jimmydel

This is another one for an upcoming article in Model Aircraft. My thanks to Neil Yan, HK Models, James Hatch, and Large Scale Modeller for setting this one up for us. Keep a look out for this one of shelves soon. I will say this is a beautiful kit, and I wouldn't look twice at any other if a large scale Dornier is up your ally.

Yes, Lightroom. It's my most indispensable tool as a photographer both for modeling stuff, my everyday life, and for client work. There is no substitute.

You bring up a good point about multiple airbrushes though. I use exactly two. The custom micron I use for all color work. It's perfectly fine for painting a whole model, unless you just want to blanket paint down. I use black basing and paint small, it's not fast, but it's how I build up tonal variation. However, I do use a second Eclipse (that I've had for 10 or more years now) for primers and clear coats. I won't put that stuff near the CM. If the CM is too much for you I'd highly recommend looking at the HP-C+ or HP-B+. I've not used either, but I'm told by the person that put me on the the CM that they are very good in their own right. As for ebay, well I've been using it for years with no issue. Using Paypal is absolutely the most secure payment method there is, plus you have buyer protection if you get a bad seller.

I'd absolutely recommend an Iwata Custom Micron if you're going to be dealing with paints that are thin. I have a CM-B and love it. It's absolutely unrivaled. I had bought a H&S Infinity to try, having always been an Iwata fan, and absolutely hated it. It just didn't feel like a high end airbrush should. I had the .15 mm version. Decided to sell it off and went with the CM-B. Now, they also have a side cup version in the CM range if you insist on that feature. The only thing I'd be a little hesitant on is using water based acrylics in it. I don't airbrush anything that can't be thinned with lacquer, so I use both Gunze lines, Tamiya, and Mr. Paint exclusively. It handles those beautifully. I'm also not really buying that the H&S are easier to clean either. With the CM I just clean the cup really well and flush a couple cups of lacquer thinner thorough it. The Infinity wasn't so easy to do this with by the way the cup is designed. I really don't know what prices are like in the UK, but domestically in the US they go for around $450. I got mine direct from Japan on ebay for $280 and it was $7 shipping to have it to me, from Japan, 4 days after ordering. May be worth checking out.

Yeah, I figured that color was not correct. I wasn't sure if any bits beyond the flight deck were painted in war time or not. I've been on a couple of resto forts and seen both bare metal and the DDG. Thanks kindly for the info! You certainly have changed direction for me because I was looking to do the nose in green and everything aft of the flight deck in metal. Thanks! I'd seen Wyler's film as a kid, but I was looking to track it down for a fresh look. Thanks!

So, I've seen Belle a few times when she was still in Memphis, and I've got my own photos somewhere, but also there are pics all over the internet showing a full green interior. I'm assuming it was painted some point after it's tour and before going on display in Memphis and eventually to restoration?

Tom, thanks. I'm fully aware of this. One point of confusion is aft of the bomb bay. I know they sometimes the fuselage interior was painted and sometimes not. I'm not sure of how to determine the specifics of a particular air frame. I'll be doing Memphis Belle. Any insight?

So, a giant box arrived on my doorstep yesterday. Though it says B-17G it's something a tad bit different. This is my test shot copy of HK's forthcoming B-17F. I'll be building this one for an upcoming Model Aircraft article. I'll also be running the first WIP of sorts of this kit here for you. Though I can't show everything what I will do is highlight some of the features of the new kit as well as share some intermediary pics of progress here and there. I'm currently wrapping up the Dornier Do335A kit, and will be moving into this one throwing the full Eduard assortment at it (using as much of the G stuff that is common as possible). Please stay tuned! Many thanks to Neil Yan and HK Models and James Hatch and Large Scale Modeller for making this one possible!

