Lots of fiddly masking on this paint scheme. Got the red, sea grey underneath and olive drab laid down. Next is the black prime for the Alclad with some black striping showing through.

Cheers

Casper the Chihuahua

 

Gamera:

 

 

Casper: Wow, you're coming right along, very nice job on the NM.

 

 

 

He He, that's not NM, it's just the colour of the styrene this kit come in! I'm not too keen on the metallic look plastic myself

It will look much better with Alclad on it, for sure

Cheers

LOL I didn't expand the photo, my mistake! When I look closer I can see the streaks in the bare plastic!

Gamera

 

Casper: Wow, you're coming right along, very nice job on the NM.

 

He He, that's not NM, it's just the colour of the styrene this kit come in! I'm not too keen on the metallic look plastic myself

It will look much better with Alclad on it, for sure

Cheers

B-17: As I understand the black undercoat is just regular paint so you shouldn't have any problems spraying it on bare plastic. Only problem is if there is a tiny seam where the paint peeled up it will show when the NM is applied so make sure to sand the whole thing down to a perfect feathered edge.

Furyan: Oh heck, Meyer's was fantastic and his fighter too even without a pretty lady on the nose.

Casper: Wow, you're coming right along, very nice job on the NM.

Got the fortress together. Just a little bit of putty and sanding needed.

some interior colour on the canopies;

ready for a prime coat and then the rather involved paint job. I think I'll start with the red wing tips and rear fin, mask off do the olive and sea grey underneath, then mask all that in preparation for the black gloss and alclad.

I've been working on the exhausts as well. First a coat of Tamiya XF-53 Metallic grey, then dry brush on some Life Colour rust and then a wash of thinned black enamel.

The kit calls for an olive colour but I like the rusted look better.

Cheers

The Spit didn't even place (I'm convinced because one of the wheels had a tendency to toe in), and I hate to disparage other entries, but that Dauntless in particular was well done, but very lacking in character. Which is weird, because the SBD's one of my favorites. But IMO they just look wrong clean! If I'm not mistaken, none of the Spit IX/VIII entries won. 

J.C. Meyer is one of my favorite pilots! Have you seen the Dogfights episode "The Legend at Y-29"? He and the 352nd feature very prominently in it (and in one of the larger aerial battles during Operation Bodenplatte). He was in Petie 3rd by that point (someone ran into Petie 2nd with a Jeep or something and took it out of action...bet they got latrine duty!), and I've got markings for P3 sitting in my decals file box:

Very similar to P3, but with the new darker blue cowl, blue rudder, kind-of invasion stripes on the fuselage, black on the wings, and more bling on the fuselage. 

I've forgotten if the Tamiya instructions carry on the sacrilege, but Petie 2nd didn't have the black bands on its wings. Not did 8th AAF fighters sport aerial wires, so no need to string those. 

I did Petie 2nd in 1/48 last summer in prep for the 1/32, but it kind of went and satisfied my 'Stang urges for the time! 

DoogsATX

Furyan - excellent! The Tamiyastang is a wonder to behold, and probably the most ambitious kit - from an engineering standpoint - that I've ever seen. I'm holding off it for the moment waiting for Barracudacals to get their resin sets together, but I can't wait to play with it!

Yeah cheers doogs, would love to see your P51 when you get to make it. Seen your TamiSpit and it was outstanding!  Like you said, I think, about the Douglas SBD that beat you out of first place...yours has much character and thats what we all (and any decent modeler come to think of it) appreciates really. Yeah the box side shots are nice even on the 'Tang but I bet yours would be better :-)

Im not going to make the box cover 334th FS, 4th FG Mustang, Im going for Lt.Col J C Meyers ever so slightly earlier (but more war prolific) 487th FS, 352nd FG, 8th USAAF P-51D. Meyers was amazing from what Ive read. Started with the Jugs then the squad swapped to the P-51D and totally OWNED who was ever silly enough to flex their wings in front of them during WWTwo.

