Got your work cut out on the Puma, especially when you get to decals.  Don't envy you a bit.

But will still watch, and send a broom for the hair on the floor. 

Joe, I've got you on the list - Tamiya 1/48 P38 F/G for Toshi and Hunter. Good to see you in here mate.

Steve, decals or not, that's going to be a challenge.

Mustang, what can I say........ I've never been into cars, but you stir my interest with this superb build. Awsome painting and that engine!

Joe, What can I say. You have pulled off yet another epic engine. That is astounding workmanship. It completely looks the part.

Steve, Love the 1/144 Puma selection. That will be a joy to watch you build.

Joe, that Mustang engine looks spectactular, but that is to be expected from you. Very nice. And as far as the stance on the kit, it's made to be displayed engine out, so the stance is correct. Once you set the motor in it will level right back out. 

Steve, that little guy is smaller than some of the grasshoppers we get around here. Should be fun with those decals, can't wait to see it.

I'll be starting on my AM P-51C shortly, nearly done with my SSGB kit. I'll knock it out and then get the Corsair going. Both will be fun to build and think about Buddy and  Toshi while I build.

BK

Mustang: Great job, beautiful job recapturing the real thing in miniature! 

Steve:Yeah, that Puma is tiny! 

Thanks you guys. Engines and interiors are my favorite parts of car building however I'm not liking the interior of this one as much as others. This one has some rather difficult spots particularly when it comes to the replication of some of the chrome/ aluminum plating trim.

The door panel for these cars with the deluxe interior package looks like this:

Started with the OOB door panel. Here it is mocked up in my GT-350 spare kit just to show what we're working with here.

That door handle presents a nasty obstacle when trying to apply BMF to the brushed aluminum insert. After two failed attempts botching it up I just decided to remove the dang door handles and re-create the pockets that they go in so I could insert the metal ones that I ordered from Teds Modeling Marketplace later.

As you can see...the efforts paid off.

Then came the addition of the chrome strip around the perimeter of the door panel insert as well as the addition of the mirror control lever and bezel/ retainer. Now we're just waiting on those door handles. 

   I think you will overcome Mustang. Interiors are one of the things that steer me away from cars. Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Perry. They're NOT all this difficult.

My 41 Willys interior was a breeze once I figured out a color theme for it. I had ALOT of fun with it:

Ol' Toshi would check in on my builds sometimes and make comments. I think I almost had him talked into building a car.....once. lol 

Moving on to what is normally my favorite part of the interior....the dash. Again.....this one presents very difficult obstacles. How to BMF that bad boy and NOT get any wrinkles. 

Y'all.....I'm really looking forward to the seats on this one. Deluxe dash panel inserts look like this:

And again....BMF ing this was dang near impossible. I tried chrome silver paint which looked good initially and then over time it did some weird stuff. Set up wrong or something. Anyway it looked like hammered dog crap!!! 

This is where drastic measures are called for. Some may call me crazy for this but hey......ya gotta do what you've gotta do in modeling. I had a spare dash sooooooo. I cut it in half and cut the dash pad/ cover off of it to gain easy access to the outline of the passengers side of the dash for being able to cut a template out of BMF in which to place a perfectly cut BMF piece on that side.

After creating an outline onto the BMF I cut it out to the exact shape and laid 'er into place. Not perfect....but I can live with this alot better than that other job.

I'm going to re-apply the silver on the drivers side of the dash because there just aint NO WAY I'm going to be able to pull that off with BMF but I think I can get the two sides to look pretty close to the same. The passengers side was the real eyesore as there's just so much more area and there's no gauges or any other detail to 1.) take up some of the blank space and 2.) to provide detail distraction.

Mustang you are a machine! Great work.

Jeez Mustang, that is great work. Amazing.

mustang1989

Thanks for the vote of confidence Perry. They're NOT all this difficult.

My 41 Willys interior was a breeze once I figured out a color theme for it. I had ALOT of fun with it:

Ol' Toshi would check in on my builds sometimes and make comments. I think I almost had him talked into building a car.....once. lol 

Moving on to what is normally my favorite part of the interior....the dash. Again.....this one presents very difficult obstacles. How to BMF that bad boy and NOT get any wrinkles. 

Y'all.....I'm really looking forward to the seats on this one. Deluxe dash panel inserts look like this:

And again....BMF ing this was dang near impossible. I tried chrome silver paint which looked good initially and then over time it did some weird stuff. Set up wrong or something. Anyway it looked like hammered dog crap!!! 

