Thunderbolt GB 2016

Hunter

Hello rooster

Is it to late to join in on this build? If allowed I will go with a A-10 Thunderbolt. I will inform you of make and size soon. 

Thanks Hunter

 

Of course you can join Hunter! Would love to see another A-10

Hello rooster

Is it to late to join in on this build? If allowed I will go with a A-10 Thunderbolt. I will inform you of make and size soon. 

Thanks Hunter

Omar,

Loving the progress on the T-bolts and the different finishes.  Despite the old decal wildcard coming into play, you've really done them some sweet justice!  Keep at it!!

TAD

Omar you've got a great set of TBolts in the works - I envy the amount of progress you've made!

Now that the holiday hubbub is over, I'm hoping to get back to the bench. I really appreciate the encouragement I've received for my project, and look forward to being a more active participant in the coming year.

Mike

Haven't checked in here in a while but some really nice work going on. Omar, thats a real nice trio you have there.

Those three birds look really good O! I really like the NMF you pulled off there. Great progress buddy!

First of all, thanks to Colin and TAD for checking in and the pats on the back.  Much appreciated!  I'm glad you're following along.  Cheers!

Now, I think this will be my last big post for a while.  I won't have as much time to dedicate to modeling in the coming days, but I'll try to get the updates done as I can.  I'm glad that I was able to make as much progress as I have over the past few days.  Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and the feedback has really kept me motivated.  I won't get these done by the time I have to go back to school on Monday, but I'm pleased with what I've been able to accomplish.  Let me share what I've done so far...

So, it wouldn't be one of by builds if it wasn't two steps forward and one step back.  I had started decals on the HB and Monogram kits and ran into problems with both.  First, it was the torn checkers.  Then, while applying the lower national insignia, I ran into some serious wrinkling and tearing.  I basically decided to start over with that one.

Luckily I had an extra insignia floating around in my spares drawer.

Then, I tried to fix the Indian's headdress by applying a second decal over the first instead of painting over it.  It worked but some dripping decal solvent must've damaged the cowling's paint.  Weird because I didn't notice it last night.  The decal sat drying overnight, but I didn't notice the damage until this morning.  Luckily I was able to sand and repaint.  

Once the boo-boos were fixed, I decided to start painting the NMFs while the decals dried.  Here are a few shots of my progress on the first airframe.

So, here is where three of the airframes sit as of now.

The second Hasegawa kit still needs to have its NMF finished up.

I think the big stuff's out of the way.  While paint and decals dried, I turned my attention to the fiddly bits.  I started with the HB landing gear.

The gear legs and lower doors are molded together.  It took some careful painting to get them detailed.  The kit's wheels are terrible, so I decided to use some resin wheels I found in the drawer.  Problem is the leg's axle is THICK!  It's 1/8" in diameter!  So, I needed to carefully drill out the backs of the wheels.  The axles are hollow, so I added a small spindle to the wheels to help me install the wheels at the proper depth.  Now that it's all together, it doesn't look too bad.

So, that's where I'm at.  I'll keep plugging away with the small stuff and, hopefully, the next few updates will show everything going together.

Again, thanks for looking.  Feel free to share your comments and criticisms or ask your questions.  Also, I apologize for my typos and grammar.  (Going back and reading my posts is a little embarrassing.)  That's what I get for typing and posting on the fly without proofing.  I'll try to do a better job in the future.  

Happy modeling!

-O

Hey Omar,

Great job on all of your P47s!  They look great; can hardly wait to see them all finished!  truly an amazing plane!

TAD

Beautiful.  I especially like your NMF.  I also have a thing for checkerboards on aircraft.

Hey Colin and rooster, thanks for the kudos.  I appreciate the feedback.  Yeah, after these FOUR are done I think I'm going to build one of something.  Hey TAD, I have that kit in the stash.  I'm looking forward to watching you progress.  Happy modeling!

Anyway, I've been able to make a little progress on these four.  Let's take a look, shall we?

After getting the Monogram painted up yesterday, I was able to get it glossed today.  I was also able to start on the decals today.  I have an old Microscale sheet that I'm using to build Little Chief.  The problem is the decals are super thin and translucent.  I think I'm going to have to go back and paint the Indian's headdress to hide the underlying colors.  (Insert sarcasm here.)  Yay.

