MONOGRAM MAFIA II GB

Thanks guys! She is getting there

Looking good Stick !

The Hun is definately a "Pretty Penny". Great job

Trouble, it looks like your just about to the home stretch on your Photo Panther... Good luck with getting those decals to snuggle down properly

MK, thank you for the kind words, and yes I was a bit slow gettnig off the start line on this one and getting my H-13 to the finish line here. But both are nearing completion now. Good for you on being retired I have that same goal in sight in the not too distant future. At least at the rate years seem to go by for me now...

Well this evening was a decal session on my Hun and another kit. The Superscale set I used worked perfectly (as almost always), but the kit decals gave me a few fits. ALL of the longer ones wanted to break- teh wing walks, the "U.S. AIR FORCE" on both sides of the nose... I had to practicly assemble those ones letter by letter.... no fun! But persistance and Micro Set payed off, and I got them in place reasonable well, and the alignment and spacing came out ok. I will have to go back and do a few touch ups with a very sharp brush in a few places where the kit decals broke and little bits disappeared, but overall I am content.  So here are a few pics

overall top and bottom

and close ups of the markings on the nose, mid fuselage, and tail

Tomorrow morning I will apply the remaining stencils and warning stripes using the Superscale decals and not the kit decals... no more frustration headaches thank you

Those pics of the decals on my last post were "before" pics,,before the Micro-sol that is...lol.

Hey All,

Been working on a Monogram Recon Panther on and off for quite some time. I`m trying to clean up my malingerers so here are a few pics of my progress...ok, I officially hate this new format. Trying to add text between the pics but can`t get the cursor to advance with the enter key...aarrgh! Anyway, I`ll comment up here...had a heck of a time with those decals on the curved nose and wing tanks. Used a ton of micro-sol and they sat down eventually...not as well as I would`ve liked tho`. Will try to get the rest of the decals on tomorrow night. Thanks for looking...Len

"Yay somebody else is posting in here!"

Stikpusher, Some of us are busy on other builds and some of us have completed 5 . So we get to lurk...... and that is what I have been doing, by the way I am also working on a Hun. I just may go for 6. By the way yours is looking quite nice and I eagerly await the completion. As far as the lots of time to work on them I have you all beat. I retired in March and only work 15-20 hours a week, my longest day normally is 6 hours. I know it is a rough life but someone has to do it. 

Thanks Trouble. Well after twenty plus years on the job, I have accumulated the seniority for lots of time off. But, around this time next week I will be going from model time feast to famine. Had I not started and concentrated on this Hun I would have probably finished a couple other nearly done projects, but I wanted to to a start to finish build this time. Ah well, they will still be here... But I am antsy to finish up these and a couple more projects and get some new blood on the bench...

What is this strange word "vacation"? Heh...blew thru a bunch of days early in the year...have 4 weeks plus another 4 "short notice" days and 1 "personal holiday"....I have 5 days left...lol. I tried to save `em up but this was the year everyone decided to break bones and other medical woes.

Both of your builds are looking great Stik! I`m gettin` antsy to start my Hun...doesn`t help that I drive by the 177th FIW gate guard everyday...it`s in S.E.A. cammo.

Len

Well here are this morning's updates on my Mafia projects...

first up, the H-13- last nite I applied a wash to the engine and then glued it in place. I will next glue on the radiator and tail rotor shaft and finish up the cockpit bubble so that I can glue that in place...

Then it was time for work on the Hun... I airbrushed on a coat of Future this morning in preperation for decaling. Right now I am letting it dry and cure. Hopefully this afternoon I can begin that task...

The Hun

and the Hun's fiddly bits...

I'm on vacation from the mines buddy... next week it is back to the salt mines for me

Must be nice...wish  could build models morning , noon and night..... Some of us still have to go to the mines.....

Len

Well, everything is prepped for tomorow morning's Future session...