This is where drastic measures are called for. Some may call me crazy for this but hey......ya gotta do what you've gotta do in modeling. I had a spare dash sooooooo. I cut it in half and cut the dash pad/ cover off of it to gain easy access to the outline of the passengers side of the dash for being able to cut a template out of BMF in which to place a perfectly cut BMF piece on that side.

After creating an outline onto the BMF I cut it out to the exact shape and laid 'er into place. Not perfect....but I can live with this alot better than that other job.

I'm going to re-apply the silver on the drivers side of the dash because there just aint NO WAY I'm going to be able to pull that off with BMF but I think I can get the two sides to look pretty close to the same. The passengers side was the real eyesore as there's just so much more area and there's no gauges or any other detail to 1.) take up some of the blank space and 2.) to provide detail distraction.

 

BK

Magificent work Joe! Always enjoy your excellent problem solving skills.

That's taking it to the next level Mustang!!! 

And I'm a GM guy so it's a serious complement!!! 

nice looking interior you should sign the glove box like shelby did!

For Toshi I'm in with a Tamiya 1/48 F4U-1D in Salvadorian 1969 100 hr war camo

I'm already in Lewbud's GB with a Mig-21MF,

Now that's a camo scheme.  Going to watch as it unfolds.

Thanks you guys. I really appreciate the kind words of encouragment. I'm needing it...that's for dang sure!!! lol 

Nick!! Dude that IS one heckuva camo scheme!!! Gonna love watching you pull that one off.

I've been trying to reach a fella that used to be on here pretty frequently for the last few weeks. He had stopped posting here his own reasons but was always very supportive of my builds when I was just starting out here and participated in several group builds to include the two that I ran early on. You guys will know him as Rigidrider and he had this avatar:

To me and those who knew him, his name was Doug Shearer. When emails to him came back undeliverable I began to wonder what happened. Although he hadn't posted here since 2019 , we conversed through PMs and email to check in regularly with each other. I found out today that Doug passed away in December of 2019 two days before Christmas. To anyone here that knew Doug, he was a giant in our modeling community for a while being helpful and friendly along the way. Super guy and terrible to hear of his passing at the age of 66.

Ferg, If I could I'd like to dedicate my Mustang to him as well. 

mustang1989

I've been trying to reach a fella that used to be on here pretty frequently for the last few weeks. He had stopped posting here his own reasons but was always very supportive of my builds when I was just starting out here and participated in several group builds to include the two that I ran early on. You guys will know him as Rigidrider and he had this avatar:

To me and those who knew him, his name was Doug Shearer. When emails to him came back undeliverable I began to wonder what happened. Although he hadn't posted here since 2019 , we conversed through PMs and email to check in regularly with each other. I found out that Doug passed away in December of 2019 two days before Christmas. To anyone here that knew Doug, he was a giant in our modeling community for a while being helpful and friendly along the way. Super guy and terrible to hear of his passing at the age of 66.

Ferg, If I could I'd like to dedicate my Mustang to him as well. 

 

 

Ah krap! I knew Rigidrider quite well- real good guy. I just thought he'd drifted away like so many have. Very sad to hear of his passing. 

Nick: Looks cool, I love those camoed South American Corsairs. 

Got you Crown. 1/48 Tamiya Corsair in Salvadorian markings for Toshi.

No problem Mustang. I've adjusted the build list.

This just goes to show that there needs to be a back up plan for the members forum friends to find out well before 6 months or more has passed. My wife fully knows that if something happend to me that she would let everyone know. I know fo some it's difficuult but those who are married, the spouse should just drop a line the the members "other" family. For me, letting FSM and other forums know, it's in my will.

So, This will be my first update since startingthe build.  Since Imgur doest allow access to the bbcode frm the app, I've needed access to a computer to add the photos.  My usual time and place was at work before my apprentices would arrive for their day.  I'm here in southern PA, and when IDa's remnants came through, the shop got flooded, it wiped out all of our computers, phones, internet, etc with 4 plus feet of water in the shop and offices.  the 18-20 cars we had in the shop and on our lot all got flooded and totaled! No one was injured, thankfully.

Ao now, here I am posting this build update from a crappy little laptop....but, whatever works, right?

I have been following along with everyone's builds through my Ipad...wouldnt it be great if we could get an app for the finescale forums? lol

Anyhow, here goes:

I am building Tamiya's F4U-1D Corsair in memorial of Toshi, and my dad, who I just lost this summer.  I am building it as a tri-color bird on one of the Pacific Islands.

