professordeath

Great looking builds going down here. I'd love to jump in with my A-10A Thunderbolt II (1/48 Hobby Boss kit). I see crossovers are allowed; I've committed it to the Ground Attack GB too. I'll be starting it tonight or tomorrow.

build added!

I'm calling this one finished,not a terrible kit but nothing to rave about either. My biggest complaint would be the gear bays and doors.Very poor fit and lack of positive location for the doors. I did scratch in a last minute landing light on the nose gear and decided to leave off the rockets and just have the bare rails. The variations in the black do'nt show well in the pics but it is there. Warts and all I'm actually pretty pleased with it,  cheers Trey

Looks good ta me TREY! Ill get it posted on the front page for ya! :)

Owl thanks much appreciated!

Jimmy D thanks no its the academy,looking forward to seeing the T-bolt build that kit looks really sweet!

Trey, your Lightning is absolutely stunning!  Great job.

Trey: She looks great to me! I can see a little of the shading in the black in the photos- would show up a lot more in RL. Only thing missing is some cheesecake nose art! 

Jimmy: Great kit there, built one a few years ago. The ordinance you get is almost worth the price of the kit itself. Only issue I had was there are a couple of sunken places in the upper wing over where the wheel wells were molded on the other side. I couldn't figure out any way to fill them without destroying the surface detail so I left them. 

Gamera, LOVE the looks of that hog!

Okay, a little progress today. I put a final coat over the decals to lock down the bit of panel work I was able to do, then I unmasked the antiglare panel. I'm not at all happy with the Tamiya XF-1's performance under tape, it looks very patchy indeed, and the absolute flat finish, while it may be technically correct, just does not jive with the rest of the airframe. I'll remask and respray, and bring up a low lustre -- probably using Micro Flat which is notorious for being anything but.

On the positive side, I oil washed the main gear bays so they look suitably dirty for a plane that's been up the runway a few times:

There'll be more over the weekend, I'm keen to get this one done. There's the tires to spray, the radio mast to scratchbuild (the instructions have disappeared and I can't find anything on the sprue that looks like the mast on the box or in other people's builds, hey ho, I'll carve it from some .060" plastic. I'll need to respray the gear covers, they got contaminated when I did the bare metal work.

I'll mount the landing gear before the centreline tank, and the fan and prop may be the last items to go on. Oh, and the radio wires... And pigment work...

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thanks guys, but I'll admit the Warthog looks much better in photos than close up. Maybe not a three feet model but at least a two foot one!

Looking good Mike, to be honest on aircraft straight matte looks well 'dull' to me too, I like to put at least a touch of semigloss in it.

Another great build TREY. I have never seen a P-38 NF before.

How about an F22?  It has two names one is obviously the Raptor, but it is also known as the Lightning II.  If that counts I'll join in with Academy's 48th scale one.  I need a good excuse to finish it.  It's not very far along, gluedin weapons bays, main bay doors, couple of interior parts, that's about it.

Thanks, Gamera, I must agree, so have resprayed the AGP to neaten it up, and treated it to the same finish as the rest of the plane. Now it has some depth to it.

All masking is now away, including the canopy, so here's a first look at the overall scheme and decals:

Tomorrow I'll tackle the landing gear and see if I can carve that antenna mast.

M/TB379

T-bolt...your Raiden's looking good.  Nice weathered look on the leading edge.

fantacmet

How about an F22?  It has two names one is obviously the Raptor, but it is also known as the Lightning II.  If that counts I'll join in with Academy's 48th scale one.  I need a good excuse to finish it.  It's not very far along, gluedin weapons bays, main bay doors, couple of interior parts, that's about it.

"lightning ii" was actually given to the F-35.

professordeath

CallSignOWL

fantacmet

How about an F22?  It has two names one is obviously the Raptor, but it is also known as the Lightning II.  If that counts I'll join in with Academy's 48th scale one.  I need a good excuse to finish it.  It's not very far along, gluedin weapons bays, main bay doors, couple of interior parts, that's about it.

"lightning ii" was actually given to the F-35.

That's true. I was unclear about the GB rules because I was thinking animals (Raptor) were included. 

I had another GB that was animal themed. Maybe you were thinking of that one?

Finally got some pics uploaded of my 72nd Thunderbolt. Im building this one straight OOB, and its going together rather well. I forgot to get pix of the office, but its just the kit included details. It was only a few hours before I had this:

The next day I finished the main assemblies and masked. I used Testors rattle can silver metallic to the NMF. It went down well, but I found some areas that needed more sanding. After I retouched the paint, here is what I got:

And detail painting. Once cured, the rattle can paint holds up well under masking

gloss coat and decals next!

Than I regret I have nothing I could contribute here.  No $$ for another kit.

fantacmet

Than I regret I have nothing I could contribute here.  No $$ for another kit.

aww, sorry to hear that!

T-Bolt the Raiden is coming along nicely!

Owl diggin' the Jug!

Such is the case these days.  No worries though.  I have a couple but they only need like 2 or 3 parts put on.  LOL  They are pretty much completed.

Thanks, Trey. I made a little progress today, not a lot but fiddly. The plans have disappeared and I couldn't spot the radio mast on the sprue, so I made one that resembled those in artwork and other builds, a narrow, aerodynamic blade-type mast with a forward rake. I filed and adzed it from .060" plastic, then sprayed it in prop redbrown and satin-coated it. I'll mount it just about last thing. Today I also resprayed the gear bay doors and they're all ready for mounting. The struts are painted and weathered, there's only the tires to do before I can mount the gear. From that point it's a straight shoot to the finish.

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Owl: Coming along nicely! Almost done.

Mike: Looking forward to the finished photos!

wow, looks good professor!

Those are some awesome tips. Thanks for that prof.

After chugging on through, my Thunderbolt is finished! No problems with the decals, they snuggled down well. I went with almost no weathering on this one and gave it only a dark panel line wash.

Ta-daah!

as always, my b/w period pic

professordeath

That's a good looking T-bolt, Owl. The Tamiya kit is just wonderful. I wouldn't do any weathering on that one either. What you use for the NMF?

Tamiya? Nah, man...Its a Revell 1/72nd kit!

I used a Testor's rattle can--silver metallic (enamel), and buffed it with a cotton ball

professordeath

Ok I feel du du duuumb. That's a good looking build. I could have swore it was a Tammy '48. I think this pretty much validates the Hans Von Hammers of the world.

hehe, it's all good!

A lovely build, Miss Owl! You have a sweet result and I'm amazed by how many techniques you have mastered in such a comparitively short time! You're a natural and already building to the standard I was after twenty years in the hobby! I'm a big fan of the trick of clear-coating over metallics -- is this what you did to seal the decals and panel wash?

I have the same kit on its way, I look forward to building it!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

Thunderbolt379

A lovely build, Miss Owl! You have a sweet result and I'm amazed by how many techniques you have mastered in such a comparatively short time! You're a natural and already building to the standard I was after twenty years in the hobby! I'm a big fan of the trick of clear-coating over metallics -- is this what you did to seal the decals and panel wash?

I have the same kit on its way, I look forward to building it!

Cheers, Mike/TB379

thanks, Thunderbolt! :)

Yeah, I clear coated over the metallic. I used a simple coat of brushed on Future.

Wow, that was brushed on? I have got to try this! I sprayed a test panel of flat midnight blue but realised we had no Windex to clean the brush... We do have 'cloudy ammonia' -- would that do?

M/TB379

Owl: Beautiful build! Doesn't really need any weathering- the panel line wash looks great just as it is.