QUOTE: Originally posted by pingtang [(my t-shirt works particularly well). It'll just take the edge off it and give it a nice subtle and feathered look.

could you send me one of them then? I may have weathered my Ju87 a bit much and mine doesn't seem to do the trick

getting to a point with the Ju87 I will be able to start on the Zero.... only thing AM with this kit are the decals.

Bob Weathering looks good mate. If you want to tone it down a bit, just rub a soft cloth over the top of it (my t-shirt works particularly well). It'll just take the edge off it and give it a nice subtle and feathered look.

Watch yourself with that aftermarket stuff, you'll end up spending more on resin and PE than you did on the kit. And it gets even worse once you start adding AM decals.

haha welcome to the addiction Bob!!! yeah IMHO the ultracast seats look better than PE harnesses. oh and make sure you get a prop too! but I agree, the harnesses are the only think missing out of the cockpit.

Jules - OMG I don't like the plane but am going to have to buy it just to do that cockpit!!!

Daniel - I have to agree with you on that P-47 cockpit. VERY nice looking, as good as a resin cockpit in my opinion. AND half the buildup of the AM cockpit. A lot less dials and flare guns to fiddle with. I am about 80% done an a FAM Mexican P-47 and I am in love with that kit as well!

The wife is out of town and the son slept late this am so I was able to start 're-weathering' @ 7am. A little more subdued on top, still 'too' much on bottom. Will work on that later-had to go to a soccer match. My hope is that the dull coat will take some of the 'edge' off. If not, I'll be ready when the AM SBD-3 Midway version is released....



I have to agree with the comment regarding the AM detail. Only complaint is the lack of seat harnesses (other than decal). I'm torn between geting a set of PE belts for the F6A or ording the Ultracast seat. And since I'd be online, I'd have to order the Ultracast exhaust and maybe a vacumn form canopy so all that detail would be visible. I can see me getting into trouble with this stuff.....

Bob Looks good so far. And like Tom said, don't expect every other kits cockpit to live up to this one (unless you build a Tamiya P-47, which is just as good IMO). So far my SBD has been great fun to build, hope yours is the same.

Jeeves Looks like it'll be another amazing kit from AM. Who needs AM (aftermarket) parts when you've got an AM kit eh? Any idea on a release date?

:::progress report::: I did what I said I would do in my last post, and am now gonna start the fiddly bit stage. I'm hoping to get it finished by next weekend so I can enter it in a comp (if it turns out half decent that is).

Errr.... have you seen the newest pics of the Vindicator?? Great Models has some posted at the bottom of this week's newsletter:

http://www.greatmodels.com/main/050423.htm

I believe AM has topped themselves-- I do believe those are headphones in pic #6??
http://www.greatmodels.com/main/Reviews/Peterson/dash3_003.jpg

Bob - those AM kits will ruin you on almost any kit from now on... your whole expectation for a cockpit has been raised!

Played around with the chalk a little this evening-maybe a bit much. However, I have a grey & blue in my chalk selection that I can do some 'touch-up' work later. Applied a coat of gloss and after that cures, will future the decal areas. After decals are applied, a coat of dull and then pastel correction, as needed, followed by another coat of dull-at least that's the plan. If all else fails, by that time the AB should be here and I can make some very light/thin blue & grey and do it right. Actually, the more I think about it, that might be the better approach....will postpone completion of this project, but I think it will be worth the wait.



Started on a Monogram 1/48 Zero for the Pacific GB. This kit is circa 1962 with no interior detail. This Accurate Min. kit has spoiled me. Looking forward to starting on the F6A for the North Africia GB. Will use the Zero for AB practice when it gets here.

btw-found the orginial BBC series 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' at Blockbuster today. Local PBS station showed the series in the early 80's. Watched the first episode with my 11 yr. old. He didn't find the humor in it. Sigh... But, as it is written in bold friendly letters on the Hitchhikers Guide, DON' PANIC!

I'm gonna spray a flat coat on my SBD today, then I'll do some pastel weathering later on. I got the insides of the flaps painted red last night. Once the flat coats are on, I'll be ready for final assembly. The fun bit will be painting that canopy.......

hmmm.... you just gave me a great idea Bob... I am sitting here lamenting the lack of RLM 76 Lichtblau because I wont be able to paint my Ju87 till tomorrow.. I forgot I had a Zero for this build still pending...

gonna get to work tonight after all!!!

Seeing whereas things are slow in this GB (an awlful lot of BUMPING going on), I'm going to grab the pastel chalk and weather the SBD-2. Still a lot of small parts to attach, mask & paint the canopy, etc. But maybe if I get take that first step......

See what I mean Bob? One can't be too careful about that bump.... somepeople just recklessly come in here and do it without thinking.. ::rolling eyes at Jules:: We'll see how frisky he feels after he repairs that hole in the cieling he caused over there..

Ouch! Glad I had my safety glasses on and ear plugs in for that one.....

BUMP

Daniel That looks superb mate

That salt chipping is reall effective when ya get the hang of it.

No prob Daniel - I actually painted my first one with red uppers in that spot, and it wasn't till a LOT of research later I realized they were the color of the underside. Then somewhere in the instructions AFTER I determined that was the case I finally spotted it.. it's fairly well hidden!

Thanks lads. I appreciate the comments.

QUOTE: Excellent work Pingy paint job looks great but shouldn't you have left the canopy clear instead of blue

Ah bugger it.....I knew I forgot to do something. Has anyone got a spare canopy? I forgot to mask mine.......

