Gift GB

Nice work on the Skyray. The thing with PE sets is knowing what not to use as much as what to use. Somtimes the stuff can either be to small for a flee to see or actually under scale.

Theuns, we all have that problem, no problem.

Well fellas, I was able to make some major headway on the D.VII. Got the fuselage halves joined with the 'pit snug between 'em, and the upper & lower halves of both wings have been joined up as well. Nice of WnW to mold 'em that way, especially the upper wing. That thing is so thick that a solid wing would've weighed a ton and been quite the load on those fragile struts.

Lovin the detail on that engine wiring and greasy wash!

Here's an update on the 29 build: closed her up...have some seam work to do but overall pleased with the join.

Fitted the top pit glass last night and will work on the tailgunner glass and nose glass this evening.

And a visual update on the tire assemblies/work...top coated flat black over the "earthy" Testors rubber color that I wasnt satisfied with. Then lightly sanded > did a flat black wash over the tread area a touched up some sidewall areas to give it a used look...then touched up the aluminum wheels. still may tweak some more, but the look is far more realistic to rubber now...especially the nose assembly.

Had computer problems since the end of January--and look what I've missed.

bl:  nice work on the Gundam; the paint work is well done; very appealing; maybe it's generational, but I don't know what a Gundam is!

Helo H-34:  assembly of the Jaguar looks like it's proceeding very well; neat work; I don't know much more about jets than I do about Gundam's--unless it was flown by Harmon Rabb, Jr.

Z Square:  great work on the B-29; it's looking good

ruddratt: that's a very realistic looking engine; you can practically smell the grease

Beckyhead:  good progress on the Skyray; coming along nicely; fine assembly work

I have been making slow progress on my Fairey Battle contribution to the build, but, frankly it's not one of Airfix's best efforts; something of a "sow's ear," actually; lots of parts that don't come close to fitting; I've been photographing the progress, but the computer issues have interfered with posting any; hopefully, I'll be able to do so, before it's actually finished

all the work posted here has been very impressive.  Great results all around.

Becky, thats looking nice. The wheels are deffinatly better.

check, this sounds like ones of Airfix's really old kits. But i am sure you can make a good job of it.

Had to laugh at myself...in the fuselage image of the right side there is a small window. I managed to dislodge it from mishandling and trying to keep adhesion points to a minimum. Well, it fell into the compartment!

Glad that I didn't have the nose glass installed or I would effectively made a B-29 baby rattle!

Got it out, but will have to do a bit of "fitting" to re-install it from the outside.

Beckyhead - very nice work on the Skyray! I'm not sure what to tell you about the cans, as my experience with jets is limited. The one's I have done I painted a matt off-white color and shaded them with assorted gray pastels.

Z square - very cool stuff going on with the B-29! Your new tire color looks spot on from where I'm sitting. It's really coming along great!

Update on the 29 build from the wknd:

Removed the top pit glass to do some joint work...did some sanding > then main wing installation.

A bit more putty/sanding work on the wing/fuselage join (overzealous on some knife trimming was the cause)

The last image is my re-installation of the pit glass and nose glass. This worked out better using the hanging clamps as it  kept the pit glass from flaring out from the fuselage. The rubber feet on the clamps was only contacting the glass in an area that would not risk adhearing the rubber feet to the glass.

Also in the last pic, you can see the addition of the glass domes (2) to the top side of the fuselage.

Turrets and barrels are painted and assembled with the exception of barrels on 3 turrets. Probably will wait to install those until after the turrets are mounted in the fuselage. Should prevent an inadvertant snapping off a barrel during install. Now the dilema is whether or not to continue with the landing gear and wheel assemblies or prime and paint the bird first. Waiting would result in less masking...

That tan and brown toolbox is there to keep the 29 from sliding off the temp platform...it's a fishing tackle box > another old hobby that may get ressurected this spring! 

Thats looking sweet Z. Great work.

Good progress on the Superfort.  Looking fine!

The B-29 is looking nice!

     error on quote...corrected below for readablity

Theuns

Dang that is a good looking 29 you have there.....almost a pitty to close her up and not see all that lovely detail.

Theuns

Theuns- I am considering just that scenario. Spent a lot of time on detail that won't be seen. I recently ran across an image of a 29 build that (after completion),  a few cutouts were made in the fuselage which allowed for viewing.

What I may do (once I figure out the best way to do it), is make the cutouts. I just don't want the interior to fill with dust. first thought is to take heat shrink tubing and cust a slice the length of to attach to the cutout area trimmed out of the fuselage>and then maybe take some of that window seal wrap that shrinks up tight to stop cold air seepage into your house and apply heat to both elements. Thus creating a dust proof window for detail viewing.

OR...

