the supercharger exhaust. Still trying to figure out if I should even bother. It'll be so hidden as to be pretty much invisible.

Also taped up and test-fitted the wings. Wow. Just wow. I could probably get by just dabbling CA on the wing spars. The fit is so good at the wing root that I don't even know if it needs cement.

Hoping to move on to real assembly soon - can't wait to start getting this sucker under paint!

Doogs, the same happened to me when I test fit the wing spars, but just work it a little bit and they will come loose...if I didn't break it then you shouldn't be able to

redraider56

Doogs, the same happened to me when I test fit the wing spars, but just work it a little bit and they will come loose...if I didn't break it then you shouldn't be able to

I'm probably just going to leave them as is. I mean, the only reason I have to get in there is to install that exhaust bit, and if that doesn't work it's not a bit deal. I'm more worried about the cockpit popping out. Some of that throttle quadrant assembly is very fragile. 

As a side note, I was showing the WIP to my father-in-law tonight, and holding my 6-month old girl at the same time. Well, when I went to demonstrate how the wing spar worked, she reached right out and decided that wing was hers! I'll have to make a note to keep her away from it as it gets more complete...

This thing is about 99% complete. I think I have to add the pitot tube and the radio mast and I noticed that the spinner fell off... hope the cats didn't get it. I'm going to wait to finish completely until the weathering GB. I tried to add exhaust and gunfire stains to another model this afternoon. Let's just say I now have a lot of spare parts for other models.

I'm calling it finished for now.

That's a replacement canopy... my story and I'm sticking to it.

jbrady - very nice build! I'm loving the subtle variations in the paint, and I wouldn't worry about the canopy too much. From what I've read those tended to be better maintained paint-wise than the rest of the aircraft. Not really sure why, but there you go.

I'd also be careful with exhaust and gun stains on a P-47. The main exhaust outlet was out back of the supercharger, by the tailwheel, though some of my pictures of "Hairless Joe" show definite staining going on aft of the cowl flaps. Just not a distinctive exhaust trail like you'd see on a P-51 or whatnot.

As for the guns, Jugs didn't stain much. The blast tubes kept the firing contained, and thus away from the wing surface. I don't plan on adding any staining to my blast tubes outside maybe a slight discoloration right at the front lip. But I will be adding stains at the ejection ports on the undersides of the wings.

Question for anybody who might know.

The P-47s of the 56th FG featured yellow ID numbers on the tail (see my failed P-47, or jbrady's just completed). Thing is, the Jugs of the 62nd FS also had their rudders painted this same yellow.

When I was decaling the Monogram, one thing I noticed was that the yellow of the ID numbers was significantly darker than the yellow I used for the rudder (Tamiya Flat Yellow). Insignia Yellow looks too light, too.

Does anybody know if they ended up using RAF yellow (the rest of the camo was all RAF colors), or maybe even chrome yellow?

Hairless+joe

Thanks for looking DoogsATX. I'll be adding some other photos tomorrow when the light is better... Got the P-51-B today... looking forward to that.

I've been looking for about 20 minutes... I can get the FS colors for the main camoflage but all I get for the tail color is yellow. All the sites I've visited say the same thing, they describe the main camoflage then give the colors for the 61st red, 62nd yellow, and 63rd sky blue. None give the specific shade of yellow.

jbrady  Nice looking jug mate. I am going to put pics of finished builds on the front page, looks like yours will be the first. I will wait till you add some more pics.

Doogs Afraid i can't help with the yellow, but i did notice that on my xtradecal instructions for my B-24, it did say the tips of the propeller blades should be an RAF yellow. It would make sense to make use of RAF paint for things like that. AS for the canopies, i guess its possably that they were replaced often. As well as getting damaged in combat, i guess anything that impaired the pilots visability would mean it getting switch for a new one, hence the less worn look.

Here you go... I'm happy with the way some of it looks. Lots of room for improvement.

Thanks for all the help.

First pic up on the front page. Thanks, and it looks great. Are you planning on doing anything more for the weathering GB, or are ylou just showing the things you ahve already done. Because from what i can see, there's nothing else left to do. The only thing i can see missing is the wire antenna.

I want to do something with exhaust staining and maybe some light gunfire staining. After that it needs one more dull coat and a satin coat to bring out the waxed look of the 56th group planes. Yesterday I tried to do some of that on the first P-47 I built and it was a disaster... thought I'd take a break from this one and see if I can learn anything from the weathering GB.

I am with you on that. I am happy with my exhaust stain, but could do with picking up ideas on a few other areas.  Its never to late to learn somthing new.

jbrady:  I think your P-47 looks outstanding.  It doesn't look like it needs anything else.  The wash in the panel lines looks excellent.

Bish: Its all new to me.

I am about to start on my first Jug and would like to join this GB.  It's the Arii/Otaki P-47D Razorback in 1/48th.  It will sport Maj Jack Price's Feather Merchant II markings of the 84th FS 78th FG in late 1943. Thanks all,

Satch

checkkingmate2: Thanks man. I just started looking at the AM Mustang that's next. It is no wonder that there are very few aftermarket sets for AM kits. The molded detail is incredible. There are some weird things though. I seem to have two different cockpits... floor, sidewalls, and radio equipment. Thing is there is no mention of any of that in the instructions. Maybe they are bits to be used on an A-36.

jbrady  well i must say from what i see so far, your off to a great start.

satch ipYour more than welcome, have added you to the front page.

jbrady--Your P-47 looks fantastic!!  Will you share the paint color you used for the upper camo?  I like the faded look very much.

The faded look is courtesy of DoogsATX. He uses a three step paint process (I think that's what he does). At least that's what I understood him to do. I used Model Master (MM) olive drab FS34087 plus a touch of a color MM calls leather as the base coat (page 22 of this build). I lightened that with MM flat white (about 50/50) and misted it over the original coat until It looked faded in spots. I tied it together with a coat of the lightened mix thinned by 50%. After that set up for a couple of days, I gave it two coats of gloss. The final step is a thin wash of burnt umber acryl, water, and dish soap. I did that a bit at a time. I put it on a wing let it just dry and went over the wing with wet cotton swabs to take up most of the wash. I just wanted to accent the panel lines... worked pretty well. Be careful of letting the wash dry too hard though. It can be a *** to get up if you let it fully cure.