Mud Movers GB - July 1st - Dec 31st 2008

Thanks Dupes.  The photos don't do justice to the finish.

Future has been applied-after it dries (tomorrow), I'll mask and paint the wing tips & cowl & probably decal.

Now my dilemna is which color/decal scheme to build?  Red/yellow....sharkmouth or not....too many choices!

Thanks Paul.  I spent a little bit of time on 3rd shift-it threw me for a loop.

Well, I decided to use the Talon polishing power after all.....and I'm glad I did.  I can't say enough good about Hawkeye's products.  I choose to airbrush acrylic only (except when I'm building a car model-then it's Tamiya spray can).  The Talon paint goes on easy, looks great & the polishing power gives a realistic bare metal finish.  Only downside is that it shows the slightest of imperfections...a perfect primed (and probably wet sanded) finish would make the results even nicer.  Here are some before & after pics

No Polish

After Polish

Right side polished

Both wings polished

Give it a try Paul-I think you'll like the Talon product.  Opens up a whole new world.

Sorry about the number of pics Dupes, but I'm really thrilled with the results.  There's an F-86 Sabre in my future now!

bobbaily wrote:

Not only do you do quality work Paul, you do a lot of it!

Thanks guys....the product of a wonderful work schedule.....I just rotated to night shift for the next three months....the same night shift where NOTHING happens. I brought in an old 48th Monogram F-5E that I will be rescribing at the office tonight.

Bob, that finish looks great! That is one art I have yet to master....natural metal always looks pretty lame when it comes off my work bench....half the reason I stick with modern subjects! Keep it up!

  Not only do you do quality work Paul, you do a lot of it!

The Mustang has been painted with Talon acrylic aluminium.  I have to say that I'm pleased with the results.  Nice shiny finish that the pics don't show.  And with the addition of polishing powers, I imagine you would get a very realistic shinny finish.  I used Tamiya grey primer, painted, saw all the flaws, sanded, re-primed and re-painted.  Still some flaws (self induced) but I can live with them this time. With some pre-shading, I think you could get the color variations of the different grades used in the real planes.

 I plan to weather this bird pretty heavily, so tomorrow I'll Future, then Sunday paint the cowl & wing tips.  I'm going to Future-I'm not sure how much paint the tape will pull up without the Future.  Maybe get to decal mid week, Future again and then weather.  Or not.....

Here is my A-4C Skyhawk after the gull grey. I just need to paint the medium blue on the tail and then future it and decal it.

And also...good news! The A-10 part came in today. Now I can get working on finishing that monster

Tomorrow is finally airbrush day!

I sprayed the A-4 with the white undercoat today and have it all masked off ready for the gull grey topcoat. Then after I get that finished I am going to spray the mudhen. With a little luck, the scooter could be finished in a week or two

ARGH!!!!

I went down the LHS to get some paints for the mudhen....grabbed a bottle from the row labeled "Gunship Grey"....got home and found out that it is actually Euro 1 Grey!

I did pick up some more Tamiya primer though, so I should be set to get the white painted on the scooter and SLUF

Thanks Arki.  The IP is the kit decal, silver pencil outlining the gauges and a drop of Future for the lens.

Arki,

Got your PM.  Thanks for the reminder, I haven't been doing much as I'm saving up for a new airbrush.  Still here.

EDIT: You guys have been doing some great work.

Paul-glad to hear that you were able to find the parts that you needed.

Arki-your mudhen looks great.  Looking forward to seeing more pics.

I made some progress this weekend.  Interior is complete and fuselage & wings attached.  The interior could use a wash, which I will probably add soon.  Also, I managed to bungle the wing to fuselage joints-a bit high around the rear wing/fuselage area.  Managed to get it to a respectable finish-not perfect by any means.  However, I'm going to attempt to weather this one heavily, relying on the article in FSM from about a month or two ago.  Also debating on whether to use Talon acrylic aluminium or pick up a can of Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver.  With a little luck, I may have this thing primed and painted by the weekend.

Even wearing 2.25 reading glasses, I didn't see the many flaws that the camera shows.  Oh well, most of them will not be visible to the naked eye.......

Hurray! I got bailed out by a kind ARC user who had a scrap A-10. He is sending the part, so I should have enough time to get the A-10 air worthy

BTW arki.....the mudhen looks great. I am running to the LHS tomorrow morning to load up on gunship grey...hope to have mine sprayed either monday or tuesday

About 3/4 of a bottle.

Yeah, I need to reorganize the display area to fit this one in!  These modern jets just dwarf their WWII counterparts.

I'm building the Hornet with the wingtips folded, not just because I think it looks cool but because it will save space!

Resupply of Gunship Gray arrived and immediately was put to good use.

Love the look of that color!  It's just sinister. 

However, she's not perfect by any stretch.  I took the painting a little too far and nearly obliterated my preshading.  It's there, just not as prominent as I had hoped.  

Next is to begin masking for the metal finishes at the exhausts, and finish up the odds and ends painting on the ordnance.  

Bob, there have been plenty of aircraft that had ordnance strapped to them that probably shouldn't have. 

The P-51 was never that good in the CAS role with the radiator directly exposed to the ground, but it was used anyway.

yeah.....I have heard that from them....apperently, this swing has been recent as I have heard a few other stories since.

In the same parts request, I submitted a request to have the wings from my 32nd scale Hornet replaced as mine were badly warped. About 4 weeks later, I had to call to see what was up and they informed me that the kit I have (the OIF boxing) was no longer active and they had to send a request to Academy in Korea. I mentioned that the parts are common among all the Hornet kits, not just the limited edition kit that I happen to have. And the lady snapped at me "Yeah....but those are 160 dollar kits, I can't just go opening them to send out parts"...."but what about the 160 dollar kit that I paid for that came with unusable parts?". Then I asked her what happens if Academy says they don't have them. "Then we can't get them". Unbelievable.

arki30 wrote:

I will be sorely disappointed if one of the 4 different GB members signed up with an A-10 doesn't complete an A-10 by the end date. Paul has progress on an A-10, but he's also building 3 others for this GB, so one of others had better step up!

And it looks like my A-10 took a direct hit. MRC is one of the worst companies I have dealt with as far as parts replacement. Based on their timeframe, if I get the missing part by the end of the build (and that is a big if), I will have about a week to finish it.

That said, if anyone happens to have a spare part #D-3 from the Italeri kit (it's the ring that goes in the front of the engine intake)....I would gladly take it off your hand. The kit is almost entirely built with the exception of that part, then all I need to do is mount the engines and paint.

If parts do not pan out, I am considering replacing it with an Academy F-111F.

Arki-please put me down for a Korean War F-51D Mustang (Tamiya 1/48) for this GB.  With a little luck, I should be able to make some progress this weekend.

Thanks

So, exhausts are assembled and installed, entire fuselage is preshaded, I'm finally ready to put some serious paint down tonight...and I discover both bottles of Gunship Gray went bad. 

Never fails.  Murphy is alive and well.

arki30 wrote:

I will be sorely disappointed if one of the 4 different GB members signed up with an A-10 doesn't complete an A-10 by the end date.

A) Love that pic.

B) Agree 100%! Grumble grumble!

Nice Pictures, I think the A-10 is awsome. No other ground attack planes even are near as good.(sorry Su-25)