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

I got my Hasegawa1/72 B-24 in the mail from Sprue Brothers finally, I have the wings and fuselage together and have started the NMF with a coat of Tamaya Silver leaf, now I'm filling seams on the fuselage and waiting for the airbrush and compressor to arrive.  Will put some pics up when possible.

Look forward to seeing some Pics Hookdeiver. You are doing the H model, is that correct. What decal set are you useing.

Bish-  I hate to do this but I'm gonna have to pull the B-24 outta this build.  It was kind of an impulse buy when I first got it, but now its just not falling into my plan of attack for all my projects.  I'm making great progress on both fighters, but I need to get the B-17, its been hogging the bench for too long now.  I'm enjoying working on the smaller aircraft now and just dont think I'm in the mood for  another major project cuz the B-24 is 1/48 and will require a bit of scratching on the interior and I just dont feel up to that at the moment.  Plus time is constraining me and theres prjects Ive been wanting to do but have been putting off.  Again, I'm sorry, but I gotta do it

No worries mate. I know the feeling. I have commited to so many GB's over the last 3 years taht i haven't finished any kits as Dioramas and now i have a backlog of 8 kits waiting. I am not entering any more GB's until i have caught up. And then i am going to build a few kits just for myself.

Seeing as there is a long time to run, i will leave it up there in case you feel like coming back to it later. But don't feel obliged or let anything else suffer to get it done.  And when you do eventually get round to it, don't forget to post some pics on the aircraft forum.

Invasion stripes done, and the P-47 on its wheels for the first time!

Yea I will post it when I get around to it.  I was just looking at it realistically that given the time I have between school and other stuff and the other projects I want to do, that I most likely wont get around to it until after the end date for this group build

Bish- yes it's an H model but the conversion from a J model was a little easier, judging from the photo of the plane that I posted on page 11, it appears that the bombardier's window had been modified to a J model. I know that it was very common for B-24s to be modified by their units. Take a look at the photo on page 11 and tell me what you think

DoogsATX

Invasion stripes done, and the P-47 on its wheels for the first time!

Looking good DoogsATX!  But I have to ask, are the front gear on backwards?

OWL

Here are a couple of pics of where I am at, started doing a little polishing on the wings, that seam behind the cockpit is giving me a headache.

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A bit of paint and some foiling later, here are my two mustangs!

OWL

His gear is on correctly. An interesting fact :  the 47's air-oil shock struts actually compress nine inches as they fold into the wings, the space-saving gear system allowed each of the P-47s to carry more ammunition and a seventh and eighth machine gun

Hookdriver  I see what you mean about the bambadiers window. That does look different from the H model i did.

I would love to know where you got your decals. I am after doing a B-24 from hardwick and i would love to do a NMF B-24 from Norfolk.

red Fully understand, life has a way of getting in the way of the hobby. Looking forward to seeing your two fighters.

Doogs Awsome, yet again, and so glad the decals didn't let you down this time.

Bish- as far as decals go I found the ones that I need "RE-Z"  from academy but they are for a 1/48. This will pay off later if I can find the kit or get them from academy somehow, because I am using this 1/72 as practice for the NMF. But I ordered generic letters and numbers off the internet for tail numbers and the nose art, for the rest I'm going to try making stencils, we will see how that goes.

Hook And that NMF is looking great. And you are useing Tamiya silver leaf, that correct.

CallSignOWL Great looking Mustangs. I take it you are useing foil for the Bodney aircraft. Thats one way to get around the shape of the blue nose.

I think i might have missed something, again. I only have you down for the P-51D. Is the other Mustang for this GB as well.

oh, I am doing teh B mustang for this build. That is Lambie. The D mustang is for the NMF build (well, both are technically) but the D is going to be a fictional plane. I'm making it for a family member.

Sorry for any confusion!

OWL

Hook Got ur. I will be watching cloely then, i might pince a few ideas from you as i have not yet had to make up my own set of markings.

Owl My mistake. I had you down for a D not a B. have changed it now.

.Bish, It's Tamaya Silver Leaf TS-30 in a spray can. It goes on very well but it will show every imperfection in the model. It also polishes very easily. Once my airbrush and compressor get here I'm going to spray the panels different colors and see which one I like best. If I can't find the academy decals that I showed you when I build my 1:48 I think I'm going to order some decal paper and try printing my own.

I have been useing Alclad for my NMF finishers and like wise it shows every minr detail. But with the vareity of shades you can get good panel variation.

I think i am going to have to look into printing my own decals before to long. It will be nice to be able to do unuasual subjects. I am also finding it hard to find German code letters in the size i want, so i might start with those.

Bish - thanks! For the record, though, the invasion stripes are paint, not decals. Hate having to mask over other decals like that to get the job done, but with the way the stripes hug the markings there's really no other way.

Owl - Yeah the gear's on the right way. I had to double-check it myself, though. I think it just looks funny without the gear doors! The P-51s are looking great by the way. I'm really itching to kick one off soon. Maybe after the Mossie.

Hookdriver - Have you tried Tamiya's AS-12 I think it is? Their bare-metal silver rattlecan? Sprayed some on my P-38, literally just to see where I still had to fill and sand, and I was really impressed. It looks very much like worn metal, dries smooth, seems very, very tough. I'm thinking about using it as a primer moving forward. Going to have to test its durability first though.

How did the decals take to masking, or had you sealed them in before.

What build is the Mossie for, and have you started on the 109 yet. I wanna make sure i don't miss that.

