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More Accurate XB-40 Bomber Escort in 1/72


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Another quick update before crankin' up the barbie for our July 4 holiday!

 

The landing light lens treatment seemed to work out okay:

 

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Would you believe a German camouflage scheme?:

 

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Ha! Not really, I just decided to try this under basing method for the first time.  Not sure how it will work out because I may get a little ham-handed with the paint...

 

Something else I decided to do on this aircraft, that I should have made the decision about much earlier, was adding the hinges to the tail control surfaces.  First up, is marking the two surfaces of the vertical stabilizer and the rudder:

 

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Normally,  the next step is to saw the grooves in the various parts, using the thickest razor saw in the tool kit.  Then a small -- can't remember the correct name for it --  a tiny wedge-shaped file is used to widen the gap, and increase the cut to it's final depth.  This file looks like a very tall, skinny triangle from the front.  Next, a regular (in this case, very small) rectangular file is used to increase the width of the slot to final dimensions.  In the photo above right, I made the saw cut in the rudder on a slant instead of 90 degrees to the vertical, and had to widen the slot and glue in tiny pieces of card to shim the rudder slot back to the correct size and location.

 

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Eventually, the parts on the stabilizers will be smoothed to shape, cut to length and slightly rounded on the ends.  That's the real beauty of plastic -- if you screw it up, you can just glop on some more and start over!

 

See you after I recover from my soon to be gluttonous feast of burgers and dogs and all the trimmin's...

 

To all those on this side of the pond, happy Fourth of July!  To all those on the OTHER side of the pond -- thanks for letting us get away with it!

 

Ed

Edited by TheRealMrEd
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello again,

 

Back with a small update.  This may be the last update for a couple of weeks, as I have some other fish to fry...   Maybe I'll get this thing done before around August 15, hopefully sooner!

 

Anyway, back to the workbench.   Shown below are the tail parts rounded and temporarily stuck together:

 

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Next, I'll show my peculiar way to paint the de-icing strips, as I prefer that they be painted first, and then I don't have to worry about paint lifting at the end (hopefully).  I'll just explain as I go -- your mileage may vary...

 

First the intended deicers are masked with Tamiya tape:

 

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The next photo shows where Parafilm "M" has been applied all over the place, even atop the tape, to prevent over-spray.  At this point, the tape edges were carefully cut away with a sharp #11 X-Acto blade, exposing the de-icer areas, and everything else is masked off:

 

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Next the de-icer boots are sprayed with Alclad II black primer, which has plenty of "bite" and when sprayed properly with low pressure, has a nice, even sheen, somewhat akin to rubber:

 

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Next the lower areas are sprayed with Neutral Grey FS 36270.  At this point, the elevators and rudder are just stuck on, as they will be painted a more faded O.D. before final installation.  Also, at this time, the de-icers have been re-masked and trimmed with Parafilm "M", which will only get removed when all the final painting (but not weathering) has been done:

 

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Next, the engines are being installed, along with the cowls, which have been painted Interior Green inside:

 

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Above right, I mask radial engines within cowls, by cutting over-sized paper or light card circles, with a cut from the outside to dead center.  Then, they are tightened into tiny cones and inserted into the ends of the cowls, masking the motor.  The more space between the end of the cowl and the motor, the better they will stay in place.  In this case, there was too little space, so the masks had to be held by a fingertip while spraying.

 

Anyway, when all this business was done, the wings and the horizontal stabilizers were glued into place, using Testor's tube glue, as I wanted a really solid joint.  The wings were positioned for the best fit at the top.  Then the upper surfaces were given a coat of Model Master #2051 Faded Olive Drab:

 

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Invariably, I like to pre-paint the wings and fuse on aircraft that have nacelles, as it's the devil's own work to paint them after the wings are assembled.  My way, all I have to do is fix any joins, and then touch up the needed areas.

 

Photo above right show the little over 1 mm that the fuse was higher than the underside of the wing.  The plastic was thick enough there to sand down, so that and  a little P.P.P., and all will be well!

 

Well, that's all for this time.  I'll be working on it, and will post again when I have the time.

 

T.T.F.N.

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

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Not only the masking tip but a lot more good stuff in this thread. Thank you for sharing.

 

A very interesting and informative build so far I'm learning a lot which will be useful when I build my next aircraft model.

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Thanks, SleeperService!

 

That's the main reason I show the builds blow-by-blow.  I've made so may mistakes ---- er, learned so many lessons --- over the years, that I thought others might gain from my sometimes lack of focus!

