Finito!

How i wish mine was looking thatgood.

Really nice.

Owl did you use any clearcoats for the decals? I'm undecided if i should or not (new to this) would clearcoating tone down the shineyness or just ruin the metalic finish?

Black

DSC01902 by omgpainful, on Flickr

Silver

DSC01914 by omgpainful, on Flickr

DSC01908 by omgpainful, on Flickr

DSC01906 by omgpainful, on Flickr

Looks better today after a nights drying and a rub with a cloth to remove the dusty overspray. much happier now. So shiny its hard to tell the diff between the chrome and polished aluminium, duralumin and white aluminium. gonna take some careful work to tone it down without ruining it

TL: Oh when you said shiny I didn't think you meant that shiny! 

If you want to dull 'er down a little an overcoat will take some of the shine off, gloss will take it down a little, dull matte will take it down a lot.

Since the surface is already smooth you can apply decals straight down on top of the NM, so far I've never had decal setting solutions disturb the finish. You might want to be careful cleaning off any extra solution or glue from the decal when it's dry though.

I hit the model with a little gloss varnish when I'm done, takes off some of the shine as I said but I don't like leaving the decals unprotected. Not sure if you can get it but I really like Testor's Metalizer Sealer - it's made for their Metalizer line of course but it works great on Alclad or anything else. Gives a nice protective coat over the decals without knocking off much shininess. 

Hope that helps some.

Cliff

Hmm.. well i have a selection of cleacoats including alclads own. the spine needs to be a semi matt finish so i may as well do it all like it apart form the chrome bits. damn i do like the shine tho' , but its gotta go.

Cool, you might test them out on an old model or piece of plastic first. I've been using Alclad for years but odd I've never used their own clearcoat. Hope you'll post photos, I'm still learning my way around NM finishes myself.

If it's ok, I would like to join with the Revell P-51C Lucky Leaky II:

This will be my first NMF, so I'm not sure how it is going to turn out.  But I'm going to give it my best shot and have some fun. 

Lots goin on here I see My build is still gathering dust out in the mancave I have a decompression build going, a 1/48 Revell Stuka just an OOB fun relaxing build, really needed it after that sprint car. Then it on to the B-29.

Theuns that lil Sikorski came out great man ! I really like the dayglow red on it against the aluminum, nice simple, but eye catching too. What silver paint did you use on your build ?

CallSignOwl you always seem to have a way of blowing me away with your builds, always makes me want to go get one of those tiny, itty bitty, little 1/72 kits and try and make it look that good. I have no idea how you all get those small kits to look so good. The detail pops and you even managed to get some shading on it too. Well done young lady very well done Oh and what is the name of your ship I cant read it in the pictures ?

Talentless man that is a shiny finish and you have some shading going on there too it looks like in the 3rd picture. Just my 2 cents worth but I am think if it was my build I might play with both gloss and semi gloss on this build for the dull and shiny effect, say the semi gloss on the spine and sections that will see some heat, and maybe leading edges. then other places the high gloss. Just a thought for more variations. Don't use any flat clear coats on it though, makes the metal look chalky and well ugly as sin.

DJinFlorida your mustang is in and welcome to the group. That is a sweet kit you have chosen too, mine went together very well other than the normal Revell canopy fit. But even that wasn't all that bad.

Owl and Theuns your finished build pictures are on the front page for all to see, I will have your badges ready for you this weekend and get those posted as soon as I finish them.

vetteman42

CallSignOwl you always seem to have a way of blowing me away with your builds, always makes me want to go get one of those tiny, itty bitty, little 1/72 kits and try and make it look that good. I have no idea how you all get those small kits to look so good. The detail pops and you even managed to get some shading on it too. Well done young lady very well done Oh and what is the name of your ship I cant read it in the pictures ?

Owl and Theuns your finished build pictures are on the front page for all to see, I will have your badges ready for you this weekend and get those posted as soon as I finish them.

Thanks Vetteman!

the 'bolts' name is "Balls Out"

OWL,

Great finish!! I recognise the revell when i see it. Did it please you as much as i like this boxing? Wonder what they go for in the US btw...

Richard

Hi guy's, i'd like to enter this Sabre if I can, might also do Airfix's 1/48 Lighning at a later date.

kermit

OWL,

Great finish!! I recognize the revell when i see it. Did it please you as much as i like this boxing? Wonder what they go for in the US btw...

Richard

thanks Kermit! The kit goes for about $8 here.

Vetteman. there are 5 different alclads on it. in hind sight i should have varied the undercoat to bring out the different shades using grey or white under the non polished finish paints. live and learn :-(

CallSignOwl thanks I will update the front page shortly.