The good news is the decal responded well to Micro Set and Sol and laid down nicely on the cowling's curves.  I'll have to scrounge some insignia markings from somewhere since the old sheet doesn't have national markings in it.  Well, it has the old star-in-circle markings not the star-and-bar.  For now, the decals on the Monogram kit will wait.  While the Little Chief sits in the wings, I focused on the HB kit.  I had a 

I had a Superscale sheet with a couple of 78th FG checker-nosed Thunderbolts that needed to get used, so I decided to try 'em on the HB Jug.  I started with the cowling.  I figured I'd start there.  If things went south with the nose, there'd be no use in continuing with the rest of the markings.  I didn't want to finish with the fuselage only to find that I screwed the pooch on the final step; the nose.

After painting the cowling gloss white, I applied the decals.  I had one minor issue with two square tearing, but I was able to fix the damage with some spare pieces of black decal.  I was surprised at how well the decals laid down.  Again, Micro Set and Sol and a little patience...

Oh, since I had some paint in the airbrush for the HB cowling, I figured I'd see how the "gun plugs" turned out.  After some filling, careful sanding, and rescribing, I'd say they turned out pretty well.

I also decided to go ahead and spray the rest of the fuselage the RAF Dark Green over RAF Sky camo.  (Sorry, no pix of that.)  The nice thing about the Monogram and HB kits is that they'll both have a two-tone camo scheme.  That will help hide a lot of my mistakes.

What won't hide mistakes if a NMF.  That's what I'm doing with the two Hasegawa kits.  I was able to spray some Alclad Aluminum over both builds today, although, I ran into something odd.  I sprayed the cowlings with an old bottle of Alclad Aluminum.  It laid down beautifully.  Remember, one kit was primed in Alclad black and the other in Alclad white.  I wanted to see how the primer would affect the top coat.  It's a very sublte difference.  Hardly noticeable; at least to me.  

The cowling on the right has the white primer and the one on the right has the black.  You might be able to see that the white is a bit brighter and the black is a little darker.

So, I pretty much finished the old bottle on the cowlings and cowl flaps then opened a new bottle for the rest of the airframe.  The strange thing is the new bottle laid down a little rougher.  Even after making sure the primer coats were butter smooth (I wet sand before spraying the NMF) it still laid down a little pebbly.  I know that air pressure and airbrush distance can affect the way Alclad sprays, but it was the same painting session.  Nothing changed in my set up.  I even wet sanded after the first rough coat and it still was a little rough.  I don't know if there is something going on with this bottle of Alclad, but I followed my usual process for spraying Alclad, yet I couldn't get it to lay as smoothly as that old bottle.

In these pictures, you can see the difference in the finish between the cowling and cowl flaps, and the rest of the fuselage.

Again, the only difference was that fuselages were sprayed with a new bottle of Aluminum.  Oh well, I guess I'll have to live with it.

Oh, and here's a shot of how the two primers affect the top coats.  Again, the wingtip on the left is the white primer and the fuselage on the right is the black.

And one of both airframes.

So, while decals dry and Alclad hardens, I think I'll crack an adult beverage and watch my LA Kings battle the Sharks.  Tomorrow I hope to get some more painting done on the HB kit, some more decals onto the Monogram, and some different shades of metalizers sprayed onto the Hasegawa kits.  That's it for now.  

Thanks for looking!  Feel free to drop you two cents into the bucket on your way out.

Cheers!

-O

Ok, so here's the kit I plan on buidling.  Got the engine pod built and the left wing built over the last couple of days. Also, took the fuselage parts off the sprue.  Not a lot of progress, but it is a start!

TAD

Thanks for the add, Rooster!

TAD

Oortiz, that is some great scratch work! I like the belts you put on the Hase kits...I may have to look those up:) It's good to see them getting ready for paint! I don't know how you are keeping track of these kits...4 at a time...WOW!!!

Tal Afar Dave - Great to have you onboard...I'll get the roster updated with your submission!

mrmike

OK, Photobucket seems to be happier today so here's what I'm planning to build, unless it's too far along to qualify. The kit is Hasegawa's "European Theatre" P-47D, and the aircraft is the one my Dad flew. The poster and the illustration are by Don Barnes, who co-wrote and published "Thunderbolts of the H*** Hawks" with John Crump and Roy Sutherland.