-see if there is another way that somebody else came up with already via tips/tricks

-buy Revell/Monogram and insist that portions of one of the fuselage halves be injection molded in clear...ok, this is not realistic.

pyrman64

On another note, I keep getting hit with set backs on my build.  First the gear shift broke off the steering column while I was installing it on the dash.  To complicate matters, after de-chroming the 4-wheel drive shifter, it went down the drain in the rinse process!   Now to wait to see it Revell customer service will fulfill my parts request.

HEY!  Guess what arrived today.....

Just when I was about to head to Hobbyland to get another GMC, and it contained.....

Which is great, because I'm at the stage where I want to finish up the interior.  Here's what the dashboard looks like currently... 

I'll be removing the installed steering column and replacing it with the newly arrived part.

Z: it would be a shame to close up that fuselage and hide all that excellent detail painting!

Mike: that engine and fuselage detailing is mind-boggling!

Greg H, nice work on the dashboard.

CMK, i just saw your earlier post asking about Gundam. As i understand it its an animated serious featuring these giant robots. To my un trained eye they look similar to Transformers. I think Gundam is rather big in Japan, i can't say i have seen it on TV over here.

Thanks, Bish.  I guess I've been stuck too long on Pokemon .

Pryman-

the dashboard is really looking good. I am happy to see that the "pkg of support" arrived just in the nick of time before you picked up another GMC. Now you have pocket change for a trip to Wendy's! 

Anxious to see the build continue. How did you de-chrome the shifter? (showing my depth of knowledge to be shallow)

I see by the pkg you are in Columbus...I'm in a burb 25 miles east of the C-Bus dwntn.

Bish

Greg H, nice work on the dashboard.

CMK, i just saw your earlier post asking about Gundam. As i understand it its an animated serious featuring these giant robots. To my un trained eye they look similar to Transformers. I think Gundam is rather big in Japan, i can't say i have seen it on TV over here.

Gundam is huge in Japan! It came out in 1979 as an anime series and I think it's been paying Bandai's bills ever since. There have been so many other series and movies related to Gundam over the years it's crazy. They're still designing and making new models (which is nice since they stay on top of new technology to design and construct, a la 3-D printing), and they seem to come out with new ones every year. It's so big they celebrated the 30th anniversary in 2009 in Japan by building a 1:1 scale model of the original Gundam, which is 60 ft. tall! Here's a pic:

I remember seeing that on the news.

Bish

 

 

Heres the badge i made will my limited talents at editing photo's.

Please take the badge as soon as you like. 

Just for fun Bish, I toyed around for about 15 minutes on a badge...certainly don't have to use if you don't want. It was just a fun thing I did while working on a drop shadowed image for the CooksonTribute site.

 I am perfectly fine with the one you have offered.

Thanks for the info and photo, BL.  I asked my daughter about it after seeing Bish's post.  She has a degree in gaming animation, and she told me they were "mech's," which left me as befuddled as before.  Then, she said, "They're robots."

Now, I think I get it, although "animated" to me still mostly means Bugs Bunny.

But back to the GB--I put a coat of paint on the Fairey Battle today, and will start catching up with build pictures soon.

"Work" and the real world has been taking up too much time lately.

Attractive alternate badge, Z Square.  Now, if I could just make up my mind. . .

Oh my...that was not what I intended with the post. It was just a fun thing to kill some time why a download was in motion.

Bish would have to make that call if he wanted to change it so it is consistent to all on the build in my opinion.

Sorry, Z Square.  I didn't mean to cause any issues.  I should just: .

As of right now, I haven't earned any badge/either badge anyhow.

So maybe I should start

First shot shows a false start.  I thought at first I'd close up the canopies, so I painted the interior fuselage (RAF interior green, of course; this from WEM Colourcoats).

Then I got the bright idea of adding some plastic bits to represent instruments, and leaving the canopies open.  That meant, I had to go back and sand off the ejection pin marks, and repaint the interior.

I ran across some photos of an after-market cockpit set for the Fairey Battle, so working from the pictures, I cut some bits of plastic sheet to approximate the shapes, and painted them black.

Here are the parts for the pilot's cockpit.

 The brown piece represents a leather padding for the seat.  The green bar might be the bomb release lever?  I'm not sure, but it appears in photos to the left of the pilot's seat.

The following photo is of the rear gunner's compartment, with the plastic bits for details.  I have no idea what any of them are.

I also had to repaint the gunner's seat, after seeing photos.  I had painted in a nice leather padded seat and back, but photos seemed to show it was just plain green painted metal.  Must have been uncomfortable during long flights, unless the gunner was sitting on his parachute.

This time, for the seat I used MM RAF interior green for contrast, but the WEM and MM paints are almost too similar to see the difference.  Maybe if you squint. . .

I have more photos to come, but they're still in the camera.

Thanks for looking.

