Well Steve, the pick idea is what I would attempt first. IF that was not reasonable or feasable I would close it up and make a hanger in flight bird instead, like Bish mentioned.

BK

MAN!!! EB, Justin, TJ, CMK, MC, Damian, Hope I'm not missing any one... What progress! Such a broad base of builds and such good work!... Bish, you need to be nominated for GB Idea of the year( if it were available) ! lol... Amazing guys! 

Well heres my offering...

Un-clamped and ready to continue!

Sorry. Flickr still being a PAIN IN THE AZZ, and not working properly. When I go back and try to select another picture it goes to "Bad Panda" appology screen picture. And I don't want to replace a smashed computer. I'll try later today... Take care all, Doug

Thanks guys, I'll get it somehow.

Funny I started experimenting with black basing before I knew it was such a thing. I stink at pre-shading so much that I ended up basing the whole thing black anyway. I just didn't do the mottling part. I'm going to give that a go with the Tornado.

CMK02: Looks good to me! 

Steve: Oh gosh, yeah I've done that a few times including a 1/48th Rafael (either Trumpeteer or Hobbyboss, I don't remember) where I never could get the friggin' well back in place. I ended up just building her in flight, which looks funny since I didn't have a modern French pilot for her... 

Good luck, crossing my fingers for you. 

Eric: Thanks for the run-down. I haven't visited Doogs site in probably over a year. I'll have to dig out a paint mule and give that a try. 

Bish

 

 

modelcrazy

Well nuts! I was applying some Silly Putty to the wheel wells, wasn't thinking and pushed the wheel well right out of its glued location. I could fish it out but am going to have a hard time getting it back in correctly. Any ideas without cracking the fuselage open and possibly damaging it beyond repair? I have an idea to drill a hole in the wheel well, put something like a dental tool through the hole, fish it back through the opening, pull it up against its location and re-glue.

 

 

 

 

Nuts indeed. Short of closeing up the landing gear and doing an in flight build, i think that might be your best option.

 

Some nice work there Eric and nice write up. I have tried black baseing a few times and while i do get some subtle effect on light colours such as light blue undersides i don't have any luck with darker colours.

Looking good there check.

modelcrazy

Well nuts! I was applying some Silly Putty to the wheel wells, wasn't thinking and pushed the wheel well right out of its glued location. I could fish it out but am going to have a hard time getting it back in correctly. Any ideas without cracking the fuselage open and possibly damaging it beyond repair? I have an idea to drill a hole in the wheel well, put something like a dental tool through the hole, fish it back through the opening, pull it up against its location and re-glue.

 

Nuts indeed. Short of closeing up the landing gear and doing an in flight build, i think that might be your best option.

Reporting in on black basing. Still in testing stage.

Urge all of you to check Doog's short video “black basing” for a quick introduction. (Since then he has made a series of longer videos on the same subject showing how to use the technique with various camo scheme – including the green and gray I'll be using. There's maybe four hours worth.)

The object is to create a surface that shows tonal variation. Doog has a million photos to show what he's talking about (and some examples of models that he doesn't like). He rightly observes that aircraft and tanks show a wide variation of tone and colors that don't match obvious shadow lines along the panels etc. So preshading is out out out. You prime the model in black – not gray. Then you enter the “mottling” stage. Here you paint “small” - very low psi, very close with the airbrush, with the object small dots, thin lines that kind of blanket an area. You're encouraged to use different shades, but more importantly, different concentration. Also different colors – but in this case I was using neutral gray and stuck variations on it. Most of the mottling is the base coat neutral gray; some is a darker shade and some a lighter. Some areas are more heavily covered than others. You can below that the area on the lower half of the wings near the fuselage is more densely mottled than the tips: the front middle is in between. The result looks pretty crummy but it's supposed to. Think of this as a more complex and I think realistic form of preshading. And Doog's right about one thing – look at photos and real aircraft and you don't see panels lines appearing in perfectly symmetry – if you see them at all, they're part of a fruit salad of tones and colors. Do remember that WWII (or service aircraft today) planes didn't get the kind of baked on paint job you'd find on a modern car, and they were assaulted by about every kind of matter that could imaginably make a plane untidy. Here are two pics – one of the whole plane (only did wings and tailplane) and a closeup of a wing.

URL=http://s971.photobucket.com/user/ebergerud/media/2017/MotTst1_zps8biuyhox.jpg.html][/URL]

Greg

CMK, I have a request if you remember. Could you show how you mask those installed landing gear (and wheel wells) when it's time to paint the wings?

Wings installed.

The visible line down the center fuselage is filled with superglue and sanded.  The wing/fuselage joints are gaps that will have to be addressed.

I fixed the gaps in the ailerons by drilling the locating holes larger, so I could "push" them closer to the wings.  

I added the tail section, but forgot to take a photo of it assembled

Greg:  I'm sorry that I didn't take photos of masking the landing gear--or any of the masking.  I didn't think it would be of interest.  

I can describe what I did, if it'll help.

I started out by putting masking tape sticky side outward, inside and all around the perimeter of the landing gear well.  Then I stuffed the wheel well with wet table napkins.

