opus999 Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 F-84E Thunderjet | Hobby Boss | 1/72 United States -- 182nd Fighter Squadron, 136th Fighter Bomber Group -- Lt. R. Lee, Pilot March 1952 Finished this one on November 30th, 2018. I had a wonderful set of Aeromaster Decals "Thunderjets over Korea" that I'd already used for my Heller 1/72 F-84G "Four Queens". I really liked one of the other aircraft on the sheet, and found the Hobby Boss kit for under $10 at the LHS, so I decided to give it a go! Work in progress is here. I used this as a way to try out another NMF method I found a video of on You Tube (Spencer Pollard's "Modeller's workshop 12: Natural Metal Made Easy!" and "Modeller's Workshop 14: Natural Metal - Final Weathering"), which worked great. Finishing: Seams filled with CA (superglue), wing root seams filled with Apoxie Sculpt epoxy putty. Paints: no primer > Tamiya AS12 Bare Metal Silver (decanted into airbrush) > 1 part Mr. Color C339 Engine gray to 10 parts Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal silver for wing center panels and the back of the fuselage > Mr. Color Super Stainless for Panels just under and just behind the cockpit > thinned Tamiya smoke for shading > Testor's Metallizer sealer Decals: Kit decals for stencils, Aeromaster Decals "Thunderjets over Korea, Pt. II" (72-170) Photographing NMF aircraft is a pain, as we all know. The pictures don't seem to do the subtle panel differences justice. To the eye, in real life, they look very realistic. The following picture was the best I could do to capture it. Build Notes This was a great kit to put together, except for one bad seam, which was easily and quickly fixed. The surface detail is great! The rear landing gears and wheel wells have great detail, but the nose gear wheel well is lacking (which is probably an artifact of how they cast the fuselage as one piece). The cockpit detail is just OK, and the canopy is a bit cloudy, which was good in my case, because the cockpit wasn't up to my usual standards as it was really difficult to paint down in the tub. The decanted AS12 worked great as a NMF -- it looks realistic and is pretty tough stuff. No masking problems with it. My painting tests show it is nearly identical looking to Alclad's Aluminum. I can't see any advantage to this over Alclad except that it is much cheaper per ounce. It may be a little more durable too. The Aeromaster decals were top quality. Hope you enjoy -- thanks for looking! As always, comments, questions and constructive criticism are welcome! 35 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted December 1, 2018 Share Posted December 1, 2018 Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Lyttle Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 Daylight outdoor photo session, or even sunny day, might be worth trying, when the opportunity arises. It can bring a bit more "life" to the whole lighting situation, less monotone than artificial. But she's looking splendid. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted December 2, 2018 Author Share Posted December 2, 2018 3 minutes ago, rob Lyttle said: Daylight outdoor photo session, or even sunny day, might be worth trying, when the opportunity arises. It can bring a bit more "life" to the whole lighting situation, less monotone than artificial. But she's looking splendid. I agree about the outdoor session. We'll be stuck in low clouds and fog until march, so I suspect the opportunity won't arise until then. Thanks for the feedback! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted December 2, 2018 Author Share Posted December 2, 2018 I didn't like that the pictures don't show the center wing panels well, so I tried again. This is marginally better, but I think I'll have to take rob Lyttle's advice and try it in sunlight (someday ). 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natter Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 That's really nice. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinChipmunkfan Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 That is a great build - well done, very professional finish to the model. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 Great job on the NMF! I myself am a recent convert to decanted AS-12 and it is a life-changer. Sprays beautifully, very forgiving, dries quickly, and dries like rock. No primer needed either (it's basically a primer). If I am allowed a suggestion, if you don't want the hassle of mixing darker shades of AS-12, Vallejo's Metal Color range is really good and goes over AS-12 quite nicely. Duraluminum gives you a slightly darker shade and Dark Aluminum goes a bit darker still. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 Great to see an HB easy kit built and finished so well 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vultures1 Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 Great looking build and top tips for a smart NMF - well done! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikolay Polyakov Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 Hello @opus999, the NMF looks fantastic, stunning work! 👍 Cheers! 😎 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted December 2, 2018 Author Share Posted December 2, 2018 4 hours ago, Phantome said: If I am allowed a suggestion, Absolutely! 