Magua87

I was umming and ahhing over the paint on the Swift for a long time. Eventually I noticed some cracking on the underside of the fuselage and decided it was time to start again! I feel like I've been sanding for an eternity, but today I was finally able to lay down some paint. Tamiya X-1 as a base layer and I'll build up the camouflage over the top. I think I might have some sanding to do first to tidy up a few areas. Nothing major. Pretty happy with how it's turned out so far.

January since my last post. Wow. Next steps. Door and window on the rear fuselage. I laid some paper over the Hasegawa fuselage, used a pencil and shaded the door outline. I cut this out and used it as a template for cutting a plastic card door. I'm about ready to close the fuselage. The vast majority of the raised detail has been removed and I'm working on a few sink marks. Old moulds. Here I'm blanking the gap left from the removal of the turret fairing.

Thanks, all. And thanks to Scimitar for the great resource.

Hi, team. I'm interested in building an RAF transport command Britannia. I'm quite keen on a natural metal finish and came across this photo. https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/569142471645013790 The C1 and C2 usually had a light grey coloured lower fuselage, but this particular aircraft had a natural metal finish. Can anyone recommend any sources or further pics? Secondly, is it possible to build one of these out of the box with the Roden kits? As far as I can see the 200 series / C1 / C2 were the same length as the 300 series which the Roden kits represent. Thanks, all.

Way back in October of last year I entered the Mustang Single Type Group Building with two Airfix F-51Ds in 1/72. Both aircraft were to be RNZAF/TAF Mustangs from the 1950s. One based from my home city (Auckland) the second from the home of my father's family (Wellington). I managed to finish the first aircraft during the group build, the Auckland based aircraft. I've been plodding along with my Wellington based aircraft ever since and am happy to share it with you all here today. Natural metal is Alclad Airframe Aluminimum over Humbrol gloss black. The level of shine is captured by the underside photo. The wings were filled in, sanded, and painted with decanted Tamiya AS-12. Decals from Ventura. Canopy is Squadron/Falcon and was intended for the Hasegawa kit, which meant it needed a bit of surgery to fit. Very happy with the result.

Progress on the painting. Touch ups of green are all done. The worst of the cracking has been dealt with. We'll see if any of it reappears. I also took the opportunity to better fair in the cockpit windscreen with a bit of putty and painted it green. Tailplanes have been touched up with PRU blue. I've also added some plastic rod to help make a good connection with the fuselage. I snipped off the kit's locating lugs as they were misshapen blobs of plastic. Hope to crack on with the DSG tomorrow. Though I might crack on with painting another kit. We'll see if I can get some masking done tonight.

Horatio, that's pretty brutal. I think most of the cracking on my bird should disappear under a flat coat. Time will tell. I've finished my sanding. I'll crack on with some painting on the weekend.

Ok, team. I've done some testing. Looks like we'll be able to save it with some 2000 grit sandpaper and a bit of a polish with some toothpaste. I think I'll focus on the wings to start with, as they seem to be the worst affected. Worst comes to worst, we'll do some localised respraying. We're back on track!

Right, not sure where to go with this build at the moment. I finished my painting and added a gloss coat. Brush painted kleer. The coat went on fine and the kit has an excellent sheen. However, where the kleer went over the gunze acrylics, they've cracked. No cracking over the Humbrol PRU blue. It's worse in some areas than others. It's particularly prevalent on the starboard wing. You might be able to see it in these photos, too. Hard to capture, but it has spread to all surfaces of gunze, both the Dark Green and DSG. I think it might be time to take the nuclear option and strip all the paint and start again. I've tried over-spraying, but the new paint layers continue to crack. I had a similar issue with gunze's shine red and kleer on my recent Meteor F8. It was minor and only confined to the engine nacelles, so I wasn't too worried. This, however, is all over the top side! I feel like this thread is becoming Duncan's tale of woe! I hope to have some better news to report soon.

Right! We're back to where we started. Tomorrow, gloss coat.

The more the merrier. Hannants' will be happy with my advertising! Steady progress with the repairs. New panel on the port wing. You can see the patch of green with a different sheen. Should disappear under the gloss coat and then the following flat coat. Nose repaired and repainted. This brings us back to the starting point on this thread, a PRU Blue touch up of the nose. Will probably end up a job for next weekend. Looking forward to cracking on with the gloss coat, which I think I'll brush paint this time, and the decals.

First coat of DSG on the nose. Noticed a few depressions that needed to be filled. Dropped a bit of grey paint on the wing! That's been sanded and masked ready for when I lay some green on the nose.

Alright, the nose is back together with some superglue and a bit of sanding. Will need a bit of scribing to reinstate some panels forward of the windscreen and behind the camera port. I'm working on the camera port with some putty and a toothpick. Not sure how I'll fit a new camera lens in there. Although that's a problem for future Duncan. Will be interesting to see how the paint goes down over a half finished gloss coat. I'll try to respray via panels so it will have a more natural look. Four painting sessions coming up: PRU blue, dark green, dark sea grey, and Tamiya's flat aluminium for the front wheel bay.

Been cracking on with the seat this arvo. Looks good with the first test fit. Had to remove the canopy to inspect the damage.

The kit takes a bit of work in a few areas. E.g. the wing to fuselage join was really poor on the underside of the aicraft and required a lot of filing, filling and sanding. There were also some big gaps between the top of the fuse and wings I filled with plastic card, filler, and sanded. I opted for the Xtrakit aircraft as it has finer surface detail than the Airfix kit. Here's the RFI on the Meteor if you're interested. I have had a bit of a set back today. While applying the gloss coat I dropped the kit! Damage is thankfully confined to the nose area. I'll try and slip some card inside the nose to strengthen it before I start putting it back together. Frustrating, but not too hard to rectify! Oh well! This arrived. Will keep me occupied while I'm sanding and painting the nose area.