Enrico: Wow, sharp work!

Z Square 8  I want to thank you for sharing your Uncle Bob's story, I read the tribute page you have in your signiture. I had 2 Uncles in combat during WWII, one in the ETO and the other in the PTO. They wouldnt talk about what happened and the family has never pushed the subject. So in a way I envy you being able to find out what happened and just how heroic he and many others were.

To answer your earlier question I am building " Double Exposure " of the 3rd PRS Harmon Field, Guam 1945. But that could change as I have been known to do that from time to time.

Italian Starfighter lookin good man !! Really turned out to be a smooth finish, well done.

That is awesome! Just what I need to paint my P-51. Thank you!

Hi all....I see a wonderful B29.....compliments!!!Same updates......primer black gloss tamiya and grey gloss gunze......than I've sprayed one kind of alclad:chrome.So i've sprayed a gloss acrylic clear.........The yellow stripes are also painted....Ciao from Italy,Enrico.

Eatthis: Cool!!! Love both the Spit and the Lightning- nice work!

Rich: Thanks! I'll give your advice a try, only thing is I'm not even sure where the B-29 is right now! And nice work there on the decals.

Richard: It was sunny here Wed and I tried to grab some more photos but it was way too windy, my cardboard tarmac almost flew away and I was afraid my P-47 would take off for real. I hope I'll get the photos taken this weekend. If not I'll see what I can do inside.

29 build update: struggling with getting a smooth gloss applied a bit due to the large surface area, overspray and experience. I had hoped to get her cladding started this wknd, but we'll see. If I can get some control over the areas that show more of a "satin" finish today (as opposed to smooth gloss), I may clad her.

I did play with the nose art decal work last night. below is a before and after:

first color rendition-

and after adding more shading and definition

and a couple of other custom decal items: (ending serial #'s for the rudder and ship ID for the tail):

Vman- I thought about foil after doing some reading initially and due to the cost of compressor and airbrush, but decided that direction may be too far above my skill level at this point. I'll be anxiously watching your build progress. Do you have a particular ship you are doing the 29 as?

eatthis- Those two birds look great!

Front page has been updated with the new builds and the completed build of Theuns. Oh and Theuns collect your forth badge it has also been made and posted.

Italian Starfighter seems I made a huge mistake, a huge one ! When I commented about your checker tail I was thinking it was a 1/32 scale not 1/48 !!!!! You da man you can do that in 1/48  I really really like the 6 50s in the wings too, very nice work indeed.

Z Square 8  your build looks better each time I see it. Thats a good trick with the clothes pins too I am gonna have to remember that one. I am planning to use foil to finish mine so will be interesting to see pictures of them.

Eatthis I always have fun seeing what you come up with on your builds cant wait to see these finished. I really enjoyed the story behind the Spitfire you are building. 

Gamera as soon as you get pictures of your Jug up I will get your badge done and up. Looks great in the picture you posted I will say.

MK4 SPITFIRE

by 1943 it was obvious that war with germany was at the very least quite likely. the main fighter/interceptor in raf service was the mk2 spitfire with a 1600 hp merlin engine with 2x20mm cannons and 2x .50 cal mgs.
the new mk3 spitfire with 4 cannons and a new more powerfull griffon engine were beggining to enter service but it was felt that someting more extreme was needed to combat the rumoured jets that tha allies thought germany were developing.
the gloster meteor wasnt progressing as quickly as hoped and a stop gap was proposed to keep pace with these wonderweapons.

the supermarine design team decided to put to new griffon 64 engines (2350 hp each) into a spitfire inline this gave over 3 times the power of the mk2 variant with no noticable increase in drag this resulted in superb performance with an astounding top speed of 560 mph (which was even faster than most of the german jets!).
coupled with 4 hispano cannon this interceptor version went on to serve well into the jet age on equal footing

gloss coat going on now

that b29 is a monster lol

what do i do regards weathering for the guns? theres a hole under each gun on the bottom of the wing are these gas vents? ie would you get a streak of crap fro there toward the trailing edge of the wings?

Cliff- very nice work on your 29 build! She's a beaut!

Regarding that canopy issue, I have a similar issue with the 1/48th scale. To address it some, (still not as tight as I would have liked), scroll back up to the WIP images of the interior>see the last image of the nose glass and top glass install I did.

What you see there is really an elevated ship and the two clamps are actually hanging/applying weight. It should be noted that where the rubber touches the glass is not near the clear cement. This clamp weight helped to cinch down the glass to the fuselage a lot closer than my previous method/attempt. This may be the aid to pull and cement to an acceptable level.

Post edit: the success of course, would be dependent on the thickness of the glass vs. weight of the clamps. I can say w/o reservation that I never thought I'd be using clamps this size on the build. .

But I have used these clamps for several things...clamping the main wings to even hanging the heavy plastic mill for floor and wall protection during painting. 

Rich: Here's the link to where I posted the 1/72nd Academy/Minicraft kit. I still haven't fixed that darn canopy!

Cliff 

Eatthis- Lol on the design team check list!...the end of the transmission was cutoff and read:

Design team: "Pilot?...Pilot? Now where did the test pilot go?!"

Nice work on both builds.

Gamera: thanks for the kind words on the interior and nose art work. Interested in seeing any pics of your 72nd 29 build. Have any pics posted anywhere?

29 update: polishing has been completed and touch up black gloss w/ Testors applied. She will get an ample allottment of dry/cure time before cladding. No new pics to add at this time. Meanwhile, I will spend more time on the nose art decal work and life commitments outside of modeling.