This one is really slow going, folks, so please bear with me on the updates. There's been a change of plan for markings. AOA announced a new sheet a few weeks ago, and I was contacted by Steve Belanger of AOA to tell me about them. This greatly excited me, and I was able to get a sample from him for an upcoming SAMI review, but I'll certainly be using them on this build. SPECTACULAR sheet(s) to say the least. Now with the small updates. So I was dead set on the wing fold and I can't find a single pic of Intruders with folded wings and dropped flaps. I'm admittedly becoming more accuracy minded, so I did the flaps raised in prep for that. Got the inner wings on. These are a bit of a force it issue, but some careful gluing gets them down nicely. Unfortunately, after some test fitting I am 90% certain I'll be extending the wings. The fold engineering is incredibly stupid...and weak. So now I wish I had dropped the flaps for the visual interest of it all, but oh well. The bays needed to be painted before joining wings. There's some PE that extends across both parts, so that's yet to be attached. I got the intakes on and there are painless. I also got the nose on...which isn't as painless, there's a bit of a step on each side, but only in one spot (as can be seen by the putty). I suspect this was user error closing the forward fuselage not tight enough. Intakes were painted behind before attachment. This one is still very much in progress. It's just really slow going because of other stuff taking priority.

Dude. I love this. I'm starting a Hasegawa F-14B and this is exactly how I see it in my head. Your work is always among the best. You've really captured the essence of how the Tomcat weathers.

Not a terribly exciting update, but an update nonetheless. I did find a pic of the gear with the PE before paint, for an idea of what that added. (Complete - will be in the next update). It's been terribly slow going with seam cleanup. The top of the fuselage was a lot of work with CA and Bondo. I sprayed "check it" primer four times before finally getting rid of all the problems. This has consumed the large part of the work on this one for a while. Also, I sprayed behind the intakes, so I can paint there before fitting them. I've also spent some time filling in molded detail that I've been informed should only be present on the A-6E and Tram...these included some vent holes etc. Finally, I did some work on the canopy. I really don't think painting the inteior frame color from the outside is "doable" in 1/32. You can do it, but IMO it looks bad. So, I used an Eduard mask set to mask off the inside of the canopy and sprayed the interior color. This color is entirely on the inside of the pieces and looks much better than the alternative. Well worth the effort

Absolutely brilliant for a first run with Alclad and NMF. I've got an upcoming article on using it in a future issue of Model Aircraft, and the things you learned are all common "ah ha's" for first timers. Next time go ahead and seal the decals with Aqua Gloss and you can avoid that problem. It won't affect the sheen really. Great job!

If it does I haven't noticed it. I'll have to look closer now. That's weird though. Someone is building the 1/48 version on another forum and I don't remember him mentioning that issue. His biggest problem was fitting the front wndscreen.

Ok, so I put the PE in the arrestor hook bay. Easy enough. So that meant I could close up the fuselage. It won't be any more difficult to paint installed than not. Fuselage join was tight. It just barely closes up. There's going to be some serious cleanup...which I'll have a weird method for (you'll see later). For whatever reason the rivet lines approaching the apex of the fuselage get really soft. I marked the lines so I could see them with a bronze sharpie and used a push pin to deepen them out. I like this because unlike and old airbrush needle it doesn't push plastic upward creating a crest around the outside of the hole. Naturally I'll have to touch these up after seam cleanup but if I hadn't enhanced them here they would have been much harder to see later. This area will be the real pain to clean up without obliterating stuff. (More on that when I work on it). The scheme on the Superscale sheet shows the airbrakes are not theperforated style. The A-6E kit apparently has the closed off pieces, but for the life of me I couldn't find them in this kit, so the holes had to be filled. I tried styrene plugs which didn't work all that well mostly...so I went then to Bondo and CA. The hold to the light test says they are good, but primer will tell the true tell. Of course AOA is coming out with a new sheet...so I'll likely drop the Superscale...provided I can do an A with the filled in brakes. Thing are really ugly now, but they'll be ok.

Calling the cockpit done. Added a dark grey enamel wash with RLM 66. Hit some areas with a light dry-brushing (don't roll your eyes...still a valid technique ). Added the IP decal and backed it with some black paint. IP and coaming are not attached as it looks like I can add them after the fuselage is closed, so I'm minimizing the risk of damaging them with my clutzy nature. Bang seat stencils are from the AOA set and initial impressions of those decals is positive. Can't wait to use them on the main body. I've also been working on the landing gear and the nose bay. I like the provided metal struts, but they have seams that prove to be a PITA to remove. Apparently I deleted the in progress pics showing the PE embellishments on the gear legs. Mostly bolts and some pieces in the bay itself. Not anything I imagine anyone would notice, but it broke my PE fear and I like it (Didn't realize I missed focus on the strut, so I'll get better pics) Need to handle the arrestor hook bay and then I can close the fuselage...which looks like it will go together nicely.