Secret Santa- WWII Aviation GB

Yea Avus, how do you paint so straight??? Looking good tho. Keep it up.

 Here is a pic of Hippy-Ed's P-51. I'm posting for the pic he sent me as he's not able to do so.

Oh My Gosh!!!!!!!! Almost TWO WHOLE DAYS without a post!

Well, here are photos of my finished P-400.  I had a little of trouble with the left wing root, but it puttied and sanded out pretty well.  I took a little "liberty" wit the end result.  I didn't use the provided decals for the plane's name.  I kinda liked the way the blue came out against the camo paint.  Otherwise, the kit is completly built OOB.

Eventually this thread seems to be alive again.

Great work Hippy-Ed and mph34!

Thanks for the compliments guys.
Actually it the first time I preshaded an aircraft and I had a hard time figuring the correct color-thinner-ratio.

This week-end I completed the preshading and painted the underside; this is the result:

Sorry I've been out of this for a while guys.... poor showing on my part. But....

I finished my kit! Woo-hoo! Here's the pics!

Looks great... one of your best.

Where have you been?  I did notice you have been a bit scarce lately.

wing_nut wrote:

Looks great... one of your best. Where have you been?  I did notice you have been a bit scarce lately.

Between time devoted to some web work I do for fun, plus some additional time I'm having to spend at work, time has been scarce. I've mainly just kept up with the aircraft threads a bit and left it at that.

Hopefully in a few weeks things will slow down.... probably wishful thinking.  

Very nice jwb, mph34 and Avus. Good work guy's Gee, jwb building a spitfire, who'd a thunk it

Well, I finally got off my duff and re-painted the Gekko. I am bound and determined to beat this thing. Hopefully next weekend the decals will be going on.

DrewH wrote:

Yea Avus, how do you paint so straight??? Looking good tho. Keep it up.  Here is a pic of Hippy-Ed's P-51. I'm posting for the pic he sent me as he's not able to do so.

So what happened to Hippy Ed? Seen someone posted his build in Aircraft forums earlier which was on another site. http://www.modelx.com/phpBB2/index.php 

Mr. Mott wrote:

DrewH wrote: Yea Avus, how do you paint so straight??? Looking good tho. Keep it up.  Here is a pic of Hippy-Ed's P-51. I'm posting for the pic he sent me as he's not able to do so.     So what happened to Hippy Ed? Seen someone posted his build in Aircraft forums earlier which was on another site. http://www.modelx.com/phpBB2/index.php

Ed's subscription ran out. He hasn't had the cash to renew it unfortunatly.

Driving a golf cart? hmmmm, ya never know

Been looking over the instructions for my P-38J.  I'm leaning towards doing Bong's "Marge", but I must admit the droop snoot and nightfighter options are very intriguing! 

I'm even toying with the idea of doing something different, and doing this one gears up to hang suspended inside my display case.  Might be kinda cool! 

Cockpit assembly begins tonight! 

Actually this GB is slowing down afte the jumpstart we had in october. I suppose it's due to the fact that many birds are done and that we have a late end date. 

Great work jwb! Your Spitfire looks great!

DrewH the "surgery" on your aircraft left no "scars"! Looking good so far.

Doing some researches I stumbled across a secret project for an innovative camo scheme the nazis were testing. it was called "nuclear winter":

I'm obviously kidding, but the effect of Maskol on the primed aircraft had it's charm.

Giving the correct paint and removing the masking I got this result:

Maybe the shading is too light, but on the other hand the green is rather dark.

Hey guys, I just finished up my Classic Airframes 1/48 Bf109D for the Spanish Civil War GB so I can finally devote some time to this one. 

I am starting on the P-38L tomorrow (have the day off because I had to work on Saturday) and hope to spend at least 4 hours on it.  The parts are all washed and prepped and laying out to dry. 

Cruising right along on the P-38.  This is a nice change of pace from what I usually build.  I was looking over the parts and noticed 1964 stamped on the tail plane    This kit is almost as old as I am!   

The plastic seems a bit soft, but so far the clean up has been pretty easy.  The sprue attachment points on the leading edge of the upper and lower wing pieces required a bit of cleanup, and might call for just a bit of filling once they're assembled.  I've got all the interior parts, including tail booms, upper and lower wings (each just one piece which includes the cockpit) prepped and ready for spraying.  I like to do all the interior spraying at one time so I don't have to go through the hassle of airbrushing the interior green etc. in several sessions. 

I'm still in the "learning" phase, but after having somewhat successfully completed a Classic Airframes Bf109D, I can now handle anything! 

Double checking the interior green color on the P-38 before I begin spraying.  Funny how "interior green" means different things to different manufacturers. 

