75th Anniversary of 1942 (World at War)

Well, the base is nice.

The front page is updated, Tony.  Thanks for your participation in the GB.  Always good to have you around.

Starting to dig into this Liberator. Paint and decals have been secured...

I think I'm going to takle this as a series of sub assemblies, wings, fuselage, and tail. The biggest problem will be adding (and disguising) enough weight to the nose to make it sit properly.

I've always liked the boxy look of the Liberator.  Makes a lot of sense to build as sub-assemblies.

Hope you have success with the nose-weight, Mark.  

Made some progress on the Liberator. Major assemblie completed...

This plane will be a tail dragger unless I add weight to ther nose. I added a fake bulkhead behind the the pilot deck and bombadier, then back filled behind and below wityh lead split shot weight...

Then I taped together the fuselage and tail. I inserted the wings, held my breath and et it down...

...success! No tail dragger here. now I can glue together the fuselage, tail and wings...

Fill some gaps then off to paint...

Good job, Mark!  The few Liberators I've built always mocked my efforts to get them to sit on their nose wheel.  

I've got the Liberator into paint. First Neutral grey overall. The bottom half and undersides of the bird will stay this color and the grey will serve as the primer for the upper half to be painted sand....that was faded to desert pink...

Undersides masked and ready for the sand...

Pink now applied...

After it dries, I'll remove the masking and make the enevitable touchups, then soldier on.  

Looks good,  Mark.  Nice shade of pink.

An update on the Liberator...

Touch ups are done, the gloss has been applied and the decal process has begun...

Excellent work, Mark.  That's a lovely shade of pink!

Have you ever had one of those builds where you are almost finished when you realised you've made a horrible mistake? Well on this Liberator I had mine. The painting, decalling and weathering was finished, as I was adding the last few delicate pieces when I noticed it. I was adding the landing gear doors onto the struts when something didn't seem right. They weren't going into position properly when it hit me what I had done and then I yelled "O...H.......F...U...D...G...E!!!". Only I didn't say fudge!  I cemented the landing gear in BACKWARDS! Thats right, backwards.These suckers are really on there. I can't remove them without snapping them off. I am so close to finishing this thing I have decided to say to heck with it.

So if you'll excuse my faux pau, here it is. It turned out OK otherwise, excet for the upper turrent which seems way too tall..

See here, the landing gear strut should face outbooard. Oh, God...

Well there you have it warts and all. I'll be on the lookout for a junk kit or partial build to scavage some new lading gears and some day I'll fix it. But for now, I'll just pick my self up, dust myself off and soldier on to my next build, a little wiser. 

That turned out beautifully, Mark.  What a great finish, paint scheme and markings.  It's a mightily appealing Liberator!

As far as the landing gear, it's not obvious in the photos.  The last B-24 I built, I installed the vertical stabilizers upside down.  In my defense, the instructions showed them incorrectly.  Fortunately I had some spares in the box, but I had to re-order the decals.

Great model!  What photo would you life for the finish roster?  You've got a number of good shots to choose from.

Thanks for your participation and completion of the GB!

Thanks for the kind words. I guess it didn't turn out too bad Lol.

I was concentrating on keeping that nose wheel on the ground and didn't pay enough attention to the main gear.

I think picture #1 or 8 would work. Thanks for letting me participate. Now onto 1944.

Tomcat your Liberator turned out pretty darned sharp! The paint work and markings look great! What color did you use for the Desert Pink/Sand? That really nails the color. Yeah, thats a bit of a goof on the main gear legs, but everything else looking so good draws your attention away from that. Hard to believe that this ancient Revell kit can look so nice. 

I agree a fine paint job on a very old kit. 

Got the photo posted, Mark.  I used the one that shows the side with nose art.

Thanks again for your participation.  You'd never know the kit is as old as it is.  You did a remarkable job with it.

stikpusher

Tomcat your Liberator turned out pretty darned sharp! The paint work and markings look great! What color did you use for the Desert Pink/Sand? That really nails the color. Yeah, thats a bit of a goof on the main gear legs, but everything else looking so good draws your attention away from that. Hard to believe that this ancient Revell kit can look so nice. 

First of all thanks to all for the positive comments. Back in the past, the thought of or should I say fear of screwing up a model is what caused me not to persue the hobby for 30 years. Now, I chalk up the experience to "lessons learned" and move on.

Stick: The paint color is a custom mix of sand and red. I actually read that in a B-24 build review on the "Modeling Madnes" website. So here is a picture of the paints I used. 

Simply add the red a drop at a time until the "Sand" starts to change color...

Just one word of caution. Unless you keep track of the exact formula measurements, you had better make enough paint in one batch, because if you run out, then repeating the same formula to obtain an exact match would be next to impossible. But, I'm sure you probably know that. 

I’ll keep that mix formula in mind. And yes, i know how custom mixes go... Even if you do mix at the same ratios, there is often a slight variation... your mileage may vary. I still have two more Desert Pink builds to do someday, and I don’t think that my bottle of the color will suffice for all three. But who knows...

FINALLY finished this little bugger! I weathered the heck out of it to look like she’s been out rec out in the desert of North Africa. I still need to paint the figure.

Steve

Well-done, Steve.  You achieved a well-worn, veteran appearance.  It does look like it's been through the wars!  I've always liked the little Stuart!

Do you want me to post a photo now, or do you want to wait till you've painted the figure?  I could post now, and swap out the finish photo when you're done with the little guy.

What sort of paint are you going to use?  Vallejo?  Or something else?

Thank you sir! If you post one now and when I get the dude finished then I’ll post better shots and you can swap them out if you would please and thank you. This is actually my first tank in 53 years. 

You are so right, I use Vallejo Model Colors for figures as they lay out so well. Thanks for hosting this great group build!

Steve

Steve:  I posted a photo, and I'll be glad to swap it out whenever you finish the figure.

I asked about Vallejo, cuz I've been trying to use it for some 28mm figures, and I'm finding it a steep learning curve.

Thanks for adding to the GB!  Always a pleasure to have your participation and see your work!

Docidle,

Your Stuart turned out great.  I really like the "dusty" look.

Pat

PFJN

Docidle,

Your Stuart turned out great.  I really like the "dusty" look.

Pat

Thank you so much Pat. As I said earlier, it was my first tank in 50 or so years and I really enjoyed it. It certainly dirty! I now see the attraction for heavy metal. 

Steve

 

So I've decided to do this Italeri 1/72 He111.  The subject has a black camo bottom with the 70/71 splinter overpainted with winter white wash.  Should be an interesting learning experiance since I've never done black camo or the winter white before.

Great choice, Ed.  I've got a couple of Heinkel's, but from Airfix.  Looking forward to seeing this.

It's not much but it's a start.

Looks good!

And we have some 111 progress shots.  The top of the wing root fits great but I can't say so much for the bottom.  The old Matchbox kit fit better in that department.

Sounds like you'll be getting out the filler; but what you've done is looking good.