Yeah, Checkmate, it's interesting that the Japanese have used animation in a completely different way than we have in the U.S. All of the Mobile Suit Gundam series I've seen are pretty much PG-13, as are most of the other anime I've seen (there are ones intended for younger audiences that I stay away from). But there are R rated ones, too. I'm a child of the '70s so I grew up with Speed Racer, Star Blazers and Robotech (American adaptations of Japanese animation), which kind of acted as gateway drugs to the Japanese stuff that wasn't widely available in the U.S. unless you hunted for it.

Anyway, like you work and the real world (like sick kids) have been eating into my modeling time, but I have some free time tonight so I hope to make some progress...

Interesting information, BL.  Thanks.

My two daughters are kids of the '90's, and both are heavily into anime.  Every year, they attend a convention in Chicago near O'Hare International.  They've been attending since high school, and in those years my wife went with them as driver.

Of course, I got to stay home and work.

Z, i rather like that. I did think mine was a bit cluttered and its a bit hard to read the dates especially. I will add it to the opening post and people can choise which badge they like.

CMK, nice work on that, looking forward to seing some more. And certainly no need to zip it, deffinatly no issues caused on my account. If someone mentioned mech's to me, i would automatically think of Mechanised Infantry. So your not alone.

Bish & ZS8: thank you for the compliments.

ZS8: I dechrome using Westley's BLECHE-WITE - it's a whitewall/blackwall tire cleaner.

I have a 20oz bottle I bought 5-6yrs ago.  I pour a little in a small Tupperware container - enough to cover the part(s) and put the lid on, wait 1-2 hours and it's done.  I simply remove the part, rinse in water and let dry on an old towel.  I keep the used Bleche-wite in the Tupperware container until it turns color (ussually 2-5 uses) and flush it down the toilet.

I have a modeling buddy that lives out your way, in Pataskala - we get together once a month for pizza & modelling at his place.

If you're interested, every Friday evening (around 6pm) several modelers congregate for modeling and lively model banter at the Graceland Hobbyland on N High St (north of Morse Rd in Graceland Shopping Center, across from Krogers) - feel free to stop by and join us!

CMK- certainly no need to zip it! No badge of any kind earned over here yet.

I'm very interested in seeing the F-Battle WIP pics. I did take mental note of of the directions too when I looked at your pics. Looks like it may be an encouragement/advertising effort to keep a new crop of modelers on board while accomplished modelers like yourself can still navigate thru the build,(or maybe its to encourage freelancing by the accomplished genre). LOL

BL- thanks for the clarification and pic. I can recall a few Saturday mornings with Speedracer but graduated to the Ba Ba Blacksheep series with Robert Conrad playing Greg "Pappy" Boyington of the VMF. Regarding the Gundam...well, I am certain that I wouldn't want the electric bill to charge up a 60' warrior or the Visa bill from Home Depot for duracell's and energizers! LOL! I'll be watching your build progress as I am interested in how you do it because it is such a departure from my very limited build experience, (it's been ships, planes, cars and one motorcycle over 20+ years ago...the 29 is the first hobby resurection effort). Your build intrigues me.

Pyrman- thank you for the tip on the Westley's de-chrome. I have used that on actual car tires before but never occurred to me in this arena...got me thinking about other household products like Goo-Gone. Ever used that stuff? I have some glue on that little window on the right side of the 29 build that I had to re-install from the outside. I did use the testors "glass" glue, but did not get it done to meet my satisfaction. Any clean up tips on this would be appreciated.

I'm in Etna which is 3 miles from Pataskala. Thank you for the invite to join you on Fridays at Hobbyland Graceland...I may do just that sometime. I'll drop a bug early in the week here when it looks like I may get by so we could look for each other. Be my pleasure to meet you and the group that attend.

Bish and Group- badge assembly:

Done with Paint.net primarily for layering...used sniping tool for badge sectional grabs.

Background layer: reversed julia fractal

layer 1: gradient with top left being blue, top right being purple, bottom left and right black

layer2: text of GIFT GB

layer3:text of build dates

layers4&5: snipping grabs import/plcmnt

layers 6-8: import/plcmnt of 3 clip art images of gifts

flatten image and save as a .png file

open new imge and enlarge base canvas slightly larger than the .png saved file > used magic wand to click on this new base canvas and hit Cntrl +X to make it invisible.

add a new layer to import the png file > used the object dropshadow plugin > adjusted X and Y calibrations to create the drop shadow > save as jpeg.

Took 15 minutes and most of that was finding suitable clip art. Included the info in case the group ever has time to tinker...after all, everybody loves a drop shadow effect!

Back to the 29 build update:

Bit stalled as a neighbor let me borrow his airbrush and compressor. Now, I'm researching masking, airbrushing tips, alclad II, surface prep,...probably making it harder than it needs to be, but am being cautious/patient in my approach since this is finished surface area. Been spending bench time tinkering with dry fits and detail enamel painting of parts.

Once primed and painted, the final assembly/decaling/topcoating should not take too long. (famous last words right? )