ANZAC GB Sept 2012 to Sept 2013

Blitz, I think the paint job came out looking really good--especially good appearance to the rivets.

Thanks Scorpio and Checkmate, I really like how the rivets came up too. My only fear now is that I will think planes without rivet details will look to plain from now on, and I'm not particularly keen on making rivets on a plane yet. 

One more day until I go back to work so I'm racing through to try and get it done before that day so the decals went on today. I'm generally pretty happy with how the decals have gone on with no major blunders, although I'll probably need to do some touch ups with paint around the shark teeth area because the decals don't seem to quite reach each other at the centre. 

I could just kill this single decal though because it just wouldn't settle properly even after I made some small cuts into it and large amounts of Mr Mark Softer to try and get it to settle over that little bump. You can see the Mr Mark Softer has done great with the rivet detail and lines on the tail, but it just wouldn't settle over that light or whatever it is. What is even more frustrating is that it did the job on the other side just fine. 

Tomorrow I'm going to spray on the matt coat before attaching the guns to the wings, attaching the gun sight, doing some exhaust stains and trying to do the rigging from the tail to the wing with stretched sprue before calling it a finish. 

Wow, that is gorgeous. Well done.

Ive been making progres on the skyhawk. keep forgetting to post the pics here.

Got alot of touchups to do.

So thats where im at. Was hoping to have it done by new years, but it didnt happen. So thats where im up to.

I hate when decals do that, Blitz.  They are unpredictable at best.

Nice camouflage, Mikey.  Looking good so far.

I am working on Brian Carbury's Spitfire; progress is just slow at this time of year.  Hope to finish up soon.

Happy New Year!

Blitz, liking how the P-40 is turning out.  When I stumble on decal problems like you have there on the rudder, I just carve out the area in question.  Then later I'll go back in and just paint in the proper colour.

If you are keen on rivets, there are a couple of AM producers (Archer and HGWmodels) of generic types in various scales.  They are raised resin on decal paper, and as such are applied just like decals.  No worries about silvering as these are painted afterwards with the whole aircraft.

regards,

Jack

Thanks for all the comments guys, I've really enjoyed this build and have been very happy with the results so far, and I'm happy you like it too. 

Happy new year guys, I was really eager to get started with the matt finish today and got to work this morning and here are the results. 

It was turning out really beautifully until...............

I have no idea what happenned, whether I didn't mix the Tamiya flat base properly with the clear coat, but this happened to just that one section, and I was so close to the end too. The white fades when you moisten it but it comes back as it dries, and I have absolutely no idea apart from a one sided model. Anybody encountered this before?

Not a good start to 2013 at all..........

wet it down, wipe it off, clear coat it with gloss once its dried. start again.

Hello. I'm not sure if I'm too late to get in on this group build, but I've recently started building an 1:48 Revell SBD-3 Dauntless and was planning on doing it up as if it were an RNZAF bird of the 25th Sqn. out of Seagrove in Aukland from 1943.

Is there any way for me to get in on this build? Thanks.

Yeah sure. Im sure OWL is around somewhere to update the list.

Hey Blitz, how did you get on?

It's struggling a bit. I ended up having to paint over some of it, and now I've got another flare up on the right wing root so I'm scratching my head on it and working slowly now, and probably start spraying again until I start painting my next build which is a 1/72 Airfix Sea Harrier FA2 so it shouldn't take too long.

USFDon2012

Hello. I'm not sure if I'm too late to get in on this group build, but I've recently started building an 1:48 Revell SBD-3 Dauntless and was planning on doing it up as if it were an RNZAF bird of the 25th Sqn. out of Seagrove in Aukland from 1943.

Is there any way for me to get in on this build? Thanks.

updated!!

Aaaand Im finished!

here are a couple of in-progress pics. I did this kit OOB.

Cockpit

all the stuff that hangs off of it

painting done and ready for decals (Turns out the paint was too dark and some of the stencils later disappeared...)

and final pics!