 

Ed

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, hello again!

 

Having survived a week of vacation and several more days of a house full of relatives, I'm back on the job!

 

Actually, I was able to sneak in a lot of work on the model, here and there, but I had no room to set up the gear to take photos.  So, I've gotten pretty well down the road on this one, and the problem will be to catch everyone up, while still making sense and not overlooking anything.  If I seem to skip over something of interest, please say so, and I'll address that query.

 

Anyway, when last we met, the wings had just been attached and there was a step at the bottom.  So, here's how that turned out:

 

spacer.pngspacer.png

 

On the left above, the seam turned out nicely.  Also shown in this pic is the use of Parafilm "M" to mask the wing for the exhaust tubes and turbocharger pipes.  Above right, is my secret weapon for sanding wing roots and other tight areas, sanding grips.  They come in various sizes and shapes, of which I have several sets.  They are typically found in woodworker's catalogs, although Micro Mark sells a few. You wrap sheet sandpaper around them and you can sand all kinds of curves, nooks and crannies with them.

 

Next, before adding the turbo or superchargers to the wings, I decided to try an experiment I hadn't done before, adding the waste gates to the openings of the turbocharges.  These are simply small discs of thin plastic pinched out and glued into place.  The don't show up well in this scale, and would probably be better suited for P-38 Lightnings or larger scale aircraft.  Since the opening were there on the Hasegawa parts I didn't even have to drill them out:

 

spacer.png

 

 We'll get back to these parts later, but first, It was time to do a little painting on the entire model:

 

spacer.png

 

The entire model (except for the de-icer boots, of course!) was sprayed with Model Master Faded Olive Drab, #2051, and I added a little yellow and white to some of this, crating a more faded shade of O.D. for the control surfaces,  while the darker areas in the photo are Model Master Olive Drab (ANA 613) seen on this aircraft not as an attempt at a camouflage, but more like various paint touch-ups of the original, un-faded shade of O.D.  This seem in photos, to be largely confined to areas modified to create the XB-40 from the B-17F, and perhaps a little touch-up, here and there.  At least, that's how I interpreted the few available pictures.  Also, these colors were chosen after spraying many kinds and shades of O.D. on a white card.  These were the ones (that I had) which at least seemed to belong to the same family of shades, ie. some were more brown, some more purple, etc.

 

spacer.png

 

The next photo, which shows the bottom side almost done, is shown here mainly to reference the "U.S. ARMY" markings.  Decals in most other B-17 kits seem to be the wrong font for this example. The font used here is notable in that the "U", the "S" and the "R" are markedly wider side-to-side, and the periods used are actually squares:

 

spacer.png

 

I finally found the correct font used in the kits decals for Academy's B-17B, but they were too small in size to be correct.  So, I scanned the decal sheet and blew them up to correct size.  The next picture is actual size for the model, but seems larger because they are done at 360 dots per inch, rather than the usual 72 DPI we normally use on computer screens.  Try printing them on plain paper first, and you'll see what I mean.

 

Anyway, here are the full-sized decals for this build:

 

spacer.png

 

Here's how they look on the model:

 

spacer.pngspacer.png

 

Here they are after a little weathering, as well as a view of the turbo chargers and pipes after a little touch-up with Alclad II transparent Sepia, Blue and Red.  This is meant to show just discoloration, not rust.  Mechanically, this aircraft was pretty well maintained, even though the paint faded a lot, unlike operational craft, which were not likely to survive long enough to need rust removal, but rather needed to be able to get into the air and fight.

 

Next, a little background on the Mickey Mouse artwork for this aircraft, which is one of the things that made me want to build it, years ago (and even though I started off building it as a YB, instead of the XB-40!

I started off with a crop of the image from a picture taken in 1943, after the bars and red surround had been added to the insignia:

 

spacer.pngspacer.png

 

On the right above, the image has been manipulated in Photoshop to rotate it into a flatter plane, as the original photo was not taken dead-on flat.  After a lot more work in Photoshop, I ended up with this:

 

spacer.png

 

My photo sharing provider, Fotki, changed this from a .PNG file to a .JPG, so I can't upload the .PNG or .PSD  versions here.  The .PNG would let you re-size the image easier, and the .PSD .  The .PSD  (photoshop) file is useful, because it has the individual color layers, so that, for instance, the backgound color can be easily changed, without messing around with all the other colors, cutting and pasting, etc.  For anyone out there who might desire copies of any of my artwork for non-commercial reasons, send me your e-mail in a PM, let me know what you need, and I'll send them right along.

