opus999

Well, I got the landing gear bays all straightened out. It was a bit of a chore actually; probably about a 5 or 6 hour job! Last night I started out by boxing in the wheel wells: That was the easiest part of the whole process. Trimming the plastic to match the dihedral took some patience. Then I set out to make the "roof" using the medium thickness sheet styrene in my package. About an hour of fiddling finally got these: They were ugly, but they worked. I could dry fit the wings together without any interference and could dry fit the wing assembly into the fuselage, so I was good to go and headed to bed. Well, it turns out I wasn't good to go, because this afternoon, for the life of me I couldn't get the wings to fit right with them installed! So I took them back out and used them as templates to cut new ones out of my thinnest sheet styrene. Here they are glued in. Ugly, yes, but from the bottom they look fine. Once those were glued and I confirmed that everything dry fit correctly, I set out to cut and glue the details in using my medium thickness sheet styrene and some small half-round styrene I had. Here's what I ended up with: I'm satisfied. I'm not thrilled. I'd hoped to put in some hydraulic lines, but I had a hard enough time manipulating the plastic, I don't think I could run little strands of wire (plus I don't have the patience at this point). Some of the glue was a little more sloppy than I would've liked -- it will look fine painted, but may make a wash problematic. It looks a ton better than if I hadn't done it, but I wish I'd been able to do better. Ah, well, it won't be seen that often anyway since it's on the bottom. I'm happy now because I feel like I can really get some traction on this build now that's out of the way!

I found some on ebay from Victory models. Still kind of stiff, but not nearly as bad. I think total with shipping was $18. Which is about the price of a new Eduard kit (well, a little less), but then I'd have an extra set of wings and body, and I'd have to find some overtrees and .... oh wait....

I know that you can order from Eduard directly, but it's $25 shipping for an $8 item, so that is prohibitively expensive. Sprue Brothers sold them for $8 and shipping was more like 10$, but I can get some supplies I need anyway as they combine shipping, so it's a much better deal... except... they are out of stock. Oh well.

I'm sorry I missed this until now! I recently went on a Fw-190 binge, converting an Airfix A-8 to an F-8 and building a Hobby Boss A-6, which took extensive modification to make it a true A-6. I just received this same Grunherz kit about a week ago, which I bought specifically for the Emil Lang paint scheme. The A-8 I'm going to paint in a late war scheme matching one captured in Denmark at the end of the war. I love what you've done with these! They're beautiful! I am very impressed with the Emil Lang camo. I never thought to use liquid mask for camouflage before. I've seen a lot of different interpretations of this paint scheme -- have you ever found any photos of it (I haven't). Is it me, or are these Eduard kits with the multiple bodies and wings the ultimate tease? I confess I haven't looked at the plastic in this kit yet so I didn't realize there are 4 bodies. I already went down the overtrees route for a weekend edition I bought, but they are very expensive here. Part of me thinks I should let it go, but another part of me thinks I could do an A3 at least... Anyway... following with interest. I really love what you've done so far!

I'm following this with interest -- I did Hasegawa's N1K2 ages ago and I would love to get a hold of this kit. I love what you've done with the cockpit!

Oh, dear. This one was 99 cents! Welcome aboard!

😲 I remember those! That was also part of my failing when I was starting out. It seemed like when the paint was finally flowing right, the can pressure was too low and I had to put the can in warm water. We tried an adapter for a bike tire which provided more steady pressure (if I stood on it), but not for very long. When we got a little hobby compressor, that changed a lot of things. I still use it, but its going on 30 years old, so I'm afraid it might give up the ghost at any time. I'd love a pancake compressor.

So far with dry fitting it does. Oh, yes, now I remember. I haven't actually looked at it in a couple of years. Well, I bet I can find a way to tone it down. Thanks! I hope you enjoy it!

Hmm... not unlike some Eduard kit's I've done 🤔 Well the Arma kits look really nice! My first airbrush that my dad and I used was a Badger 150 that looks almost exactly like that. We struggled to get it to work right, but frankly it was our own fault because we didn't know much about how to thin paint properly. We gave up on it and a couple years later started anew with an Aztek that we both really loved. He brought the Badger over to my house about a year ago, and I thought about giving it a try, but it's been sitting unused for probably 30 years, so I figured it would probably need an overhaul. i've got an Iwata HP-C double action, gravity fed Airbrush that was reasonably priced and I love to death.

