Gentlemen, I do Thank You kindly.

Mustang - Thanks, but I haven't recovered just yet, Here's a closer look of what I need to remedy. I hope to pull that off tonight

Taxtp - Per your request:

Yikes!! No I didn't see that! I'd be having a cow too. No doubt you're gonna recover that though........somehow I just know......

I think I know her !

Ah, The recovery is complete. Moving on now.

Taxtp - Indeed? Something about women packing hardware? I guess I should have expected this and I suppose it will only be a matter of time before Manny catches eye of this and wants to marry it.

Joe: Good to see you've got the ripped decal fixed.

Knowing Manny though he'd probably want to marry all four of them- at once...

Great job on the repair Joe, I can't tell.

Cheers

Tony

Guys here is my "attempt" as you can see the masking let me down. I will have to fix it later.

Theuns

Theuns - OK, First off, is this the same plane with the warped wing? If so, magnificant job in straightening it out. From your pic angles I can't tell it was ever warped. How exactly did you do it. I mean, Dang, you're my hero!

 Secondly, I encountered the exact same issue when painting my cowling. Did you paint straight over the Alclad? I did and the paint would peel right off. I seemed to have fixed it by buying some Alclad Clear Base and spraying that on over the Alclad and then spraying on the Blue ID band. Worked wonderfully.

 Oh, and by the way, concerning your paint job: SWEET!

                                             Joe

Ditto to that man.....that thing looks fabulous! Good job on the recovery, Joe

Yes it is the same plane. Just used boiling water and brute force LOL!

I didn't put anything over the Alclad as I read it would affect the look of it.

Theuns

Sorry Theuns as I was not thorough in explaining my process. Indeed the clear base does alter the Alclad sheen. Thus, after applying the clear base I carefully masked and repainted everything including a new coat of alclad. (Note, all this work I did on the cowling). In the process of repainting the Alclad coat I had to mask off the blue ID band. When I removed the Tamiya tape (which I HIGHLY recommend for this) the blue paint remained intact having adhered to the clear base undercoat.

                                          Joe

Completed atlast!

Theuns

Oh, Whoa, Theuns, You are the MAN!! That is absolutely Outstanding. Especially given what you had to repair. You did an awesome job with your Alclad and the ID markings. Weathering is very nicely done. What did you use to wash/highlight the panel lines. I stand duely impressed.

                                                     Joe

Thanx Joe.

I used some powdered pastels mixed with water for the pannel line wash and touched them up in a few places with a pencill of all things!

You can't quite see it in the pix but I have a bit of an "oil streak" coming from the bottom of the cowl rinning back tothe mid fuselarge and "pooling" as they usually do when it runs over a pannel joint :-)

The gun access pannels were painted a light grey to contrast the Alclad.

Theuns

Is it too late to join?

If not, I'm just starting Revell's 1/48 P-47D....I'll probably attempt "The Bug".

(It will be the first model in a long long time.

Greg

Hey all!  It's been a long time since I posted anything on here (new baby, the heat, work, etc.).  I have been plugging away at the Academy Gabreski kit steadily though.  It's been in half hour intervals so nothing has really been worth posting.  I've been watching the work here and some good stuff going on.  I'd mention eveyone by name but that would take forever so he's a collective Nice Work!  A few pics are below with where I'm at now.

The engine has been wired and detailed.  This was the first time using Alcad and have to say I really like it.

Cockpit has been painted, well almost.  I still have some detail painting left to do.  Added some scratchbuilt items.  Will also start adding placards.

Sorry for the fuzzy photo but the IP is complete.  Painted and the details picked out using a toothpick and light drybrushing.

Added some bits and some wiring to the wheel wells.  The gear doors are waiting for a coat of future and some weathering.  The prop and spinner, will be touched up but the prop hub was painted with Alcad.

Cowling is complete just needs future and some weathering.

As always comments and criticisms are always welcome!  I'll try and post as soon as possible.

Well done, Theuns! I'll get that beauty up on the front page presently!

Greg - you're more than welcome to sign on! I'll get you added. 

Brian - that R-2800 looks nice! Digging the cowl, too!