4 hours ago, Phantome said: if you don't want the hassle of mixing darker shades of AS-12, Vallejo's Metal Color range is really good and goes over AS-12 quite nicely. Duraluminum gives you a slightly darker shade and Dark Aluminum goes a bit darker still. I'm glad you mentioned this... I found mixing the AS12 with another color was a bit difficult because it was hard to get looking right. I haven't looked at Vallejo much, but isn't it an acrylic? I've seen a lot of people use it, so maybe I'm missing something, I'll have to look around on the internet and learn about it. Thanks for the feedback! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted December 2, 2018 Author Share Posted December 2, 2018 Thanks for all the great comments everyone! I am pretty happy with how the NMF turned out. I think this method is a winner. Now my next challenge is to figure out how to do an NMF that is somewhere between this and the mirror finish of Alclad's Airframe Aluminum. I'm still learning! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantome Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 On 12/2/2018 at 5:12 PM, opus999 said: Absolutely! I'm glad you mentioned this... I found mixing the AS12 with another color was a bit difficult because it was hard to get looking right. I haven't looked at Vallejo much, but isn't it an acrylic? I've seen a lot of people use it, so maybe I'm missing something, I'll have to look around on the internet and learn about it. Thanks for the feedback! Yes, Vallejo is acrylic, water-based. Their Metal Color range is very good though, sprays right off the bottle and has a similarly fine texture as AS-12. I am not a huge fan of their Aluminum color, however, as it tends to streak quite easily when spraying over larger areas; decanted AS-12 is much more forgiving. However, for panel shading, they are excellent and like I said, you can use Duraluminum and Dark Aluminum for progressively darker shades, or White Aluminum for a lighter one. Old Citadel Chainmail was also a great color for darkening NMF panels, shame the old formula paints are gone forever... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fernandocouto Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 Great work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted December 7, 2018 Author Share Posted December 7, 2018 6 hours ago, Phantome said: Yes, Vallejo is acrylic, water-based. Their Metal Color range is very good though, sprays right off the bottle and has a similarly fine texture as AS-12. I am not a huge fan of their Aluminum color, however, as it tends to streak quite easily when spraying over larger areas; decanted AS-12 is much more forgiving. However, for panel shading, they are excellent and like I said, you can use Duraluminum and Dark Aluminum for progressively darker shades, or White Aluminum for a lighter one. Old Citadel Chainmail was also a great color for darkening NMF panels, shame the old formula paints are gone forever... Sounds great! Thanks for following up -- I haven't had time to look into it yet (darn day job ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted October 11, 2019 Author Share Posted October 11, 2019 Even though I posted this almost a year ago, I wanted to share a picture I found (while looking for something partially related). This is a picture of the actual aircraft. It's interesting that the decal set said the pilot was "Lt. R. Lee", but the photo caption says the pilot was Capt. John McMahn. I wasn't crazy about my NMF on this model, but seeing how dull the aircraft is in the picture makes me feel much better about it! F-84 Thunderjet Korea ANG 1952 United States Air Force [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luiz Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 Stunning! Luiz. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 Awesome job! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightpainter Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 Looks really great 👍🏼 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meatbox8 Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 A real beauty. A great natural metal finish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mdauben Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 A lovely model! I think your NMF turned out really well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted October 12, 2019 Author Share Posted October 12, 2019 Thank you everyone! I was very pleased with this finish, especially because it was an experiment with a new paint. I was looking for a little more dull finish and it worked well. In hindsight, I would've made the stainless steel panels a little darker because the colorful decals really diminished the contrast between the two paint colors. But that's not a complaint! I really like the F-84 and have 3 more in the stash: Italeri's "Four Queens" F-84G, another Italeri F-84G with aftermarket Norwegian decals, and another Hobby Boss to do Col. George Laven's unbelievably colorful F-84E. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 Now that's what you call a bomb tally! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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