1944 Group Build

Sorry to pirate.....where the EFF is Frank Daniels?????? Can someone send me a link?

Whoa ho Rob, What fantastic work you've done on your bomb bay and gun turrets. I especially like the paint and weathering you've done on the bombs. They look great.

Rob, that's some nice work, great effects there.

namrednef

Sorry to pirate.....where the EFF is Frank Daniels?????? Can someone send me a link?

That's looking really good Rob!  Great work

Fantastic work on that Lanc, Rob!

Blue: I got your P-47 posted to the front page. I just wanted to thank you for participating with this great build. You've been a really important source of inspiration for me to plug away at the decals of my own P-47. I'm pretty sure that she would've been sitting on the shelf for at least a few months otherwise...

less than 3 months in and the front page is looking really nice, stunning builds on there. Nice work guys, thank you for getting us off to a great star.

Clemens: It's been a pleasure to be part of this.  I'm really happy to hear that my build played any part in keeping you working on your P-47... never enough of those out there!  I'm still looking forward to seeing where you go with it.  Thanks for putting up the picture; proud to be there with the other great projects.

Bish: Like I've said before, big thanks to you and Clemens for getting this thing up and running.  It has been a great forum for sharing all of our efforts.  Tons of fun.

I gotta liven up this thread . A bit more progress. Engines mounted and engine covers starting to be mounted: 

Pre-shading in place. Quite easy on this plane as more than half of it is all black anyway, so, got lucky there:

Props ready for paint, Turrets ready to mount at the end. Gonna get on the wheels tonite:

Gettin' there!! Gonna lay down the dark earth later and will post more when she's got base coats on.

O, that's nice Rob.

Dang Rob, That is looking great. Very nice work so far. I can't wait to see some paint on it.

Looking very good Rob!

Thanks guys, have to take a break tonite. Back actually starting to bug me, so, i'll return to it tomorrow.

She's starting to look like an aircraft now! Very nice work, Rob!

Rob: the Lancaster is looking good, nice job on the bomb bay.

Ah, in my previous post on the Sherman I noticed that the TC's aiming vane is broken, so I had to procure a replacement turret.

the interior is painted in MM primer white (the first turret was in PS dirty white and looked too yellowy. (is that a word?) 

the rear part of the M3 main gun, again in primer white with the breach block painted Humbrol (Metal cote) gun metal 

the turret pistol port puttied (as previously stated, the port was cast in 

if I can find some casting numbers I might add them also, but I'm not sure I want to get all anal on this build.

Nice work Greg. Yellowy, well if it wasn't a word, it is now.

Got around to some more work on the LCVP.  Hopefully later this evening I can get the whole thing assembled and get it primed sometime this week.  I've ordered two of the Academy machine gun sets to replace the kit guns as they are nothing short of horrible, as well as the Trumpeter LCM crew so that I can have some better looking figures when I get around to making the diorama part of it (still have to wait on ordering more infantry).  I started today by finishing up the engine deck and the rear deck (minus guns)

I had a heck of a time getting the thread tied up for the ramp.  It's been a long time since I was a Boy Scout and I remember using rope back then instead of sewing thread, but I eventually got it.  I'm leaving the thread up through the deck until I get it situated the way I want it for the diorama.  I'm sure I can find a way to hide it until then.

After that I finished with something easy: the skeg, prop, and rudder.

SB, Man, you are whipping that bad boy right into shape. Really great work so far. I didn't realize you had a dio. planned. That will be sweet.

Thanks Joe!  I had the idea for a diorama a few years ago which is why my dad bought me this kit.  It will be my first diorama since I was in 8th grade.  I just need to get a few sets of figures and some beach obstacles.  Then put it all together.  I have a part from an old entertainment center I was thinking of using as a base, but I may end up building something to give it more depth otherwise I'll be using quite a bit of celluclay.

Ok, so I managed to get a ton of painting done this weekend. Essentially got the cam scheme on and now she`s sitting masked waiting for black tonight. First, did a test weathering on a prop with the `ole `hairspray` technique. I got a bit carried away and will redo with less weathering, but, I like the effect:

Next, the overall upper surface was painted XF-52 dark earth (not pictured), masked and I layed down the first XF-61 dark green coat. You can really see the pre-shading effect:

After that, I started the post-shade using XF-57 buff on all panels (bit blurry, sorry ):

Here it is just after the next misting of dark green again:

After that, after a rub-down with a soft cloth, I finished off with one more misting of the lighter `flat green`instead of `dark green`, then, removed the masking:

Now, here she sits ready for X-1 black paint job tonite. Gonna be a marathon spray session for the black; lots of surface to cover. After that, I need to come up with a strategy for enhancing the simple black. Prob do a post shade like the green, then re-cover the black to emphasize the panels:

Nice work rob. I have not seen that post shading done before. Was that just done on the green.

Rob...That sir, is going to be a killer camo scheme! I've never tried it the way your doing, but you can bet I'm going to! I'm lovin it! Please .... more pictures of this amazing  build...

Thanks

Doug (RR)

Bish

Nice work rob. I have not seen that post shading done before. Was that just done on the green.

Doug: Thanks! Tons of work and I`m hopeful the end results will justify all the time and paint.

Wow!

Away from the thread for a few days and all kinds of awesome busts out.  Looking really good Rob & Bob.

Rob, you look like you have a damned good technique going on your own, but one thing you could try is using something like Tamiya's Nato Black rather than pure black for your base color.  Nato Black is quite dark, (I use it for scale black), but would allow you to get your panel shading a touch darker with the pure black.  Perhaps I could have used the word "black" a few more times in this paragraph.

Bob, I am excited for your diorama... figure painting, water/beach effects (yes?) are both going to be fun to  watch and learn from.

Big Blue: NATO Black, eh? Seen it a million times on the shelf but never got one. I always wondered how it could differ from Flat Black (good old XF-1). Can the eye really detect a difference? I will certainly try this and thank you for the feedback!!

It is a really dark grey.  How it looks is dependent on context.  If you look at it side by side with XF-1, it looks just a shade lighter, otherwise it looks black.

Spectacular camo Rob. You have definitely developed a sweet effect with your technique. Really top notch work. I concur with BB there. The NATO Black should indeed give you a nice shaded effect on overall black. I use NATO Black as a tire color. It looks great for that.

Rob, you will defiantly see a difference in the NATO black. Many, myself included, use it for tires. I have not thought of using it for black camo though. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

Thanks Big Blue, I'm not sure at all how I'm going to do the water, I haven't done anything like that since I was a kid with an old Nimitz carrier kit.  Hopefully I can make it look half as cool as it does in my head.  And I'm not sure how much anyone will learn from me 

What do you guys think of Airfix`s new molding process? They leave that rough finish on the large flat surfaces. I am really thinking now that I should have sanded down all of the wing surfaces as the paint is totally absorbed and requires more coats. My future coats are not going on well and I`ve got my regulator dialed down to 15psi!! My decals are surely going to silver!!! Anybody else have issues with Airfix not being smooth? I saw somebody somewhere mention they thought it was done to assist brush painters to get better results...I wonder if that`s true?