1944 Group Build

Hey There Gents. Well, after having pulled through the debacle stage of my build I've got the decals on. And then..gulp..managed to get a light gloss seal coat on with no ill effects (Thank God!). The squadron  and personal markings are off a Techmod sheet and I used the Eduard insignia decals, which I think their insignia blue is bit off register to the bright side. Will moving on to the oil wash tomorrow. Thanks for having a look.

Nice one Joe, I was wondering if you would get to this stage with all the problems you were having. She looks great.

Right on Joe!

Thank You Rob and Bish.

William: I can honestly say that the efforts you took to rectify the wash mishap appear to have worked very well. I think your panzer looks rather excellent. Overall the build is tight and the paint and weathering are really nicely done. Learning how different paints, thinners, washes, etc... works is definitely a process and unfortunately we in the modeling world have to learn our lessons the hard way. But, as I often say on here, and to myself, it's not about the mishap but rather it's all in the recovery. Kudos on a panzer well done and for completing your build for the GB.

Hang in there JOE,... your almost there and shes looking good!

THanks for the feedback and kind words! I've enjoyed the group buid experience and look forward to doing more in the future. For now I'm going to focus on my N scale railroad (which you could see some engines torn apart in one picture). I'm torn on what to build out of my stash after I finish a few things for the railroad. I have a eduard 1/48 Fokker D.V and a Panther or Tiger II that I'm thinking about. I've not build a WWI plane before so that will be a interesting challenge. Thanks again and enjoy finishing you builds if you haven't yet!

A new development on my B 24. Revell has yet to send me 2 of the the propeller shafts. I lost 1 and broke another one So, I did what I should have a month ago. I made 2 of  them out of evergreen plastic tubing. I'll be returning to it soon (Hopefully tonight). I didn't care for the looks of the tiny piece of plastic to hold the prop shafts in place, So, I made a backing plate behind them. They will not be falling back into the wings now. Pictures will be posted soon.

Look forward to those pics Ken and seeing how those props came out.

OOps, The batteries in my camera needs a recharge. Pics will be posted tomorrow.

Your just teasing now Ken.

Bish

Your just teasing now Ken.

Ken, It is good to see you making such wonderful progress on the B-24. Have to say that it is shaping up very nicely. You've done some impressive work for sure.

Good Lord, you all will have to excuse my overly distracted brain as It dawned on me that I had not posted here my lastest and greatest faux pas. Apparently my modeling kharma has decided to be balanced to a dark and unforgiving side. While applying my wash on the underside of the Hellcat I discovered that in the process of repairing the paint from the last debacle that I had laid so much paint and top coat down that it had completely filled in the panel lines. To say that I was overwhelmed with discouragement at the moment is an understatement. But, it was short lived as I quickly turned to alternatives. I could have taken a long process of running an xacto blade along them but, I opted not to on the wings as it is a lengthy process and fraught with peril. I was also not much in the mood for another paint stripping round. But, much to my joy I realized that I had not glued the wings in place. So, with that I ordered a 1/72 Eduard Weekend Edition Hellcat, which has arrived, in order to completely replace the wings and to also get a replacement decal for the wing insignia. This approach will also allow me to correct some flaws that I had on the original wings.

 Unfortunately the bottom center section of the fuselage suffered also. For this I will be carefully retracing with an xacto blade.  I also ordered a new set of QB resin gun barrels for the insert as I will be using Master Model metal gun barrels in their place. So currently I am cutting the metal gun barrels to fit the resin insert. I've also cut out the shell ejection chutes which I did a hack job on the original wings.

Needless to say I am undaunted in my endeavors to complete this here little guy. It's taking some time and frustration but i believe it will come out nicely in the end.

Nice work ken.

Joe, your certainly having troubles with this. I would have given up long before now and just completed as is.

If the dark Side is with you that much, maybe you should try the Star wars GB.

I haven't looked in here for a while, but that's a great recovery on the Hellcat, Joe.  Excellent!

And, Ken, the props came out looking really fine.  Nice work.

Hi Ho Compadres. Well, the unseasonably warm weather we have had that has kept me from my bench has finally given way to more winter like weather. Thus I've gotten back to getting some work done on the Hellcat recovery project. Although not much, I got the p-47 metal gun barrels cut to size and glued in to the Quick Boost resin inserts.

I have some sanding to do to get them to fit the wings properly but, I'm making some progress.

Cheers, Joe

Good to see your still plugging away Joe.

Thanks Bish. Although it has been time consuming, I'm really glad that I chose to replace the wings. I'm able to do a much cleaner job on them and approach some issues I found on the first go round.

Arrgh - I don't know what anyone else thinks about campbell hausefeld air compressors, but they will never get any more of my money again.

I went to do the touch ups on the B 24 and its on the fritz again.

I don't know how I'll do it, but I will have a new compressor next week.

Ken, I am indeed sorry to hear that the compressor is giving you fits. I hope you find a nice reliable one and that you're back at it right soon.

Ye, that's not good news on the compressor, hope you can get a new one soon.

Hi there Gents. I've managed a bit of progress on the Hellcat wing restoration. The metal gun barrels are mounted and the wing halves together. Unfortunately, I hacked up the gun openings in the wing a bit while enlarging them to accommodate the new barrels. I ended up widening the holes too large and and a couple were offset. But, fortunately, I still had the PE barrel covers that I hesitated to put on the original wings because I thought they would be a major hassle to bend correctly and that I would end up making a mess of them gluing them into place. So, I took a deep breath and set to the task. Actually came out rather nice. Certainly covers the over sized holes that were driving me nuts.

Well done Joe! Intricate work!!!

Doug

Nice save Joe

Thank you Doug and tj. It was just a case of getting over a nonsensical fear and just doing it.

yes, very well done Joe.

To whom it may concern I should have a new air compressor in a couple of days. I bought an airbrush compressor with air brush from Harbor Freight

That's good news ken, really looking forward to seeing these last builds finished.

So am I Bish So am I

Hi guys

So I haven't been able to have any bench time for the last 5 months. I finally have time to spend some time with this hobby that I like so much.

I see great models and great talent here!

As far as my Fw190 goes here is my progress so far. Read to the end because I need some help on this one.

Pre shading done, not the finest job but good enough. 

Yellow under and red band done and ready to mask.

RLM 76 done

Here is where I need advice and help:

Does not look at all like the image in the instructions, this is the first time I am trying to do mottling and I don't think it looks right. 

I am using an Infinity airbrush with a fine needle, pressure at 10 psi and mrcolor paint at (I think) the right ratio. 

Anybody has any advice?

Like always thanks for looking.

Jorge

Jay I've never done mottling too, so, I'll be watching for the info. It looks great so far

I'm doing a 190 for the Aces GB