Your 6 is clear...

Rich: Nice work on the interior detail and the nose art decal looks great! I built a B-29 a couple of years back but it was the 1/72nd kit so I didn't put much detail inside.

Eatthis: Lol, like it!!! The NM looks good, you've got a good start there.

Starfighter- awesome work on that checked tail...simply outstanding! 

ongoing build WIP...

found the clothespin width to be perfect in keeping the main landing tire assembly from drying unparellel in a "v" shape...more like an "H" this way.

And for the custom nose art decal work using Paint .net:

original image:

1st rework:

(  ...English teacher not proud of the spelling of Albuquerque... )

2nd rework : (corrected spelling and added some color w/editorial latitude)

3rd tier rework: (on white decal sheet)

I'll be reworking the capital "A" and "L"  to more closely resemble the original image more. They're just wrong in appearance.

And for the clear sheet (since there is no white base behind Hazel on the spearhead)

These are getting a lot closer to final, but they will get some additional rework in Paint.net before scaling/print/apply.

I think this brings the build more up to date on this forum for all to see. Thanks for looking.

Thanks for the acceptance Randy! ...glad to be aboard.

To bring the build up to date in this forum with WIP...

Here are a few more of the interior hand paint: (instrument panels are decals)

Randy: Great to see you back and thanks. Oh yeah, neon green 

Eatthis: Well since it's a theoretical aircraft I guess you don't have to be perfect with the underwing colour. Or just leave her in black and say she's a night fighter...

hasagawa lightning (chopped up)

2x airfix mk22 spitfires (also chopped up)

i keep changing my mind what im doing in nmf these were both going to be grey/green but i dont have a suitable grey for the bottom lol

  I got my notify workin again !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys I see its been party time here and I have been missing it My notifies were going to my junk mail, got that fixed I thought last month. Well I still wasnt getting them for some reason and thought nothing was going on here, until I popped in yesterday. Anyway I went through and reset everything and started getting notifies today.

I have updated the front page with our newest builders and I wish to welcome Z Square 8  and I think Eatthis has also joined us.

Theuns as I recall this was your first time using Alclad. You have done some beautiful work on that Mirage buddy !!!!

Gamera love your Jug man !!!! Cant wait to see the better pictures the cell cams just dont do justice. Although the neon green stripes are interestin.

That yellow checkertail P-51 wow !!!! Painting that the hard way sure paid off big I went cross eyed just thinking about doing that.

Eatthis !!!! I need scale and manufacturer info on your builds man !!!!

I know I missed a few builds please let me get caught up with them all.

not gonna be anything like as good as everybody elses but here we go anyway

gloss black (some of it anyway!) coat on both builds

Well Cliff, you handled her in the right places! She looks incredible!

Rich: Thanks! Sorry didn't do any washes except on the yellow nose and the bombs were done with the decals from the kit. Funny you can see the black on the leading edge of the wing where I rubbed off the aluminum from handling it.

Cliff

Theuns-

the Mirage is awesome...getting even one of the pilots autograph would be outstanding!...Getting both, well, that would be top shelf stuff. 

note...picked up some Tamiya tape based on what I have read and your suggestion today (along with another Alclad silver shade-Magnesium)

Gamera-

love the P-47's, especially the razorback version. I think your effort there is excellent. Love the detail on the bomb striping and the engine exhaust staining. How did you do your stripes on the bombs and is that a wash on the exhaust? Really liking the oil dripping base for the pose!

This whole site is chock full of very accomplished modelers! Great stuff!

Thanks for the story behind the B-29 and your connection with her Z Square 8. That's fascinating stuff!

Theuns: Sounds cool, getting his autograph is just plain awesome!

BTW: Finished the Tamiya P-47D last week. Unfortunately the photos I took turned out with the yellow nose looking really funny, not sure it was because the day was overcast or because I used my Droid phone instead of my camera. Anyway I'm going to try to get some better photos in better lighting conditions. Here is one of the better photos: 

It is always interesting to get some history to a build like you are doing, I am also getting the pilot who flew this actual Mirage I did to sign the display base . He flew the plane in France (1962) before being delivered to the SAAF. I also have another guy who logged some 22 hours on her.

I think it would make for an interesting talking point to have the guys's signatures with the plane.

Theuns

Thanks Theuns and Gamera...

quick background:

Would classify myself as "rusty at best" when it comes to skill level. Last build I can recall was the USS Constitution and Cutty Sark w/full rigging and sails back in the late '80's. My challenges are "experience in executing" what I see and read with modeling. Enjoying it.

Will be doing the kit as Z Square 8, S/N 42-24849, "Mission to Albuquerque" in honor of my wife's uncle who was radar operator on her and KIA 17 March 1945 over Kobe.

If I am able to pull off a "bombing" good job on the build, (pardon the pun), she will be the centerpiece of a revamped loft area theme.

My avatar is the Z-8 and I'm already in progress on making the custom decal to recreate her nose art and 7 credited bombing missions...she was the third Z-8 of four during the campaign in the pacific. She was lost on her 8th mission with the Fitzgerald crew. Tribute site for the uncle and the 29er's in signature below.

Working her with Bish and crew in the Gift GB, so there are far more WIP images there to date.

I just stumbled across the NMF GB as I am new to the FSM forums. I think I can still complete her by the June 1 deadline...famous last words right??