The Offical Natural Metal Finish Group Build III

Casper but of course your Avro is in and glad to have you back too. I see too that you are up to your usual tricks with the build already too. Nice lookin cockpit with all the added detail, I really like the paper work touch you added. Its small things like that that make a build stand out.

Doogs that thing is a MONSTER man !!!!!!!!!! But cant wait to see it go together. A good choice of markings too "That's All Brother" would have been my choice too. If you want to start building feel free to and we can carry it over to round IV Hint hint pictures asap

B17pilot you did have until May 1st to finish the Thunderbolt the end date was extended so you did not finish late. Nice work BTW a very smooth finish for sure. I really like the nose art and the colors and shading. Nice job weathering the big bird too !! Those markings really pop !!! Your build has been updated on the front page.

Nice looking N model bro.   _b

Update: Decals done, weathering done.

Rockets added:

Fuel tanks went on next:

And with that I just added the prop, antennas, and canopy to get the end result (also my first P-47):

Sorry its late, for some reason I thought I originally had till the end of the month to finish it.

Think I'll try those Alclad paints again!

Got some work done on the Anson this weekend. Cockpit had a lot of work in it and I decided to add some extra details to help with the lovely resin castings.

Also got the fuse sewn up complete with the resin sidewalls and roll cage. Seems to fit well and test fits of the canopy also fit.

Added some maps and paperwork for the navigator and also fashioned a radio headset from some unused F-16 parts.

Cheers

I'm guessing the bottom pic is on the lines of what you're looking for?  That pic suggests she carried the half and half scheme later in her career as seen on other Corsica Mitchells

Oh and Doogs.. youve seen this site Im guessing? 

http://www.warwingsart.com/12thAirForce/planes13.html

You have a whole sudio set up with spots and cameras!??

Wow man this things gonna be freaking sweeeet. Love the Mitchell.  Would love to find an A26 Invader though, real hard to get hold of.

Alright, v-man. I'm in with another, if you don't mind...

HK's new 1/32 B-25...

The thing is an absolute beast and a half. The fuselage, without the nose, makes the 1/48 Monogram B-24 look a bit puny. I did the initial test-fit last night, and my usual posterboard background? Yeah, ain't gonna cut it.

I've settled on a largely NMF scheme for "That's All-Brother", a B-25 from the 340th Bomb Group operating over Italy (the top one below):

Finding pics for this exact bomber beyond the nose art has been...less than successful so far, but from what I've seen of other 340th B-25s, they were pretty hard-used and battered looking, so lots of opportunity to play here.

No way this one'll be done by the end of the month, so I'll be rolling it over to NMF IV...

LOL vettes, cheers buddy

Gun-smoke!  A bit more detailing of the 50's fangs, might have to tame the exhaust duff down a bit.. dunno. Have seen pic's were the 'stangs in '44 are dirty as hell then others when theyre out in the rain and theyre sparkly clean, I dont care much for all the rain tbh, but geesh all the detailing can take ages if you let it  

The decals start going on tommorra.

The Real Red Baron I like it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  one sweet looking Hawk you have built there, looks really cool in NMF for sure. Surprising to me how the Tamiya paint looks so smooth,  your completed build has been added to the front page.

Furyan lookin like she is gettin close man And I gotta tell ya that prop looks so close to perfection, only way it would be more perfect would be if it had a real merlin behind it with a Mustang wrapped around that

Wow this links amazing...

The Blue nosed 352nd FG, check it if you can.

http://www.352ndfightergroup.com/assoc/gallery.html

Thanks Casper and Owl . I appreciate you nice comments.

Ooooh, Nice one RRB. Thats gotta be your best ones yet!

Good job, Red!

Looking good.

Cheers

Finished

Furyan - that Mustang (my favorite plane from years ago service) is looking superb!!    I've built 3 in 1/72 - really don't have space for 1/32's, but it sure looks like a fantastic kit.

Ken

Vetteman - The falt coat is drying at the moment so if you include May 1st I should be done on the original due date.

vetteman42

Guys we are coming up to the end date for the group and it seems we have a few builds that are very close to being finished. So those who are still finishing up I think I will go ahead and extend the end date from May 1st to May 31st. I have also been asked if there will be a NMF IV. I am pleased to announce there will be, round IV will start on June 1, 2012 and end on May 31 2013. I will also be allowing carry overs if they are need.

Thought I orginially had till the end of May, oops!  Guess its official now!

My P-47 is all decaled (pics up soon)!  A little weathering and finish the rockets and she's done!

