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.

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

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?

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

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.  

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.

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. 

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. :-)

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)

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?

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

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, 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!

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: 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.  

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.

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.

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. 

Gamera: Just curious, which Paasche do you have?

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.

Ha! In some ways guys, those all black jugs look pretty cool! Gamera... What happened to the yellow?

Doogs, that thing still looks like a monster... What are the dimensions of it?

Here's the promised update:

All gloss black and shiny! Will need to sand to smooth out for the NMF to follow on Saturday

Underside:

If things go according to plan, she'll be shiny on Saturday! 

DoogsATX

But FWIW I totally agree with your closing assessment - it's exactly why I recommend people considering a 1/48 Jug either go with the Tamiya, or the old Monogram. One's an excellent value and a fun, simple build, and the other an absolute masterpiece. The Academy strikes me (granted, I've only played with the -N) as an exercise in complete averageness.

Been putting in some Jug time the past two nights.

Last night I got the fuselage closed up.



Tonight I played with the wings. Discovered to my intense irritation that, the way the Master blast tubes are flanged, they have to be installed before the fairings. No dropping them in at the end a la the Tamiya kit. Also, the fit of the M2s in the gun bays is very janky.



I taped everything up and used the blast tubes to locate the guns, then tacked them in place with Tenax. From here the tubes and fairings will be removed until it's time for them to go back in.



I've also decided to build this one closed up. Fun discovery! This isn't a Tamiya kit, and so the access panels sit too deep. Since I'm lazy I didn't want to sort out any kind of risers, so instead I taped a piece of styrene to the door to hold it up while I tacked it in place. You can see the gun access door sitting too deep...



Overall, liking this kit, just wish these overengineered bits had the fit to match their ambitions.

That's a great Gabreski Geof. I think it's quite a difficult scheme to accomplish, and yours look correct, and realistic.

Cheers

Tony

Ok, I've went past yellow to Johnnie Cash mode....

Now I'm stalled out on both this kit and P-47N, dropped my Grex detail airbrush in the sink and bent the tip out of shape so all I have is the big Paashe which I can paint detail with but it's more work. Parts are currently on the way, I still intend to finish the Promodeler P-47N before the end of the year!

Geof: WOW! Now that's simply fantastic! Great job over-all and I love how the camo came out!

Btw: Happy Thanksgiving guys!

Btw 2: And the P-47D is together and has a yellow nose! 

Geof - Wow, you did an absolutely incredible job on your Jug. Must say, your skills are certainly of the highest order there, especially on the painting end of the scale.

Doogs - Oh, now that is one awesome cockpit. Exquisite work. I really like how the seatbelts turned out. I obtained a couple of sets of those a while back right after you brought them to my attention. I haven't had the oppurtunity to use them yet but judging how they turned out for you I'm certainly not going to regret having snagged them.

Geof, that is absolutely gorgeous! As I said, I'll be eating your dust on this one. That's a very high bar you've set. Congrats on a beautiful build!

Everyone is looking good!! Stoutfella I hear you on the join 2 halves thing. Drives my crazy. It's one thing if there are positionable flaps or something, but if not, just make them one piece. I don't know if the idea is to make a kit more complex in order to achieve some sort of supposed value to the modeler o if it's cheaper on their end to make the parts that way... I hate filling and sanding... but I suppose it is the modelers doom!

Anyway... my Gabreski is DONE... its amazing how long fiddly bits toward the end take to finalize. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!