nearsightedjohn

Beautiful job on the camo and all that complex canopy masking is really well done. Airfix has really stepped up their game lately, so glad they are re-tooling many of these classic subjects. I was really impressed building their recent issue 1/72 B-17 and B-25, looking forward to that new B-24.

I commented on your weathered rally car version before reading this stock “before” build, very nice! Your final gloss on this one looks quite realistic. I’ve never been a big fan of the over-glossed thick 2K two-part polyurethane clear coat finishes that a lot of car modelers prefer. The Mr Color GX 100 thinned 1:1 with Mr Leveling thinner is my go-to clear coat on auto subjects with a lacquer base coat, apply multiple thin coats 2-3 times with 15-20 min between coats than a final wet coat and then overnight cure. When dry, no stickiness. Best part is, unlike other lacquer clear coats (i.e. Tamiya TX-13), GX 100 does not eat decals.

Love both the ‘before’ and ‘after’ versions, fabulous convincing weathering! Would love more details on materials & methods that you used to weather this one. Flicked paint brush thinned brown paint splashes around the wheel wells? Tamiya thinned acrylic buff airbrush misting? Find a bookcase spot or box for this one! Too nice to bin! Your model storage/ keep-or-bin discussion made me smile. I have so many built models hidden in boxes in closets and other hiding places around our home. Eventually SWMBO will start to discover them and shoot me that “look”. An old guy could have worse vices, right?

Beautiful clean build! Love love love that color!

“Wish I still had” cars: ‘86 Toyota MR2, 2002 Subaru WRX Sports Wagen, 2011 Mustang GT (only car I ever pre-ordered, so miss the sweet rumble of that Coyote on cold start-up!) “Glad I don’t have anymore”: really nothing, of the +20 cars I’ve owned/ co-owned over the last 50 years, they were all pretty good and got progressively better with each model. Cars now days are the best they’ve ever been in terms of performance/ safety/ reliability. I drive a 2018 Mazda 6 GTR (2.5 L turbo/ 6 spd auto), it’s been an economical trouble-free car that’s a joy to drive, nice to look at and easy to find in the car park (candy red). At 5K miles/ year, I’m sure it will outlive me.

My Mom’s ‘66 Chevelle Malibu coupe (283 cu in, Powerglide AT, Artisan Turquiose over black vinyl). I flunked the drive test twice before passing on the third time, 1970 IIRC. First two times I failed to slow down at a 4 way intersection (no stop signs), each failure with the same examiner who failed me for the same reason (dumb kid!). I got a different examiner on the third try and did slow at the intersection at which he asked me “why are you slowing down?”….sure wish I had my mom’s Chevelle, beautiful car.

Great job CJ! Even with the challenges you ran into and experimentation on staining the laser cut wood decking, you should be very proud of your final result, she’s a beaut! Ships are hard, if you can paint/ build/ rig a 1/350 ship this well, you can build anything! Looking forward to seeing what you do with that Sovremenny destroyer and WEM photoetch is a joy to use IMO ( my favorite).

Enjoying your WIP on this one so far, thank you for your efforts in these postings. Your PE workmanship is very nice/ clean. I am a few months into a build of Fujimi’s 1/350 Zuikaku carrier kit and agree that Fujimi’s engineering/ plastic part fit is quite nice so far. I am using Fujimi’s PE (A, B, C, D, E) sets and, while it look’s nice and seems to fit okay in most areas, it is quite fragile and easily breaks if you miss-bend anything (reminds me of Flyhawk PE). I’ve never used Pontos PE, how forgiving (ductile) is it for multiple bends? My favored ship PE is WEM/ Tom’s.

P-61B Black Widow PTO This is the Great Wall Hobby kit and the WIP is here.

Thanks guys for all the encouragement despite my $&#%-up of this GB entry. I managed to adapt a stand left over from a Tamiya Corsair build (so this is why I kept it!) and have finally finished and mounted my widow in crew-less feathered prop flight: I haven’t mounted an aircraft model on a stand in over 60 years, an unintended return to the fun carefree days of boyhood! I think the wheels-up version also really shows off the form of this “so weird it’s cool looking” aircraft. Thanks for watching! John

Wow, terrific fix job on that Balkenkreuz! Really enjoying watching the fine masking and airbrush work you’re doing on this 262. It’s rare when everything goes absolutely perfect on a build, I envy your “recover skills”!

Pretty hard due to the big lateral offset in each well. I might be able to mount the landing gear to the shallower steps but I’d have to cut each one in half and it would look pretty goofy. I agree that it’s probably not all that realistic but it sure helps with the all-black monotony for me. Black’s a challenge, I learned a few things on this one and hopefully I get better at this if I do more black subjects.

Thanks guys, wheels-up it is! I should be able to wrap this up in the next day or two. I found a wheels-up stand left over from one of the Tamiya 1/32 fighter kits and I think it will work for displaying this one.

FATAL ERROR!!!!!!! I started to assemble the landing gear and discovered I bonded the right bulkhead pieces within the left landing gear well and vice versa….. I can’t believe I did this, even after making a point of carefully checking to make sure I was following the instructions during initial assembly. I suspect I was checking the plane upside-down while looking at the instructions right-side-up. Senior moment. Too bad, things were going pretty well up to this point…. So I guess I could A) pitch this into the garbage and order another kit (+ decals + mask set,…$$$….😫) and start over or B ) finish it with the wheels retracted and hang it from the ceiling???? Oh well, not the first time I’ve screwed up in public while posting a WIP (probably won’t be the last time either!). Let me know if you think I should start this one over or finish this one with wheels up for this GB.

