IT'S BACK! Secret Santa 2: Rudolph Strikes Back

Great finished builds there Mists and Chris. They turned out great. I am still here on this build, just havent had much time at the bench. Been working on other GB's that are clearing up now and if all goes well I am actually going to start my build this weekend.

Steve

Great Val Mist! And congrats on the award - Well deserved

 Chris, great looking builds!

And agreeing with you, where are all you guys and your builds?

This is it for me folks...builds complete !    I did some weathering on the P51-C using some of the tips from the April issue of FSM.  It's definitely the most weathering I've ever put on a build.  Here she is...

If you're interested - I'll be posting shots of this one with her older and younger siblings (a B and a D version) in the A/C forum soon. 

And here's some shots of the trio of models given to me by the Zipmeister.  Thanks Zip !  They were a great gift that kept me modelling clear through to May !

I'm still kinda amazed that the wingspan of an F-16 is so narrow - even narrower than the P-51. 

Still hoping that a new wave of builds will start on this thread.  There's an awful lot of Christmas styrene out there !

Chris 

Very pretty Val Mist.  And Congrats on the award !

Chris 

See...I'm not dead!!!  Been a hectic month and a half for me.  Trying to juggle working 60 hr weeks, and when that finally slowed down, i broke 2 fingers on my right hand.  Trying airbrushing and gluing with a bent wing  But after going thru rehab on my World of Warcraft addiction, i finally finished my Val.  Thanks again JMart for the kit.  This kit had some challenges but all and all it went together fairly well.  I also finished it in time to enter it into my local IPMS model show where i got a bronze award for it....... ON TO THE PICS!!!!!!!

Wow lots of good looking assemblies taking place here.  Kudos to all for jobs well done and well underway.

I'm not so lucky.  My plastic assembling has temporarily (hope short) has ground to a halt.  Major renos taking place in the house, and afraid to dig anything out, then have to pack it all away again.  Oh well I guess I like trying to pour molasses in February, slow, slow, slow.

Tried to get some paint at the LHS for this build, but he was way down on supplies.  He has had some trouble getting the supplies in on a timely basis.  Also waiting for a model I ordered back in January.

Keep up the good work, Santa and his elves, I have on a good source are also watching.

PaPa-John

Beautiful! Outstanding job Chris! Great work on both of your planes. Jeep looks great too!

Zip

Klaus,

Nice job on the panel accents. 

And Yes - I'm sure mine's not yet done.  I started re-reading the April FSM article about weathering the natural metal finish P-47.  Today I stopped at the shop and picked up some steel and gunmetal metallizer paints - I'm gonna give it a try.  I really liked the weathered look that the author was able to put on that P-47.

Chris

Very nice work Klaus. Really like the pr-shading and it looks like you are well on your way to competion.

Steve

Very nice paint job Klaus!

Cheers,

Azgaron

Great work Chris! You sure it's not done yet?

Here's yesterdays progress; finished preshading and coated with base color.

Next will be panelling and clear coating. Hope to start decaling in the week end.

Very nice looking Stang and Jeep! Excellent work Chris!

Cheers,

Azgaron

Chris, that is a nice little bit of history and lends a little extra touch to the build.

Steve

Thanks Steve,

Yup - it is a Tuskeege bird.  99th Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, 15th AF.  Capt. Ed Toppins.  Hence the name on the nose.

I had an Uncle that served in the 15th Air Force, Co-Piloting a B-24.  I think it was the 449th Bomber Group.  Wonder if he ever looked out his window and saw one of these escorting him ?

Chris

Very nice work Chris, I like how it turned out. Nice finish on the metal. What squadron is that one (tuskeege).

Steve

Hello friends...

It's been a while - but here's some progress to report - along with a post that will bump this thread back to the first page.  These are models 2 and 3 that sooner or later will finish off my contribution to this GB.  The Mustang is not done yet, but I had the camera out tonight and I thought it would be good to snap a few pics.  I still need to put in the landing light lens, paint the wing tip lights (top and bottom) and install the antenna and pitot tube.  I think I need to tone down some of that exhaust staining too - or at least feather that trailing edge on the port side a little better. 

I love the way this kit gives you the option to pose the canopy open.  There's a good amount of pit detail that can be seen in there.

There's some great work going on here guys - looking forward to seeing more !

Chris

Here she is ...

Thanks Steve and Azgaron, glad you like my progress!

Unfortunately the compressor didn't just over heat: something burned out!
So this afternoon I'll see to get a new one without spending too much on it ... hopefully. 

Nice work Klaus! That pre-shade looks great so far!

Cheers,

Azgaron

Hey Avus, very nice work my man. The paint job looks very nice and so far the pre shading looks like its working. I have never tried preshading but am leaning toward trying it some day. Nice progress so far and keep us posted.

Steve

Wow had to dig out this thead on page two!
Guess things have slowed down a little, anyhow here's my progress of the last two weekends:

Last year I tried for the first time to pre-shade my aircraft and I wan't 100% satisfied with the result, mainly on the dark colors.
So this year I "medium-shaded", i.e. I applied the back color and drew the panel lines. These lines will be eventually faded with the correct backgroud color.

During the process the compressor over heated so I had to stop for the day!

Thanks for the info Bossman!

I think I have Dk Ghost grey somewhere, and I'll try it out on the Viper I'm building.

Cheers,

Azgaron

Outstanding work everyone!

Mist086 your Val is coming up very nice; sorry about that canopy.

Aggieman that Spitfire is great and the belgian marking make the difference.

hkshooter and Bossman your aircraft are two lookers. Very nice and clean builds.

Thanks !

Azgaron - I don't have all the FS numbers here with me now - but I know that it was ModelMaster Dk Ghost Grey.  Funny you should ask.  This is the only color I was really unsure about.  I went with the kit instruction callout.  Some other references I have said that it should be a semigloss version of MM's Neutral gray, which is the same as the flat color that makes up the lighter part of the topside.  Most actual F-16 pics that I've seen show a definite color difference between the radome and the lighter topside color - So I went with the Dk Ghost.

JMart - I think spring is here.  sure there will be some cold days , but after this weekend the grass is no longer all brown - and the bulb flowers are coming up.  That "snow-swept" surface that the pics were taken on is actually the roof of my pop-up trailer.

Aggieman - very nice build, love the markings. Also gave me an idea for using my AB stand as an a/c stand ;)

hkshooter - Love the bird and markings... never seen that one before (Im a newbie though ;) Also thanks for taking the time to explain the paint/fade issues, good to know! Congrats!

Bossman - Great job, LOVE the paint job, very crisp. Cool (no pun intended!) outdoor pics.

Cheers all!

Very nice looking Viper, Chris! Excellent work!

What color have you used on the radome?

Cheers,

Azgaron

Hello again all -

I'm calling this one DONE !  Since the last update I added the underwing stores, "smoked" the canopy, added some decals, touched up some paint spots, corrected part of the canopy actuator, and probably did a few other barely noticable things to finish her up.  This one surprised me.  I didn't think she'd be as colorful as she turned out.  There were a ton of stencil decals - some of which were left off.  Thanks Steve (Zipmeister) for this kit ! - hope you like it.

You haven't seen the last of me here though.  I'm still working on the P-51-C and the Jeep.

Chris

Mist, Steven - Looking great guys! Two very well done kits. Excellent!