The 50 Shades of Gray Group Build!

Gloss black Warthog? Crying out to be an Oshkosh racer!

LostAgain, the casting looks good to me.  Can't wait to see all those fiddly bits added!

O, magnificent work once again!

68GT, I actually like the look of the Warthog in black...it kind of inspires me to do some kind of sci fi, what if sceme....

68GT

The A-10 got a black base coat of Tamiya X-1 thinned with their lacquer thinner at 1:2 after some filler work.

 

WHOA! That looks superb in gloss black! 

The A-10 got a black base coat of Tamiya X-1 thinned with their lacquer thinner at 1:2 after some filler work.

Where's my fork because...the Stearman is done! This Kaydet is ready to solo!

It's not even close to being perfect, but I'm happy with my first attempt at a biplane. I learned a lot during this build. I think it will look fine among the other 3-footers on my shelves. Here are a few photos, and I've posted a few more in my thread in the Aircraft Forum.

lostagain

O the Stearman is looking really smooth...what paints are you using?

Hey lostagain, to answer your question, I used MM and Testors' "little square bottle" enamels. The main color is MM ADC gray. The fuselage band and tail are MM Insignia red, white and blue. The yellow is Testors Yellow. Additions are some simple wire on the engine and tape belts in the cockpit. Some some aftermarket decals to customize my livery. Fine wire grab handles on the fuselage, and finally, E-Z Rigging line for the rigging.

I'd like to thank everyone for their comments and compliments. Much appreciated! As usual, feel free to share more comments, criticisms and questions. They're always welcome.

Thanks to Robert (again) for hosting. Now that this little guy is done I can turn my focus to my USMC AH-1J as my third submission. 

Sorry gang, but I'm not going anywhere...yet.

Cheers!

-O

Oh, and Robert, you can use this one for the main page:

 Rooster the Eagle cockpit is coming along great, seats look good, shame about the fit.

 68 GT, Always like an A-10, the fit looks good

 Mongoose the hellfires look great, and the Viper is coming along really well with a great finish.

O the Stearman is looking really smooth – very clean finish. Great rescue on the tail and the rigging is very neat. Enjoying your build – what paints are you using?

Glamdring, the seahawk looks good, the drone is very cute!

That paint job if great O!

O-very nice indeed!

Hey all, I just wanted to share some of the progress that I've made on my Stearman.

Last I left you, I had tried to touch-up some paint issues on the vertical stabilizer and ended up pulling off chunks of the rudder decal. My only choice was to get back down to bare plastic and paint.

So...

Stripped:

Primed:

Painted:

Installed and rigged:

It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm going to focus on the engine and windscreens before I move on to rigging and installing the top wing.

Stay tuned!

-O

Fabulous projects 68GT and Mongoose!

That cockpit looks like it flew together.  Well done, O!

Tomcat, you may want to double check that photo link, it looks like an error message instead of ordnance.  

Tomcat i think your stores exploded - all i see is a white out 

While I finish all the seam work, and paint my Strike Eagle, I managed to finish all of the underwing stores...

I will added these as completed sub-assemblies after the paint work, decals and weathering is done.

68GT-looking forward to seeing the Warthog come together-I need to pull the trigger and grab one during the next HobbyLobby 40% sale.  I always enjoyed being on vacation in Myrtle Beach and watching them fly over.

Mongoose & O-love the Cobra's-I really need to add one to my stash-will be following closely.

Thanks for the encourging words on the Chevy-didn't do much else on it this weekend...hopefully will take care of some smaller sections this week.

Hey Grayers,

As the paint on my Stearman's tail dries, I started on my AH-1J. My plan is to build it in the 3 gray camo scheme used during Desert Storm. 

I want to build every version of the Cobra that served with the Marines. This will be the second of the series. I finished a kit-bashed -1G in '19 and the 4-bladed demstrator last year. I purchased the Cobra Company resin cockpits for the the J, T, and W for my project. I decided to go ahead and use the resin for this build. 

I have never used a resin cockpit before. My experience with resin hadn't extended beyond an ejection seat or a set of wheels. Overall, I'm happy with the way it turned out. There are a few little mistakes here and there, but they really won't be noticeable under the canopy. The only addition I made was a pair of scratch built ECS hoses.

I'm ready to move on to the airframe. I'll be sharing my progress as I make it. Comments, questions and criticisms welcome. Thanks for looking!

