opus999

Nice work on the outside of the pub! When my wife remodeled the downstairs bathroom when we first moved into this house, she went with a beach motif and used something similar (it wasn't spray though) to make the bottom half of the walls look like beach sand. Worked well and looked neat. I never thought of it for texturing model buildings though -- looks terrific.

This is really shaping up to be a terrific build. I have to second the motion that Arma should produce a 1/72 version of this kit...

Thanks Bertie, I appreciate that!

Thanks Mark. I'm quite pleased with it! I just hope i described my methods well enough to help anyone else who wants to attempt the same type of finish.

I finished the stencils on Thursday night and put the national markings on Friday. I put two coats of Aqua Gloss on the entire aircraft with a hand brush when the decals were done. After that it was all details, which weren't really worth taking pictures of. Today I only had the airbrakes and fuel dump tube to install and it was done! Feels good since it was probably 30 years in the making! Here's a photo with the original from 1989. It's nice to know my skills have improved a little bit since then... I'm happy with the polished aluminum finish, but I almost wonder if I should've gone the Alclad Aircraft Aluminum route... 🤔 Not that there's much I can do about it now! So, I'll put up an RFI soon. Now, whats to become of the old F-86? The plastic is still good, and I have all the parts I need to make it an "in flight" F-86. I also have a bunch of different decals from this entire journey, Italian, US, German, etc. so I think I can find a scheme and refurbish it in the future.

Thanks! Thanks Erwin! You didn't miss the obvious, I just think I wasn't clear. I used Alclad Polished Aluminum except for the guns and tail pipe, which were Mr. Color Super Stainless.

That looks terrific and I'm glad you could sort out the wing tip red. That's a great subject. I like the more obscure air forces' markings. One option with putty is to use levelling thinner on it. The "Mr. Thinner" stuff, or whatever its called. I've found it to be fairly gentle with plastic, but will remove paint. I've used it to smooth out putty on my Bearcats and the latest spitfire builds. Just put some on a q-tip or folded up paper towel and scrub away. It's nice because you don't have to fix the plastic. Test it first.

This looks really great with the wings on. It's the wings that fascinate me so much and really make the aircraft's look. Other wise it looks like a blocky, awkward, Dauntless's older brother. 20! Oh.... don't say that. I watched it with my teenaged boys and they were transfixed by it. It is a well done drama that bears almost no resemblance to the original. ...and the plot gets quite twisty.

I only have time for a tease of a picture. I got the stencils done last night and hoped to be able to do all the markings tonight, but didn't quite get there. The roundels are 2 piece and require great care to make sure they go on correctly.

Fantastic build Mark. I've always liked the Avenger and I like it more in FAA colors. It looks very realistic. Bummer I missed out on most of the build, but the result is outstanding.

That sounds like it was quite a journey, but this is an outstanding result. Well done. Colors look OK to me!

Nicely done! It looks very realistic.

Beautiful!

That is fantastic! Both the craftsmanship on the model and the light up display!

it is an oddly good looking design. You finished it beautifully.

1/144 scale? That's spectacular! Great work.

That's an odd duck indeed, but it looks splendid the way you've finished it! I like it.

Thanks Bertie! It was a lot of fun too... Thank you very much!

Thanks Stuart! The hand-brushed aqua gloss is my go-to for any glossy surface. I use it as my gloss coat for decals, so I have a lot of practice and know about how long to wait between applications. I hope I can get all these stencils finished this week. I love the realism that stencils provide, but man do they get tedious!

Thanks Bill. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out so far. Can't wait to get insignia on it!

Friday I put a coat of Aqua Gloss on. I always do this by brush because it levels out so well you can't tell it was hand brushed on. I've tried airbrushing it and it's a mess: it either doesn't level out or it runs. So here it is. Not much different than the last picture, which is good! As I mentioned before on Saturday I was putting the stencils on. I was able to do all the fuselage stencils Saturday: I only had a little time tonight and was able to put on the stencils on the top of one wing. So more to come this week.....

Timely response Mark! if you remember the test scrap piece I had a few posts ago.... I was going to mention that I plan to use that to figure out how to make various degrees of worn metal. When I first started using Alclad, I thought I'd start with a base of polished aluminum or airframe aluminum and then add weathering on top of that, finished by a semi-gloss or dull coat. I thought that would mimic how metal appears in real life: with a layer of corrosion and gunk. Somewhere along the way I was tempted with the various shades and flavors of Alclad / AK / Mr. Color, which all seemed to promise a similar look without as much work. Maybe in the hands of some talented people, but not in mine! So I decided to go back to my original thought process and that's what the test scrap piece is for. And then you chimed in with an affirmation of what I was thinking. Excellent timing sir!

Wow Johnny. Truly amazing! This is one seriously beautiful build -- awesome looking aircraft, masterfully rendered. I have to say the "mmmmore bits" bits were making me laugh because I felt your pain. It seems like all the build-ending details are the most tedious and yet are the ones that provide the most realism. Terrific work my friend.

I love it!

I'm currently putting on stencils. The alcald was covered with a coat of Aqua Gloss, so it is protected, however I am not using any solvent on the decals. The stencils are small and don't need to conform to anything and even though the Alclad is protected, I'm still a little worried about using solvent. I have a couple large decals (on the tail fin) that will need to conform to panel lines. Does anyone think using solvent on these will be OK? I really can't remember if I used decal solvent on my CF-104 or Mohammad Alam builds or not. Of course, I didn't make a note of it. The reason why I am so nervous about this is because I had decals turn black on Alclad, which I'm mostly sure is because of foolishly using chemicals to polish the black base coat. But not 100% sure. Any feelings or experience with this issue?