Metal masters GB 2016 (1Feb to 31 July)

The detail in the speedbrake wells and wheelwells are really nice.

Next will be primer and gloss black for airframe alluminium.

Theuns

Guys I have updated the "rules" so that NMF subjects like spacecraft (si-fi) and Autos can also join in.

Theuns

Thanks for the kind words. I read on a forum that the cockpits in F-86s were black until November of 1953, when the new standard was to paint them gray. For colors, I also looked at the Eduard instruction sheet online for their Ultimate Sabre kit, which uses the Hasegawa plastic, and matching the instruction sheet with the markings supports that (it calls for gray on "Marking B," which is 1955, and black on the others, which are mostly Korean War era. Not that kitmakers always get it right, haha.

Here is the link in case you're interested: http://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/1163.pdf

As for my nose intake ring, in dry fitting, it looks like it might be a little proud of the fuselage, but might also be a finicky positioning thing on my kit. I'll let you know when I close up the fuselage.

As for my progress, I tried using the kit decal for the Verlinden IP, but it didn't line up correctly, and the decal wouldn't sing in to give it any sort of depth, so I pulled it off with tape and then dry-brushed the panel to highlight the nice details. I then filled the gauge faced with Micro Krystal Klear to replicate glass.

The photo isn't the best, but you get the idea.

-BD-

So far no filling needed, maybe just a little on the bottom of the wing to fuse joint will be required.

The nose intake ring was a little oversize and I had to sand it allot to fare it into the front fuselage, I wonder if the other builders of this kit has the same issue.

I don't know what decals I will be using for my Sabre, may be kit, maybe SA Air Force Sabre.

That is a good looking cockpit you got there :-) Do they call for the dark colour? I was under the impresion that Korean era F-86f30 had a light grey color, I stand to be corrected though.

Theuns

Alright, I got some time with the cockpit tonight after a stressful day at work, and it was nice to unwind.

I think this more or less does it, except for the headrest, which is drying at the moment. May need to scratch up the rods that hold it in place still. We'll see.

The whites and silvers are actually more toned down than they appear in this pic.

As for the instrument panel, my decal didn't lay down nicely, so I think I may pull it off and paint the thing by hand. Trying to avoid that, haha.

-BD-

I got started on my F-86 the other day by priming the interior bits. Theuns is right - the bang seat on the Hasegawa kit is lackluster at best. Fortunately, mine came with the Verlinden interior set, of which I will definitely use the cockpit. Not sure yet about the gun bay, as the markings I ordered for it are for "Mig Poison," which has a cool-looking decal right over the gun bay access hatch, which I like th elooks of on the plane and not sitting beside it on a panel.

Anyway, since it is a pre-November 1953 Sabre, my cockpit is black. I haven't experimented with a black pit before, so I'm playing around with tonal variation for it, and I went a little light on it since it will be darkened during the weathering process:

Tonight I'll pick out some of the details with color and paint the seat and harness. Verlinden didn't feel compelled to provide a headrest for the seat, so I'll use the kit part for that.

-BD-

Oortiz - that F-80 looks great so far. Can't wait to see how it comes along.

Theuns - Nice work so far as well. What markings are you going with for yours?

-BD-

Hey bvallot,

I did take some pix of the results, but I didn't post them because they didn't come out well enough to show the end product.  Even in post-production, I couldn't manipulate the images well enough to show the detail.  

I've been using Alclad's white primer since I started using Alclad's metal line.  I've liked the "sheen" it produces through the metalizer.  I've read that different primers produce different effects.  The differences in my final sheens have always been done after the fact.  I've gone back and picked out different panels with custom mixes of the original metal color.  This time I tried to use different primers to achieve the same effect.  It didn't work out for me.

The grey produced a nice sheen, although I thought it was a little too shiny for a wartime airframe.  And the black?  That produced an almost chrome or polished aluminun look.  Way too bright for my liking.  But that wasn't the worst of it.

