Looking nice so far Trey! Can't wait to see it all finished up

Excellent work Trey , especially the camouflage finish

I have always used Bostik "Blu-Tack"  for my camouflage schemes ; I roll it into thin strips of spaghetti like lengths and place it on the model and then mask the area I wish leave the existing color .

I may end up stealling a bit of Greg's thunder and throw a 1/72 Xtrakit NF-13 Meteor together.....

I was tidying the 1/72 Israeli stash of models and with everything stack evenly , I'm left with a NF-11/12/14 Meteor in my hands , I have some airwaves PE for the Night Fighter Meteor and a couple of Palva resin seats . The interior cockpit color is mostly black and I need to airbrush some satin black to touch up a P-38M , so I may as well do the meteor interior while I'm in the spraybooth .

My Meteor will be finished in the Blue / Brown camouflage with Dark Gray (FS.36081) underserface for the Israeli 1956 Suez campaign . Only three had been delivered by the time the war broke out , my build will be Meteor NF-13 , No.52 , which fired the opening shots of the campaign , shooting down a Egyptian IL-14 Transport on the 18th October 1956 .

I hope this is okay Greg , I have a few other Israeli aircraft from the same period which are about 50% complete , some are ready for airbrushing , I thought this might be a good opportunity to finish off some stalled builds  and add a couple of new ones in to complete the 1956 IAF collection .

I'll get everything laid out on the bench and post a Meteor sprue pic shortly  .

                                         John

The camo paint job looks great Trey!  The silly putty is a great idea.  I've used it for other things, but not quite like that.  I will definetly add that to my kit.

John, great minds think alike.  That is the same Meteor I am building.  No worries on duplication.  I know you need that one for your Israeli collection.  It is a neat plane too.

As for my test, I am number 19 on the promotion list!  As soon as the civil service commision certifies the list, I will be promoted to Fire Engineer.  Needless to say, I am pretty excited.

Cheers,

Greg

John thanks!

Greg thats great news on the promotion congrats!!! So no more excuses lets see some progress on the Meteor;)j/k I know some people say that silly putty is'nt tacky enough to stick well but it worked fine for me .

I'm drinking a celebratory Beer as the Bird is on its own feet for the first time!

The next thing is going to be a wash to bring out the panel lines then some weathering,man there is some light at the end of this long tunnel after all!

That plane looks really cool.   Sorry I haven't been around for awhile.  Lots going on around the home front..  With any luck I'll be able to finish that Fiat CR 42 CN.    :)  Looking to get back to work in a couple of weeks.

TREY, looking sweet. Getting the decals is always my favorite part, as it finally start to look like the real thing.

NFN,Bish thanks. I decided to spray this build with automotive urethane clear. Using high solids ms clear reduced 20% with base reducer to thin it. Without thinning it would be way too thick and flood away all the recessed details. The plus side to using urethane is once it cures its almost bullet proof to solvents so a pin wash with oil base pigment wo'nt even bother it. This has the added bonus of making mistakes a quick wipe away without fouling whats underneath.

I ca'nt believe its finally finished!  Hope it was worth the wait!

Certainly was worth the wait. Gret job TREY

Fantastic job Trey!  I hope people take the time to see your work-in-progress, so they can realize what it took for you to get it done.  You are a true craftsman.

This is the badge I have completed.  I had some better ideas, but lacked the computer savvy to pull it off.  You are definetely an ace!

I bought an air conditioner for the garage.  I hooked it up last night, and it doesn't blow very cold.  Sad face.  I was really hoping to be painting today.  No such luck. 

Cheers,

Greg

Bish thank you very much

Greg wow the badge is awesome! I'm flattered that you took the time to hook me up with that and thanks for the compliments!!! I had a similiar issue with my a/c not cooling the shop down enough and a small floor fan blowing crossways in the shop helped a lot. Please put me down for a Fw 190A-8/R11 1/48 nDragon kit nextt and thanks again for hosting such a great G/B

TREYZX10R The kit looks like the photos of the original. Good job!

Gregbbear Keep up the faith! Those small a/c units have to run for a while to make a dent and a fan does help get the air moved around enough to make it work more efficiently.  The best way is to have the fan across the room pushing the hot air to the a/c (not oscillating).

Am lucky here, no wife to be hen pecked from but have a paint booth ducting system with a brush-less motor fan pushing the paint fumes out the window.  Works great and better than most purchased ones.  Use dryer ducting and an insert to put in the window to get the stuff out.  Am going to have to build a new one though as the original has disappeared over the last number of years. The original moved enough air that a paint mask wasn't needed in the worst of cases.  So I paint in the house.

Thanks Trey, and you are very welcome.  You have done a tremendous job.  We have a lot of watchers, just to see what you do next!  I am looking forward to your 190.  That is a cool plane.  I have that kit in my stash, along with two in 72nd scale (Hase and RoG).  If I can ever get some painting done, I can get some progress on the Meteor, and even clear my bench of a couple of others.  I am still itching to get to my Skyknight and Skyraider!

Heavens Eagle, I am jealous!  My wife might go out of town for a couple of days, so I might sneak my paint booth into the laundry room!

Cheers,

Greg

I made my first IPMS model club meeting in a long time Thursday.  I took both my night fighters from this GB for the monthly contest.  The Bf 110 G-4 won first place and the Hellcat F6F-3N won third!  A true testament to the lack of competition!

Do yo every make those meetings Greg?

Satch

Hi Satch, I have never been.  I have meaning to join for awhile.  I hang out with some of the guys at Hill Country Hobby, and they seem like good guys.  I need to make it a priority for next month.  I sure would've liked to have seen your planes in person.  The way they look in the pictures, the recognition was well deserved!

