Owl, your builds always manage to amaze me, you do a wonderful job every time.

Casper coming along nicely

Mike I really like that paint scheme its looking great

Owl the office detail is great ,do'nt know how you 1/72 builders get such great detail,  I struggle with 1/48

thanks guys. I think the key to painting these 1/72 pits is to go cross-eyed and have a steady hand! 

CallSignOWL

thanks guys. I think the key to painting these 1/72 pits is to go cross-eyed and have a steady hand! 

yeah pretty much, although 144th is worse, when i was a kid i actually inhaled a part.

how the heck did you inhale a part?!

Scorpiomikey

CallSignOWL:

thanks guys. I think the key to painting these 1/72 pits is to go cross-eyed and have a steady hand! 

 

yeah pretty much, although 144th is worse, when i was a kid i actually inhaled a part.

Wow that gives new meaing of getting into your hobby...or your hobby getting into you.

Scorpy: Beautiful job on the 117, love the 'Skunk Works' graphic and the cool splinter camo. Much more interesting than the 'basic black'. And I hope you able to blow your nose and get rid of the part? BTW: if we should ever meet I'm not touching any of your models Mike  

Casper and Owl: Great stuff, keep the photos coming please!

lol not up my nose, because of alergies when i was a kid i was a mouth breather, and because im vision impaied i used to work up close to my face, and one day i breathed in and a part disappeared.

Great work everyone , that Sea Venom is a rather cool looking jet and I like the camo scheme on Mike's F-117 .

My B-57G Canberra just needs a little more sanding in a couple of spots and she will be ready for masking and painting . So hopfully this weekend I'll get some paint laid down .

I've taken a great interest in the B-57 , paticulary it's role in the Vietnam War for Night Intruder missions .

I have the Martin B-57 , The Complete record , book and have been reading about the night missions with the B-57 and the associated aircraft that operated along side the Canberra .

There is a chapter in the book which mentions C-130A Hecules , call sign "Blind Bat" and EF-10B Skynights as ECM aircraft operating with two B-57B's for stikes along the Ho Chi Minh Trail at night to disrupt vehicle convoys .

There were other aircraft used to detect movement and drop flares as well , such as the C-123B Provider and the O-2 Skymaster in the FAC, Forward Air Control .

According the B-57 book , under the rules of engagement used in SEA , ordnance could not be expended in south Vietnam and some area's of Laos without FAC to control the strike

So I was thinking of adding another Italeri B-57B to the Group Build along with a C-123B Fare ship and a O-2 Skymaster ....

They certainly make an unusual trio for Night Intruder missions !!!

A little bit of research so far on the C-123B Flare ship , I found out that the underside was painted black with the tail code TO , 55-4577 ; The O-2 seems to be the standard light gray overall .

Anyway I hope these next builds conform with the Hunting After Dark / Night Fighter GB , rules of engagement ???

                                         John .

Thanks, heres a few more, shes about 98% complete, just gotta finish the tail. Almost had that done and then i sprayed the tan and it clumped around the masking.had to sand it right back.

Also ive got to glue stuff on instead of blu tacking it lol.

Very interesting John, it sounds good to me.  Even better if you add "willie the whale" too!  That is an interesting "pack" hunting together for sure!

As for the O-2, have you heard of a kit of one by a company called Eidai?  I won one with an Airfix one on ebay.  It was pretty reasonable, price wise, so I went for it.  All those cool Wolfpack decals made me do it!

I am supposed to be kid free for a couple of days, so with any luck, I will get a coat of clear on the P-70.  Then it will be down hill from there.  Next up, I will be building in 1/72 scale and moving into the 1950's.  I've got a very cool (in my opinion) trio lined up!

Cheers,

Greg

Hey Greg ,

I haven't heard of Eidai before but it sounds like you got a great score off ebay .

I'm looking forward to your "Trio" line up

 I was thinking about including a 'Willie the Whale' and I had this alternative Foursome option....

Italeri C-130 with Ozmods Three Prop conversion to make a C-130A , two Testors B-57B Canberra's and the EF-10B (Matchbox F3D-2 Skynight) ; Under the call sign of "Blind Bat operations" ...

There is a artist rendering in the B-57 book by Kieth Ferris which shows all four aircraft in the air ...