Had a bit of time..

heres some more with a bit more detailing 

First ones with a flash sorry, makes the blue nose look way too light, its not really (last pic's)

The gun stacks will have detailing on the top of the wings as well but not done in these shots. IRL the 50's ports werent that dirty really. Remember the air flowed OVER the wings more so carrying the dirty soot with it

Blue nose done. Gonna have to re-paint the exhaust stacks again, no real way to mask those to effect. No probs.

vetteman42

Guys we are coming up to the end date for the group and it seems we have a few builds that are very close to being finished. So those who are still finishing up I think I will go ahead and extend the end date from May 1st to May 31st. I have also been asked if there will be a NMF IV. I am pleased to announce there will be, round IV will start on June 1, 2012 and end on May 31 2013. I will also be allowing carry overs if they are need.

Won't be able to put anything else into III, but I'll be around for IV, for sure! Not sure what with yet, but I've got a lot of excellent NMF options to choose from. Big Stang? Big P-47N? B-26? Libby? Maybe the Ki-44 Tojo I just received custom paint masks for? Hmm...

vetteman42

Guys we are coming up to the end date for the group and it seems we have a few builds that are very close to being finished. So those who are still finishing up I think I will go ahead and extend the end date from May 1st to May 31st. I have also been asked if there will be a NMF IV. I am pleased to announce there will be, round IV will start on June 1, 2012 and end on May 31 2013. I will also be allowing carry overs if they are need.

Yeah would love a carry over plse Vettes, many thanks..  TBH, was under the impression 2012 went from Jan to Dec .. my bad :S

Ok.. finished the prop, love the props lol !  Did this in three stages. Had the base and blu-tacced to the props cone and painted then attached the matt black pre-painted blades.. this way you get clean crisp lines and no over spray (Did my 1/32 Spit in two stages, ended up being a real pain in the butt to paint the blades without hitting the cone). Ill buff out the over flow shine on the decals later.

Next; Grabbed a new can of AS-12. Seems the seconds and third coat have finished it off wonderfully. . . well I hope it is, seems to be ok here.  Seriously on a side note, anyone wanting a great P51 build.. get this Tamiya production, take ya time and it will delight you on how well it can come together. Ive built a few aircraft / tanks etc and Id srsly say this is by far the most enjoyed for the above mentioned.

A few posts back you'll see my muck up from spray splat.. here's the fixer ~

Like many of these limited run sort of kits it has no guiding pins or anything to help with aligning fuselage and wing parts. Some careful placement and blind luck has hopefully fitted this resin sidewall correctly. It is slightly out of alignment and will need pulling back to fit into the fuse with the opposite wall fitted. Nice details though...

Cheers

So here is the Classic Airframes Anson Mk.I I picked up at my LHS for about a quarter of the price. On sale.

Lots of nice goodies in this. Much resin, PE and film for the IP.

As you can see there are over 60 pieces of resin in this kit, amazing for a 1/48!

Very nice PE sprue as well. Seatbelts and IP are amongst some of the best I've seen.

All I've done apart from wash the styrene and resin is to paint the back of the film IP dials in white.

Cheers

Ok, V-man, can you put me down for an Avro Anson Mk.I in an RAAF aluminum colour scheme. It's a Classic Airframes kit in 1/48. It'll be definitely be finished before May 31

Cheers

Guys we are coming up to the end date for the group and it seems we have a few builds that are very close to being finished. So those who are still finishing up I think I will go ahead and extend the end date from May 1st to May 31st. I have also been asked if there will be a NMF IV. I am pleased to announce there will be, round IV will start on June 1, 2012 and end on May 31 2013. I will also be allowing carry overs if they are need.

Hey Doogs... yeah good idea, I shoulve done that in the first place but as Ive got only a small bit left Ill just use the can this time now. Ill deff do that next time though. Great idea.

Hey tbh Ive never used thinner based paint in my gun, are they hard to clean out afterwards?? Thanks for the heads up mate.

Furyan - decant that stuff! Take a straw, cut it, put one end over the spray nozzle, the other in a paint bottle. Spray into the bottle, let it sit and outgas for awhile (if you don't AS-12 literally explodes), then spray it through the airbrush. You can even thin it down a bit with a high-quality lacquer thinner. That's how I've used it in the past.

Argh another mishap.. but not my fault this time.

The Tamiya AS12 is a spray can paint especially made for the bare metal looks like the Mustangs.. only thing is when it starts to run out it spatters like hell. Thght it had at least a good minute of so of painting left, I only had a small but to do. No, it spat big blobs of paint over the tops of the wings, really pissed me off to say the least. Had to wait till they dried and sand the area back. As well as that, I now need to buy a new can for a few seconds work and they ain't cheap.   Still happy but not impressed, Id rather use my airgun anyday but the AS12 is only in a can, grrrr 

Bullet through a cable maybe   

Gives a bit of surface texture though, I like it.