I've always wet sanded my Alclad white primer after it's dried.  I take my fine polishing pads and give the parts a few swipes to get rid of any dust or dirt that might've landed on the parts during spraying.  It gives me an even smoother surface for the NMF.  This time, I sprayed all three, let them dry, then wet sanded the parts.  For whatever reason (my technique/process didn't change) every little scratch and swirl mark was visible under the metal.  The black was the worst.  It honestly looked like I had sprayed the metal, then went back and dry sanded the final coat!  Hmm...I'm going to have to play with these black and grey primers before I use 'em on a build.

No biggie.  I'm still a ways away from paint on this build.  I'll get the wrinkles with the paint ironed out.

Thanks for lookin'!

Cheers,

-O

I'd have still liked to have seen the pics of your primer outcomes.  I'm guessing you didn't bother taking any.  I think it's still of some use to see how it works and what kind of difference it makes.  I'm guessing it was too stark a contrast for you in the end, right?

Hey FSM,

Have a little more progress to share.  Got to the point of closing up the fuselage halves.  Let me share what it took to get there.

First, I had to prep the intakes.  There's really no detail to see, so I painted the insides of the intakes black.  Then, I sprayed a little aluminum and "faded" it to the black.  I think this gives the intakes a sense of depth.  

Because of all the CA glue and styrene I needed to reinforce the forward and rear fuselage joint, I had to take my motor tool and grind the bejeezuz out of the engine assembly.  Luckily won't see anything except the very end of the pipe. 

At that point, I was able to get the two fuselage halves glued together.  

Now for a failure...

I have all three of Alclad's proprietary primers.  I know that the darker the primer, the brighter the overlying "metal" shade.  So, to experiment, I decided to paint the stabilizers with all three primers.  The goal being to get different shades of the NMF to show through when painting with one shade of "metalizer."  In the past, I've used one primer and one metal color for the whole airframe.  I've gone back with custom mixes of metalizer in order to get differing metal shades.

Well, I'll save you from the gruesome "after" photos.  Let's just say that the parts are now soaking in paint stripper.  Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained.  At least I didn't wait to try this on the whole airframe.

OK.  So, this is how my build will stay for a while.  I still need to clean up some seams, attend to the stabilizers, and figure out how I'm going to attack the canyon seams that result from the wing -to-fuselage assembly.

Again, share your thoughts.  Thanks for lookin'!

Cheers,

-O

bvallot

What do you have in mind for your build?

I'm planning on a shiny but not over the top Red Tail. A bit more flash than they really had but not as much as the F84 had. You'll notice I said "had", as it is no more and has been completely repainted. Turns out it was TOO smooth and Alclad and even the decals just refused to hold to the surface. Had to start over. But, it looks pretty good now.

BK

Glad to have you on board as well! =]  Your recent bout proved quite extraordinary.  One day I do want to have that one super polished show plane that looks absolutely immaculate. Yes...one day. >=] *evil laugh

What do you have in mind for your build?

Welcome Brandon, I have you on the list.

Bvallot, I think it may well work to simulate the quilting effect, but wonder if normal kitchen foil would work better as it is allot thinner and will show up the look better. This lead foil is quite thick.

You could even use a toothpick with a ruler to do the quilts...

Theuns

Alright, I haven't been complete beaten by Alclad so I'll toss my hat in now. I found a 1/48 Tamiya P-51D Tuskegee in my stash that I forgot about. I'd like to knock that one out. I have few kits in line so it will be a few weeks, at least, before I start but I'll make sure it gets done.

BK

Glad to have you O.  That looks like it'll be a beast to get into shape.  I'm sure you'll tackle it though. =]

Theuns, I just had a thought while looking at your seat after you mentioned the lead foil.  I don't know why I haven't thought of it sooner but I guess that's just how it goes.  How do you think it would come out if you used the lead foil as the seat cover or when you see that quilted patterned paneling that goes up around a cockpit or crew area?  I think a thick enough foil could be embossed with that pattern and hold it's shape pretty well.  That stuff is pretty stiff.  I bet that would come out pretty well.  I think with the right tool for embossing it, you could manage the contours that are seen it.

Just a thought. =]  Any of you seen anything like that?

I used the supplied ID decal on the raided detail pannel, then put drops of future on the faces to look like the glass on the instruments

I think the seat looks allot better now.

Wow that is some good looking and FAST work you did there , well done.

I put you on the roster.