QUOTE: looks good! even more proof that it is a winning idea!!! Now I just need to find the sheet of paper where Saltydog laid out how he did it haha.

Here ya go. I copied it too:

QUOTE: [/i]originally posted by saltydog[/i] the weathering was a combo of airbrushing and pastel chalks. to achieve the splotchy paint job (which the pics really don't show up as well as in person), i mixed the base color, and then from the base color i mixed a shade or 2 lighter, and a shade or 2 darker mixture. first, i applied the darkest color to the entire top surface, and from the article i read in FSM mag last year, i stole the "salt" chipping idea, and i twisted it into my own evil plan!! i loaded up some tap water in my airbrush and sprayed my model, then i covered my entire model with table salt, i grouped it into big chunks, little chunks, down to the smallest grain with a small paint brush. when this dried, i sprayed the base color and removed the salt with a fresh water wash down. when this dried, i covered the model in water and salt once again, let it dry, and then spayed the lightes mixture, paying close attention to the center of panels and the upper most surfaces of the plane where the sun is beating down the longest and most. when this was dried, i didn't remove the salt yet, i loaded the darkest color back in the airbrush and ever so subltly followed along a few of the panel lines to darken them just a hair. then, removed the salt

And thanks for the info too. I thought that was how it should go, but I just wanted to make sure as there's nothing in the acc min instructions that said what colour it should be (or more likely, I didn't read them properly).

Daniel - the inside of the center flap is red, but the part of the body underneath the flap is the same color as the underside...

looks good! even more proof that it is a winning idea!!! Now I just need to find the sheet of paper where Saltydog laid out how he did it haha...

Great job Daniel. Inspires me to do some work on mine this weekend.

Excellent work Pingy paint job looks great but shouldn't you have left the canopy clear instead of blue
I'm no expert on the dauntless mate so i can't be sure but something is telling me that inside the flaps is red as well, but thats just conjecture, not 100% sure...

Righto then Jules. It's got decals on it now, and I gave it a wash too. The first photo doesn't show the effect too well. When I sprayed it at first, it look really speckled, so I sprayed a mist of the lightest colour over top. It also toned down the post-shading a bit.


This photo is a close-up of the left wing, you can see the effect better here.


The salt technique could work really well if you got everything right. I think my colours weren't close enough to each other, and the positioning of the salt could have been better. I'll get it right next time.

Next up is a flat coat and some pastel weathering. Question, should the centre dive-flap interior be red too? I know the actual flap should be, but does the underside hidden by the flap need to be painted red too?

QUOTE: Originally posted by bobbaily QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900 Bob - careful with that bump... it's all fun and games till someone gets their eye put out!! Yeah, that's why I went with lower case letters......

Good call Bob that shows great forethought

Pingy If it's all painted then show us a pic eh

QUOTE: Great Daniel! Maybe you could do a step by step pic thing for us so we can see how it progresses. I too am interested in that way of doing it... hmm speaking of that I haven't seen Chris on in quite some time!

Too late Tom. It's all painted and ready to go. The effect didn't turn out as well as on saltydogs, you can barely see it. I'm happy with it though, it's a very subtle sort of effect. with a bit of pastel weathering it should look good.

good one Bob!

QUOTE: Originally posted by tho9900 Bob - careful with that bump... it's all fun and games till someone gets their eye put out!!

Yeah, that's why I went with lower case letters......

Great Daniel! Maybe you could do a step by step pic thing for us so we can see how it progresses. I too am interested in that way of doing it... hmm speaking of that I haven't seen Chris on in quite some time!

Bob - careful with that bump... it's all fun and games till someone gets their eye put out!!

bump

Got my first colour coat on the SBD just a few minutes ago. I sprayed the light grey on the bottom and all the other parts (gear doors, legs and other little fiddly bits). I plan on letting that dry over night, then spraying the blue grey tomorrow. Then I'm gonna try the Saltydog salt method of weathering. Gonna be fun, fun, fun!!!

Darren - LOL! Like Daniel said... topic? we don't need no stinking topic!!! If you've noticed, that is the case anytime Jules, Sean and myself are involved...

I'd go for the gloss black enamel like Daniel mentioned. The other colors don't need it, but the polished aluminum does. On my test aircraft I plan to mask the body in half and do one side in gloss black enamel and the other in grey MM acrylic primer.. just so I can see for sure what the difference is...

One thing for sure... the first time you spray the alclad you'll be in love!!! truly a remarkable finish that the pics posted here using it, don't do justice to.. you have to see it with your own eyes!!

Almost bought me a High planes CAC avon Sabre today. All this talk of them has got me interested. To anyone who's built one, how does that resin fuselage go together? Looks a tad messy in the box (flash and warping in abundance). Might buy it one day, just to have a CAC sabre in my collection.

Darren You'll definitely need an enamel gloss black for polished aluminium and Chrome. If I was going to use the three shades you mentioned, I'd use a gloss black enamel (It's probably the best one to use for all shades). According to alclad, any type of paint will work as a primer for the regular shades(ie. not polished aluminium or chrome). And it doesn't really need to be a gloss black. As long as you have a layer of paint between the alclad and the plastic surface, it should be alright. A gloss black will make the finish a bit brighter though.

Who needs to be on topic eh?!!!! Battle of Midway GB? What's that?!!!!