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

Hi Bish ,

I'm sorry as I'll have to withdraw from your GB as some family health issue's have come up .

Kind regards ,

                 John .

Nice P-38, and greta to see sometging different. Look forward to seeing the decals on.

That is a nice paint job on the Lightning, I cannot wait to see the decals on her

All--Have made some progress on the P-38J.  The plane will be finished as Jeanne from the 20th FG, 55th FS with Sharkmouths on the nacells.

The OD is Mr Color with a skosh of mahogany added.

I perforated some .5 mm sheet to dress up the PG doors.

Looking forward to seeing how this kit goes together John. A bit of a full bench you have there.

Hi Bish ;

Some PE I ordered for my Tamiya 1/72 P-51D arrived late yesterday ,

I'll go with the "Old Crow" makings finished with Gunze acrylic H-52 olive drab over H-53 neutral gray .

I should be able to start her sometime in the coming week , the mercury has been hitting the century mark all week here in Sydney and it's been too hot to work on my builds , so I have fallen behind a little on some current stuff , a cool change coming tomorrow so I'll try and make a start then .

                            John .

That interiour is looking great, some really nice work you have done there.

Personanlly, unless i am useing Alclad, i don't prime anything inside or out. I guess it depends on what paint you are useing, i mainly use Xtracolour enamels and tamiya Acrylics, and they go on fine without a primer.

Rick, will be glad to add them. What scale and make are they. Will look forward to a couple more of your builds.

When i take pics i use the same lights i use for building, which have the blue daylight bulbs, not sure if this is good for photos or not. Once i get a proper model room i must set up a proper area for photos, as well as a spray booth.

checkmateking02  Thanks for that info on the tail, i will bear that in mind. Xtracolour also do a faded OD as well as a darker OD. Looking forward to seeing more of your Fort, soon as i get home i will be starting on my F.

Little J

I have a question about painting interiors.  Do you use a primer coat or just shoot the your base color?

I always use a primer coat. Some paints tend to go down fine without, but I'm usually using Model Master enamels for interiors since they've already got the basic colors, and I've noticed Model Master can tend to run if it doesn't have something to bite to.

One option I'm eager to try is decating Tamiya's AS-12 bare-metal silver and using that as the primer for interiors. 

I have a question about painting interiors.  Do you use a primer coat or just shoot the your base color?

Here are some pics of my primitive scratch building on my Marauder.  I think I have dropped every piece of photo etch on the floor so it takes me five times as long to complete just searching for the parts. 

Bish, I was sitting around the other (snow) day thinking of something to build, and decided to start up a P-51B.  After hashing around a couple of bagged kits I got on ebay, I decided to build them both.  I'd like to include them in this group build.  I don't have details on exactly which aircraft I want to represent, but I believe I'll do Duane Beeson's "Boise Bee" for one.  I'm still looking at my decal stash to determine the other.  I'd like to find something that would require some NMF.  Thanks.  Rick

checkmateking02

Thanks for the suggestions, Doogs.  Are those incandescent bulbs in your lights?  I shot the pictures in the kitchen under these new-style flourescent bulbs, and with the camera flash.  I wonder if that makes a difference. 

They're CFL bulbs...the biggest difference they make is the color temperature.

Color temperature can be really complicated, but here's the basics: Human eyes are really good at naturally white balancing, but camera sensors get confused based on the color temperature of the light source. As an example, incandescent bulbs have a much warmer temperature than sunlight, so if you have your camera set for sunlight, and shoot indoors, your pictures will come out with a nasty reddish cast to them. Vice versa, if you set the camera for incandescent and then go shoot outdoors, your pictures will be blue.

CFLs tend to be "cooler" than incandescents. Personally - my method doesn't work for everybody - but I shoot in RAW format, then manage the color correction on my computer, where I've got it dialed in for the lights and the backdrop.

If your going to be shooting anything under incandescant (sic) make sure you set the white balance on the camera for that lighting or at least set it auto white balance. I won't bore with the temperature of different lights but that can make all the difference in world.

Thanks for the suggestions, Doogs.  Are those incandescent bulbs in your lights?  I shot the pictures in the kitchen under these new-style flourescent bulbs, and with the camera flash.  I wonder if that makes a difference. 

At any rate, I've lost the use of the camera for the next month.  My daughter took it with her to Canada.  Any pictures I post in the near future will be with the camera I got at Barney Rubble's garage sale.

checkmateking02

I'm sure lighting has something to do with it.  In the old days of the 35mm SLR cameras and film, I kept a filter on the lens always.  But it's my daughter's camera, and I have not a clue about it.  She even has to do the settings for me; then I just aim and shoot.

I wrote the following in another post a few days ago. Might help...

