My First Time Group Build

green, that is a great looking build. I would second the EZ line. I tried it the other week for the first time, after a push from Mustang, and it really is great stuf. As i understand it, both sizes can be used for 48th. And it stretches really nice so you can get it thinner that it originally looks.

Check the differance. This is my Stuka with fine fishing line, which i have been useing for a couple of years no problem. But on this it didn't look right.

And then i replaced it with EZ line, the fine one in this case.

It would have streched more, but i wasn't sure how well the mast would hold and didn't want to risk it. 

Oh yea, I forgot about the antenna wires. I've used regular black thread before. ( i used it on my Black Cat PBY and the Gato sub)

Update, I just went to Bobe's web site. I like what I'm seeing there. What size line should I get?

I'll try to do the wash, I understand how to do it,  but I've never done it before.

Thanks guys, you're making me feel better about this build.

Thanks for the info on Bobe's, this is a new one to me.

Very nicely done Ken. You've done a fine job on "Jeanne". As a final touch are you going to apply a wash to the panel lines? That would sure highlight your work there.

That looks good to me so far. Hey for something that will make this thing look even better than it looks now try out some EZ line for the antenna wires going from the canopy to each vertical fin. Bobe's hobby house sells it. Its like thin elastic that you can stretch, glue into place and cut. Its simple to use and apply and looks kick A when applied.

Just something for you to try if you haven't already. I use it on all of my planes. Just too easy and looks too good.

the latest on "JEANNE" It's not done yet. I just need to touch a few things up on it yet. And maybe some weathering will help it too.

Wow. That is amazing Ken.  Certainly  gives me some hope with the ancient decals for my old Revell kit. Speaking of, I need to give my kit for this GB some attention. Keep it coming Ken.

Started putting the 40 year old decals on tonight. Surprisingly, I only had a couple tear on me. And I was able to slide them together. Will finish them tomorrow and get a few pics for everyone.

I'm haveing a bit of an issue with spraying the Sabre. A few days ago i put on the Alclad in a couple of light coats. But in some areas it blistered and cracked. I tried poslishing it out and have just sprayed a second coat and its still the same. The only thing i can think of is that i has some residue of cleaner in the airbrush. Short of stripping the whole thing down and starting again, the only other option is to try and polish it as best i can. I think i might go with the second option and put it down as a lesson learnt. I'll get some pics up later so you can see what i mean.

Jeez thats crazy deattilio! Glad you got the paints sorted out. Sounds tedious!! Whew!

I have managed to get some of the interior painted on my Mustang, albeit with a brush as I have yet to come across my airbrush while digging through the moving boxes still residing in the garage.  I had to take a frustrating pause on one of my modeling days due to poor prepping on my part.  I had stored all of my paints in ammo cans for the move from CA and decided to keep them stored that way until I get my shelves built.  Unfortunately I did not tighten one of the lids enough and it had leaked. Although the leak created very little mess it wreaked havoc on the bottles in the can.  The leak caused nearly all of the labels to fall away from the bottles forcing me to carefully remove each bottle as not to mix up the labels and then wipe and Sharpie what info I could directly onto the bottles.  This caused much frustration and once the task at hand was completed I had to step away from paints for a while.

I am hoping to get more plastic time next weekend as it will be the close of my current class and I can take a bit of a breather.

Thanks Joe, I have a tanker semi trailer sitting up out of the way that I tried Alclad chrome on. It is NOT the least bit shiny. after that I came accross a You Tube video. that guy said if you get too much on it, it takes the shiny chrome out of it. I have yet to do anything with it. Actually I've been thinking about painting it white and putting Country Fair ( A local convienance store) decals on it.

With the P 38, the brillant silver paint was way too shiny for my taste. Thats why I used the flat clear.

Hmmm, nice. And I can get those for 15% off at the Ace Hardware store where I work. Man, I tell ya I'm willing to give that a try as it was my issues with Alclad that brought my P-47 to a halt. I have never quite determined whether it was something on my part or some other issue that caused just one single spot to blemish and no amount of attempts at covering over it worked. Thus, my desire to strip and redo.

P - 38 Paint

I sprayed the Brillant Silver on not knowing how it would look, After an hour of setting up, I thought it was way too shiney. So I sprayed the Flat Clear on it. I like how it turned out too.