As for my Sabre, I dtrfitted the major parts and they look good, the detail is also very nice  but the bangseatwas a huge letdown!

The seat is basically just that, a hollow cradle with almost no detail, o belts, not eve the farmiliar red armrests so I had to sctach build them to look more "busy" aswell as making belts from painted lead foil obtained from my local glass recycling place....you guessed it - wine bottles LOL.

I gloss coated the whole "office" and need to do a pin wash to give it some feel.

Here is the seat I am trying to replicate

Hey gang,

I had so much fun with the Mustang GB, I think I'd like to continue my modeling-mo with an entry into this GB!

I have Monogram's F-80 that I'd like to get in with.  

The wife's been away, so I've had a bit of extra building time to myself.  I went ahead and got started on this kit by gluing the rear fuselage halves to their forward partners.  The kit's designed to have the rear end detach to show the engine.  I didn't want to build it that way, so I glued the forward and rear pieces together.

It took some SERIOUS reinforcing and sanding to get the pieces to line up.

I also decided to close up the forward gun hatch.  Um...more fit headaches...

So, since so much of the raised detail was destroyed while getting the parts to fit together, I decided to just bite the bullet and rescribe the whole darn thing.

Luckily, the panel lines on this kit are pretty simple.  Good thing too, because dryfitting the wings to the fuse shows that there are MORE fit issues.  So, more raised detail would've been lost to the sanding-filling-repeat process.  This way, with the airframe rescribed, restoring detail during assembly won't be as big a deal.

Speaking of assembly, I was looking at which wingtip drop tank option I wanted to use, and in doing so, realized that the attachment for the tanks is fiddly at best.  So, I had to engineer something that would be a bit more, um, robust.  

First, I figured that the tiny attachment stubs on the tanks were not going to be good enough. 

I drilled 'em out and decided to use some wire for attaching the tanks to the wing.

Then, looking at the attachment points, I came up with an idea.  I'd take a piece of wire, bend it into a U-shape, and pass it through the wing from the inside.

Since the wingtips are so thin, this give me good solid attachment points extending from the wing into the tanks.

SOLID!

Finally, I cleaned up the tanks and added some tape for detail.  No, it's not accurate, but I'm betting it'll look the part under some paint.  

Anyway, that's where it's at as of now.  I have a three day weekend, so I'm going to try to get some bench time on my day off and make some progress.

Thanks for lookin'!  Feel free to drop your two cents in the bucket on the way out.  I always appreciate the comments and criticisms.

Cheers!

-O

Glad to see you in here BD. =]

Welcome Brandon :-)

I started on my F-86 last night and I am very impressed with the detail sofar, the cockpit is very nice, however the bangseat is a big dissapointment. There are none of the prominent armrests and I will make it from scrap plastic.

Theuns

To myself: Don't overcommit, don't overcommit, don't overcommit...

Ok, sure, sounds fun! I'll build the same thing Theuns is building, the 1/48 Hasegawa F-86 Sabre. I've got some aftermarket decals for it that came with it on consignment, as well as a Verlinden resin interior set.

-BD-

Thanx for the links, I am sure it will be of great help :-)

Theuns

Here we are.  For anybody out there looking to do "some extra reading" here is a link to Doog's youtube page.  I think it's worth a watch...especially since I didn't have to take the time figuring all that trial and error stuff out. =P  He makes some good points about what isn't going to work out and what can point you in the right direction of what you're looking for.  =]

Hope you find it useful.

Bare Metal Variance pt 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMjuSZdHayE

Bare Metal Variance pt 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R8zwalD8t8&feature=iv&src_vid=_yQNHVFf0uU&annotation_id=5655f5be-0000-2d3f-b2ce-94eb2c060cc8

I actually just watched a video about NMF that came up randomly from Doog.  I'll see if I can post it here.  He did a test of varying methods of manipulating the beat up weathered effect seen on actual warplanes. Interesting to see the results.  There's a part 2 as well.  I'll see about sharing the link.

I declair this GB officially open :-)

Theuns

This will be my entry, Hasa 1/48 F-86f.

Will basically be outh the box, maybe just AM decals for SAAF

Theuns

Two day before start :-)

Theuns

Defenately the second one I think...

Only a few days before we can start ;-)

Theuns