Talentless  well it sure looks good from where I sit

Alax Shaw your build is in and welcome to the group.

Well, I got a start on the cockpit and pilot. 

I test fit the fuselage, and it looks like there is going to be some putty work in my future.  Also, the rear wheel bay is empty.  I'm trying to figure out what to do about that without spending any money. 

I used Tamiya chrome silver enamel on the S-55. It actually gave me a very hard time as it might have been thinned to much at one stage and I kept rubbing it off exposing the orange as I handled it. Allot of fine touch up were called for  LOL!

Theuns

Latest bit of time wasting. didnt like the kit ones so spent 3 hours doing this when i should be spraying.

DSC01919 by omgpainful, on Flickr

DSC01921 by omgpainful, on Flickr

At this rate ill never finish by christmas

I know what you mean Talentless, but those look great!

Realised i wasnt doing anything because i was too scared of making a mess of it.(this is my first plane since primary school) finally sprayed the spine and tail and missiles. will touch it up and clearcoat wednesday, or maybe do the decal then clearcoat, not decided yet, or maybe decal weather clearcoat. oh i dont f"34in' know. ah, forgot , still have to do the gunports and antiglare patch first.

Hey all - REALLY wish I could post up pics of the current project, but it's a commission build and I don't want to ruin that first look at the finished thing. But I just wrapped up the NMF on it, and tried out a new technique that worked out so amazingly well I just had to share it.

It involves getting that nice, smooth black undercoat for Alclad finishes.

Earlier in the build I'd had really great results with decanted Tamiya TS-14 gloss black, but spraying down the fuselage, it went down ridiculously grainy. So...out came the micromesh. Had to sand to the point where I was actually removing the black and would have to repaint, so I decided, screw it, and pulled out a cloth polishing wheel for the Dremel. 

I've tried these before on NMF (with Hawkeye's polishing powders) and had decent success. Never tried it on the black base coat though.

Oh. My. Word. Absolutely glass smooth, and so shiny you can see your reflection in the paint. The Alclad that went on top of it is the best I've ever laid down. I'll be using these things from now on...you can find them for sale pretty cheap on eBay, too!

What speed does your dremel run at, mine is too fast, eveything i do with it just melts the plastic.

5000 at the lowest (Dremel 8200)

Hmmmmmm, that's cool Doogs! I've got two of this buffing wheels but was also afraid I'd melt the plastic. I'll have to give it a run on my old P-40 paint mule.

Gamera

Hmmmmmm, that's cool Doogs! I've got two of this buffing wheels but was also afraid I'd melt the plastic. I'll have to give it a run on my old P-40 paint mule.

Just be sure it's one of those floppy cloth polishing wheels. The felt ones WILL damage the plastic.

To show off the effect, I sprayed my new Mule Jug with TS-14 and polished the outer port wing. Hard to see in pictures, but here's a video. You can see how much smoother it is by the clarity of the reflection detail versus the inner portion of the wing.

OOOOOOOOooooooo, shiney ;-) the plane will end up like a mirror.

talentless

OOOOOOOOooooooo, shiney ;-) the plane will end up like a mirror.

Yeah Doogs, almost looks like chrome!!!

DJinFlorida Nice work on the pit man ! I like the figure too, really lookin good. How do you like the kit so far ? I fell in love with mine and have 2 or 3 more of them on the shelf.

Talentless  I like !!!! Sure adds a bunch to the look of those gear legs, so, yup I would say it was well worth the 3 hours ya spent making them. The only question I have is, how are your eyes feeling today ? Made mine hurt just looking at them.

Doogs I myself tried that Dremel trick with some Talon polishing powder but was using the felt wheel. Almost tossed the model and the Dremel in the trashcan. But I managed to save the model And no I didn't toss the dremel Sure made that wing look smooth and shiny, guess I had better find some of those cloth wheels and try it again. Thanks for sharing that trick with us.

Theuns I corrected the paint used on the front page, thanks for clearing that up for me and us.

CallSignOwl and Theuns your group badges are ready and posted on the front page, hope ya like em. Sorry it took me so long to get them ready, been busy getting things ready for my niece to come home from rehab for the 4th time. Hope it works out for her this time around, but time will tell.

whoo, thanks Vetteman!

Tried to tone down the bright white and too shiney silver. maybe overdone it a bit. think ill have to blow it over again to tone down the toning down Then its decals and a bit of a wash and on to th undercarriage.

Image1 by omgpainful, on Flickr

DSC01930 by omgpainful, on Flickr

DSC01926 by omgpainful, on Flickr

DSC01928 by omgpainful, on Flickr

Maybe a little shiny but it looks fine to me for a peace-time aircraft TL. And the overall NM looks perfect.