The TamiyaTang comes with the below full markings and kit make.

They also wore red tail fins for a while as well, then via fragmentation another FS of the same outfit wore it...a while back even before I recived the kit I stated here I loved this color scheme :-)

The blue nosed 352nd of the 8th. Pretty famous.

DoogsATX

Aftermarket landing gear...

I want a set of those!!

OK, small update.  The seams are fixed after yet another round of primer coat!  OK, Alclad users got a question for you (remember first time trying the stuff): I have sprayed the grey primer on (that they sell) and the last bit of seam correction (putty with nail polish remover) removed just a little area of the primer, so can I used spray on the black under coat with fixing that little patch? Or does the black gloss undercoat attack plastic like the alunimum paint does?

Well. I've been distracted by the Fiat G.55 for the past several days, but last night I finally brought "Magic Carpet" over the main assembly finish line. Now it's on to seam cleaning and prepping for paint!

Aftermarket landing gear...

Ignore the rocket tubes. Those are going on the Revellogram.

Furyan - excellent! The Tamiyastang is a wonder to behold, and probably the most ambitious kit - from an engineering standpoint - that I've ever seen. I'm holding off it for the moment waiting for Barracudacals to get their resin sets together, but I can't wait to play with it!

Casper: She's coming along great. Love those ammo belts my furry friend!

Furyan: Yow, she looks fantastic! I even like the nose art on the kit decals.

The exchange rate I looked up gave me $246.73 US for $300.00 NZ - gee friggin' whiz! Glad you were able to find her for $140.00 (116.00 US) which is slightly cheaper than the kit normally goes for here.

The elegant beast has finally arrived.

Box is huge, looking at the instructions there's many different options for the build. Tamiya again at its best _b

Buying direct from Japan it cost me NZD$140 as compared to buying here in this country at $300! ... O_O

@Casper: Man that Forts looking really good!!  Nice work so far bud! 

vetteman42

Casper I for one am gonna hate to see this one closed up, all that fine detail work right down to a map on the bench in the radio room

Oh well, V-man at least it has lots of canopies to see through!

Ok, all the interiors are done;

Sperry ball and rear gunnery. I used brass for the ammo clips. Looks much better than the wavy non detailed plastic in the kit;

Cockpit complete with gun turret;

rear gunnery at the tail of the plane;

Gotta say, heaps of detail in this kit. Especially for a 1/72 offering, it has way more than some 1/32 kits I've seen. The ignition systems for the props;

Ok, got one wing sewn up, next I'll do the fuselage and get all the glass fitted.

Cheers

Casper I for one am gonna hate to see this one closed up, all that fine detail work right down to a map on the bench in the radio room

Real red baron and Kbuzz01 the front page has been updated with your builds, sorry it took so long to get it done.

I have been feeling much better the last couple of days so hope by the end of the week to get started on the B-29

Some more progress on the interior of the B-17 today

The rear section, I've added a walk way and raised step against the starboard side of the fuselage;

I'm working on the sperry ball at the moment which will slot in behind that door.

The radio room;

A bit hard to see inside the bomb bay;

Cockpit;

...and the forward gunners room

Cheers

V-Man: Hope you feel better soon. Pneumonia's no joke. I've had several relatives with it and yeah it's a bear to get over.

Casper: Heck yeah that looks great! I hope all that will be visible when you close her up.

Outstanding, Casper!    Glad we get to see all that good stuff before you close it up.

Ken

Wow Casper!

That is amazing!

A bit more on the B-17G while the various stages on the Dornier 335A dry.

Got the forward gunners compartment painted and assembled. Even provided some documents for the bench.

Cheers

Sorry guys I haven't been around much health issues have been keeping me in bed and sleeping a bunch. I have been fighting with pneumonia that just wont let go. Casper, sorry buddy I havent done any work on the 229 in a long time.

The real red baron your build is in so please do feel free to start. Will be nice to see one of the Hawks here for sure.

Kbuzz01 your build is in also cant wait to see what you do with the buffing metalizer.