Very nicely done. I see what you mean about the dark paint. It looks awesome though.

Also i think thats the first time ive seen an RAAF hornet in the snow lol.

Scorpiomikey

Also i think thats the first time ive seen an RAAF hornet in the snow lol.

my planes get around

Great work on the Hornet, OWL.  Nicely done and well-photographed.

Blitz - yes I've had that happen before.  Flat base is very potent stuff, mixing your own not only requires thinning it down, but adding future will help.  Even when mixed well, if it allows to pool as you are spraying it on, it can dry white. When spraying just do a pass or two, then wait to see if it needs more.

Owl - cool looking Hornet and pics

regards,

Jack

thanks guys! Im pretty happy with it.  :)

Yeah I'm gonna put this one down in the experience column. Frustrating to get so close to the end only to have problems come at at this stage of the build. I going to need to find a more accurate way of measuring how much flat base gets put into the clear flat, although I was at a hobby shop and found a bottle of Tamiya XF 86 Flat clear, so I'm going to give that a try.

Owl that is a nice Hornet, and an INCREDIBLE cockpit from the box. How did you do it?

Hi Blitz,

For measuring paint mixes and the like, I use a dropper from one of my kids medicine bottles from when they were little. I've seen them available in pharmacies too. You can then add your flat base drop by drop. Same with custom paint mixes and even thinner to paint ratios.

I've not tried XF-86 myself, but I spent a while with Tamiya flat base and gloss clear, and also tried Gunze flat clear. Whilst I had some successful finishes, I couldn't say that I was ever certain of a good result.

I now use Testors Dullcote, which sits fine over the aforementioned brands of acrylic. It's reliable, but is thinned with lacquer thinner and  I wouldn't want to sniff it.

Maybe there is  some useful information for you somewhere in this ramble.

Cheers

Tony

You can pick up medical syringe thingies from most chemists. Its just the measure and plunger bit with no needle. Its designed to give small children liquid paracetamol. That might be one way to do it,

Thanks for the tips guys. I have a dropper but the flat base is pretty gooey so I didn't think it would go through but I'll give it a try next time. The syringe sounds like a pretty good idea too.

Nice job on the hornet OWL 

Blitzwing

Owl that is a nice Hornet, and an INCREDIBLE cockpit from the box. How did you do it?

Thanks blitz! The kit included decals for the cockpit, but with the raised detail I didnt use them. I drybrushed white and picket out a few buttons with yellow or red. For teh IP, I cut out the green decal screens and placed them, instead of using the whole IP decal.

Well after a few heart in the mouth moments it is finally done and I'm fairly happy with the end results, so here are the pics. 

The stretched sprue took a while to stick on with superglue but it finally did. I wasn't quite sure on what colour to do them though. I originally thought about black but I thought that would be too stark. I thought it looked alright unpainted so I went with it but I'm curious about what people usually do. 

I'm also quite happy with how the kit exhausts turned out and used the Tamiya make up compacts for the exhaust stains. The Aires gunsight is definitely a marked improvement over the original Trumpeter one. The Trumpeter one looks like a really ham fisted effort for some reason. 

This is the offending side that undoubtedly led to even more deforestation on the top of my head, but it scrubbed up ok after having to repaint over some of the decals. 

And lastly the underside. Maybe a bit on the clean side but with the plane having been in the desert for that long I didn't weather it too heavily. I hope you guys like it. 

nice P40! Ill get the front page updated for ya!

Very nice. Lemme guess, tamiya flat base going in the tool box never to be released again?

While the idea of seeing how far I can throw that little jar has crossed my mind, unfortunately it is still the best matt varnish I have used so far because I prefer spraying with acrylics. I have a bottle of Micro Flat but that still gives me a semi gloss finish which I don't get. I may have to keep experimenting with the flat base until I find something to replace it.

grab a dog kit and experiment till you get a nice mix. and practice how to fix mistakes.