So I sat and messed around last night without any real progress, but was checking out the different materials I have for making the wheel wells. I remembered I have an Airfix P-51D in the stash and so I got that out to take a look. After educating myself on-line about differences between B/C and D/K wheel wells I decided that trying to match the Airfix wheel wells would be a good start, and then I can run some wire I pulled out of braided electrical wire for the hydraulics. That's the plan, anyway. Here's a couple shots of the Airfix wheel well detail: More updates when I make some progress...

Thanks for the head's up. I'll have to do some looking. Yeah, I think it's going to be fun!

Well I'm going to give it a shot! Funny you should ask! That's been my M.O. since my F/A-18 build where all the raised panel lines had been sanded off. I bought a Pentel Orenz 0.2 mm pencil (the smallest I could find) and have used that since. I like it much better than washes, which I could never get to work right. It also means I don't have to rescribe when I fill in a panel line, I just draw over it!. My original thought for this build was to sand the paint off the raised lines, which I even tried on the old Mustang. It worked pretty well, because of the dark plastic under the paint, but on the underside it was way too dark, so I would need to tone it down with a light coat of paint afterwards. I'd much rather use the pencil approach, but I'm not sure how to go about it. With the F/A-18, I found that even though the panel lines were gone, I could see where they were if I held the model in the right light. It was a huge help. I don't know if I can count on that again. So, do I make a rubbing of the panel lines before I sand them off and use them as a template? Do I use the other model and take measurements? Maybe I'm over thinking this. I'm glad to hear that. I can't remember if I've used their decals before or not.

Yeah... I don't these tabs on other builds, so I think they will get sanded off... As an aside... I see you're from Madison! My In laws are in New London so I get to go to WI from time to time.

I'd love to be tagged on that one when you do it Dennis.

Steve: This is good to know! I wasn't aware of that. I've got a 70's era Hasegawa P-51D that I plan to do something with someday... I wonder how that stacks up? Hmm. I guess this means I have to start doing something on this.

I personally don't know much about Arma kits, but this looks nicely detailed. The cockpit is beautiful! Nice Job! I may be wrong, but is that a Badger airbrush I see in your drawer?

Stuart, any progress on this? It looks very promising. I've never been a huge fan of the Sabre Dog (but love the regular sabre), but it is growing on me. I have a goal to make a model of every fighter the Norwegians have flown, so I'm interested to see how this turns out. Cheers.

It's too bad I didn't notice this thread until now. I did the Flying Tigers boxing of this kit and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Mine was completely OOB. The only drawback to the whole kit was the fit of the upper part of the cowl, but that was easily fixed with some sanding. Heck, I liked it so much I bought two more of the latest Pearl Harbor boxing: one for OOB and the other to make Pappy Boyington's Flying Tiger. The panel lines on mine didn't turn out too bad. I didn't do anything to them to try to make them better, but on the other hand I didn't do anything to emphasize them (a wash, for instance). When all was said and done they didn't really bug me. I love that organizer you have. My organization is pretty ad hoc.

My first Tamiya was just a couple of months ago: a 1/72 Bf-109E-3. It was probably one of the most effortless builds I've ever done and the detail was very impressive. It made the Hasegawa Bf-109E-3 I did a little later seem shoddy by comparison! (although it was a pretty good kit too). That cockpit looks nicely detailed too! No Hobby Boss here! 🤣 It will be fun to see this one develop!

It is indeed! See here. Thanks! I've been striving to be restrained on the chipping. So my method is simply the smallest brush I have (20/0? I don't know, all the paint has worn off the handle) and some Testor's Model Master chrome paint. And a lot of patience! The Chrome is a bit sticky, and a lot gets on the brush, so I wipe the excess off on a paper towel. I guess you could say it's "not-quite-drybrushing". I have to be very careful, and often I end up with some bigger spots than I'd like. I took your advice and received in the mail yesterday a Tamiya 1/72 A6M5b. Almost tempted to start on that next, but I've been thinking about the P-51 for a while.

