Doogs: Nice work there, those metal gun barrels do look good! Funny about the removeable panels, at least they look like they fit other than not being flush.

B-17: Nice work, perfect primer for the NM.

Geof: Sorry, guess I should have taken more photos and in better lighting. I sprayed the yellow first since I can't seem to get it to ever cover anything, then masked it and sprayed the OD green anti-glare panels. I then masked that and sprayed the black. The yellow is still under there, I just sprayed the entire kit and caboodle  black and it's hard to tell the black plane from the black masking tape!

I went ahead and sprayed the aluminum with my Paashe last night, not the best airbrush for detail work but I wanted it done. Few rough places, I'm going to look at her tonight and decide if I want to try sanding them out and repainting or just let them go.

Gamera: Just curious, which Paasche do you have?

It's a Millennium  which is basically about the same as the Mil#3, with double action, bottom cup-feed. Love the brush, good solid design, I've used Badgers and never had much luck with them, the Paasche - I swear you could run over the thing with a truck and it'd still work good as new. Overall it's a great brush- it just has some problems with really teeny lines and spots. 

I could have picked up one of Paashe's more detail oriented brushes but I saw a Grex XG at a show and loved it so I bought it instead. Great detail brush, I've heard they're as good as an Iwata at a cheaper price. Only big deal is as a detail product it's way more delicate though I've still found it more forgiving than a Badger 150. 

Sorry, hope I don't come off too much as a commercial for the two companies - believe it or not I own no stock in either... 

And not really intended to talk smack about Badger- I've used a few and they just didn't suit me. 

Geof - beautiful Gabreski Jug! Not an easy scheme to pull off, and you've nailed it! I've added you to the completed roster on the front page.

To answer you question about the Trumpy Jug...15" wingspan. Doesn't sound particularly massive when you consider a 1/48 Jug is about 10.5", but yeah, it's imposing in person. 

B-17 - To be honest, I lump the Hasegawa into the same category as the Academy. Good enough kit, sure, but there's still the Tamiya. Though I do like that Hasegawa gives you the tail fillet so you can make basically any D-bubbletop.

Gamera - How do you like that XG? I had the Grex TG for awhile...loved the brush but HATED the pistol trigger. It's just not right for detail work. But I've been eyeing the XG or XN. Thing I really liked about the Grex was that it was SUPER easy to clean compared to my Iwatas.

Also...those of you doing NMF, might I recommend picking up some cloth polishing wheels for a Dremel?

You can get them on eBay...and they will polish to a mirror shine without damaging the paint.

Here's a recent test I did (ignore the scraped paint...that was from actual sanding before I decided to try this):

This has now become standard operating procedure for all my NMF finishes.

Thanks, Gamera,

I've got the Paasche Talon. I love it when it cooperates, but it's finicky as heck and I'm never quite sure if it's me or the brush. One time everything's beautiful, the next it's a sputtery, clogging mess. The other night I had yet another awful experience with MM enamel -- spitting, spotting, uneven coverage, rough, dusty finish, etc. etc. Just for grins, I dumped the enamel and immediately tried some Tamiya acrylic and thinned the heck out of it with 91% alcohol, sprayed at 7 to 10 psi. Whattya know, it went on smooth and even with no clogging or spitting even down to the finest line possible with the .38 tip (I also have the .25 tip). I've gotta think my mixing skills are part of the problem, but I also think I have to have EXACTLY the right combination with the Talon, and I only hit it once out every three tries or so.

I've also asked "Santa" for an Iwata HP-CS for Christmas. I've seen a lot of positive comments about it as a dependable, forgiving workhorse. If it lives up to its rep, I'll probably hope to use it for base coats and solid colors with a variety of media, and save the Talon for detail and camo (such as my in-progress Gabreski jug), maybe sticking with that Tamiya/alcohol combo if I continue to get good results.

Doogs: Interesting- I did polish the gloss black on P-47D before I put down the metallic. Really nice work, almost chrome there with the post NM polish.

I've become a big fan of the Grex XG, frankly I use it more than the Paasche now simply because the colour cup is less of a hassle than filling the bottle under the Paasche with enough paint to get the siphon tube to pick up. Personally I'd go with the bigger cup on the XG over the smaller one on the XN. Never tried the TG, the trigger looked like it would be more comfortable over a prolonged spraying session but as you said I just figured it wouldn't offer the level of detail I wanted. I've become a big fan of Grex as you can tell, just don't remove the protective tip and then drop it nozzle first into the sink!