I let the napkins dry out for a day, since tape is notorious for not sticking to wet things.

Then I went back and wrapped masking tape around the gear, sticky side inward--but inside the first application of masking tape, to cover it up to, over and around the wheels.  Sort of like wrapping a mummy.  

When I painted the undersides, I kept the airbrush at a low angle, so as not to direct the spray too far up the gear legs or into the wheel wells.  Since there isn't much for tape to hold onto around the inside perimeter of the well, some of the tape did pull loose, and shooting at a low angle prevented much (if any) paint from sneaking inside. At least, I couldn't spot any overspray.

I did have to go back and touch up the inside perimeter of the landing gear wells with black acrylic paint, with a brush.  I used Colourcoats black for the underside, but the acrylic black blended in fine, since there doesn't seem to be much difference between black paints.

I had to make my own masks by enlarging the painting diagram that came with the kit. Couldn't find any after-market, pre-cut masks.

The type of masking tape I used was "Duck" brand from Walmart.  Seems to have a fairly low tack.

I did finish the painting and applying a gloss coat with Humbrol gloss, but then I had to leave on vacation, and the Hampden is sitting at home waiting for me to return to it.

Again, I'm sorry now I didn't take photos, but I hope the description was somewhat helpful.

Good looking work, tj!

Hey TJ, the Jaguar looks cool! 

Justin, I was waiting to see the dullcoat on your Lancanster, and I'm certainly not disappointed. Looks great! And so does the weathering.

CMK, I have a request if you remember. Could you show how you mask those installed landing gear (and wheel wells) when it's time to paint the wings?

Good to see you underway again, Johnny.

Looking forward to it TJ. I was thinking of a Jag to add to the roster and was looking at that kit, but probably won't at the moment.

Looks good there Johnny, wishing you better luck than you had with the Tornado.

Got started on the Jaguar. Looks like it's going to be a nice kit 

Justinryan215

 

 

Rigidrider

Greg... lol... Harbor freight tools, 6, or maybe it was 8 for a dollar on special!  Got a bunch of them and use the soup out of them on other things too! lol...

Thanks Bud...

Doug

 

 

 

 

Harbor freight is great for hobby tools, and some of their other tools are good, if they are not a "use them every day" kinda tool!  I picked up one of those magnifier with alligator clip holdy thingys for 5 bucks, and a few other tools perfect for little plastic models for very few of my u.s. dollars....

 

Your Dam Buster is looking great!

Thanks, and take care!

Doug

Coming along nicely there check.

Justin, really nice work on the Lanc. Great job on the weathering.

Thanks, Bish, Stick and Justin,

Justin, I thought about it but I found the 100th anniversary of the 31 squadron just too cool.

Bossman

 

 

checkmateking02

Looking better and better, Justin.

 

 

 

And nice job with those long thin-line decals on the wings !   Those are tough.

Chris

 

They sure are!  Made just a little easier with future as a decals setting solution. ..

checkmateking02

Looking better and better, Justin.

And nice job with those long thin-line decals on the wings !   Those are tough.

Chris

Looking better and better, Justin.

Useful technique to know, Chris.  I've got lots of RAF subjects, too--including the infamous Spitfire.

Again just to make sure I don't miss anyone- fantastic work all around guys!!!

Thanks for all the kind words guys!  This is tough with two kids....lol

I did some weathering and flat coating this evening.....

Lancaster dambusters build by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

Here she is flat coated....

Lancaster dambusters build by Justin Ryan, on Flickr

modelcrazy

I received the FLIR pods today and installed them. I'll continue on with it now that I'm done with the Kate and Thunderbolt.

 

That is going to look awesome!   It would have been cool if you selected a tornado from 617 squadron to build....they are the modern day equivalents to the Dambusters. ....

Thanks Check - Wings and gear are lookin good.

And thanks Damien -

My method ?   Here ya go . . . .

The two base colors are standard MM Acrylics - right out of the bottle - but watered down a bit and brush painted.  The dark earth goes on over the whole upper surface in 2 coats in most places.  A third touch up coat was used in spots.  Then the RAF Dark Green is applied in the camo pattern.  This time it took three coats to cover with the Dark Green.  I think the sky underside was done in two coats.

I guess what I do with the panel lines is not technically a "wash".  I just paint a slightly darker color with a very fine brush and I dont worry if it gets outside the panel line.  If it does - I just wipe the excess in the direction of airflow.  Sometimes I'll add some of these darkened areas in strategically placed streaks, around the edges of raised detail, or on small access panels just to accent them slightly.

For the Dark Earth areas I use Dark Earth darkened with a bit of the RAF Dark Green.

For the Dark Green areas I just use dark green with a tad of black.

For the Sky areas I use Sky darkened with a bit of RAF interior green.

The techniques I use are best for hard-edged British (and other) camo schemes.  Maybe THAT's why I like modelling RAF subjects so much !

Chris

Installed the landing gear

Did some test-fitting to see that everything is going to cooperate.

Nasty gaps are still there.  I'll pop out the ailerons and re-drill holes to make them fit up more snugly to the wing.