My next build is a factory sealed Monogram P-51B: This was a "sorry I goofed up your order" gift from an ebay vendor. I initially wasn't too interested because of the raised detail and all, but now I think I can tackle it and maybe do it a little justice. I'm not a rescriber -- it just looks terrible when I do it, so I have other plans, but more on that later. Can you imagine spending 99 cents on a model? I felt weird taking the shrink wrap off what I figured to be about a 45 year old kit. But, I did it and here's what I was greeted with when opening the box: I remember I had that same catalog when I was a kid! My dad gave it to me after one of his Monogram builds. Now I don't know when the kit came out, but it was probably pretty close to this: So that means the plastic in this box hasn't seen the light of day for around 45 years! I was amazed that decals were just about perfect, even though I won't be using them. So, I have done this kit before. When I was 12 or 13 I swiped it from my Dad's stash, along with the aftermarket decals he bought for it, and created this... erm.... "masterpiece"... That wasn't the first time I'd done "Shangri-la" either -- I'd swiped my Dad's Revell 1/32 P-51B which had "Shangri-la" as the scheme. So, my plan is to make a replacement using these decals: After that I will probably take the old kit, strip it down and re-make it with some other decals I have. Anyway... after that long preamble... The first step I plan to do on this build is to do something about the wheel wells, as seen here on the old model: I will attempt to scratch build some better looking wheel wells. BTW, does anyone know what those tabs sticking out around the opening are? It seems like they would interfere with the gear door.

Wow! I love how that looks! It looks realistically worn. What paint are you using? I recently had a trip through the late-war luftwaffe color rabbit hole on my Fw-190F-8 build.

Over the finish line! Last night I had just enough time to paint the stripes on the top of the cowl The engine was not very detailed, so I did the best I could by drybrushing Testors Steel over the black. Not like it will be easy to see anyway. Today I started on all the final details and had an ugly surprise. I noticed that, when looking at the old Hasegawa kit, there were 4 engine stacks on the starboard side, and 3 on the port side. The hobby boss only had 3 and 3. Some searching on the internet confirmed it, so I set out to make a new stack. It turns out that the cowl has a cut-out for the extra stack. Actually it has one on both sides which is incorrect, but I couldn't fix that. I got some 1 mm half round styrene, cut it to size and bent it appropriately. Here it is dry fit: I painted that part and while it dried I painted all the nav lights. I used Testors Insignia red and Mr. Color 319 Light Green, which seemed more realistic than the pure green in the Testor's bottle. I did final assembly and painted the guns and then did paint chipping. The photos I've found of Tanimizu's plane show it not very worn, so I kept the chipping to a minimum. Well, except for a couple "oops"es I couldn't fix very well. The engine assembly had a part inside that would connect to the end of the propeller rod and allow it to spin. These things usually don't work, so I wasn't very hopeful. This time it worked, except there was so much play inside the engine, that the propeller could stick out a couple of millimeters and droop. I finally gave up and glued it into place. As usual. My research on the tailhook turned up conflicting info. Some kits of Tanimizu's a/c have a hook, others don't. I couldn't find any pictures of his plane that showed the area where the hook would be. So I left it alone. So until I get a proper RFI, here are a couple quickie shots of the finished product. I'm still not happy with the finish, but it will look fine in the cabinet. So, until next time when I start a 45-ish year old P-51B that is still in the factory shrink wrap.... see you then.

The rest of the weekend conspired against me, so I didn't get a whole lot of time at the bench, but it was enough to get that canopy done. Ugh. While I had the green paint in the paintbrush, I painted the spinner And masking the exhaust stacks was easier than I thought it would be, so I was able to get a coat of Burnt Iron metallizer on them Tonight, I sprayed Testors Semi-Gloss clear decanted from a rattle can on the whole a/c. I put a nice wet layer on, but for some reason it dried kind of pebbly looking. I'm terribly disappointed. I thought that maybe sanding it with some 3600 gritt or higher sandpaper would help, but the spot on the bottom I tried was coming out uneven and actually was starting to look worse than the un-sanded part, so I bagged it. It's a real bummer because the Dull coat was nice and smooth and looked very nice. So. Rats. Well, on the bright side, I'm just about to the finish line. A couple of details to paint and that should be about it.

Looks good Erwin! Love that rudder.