I am looking forward to the Austin armor show.  I have never been to that one, but with the theme of Korea this year, I gotta go.  In the Korea GB, they have been bad influences on me, and I have started to dabble in armor a little.  It will be in the paint booth line, with everything else though!

Cheers,

Greg

Gregbear  Don't be jealous, my 2nd wife passed a little over 9 years ago.  She hated me being a night owl and I wouldn't have been able to work on much anything after 9pm.  About a year ago I gave up on women period.  They are usually too messed up and I no longer have the desire to deal with all that.  My first wife didn't have a problem with my hobbies and I had a room to myself.  After one such paint session in that room I took a break & went out for some Mtn Dew.  Upon returning to the room I noticed that it had a "fog" in the air.    That was when I stopped painting until after I built the ductwork and exhaust system.  I had been breathing that stuff!  After that I never had a problem.  At one point I was painting hundreds of WW2 German armor miniatures for war gaming. These were not the single color ones and they were 1/285th scale.  They were the 2 and 3 color schemes and some had the specular with spots over the darker colors.  Lots of airbrushing and quick painting.  They sold as fast as I could paint them.  

These days it is nice to have some friends that I can hang with once in a while, but it is very nice to be able to work till 3am if I so desire, and do so in comfort.

Trey,

Came out great...I especially like the eye level picture. Really gives me a sense of scale and the unusual profile of the A/C. You my friend...are "the man" and worthy of that Ace badge.

Trey... that looks very cool.. odd neat shape,.

question... are the items protruding from the nose radar antennae ? ... the lowers ones look like machine gun/cannons... the uppers,, im not sure...thanks !

Trey: Wow! Another winner! Love the leopard look. Looking forward to the 190.

Satch: Congrads on your two wins!

Trey- yet another fantastic result. The Do-217 came out great! Excellent work, and you certainly have earned the 'ace' badge sir. Congratulations!

Satch congrats on the wins ,I knew the 110 was a show stopper and that proves it!

Thanks for all the great comments and support everyone it is much appreciated and very humbling

p38j there are 4 -30 mm cannon in the lower area and up top 4-7mm machine guns along with the diopole support tubes so it is a bit busy up front. The a/c in the pics was lacking the antenae array so I left them off as well but it would have looked even busier

like this one

ahh.. I kinda figured... thanks !

Greg ,

I was wondering if you could do me a small favour and re-post a pic of the seats from your Meteor NF-13 build . The one where you added some extra plastic around the seats ; I want to do something similar .

Thank's buddy ...

                   John .

Hi John, be happy too.  I also have a picture of how they sit now.  I made tape seat cushions, and added the Airwaves pe belts.  I am sorry that my camera will not go any closer and stay in focus.

Besides the seat, I have made some progress finally!   My camera's battery just quit, so no more photos for tonight.  Even though I like the little Matchbox Meteor, it has taken some work.  I had to scratch a bay for the nose wheel, which was easy, but the fit of some other pieces is way off.  The intakes were way off.  For a little bit, I thought I had them wrong.  The gray plastic pieces scribe real nice, but the green, oddly, are difficult.  The kit does lend itself to detailing well.  Thank goodness for Matchbox though.  There are so many subjects that would have never seen the light of day without them.  Such as the F3D-2 Skyknight, which I will do when I finish this one. 

Cheers,

Greg

Your seats look quite good greg , especially the cushions ; Thanks for posting both pic's .

I'm assuming the 1/72 Xtrakit is similar to the matchbox offering , it's just my seats look a little taller to start with , anyway here's a sprue shot I took a couple of days ago ,

I like how Airwaves gives us the option of cutting open the wing speed brakes and using the PE supplied item , are you going to do that as well greg ?

Here's a close up of my seats straight off the sprue ,

Are they the same seats ???

I noticed on the sprue that there are two different types of engine inlet cones , which ones did you go with ?

I haven't started anything as yet , I'm trying to finish a P-38M that's on the bench but the Nord 2501 Noratlas along with the Harvard and French loaned F-48F Thunderstreak will be from the same time as the Meteor NF-13 , 1956 Sanai campaign .

                              John .

John, your seats do look taller.  I added some plastic strip to the top of mine too.  It is possible that they improved the molds with newer releases.  I had read that they don't have all the sink marks of the original.    As for the intakes, you should use the bigger ones.  The NF13 had bigger ones than the 11 it was based on.  Also, Airwaves part # 2, the channel like pieces the rudder pedals go in, have to be placed wide enough for the front i.p. too.  I made that mistake.  Yes, I am using the speed brakes too.  That ought to look good.   If I ever build another one, I might lower the flaps on that one.  And add a CMK resin engine, and .....

Getting ahead of myself, as always.

Cheers,

Greg

I wish you hadn't mentioned about the CMK resin engine , I have four of those in the stash .....'now you've got me thinking' .

Going off in a completely different "tangent" , I came across this kit last night while catalogueing my Soviet kit stash .....

The Zevezda box art refer's to the Kamov KA-50SH as a "Night Hunter" .

I'm not sure if it's appropriate for you GB Greg , it looks like a fun build though .

John .

Nochnoi Ohatnik, night hunter.   Hmmmm...   It may look nice but check the fit.  One of the Russian kits I built left something to be desired in the fitting and you may want to check for mold marks.  As far as a night fighter, why not?  It would add some extra unique perspectives on night fighting although I think this would be more for hunting tanks and positions as opposed to other aircraft.

Cool helo, Helo.  I would be interested in how that one goes together.

Speaking of going together....  Filler anyone?

My copy is probably worse than most due to the fact that it looks like a previous owner stepped on it.  Test fitting the wings looks real bad though.  I will resume sanding tomorrow.

Cheers,

Greg

Greg hope you're buying sand paper in bulk!  Great to see it taking shape!