Monogram Mafia III

Thanks SB, The Tiffy's at Eindhoven operated under some pretty rough conditions so I wanted the lowers to reflect that!

Looks great Stik, I really like the weathering on the bottom.

After roughly 5 weeks of effort my first project of 2015 is complete. Monogram's 1969 vintage 1/48 Typhoon IB with a little help from my spares box, Ultracast (resin), and Eduard, Reheat & Airwaves (PE). Decals are from Superscale for a Typhoon of 439 Squadron RCAF in Northwest Europe in Winter/Spring 1945. Paints are mostly Model Master Enamels, with some Humbrol and Tamiya as well...

Thanks for looking, comments and critiques are welcome

Model on Garth!

Model on Wayne!

OK, it's sundown here along the Pacific Coast... all done...

when I got back from my hobby store run I added the MV lens substitutes into the landing light wells

then I added all my final bits, weathering, removed the masks, etc... all done now

I'll get another post up with a complete walk around of the completed builds shortly...

Rock on, Stik!

Kinda quiet here in the family business....

Humbrol Matt Coat on...

I'm gonna head to the LHS for some supplies and give it time to dry, then will do the final bits of weathering, add the landing & navigation lights, remove the canopy masking and call her done around nightfall here...

Thank you Reasoned.

Today was adding lots of little fiddly bits and such as I am trying to finish this one up...

pitot tube

the landing gear- I filed some flat spots on the wheels to give a weighted look

I added some retraction struts from my spares bin to the outer gear doors

the Ultracast bomb racks have resin sway braces I am not too keen on, so I matched some copper wire to the proper diameter and length, cut it, bent it, and glued them in place...

lower surfaces overall with oil wash in recesses

and the upper surfaces, again with the oil wash... I am really liking oils for washes... they flow great and are quite forgiving in clean up

Tomorrow I will do the flat coat, final dry brushing, and add the last bits such as the landing lights. I ought to be able to wrap this all up then....

Looking good Stik.

My first bit of progress today was to add the exhaust stacks. Then after that, I airbrushed on another coat of Future to seal in the decals. After giving that a few hours to dry I decided to try an old school technique to highlight the raised panel lines- pencil. I used an HB lead pencil along most of the panel lines and then smudged it back in the direction of airflow using a cotton ball or tissue...

exhaust stacks

overall upper and lowers penciled in panel lines

and a close up

and finally, some RAF 500 Lb bombs that came from my spares bin off the old Monogram Mossie kit that I have been working on. I filled in the hollow areas and thinned down the fins a bit

Tomorrow I am going to work on some washes in the recessed areas such as the control surfaces and lines that I rescribed and in the wheel wells and on the landing gear...

Thanks guys. I have been just making some minor progress today. I will try to get some photos up later on.

Looking real good stick. Hope to have an update of my own soon. Not getting much time at the bench lately..

Good to see decals on Stik.  I agree about the red on the decals.  I can understand the red stripes for US insignia if the different options were for a WWII or Korean bird to save on printing, but sometimes it seems like a pain the butt.

Those and the red bars on the US insignia are a pain in the patootie. I think that the manufacturers started that because they got tired of hate mail from someone saying that  they're off center and demanding replacements.

I finished the decals yesterday before work. Today I was finally able to get some photos taken and uploaded.

Upper view... In January 1945 2 ATAF, the RAF companion to US 9th Air Force, re instated the use of white on the upper wing roundels in an attempt to reduce friendly fire incidents.

lower wings

fuselage right side

fuselage left side

as you can see that there is not much to the markings. No nose art, name, mission marks etc. Just basic standard RAF/RCAF markings worn in NW Europe in 1945. The only real delay on getting the decals all done in one day was having to add the red centers to all the roundels. That just kind of annoys me, as they had no problem getting the red on the fin flash aligned properly. Why can't they do the roundels at the same time? Ah well, in the grand scheme of things it is really no big deal but still...

mississippivol

C'mon, Seabiscuit....ummmm, I mean, Stik!