I was considering using the Tamiya stuff to give it a go. I have had good luck with their other sets of this sort.

http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=87088

When I did mine.. I followed an articlel from Internation Scale Modeling ???? the guy did the Trumpy 1/32 Hun... he used purple in some of his colors,, it came it nice.. both his an mine.. if you go that way.. ck out my build might be helpful.. ?.. Keep up the good stuff.. !

p38jl

Stik.. looking good on both..

are you going for the burned discolored look on the tail of your Hun ?.. if so.. think deep purple mixed with some colors... i think you'll like it..

Thanks P38 I was thinking about it, but I don't want to bone it up. I still have not made a final yes or no decision but is getting to that time where I have to do that.

Anyways, here is my latest updates. I spent more time masking for this work than I did airbrushing... go figure...

first up, I masked off the tail where the squadron marking goes. Nothing fancy, just a big green triangle. I used good old Testors square bottle green that has been around since Christ was a Corporal... it was the closest match I had in my paints to the green on decals from other USAF squadron markings of the era.

and then I masked off and painted the 20mm cannon blast panels with Testors Oiled Steel- it sounded like a good color to use

last night for my final work before a nightcap I went back to the rear fuselage and touched up the tail hook and skid with Flat Aluminum (I also used a couple different shades of Steel on the refueling probe tip but did not take pics of that)

so here are a few overall photos

Now to the H-13... based off of information I got on here yesterday,last night I repainted the IP console and the DF antenna on top in OD.

Stik.. looking good on both..

are you going for the burned discolored look on the tail of your Hun ?.. if so.. think deep purple mixed with some colors... i think you'll like it..

OK Len, put down the laptop and step away from the keyboard.... go to your stash and select a Revellogram kit from before 2000 and get crackin' on a build for here.

Hey you guys...I`m building...finishing up a Panther and will be posting picks soon...got my new laptop Friday and been playing World of Tanks like a crack addict...can`t stop playing it...help me.....

Yes, I was in the same boat a month or two ago. Overall the past few weeks the forums have seemed pretty quiet, not just this thread. I am sure that the summer weather and activites have something to do with it.

stikpusher

Yay somebody else is posting in here! I feel like I have been talking to myself in this thread lately.

Well, I've been reading...

Nice work, both of you, Stikpusher and Big Dog.  I don't have a build in this GB, but I still like looking! 

Think everyone is on vacation or something.  Work has exploded for me, so my own Monogram kit is coming along slowly.  That and the heat which prevents some painting getting done.

Keep going!  Maybe with cooler weather others will come back.

Gary

Yeah I hear ya bout the Bossman. And I understand completely about the camera. Most of us have higher priority things to spend our money on. Your camera sounds like my old one, which I thought was pretty good. Too bad it did not survive the rigors of work... I'll leave it at that...

Oh well, I guess it is just us then...

well here are todays updates for me... again first up is the H-13

I masked off the yellow tail areas and main rotor tips and sprayed on more OD, touching up up everywhere else that needed that color as well. The bottom of the main rotor was painted Flat Black. BTW I got lazy about masking off the Red stiffener on the tail and will just re do that by hand... again

here are a few shots

and some close ups of the tail

next up is the Hun

I masked off and painted the Flat Black areas- gun ranging radar on the nose, another antenna on the spine, and the fin tip antenna fairing front...

some overall pics

and the individual radome/antennas

I think that is about as good as it gets as far as my camera, which is a Kodak Easy Share CX7300. It does have zoom options but those look about the same as blowing things up in a photo-editor. Those photos are cropped down, but I am cropping to a standard size and not the subject itself, laziness again, and probably a touch of OCD about a standard size. The last 2 are probably blurry from being free hand and less so from the distance as they were taken from about the same distance as the others.  I have been looking at better cameras but being disabled and on a fixed income I am a bit hesitant to rush out and dump that kind a loot on a camera.

