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

Foiled again, lol. she looks pretty awesome owl. im jealous of your foiling ability. I did it once, never ever again. 

With photos like that your fogiven. How long did it take you to do the foiling. I have never tried it.. Thew thought of it always put me off, i guess i imagined it somthing like tin foil. But that looks great.

Owl - that foil job looks nice! Certainly better than I could hope to pull off!

A bit more progress on Hairless Joe last night. We're definitely in the home stretch now!

I've been noticing that my build has been a lot, I don't know, cleaner than the reference pics. Not that HJ is all beat up - on the contrary the plane looks recently waxed, which isn't surprising for a CO's personal bird. But still, there's a slightly worn quality...

Some of that's obviously the weird brown/desaturated nature of the print, but I decided to play with some armor techniques and apply a raw umber filter to tone things down a bit more.

Here's the before and after. Subtle so far. I'm thinking about a second hit tonight.

And another angle...

Scorpiomikey: Why did you find the foil so scary? 

Bish: the foiling took a couple of days, on-and-off. And I did use aluminum foil (which everyone around here calls tin foil too) I varied the hues by using the shiny side of the foil, the dull side in some areas, and the shiny side rubbed with 0000 steel wool.

I kinda like using foil. I'm a lot less stressed applying it than applying paint. I even have a second Mustang that will be getting the foil treatment!

OWL

Doogs I had to look a few times, but ye you can see it, very subtle. It seems to be more noticeable on the green than the grey. Also, is it the photos or has it taken some of the shine away. Its looking great, i take it the D-Day stripes came out ok.

oops, missed you Doogs. We must have posted at the same time!   I like the addition of the filter. It helps bring out more details on the rudder. But what exactly is a "filter"? I've heard it used a few times, but mostly about armor.

OWL

Owl When we say tin foil, we mean the metal foil we use to wrap food in before cooking. Is this what you used, or does tin foil mean somthing else to you guys.

yup, that means the same thing!

Bish and Owl - yeah it's pretty subtle so far, hence going back for a second application. But I'd rather build up slowly than go all at once with a thicker ratio and ruin things, you know?

Bish - yeah, the filter certainly took some of the shine off. I'll be restoring that and messing with it a bit with the final clear coats.

Owl - I'm no expert, but as I understand and use it, a filter is a highly thinned wash. I'm using about half a Testors jar of Mona Lisa Odorless Thinner with a little dollop of W&N raw umber artist oil, then brush it on. I've found it works very well for 1) knocking down contrast and 2) relatively uniform, and very subtle, tinting. 

O right, i would have thought it would have been to thick. I imagined it was some special foil just for modelling. I have a few old broken kits in the shed. I think i might read up on this and give it a try on an old kit.  Can't hurt to try it.

Bish

O right, i would have thought it would have been to thick. I imagined it was some special foil just for modelling. I have a few old broken kits in the shed. I think i might read up on this and give it a try on an old kit.  Can't hurt to try it.

just make sure the foil you get is not the heavy duty stuff. That would be too thick and hard to work with. The thinnest foil works best. Normally that makes it the cheapest too!

Thanks for the tip. That might be why i thought it would be to thick, i will deffianlty look into it further. How does it take to painting.

the foil? it doesnt. I coat it in future. That helps seal in the edges too, so they dont lift so easily

Thanks, Bish.

I'm not sure which markings I'll put on this plane.  The paint schemes are about the same for each--only "Gal Sal" had noticeably darker OD applied around the nose gun positions, and possiblly the waist guns--probably indicating that these were later field modifications.

As for the Squadron waist windows, they measure 10 X 14/15mm (h X l).  Again, these are the ones manufactured for use with the Hasegawa kits, not the Academy kits.  I hope they work for you.

Thanks for the tip OWl i will look into that.

Thanks checkmate. I will measure the windows on a B-24 when i get the chance. Looking forward to seeing the decals going on.

Doogs Did you do this wash the same way as you would for armour. By applying the wash then leaving it for a while then removing with thinner.

CallSignOWL

Scorpiomikey: Why did you find the foil so scary? 

 

OWL

Oh i never said i found it scary, It drove me to the brink of insanity. I did a 1:72 F-100. By the end of it i had a few new twitches.

Bish

Doogs Did you do this wash the same way as you would for armour. By applying the wash then leaving it for a while then removing with thinner.

Never done it for armor (that's coming up soon with my Sherman), but I just brushed it on with a wide, flat brush and then let it dry. It's so thin and the Mona Lisa thinner spreads so easily that there's no danger of brush strokes or anything showing through.

