J.P.

It's been a while but I have been making progress on Eileen. I decided I couldn't live with the wonky leading white stripe on the port side D-Day stripes and the anemic black stripe behind it so I masked them to straiten them up. I think I got them much more acceptable. I also realized with the cooling door open, the black stripe should extend forward so I masked it off and sprayed it black. Stencils... ...stencils... ...and more stencils. Not quite the amount on an F-4 or F-14 but time consuming none-the-less. Alot of the topside ones show up better in the pictures than in real life, but I always feel compelled to add them. I used the ones off the kit decal sheet, most of them are legible under magnification. Started some weathering too. I'm really happy how this is turning out but I regret putting the underwing pylons on, all pictures I see of Eileen show it without them. Oh well I guess its feasible it had them at SOME point, no? I'm not sure why my pictures aren't clearer The look good on my computer but when I upload them they seem grainy. Thanks for looking John

That looks great.

Dagum!!!! That looks really great. The exhaust colors are very realistic.

Well its been a bit but I have a small update. My plan was to use the D-Day stripes on Tamiya's decal stripes but I botched them up and I didn't get them to line up very well. The other issue was they didn't come up high enough on the fuselage, even the larger ones provided on the sheet. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I didn't get pictures of them. I toyed for the longest time weather to leave them or paint them knowing masking off those stripes on the compound curves of the fuselage would be a challenge. Well after studying other Eileen builds and period photos, painting them won out. I figured I could the decal as a making guide, one side came out ok so..., and the were snuggled down nicely into the recessed panel lines. This was the side that the decal came out decent. I wanted to make sure the decal didn't come off after paint, so I pulled off as much as I could with some tape after I had the outside border masked. You can still see some of the black stripe from the decal, I used it as a guide for the masking tape. They're not perfect but the look better You can really see the area that doesn't look so great. I may still touch it up, or maybe the nat'l insig. will make it less noticeable.

A little update, I got the bee and "Eileen", and the tail codes on. Based on this photo, I thought the decal was a tad bit too bright. So I mixed a little clear with a few drops of the green camo color and over sprayed it to tone it down. thought I might have gone to heavy but looking at this photo seems you can hardly notice it. Its a little more obvious when you compare it to the tail codes but I may have to tone it some more, I'm up for opinions. I also started putting a few stencils on which I'm struggling with. Tamiya provides a ton of them and I like the idea of them being there for some detail but the topside ones are black font and really hard to see. And I wonder if they'd bother putting them back after repainting it in the British colors. Again, I'm up for suggestions/opinions.

I like it. 👍

Thanks guys, I'm really happy with the way this is coming out. Can't wait to get the markings on but that won't be for a few more days.

I had an unexpected day off work so I figured I'd get a little bit done on ole Eileen. Too sick to go to work but not too sick for a little modeling. 😈 I laid down the upper camo. I used Testors Model Master RAF Dark Green, I actually have two bottles of this stuff, same number but visibly different colors. One was a tiny bit more blue so I went with that one. I didn't preshade it, I just laid down the base color a little heavier on the panel lines than in the center of the panels. I stumbled on this technique accidentally actually, my intent was to post shade with Tamiya smoke but when I saw how it was coming out I went with it. I did lighten the base coat with white and painted some squiggle patterns in the center of the panels. I'm very happy with the results. No flash I also got a coat of clear gloss on, but didn't bother with pictures of that, so next up will be decals. I got to figure out how to get clearer pics, more light maybe?🤷‍♂️Once again, thanks for looking.

DANG!!!! Tamiya XF-10 brown looks like that perfect color for that "not really rusted metal" look on the tracks. I'm filing that away for future use. 👍

Looking good. I like the more blue look to the color.

I got a little more done on Eileen. Buttoned up the fuselage, wings on and lower base coat sprayed. I decided to paint the stabilizer stripes, as apposed to using the decals. I sprayed the white, laid out the tape then sprayed the white over the tape to prevent bleeding. I mixed the lower color from Tamiya XF-21 Sky lightened heavily with X-2 white. Is it dead-on-B@#$$ accurate? I don't know, I was just trying to match the artwork on the decal sheet. I used X-2 gloss white and even mixed some of their clear gloss so I wouldn't have to spray a clear gloss for the decals....or at least not to have to have to spray as heavy a coat, theoretically. 🤷‍♂️ I find when I airbrush Tamiya's X-22 over flat colors, it tends to soak in (not sure thats what's actually happening but thats how it appears) and I've really had to build up the coats. The preshading is flat black. The Model Master bottles in this picture are what I'm going to use for the upper camo color, Testors 2060 RAF Dark Green. Thats all for now thanks for looking.

I would have swore I started a post on this but could not find it to save my life. This is Tamiya's 1/48th P-47 I'm planning to use Cutting Edge decal sheet. I've been wanting to do a P-47 marked as Eileen since seeing the Academy box art years and years ago on the store shelves. Doing the checkered nose had been giving me anxiety so in a rush of inspiration, I paused another build to tackle them back in June 2022. The Cutting Edge sheet provided the checkers but so did Tamiya and I felt I was going to have better luck with Tami's decals. They were in three parts compared to CE's 2 piece. I started out painting the cowl gloss white as a base. Then came the moment of truth.... There's some wrinkles but I got them mostly out with a healthy dose of Solvaset. Not too shabby, and I like that some of the black squares "chipped" as I'm sure they wouldn't have stayed perfect with use. From there, I started in the normal spot, the cockpit. Paints are Model Master, the green is Euro Green which I like as a match for "P-47 cockpit green". The black is just MM black. I did lay down a base of Alclad aluminum before the green for the chipping effects. I used the kit decals for the instruments and I'm very happy with the way it looks. They conform really well considering Tamiya's decals reputation for being thick, same with the cowl checks. There's some wrinkles but they're really only visible in this photo. I also added some aftermarket cockpit stencils which aren't really visible in these shots. I used a resin seat with molded belts from a company whose name escapes me, but I didn't manage to get a shot of it. 🫤 That's all for now, more to come.

I've been chipping away at this kit for a while and had been really liking the way this is coming out up until the tracks. This is Dragon's T-34/85 Utz Mod. 1944 which I added AFV Club's workable links. I liked the fact they clicked together, thinking it would be easier than the kit's links that just slide together. I couldn't imagine the kit supplied ones would stay together while I tried to drape them around the running gear. Anyway I screwed up by gluing the idler to the chassis. By doing that I took away the ability to position the idler to take up the slack of the tracks, and I'm 2 links too short. So if you're going to build this kit, learn from my mistake, leave that idler unglued until you have the tracks ready. Paints used were Model Master for the base coat and Tamiya clears (gloss and flat). The weathering was done with artist's oils and a combination of Mig and Vallejo pigment's. I also added a metal barrel but I can't remember what manufacturer its from. Thanks for looking John

This is shaping up nicely. Kudos sir.

Yes, I've reached out to him, Thanks again for the help.