I started, as many of us do, with step one, which also happens to be the cockpit.

The seatbelts that came with the kit were very unimpressive decals, so I used the photoetch spares from Taniya's Spitfire Mk1 (built for the Plastic Posse Podcast group build).  I folded them in a somewhat realistic fashion to appear as though the pilot just jumped out of the plane after the last mission...

Then, I started in on that huge Double Wasp engine, adding just a little detail in the form of wire, taken from an old apple device charging cable.  once drilles and inserted, I painted the engine with Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black, and drybrushed Vallejo aluminum over the entire engine. I then tpped the newly installed wires with Tamiya clear orange, to give it a copper look.  A quick panel liner wash (Tamiya) to deepen the shadows, and a little sponge stippling on the center cone to show chipping, and the engine was ready:

Then, I assembled the rest of the airframe, painting the interior colors where called for and neglected to take any photos!

And that leads up to tonight.  After assembling the airframe, I sprayed Mr. Surfacer 1000 Grey over the whole Corsair, to fill scratches from seam removal and correcting the foldable wing joins.  I then sprayed the areas prone to chipping with Vallejo Metal Air Aluminum and Hairspray and allowed it to dry.

Once dry, I flipped her over and laid down a custom mixed "Insignia White" which is out of stock, like, everywhere...

That's all for now.  I should be ale to get back to the bench on friday, as I took the three day weekend to go paintballing with my son and frieds from his scout troop, which, thanks to a few Covid cases, is no longer a weekend camping trip (woohoo--I hate sleeping outside!) to just a day trip on Saturday.  I kept the Friday personal day...

Justin: Fantastic start there!!! I love the cockpit and the engine! 

mustang1989

I've been trying to reach a fella that used to be on here pretty frequently for the last few weeks. He had stopped posting here his own reasons but was always very supportive of my builds when I was just starting out here and participated in several group builds to include the two that I ran early on. You guys will know him as Rigidrider and he had this avatar:

To me and those who knew him, his name was Doug Shearer. When emails to him came back undeliverable I began to wonder what happened. Although he hadn't posted here since 2019 , we conversed through PMs and email to check in regularly with each other. I found out today that Doug passed away in December of 2019 two days before Christmas. To anyone here that knew Doug, he was a giant in our modeling community for a while being helpful and friendly along the way. Super guy and terrible to hear of his passing at the age of 66.

Ferg, If I could I'd like to dedicate my Mustang to him as well. 

 

 

Given this news, after I complete my Corsair I will look to build the Matchbox He-115 I have in my stash in fond memory of Doug.

Godspeed and God Bless Rigidrider.

That's a great tribute Joe. Looking forward to it.

I didn't know Ridgerider as well as mose but I did enjoy his posts.

On to Buddy's build. I got the fuse buttoned up and the canopy, doors and windows masked. The fit is good and will continue to install the exterior items before the final prep and paint after sanding the joins.

Looks good Steve, nice to see you've got the canopy masked- my most hated part.

I'd be tempted to toss in something for Rigidrider. Not sure what he liked, he was always a great supporter of my Japanese GBs though.

Justin: Progress on that Corsair is looking GREAT man. Sorry to hear about your shop getting flooded and all but am glad that no one got hurt.

Steve: Liking your PUMA build so far. So tiny!!!! Jeez that would give me a headache building that. How in tha hell you can mask stuff that small is beyond me pal.

Cliff: Doug liked ANYTHING from the second WW so that is a safe bet for sure.

Got the dash mostly done. Still gotta do the column and steering wheel and will have to fabricate a turn signal lever for it as I cut the drumstick for a lever off of the column.

I ended up going over the left side of the dash with Molotow chrome and because of its flow properties it made its way into the nooks and crannys of the gauge clusters corners. After the Molotow had dried I shot a uniform coat of MM Acrylic Flat Coat over both sides of the dash trim bringing everything to a uniform finish. I then applied the Mustang medallion to the left side of the dash. Then the decals for the instruments went on and I painted the radio up, applied the chrome to the radio and light switch knobs. Ignition cylinder bezel went on and I inserted the keys into the ignition switch. PE pedal faces went onto the pedals and I picked out the chrome trim around the pedals.

I'm mostly content with this dash despite the difficulties presented with it but....I've had better.

Dash looks great.  Lots of good dedication builds here.  
Sad to hear about Rigidrider.  His WALL-E scratch build was one of the greatest and most creative things I've seen on FSM

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/6/p/178273/2006567.aspx?page=1