China-Burma-India Theater GB 2006-2007

I finished painting all the details, landing gear, wheels, pitot tube, exhaust etc.  I should be able to get them installed tomorrow. 

Once all those are attached, I can spray the flat coat.  Then there are a bagillion little clear lights and lenses that will need to go on. 

I still need to mask and spray the canopy, should be able to wrap that up tomorrow after work.  

Just about finished with this one guys. 

Thanks for the comments guys.  Man, I almost had a total disaster last night.  I had put some micro set on the decals and for whatever reason the shark mouth decals didn't like the initial application at all!  The wrinkled up something fierce.  I just about had a panic attack, good thing my wife walked me off the ledge. 

Fortunately, when I look at them in the morning they were almost completely smoothed out.  I put another light application on them this evening and am letting them chill overnight, so to speak.

Nice work on the decals Scott.

Regards,  Rick

The decals are done!  Whew!  For the most part they went on very easily.  I brushed a little bit of future where the decal was supposed to go, dipped it in water and immediately placed it on the kit.  So far there appears to be no silvering.

I must say though the shark mouth decals were tough to get situated just right.  There are two very small decals with teeth on them that go on the very front just under the spinner.  Those are IMPOSSIBLE to put where they're supposed to go without doing at least one or two cuts so they go around the chin structures.  They're supposed to lay down with the points of the teeth inside the chin inlet. Brutal.    But somehow I survived the ordeal... barely.  Time for a cocktail! 

I need to apply a bit of micro set to get the mouth decals to settle down a bit better, but overall I'm please with the results. 

Tomorrow goes the final future coat before I attempt a light oil wash over the kit.

Your P-51A is looking good, in spite of the difficulties you've had with the kit.

I decided to wait another 24 hours to be sure the Future has fully cured before putting on the decals.  I'll have some decal pics tomorrow evening. 

Rad, I'm not sure If it was a weather thing. All the parts were warped symmetrically- left fusel;age warped leanign left, right leaning right, about the same amount too. Same with the wings, both were warped upwards the same amount.

Fixable problems, but still irritating. The one other thing I don't like, is how it's possible to see into the plane from the tail wheel well and radiator opening. Otherwise I have to say it is  a very nice kit. 

I know what you mean. It's a pretty nice kit, but I personally feel Accurate Miniatures is given undue praise. All of the major parts were warped on mine, and that's unacceptable to me.

Thanks for the comment.  

Scott-

Tanky-nice work on the cockpit.  I love the AM P-51 but somewhere in the process, it always manages to give me problems. 

Looking good Scott.  Should be a winner.

Regards,  Rick

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my pics. finally.

The camo looks great. Looking forward to the decals.  

mmmm... Red Hook ESB 

Good stuff! 

Whew!  I FINALLY managed to get everything in order on the paint finish and was able to spray on a coat of Future.  I tried really hard not to let myself get frustrated and kept slogging through all the touch up and little fix it's bit by bit. 

All the hard work is over now, so I just need to spend an hour here and an hour there to finish this P-40E.  Most of the time now will be just waiting for things to dry and cure. 

I think I'm ready for a cocktail now.... 

Those little niggling things are really annoying aren't they?

I posted progress pictures of my build up in the AC forum. I'll link to them here shortly.  

I was just getting ready to spray on the Future, but I wanted to give the P-40 one last looking over to make sure I didn't miss anything.  I noticed that I had gotten a little carried away with the radiator intake area on the chin of the P-40 and painted the white a little too far beyond where it was supposed to go.  I was only supposed to paint the inside area with the 3 openings and I thought to myself "hey, I know, I'll paint some of the rest of this chin white so there won't be any color bleed through on the white parts of the sharkmouth decal".  Whoops.... took it a little bit too far.

No worries though, I just got done a little bit ago carefully wiping the excess off with a tiny bit of Windex and some Q-tips.  I've already repaired the damage on the earth and green spots, and will patch up the grey a little later tonight. 

The camo looks really sharp.

I finished the cockpit painting. Now I just need to fit it all together. I hate the way Acc. Min. has the cockpit install into the fuselage.  

Thanks Rick. 

I touched up the nose last night right after those photos.  I was hoping to seal this baby up with some Future tonight, however I just realized I need to paint a little bit of white on the front scoop area in preparation for the shark mouth decal.  I'll have to do that tonight, and seal it all up tomorrow.  

Looking good Scott.

Regards,  Rick

Here are a couple of photos after I finished the camouflage.  I noticed a small blemish on the topside of the nose, I'll fix that in a jiffy.  I also need to fix the drape of the shoulder belts and attach the tail planes.

I tell you, the silly putty was a little tricky at first.  Now that I've gotten the hang of it I'm sure I'll use that trick every time I have curvy lines to mask as it's a thousand times faster and less tedious than cutting tape and paper masks. 

I'm at the point now where there's not much work left to do, it's more about drying and curing times now...... just a few more days worth of work.  Thanks again for letting me slide across the finish line after the due date.