Way Too Many Props GB April 18, 2011 - Extended to July 28, 2012

jbrady

I need some advice. The B25 J I'm building is finished OD over natural metal. Never done a NM finish. Does anyone here have a preferred metalizer or should I go with foil?

I recommend the Alclad all the way. Out of my 4 NMF birds the Alclad turned out the best. I used it for a Tamiya 1/48 Thunderjet.

I primed in gloss black then masked off areas and primed in greys and white.

The final finish had some great contrasts in the panels;

Cheers

jbrady you're right totally botched the wheels there the right way up now thanks! Sorry to hear the hairy sticks ran afoul of the grankids keep 'em outa reach lol!

I've always used MM Metalizer paints in the past, but has mentioned before, have to go on last.  I am going to try the Alclad paints on my next NMF to try them out.  I've had good results from the MM Metalizer line, again as long as to put it on last.

I, too, would recommend Alclad. I think it tends to have the best characteristics in terms of spraying, finish, and durability.

I've used Talon, and think it's fine. Definitely a lot more durable than I expected out of an acrylic. Personally, I had problems getting it to spray in a fashion that would allow for a light, misting coat as called for. It was either not paint, or all the paint. Nobody else seems to have run into this, though, so it's probably my fault somewhere.

Another option - decant a rattlecan of Tamiya's Bare Metal Silver (AS-12). Synthetic lacquer. Sprays beautifully, has great bite into the paint, and provides the most durable surface I've ever seen. I think Alclad still gives you more options, shade-wise, but I'm planning to use AS-12 as a base coat on my next NMF build, and put the Alclad on top of it.

Here's a selection of Pup parts painted with AS-12...

jbrady

I need some advice. The B25 J I'm building is finished OD over natural metal. Never done a NM finish. Does anyone here have a preferred metalizer or should I go with foil?

I hear good things about Hawkeye`s product called "Talon" too but haven`t tried it myself...yet!

Good Luck,

Len

Jbrady- Alclad's line of laquers produce a pretty good NMF.  I had never done one either but last time I was home I started messing around with Alclad on some scrap planes (in preparation for my P-51) and the finish is very desirable

I need some advice. The B25 J I'm building is finished OD over natural metal. Never done a NM finish. Does anyone here have a preferred metalizer or should I go with foil?

troublemaker66

Hans von Hammer:

No sweat, Pilot, and thanks for the "Follow Me" correction..

Outta the cheapskate range?? 

Damn, TM... It wasn't, until I saw 15.00 for shipping, lol... That plus the price is about ten bucks more expensive than the Tamiya 1/35th scale jeep, lol.. Old Model Kits DOT com lists their Bandai jeep at 44.00, with a Frog/Bandai copy at 46.00.. No deals there either... 'Course, that site's more for collectors, rather than builders..

Think I'll try and hunt down a couple of the Tamigawa kits...

 

Here ya go Hans...1/48 Verlinden "Follow Me Jeep" Airfield Com. WWII NIB ...definately within your range! I`ll keep looking...dodging lightning bolts now LOL!

Now THAT's what I'm talkin' about... Thanks, man...

Hey Hans, can we count on you to build it in the dark too? Now THAT would be something.

Nah, gonna build it the same way Boeing did.. Inside, with the lights on, lol..

Interesting work going on here.

TREY: Are those control wheels the right way up? Don't have any knowledge of Italian aircraft.

Hans: My brother started to recreate that diorama a long time ago don't think he ever finished looking forward to it.

I'll be getting back to work after two weeks at a handcycling camp. I'm back to fifteen miles a day shooting for twenty. Had to order new paint brushes because the girlfriend's grandkids don't think cleaning is part of the painting process... all of my tools and supplies are now strictly off limits.

Hans von Hammer

The PLAN is to depict Enola Gay in a diorama an hour or so prior to take-off for Hiroshima on 6 AUG 45...  Shep Paine did this diorama originally for Monogram back in 1977, and I'm hoping to recreate it...

Here's Shep's dio, so you get an idea what I'm up to...

