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

Bish: Haven't tried liquid mask, what I'm doing now is cutting thin strips of Tamiya tape to outline the frame and filling in the rest with Micro Mask... The next three kits are all Accurate Miniatures (hope I'm ready for those) that come with masks. Does Eduard make a mask set for the Tamiya Bolt? I know I will be building more.

Time for me to catch up as i have had a *** of a week getting on line. red, love those B-24D photos, i had not realised that site did things like that. They will come in really handy at a later date.

checkmateking02 So is that another kit to add to what your building for this GB. I assume that a 1/72nd scale kit. Did that come with marking for a 100th BG aircraft. Will be a pleasure to add another build from a Norfolk Group. I have an Acedamy 17G with a set of AM decals for my 100th build,  and i will be very much looking forward to yours.

DoogsATX, lovely work as always, and i am still amazed at how quick you can put these together and yet your work is still first class.

jbrady I hate masking, i normally use tamiya tape but i can never get it perfect. But i have just for the first time use an Eduard marsking set. I really loved this stuff, especially for the B-24 i was doing with lots of small pains. How is it coming along. Have you tried liquid mask, i am not to keen but it might be worth a try for you.

Great work guys, thanks very much for all your effort.

If you are looking for more figures for your B-17s,  I found  full crew sets at squadron.com .  Legend Productions Korea B-17 crew set LF7202 $24.29 on sale.  Also for USAAF interiors check out http://ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2004/01/stuff_eng_interior_colours_us.htm

Checkmate-  The possibilities for the colors on the different compartment of the forts are endless.  Alot of the planes were different and you wouldnt be wrong any of the combinations.  Pretty much any shade of interior green/zinc chromate/yellow would work.    I dont think theres a definitive "right" way to paint the interior of a fort, so just go with whatever you want.

While I'm waiting for Airfix to replace the damaged left fuselage that came with the kit, I've been working on what I can, and started a second B-17G from the stash, also from Airfix.  Fortunately, the second one seems whole and undamaged.  I plan to build it as "Our Gal Sal" from the 100th Bomb Group.

Here are the two cockpits, with pilots installed from some Hasegawa Forts.  I replaced the heads with other heads transplanted from Airfix's AAF personnel.  I snipped off each head with nippers, drilled a hole in the pilot bodies and superglued the replacement heads.  Then primed and painted.  I think this gives some variety, and besides I like the look of the crush cap.

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I ran into conflicting information about the colors in the nose compartment.  Most said the walls were padded with a material in bronze green, sometimes with fixtures like the seats in interior green, which I've tried to replicate here with similar colors.  Some sources said the floors were unpainted wood; another source said the pilot compartment was wood with the bombadier compartment left in unpainted metal.  So I've done one in each.  I wonder who's right? 

So far I've assembled wings and tail planes for both, and painted one set of fuselage halves, but those aren't interesting enough for a photo.

It's been good to see the progress you all have been making. 

I'm getting closer to the paint booth. It's almost ready for the paint booth.

I went with the closed cowel (sic) because the flap actuators are pretty prominent and I didn't think I could scratch build them.

A bit more progress on the Jug tonight. Got the cowl attached, also (not shown) got the prop tips and gear bays/interior gear doors painted. Had the CA accelerator leave a strange line on the red cowl, so I think I'm going to go touch that up tomorrow - then it's prime time! I must say, I'm looking quite forward to painting this bird...

For anyone else building a B-24D I found some good shots of the nose interior....

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/b24dinteriorcloseupkh_1.htm

I went the conservative route. I'm doing Johnson's "All Hell". Now if I could figure out how to get "all hell" on the right side of the cowling I'd be in business. The decal sheet I bought doesn't include the name of the aircraft. I'll have to try and free hand it.

Yep - it's Col. David Schilling's "Hairless Joe". He was CO of the 62nd FS when they came to England in January '43, and became CO of the 56th in August '44.

I actually came across an image of "Hairless Joe" with a yellow cowl band in a research book I picked up...may have to tuck that away for later...

Couldn't hurt to try that I suppose... nothing else works for me. What specific bolt are you doing? I noticed that it is one from the 56th group at Boxted. I'm doing one from 61 squadron when they were at Halesworth.

jbrady - it's Tamiya XF-4 Flat Red. 

As to your masking problems - have you tried bare metal foil? Just stick it on, burnish it down, trace the canopy frames with a scalpel blade, and pull the excess away. It's not exactly that easy, and you're eyes get crazy tired with complex canopies...but I've found it works way better than any other method I've tried.

I quit. I've tried Para film, Micro Mask. pinstriping tape, masking tape, scotch tape, and now Tamiya tape... I cannot mask the clear parts. No matter what I try, I end up with an f-ing mess.

Is that insigna red? I painted the cowling on my 47 last night with that and wondered if the color was a little off.

