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

jbrady

Bob: Nice job on the Mustang... Got to build a D model one day.

 Late last night I decided to restart one of my B 25's. The color scheme is OD over NMF. Got the Talon down a couple of days ago masked the demarcation line and then painted the bottom of the damn thing OD. Odd looking bird.

haha, you should totally keep it that way. That sounds like too much fun!

Well bob it certainly looks good.

brady, probably best to take things easy when your not feeling to good. Models may be important, but not at the expense of your health, and theres still plenty of time yet.

Bob: Nice job on the Mustang... Got to build a D model one day.

As for the Beech in the home stretch... not so much. Concussion syndrome and pain meds mean I'm in a perpetual fog. Looking at the model this morning I realized I had neglected a seam on the leading edge of the bottom wing. Wanted to take a pic to illustrate but filled the seam first. Some days I can't remember what I had for lunch an hour ago. Late last night I decided to restart one of my B 25's. The color scheme is OD over NMF. Got the Talon down a couple of days ago masked the demarcation line and then painted the bottom of the damn thing OD. Odd looking bird.

Bish

Well it looking good from here bob, what have you used for the NMF.

Thanks Bish.  This time I used some rattle can Tamiya Leaf Silver....or is it Silver Leaf?....I forget.  I'm not planning on using polishing powders.  My favorite NMF is Talon acrylic & powders but I am going for quick & easy this time.  I am going to pull out an old issue of FSM that has a good article on weathering NMF's and give that a shot.

Well it looking good from here bob, what have you used for the NMF.

Nice paint job Jbrady-good thinking on the weathering.  I think you've got it nailed.

Thanks bish.  One of these days I'm going to build this kit (Revell/Monogram) and dress it up a bit.

Anyway, here's where I am now-fuselage is together, wings attached and the fit was very good.  I've still managed to do a less than stellar job on the filing/sanding....and with the silver, it shows!  I'm not going to worry about it....with some creative photography, I might be able to 'hide' most of them...the OD cowl painting is a bit off but the 357th checkerboard on the nose should cover the error....if the Aeromaster decal fits the Revell kit...if not, time for Plan B....

I'm planning on building the 'Arkansas Traveler'.  Future goes on tomorrow, decals Saturday, more Future on Sunday and then the weathering starts next week.

I like it a lot, a nice approach. You can just tell it's been weathered, but only just. Good thinking on your part, it would have been so easy to over do it.

Got the OD on the Beech. The trick with this one is not to weather it too much. I doubt these aircraft operated much above 5000 feet. They wouldn't experience the ultraviolet fading of aircraft working above 10,000 feet. I decided to fade a little on the top surface and then to dry brush the rib and other details with lightened base coat.

I like it so far. One more dry brushing and then a pin was for the panel lines... this one is in the home stretch.

Some very nice work there. jbrady, hope your feeling ok, but don't seem to be slowing you down much.

bob, nice interior, i know what you mean about time, i really wanted to add alot more on the inside of my B-17, but i just didn't think i would have the time. Yours is coming along nice even without it.

jbrady-you're making great progress on what I'm sure is a challenging build.

I made some progress on the Monogram 1/48 P-51D-interior is done.  Hope to have the fuselage together, wings on and primed by the end of the day.  Still trying to decide on an O.D. or silver finish....

A little bit of wire along the battery/radio pack and along the side walls would have added to the build, but time is starting to become a concern.

Cheers

jbrady:  what a terrible experience.  Glad you've come through. 

The plane is looking very good.  It looks like you got the glass to fit in pretty well.

More progress on the UC 43.

The more I work on the kit the better I like it. There are some flaws... gear well is the worst I've ever seen only a problem if you plan on displaying it upside down. Quite a bit of flash and mold marks, almost every part has to be cleaned up. The upside is very delicate detail. The trailing edges are paper thin and everything seems to be in scale. Just a bit more filling and sanding then it's off to paint.

jbrady-glad to hear that you're ok.  Any confrontation with a car is usually not a good thing.  Hope you have a quick & complete recovery.

Work has started on the Revell/Monogram P-51D-plastic has been washed and the interior bits were primed today.  Hope to get some interior painting done tomorrow and hopefully have the interior complete and fuselage & wings attached by the end of the weekend.  Will post pics once the interior is done.

Right, with you now. Don't know why i thought bicycle, the HAND bit should have been a clue. probably didn't read it right. Funny, you should mention that, we saw one of those on the road yesterday. Very low to the ground, the guy had a long wire at the back with several yellow triangle flags on, and a flashing light. Had never seen one before. Sounds nasty, and a long road ahead.

Bish: Handcycle is a tricycle powered by your hands and arms. It's got the same gearing as your average two wheeled mountain bike. I'm pretty banged up right now several broken leg bones and a concussion. the worst is my left hand. I guess I dragged it under me on the road surface. Took the skin and tissue off down to the bone on the top of the hand and fingers(basically a really bad case of road rash). Looking at some grafting down the road. Good news is that the dog somehow escaped without a scratch. He was running on the other side away from the impact.

Doogs: There is no indentation in which to place the windows they fit in the opening, period. Since you do have to trim them to fit (or trim the opening to fit) there is a lot of back and forth with trimming and fitting. Get it fit just right... go for the glue and realize that the window fell out of the opening. If you put them in before you close up the cabin you can use opposing force to get them in place.

I used to ride a vespa, back when i was a Scooter boy in the late 80's. My brother is still in the scene, its still a going strong over here.

jbrady - yikes, sorry to hear about the accident! I had a coworker get hit while on his Vespa (I'm sorry, but outside of Italy, I just can't take guys on Vespas seriously). Basically did everything but die. Was in traction for a time, out from work for something like six months. Glad to hear you're not so injured that you can't build!

