Talentless thanks I'm trying to stay positive.

DJ that is looking sweet. Awesome job on the NMF.

Well I have made a partial recovery to were I wanted to be. I shot tamiya ts-30 first followed by Model Master aluminum plate metalizer. Then I buffed everything out by hand and shot automotive 2part urethane clear thinned about 30% over the whole thing. I'm not going to attempt to mask and spray the invasion stripes,just too worried everything will pull up again! I tried using the kit supplied ones but ruined them putting them on,totally my fault. So 'elsie ' will have to live without her belly stripes,oh well.

Decals are Aero Master and are working great

Monster Prop is ready to hang

Talentless - Thanks!  I used Model Master Metalizer Lacquer Aluminum Plate.  I'm going to use Future to seal the decals and see how it looks.  I may put Testors Dullcote to take down the shine.

Gamera - Thanks!  those decals were tough.  There are a couple of spots that didn't sit well, but the seams look good.  

Thanks for all the praise on my blue diamond mustangs, i love the color scheme as well!

I'm also looking for a good clear coat, any suggestions?

Wow DJ, looking good! Love how those nose checkerboard decals came out, one thing I'm not very good at all.

Nice one dj, what metal spray is that and what clear coat r u using

Those are some colorful birds you have there, Spark. 

Hang in there Trey, they can't all be that bad. Right?

I just finished putting the decals on the Mustang.

All that is left now is some touch up, a clear coat, and the canopy.

TREYZX10R

 If that does'nt work I'm returning it to kit form. Gee I'm so glad I got back into this hobby to relax.

That sucks bad keep your pecker up, im sure the ts30 will be better.

Talentless ,not so well!

Looks spot on B-17pilot,nice results!

Had an EPIC fail on the NMF. Masked up some panels to spray some different shades of aluminum and the clear pulled away from the base. So I grabbed some really strong tape and started using it to 'pull' the remainder of the clear away.

then wet sanded everything with 1000 grit,loosing a little detail but its better than binning it at this point.

Then sprayed it semi gloss black to check for flaws . I'm going to try Tamiya ts-30 silver leaf as I've had good results in the past with it.

If that does'nt work I'm returning it to kit form. Gee I'm so glad I got back into this hobby to relax.

Well my NMF painting is done! Had a couple of problem areas in the tail as well so that set me back a bit. I also got the squadron markings on. Now its decal time!

Some panels are diferent shades, but I went with a light variation so they might not show up in the pictures.

The testors spray looks like a really nice finish, ive never used testors. How resiliant is the finish against fingerprints and the like?

Sweet Tesi ,saw one in person at bike week in Daytona a few years back. Love the Bimota line,especially the old 2 strokers!

I'm going with Testors aluminum for the base of the NMF. First shot some Testors clear over the canopy to help seal down the mask and avoid 'creep'. Followed by a shot of the green interior color. Then the aluminum went on. I had to stop and fix some blems inspite of all the extra care I still missed a few spots. I then shot some Testors clear over the aluminum ,hopefully this will keep me from damaging the finish as I add some various tints to access panels and the anti glare areas.

The props almost ready to hang

Panel color modulation followed by Invasion stripes and anti glare next,cheers Trey

sure is, nice little bike and a bit different to the norm.

PICT0066 by omgpainful, on Flickr

lol I do'nt sleep much at all,btw is that a Tesi in your avatar?

hurry up, dude, :-0 you only have 6 months to finish it .

How the hell do you lot build em so fast? 

The wings next,opened the spent shell ports ,landing lights and ID light holes

Cleaned up the engine and firewall,opened the intakes and removed areas around the cylinder heads

Joined the wings and set the dehedral,its close but not exact

filled the minor gaps with green squadron putty

smoothed out the filler and painted a guide coat of thinned grey to highlight imperfections

I just had to touch up a few panel lines at the seams avoiding a major rescribe job.

Thinned MM enamel applied to get a uniform base before the NMF

canopy added

NMF is next,cheers Trey

B-17 in the stash gave up a turbo(more to come on that build later) and using the donated part I finished up the aft turbo vents.





 I also used some sheet styrene painted black to block light from passing thru the opened vents and installed the office.



Glued the fuse halves together


started working on the gun sight

after it sets up it will be time to decide what to do about the raised panel lines,not really wanting to rescribe this thing. Geuss it depends on how much detail I loose sanding the seams

Spark looks really sharp!

Cliff I hear ya ,really hated sticking with the kit supplied pit but trying real hard to stay away from the resin on this one. Keeps tempting me the more I look at it tho

I'm still cleaning up the fuse and opening up tiny vents

Does anyone have a good detail picture of this area?Been searching for hours and coming up dry. Would be greatly appreciated

cheers Trey

Spark: Cool! Always loved those diamond nose Mustangs but never built one. Super eye-catching model!

Trey: My Revell Promodeler P-47 has the same cockpit, wasn't too crazy about it but it works.

Yup they are there now, thats a colourful scheme, looks cool!

OK, they should show up now on that post... i used the wrong link type.

Office is a wrap,not a very accurate molding I might add. A lot of missing and misplaced components .Still trying to avoid resin replacements with this build so in it goes.

Doogs yes the kit barrels are going to the bin for sure. I've been lurking on the thread for a while and saw your tutoral on the replacement technique,very useful thanks! Not sure what I'm using to replace them with yet tho,leaning toward some a/m just hate to do that all the time.

Spark did you forget to use the rich formatting? Not seeing the pics either

What color primer is best suited for the D the yellow or green Zinc?

DJ: Nice work there!

Spark: Nothing here either, hmmmmmm.

Are they iPhone pics? I've had a problem with that recently, and found that changing the file name was the only way to fix it (think it's because the iPhone gives photos stupid-long filenames)

I see one pic in the email, but none on the forum post.

weird, they show for me...? I've never had this problem before.

Spark - pics are not showing mate :-(

Here's an update on the mustangs, one is complete up to weathering, still needs some of that (exhaust stains, gun smoke stains and such). the other is ready for decals. on the image of the wheel wells, you can see the "cracking" i experienced with the alclads. this is on an edge, so that may have had a hand in it, but i also experienced the same thing in areas not near an edge.

Trey - please tell me you're going to do something about those sad excuses for blast tubes! Love the old Monogram Jug, but those things have to go...

If you've got a Tamiya Jug lying around, you can steal the blast tubes off it and replace those with Master tubes at a later date. Or go with the Quickboost resin ones or use tubing (which I don't like since it doesn't capture the rounded-ness of the P-47 tubes, but close enough for government work!)

I've been using Model Master metalizer with decent results. Not had the nerve to try my hand at Alclad yet,tho this might be a good project to give it a go on. I've gotten a start on it

Basic Dry fit looks promising

Trying not to go hog wild with a/m goodies on this one so making the most out of whats in the box is a must. First up I gave the wheels a retread and then 'weighted' them,may have weighted them a tad much but I'll roll with it!

Next I opened up the vents behind the cowl flap area

Cleaned up and thinned the aft fuse vents

More cleaning and drilling,will be straying from the oob by adding some tubing here

Razor sawed the cowl flaps ,filed them a bit and thinned the trailing edges

Rescribed and cleaned up the front cowl

on to the office next! cheers Trey