Bish

How did the decals take to masking, or had you sealed them in before.

What build is the Mossie for, and have you started on the 109 yet. I wanna make sure i don't miss that.

I sealed them with Future first. The port side, thank god, had very few problems. Only a tiny corner of the S came up. The starboard side was a bit worse. Lost a chunk out of one of the bars of the M, had some black on the stripes pull up thanks to a bit of the Tamiya decals I couldn't get off the first time around. Other than that, no problems!

The Mossie's for the Nightfighter GB. I'm going to be building it as an all-black NF.II model. After this guy and the 109, I think I'll be in the mood for a relatively simpler paint scheme!

I have started the 109, but I'm not far enough to really show anything yet. I've hit a point where I need to start spraying primer and painting pieces before I can assemble them any further...but I'll be posting my progress up in the weathering GB if you want to follow along.

I wuill deffinatly be following that on the weathering GB. The Eduard kit was at the top of my list for a 32nd 109E. But now with the new Dragon kit i am not so sure. The weathering GB will be one i will be keeping an eye on from a distance, as i will be in the Falklands by then. Thats a good excuse to be sneaky and pick up some tips before i get home and start on my Fort.

Hook--Nice to see another Liberator on the bench.  Hope you can solve the seam issue.  I have a 1:48 Fort in waiting and it has to be NMF.  Your Lib is a nice inspiration.

All--I have started the Acedemy P-38J and have the "office" painted.  It's a True Detail resin upgrade.  Here are the photos:

Hugh.  Nice looking cockpit there.  I really like how you showed the dusty dirt on the radio deck.  Isn't it a shame how the cowl covers up so much of all that cockpit detail?  Are you putting this build in the P-38 Group Build also?  There's a lot of good stuff going on over there.  I'll try to keep an eye out for your progress.  There's a bunch of detail that can be added to the gear wells and booms.  I've started an Academy F5-E photo recon version.  So far I'm likin' the lookins' of the Academy fit.  Good luck.  Rick.

The Alclad came today....just gotta wait for the package from Ultracast now and then I can start painting

I have a bunch of work done on Lambie, but I cant show you guys because I left the camera charger and transfer cord in my room....which is an hour away from my dorms. I do not have a car,and it will be really odd for my mom to make a special trip all the way to school to give me camera stuff.

OWL

I know the feeling. I am travelling back and forth every week. All my modelling is done during the week while in barracks. and theres been a few tgimes when i have left the camrea or lead in thew wrong place.

So you are let off this time. Look forward to seeing them next week.

Finally some progress to post.  Christmas and New Year were busy, as usual, but I got back to things last week.

I reached the point where I could mask windows and do some preliminary painting before fitting the sub-assemblies together.

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Assembly turned up some "issues."  The cockpt canopy is too wide for the fuselage, and protrudes somewhat at each side.  Since there is no good way I can think of to fix it, that's the way it will have to be.  The gun mount windows in the nose do not sit quite flush with the fuselage.  So I will live with this too.  Neither does the radio room gun window, but the problem here was the locator tabs in the fuselage being either placed too high or being too thick.  By the time I discovered this, it was beyond fixing on this kit--but I did sand them down on my second build, and I think this will allow the window to settle in better.

In fact, most of the parts in this kit just don't fit well without some sanding to reduce them to proper size.  The same is true for the tail gun mount.  The gun piece wouldn't fit in the opening without a bit of shaping with an emery board.

Both Fortresses I'm working on had de-icer boots removed or worn away, so these will appear in natural metal.  For NMF, I've always had good results using Floquil's RR paints in various silverish configurations (old silver, bright silver, platinum mist).  They all go on relatively smoothly, and produce a pretty durable finish that can stand up to masking tape once the paint is fully cured.  And I will be waiting 10 days to two weeks before I attempt to mask the NMF areas and get on with assembly.  But, nothing is ever certain in modeling, and I have encountered paint lift with the Floquil family of silvers, even after two weeks of curing.  Building models is often so much like gambling.

I dislike using filler and having to sand said-places smooth, especially with clear plastic, so the canopies and nose gun mounts were attached with white glue, then thinned white glue was run in with a tiny paint brush to fill the seams.  When dry, a couple of swipes with a q-tip (or is it a "cotton bud?"), and the overage washes off.  The technique was written up in FSM ages ago.

I did use superglue for the fuselage windows and 3-piece waist gun windows (vacu-formed, by Squadron).  The latter took some attention and effort to sand of the excess, and after I took these photos I did a little more smoothing on them.  I think they will look OK after the final paint.

I've been enjoying seeing everyone else's progress.  There is much 3-D art being produced here. 

Thats looking nice. From what i can see, the problem with the cockpit and w nose gun mount windows doesn't seem to show at all. Nice idea with filling the gap in the windows. Will this be the 91st or 100th BG aircraft.

I think you may have mentioned it ealier, but i can't find it at the moment. Could you give me the measurmenst for those Squadron waiste windows. They look exactly like the ones i will need for one of my B-24's.

CallSignOWL

I have a bunch of work done on Lambie, but I cant show you guys because I left the camera charger and transfer cord in my room....which is an hour away from my dorms. I do not have a car,and it will be really odd for my mom to make a special trip all the way to school to give me camera stuff.

well, I found my camera stuff in a shoe box.... I feel so silly!

anyhow, I can now show you guys the progress I've made on Lambie. The foiling is now complete and I have some painting to do!

OWL