-O

Here's the latest on the Viper. Gloss cleared today, decals tomorrow! I found the bluish gray for the upper surfaces at the LHS in Mission Models livery. It sprayed nice straight out of the bottle. Clear coat it tho before you get anywhere near it or it will come off lol

It's the Academy kit in 1/72 scale with much better fit than the Revell kit. It's not bad but nothing like their A-37. The fit on the A-37 was so good I didnt use any filler.

68GT whose A-10 is that? I've been looking at which manufacturer has the best so looking forward to hearing how yours goes.

The Chevy is looking great!

I almost forgot some progress pictures of the A-10.

You bet, O.  Go for it!

Nice work Bob!  Glad to see the car moving forward.  Ba dum dump  

Thank you Mongoose-usually Solveset will resolve the issue with an application-if not better in the am, I'll give your suggestion a shot.

Bob those decals pop right off the car against the gray, super! I see what you mean about the silvering, they look like they were thick decals. Try poking a small hole with the tip of the #11 and applying some solvaset over that If you want to try and get rid of it. 

Decals on with a bit of Solvaset-had a little silvering due to the less than smooth paint job.  Went for the early 60's lower class gasser look with contingency/sponsor decals to the extreme.

Read an article that recommends final clear coat before applying Bare Metal Foil-hope to apply clear coat tomorrow and then foil on Sunday-or use the chrome pen-always have a Plan B.

Still need to paint the engine, trim in the interior and dig thru the spare parts bin for some different wheels-not happy with the kit wheels.

Hey Robert,

I'd like to submit another candidate for this GB. Since crossovers are allowed, I'm wondering if I can submit my USMC AH-1J in gray Gulf War camo? I should be wrapping up my Stearman soon, so hopefully I can share my Cobra here too?

Let me know.

Thanks!

-O

Drat! I've encountered a minor setback, and it's all my own doing.

I was trying to touch up the vertical stabilizer and the striped decal (mostly) lifted off. Strange, because I didn't use tape for the sole purpose of avoiding this hiccup. I used Parafilm and the decal still came up! Never had that problem with Parafilm before, especially since it has no adhesive. Anyway, there are no pictures, but I'm in the process of stripping the fin. I'll repair it and instead of using a decal, I'll paint the on the stripes. 

See you soon!

Nice updates all!  The clock is certainly ticking, a little over a month and a half.  Funny how fast that year went, all things considered....time to start thinking abuout a new GB topic...

I made some very minor progress on the Freedom, assembled and painted the drone and the choppa:

The drone will be sit on the flight deck, and the Seahawk will poke out of the hanger bay.  I just need to clean up the seam that popped up after I painted it, the helicopter was molded in clear plastic.

It's down to these two things, affix the anchor, and then done!  I am just running into a shelf space issue for it...hence my delays.

Been following the thread-a lot of great work being displayed.

I had primed & painted (airbrush & Tamiya acrylic)-not happy with results so the body went into the Amazing Green (I think-found it at Walmart) bath and started over, got the two tone painted and a coat of Future.

Results are a little better-still some imperfections but nothing that decals won't cover.

Hope to Bare Metal Foil (first time) some of the larger trim and use a chrome pen for the smaller details by the end of this weekend.

Hey there FSM,

I'm back with a little bit of progess to share. This build is coming along slowly, but I'm happy with where it's at.

So, when I last shared, I had the two main colors sprayed on. I've since added a fuselage band and some decals.

The band is Insignia Blue with the white "U" and "Y" masked and sprayed. You can also see that I started the rigging too.

The majority of the decalling is done. The tail surfaces and top wing are just dry-fitted for the sake of the pictures.

I still need to do some touch up to the vertical stabilizer and rudder. The decals didn't behave as well as I would have liked. Oh, and I accidentally snapped off the tail wheel, so I have to fix that. While paint on the tail dries, I'll work on rigging the main wings. That should be the next big chunk of progress to show.

I know that the markings aren't accurate, but I'm using a little artistic license based on an airshow bird. I like the way it's coming along, and that's all that matters.

Feel free to share your comments, questions and criticisms. As usual, they're always welcome.

Thanks for looking!

-O

Still watching this from the sidelines and enjoying the show. Love those Hellfires!

I'll follow -O's lead and add a hint of color to this gray GB 

and close with the gray haha

I used black lacquer primer over the gray to simulate the texture of the anti-slip surface.

I'm going to have to cancel the 2nd F-4 and put it up on the shelf until I can find some deals I like. The kit decals were so off that the light gray just blended in and the dark gray looked green.

I'm going to have to cross build this Academy 1/72 A-10 from the CAS GB that I just started. I only have the cockpit assembled and basic painting done on it so far.