Perhaps after I complete the B-57B ,C-123B and 0-2 Skymaster trio , call sign "candlestick" , I could continue on with a "Blind Bat Foursome". This would certainly fit in with my current B-57 obsession and hopfully be appropiate for your Group Build theme .

I ordered a book from Amazon about the C-130A Blind Bat operations ...

It will be at least two weeks before the book arrives , so I'll make a start on the first trio .

Greg I'm looking forward to your 1/72 WIP pic's in the not too distant future .

                                         John .

Ok, got the fuselage sewn up (some fit issues grr.....) and the nose cap on. It's funny how this bird looks exactly like a hollowed out tub with wings slapped on the side!

Wings and other things are glued together and drying with pegs and tape.

Cheers

I'm piecing together the 262 between breaks from decaling one of my other builds (ugh, all those stencils on modern jets....)  This build goes together really quick, and only light sanding is required on the seams. There was a bit of a misalignment at the nose of the plane, but Im pretty sure that was caused by the flattened fishing sinkers I used for weight that I placed there interfering with the fit, and not the kit itself.

I performed minor surgery on the wheel wells; the undersides of the cockpits are covered in detail that can be seen up through the wheel wells on the real plane, but for some reason, Revell decided to mold the wheel wells closed, hiding all that detail. Out came the knife and I sliced open the well where it needed to be open.

the fit of the wing assembly was snug and required no putty or sanding. This kit is now ready for painting!

OWL

Yeah, not a lot to this kit, a lot of cleaning of parts much flashing. It went together pretty quickly but a lot of work will be required to smooth out and fill the nasty gaps.

There is also a fit issue with the rear exhaust cover so I have decided to display both the top of the engine and the exhaust together. Seemed a shame to cover it up as well.

Cheers

I added some greeblies just behind the office under the canopy. There was just one kit piece and it looked a bit sad by itself. I was also very careful to make sure anything I used fit around the canopy hydraulics and also let the canopy settle onto the fuselage correctly.

Some black matt and dry brushing and I think this worked quite well;

...and to do a visual test it looks quite good under the canopy.

Cheers

pre-shading and first couple of colors airbrushed!

OWL

OWL - Thats a cool ME-262 

Casper  nice job on the office, canopy looks like a good fit as well

Owl you're right goes together quick ,  the preshade and paint coming along nicely

after letting the paint cure for a day, I masked and painted the lighter color on the wings. But even after being careful, a bit of paint did peel up (dark spots on wings), but nothing too major.

OWL

Got most of the painting done over the last couple of days. First the bottom coat of gray;

Masking of and then the top gray coat;

Then the green camo pattern;

The grays turned out a little closer than I had thought. I used the recommended shades. Hopefully I may get a little more variation with the gloss coat before decalling. In this pic you can see the top gray is only slightly darker than the underneath;

Cheers

i have photos of a vampire (the real thing) in the same scheme and the greys are very close on that bird. ill see if i can track them down.

Caspar, you are cruising on the Venom.  It is looking great.

Owl, your 262 is looking great too.  That seems like a nice little kit.

Cheers,

Greg

I know theyre kiwi birds, but look at the greys, very close.

thanks gregbbear. The kit is very nice, not über detailed, but I'd recommend it for a quick de-stressor kit.

the final colors are down. As you can see, the squiggles were masked with silly putty. Getting closer to the finish!

OWL

Scorpiomikey

I know theyre kiwi birds, but look at the greys, very close.

Thanks Mikey, that's such a great photo! Yeah the grays are almost identical aren't they. Certainly helps feedback wise. I'm going to paint the nose black today, gloss coat and then decals.

Cheers

Casper and Owl: Wow you two are rocking!!! Great looking work and wish I could move half that fast! It's so hot and humid I've been coming home from work, turning on the A/C and taking a nap

Gamera

Casper and Owl: Wow you two are rocking!!! Great looking work and wish I could move half that fast! It's so hot and humid I've been coming home from work, turning on the A/C and taking a nap

Thats whats usually referred to as a nana nap around here lol.

Ok, beautiful black nose applied!

Wait for this to dry and then glossy coat in prep for decals.

Cheers

Owl. .love your pink masking materials !

Caspar,, looking good to !