The staggerwing's looking awesome, BTW! What was the deal with the glass?

Nice to see another build on the way, and something a little different.  I have been curious about Roden kits, they have a couple of 72nd He 111 i would like to get, but never been to sure about them.

Handcycle, would that be what we would call a bicycle. What damage did it do, you didn't break your scafford as well did you. Hope your felling better soon mate.

And thanks, glad its finally comeing together.

Hi all, I'm trying to build models one handed these days. Posting some progress (sort of) on the the Beech UC 43. Roden has a pretty good kit here. I'm not going to be able to do it justice but I just had to build something. I got hit by a car on my handcycle and I've only been out of the hospital for a few days.

One thing I will tell anyone who builds this kit is do not follow the instructions regarding the cabin windows. I did and it was a disaster, They want you insert the windows after the fuselage is buttoned up. The better way would be to insert them before you close the fuselage. that way you can work them from both the inside and out. More later.

Nice work on the fort Bish.

Bish - excellent work on the -17! One day I'm going to have to build myself a big bomber.

Richard - nice save on an awful kit! 

Now added it to the front page, i used the black and white pic. And i just remembered this is an East Wretham aircrfat. I really want to do a 72nd P-47 from there, but just can't get any markings for it. I was up at Wretham camp a few weeks ago and most of the buildings there are from WW2.

Thanks guys. Not much left to add before the paint goes on. Just got to finish and attach the engines and the cowlings.

The ball turret mount was just styrene rod, i guestemated the size from photos but looks to match up about right.

Richard, given the problems you had, this hasn't turned out rather nice. The only obvious problem is the star decal on the side. I think thats wlays going to be an issue when you try to put a white decal over a black background who ever the decals are made by. The only other obviuse thing is the canopy, as you pointed out.

Really glad you stuck with thsi, can put this one down to experiance. And its turned out alot better then i think this kit deserved, so a big well done for that mate.

Bish,

Excellent scratchwork! Looks pretty much the same as the mount on the B17 i did for the NMF gb. Love the interior detail paintwork as well. Great job all around sir.

Well,.... i was just about to send my P51 into the dustbin theatre of operations (DTO) but due to popular demand i thought "why the h*ll not..?" and completed it with all the yucky stuff as is.... One extra nasty thing to make my happiness complete is the fact that i overlooked the fact that the wheel wells have gaps leading into the cockpit area, causing the aluminum powders to dust up the inside of the canopy.... This kit really hasn't been kind to me.

But enough whining already! On to the pics:

I always like to shoot some extra in sepiatone to capture the timeframe:

No matter how nasty this contraption looks, i still want to thank you all for kicking me in the behind to see this one through all the way. I am even gonna put it on my shelf just to remind myself of the troubles i had and put a smile on my face. So in some silly way this model still gives me the "completion satisfaction rush" if you will

Richard

Nice progress, Bish.  You've put a lot of work into this, and it really shows.

Time at last for another update. This is the progress i have made over the last 2 or so weeks that i was not able to post till now.

Most of the interior is Eduard PE plus Quickboots Oxygen  tanks. Luckily this site helped again, correcting the placment of the tanks that the Eduard set had wrong.

Everything was fitted into the right side of the fuselage.

The cockpit and bombadiers station get alot of improvment, largely tahnsk to eduard, hardly any painting was needed by me.

And alot more in the radio room, for which the kit had nothing

I wanted to include the Oxygen tank that went onto the ball turret mount, but the kit had no mount. So useing some pics supplied by the same guys on this site, i was able to scratch build a simple one. Compareing it to the pics, the size looks about right, and the mount was pretty simple anyway. And the most complicated scratch building i have done to date.

With all thos eparts fitted, finally, afetr 2 months, time to get the fuselage together and the wings on.

And at least some of that inside can still be seen. So not all waisted.

Now on leave for 3 weeks, so no more progress for a while. I am hopeing i can get this done by the end of August, hopefully after 3 weeks off i will be well up for getting it done.

checkmateking02

Doogs, what do you use for masking over decals?  It must be low tack, if it doesn't pull the decal off.

Well, I clear-coated them first to give an extra layer of protection. Then I masked over using Tamiya tape with most of the adhesion worn off by sticking the pieces to the palm of my hand multiple times. 

Hardest part was cutting out the circle to cover the insignia. Did that by scanning and printing a copy of the decal sheet at 1:1, placing it over some Tamiya tape, and using a circle cutter.

Doogs, what do you use for masking over decals?  It must be low tack, if it doesn't pull the decal off.

How long did it take you to prep and then paint it. After useing Alclad on a couple of small 72nd kits, i get the feeling doing a 72nd B-17 is going to be a big job.

I will have some pics up this weekend. Got the fuselage together and the wings on, currently working on the Quickboost engine cowls. despite being better than the kits ones, they are still not 100% accurate, luckly the Eduard PE corrects that.

Thanks googs. I guess it depends on scale, in 72nd the softer edge is not so obvious. But i have found that i can still get the right finish without a mask and if i do need to mask putty is ideal. But i guess it depends on how comfortable you are with your airbrush.  I would love to be able to paint all my markings on, but its just not realistic. But agree, on a difficult surfice, or if soemthing is in the way, its the way to go. I can think of a few kits i have where a mask might be better than decals. I will check out that site, thansk.

I imagine it wouldn't be to hard for me to get the Blue nose masks. I just asks for the same masks you had but in 72nd scale.