I applied Tamiya Panel Accent Line Color Grey (an enamel-based panel highlighter), first time I’ve used this stuff on a black plane. I went through a lot of paper towels and Q-Tips in removing the excess with mineral spirits. I think next time I’ll use the gloss version of the Vallejo acrylic clear coat before decals and panel line highlighting. Once this fully dries out, hopefully by tomorrow, I’ll start mildly sponge chipping the leading edges and maybe add a few moderate smoke trails streaming back from the nacelles. Then a final clear coat to seal it and then I can remove the canopy masking and proceed with final assembly. Not sure how realistic these grey panels lines are but I think they really help add some visual interest to this all black aircraft.

Clear coated with Vallejo Satin on Fri, decal-ed on Sat and then clear coated again this morning (Sun). I used a Kit World decal for the Cooper’s Snooper nose art and Squadron Cartograf decals for the rear numbers, stars & bars and the props and stencils. The GWH kit decals are horrible (super thick, will not nor will ever settle down). Going to let this sit before messing with panel line accents and sponge chipping. Most P-61’s I see built are super weathered, I’m hoping to do mild/subtle weathering/ chipping, like it’s the aircraft’s first week on Iwo Jima and the boys just painted the sexy lady on the nose 😁.

Every little bit helps James! Some days I can put in 6-8 productive hours in the man cave, other days it’s 5-10 minutes and all I do is look at it, shake my head and walk away. And then there’s those day I spend hours on my hand & knees with flashlight in hand looking for that part that went “ping” into the ethersphere…

Beautiful job Dave! My favorite parts: the weathering on the hull & front, the exhaust stains, the wiper blades and that cool torpedo! I love PBY’s and built the 1/48 Monogram/ Revell kit a while back in the CANSO white/ camo scheme and would love to do another one as a black cat but I barely have room for the 1/48 one I built (it’s huge!!!). This 1/72 Academy kit looks like a good base for detailing/ improving, thanks for posting this excellent WIP!

Thank you 81er for that video and suggestions on colors. I masked and sprayed the nose and dive breaks with straight Tamiya semi-gloss black X-18 and then masked and shot some panels and wing tips on the upper wings with Tamiya Sea Blue XF-17 and the elevator and flaps with the NATO Black lightened slightly with dark grey. I think this is a good start on addressing the stark black issue: I then spent the afternoon masking and painting the red wing lines using the kit decals as a guide. Very labor intensive!!! I then airbrushed Tamiya flat red XF-7 thinned 1:1 with X-20 thinner: Pretty happy with how these red lines came out: Unfortunately the underside took quite a beating during all the handling required to do this masking and painting: I’ll re-spray these paint scratches tomorrow and then seal everything up with Vallejo Satin Clearcoat. I find Tamiya paint super fragile until I clearcoat it.

A fun rainy day airbrushing acrylics indoors. I sprayed the main airframe and associated bits with Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black. A little on the light side but should be a good base for applying darker panels later. I like it! I also masked and airbrushed the yellow prop tips and the red spinner and red cowl flaps: The NATO Black looks greenish to my eyes when viewed in liquid form or first sprayed but the green seems to diminish as it dries flat. I will probably use a satin acrylic clear coat (Vallejo) later and wonder if the slight green tint will return? I’m hoping to start local masking and spraying of individual panels/ features tomorrow to give the NATO Black (grey) some variety. Additional thoughts kicking around in my head: - Should I mask and paint the red wing lines instead of using the kit decals? Tamiya decals are always a challenge to get settled without ghosting and I suspect the NATO Black will be even more troublesome. If I paint the lines, it will match the engine cowl flaps and prop spinner. - I’m thinking of trying Tamiya’s Light Grey Panel Line Accent fluid on this after clear coating, anyone happen to use this stuff on a dark grey or black aircraft build? I’ve used the black version over Vallejo satin clear coat and I really liked it.

Added the Eduards canopy masking (very nice, ever piece was nearly a perfect fit) and masked up the landing gear bays and upper gun port: I then airbrushed the zinc chromate acrylic over the masked window frames: Once the acrylic was dried (about 1/2 hour), I primed the airframe and additional external components using Tamiya Fine light grey lacquer rattle can primer: I went with light grey primer vs black because 1) hoping it will be more compatible with varying shades of black on the final airbrushing and b) I’m low on my favorite black lacquer primer (Mr Finishing Surface 1500). There’s a few rough spots where I added putty which I still need to clean-up so I may have to re-prime a few small areas. It’s suppose to rain here tomorrow (AGAIN!!!! Darn global warming!!!) but I hope to be able to start messing around with airbrushing Tamiya blacks on this airframe (NATO black, black rubber, mixes of dark grey and black, etc.)

Fabulous weathering! Fabulous photography! Build and post more tanks please!

Fabulous interior detailing. Amazing how much just a little bit of wiring enhances the realism. What did you use for the thin wires? Copper? Thin lead solder?

What an amazing scale model! My favorite part are the figures, they really give one a sense of how massive the Saturn launch vehicle was. Bravo!!!!

Weighted nose and glass canopies bonded in place: Next steps will be to mask the canopies and landing gear and lower cockpit openings in prep for lacquer priming. Unfortunately the weather here in CA has turned cold again and it looks like this might have to sit on the shelf until things warm up (hopefully next week?).