I'm sure lighting has something to do with it.  In the old days of the 35mm SLR cameras and film, I kept a filter on the lens always.  But it's my daughter's camera, and I have not a clue about it.  She even has to do the settings for me; then I just aim and shoot.

As for the different shades of OD, somewhere I have a book that claims that the vertical stabilizers were often made by a subcontractor, and were prepainted before shipping to the assembly factory.  Hence, the colours often didn't match up.  On some previously built Forts, I used medium green.  I think the reference source was a book on the 381st Bomb Group, put out years ago by Squadron. 

Aeromaster made a separate shade of "faded" OD, and that's what I used on the cloth-covered control surfaces.

This will be the 91st BG craft--"Just Plain Lonesome."

The B-17 is looking good. I can see what you mean about the photos, in fact its hard to tell the difference between the de icer boots and the grey underside's. I have the same problem with photos as well, my kits look alot better in the flesh than they do on camera. I still haven't got the hang on it, i think lighting is the key. I do like the different shades of OD you have got, and isn't it funny how different companies have different shades of the same colour. But i think thats how it is in the real world. I recall reading how a museum was stripping a 251 halftrack and found something like 9 different shades of dark yellow.

Is this the 91st or 100th BG aircraft.

I will bear that in mind. I am planning on building one from each squadron. I now the decals i have mention different shades of blue, but i think its all the same pattern. So i will check little friends when i get round to building mine.

Fun, Falklands, you must be joking lol. Not much to do down here, especially as a none drinker. But hopeing to go and see some penguins on Sunday,.

I managed to paint the B-17 this past weekend.

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I used AeroMaster paints, OD and Neutral Gray.  They are no longer available.  The vertical stabilizer is painted with old Floquil military enamels, also no longer available.  I used to like it when several manufacturers made the same paints; you can see how different these two companies' interpretations were of the same colour.  Floquil Bright Silver was used for the NMF de-icer boot locations.

The colours appear off in these pictures--the photos picked up way too much blue.  Neither the neutral gray nor the silver is anywhere near this blue.  I guess I still don't have the hang of this digital photography.

 Next up will be the decaling.

Bish

.... But that curve on the blue nose is going to be the challenge.

Bish, looking at the photos on the littlefriends website shows that there was some variation in the curve of the blue painting.  Some aircraft like Waldron's P-51 had a fairly sharp curve whereas others showed a more sweeping curve on the blue nose.  You could almost do this free hand and not be that far off.  But I'm planning to cut a curved piece of tape...  See how it goes.

Have fun in the Falklands.

Don

Will be very interested to see how that come out. I was thinking of doing mine Alclad first and then the Blue on top. When i masked the Alclad on my 1101, i had a bit of an issue when it came to the panels, i think i had not waited long enough and some of it started to lift, but i manage to get it back down and its hard to tell. But when i masked to paint the red and green bit it was fine. But that curve on the blue nose is going to be the challenge.

Bish

Looking forward to seeing some pics Don, and getting some ideas on doing that blue nose.

Well, the overall plan is to paint the blue nose over the Mr. Surfacer 1000 primer after I smooth seams and give the entire plane a sanding with very fine grit paper to remove any grit, etc.  The blue nose will then be masked with Tamiya tape and the body given another priming coat of gloss black in preparation for the Alclad.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll post pics so you'll see just how sound a plan that is.

Don

No worries psycho, fully understand. I may have to pull a build out of a GB myself as somthing has come up a few weeks after i get home from here. But i will leave it on the front page and if you can make it, great.

Looking forward to seeing some pics Don, and getting some ideas on doing that blue nose.

OK, we had some warmer weather in Louisville which gave me the opportunity to get a primer coat of Mr. Surfacer 1000 on the P-51D.  Of course, the primer showed that I have to re-visit one or two seams but overall, it looked good.  Will so some additional smoothing, then paint the blue nose.  I'll post a few photos after that.

Don

Im sorry to say I may not be able to do this GB. Even though it doesnt end until October, my mind is already shifting to paintball and loosing interest in modeling for right now. I'm not saying i'm 100% out of this but theres a chance I may not be able to do it. Work is deffinatly a big factor too. Overtime most weekends, and with working mostely 3rd I dont have the motivation to do any modeling on those days. Hope I can still make it, but no no promises.

Not sure, does anything look warped. I ain't done a kit with an engine as yet, so not sure i can be much help

Yeah my 32nd scale mustang. It has the main bulhead (firewall) with the oil tank. The 2 triangular spars and then a U shaped peice in the middle making a box. But everything seems to be slightly out. Its frustrating.

Scorpiomikey This is the Mustang i take it. Not sure about the mounts, only thing i can assume is are the mateing areas flat.