SF: Sorry never tried a Talon, it was one of the detail brushes I looked at before I bought the XG though.  As I said I think the Millennium is pretty much indestructable. It is a bit fussy about getting the paint perfectly thinned too. That's one reason I love the colour cup on the XG, having gravity pull the paint down instead of trying to pull it up against gravity the XG is much less picky. I've poured MM acrylic directly into the cup without thinning and used it.

I think you'll love the Iwata, I've heard nothing bad about them other than the price or as Doogs said about them being more trouble to clean.  

I should be clear that Iwatas are very easy to clean...just not AS easy as Grex. Mainly, it's the cup design that makes it a bit harder to swab out really well. That and on my HP-C+, the paint channel is so narrow that you can't even really get a toothpick in there to clean it. The HP-CS is wide open by comparison.

Gamera, I hear ya on the paint cup...but I've got the standard cup size on all of my brushes, and to be honest for detail work it can be overkill (I never have it more than at most half full).

Regarding the TG, the detail it's capable of is actually rather impressive. It's just, I don't know about you, but when I airbrush it's rare that I'm ever going at full bore. In fact I'm usually working in the lower half of the trigger pull. Well, when you're doing that on the pistol grip, you're basically having to constantly hold that trigger at 1/4 power the whole time - lot harder than just yanking it back. I did the mottle on my Eduard 1/32 109E-7 with the thing, and it was awesome at it, but at the end my arm was just done. Very similar to carpal-tunnel pain up the arm and at the base of the elbow.

Doogs, I just prefer the bigger paint cup since I've gotten to use the XG a lot rather than filling up the bottle on the Paasche. If you're only using it for detail work I can see where the smaller one would be more useful. As to the trigger on the TG, when I'm spraying with a regular airbrush and only pull the button back a millimeter or so it just seems more work to hold the trigger like that. Hadn't even thought of the fatigue involved!

Sorry misunderstood what you said about the Iwata, as I said I've never used one. Since I don't do many German planes with those crazy inkblots and wiggle worm camo I figured the Grex would be good enough. Works for me anyway!

From my understanding, apart from the trigger design and swappable paint cups, the XG is mechanically the same as the TG. If that's the case, that thing's gold for detailed work.

Doogs: Yeah from looking at the site it looks the same. I think all of them use pretty much the same spare parts.

I've got the iwata hp-CS. GREAT airbrush and worth the money imo. It is capable of very, very fine lines and can go big as well. Very versatile. I polished the tip of mine and smoothed out the entire piece. Made a significant difference on overall paint delivery.

Doogs, cool idea on the Dremel. Crazy shiny on that fuselage! Would that work if you were to tape off adjoining panels if you wanted to do a patchwork type of finish?

No reason why it wouldn't, but the wheel might scuff up the tape edges a bit. Still though...my goal with the base coat is smoothness. I do the patchwork stuff with the actual Alclad (base with Airframe Aluminum, then come over that with Aluminum, White Aluminum, Dark Aluminum, Magnesium, Duraluminum etc)

Geof: Good to hear another endorsement of the Iwata. Doogs' recommendation kinda sealed my decision. Now here's hoping "Santa" got the subtle hint, i.e., e-mail with Amazon links to the brush and a couple of other goodies. :-)

Peeled off the masking tape last night and the yellow is back! Very happy with the results, I used Future to 'seal' the masks, I did get a little seepage but nothing like I've gotten in the past. 

Greetings,

Just an FYI update. Progress ground to a halt on my Gabreski Jug as I spent the last week building this:

I finally sent the model railroad packing, and it now lies forlornly on its side in the garage, awaiting my decision whether to store it and try to incorporate it into a larger layout down the road when I have more room or salvage what I can of the expensive pieces of track and scrap the rest.

In the meantime, I've reclaimed this little corner of the basement for my modeling work area, in the process clearing my modeling stuff off the kitchen table so my lovely wife can cover the rest of the table with mail, magazines, newspapers and other detritus (just kidding, dear).

A busy weekend awaits, but I'm hoping to move on to the Gabreski camo and stripes next. I'll probably be cutting it close to finish by year-end, but I'll be humping along. Updates to follow.

Dang SF, that new bench looks so good it's almost a shame to splatter paint all over it!

I used to do the railroading thing too till I just didn't have the time for all my hobbies, maybe if and when I can retire I'll be able to pull the stuff back out again.  

NUTS!!  Went to spray on the NMF and several spots decided to wrinkle and act like it won't stick.  See for yourselves:

Worst of it after some peeling and sanding.  Will have to had mor primer has a couple spots went all the way to plastic.

Looks like I'm going to be delayed till next year.  Two steps forward, one step back....although this seems more like two steps back and one step forward

What did you use for primer and your black? That symptom is due to the NMF cutting the base coats. Perhaps you put it on too wet and heavy too fast?

