Also I picked up from my LHS the 1/72 Revell/Germany B-17G " Little Miss Mischief". Can you please put me on the roster for this as well, Vetts? I noticed Kermit built one and I gotta say not being a fan of the old Revell, I am definitely a fan of the new Revell kits! Hope they continue on this course. Great details, good panel line detail. Nice kit!

Cheers

Casper: The Lightning is looking fantastic, looking forward to seeing how she looks with the NM on. I like how you're doing the different shades, I may have to give it a whirl myself.

Doogs: Good luck with the new house, it's great to be able to build it just for you so you can have everything the way you want it. And I agree with you about armour kits, when I go on vacations I'll take a couple of tanks along and just clean up road wheels when I'm sitting around the motel watching TV at night.

I'll have the photos of the Jug posted when I finish the cockpit. Just not much to see right now. And I need to finish off the P-35, just a few rough places I want to lightly sand, buff, and repaint. I keep putting it off as I'm paranoid about messing up something I've already gotten 99.99% done.

Had a little bit of airbrushing problems. Bit of clogging but after I got that sorted the Alclad went on.

The black stripe down the centre looks really affective against the aluminium!

Cheers

Looking good Casper! I keep saying I'm going to try the Talon brand but dang I love the Alclad. I guess if it works I shouldn't go changing stuff.

Gamera my aploigies to you sir for taking so long to get your build listed on the front page, don't know how it slipped by me. Looking forward to seeing it too, along with the other two you are finishing up.

I haven't tried Alclad paints, I have used MM and Krylon but I think the Talon is the best thing since sliced bread for spray paints. And it even smells kinda good too.

Casper I really like the blotchy effects you have achieved with the NMF on the wings especially, well done sir.

I gotta say these NMF builds just keep looking more and more real.

Vetteman: No worries, I just assumed you'd been busy.

I'll have to try the Talon, normally I use nothing but acylic paint, Alclad is about the only solvent based stuff I spray anymore.

Casper,

The black does give your lightning lots of contrast to look at! Lovely finish. And reacting to your earlier post: you will love the new b17! great fit, crammed full with detail and very clever engineering make this kit a delight to build.

Gamera, Vetteman,

I have used both alclad and talons and i must say both have their advantages and drawbacks. But the overall finish is more or less the same (comparing talon to the standard alclad 101). The powders that talon offers make buffing to a high shine alot easier than just spraying, love that stuff!. I do believe you could use the powders alongside with alclad as well.

But for ease of use and health reasons i am inclined to say i personally like the talon paint better. Too bad they dont offer a full range of shades and hues like alclad does...

Right guys, guess there's no reason I can't use both Alclad and Talon

Anyway here's the P-35. It's the Hobbycraft kit in 1/48th. I ended up getting some decal silvering, the canopy didn't fit all that well, and some parts vanished from the box so I just slammed the kit together just as a guinea pig to test getting a good solid NM paint job. I'll try doing different shading like Casper on the P-47. 

Got the decals on. Gotta say, the Trumpeter decals are really good. Only a couple of accidents, some tears on the yellow decals. Apart from that they just slid on and they are conforming nicely to the contours with the help of some Microsol.

Starting to look like a plane now!

Cheers

Gamera I would say you know how to apply a NMF finish man, the P-35 looks great a nice smooth finish. You used Alclad paint right ? Now I really cant wait to see your P-47 

Casper wowzers that black and yellow really pops against the NMF finish !!!!!!! Love those markings

Kermit with the talon paints you can add say a few drops of blue acrylic paint to get a metal look, Hawkeyes site has some color recipes for different shades to give you some ideas as a starting point. He also has different shades of powders that work well too. I tried one of the powders on Tamiya aluminum and it worked so I would think they would work on Alclad too.

I'm almost there!

Just working on the fiddly end bits. Got all the landing gear and panels and mechanics in place. Finishing up the seat harnesses, canopy and ordinance. Also working on a ladder. I am saving the intake ring with the antenna until last. I have been very careful about not snapping the 4 inch protrusion.

Won't post anything till she's done.

Cheers

Casper the Chihuahua

I'm almost there!

Just working on the fiddly end bits. Got all the landing gear and panels and mechanics in place. Finishing up the seat harnesses, canopy and ordinance. Also working on a ladder. I am saving the intake ring with the antenna until last. I have been very careful about not snapping the 4 inch protrusion.

Won't post anything till she's done.

Cheers

Vetteman: Thanks! And yeap, 50/50 mix of Alclad aluminum and polished aluminum over gloss black. Have to say it's built up my confidence for tackling the P-47.

Woohoo!! I finally got this one finished. I didn't plan on having this build on hold for that long but here she is now.

Hope ya like it.

Wow Jetmodeler! She looks great!

Well I'm calling my first entry for this NMF GB done! Been a long build and my biggest so far. Here are some pics!

Looking forward to the Mustang and the B17 later.

Cheers

Just wanted to show a comparative shot with the Sea Venom. The Venom is a medium to large plane in 1/32, no where near as big as Phantom but a wide wing span. The Lightning just dwarfs it!

