Boeing Build

Work on the B-17 continues. I have the fuselage closed and seams filled and the wings are complete and the seams filled. And the engine seam gaps are GAWD aweful!! That took putty and seam sealer and hours of work. But, they look good now. I painted the black Alclad primer and microfiller over the wings and fuselage. It took nearly half of the 4oz bottle. I hope I can make two bottles of Alclad cover all that. Dear God it takes a ton of paint. I will post up some pics when T-day is over.

BK

BK,

That thing brings back so many memories. The first one I built was when I was 13. My mother and step father had just married and left me at home while they were on their honeymoon for a few days. They bought that kit along with a few others to keep me occupied while they were away. Gawd, I was in heaven. I don't remember, or cared about gaps and poor fit, I do remember trying to duplicate Shep Payne's diorama, of which I totally messed up. I would love to get that kit for nostalgia if nothing else. 

Can't wait to see you version. 

RudyOnWheels

Yes, I have decided I am going to rattle can this one for sure! Thanks guys, the two posters, The one is Our (the Yankee Air Museum in Willow Run Michigan's) B-17G, the Yankee Lady" and the other is of Our B-25 (not sure of the letter designation) the "Yankee Warrior".. They are part of the Flyable collection, along with Our C-47, "Yankee Doodle Dandy"..... As I am in a wheelchair, I have yet to get to go for a ride on the B-17, but I told them "I don't care if you roll me up in a rug and feed me thru the hatch, I wanna go!". My gradfather was a tail gunner On B-17's and 24's, and participated in "big Week" and the Ploesti Raid. My great gradnparents all worked at the Ford B-24 Bomber plant at willow run.  -Rudy

 

 

That is awesome Rudy! I take it that badge is from the fire protection crew from the plant...

I think ill be doing a Boeing C-17 RAF by Revell, looks like a rather easy build plus a solid colour. Just have to put off till the next payday haha

Bish,

Its 1/144.

The reviews seemed like it would be decent for a beginner and not any must needed AF parts. Plus, the C17 is a rather good looking plane.

1/144 is probably a decent size. 1/72 would be a monster,  like a B-36.

modelcrazy

1/144 is probably a decent size. 1/72 would be a monster,  like a B-36.

 

ooooooohhh now theres a thought

Wow Aussie, you like the big birds! 

Thanks for the compliments everyone I'm still working on the 1945 build, after that I can devote all my time to the B 52

Finally some progress on the F-15E (at least one of them). I've started decaling and getting ready for some minor weathering. The engine areas have been painted. This aircraft is a lot of firsts for me: creating a heated metal section and using nothing but AK Interactive paint on the rest of the aircraft. The other F-15E that I'm working on will be using all AK products. This aircraft I used Alclad duraluminum, pale burnt metal and jet exhaust.

Well i guess its time i showed my face around here. I stared my build just over a week ago but have been taking it easy, finally a build i don't have to rush.

This is the kit.

And i managed to find a couple of pics of the aircrfat i am doing. The instructions give a date of 2011, and according to some research, the unit, VMM-165, formally HMM-165, was renamed and equipped with the Osprey in March of that year. So given that, i assume these tail markings are special ones to mark the units new piece of kit. With that in mind and the photo below clearly showing a very clean aircraft, i will keep weathering to a minimum and will try and resist filling in the panel lines.

So, as usual, i strated with the pit, and this is mostly Eduard PE. The only kit parts are the seats and control sticks. The entry compartment is mostly kit with a few PE parts. There is a lot of pre coloured PE which will of course be added after painting.

So then it was primed and painted and i added a flory black wash and some light dry brushing and then all the Pre coloured PE. So this is the pit just about ready for fitting.

On the entry compartment, i still need to add another coat of red to the fire extinguisher. I can't find any pics of this area so have no idea if i am mssing anything. Any suggestions would be welcome as it will be a couple of days before i close the fuselage.

And finally the PE, whcih is the kit part painted black and with the PE added.

And thats all for now.

Very nice Bish. The interior is looking great. I built a HiTech (old Academy mold) 1/72 Osprey earlier in the year, and the interior didn't have any detail. It does build into a decent size with the rotors extended. I built mine in flight because of the woeful lack of detail at the engine nacelle roots. I did scour the internet for pictures and while there are plenty showing them in flight, very little were of the interior. I did find some interesting videos on YouTube and noticed something I hadn't been aware of. The rotors are counter rotating and are in sync with one another.  Pretty cool. I have only see two in flight, one in Amarillo Texas and the other 2 months ago right here in Boise. I was floored watching in come in for a landing, what an aircraft!
It's good to have you onboard and am happy you’re not rushing and having some fun. Really looking forward to this.

Steve

Thanks Rudy. It was nice to finally see it in there, I think many of us had given up hope.

My mum and my other halfs horse .

I'm easily confused.

A bit of a rant here. I hate ALCLAD with a passion. I will NEVER paint a kit with it again. No matter how I prep, sand, clean, prime, type of primer, seal, whatever, that stuff always lifts with futher masking. I go to great lengths to lighten up the tack of the tape, which is low adhiesive tape anyway, and it will still lift. DONE !!! I will only use it for small bits.

Don't bother trying to help me on this one guys, I've had enough. I've read treads, watched videos, books and all that and I still can't make it stay down. I've even used only ALCLAD products, primer and sealer too. I appreciate you trying to help, but it appears I just can't do it with that ($*^@). 

SO, I'm off to order rattle cans of OD and NG so I can paint this beast. It is too huge to paint with an airbrush and uses massive amounts of paint and takes forever to cover. Rattle can it is. Next one I do, or any NMF, will be done using bare metal foil.

I am soo mad right now. I could have had this kit done by now. OMG I hate Alclad!!!