 

Shep lit the dio and the aircraft, using model RR floodlight towers for the hardstand lighting, and also used fiber optics to light the instrument panels and nav lights, with the source lamp inside the forward bomb bay.  The jeeps are old Bandai kits, which I haven't been able to find anywhere, but hopefully there's a 1/48th jeep kit out there from SOMEbody, or I'll be living without it..  I know there were a couple, one from Hasegawa, and one from Tamiya, but the availability is unknown to me right now... There's the "Follow Me" jeep from Verlinden, I think, but that's a last resort kit, the price is rather prohibitive, lol..

At any rate, I gotta have 'em, because it just wouldn't be right to put that bird on the hardstand without the ever-present Military Police...

Hey Hans, can we count on you to build it in the dark too? Now THAT would be something.

Hasegawa makes a couple jeeps and I think Verlinden might even make one too.  Tamiya's jeep only comes in a figure set

[quote Think I'll try and hunt down a couple of the Tamigawa kits...

[/quote]Still raining so I`m still lookin`!

Hans von Hammer

No sweat, Pilot, and thanks for the "Follow Me" correction..

Outta the cheapskate range?? 

Damn, TM... It wasn't, until I saw 15.00 for shipping, lol... That plus the price is about ten bucks more expensive than the Tamiya 1/35th scale jeep, lol.. Old Model Kits DOT com lists their Bandai jeep at 44.00, with a Frog/Bandai copy at 46.00.. No deals there either... 'Course, that site's more for collectors, rather than builders..

Think I'll try and hunt down a couple of the Tamigawa kits...

No sweat, Pilot, and thanks for the "Follow Me" correction..

Outta the cheapskate range?? 

Damn, TM... It wasn't, until I saw 15.00 for shipping, lol... That plus the price is about ten bucks more expensive than the Tamiya 1/35th scale jeep, lol.. Old Model Kits DOT com lists their Bandai jeep at 44.00, with a Frog/Bandai copy at 46.00.. No deals there either... 'Course, that site's more for collectors, rather than builders..

Think I'll try and hunt down a couple of the Tamigawa kits...

Hey Hans-

Sittin` in my work truck, waiting out a rain storm I was looking around on Ebay and found this:  RARE 1/48 Jeep willys with trailer and figures BANDAI....Outta the cheapskate range??  LOL!

Great work all round!  Can't wait for more pics!!

Hans, I'll get the front page changed shortly.  Hasegawa makes a follow me jeep, saw a couple at my LHS the other day.  Sorry didn't check the price, but they're out there.

Just for the record, Pilot and you other folks... My PBY didn't survive the move with all the parts, so it's scrapped and I'm starting from scratch with the Monogram B-29...

The PLAN is to depict Enola Gay in a diorama an hour or so prior to take-off for Hiroshima on 6 AUG 45...  Shep Paine did this diorama originally for Monogram back in 1977, and I'm hoping to recreate it...

Here's Shep's dio, so you get an idea what I'm up to...

Shep lit the dio and the aircraft, using model RR floodlight towers for the hardstand lighting, and also used fiber optics to light the instrument panels and nav lights, with the source lamp inside the forward bomb bay.  The jeeps are old Bandai kits, which I haven't been able to find anywhere, but hopefully there's a 1/48th jeep kit out there from SOMEbody, or I'll be living without it..  I know there were a couple, one from Hasegawa, and one from Tamiya, but the availability is unknown to me right now... There's the "Follow Me" jeep from Verlinden, I think, but that's a last resort kit, the price is rather prohibitive, lol..

At any rate, I gotta have 'em, because it just wouldn't be right to put that bird on the hardstand without the ever-present Military Police...

Scorpiomikey

Heres a shot for you radial buffs. 5 P&W Radials.

Head over to the odds and ends forums for more.

Keep forgetting to get photos of my connie. im in the process of buttoning p to fuselage. Lots of warpage. but it cancels itself out thankfully.

BTW - great pic Skorpiomikey...

Hey Now!

I started the Betty....working on the PE set mostly...here`s some pics...

tail gunner`s station...