I'm at my third application now and think it's about where I want it. Now I just need to let it dry out for another day or so, then on to the final details. Hopefully I'll be calling Hairless Joe done by the end of the week!

Ye, the same as with armour except an armour wash is normally thicker. I might just give that a try on my B-17, just make sure its very thin. That is looking damn bloody good mate.

One thing i have been woundering about is how to get a good finish to light coloured areas, especially yellow. This been common on alot of German aircraft. But that wash has given the perfect look to the tail, and the red cowling as well.

Bish

Ye, the same as with armour except an armour wash is normally thicker. I might just give that a try on my B-17, just make sure its very thin. That is looking damn bloody good mate.

One thing i have been woundering about is how to get a good finish to light coloured areas, especially yellow. This been common on alot of German aircraft. But that wash has given the perfect look to the tail, and the red cowling as well.

Yeah, I tried this technique out on the La-5 I built for Ostfront...I think the green/black was way too "strong" for the wash to do much, but it's worked out well in this case. Definitely think I'll be adding it to my stable for ETO aircraft going forward...not as sure about North Africa...maybe something lighter than raw umber for that sand-tarnished look. 

Ye, i agree. I will give it a try on my up coming Ju 87 G as well, see how it comes out as that is rather dark. I agree about North Africa, have to do a bit of research on that one.

I was just woundering if it would work on an NMF, you don't tend to see those on armour. Then i remembered one of your wing under sides is NMF. Do you do it on that as well.

Bish

I was just woundering if it would work on an NMF, you don't tend to see those on armour. Then i remembered one of your wing under sides is NMF. Do you do it on that as well.

Haven't done it on the underside. I'm planning to use some ProModeller wash down there, since I know it'll come up easily. Need to test the wash on a NMF paint mule first. Though I DID test it on my destroyed P-38, which was primed in Tamiya AS-12, and it looked pretty solid. 

I wasn't sure if the thinner would ruin Alclad as it does enamel. I do like the pro modeller wash though. Been useing it on my last few kits, love the stuff.

"Lambie II" was flown by Lt. Col John C. Meyers; 1944, Bodney, England. He became deputy commander of the 352nd Fighter group and the fourth highest scoring American ace in Europe with 24 confirmed air-to-air victories and 13 destroyed on the ground. John C. Meyers was eventually promoted to General and became commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) here at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. 

This build carried a bit of personal connection, both my Grandfather and Father were stationed at Offutt AFB.

the real Lambie:

and my Lambie:

here is the contrast from pictures inside vs outside. The inside pictures show more of the different hues in the foil, but the outside pics are just so shiny!

Thanks for looking!

OWL

WOW, nice build i wasn't expecting that so soon.I am going to use the black and white one for the front page.

Thanks for joining.

And one for you. Just before xmas i went to the old Airfiled at Bodney. At the front gate of the Army base there is a memorial to the 352nd.

Owl - Lambie II looks fantasic! Meyer is one of my favorite pilots - still haven't made up my mind if I'm going to do his or Brown's -51D first.

Tons of incremental progress on Hairless Joe last night. Installed and painted the bomb clamps on the wing pylons. Accidentally dropped one of them in a small pool of CA (guess it's a good lesson - bring the mountain to Mohammed, not the other way around!), but a quick dunk in lacquer thinner and scraping with an xacto cleaned it up. Mostly. Also got the gear doors installed, the main shaft of the pitot tube painted, and the blast tube openings dabbed with drops of gunmetal (it's hard to get an airbrush down in there, so they were still brass...). Also put on the final clear coat - Future cut with a bit of Tamiya flat base for a semi-gloss finish.

I'm hoping to put this one to rest tonight. It's been an absolute blast of a build, but I'll be glad to have one moving off the bench. I can't believe it's been more than two months since I finished a build. 

But you did have to start this build from the beginging a second time. It is nice to get a build off the bench and can't wait to see Joe in all its glory.

CallSignOWL

"Lambie II" was flown by Lt. Col John C. Meyers; 1944, Bodney, England. He became deputy commander of the 352nd Fighter group and the fourth highest scoring American ace in Europe with 24 confirmed air-to-air victories and 13 destroyed on the ground. John C. Meyers was eventually promoted to General and became commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) here at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. 

This build carried a bit of personal connection, both my Grandfather and Father were stationed at Offutt AFB.

 

the real Lambie:

and my Lambie:

 

Great job, OWL.  Like the B&W rendition.  I'm also doing a Bodney B@$tard  , Karl Waldron's P-51D Goliath from the 487th FS.  You've set the bar pretty high, so the pressure is on

Don