 

Here's what's been done so far. I thinned and glued the front and rear turbo vents into the fuselage, thinking the PE was beyond me. I had intended to use the self adhesive PE set for the cockpit (shown in primer), but now I'm thinking of combining the PE with some of the resin set. This has been on the shelf for a few years, waiting for my skills to develop to where I feel more comfortable with it (not to say I can't screw it up, but the odds of getting a good result have improved). The only glued plastic parts are the wings and the horizontal stabilizers, the rest are snipped or primed. A couple of PE parts are in the kit cockpit.

From here on, I'm intending to replace the plastic vents with the PE, which is shown partly bent in the photo above, sort out the cockpit decisions, and to attempt some "Lawdog" wiring. At this scale everything shows, and it'll be fun to see how well I can execute. The intention is to make this a gift to my Dad - that's him in my avatar - he's 93 and still flying.

Thanks for looking & Happy Holidays!

Mike

 

Mike, I am so sorry I missed this earlier. Got busy with the holidays and completely missed it. You are more then welcome my friend and I look forward to seeing more of the build!

Hey guys!  I've been following this link for awhile and love what you guys are doing.  I've been sitting on the fence for awhile, but would like to jump in with a 1/48th scale Revell/Monogram A-10 Warthog.  It won't be anything elaborate, and will be mostly out of the box.  Looking around for some aftermarket decals, and that might be the only variance from an OOB build.

I started doing a little work already, to include the engine pod assembly and dry fitting of parts. Nothing major.

I'm taking pictures of my WIPs on my Samsung phone.  Will post as soon as possible.

Thanks,

Dave

Great save on the gear door!

Your builds are looking great!

I got another day at the bench, but I wasn't able to make as much progress as the past couple of days.  As a matter of fact, I ran into a bit of a problem today.  It was the type of problem that might've made me shelve this project...again.  Luckily, I was able to work past it.  Let's start there, shall we?

The two Hasegawa builds are primed and ready for paint.  The cockpits were already masked, but I needed to mask the wheel wells.  I originally used tape and wet paper towel, but I decided to use my favorite method for masking wells.  I like to press Silly Putty into the wells.  I had pressed it into three wells and as I was working on the last one, I heard the distinct sound of a joint popping then the sounds of a piece rattling around in the fuselage.  I pulled the Silly Putty out to see that I had pushed one of the wheel well walls into the body.  If you know the Hasegawa kit you know that the wheel wells are built up before going into the wing assembly.  With the fuselage and wings all closed up and glued together, how in the heck was I going to fix this problem?

After staring at the parts for a few minutes, I noticed that the well wall had some notches for the gear door.  Then I had an idea...

What if I glued some thin wire to the back of the part then wiggled it back into place?

Some CA glue would tack the parts into place until I could run a bead of liquid or thin CA around the joint.  I could hold onto the part as the glue set.  Once the joint was good and solid, I could trim the wire and push the ends back behind the well, reopening the holes for the gear doors.  I had nothing to lose and gave it a shot.

Wouldn't you know it?  It worked!  How about that?

With that, I placed the Hasegawa kits aside...for now.  I want to make sure that joint's good and strong before I try masking the wells again.  Instead, I turned my focus to the Monogram kit.

I glued on the nose, primed it, and pre-painted some parts that needed to be masked.

Before spraying some paint, I decided to create a "pin" to repair the dorsal antenna that was broken off.

Then, I sprayed the OD over NG camo.

I need to do some minor touch-ups to the striping, but overall, I'm pleased.

Well, that's where I'll end my modeling day.  Again, your feedback is welcome.  Feel free to drop your two cents in the bucket on your way out.

Cheers!

-O

tempestjohnny

Excellent progress O.

Excellent progress O.

 

OK, so I was able to spend the entire rainy day sitting at my bench and building.  I can't remember the last time I was able to do that!  I made some good progress today, and I can say that I think I'm back on track with these builds.  Let me show you what I was able to do today.

The Monogram and HB fuselages needed quite a bit of filling and sanding.  I was able to get most of the CA off of the Monogram kit with some debonder, but I had to use sandpaper for the stubborn stuff.  That and the kit's fit lead to a lot of obliterated raised detail.  Even the HB suffered from the sanding sticks.  I used some creative masking and heavy coats of Mr. Surfacer to replace some of the raised detail.  Monogram's panel lines were replaced with Archer's resin panel lines.