Arm rests on the pilot and co-pilot seats...

Lewis gun ammo drums...

Something like 34 extra ammo drums...

Had to punch out sheet styrene to back up the brass...2 discs per drum...

...and finally, scraping off the molded detail to make room for the PE details...

...obviously not done yet. Thanks for looking and more to come soon!

Len

Well heres a shot of the connie so far. Shes a bit messy. but im getting there. had to put ALOT of weight in the nose to get her to sit right.

Hmmm.....thinking I may buy another B-25 or 3

The office is finished

starting on the engines next

B17Pilot thanks ,looking forward to seeing the A-20

I made some headway on the office still a lot of pe to add in here

Red raider, here is a link to a closeup of the upper turret.  The base was a metal fairing on the bottom of the plexiglas.  It turned with the turret and I think you could just paint the lower edge of the glass to replicate it

http://www.yolo.net/~jeaton/Propplanes/b25/001b25.htm.

Heres a shot for you radial buffs. 5 P&W Radials.

Head over to the odds and ends forums for more.

Keep forgetting to get photos of my connie. im in the process of buttoning p to fuselage. Lots of warpage. but it cancels itself out thankfully.

Looking good, TREYZX10R!

I broke down and got a PE set and AM decals for my little A-20.  Got one diorama done and when I test a water making technique, I'll get the other one done, then onto the A-20.

Although, I'm itching to start the thing so......

I got some pe installed

hope to get some paint in here later today

Mike looking forward to seeing the airshow pics

Jeff thanks, this is my first try with the Sky decals hope they lay down good

I did a dry fit of the basic airframe and it looks like a real decent fit that should just need a tad of filler

The interior has quite a few injector pin marks

Did a lot of tedious sanding and got the missing details filled in with putty

will do some more tweaking before I start spraying the basic interior,from the research pics it looks green up in the office and grey in the rear

redraider56

5) Probably not a big deal but you can see in the photo that there is a lip at the base of the turret dome which is not present on the kit.  Anyone got any ideas how to do this?  If not I won't worry about it

How 'bout yu take some very small Evergreen rod, cut a piece long enough to make a circle around the top turret, then roll it around a paint bottle or something similar ... this, of course, after heating up the styrene strip in some hot water ...

Then wrap it arouynd more circular (in diameter) objects until you have a styrene circle smaller than what you need for the turret lip ... then, you can use Tenax or something similar to attach the styrene rod around the lip ... fill and sand as needed ...

Just a thought,

pepper

BTW

I started fiddlin around with the B-25 the other day despite the 3 other projects I have to finish first   I like the look of the kit but there were a few historical inaccuracies that Accurate Miniatures had.....I outlined them in the photo below ( I was lucky enough to find a wartime photo of "Red Wrath")

1) The left and right eyes and eyebrows were not identical on the falcon nose.  From the photo you can see the eye on the right side of the nose has a small pupil and thick eyebrow, but the AM decals have this on the left side instead of the right.  Probably not too big of a deal though

2) The AM instructions call for a flat paned navigator's window but the picture clearly shows the bubble style.  not a hard fix though, AM includes both types of windows

3) The AM instructions call for the later style cowlings with the Clayton S style individual exhausts for Red Wrath.  However, the picture above shows no evidence of all the little individual exhaust stacks on the cowling, but I also can't see the large circular exhaust on the forward end of the nacelle which would be common on the earlier style cowlings.  AM does include the earlier style cowlings so I'll use those.

4) Once again a mistake in the decals.  Look at the insignia from the photo and of the decals and you'll see the difference

5) Probably not a big deal but you can see in the photo that there is a lip at the base of the turret dome which is not present on the kit.  Anyone got any ideas how to do this?  If not I won't worry about it

Another thing that I think might not be right is that the instructions don't have tail guns on Red Wrath.  They do include a dual .50 mount but they have you cut them apart to use as the waist guns instead.  I want this sucker bristling with guns so I'm gonna leave the tail guns as is and raid the spares box for some .30s for the waist