 

For others, here is the final artwork in the final size (again, in 360 DPI so it looks larger than in really is. As always, print on plain paper first, to check the size):

 

spacer.png

 

I  played with this artwork for quite a while.  As I don't have an Alps printer, just an Epson Ink Jet type, I had to print on white decal paper to get the lighter colors.  I played around with the background color, trying to match the paint shade used on the model.  Problem was, when the background on the decal came close to the models color, the artwork all but disappeared!  I guess I should have used two decals, one atop the other, but I didn't want such thickness that I couldn't blend the decal into the paint on the aircraft without leaving an edge.  In the end, I fudged a little. After checking the photos, it appears that the original artist painted Mickey on the left side of the aircraft first, then on the right side, the photos seem to show that the area at least behind Mickey's head and ears was high-lighted a bit, to make the artwork stand out a bit more. So, that is what I ended up doing -- I lightened the decal background, then over-painted the decal edges on the model with the ANA 613 OD used as touch-up on the real aircraft. 

 

It's not perfect, but it's better than the last XB-40 build I saw --- oh, wait...

 

Anyway, what's really needed are good Alps-printed decals.  So whenever you build your own XB-40, I'd start there.  Mine now looks like this:

 

spacer.pngspacer.png

 

As always, not perfect, but I can live with it, always hoping the next guy will "up the game" a little bit.

 

Anyway, except for some final, but time-consuming details, she's about done.  Here are a couple of "pre-completion" teaser pictures:

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

Thanks for looking in -- hope to have her done in a few days.

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

 

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As promised, a few last bits of information.  First off, the XB-40 featured no manufacturer's logo on the prop blades, only the data, stenciled on chord-wise, vs. the more common span-wise.  Next, the XB-40, for some reason, at least for part of it's life, had four pitot tubes on the nose, vs. the more common two:

 

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Next, the Academy kit features very tiny drop-shaped decals for the wing-tip lights, above and below -- very useful because of their small size:

 

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Also, I ended up using the Academy rudder after all, after I narrowed it a little, because the rudder on the XB-40 did not extend to the end of the tail turret glazing.

 

(Oh, and I see in the photo that one of the two lower turret gun barrels has fallen off -- have to fix that...)

 

Lastly there was a lot of discrepancy between the kit's decals, aftermarket sheets and other sources about the size of the USAAC Star insignias on the wing and fuse.  Scaling from actual photos, I ended up using scale 48" diameter stars on the fuselage sides, and scale 72" stars on the wings, because they just looked right to me.

 

Well, that's that. It was a tricky little build, but easy enough if one cares to do it; plus it always helps to have spares lying about!

 

Here's one final picture, and I'll post up some more in RFI soon.  RFI HERE

 

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Thanks for looking in, and thanks to those who've followed along.

 

Ed

 

 

Edited by TheRealMrEd
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On 8/3/2019 at 8:05 PM, TheRealMrEd said:

Well, hello again!

 

Having survived a week of vacation and several more days of a house full of relatives, I'm back on the job!

 

Actually, I was able to sneak in a lot of work on the model, here and there, but I had no room to set up the gear to take photos.  So, I've gotten pretty well down the road on this one, and the problem will be to catch everyone up, while still making sense and not overlooking anything.  If I seem to skip over something of interest, please say so, and I'll address that query.

 

Anyway, when last we met, the wings had just been attached and there was a step at the bottom.  So, here's how that turned out:

 

spacer.pngspacer.png

 

On the left above, the seam turned out nicely.  Also shown in this pic is the use of Parafilm "M" to mask the wing for the exhaust tubes and turbocharger pipes.  Above right, is my secret weapon for sanding wing roots and other tight areas, sanding grips.  They come in various sizes and shapes, of which I have several sets.  They are typically found in woodworker's catalogs, although Micro Mark sells a few. You wrap sheet sandpaper around them and you can sand all kinds of curves, nooks and crannies with them.