In the last few update photos of the Monogram build, you can see that I added some detail to the gunsight and colored the edge of the armored glass green with a marker before he canopy went on, was masked, and sprayed black.

While I waited for the Mr. Surfacer to fully cure and the raised resin details to dry, I turned my attention to the two Hasegawa Jugs.

Since they have clear wingtip lights, I drilled out the backs and dropped in a bit of color to replicate bulbs.  I painted the backs of the clear parts yellow chromate and glued them into place.  Once they were dry, I filled the gaps with CA and polished 'em up.

I went ahead and attached the wing assembly to the fuselages too.

The two Hasegawa Tbolts had some molding issues with their cowlings.  I needed to fill and sand that to make sure they'd look good under NMF.

Here's what one looked like out of the box:

This shot shows the two cowlings side by side.  The one on the left has been filled and sanded, the one on the right is waiting its turn.

OK, so that's what I got done today.  Tomorrow I hope to prime the Hasegawa Jugs and work on the HB wings.  Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.  Feel free to drop your two cents in the bucket on the way out. 

Cheers!

-O

OK, I gotta get in on this one!  I have started too many GBs and finished too few.  This time, there are two that I can participate in (and finish) at the same time!  This GB is a perfect companion to the Shelf of Doom GB that's currently running.  I have four (yes, you read that right) Jugs that are in the works.  Since both GBs allow crossovers, I'm going to get all four knocked out before February.  Well, at least that's my plan...

Two of them I started back in August of 2015.  (You can see that thread here:  A pair of 1/48 Thunderbolts.)  One of them is the venerable Monogram 1/48 razorback, and the other is the HobbyBoss Easy Assembly kit.  That project stalled after a mishap with some thin CA, and some filling and sanding issues that frustrated me.  

Again, the cockpits are OOB with the addition of some paper seatbelts I found manufactured by a company called Kamizukuri.

After that, the project stalled once the fuselage halves went together.

So, that's where these four Jugs stand.  I'm a teacher and don't have to go back to school until January 9th.  I definitely intend on spending quality time at my bench with these four kits in front of me.  I'm confident that I'll make some significant progress.  My goal is to finish before February.  If it's OK with rooster513 and taxtp (Thunderbolts 2016 and Shelf of Doom GB mods) I'm going to post this in the Shelf of Doom GB thread as well.  

Anyway, thanks for looking FSM.  Please feel free to post your comments, questions, and criticisms.  I appreciate the feedback.  Wish me luck!

Cheers,

-O

Thanks TJ, I'm looking forward to Rooster's response.

OK, Photobucket seems to be happier today so here's what I'm planning to build, unless it's too far along to qualify. The kit is Hasegawa's "European Theatre" P-47D, and the aircraft is the one my Dad flew. The poster and the illustration are by Don Barnes, who co-wrote and published "Thunderbolts of the H*** Hawks" with John Crump and Roy Sutherland.

Here's what's been done so far. I thinned and glued the front and rear turbo vents into the fuselage, thinking the PE was beyond me. I had intended to use the self adhesive PE set for the cockpit (shown in primer), but now I'm thinking of combining the PE with some of the resin set. This has been on the shelf for a few years, waiting for my skills to develop to where I feel more comfortable with it (not to say I can't screw it up, but the odds of getting a good result have improved). The only glued plastic parts are the wings and the horizontal stabilizers, the rest are snipped or primed. A couple of PE parts are in the kit cockpit.

From here on, I'm intending to replace the plastic vents with the PE, which is shown partly bent in the photo above, sort out the cockpit decisions, and to attempt some "Lawdog" wiring. At this scale everything shows, and it'll be fun to see how well I can execute. The intention is to make this a gift to my Dad - that's him in my avatar - he's 93 and still flying.

Thanks for looking & Happy Holidays!

Mike

Bump. Great looking builds in here!

I finally took some photos to let y'all see what I intend to build, and if there's not too much done to disqualify me (hope not). Went to upload to PB, but it's either frozen or suffering from the Holiday Vortex.

When it thaws I'll post 'em. Happy Holidays!

Mike

Thanks.  The optivisor I've been using makes a huge difference!

Nice work Colin! I've added you finished build to the front page. Thanks for joining and hopefully we will see you back with the P-47N!

I'm going to call this one done.  I may break into the Monogram P-47N later.