I'm using Tamiya Acrylics, it looks like the correct color should be somewhere between XF4 Flat Yellow Green and XF5 Flat Green.  Anyone know a good ratio to get me the color I need?

For those that are interested, here is how I do my builds.  I try to be efficient and spray each color in one shot, even if it's for parts that are much further along in the assembly.   
 
All the small parts are attached to a piece of paper using masking tape folded back on itself with the sticky side out.  I attach the tape to the paper, flatten it out, then stick all the pieces to the tape.

I then spray all the parts, including interior fuselage areas like the cockpit section, and the wheel wells in the booms.

espins1 wrote:

For those that are interested, here is how I do my builds.  I try to be efficient and spray each color in one shot, even if it's for parts that are much further along in the assembly.      All the small parts are attached to a piece of paper using masking tape folded back on itself with the sticky side out.  I attach the tape to the paper, flatten it out, then stick all the pieces to the tape. I then spray all the parts, including interior fuselage areas like the cockpit section, and the wheel wells in the booms.

Cool idea Scott! I like how you labeled the part numbers- good idea. I usually do them on the sprue- but that always requires a little clean-up and touch-up later.... I'm going to have to try your idea.

The masking tape/mass spray job is something I originally learned spraying roadwheels for armor as they used to be such a pain in the ......   

espins1 wrote:

I'm still in the "learning" phase, but after having somewhat successfully completed a Classic Airframes Bf109D, I can now handle anything!  Double checking the interior green color on the P-38 before I begin spraying.  Funny how "interior green" means different things to different manufacturers.  I'm using Tamiya Acrylics, it looks like the correct color should be somewhere between XF4 Flat Yellow Green and XF5 Flat Green.  Anyone know a good ratio to get me the color I need?

You have entered the kingdom's dungon of 'correct color' dispare.  This arguement is as old as the first plastic model.  Not only is there no 'final' decision on this, but then you have to deal with what manufacturer built the plane.  And what series/block did the plane come from.  Then of course you have the problem of any 'touch-ups' by the Army Depo before shipping.  Not to mention 'in the field corrections/repairs'.  

As far as the ratio that you are asking, I think I remember that I too tried this combination at 1 part yellow/green and 2.5 parts flat green.  Someone once told me to think of the color of a bowl of thick split pea soup (personally, this made me gag).

Bottom line, get an interior green color that YOU LIKE.  I have three different shades of interior green as I have seen several different shades (light {almost a true yellow/green}, mediun {split pea soup}, and dark {Model Masters Arcylic Interior Green with a little black added}).

From the photo that you provided, the green looks good (a bit dark, but that might be the photo).  I like your tip on how you paint the parts.  I will need to give that a try.

espins1 wrote:

Cruising right along on the P-38.  This is a nice change of pace from what I usually build.  I was looking over the parts and noticed 1964 stamped on the tail plane    This kit is almost as old as I am!    The plastic seems a bit soft, but so far the clean up has been pretty easy.  The sprue attachment points on the leading edge of the upper and lower wing pieces required a bit of cleanup, and might call for just a bit of filling once they're assembled.  I've got all the interior parts, including tail booms, upper and lower wings (each just one piece which includes the cockpit) prepped and ready for spraying.  I like to do all the interior spraying at one time so I don't have to go through the hassle of airbrushing the interior green etc. in several sessions.

You must have the Monogram kit.  I have three of them that I am working on at different stages (P-38J, P-38M, F-5 are what I am working on).  I got all of them off of eBay, so I have three different box arts.  I don't think Monogram has done anything with the molds for the kit since day one.  I hope with the sale to Hobbico, some of these great kits get an update.

The other area to watch for if the nose section when you join the two halves.  I had trouble with alignment, and on one plane I used enought putty to act as a nose weight.  The other problem I ran into is all of those rivits.  On the F-5, I ended up sanding them off; the other tow I haven't gotten that far yet.

I experimented with the paint mix which was at first far too yellow.  I think the final ratio was something like 2 to 3 parts flat green to 1 part flat yellow. 

I was a little worried about the upcoming seam work, but I've seen a technique using putty and nail polish remover which it it works will spare the raised detail. 

I'm going to do the detail work on the instruments and levers tonight.  Pics shortly thereafter. 

DrewH wrote:

Looking good Scott! Wish I had the time to build at the speed you do.

I really don't spend all that much time building, I just chip away slowly but steadily.  Half hour here, 20 min there, 2 hours on a weekend etc. 

I didn't make any progress last night, spend most of the evening repairing my sprinkler system.  Got it all fixed up and am watering the yard as we speak... well, the automatic system is doing the watering.  heh heh