Can we get a closer look at the R-2800 ? Looks stunning.

cheers

Tony

Nice work on everything esp the mill - wow that's some beautiful work there on the engine!

Brian - Very outstanding work so far. And that is a right gorgeous engine you've put up there. Good to see you making progress. Trust me I can completely relate to the half hour at a time concept. Keepit coming.

                                                               Joe

Doogs:  Thanks!  I was concerned with having that much yellow to paint but luckily it covered well.

Tony:  Thanks!  I'm kind of limited with the camera we currently have.  It's just a point and shoot, but we're looking at others right now.  I'll see what I can do.

Gamera:  Thanks!

Joe:  Thanks!  I have yet to get used to these "short burst" sessions I'm able to get in now.  I'm so used to longer, and more frequent, sessions.  Who knew having a baby was so much work!

One of the wallflowers here, checking in.  Awesome work on the powerplant; it looks like it's ready to kick over at any time.  Great job, Ace; really impressive!  Hope to get in on a T-bolt build maybe next time around.  Still working my way around that natural metal finish.....All of you guys are awesome!

Finally got the panel lines washed. I started out using an oil wash of lamp and darrk umber mixed in turpenoid. For whatever reason it just wasn't working out to my satisfaction. I had just ordered some Mig Productions dark wash and decided to give that a try. Wonderful stuff! Easy to apply and remove excess with a turpenoid wetted brush. I have some additional weathering to do prior to shooting the Alclad Light Sheen overcoat. Here's a few pics of where I'm at so far even though they don't really show the wash effects all that well.

                                            Joe

Here is a photo to show before and after. Left wing is unwashed, right wing with wash:

Joe: She's really looking good there! The wash looks good, looking forward to seeing how she comes out- I just might have to order some myself!

Close to done here, just keep getting distracted by other stuff

Now that I'm done with Sakai's zero, I'm ready to go.  I'm doing Don Gentile's 4th FG/336th FS P-47 Razorback.  We see alot of Gentile's "Shangra La" P-51B's, but none of his P-47 mounts, so I Figured I would try something different.  According to Super Scale, its an early D-1 so I'm gonna have to see if the kit needs modification.  If I'm not mistaken, the only exterior difference between the D-1 and later variants of the razorback is the lack of wing pylons.  If anyone would like to enlighten me in this area, please do.  Other than Eduard seat belts, and maybe True Details wheels, I'll probably go out of the box on this one.  If this kit is half as good as their bubbletop, I'm in for a treat. 

Joe

 Joe - Nice to see you starting up. I am definitely looking forward to your progress.

Now on to the unpleasantries. I had been up dirtying up "Nifties" with an overall wash of the mig dark wash and wiping with tupernoid and this had benn proceeding well. That is until last night. I received in the mail a bottle of Mig thinner I had ordered as it had benn recommended for wiping away excess Mig wash. So, i figured I'd give her a try. My first folly was not reading the instructions on the bottle that stated use only on acrylic finishes. My second folly was applying it straight to model rather than going to my test bed. i figured in my oh so brilliant head that if the Turpenoid was not effecting the finish thhen all would be well. Here is a result of my best thinking:

 It appears to have stripped the gloss coat and marred the Alclad finish underneath. Oddly it did not remove the decal slencils. After a moment of shock, I cleaned it up a bit and then set it down and walked calmly away. As I preach on here often it was time to move past the horror and get my head into figuring out a means to repairing this. My first inclination is to mask around the damaged area and spray on a coat of alclad then unmask and gloss coat. Yet, I am open to any suggestions and certainly entertain any options before I proceed. This had the potential to really put me into a tailspin of dismay but, I just thought back to what Theuns encountered and the fact that he recovered his jug so splendidly.

                                                                     Joe

That Joe.........is salvageable. And now that I looked at it I think that trick we were talking about earlier will work. Don't loose hope man. It's a good looking bird.

Joe: ACK!!!  Wish I had some useful advice but other than masking and respraying the area I'm not sure what else you can do. All I can say is best of luck buddy, hate to see something going so well go bad at the last minute like that.  

Cliff

Hi Joe,

I agree with your approach to fixing it. It's a good looking model, so stay with it.

Good luck

Tony