The paint job is credit to my Dad. he painted 1/1 cars for a living all his life. even after 30 years of painting them, he still got runs in the paint. There is an easy trick to that. take a piece of masking tape and lightly touch the sticky side of the tape on the run in the paint right after it starts. Then spray a light coat over it and it disappears. I've done it countless times on my models.

Looking good Ken.

Ken, You're doing an excellent job with that. Paint looks top notch. What paint did you spray that with?  

Thanks Joe, Yea, I think it will turn better than I thought it would,

Coming along nicely there Ken especially for having the troubles you are having of it. Really liking the build, Joe

It's out of the paint shop

Joe - Thanks, I sprayed it last night, Now its setting for the next 3 days.

Lucky you didn't have to shell out your hard earned cash for it. It sounds great. Hmm, maybe my Rent Rebate will come in handy for that.

Looks like you're making excellent headway there Ken. Nice work.

As far as which P-38 kit to get next I can only pass on what I have seen and read. I personally have in my stash the Hasegawa 1/48 P-38 F/G/H, the Academy 1/48 P-38J and the Eduard Limited Edition P-38J European Theatre, which is a repop of the Academy but with all the bells and whistles. After having read a number of reviews and watching some builds it seems the Academy is your best bet. Like I said the Eduard is an Academy repop but, the extra resin and PE are really astounding and I'm defeinitely looking forward to buiding that one. Only drawback on that kit is the $70.00+ price tag. But, I can't complain it was a birthday present.

Okay We're headed for the paint shop. Will post painted pics tomorrow

It does take some pressure off. But I'm also doing my P-38 for my local model club ( a Christmas present build). so it still has to be done by March 9. But I'm not seeing a problem with that.

I am pretty disappointed with this monogram P 38. Soem of the parts are warped and I'm afraid its not going to turn out as well as I hoped. So, I'm going to do a another one later on this year. Maybe this one will be a wreck on the side of my Airfiled Diorama. The version I'm doing is "Jeanne" Assigned to Capt. Roy M. Scrutchfield who named it after his wife. Then it was lost on June 16,1944 with Maj. Paul A. Lobinger being a KIFA.

So, which kit would be better to get? It's been a long time since I did any ww2 aircraft. And I'm not very good at scratch building. I do okay on somethings especially with cars and some on tractor trailers as well. Maybe I should read through the Scratch Building section here.

Thanks,

Ken Worth

Thank You Very Much Gentlemen, That definitely takes some pressure off and certainly encourages me to give the Draken a bit more attention rather than sticking 'er together and calling it good just to make the timeline. I like you guys.

Ok you guys. Here's the latest:

AS OF 7 FEB 13 BISH AND I ARE EXTENDING THIS GROUP BUILD FOR A PERIOD OF TWO MONTHS. THE OFFICIAL END DATE IS NOW 01 AUG 13!!!

This is to accomodate those who could not attain kits until a much later date than the start date, for those that were in the process of moving and getting re-set up and due to the fact that December was a busy month with the holidays so not much building could take place. Now lets resume building!! LOL, Joe

You know Bish I was awake for around 30 minutes or so last night at around 12:30 a.m. and thinking that I haven't contributed anything to this build in a while. So I got up real quick and busted the Dauntless back out. I've been concentrating alot of effort into the Fw190 GB (it's addictive!!!) and haven't paid the GB here as much attention as I should be. Will be grabbing my son tonight and breaking the blue bird out again.

Just a little update, and a shameless bump. I haven't been working on the sabre the last couple of weeks as i was concentrating on getting my Stuka finished. But now thats all wrapped up i plan on getting the Alclad on hopefully tomorrow when i have a quiet day. I spent a whole evening cleaning the bench and tidying up around it. It amazing how much accumelates during a build.

CMike - That's great looking bench you got there. I live alone; in some ways its unfortunate, but in others ways it better. because I set my work bench up in my office. I have an L shaped desk with a really thick glass for the top. If I had a wife, I'm sure I'd be in the basement. I'll get a pic and post it for you all to see.

Nice looking bench Mike. No matter how hard i try and how often i tidy it up, usually at least twice during any build, it still looks a mess not long after.

Indeed Mike. I too try to keep my bench organized and neat. Yet, inevitably I will have to stop everything and give the bench a healthy purging.

Not gonna happen lol. I make a point to clean at the end of every session, my bench is never a mess :D