Cheers

OMG!!!!!!! Two completions on the same day ?? How cool is that I ask ya.

Jetmodeler after seeing all the troubles you had with some HUGE seams I gotta tell ya this is one sweet build man Nice smooth NMF finish,  I can find no seems at all, and painted from a rattle can no less. Well done, one to be proud of for sure.

Casper WOW that thing is huge, how many quarts of paint did ya end up using on it. Speaking of paint thats a very very nice finish, love the difference in the shading and the markings really catch the eye. The ladder is a nice touch too. So when are we gonna go fly it ?? Your B-17 is in I almost missed it sorry

Guys the front page is updated with your finished builds

vetteman42

 

Casper WOW that thing is huge, how many quarts of paint did ya end up using on it.

I did quite well on the paint. I used the Medium nozzle for Metaliser paints of my Aztek 470 brush. It comes out smooth without chugging through huge amounts of paint. I bought 2 bottles of aluminum and one bottle of chrome Alclad and still have about 75% chrome and a bit more than one bottle left of the aluminum. I am about to start a Phantom II F-4N so I'll be testing out the magnesium and jet exhaust lacquers for that. I'm thinking of using the left over chrome for the Mustang. Make it comic book shiny!

Cheers

Jetmodeler,

She came out great man! That's the venerable old monogram isn't it? I have never seen these Benito Mussulini/ Hirohito markings. Really makes me think of that WW1 crate that says "kennst mi noch?" (remember me?). Lovely build and you can be proud of it!

Casper,

Forget about the paint... i bet it took a full bottle of glue to just put this beast together! Already thought it looked great with the black on metal but these yellow markings on it really make it stand out even more. Superb build and tally ho old chap, pip pip and all that

Richard

Casper: Great job on the Lightning! Love those black and yellow markings- they set off the NM scheme of the aircraft.

I hope my P-47 comes out half as well as Jetmodeler and Casper's builds.

Ok, here we go! Mill and cockpit are finished. Noticed when I was taking the photos I hadn't painted the grip on the stick . So I painted that and sealed up the model last night.

I liked the looks of the engine Owl wired a month or so ago so I gave it a shot here, first time for me to wire an engine! Crazy thing is you can't see 75% of it so I should have saved myself a bunch of work

I liked the nose art that came with the kit but I've little success with getting Hasegawa decals to work without silvering. I've gotten some excellent advice here but still I'm taking no chances and instead using SuperScale's 'FAT CAT' decals for this model.

More photos when I get the undercoat laid down.

Thanks everyone. Sorry about the dark pictures.

~Casper~ Your lightning looks great. Excellent job.

~Vetteman~ Those gaps were pretty big. I ended up using so much putty on it I must have used almost half the tube.

~Kermit~ Awesome job on your B-17.

~Gamera~ Nice job so far on your P-47. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Gamera wow man if the engine and pit are any indication of how this build is gonna turn out I CAN NOT wait to see the next set of pictures ! Very nice work there buddy

Can I enter with an Academy 1:72 P-51D? I'll get cracking soon!

ModelAircraft101 your build is in and the front page has been updated. My apologies for not adding the first 2 builds earlier, some how they made my data base but not the front page. I have no excuse other than a case of brainfade 

MA101: Sounds cool!

Randy: Wiring the engine was 'interesting'. Hope I don't end up disappointing you!

Anyway the P-47 is closed up, just trying to eliminate the seams where the wing attaches without sanding off half the detail on the plane's belly. I hear the Tamiya kit is much better in this regard.

Cliff

Gamera

MA101: Sounds cool!

Randy: Wiring the engine was 'interesting'. Hope I don't end up disappointing you!

Anyway the P-47 is closed up, just trying to eliminate the seams where the wing attaches without sanding off half the detail on the plane's belly. I hear the Tamiya kit is much better in this regard.

Cliff

If you haven't built one of Tamiya's Jugs, I highly recommend it. Easily the slickest 1/48 kit I've ever built. The whole integrated wing spar thing really is something to behold.

Speaking of Jugs...

Now that the Spit's done and the Mustang's still on hold awaiting it's nose masks (I'm so tempted to just do it myself, but I'm determined to use this one as a test for the 1/32 kit), I have a bit of room to break into another aircraft.

vetteman, would you mind putting me down for Academy's 1/48 P-47N?

I know Academy's decals are mostly crap, but I'm going to risk it on this one, because for some reason I find the "Expected Goose" nose art highly amusing.

I'll probably bring a combo of aftermarket and spares into the mix. Tamiya blast tubes, an Ultracast seat. I think I might have some True Details wheels laying about somewhere. 

Doogs: Actually I have a Tamiya jug in my stash but I decided to do the Hasegawa kit as a test run to see if I can get the NM right. Then I'll give the Tamiya kit a go.

Looking forward to seeing how the Academy P-47N works out, forgot that I picked up the reissue of the Revell Promodeler P-47N at the show too. After the thread on the two of them a few weeks ago I'm interested in how it compares to the Academy kit.