C'mon, Seabiscuit....ummmm, I mean, Stik!

Thanks cb. I thought that I would make more progress this week, but I am happy with what I have taken care of to this point...

Minor progress today.. first up I took off most of the masking.

wings

as you can see, the left wing leading edge ID got dinged and needed some touch up

chin scoop.. I tried silly putty for masking this are for the fist time. it works real good for complex shapes and compound curves, but I had just a tad bit of bleed there as you can see

and the upper/lower fuselage hard edge demarcation

later I went and touched up the wing leading edge and did the propellor tips at the same time

then I airbrushed the main gear struts and wheel hubs with Testors square bottle Aluminum

and again using Testors square bottle paints, Steel and Dark Brown this time, I mixed up a custom shade for the exhaust stacks

and finally an overall shot of how she looks now...

tomorrow's task- Future coat

Looking good Stick. Almost there.

Thanks guys!

SB, very well done on your F-80  I will be adding it to the front page here shortly!

Well, my progress was delayed a couple of days due to Super Bowl and helping out a friend with a home project. But now I am back on track and nearing the finish line... First I added a coat of Flat Black to the canopy area to give that color to the inner canopy frame. Then I later airbrushed on MM Ocean Grey for that portion of the upper camo scheme

and with the prop test fitted

then after letting that dry overnight, today I added the Dark Green for the upper surface camo, again using MM enamels. You may notice the area of the fuselage Sky ID band that was overpainted. I used Humbrol Ocean Grey and Dark Green for that area. The Humbrol Dark Green was pretty close to the MM version of the color (aside from being Satin instead of Flat), but the Humbrol Ocean Grey is noticeably different.

and again with the prop...

now it's really looking pretty mean! I gotta also say that I really like using the double action airbrush for the camo, I was able to get a nice tight demarcation line... very sweet!

Nice work silentbob. Sharp looking build. You muscled through and got to the finish line. Congrats!

Don Stik, I present my second kit for this Group Build.  This kit was a bit of a trial.  The fit of the major parts was pretty awful, and I never really got the rear fuselage to sit right.  The AM decals shattered, and I had a heck of a time getting the landing gear doors on.  Even with the weight I crammed in, she's still a tail sitter.  I also replaced the kit's gunsight with one made from scratch.  The kit had the sight molded into the fuselage.  It would have been pretty tough to try and shoot down a plane if you couldn't see it.  But, things could be much worse, and I don't think I did too badly with the NMF finish.  Was my first try at it, and I learned a lot of what to do (and not to do) the next time I try one.  The markings are for a bird of the 62 FS of the 15 Air Force at Selfridge Field, MI.  These are the markings she wore when deployed to Berlin in 1948 in support of the Airlift.

The work that I am seeing is amazing. Keep it going gents.

Ahhh, Wife and kids are off for their Sunday afternoon nap. I shall venture forth unto the man cave to continue work on Mr. Papa Five One....

Thanks for comments!  This kit has definitely been a learning experience for me.

Devil Dawg

That Shooting Star is looking great, SilentBob!

That Shooting Star is looking great, SilentBob! Same for the Typhoon, Stik! Really liking that Thunderbolt, adj!

Cool Shootin' Star!

Thanks SB. Your Shooting Star looks real good with the decals on now. Not much farther to go at all I can see. Yes, the peacetime birds had a lot more time for appearance upkeep, especially in the post WWII era. The new Air Force wanted to show off their new toys all spit and polish.

Good to see some paint going onto your Typhoon Stik.

I managed to get the decals put on tonight.  The decal sheet I bought off Ebay was pretty old, and a couple of the decals shattered, but I think I repaired the worst of the damage.  Not a whole lot left to do before I'm finished, just the landing gear and canopy.  I'm not going to do much in the way of weathering since this is a peacetime bird.