Monogram Mafia III

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

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!

Thanks guys!

Looking good Stick. Almost there.

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

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

mississippivol

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

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...

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.

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.

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

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

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...

Looking good Stik.

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....

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...

Rock on, Stik!

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...

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

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

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

Yeah, I'd agree that the weather might have been a little bad for them!  I remember more than a few days being like that from my time in that part of the world

Stik! 

Great work Stik! Nice Tiffy.

Many thanks for your compliments Reasoned & CB! I'm very happy to hear that you guys like her!

Hi guys!  It's been way too long since I've posted here and for that I apologize.

This is nowhere near as awesome as Stik's Typhoon but I'll keep trying,  Here' s my Monogram A-37 Dragonfly.  This is the first camouflage job in, well, way too long for me to remember.

This was a great learning experience for me.  It was the first time I blew up the instructions so I could cut out the camo pattern.  Then I used poster putty to keep the paper slightly elevated to give the paint that feathered edge.  That was another first for me.

I used Model Master enamels followed by a MM flat coat.  The plane went together great but the contact points between the sway braces and the ordinance was just too tiny for me to patiently deal with.  I tried but the bombs and whatnot just weren't lining up nicely for me so I left everything off.  

So without further ado, here's the plane.  I love Monogram kits!  In fact, I'm currently working on the Monogram P-47D bubbletop at the moment.  

That is flipping gorgeous! Never mind my Tiffy... That looks super!!!! The Tweet has her own peculiar charms...

Great job on your build!

Thank you for the wonderful words!  Yes, the Tweet was definitely a fun and simple build.  That's what I love about Monogram models.  For me, they're inexpensive yet wonderfully detailed and they aren't over-engineered with a high parts count.  I know others love the kits with 300+ parts and I think that's all well and good but for my limited time, budget and family commitments, Monogram kits are a perfect fit for me.

This kit went together great and I used hardly any filler at all.  I had to use some on the bottom where the one piece wing bottom met the forward fuselage but that was it.  I didn't keep track of any hours but I'd bet I spent more time masking and painting the camouflage pattern than I did gluing the kit together.

I'm not one for badge collecting but the Monogram one is one I'm going to be proud to have.  

Eric

Eric, your build here is certainly on to be proud of! After seeing yours, I have to build that kit one day. It's been in my stash for YEARS! LOL!