 

Next, before adding the turbo or superchargers to the wings, I decided to try an experiment I hadn't done before, adding the waste gates to the openings of the turbocharges.  These are simply small discs of thin plastic pinched out and glued into place.  The don't show up well in this scale, and would probably be better suited for P-38 Lightnings or larger scale aircraft.  Since the opening were there on the Hasegawa parts I didn't even have to drill them out:

 

spacer.png

 

 We'll get back to these parts later, but first, It was time to do a little painting on the entire model:

 

spacer.png

 

The entire model (except for the de-icer boots, of course!) was sprayed with Model Master Faded Olive Drab, #2051, and I added a little yellow and white to some of this, crating a more faded shade of O.D. for the control surfaces,  while the darker areas in the photo are Model Master Olive Drab (ANA 613) seen on this aircraft not as an attempt at a camouflage, but more like various paint touch-ups of the original, un-faded shade of O.D.  This seem in photos, to be largely confined to areas modified to create the XB-40 from the B-17F, and perhaps a little touch-up, here and there.  At least, that's how I interpreted the few available pictures.  Also, these colors were chosen after spraying many kinds and shades of O.D. on a white card.  These were the ones (that I had) which at least seemed to belong to the same family of shades, ie. some were more brown, some more purple, etc.

 

spacer.png

 

The next photo, which shows the bottom side almost done, is shown here mainly to reference the "U.S. ARMY" markings.  Decals in most other B-17 kits seem to be the wrong font for this example. The font used here is notable in that the "U", the "S" and the "R" are markedly wider side-to-side, and the periods used are actually squares:

 

spacer.png

 

I finally found the correct font used in the kits decals for Academy's B-17B, but they were too small in size to be correct.  So, I scanned the decal sheet and blew them up to correct size.  The next picture is actual size for the model, but seems larger because they are done at 360 dots per inch, rather than the usual 72 DPI we normally use on computer screens.  Try printing them on plain paper first, and you'll see what I mean.

 

Anyway, here are the full-sized decals for this build:

 

spacer.png

 

Here's how they look on the model:

 

spacer.pngspacer.png

 

Here they are after a little weathering, as well as a view of the turbo chargers and pipes after a little touch-up with Alclad II transparent Sepia, Blue and Red.  This is meant to show just discoloration, not rust.  Mechanically, this aircraft was pretty well maintained, even though the paint faded a lot, unlike operational craft, which were not likely to survive long enough to need rust removal, but rather needed to be able to get into the air and fight.

 

Next, a little background on the Mickey Mouse artwork for this aircraft, which is one of the things that made me want to build it, years ago (and even though I started off building it as a YB, instead of the XB-40!

I started off with a crop of the image from a picture taken in 1943, after the bars and red surround had been added to the insignia:

 

spacer.pngspacer.png

 

On the right above, the image has been manipulated in Photoshop to rotate it into a flatter plane, as the original photo was not taken dead-on flat.  After a lot more work in Photoshop, I ended up with this:

 

spacer.png

 

My photo sharing provider, Fotki, changed this from a .PNG file to a .JPG, so I can't upload the .PNG or .PSD  versions here.  The .PNG would let you re-size the image easier, and the .PSD .  The .PSD  (photoshop) file is useful, because it has the individual color layers, so that, for instance, the backgound color can be easily changed, without messing around with all the other colors, cutting and pasting, etc.  For anyone out there who might desire copies of any of my artwork for non-commercial reasons, send me your e-mail in a PM, let me know what you need, and I'll send them right along.

 

For others, here is the final artwork in the final size (again, in 360 DPI so it looks larger than in really is. As always, print on plain paper first, to check the size):

 

spacer.png

 

I  played with this artwork for quite a while.  As I don't have an Alps printer, just an Epson Ink Jet type, I had to print on white decal paper to get the lighter colors.  I played around with the background color, trying to match the paint shade used on the model.  Problem was, when the background on the decal came close to the models color, the artwork all but disappeared!  I guess I should have used two decals, one atop the other, but I didn't want such thickness that I couldn't blend the decal into the paint on the aircraft without leaving an edge.  In the end, I fudged a little. After checking the photos, it appears that the original artist painted Mickey on the left side of the aircraft first, then on the right side, the photos seem to show that the area at least behind Mickey's head and ears was high-lighted a bit, to make the artwork stand out a bit more. So, that is what I ended up doing -- I lightened the decal background, then over-painted the decal edges on the model with the ANA 613 OD used as touch-up on the real aircraft. 

 

It's not perfect, but it's better than the last XB-40 build I saw --- oh, wait...

 

Anyway, what's really needed are good Alps-printed decals.  So whenever you build your own XB-40, I'd start there.  Mine now looks like this:

 

spacer.pngspacer.png

 

As always, not perfect, but I can live with it, always hoping the next guy will "up the game" a little bit.

 

Anyway, except for some final, but time-consuming details, she's about done.  Here are a couple of "pre-completion" teaser pictures:

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

Thanks for looking in -- hope to have her done in a few days.

 

Ed

 

 

 

 

 

Impressive work, well done

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