Casper wow no am and you are truly doing that B-17 justice. I really like the way you simulated the table tops, a first class job of it. And that cockpit looks great !!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep the pictures coming. 

Wow casper!

that looks amazing. How did you get the pieces of wood so small??

Do you think next time your in launceston you could show me a thing or too? lol

I would like to start my hawk 81 but I havent got Vettemans approval yet...

Trying to get that wood panel look for some of the benches and the doors;

.

Some Gunze wood brown and then brushing on some brown oil paint helps.

Bomb rack and part of cockpit painted and assembled;

I had some left over 1/72 PE seat belts. They help sell the seats. Better than the embossed seat belt on the mold.

Cheers

Seems most of the interior of the B-17G is a series of rooms. Lots of prep painting of Gunze H57, that almost chromate cockpit green. The details on the mild really pop out once they are painted. A truly detailed kit.

Some various interiors;

Some weathering and grime inside the fuselage.

Cheers

Vetteman and all - some really beautiful work in here.  I have another build going in Stik's Veterans GB, but the weather and my facilities aren't conducive to painting right now, so I'd like to join the group with a 1:48 Academy F-86 if it's ok.  Here's my progress so far(?!)   

I'm planning on using MM buffing metalizer and going pretty much OOB.

Ken

Vetteman - I am going to enter something totally new, a NMF P-40b.

Can I enter a Airfix 1:72 Curtiss Hawk 81-A-2 (new tooling). It will be a cross over with the airfix GB, if you don't mind.

Ive got that one in my stash too. Cant wait to see what you do with it!

Casper: Picked one of those up a few months ago, really super nice kit- light years ahead of the Academy and Hasegawa B-17s. Looking forward to you working your magic on her!

This is my next entry for this GB. This kit is massive! It's one of the best Revell kits I've seen in ages, despite the crappy instructions. These look the same in all kits and probably need updating of their format.

But anyway, should be a fun build. I also picked up the B-17 Walk-around book, lots of great photos for reference.

This will be pretty much OOB, perhaps a little scratch added but no AM extras.

Cheers

Furyan Yeah thats one eye catching color scheme for sure. I like it alot Hery and thanks for sharing that link.

Ghostrider I haven't used the the other MM metalizers but I have used the buffing metalizer. I find it to buff to a high shine but its very delicate and scratches very easily. I use it on small parts from a rattle can because after buffing it brings out small detail where the buffing wont reach. I do seal it with future right after buffing because its so delicate, and it will show finger prints if handled after buffing. Personally I wouldn't use it on large areas, but thats me.

Doogs I always like seeing your builds come together, Very nice work on the cockpit and engine, both engines really But yeah I like the one on the right much better than the kit offering.

Guys I am sorry I haven't been around much I have been fighting walking pneumonia. I do have the B-29 all cleaned and ready to start, just waiting to start feeling better to get started.

Ghostrider114

Gamera:

It's been a long time since I've used it but I seem to remember the buffing being much shiner than the non-buffing (which always seemed to me to pretty much silver paint). I really liked the Metalizer and it worked very well but gave up on it when if you so much as give it a dirty look it would peel up on me. Masking must be done with really low tack stuff like Post-It notes.

 

I was inspired by the Metallic finishing article in the January issue.  The author used Alcad II but my local hobby shop doesn't carry it, so I'd have to order it online.  Is Alcad really worth it?  The stuff costs more than twice what MM does per bottle.

Well I don't think the Alclad really looks any better than the Metalizer- if anything I think the Metalizer looks slightly more like real metal than the Alclad. Where the Alclad beats it and any other NM product I've seen is the level of sheer toughness. You can mask over Alclad with about anything and it will not peel up, The Metalizer will rip up even with low tack tape. With anything there are ways around this like painting the anti-glare panels and any colour trim first, masking and doing the NM last.

I just find the Alclad much easier to use IMHO, your milage may vary . You might want to search the forum for other opinions.

Doogs: Your usual fine job there