Man...feels like my bench has slowed to a crawl over the past few days. Between futzing around with the Lightning and filling and sanding (and sanding) the Jug, it's been all work and what seems like no progress!

Fortunately I'm getting closer to priming and painting. Got the cowl painted up a few days ago, and did the detail work on the engine last night. With the Monogram, it's not an engine, per se, but a single drop-in piece that contains the engine face, crankcase, and the divider with flat, blank sections that lead off to the various intakes. The detail on the engine is surprisingly decent, but the single-piece design is kind of annoying when it comes to the painting.

Anyway, here it is all finished up.

Cant...wait...much...longer!   I'm getting pretty excited to start my Liberator.  Seeing as how fast these P-47s are building, I may as well just do mine at the same time.  I'm gonna keep the aftermarket to a minimum on the B-24 and am rather gonna try out scratch building with styrene for the first time.  Theres a few reviews out there of people's scratched B-24 interior so I don't think it should be too hard, but ya never know.  In the meantime I came across a couple pictures of the bird I'm making.....

Early in her career

Shortly before conversion to a "carpetbagger"

I asked the question yesterday if anyone knew of a way to get flaps on the Tamiya razorback to fit well if they were to be posed in the up position. I read a couple of reviews that indicated there was a problem with posing them in the up position. I had that problem in an earlier build. What I hit on is istalling the flaps in the wings before you glue the wing to the fuselage.

Looks like I'll have just a few minutes of seam clean-up but the flaps do fit pretty well... I know I have a lot of work on the centerline seam.

I just used a Big Ed set for my Hasegawa B-24J, a really nice set. One good thing about 72nd is that its a third of the price of those 48th sets. Really looking forward to seeing one of those big Liberators, mine take's uo most of my desk, so hope you got a big work space.

I'm impressed. My 61-year-old eyes and fingers can barely handle PE in 1/48... nice job.

Hope everyone got to see the History Channels presentation of "Air War". It's part of the series WWII in HD. Chronicles the 8th from early 43 to the Normandy landings.

You sure did a nice job on the interior.   I cannot wait to buy a Big Ed kit for my B-24D but at 150 bucks it will have to wait until after Christmas.

All--Here are some WIP pics of the nose interior of the B-24D.  Working with PE in 1:72 is challenging to say the least.  I also noticed I knocked off the co-pilot's control wheel.  I hope I can find it. 

The fit of the wings is not the best. It must be something I'm dong wrong because this is the second time I've had this hapen with this kit.

Does anyone have any advice for attaching the flaps in the up position? The last time I did this I had a hell of a time getting the flaps attached.

It's the angle of the wings on the bench. Glad I test fit those before I laid down the grey on the underside.

Seems you got it right with the photos. Seems yo have done a good job there. Though its hard to tell if that left pylon is at a different angle to the right one or if its just the wings laying at different angles.

I don't know how to use photo sharing sites. So... this is a test it is only a test if I wasted space and time... oh well.

I lost a couple of hours fairing in the wing pylons... as you can see I missed a couple of spots.

The hardest part was getting the angle right without the wings attached to the fuselage. That and rescribing lost detail.

I wonder if acrylic craft paint like they sell (in the US) at places like Michael's would work--and not mess up enamels.  I might try some on an inconspicuous place, like the pilot/bombadier compartment--and if it doesn't work, return to my weathering moratorium.

That's something I've ben thinking about. I use enamel and everything I've read indicates that the wash has to be put down on a gloss coat. In my case, since I was shading the cockpit area, that means the base interior coat, a gloss coat, the wash, the detail painting, and then a dry brush coat. That's a lot of paint on some pretty fine and subtle detail in 1/48th scale. I guess it's mostly in the technique... just got to hone those skills. Now if I was an artist with an airbrush I wouldn't have this problem. Check out these effects http://www.accurate-miniatures.com/builds/avenger/avenger001.shtml

O ye, its deffo in the thinning, somthing i am still learning about. But also for me i only use Enamels for aircrfat, and i don't want to add another layer just to protect it, so i prefer to use something that won't damage the enamel.

Bish - My oil washes actually came out very subtle. I think it's probably all in the thinning ratio. I was using a 1 oz. cup mostly full of thinner with a little dollop (what I could get up with a toothpick) of oil paint. I went a bit heavier with the transparent white. Brushed on with a wide, flat brush in the direction of airflow, it leaves an awesome streaking effect.

I'll definitely be going heavier when I try my hand at armor!

DoogsATX A weathering GB sound slike a great idea. I only started useing oil washers last year, but i have confind it to armour as i think its a bit to heavy for aircraft.  I have been useing the Pro modeller weathering wash on my aircrfat lately, for the panels lines and to dirty them up a little. And if i want a dirtier look i use a chalk pastel wash.

jbrady No worries about the pics. been nice to see them when you can.