As far as the activity, I think we are the only ones building. I also am only able to work on these builds and post on the net Thursdays through Monday so my activity is a bit spotty anyway. There have been some other new people like myself sign up, but they have not posted anything. I am not sure if these people have lost interest or are busy at the bench. I also don't think it helps that the Don seems to have gone AWOL especially from this thread.

Great lookin Hun so far!

Yay somebody else is posting in here! I feel like I have been talking to myself in this thread lately. Nice work there Big Dog. Does your camera have a "macro" setting (usually a little flower icon)? That may help for focus on your super close up pics. Or you can take your pics at a normal distance and use your computers photo editing software to crop until you have a close up of the area you want.

Some better pics of the 109. The last 2 while rather blurry show how oversized my belts ended up.

Next up, the Hun...

after yesterdays base coat of Gold Titanium on the after fuelage, today I masked off some areas and applied Tamiya Siler Titanium on a few areas and Model Master Jet Exhaust on the afterburner and area closest.... and Gunze Aircraft Gray to the tip of the vertical stablizer...

a close up of the color contrast

and the burner nozzle... it needs a good wash of soot now

and a few overall shots...

I now need to touch up some scratches in the Aluminum, paint a few dielectric panels Flat Black, mask and paint the gun blast panels in steel, mask and paint the Squadron's Green triangle on the tail, and it will be all ready for gloss coat and decals.

And here is the summary of last nights late work on the H-13 and this mornings work on the Hun.

First up, the H-13: I painted the fan belt and exhaust manifold & stacks on the engine. Of course that meant that today I had to touch up the fan pulleys...

Then I painted the stiffener bar on the rudder red (perhaps I should have waited until after the OD is corrected there now.... masking that little thing will be a bear...)

Then I painted up the interior components:seat cushions, stick and collective handles & boots, instrument housing and panel, cable and boxes on the cockpit rear wall...

and a couple overall shots...

I was mostly just curious about the A.L. Me being cheap and lazy I like to rattlecan mono-color schemes. Should you ever need to rattlecan something and make it look nice they make these trigger deals that pop on top of the cans and turns them into mini paint sprayers. I learned that trick from a friend of mine that said that was how they painted the maintenance vehicles in the Air Force back in the late 60s early 70s. I have painted a car or two myself this way with rattlecans before. If it is done right you can't tell the difference between a rattler and one that was sprayed with a gun.

Upon a closer inspection, what I thought was a primer is actually the dark green color of the plastic. In the pics it looks like it would make a nice Bronze Green. While it is not really something I would build I do like that Helo kit. Lots of opportunity for detail work on the engine and such and unlike a plane where all that detail stuff gets hid inside it will still be visible.

Big Dog, to answer your questions: 1) I went with Tamiya Flat Aluminum because I had lots (just in case- always nice to have extra for a fudge factor), and once it is gloss coated, decalled, and top coated, the final result will look like the Aluminum Lacquer that I have seen at places such as McClellan AFB and March AFB museums. Besides, I am not much of a rattle can guy. I never quite mastered them back in the day, and I feel that I am quite proficient with my various airbrushes in the 25 years that I have been using them. But when completed, my Hun should have a nice weather worn finish like photos show of those birds from 1965 being in the tropical monsoon weather 24/7. I still have a bit more airbrush work to do with the aft end .                                                                                                                                                       2) The green originally used was Polly Scale AAF Olive Drab. It was not intended as a primer, but as a top coat. If you look inside the cockpit bubble, you can see that it does not have too much contrast with Polly Scales Interior Green (rather light when applied, but once sealed, washed and weathered looks just right- most other Interior greens get too dark).Once applied it turned out too light and too green for what I wanted. The second shade that I used, Polly Scale US Olive Drab with its' browner hue was what I wanted based off of old stuff that I had seen in various museums. Or even occasional items that I ran across in my military career.

Thanks about the engine. Last night I finally did the detail painting such as the fan belt and exhaust manifold & pipes. I just need to do some touch ups today and then a wash and it will be ready for installation.