Anyway, here are the shots.

Alclad primer, sanded, washed and wiped with a tack cloth....

Sealed with Alclad Aqua gloss clear, two coats............

Carefully applied, low adhiesive tape and carefully removed........

I think I'm gonna go find something to kick........

BK

OMG, I'm sorry about that BK. It is a bit cantankerous most of the time. I'm always anxious about using the stuff myself. 

I know you will do a fantastic job whatever you end up using. 

Don't kick the dog.

I dont know what to tell ya Brandon, but you might think about grabbing a drink. Just kidding with ya. I dont know if you saw the Alclad I laid down on my F-15E above, but I guess I was lucky and it worked out. I am going to try the AK Xtreme Metal on the next one. I'll let you know how it turns out. Sorry to see you've had a bad result with Alclad. I do know your pain. I was working on a 1/48 P-51D that came in my B-17G kit and it looks like ! I actually tabled the build of that and have been using it as a test canvas! My problem with it and the Alclad was that I was unable for some reason to get a consistent coat of paint.

Sorry to hear that about the alclad. I usually use model master metalizer sealer to seal in alclad. I let the sealer cure for 24 hours before i do masking. So far i have not had any lifting.

Well besides BK's frustration, I ordered the 1/18 Packard Merlin engine from HpH models in Czechoslovakia for my b-day. I hope it gets here before the build is over, and doesn’t end up in Melbourne Australia. I emailed them right after just to make sure they knew I was in the US. We’ll see. It should be a very cool display once completed. Maybe I should put a geared motor in it to make the prop spin. 

Edit. Sorry wrong build, although there you go, you know what I'm waiting for. 

BrandonK

...Sealed with Alclad Aqua gloss clear, two coats...

 

Brandon, I realize you may well just be tired of attempting Alclad paints, but at the least let me offer something that may give you piece of mind.

It's my less is more theory. =]  Alclad is a laquer based paint.  It adheres to the surface by bonding with it.  This makes it very durable.  Primers are typically meant to help prep the surface to accept whatever paint you're using...so they're a good thing.  But if you're sealing this primed surface with a clear coat of some kind, then you may be shooting yourself in the foot by preventing the alclad from bonding.  Not sure if I'm missing something else here.  But I can tell you from my own experience, I'll polish down my surface to remove scratches, clean it, put down a coat of Alclad Gloss Black, and then whatever Alclad color I'm painting with next.  Just like that.  I never even use clear coats unless there is an acrylic painted surface (i.e. some Tamiya color like an OD green or what have you).  I think the other thing a lot of modelers don't consider is the environment that they're painting in.  I paint indoors with a cool, dry environment.  This probably helps the paint to set up much faster.  When the temperature and humidity go up...so do your dry times depending on the medium with which you're painting.

Just my two cents.  Hope it's of some help.  Maybe even if it just helps you from thinking you're going crazy.

[edited]

I realized after the fact I may have misunderstood the timing behind your pictures.  If that's the case, then I apologize.  I've left the previous post alone for if that's not the case.  You still may consider the bottom portion about heat/humidity.  I'm sorry to hear that you've had so much headache with the stuff.  I have personally never had any of the issues other people talk about...so maybe without having to troubleshoot my way through any of it, I might be of little use there notwithstanding the aforementioned.

Good luck to you though. And maybe just keep in mind less is more.  =]

There is really no reason, given what I went through to get this down for it to do this. Perhaps I have a bad batch. 

I've grown to hate this stuff. I won't be using it on a full kit again. Bits and bobs, but that's it. I cleaned and sanded the kit. I primed the surface fully with Alclad black primer and microfiller, and sanded that smooth as heck. Shot the Alclad polished aluminum, a bottle and a half with multiple coats. Let it dry 2 days and clear coated it with Alclad Aqua gloss, twice. Let that dry two days. Masked for the anti-glare paint and this happens. 

I've already sanded it all down with 3000 grit and will shoot some OD over NG in the next few days. I have enough NG, but I think I may run out of OD. Next one of these is gonna get the full bare metal foil finish. I'm just at my whits end with the stuff.

BK

PS, if your dog is limping, it wasn't me. 

Right, i will try again. I spent about 20 mins writing this out last night thanks to PB being a pain just to lose connection as i hit send.

Steve, it might be the wrong thread, don't worry, your not the first. But good to hear your getting that engine. But don't be surprised if you don't hear back from HPH. I e-mailed them twice, once when i lost a bit and once when i messed up, and the first i heard was when the items came through the letterbox. Their comunications may not be the best, but they have excellent service.

Been making slow but steady progress on the Osprey. Managed to get the interiour parts fitted and the fuselage together. This largely went well. But there was a bit of a bulge on one side of the join underneath, not sure why as the top was fin and tehre was nothing inside pushing it out. But some clamps sorted that.

Gave the seams a rub down and all the external bits fitd. I also tried out a new tool. Joe Rix sent me over a Testors silver enamel marker. Testors is impossable to get hold of over here and i had asked Joe about the marker after seeing him use one. Seams have been my real weak point, so anything that can help is appreciated, and i really liked this. Shows up all the errors really well and i think the seam on this will be my best yet.

Just a bit of rubbing down to do on the underside and fit the canopy and the fuselage will be done.

I have got the wings together and can concentrate on finishing those off before i fit them.

The kit goves you 2 options for the tail markings. The first is one large decals with all the details on it. Or you can paint the tail and all the detail markings are provided seperatly. Given all the little bups on the tail, i figured the single dcal would be a pain, so decided to paint. Firstly some Xtracoour Insignia yellow.

After masking, i then sprayed Humbrol Gloss black.

Thats all for now, another update soon(ish)