Primer and black were from Alclad like the NMF.  All previous coats dried for several days between colors. I misted on the coats in layers

Hate to see that happen B17Pilot, sometimes happens to me if I try to spray when its too cold . Strange that the same product attacks itself regardless.

Odd that a lacquer would attack another lacquer. Hope you can salvage it!!

Did you give the black base enough time to cure (Alclad black base is enamel)? Or put it on too thin or too thick? Or perhaps put the Alclad on too thick over it? I've only ever put Alclad over Tamiya or Gunze paints, and it's always been fine.

Slowly but surely making progress.

On the wings, I've got all the gun bay doors sealed up now...it's gonna be awesome clearing up those weld seams! Got the gear bays sprayed last night, and that's kind of the last major step before I close the wings. Though I still need to sort how I want to handle the blast tubes. Absolute pain in the rear that they have to be installed up front. There's also some slight gaps at the wing root...trying to sort out where they're coming from (could be the spars, could be how the gear bays seat together...) before I stick the wings together for good.



There's also the fuselage spine and tail...which is easily the worst part of this kit. The fit here is just rough, and the thing doesn't hold together all that well as is, so managing both and welding it down with Tenax was a challenge. Overall, I think I got it. There are a few areas with some minor ridges, but nothing some putty and sanding won't cure.



Also been getting the cowling dealt with. Interior was sprayed black then Tamiya XF-4. I'm going to shoot the red cowl ring soon, since I can mask off the aperture a lot more easily before I start adding ducting bits.



Still very much preferring this kit to the Hasegawa, but it's definitely been a case of each new join being its own adventure. Fit is good, once you get it there, but it seems like every part has some small, stubborn bit of flash or remnant of a spure gate to do battle with.

I used to think it'd be kind of ridiculous and redundant for Tamiya to do a 1/32 Jug, but now I think maybe it'd be a brilliant idea. It'd set the gold standard, provide tons of variant boxing options, and the R-2800 could be used to anchor multiple subjects, the same as the Merlin and the Spit/Mustang.

Yeah i gave the black base like a week to dry.  Due to the time change, its dark in i get home so I have to spray on the weekends. Once there was a solid color I stopped.

Looks great Doogs, I pull out my 1/32 Hasegawa kit and the 1/24 one and look at them from time to time but I applaud you for having the guts to actually start on the kit and build it rather than staring at it!  

Thanks Gamera! I've been eyeballing my big Jug kits for some time...was going to veer to a 1/48 Tamiya this time around too, but couldn't get the masks cut in 1/48 since the sortie markings would've been too small. So 1/32!

Some more progress last night...the Trumpeter kit is at once amazing and extremely frustrating. Unfortunately their tooling tolerances don't quite match the ambition of their engineering. Every piece, it seems, has micro-flash that has to be dealt with. A lot of things just don't line up quite right (though it's totally possible to get very close). But...she's starting to look like a Jug.

I'm still a bit miffed that I have to install the blast tubes with the wings. It's going to make cleaning up that fairing seam somewhat interesting.

The gun access doors are another slight frustration. I did manage to get them essentially flush (or enough so that it will be completely unnoticeable under paint and markings and weathering), but I'm going to have to do some work to restore the panel lines and rivet details.

The fuselage spine is another fun one. Trying to figure out how I'm going to tackle this so that I don't have to restore that entire row of rivets. 

The wing root also needs love. I think I need to shave some off the front mounting spar to lift that wing underside just a hair.

Finally, here's why I spent so much time on the instrument panel and gunsight...they're very visible through the windscreen.

The nice work continues Doogs! Have you tried filling the small seams with Mister Surfacer, letting it dry for ten minutes or so, and then wiping it gingerly with a cotton swab moistened with lacquer thinner? You can take off the excess Surfacer without harming the surrounding detail. Other than that the only thing I know is to cover the surrounding area with masking tape before sanding.

I keep kicking around the idea of fitting a small electric motor to the prop of my big jugs, maybe even put LEDs in for the formation lights. Don't know how well it would work out.

Looking great Doogs,I do'nt envy you on that clean up job ahead around those blast tubes!

Looking great Doogs!

I fixed it! Well a couple of more spots popped up when I finished spraying the tail, but that's OK, I know how to fix it now!

What you y'all think:

Wing tip:

The repair wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  Next up after the tail repair is to put some different shades on, hopefully with out a repeat of the base coat  

B-17 - Oh Man, That Bites! Well. I certainly feel your pain. My Jug with the messed up NMF now sits waiting till I finish up my other GBs to get a complete paint stripping. I do hope to see you recover and finish her up.