opus999 Posted May 26, 2019 Author Share Posted May 26, 2019 I forgot to note: the pictures of the cockpit don't really show how the wash brought out the wrinkles in the head rests very well, but not so much in the seat cushions. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikolay Polyakov Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 Good progress so far! 👍 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 I like the job you've made on the cockpit. Is there a reasonable amount of space in the nose for weight? The Canberra's a notorious tailsitter. I once converted the Airfix B6 into a T17 for a friend. Even with a resin nose job, it still needed wm ejection seats to get it up on the nosewheel. It was a bit of a struggle throughout as I recall (this is a British understatement) but I eventually finished it... Regards Martin 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker6Recon Posted May 26, 2019 Share Posted May 26, 2019 3 hours ago, opus999 said: I have no idea if they're available in the Philippines. Not really, everything here is hit and miss. The only paint that seems available at the very few hobby shops, is Tamiya. You want to hear about tragedy? Last month, I found a "hobby shop" near my home. There had not been any since the last official Tamiya closed down about 7 years ago. I had given up even trying to find one near by. The only store I knew of outside my area is in Manila, so I would have to order online or by phone. Anyway, when I found the store locally, I got all excited and hoped on my Yamaha to rush over and see what they had in their store. When I pulled up outside, my heart sunk. The store reminded me of those quick stop dry cleaners back in NY, more of a stand than a store. But I went inside to see what they had, hoping to be surprised. This is no joke. They had ZERO plastic models. They also had a total collection of paint colors by Tamiya of at best, 20 colors. Two bottles of panel line washes and some mark setter, that was it. Sad, really sad. There are apparently a few other new stores further away, but I have not bothered to try them yet, as you need money to buy kits, and we are broke. I keep telling myself, a few more months and I will be able to order what I need, but bad luck struck again. One of our cats we rescued and adopted out to another family, is now sick and in the hospital. Of course the adopting family has no money to pay the vet bills, so we are now expected to step in and cover the costs. We won't let the cat die, obviously, so even though we are not able to pay right away, we have agreed to take care of the bills, which are adding up quickly. I am trying to sell one of my cameras that I bought a while back, just to cover the costs of his treatment. Oh well, such is life if you rescue cats. We will get him fixed up and hopefully find him a new home where the new owner is actually able to take care of him properly. I have been in contact with lifecolor directly, hoping to buy straight from them, which they have offered to do for me. They told me to pick out the colors I needed, so I went thru all my models and wrote out a list of paints, but it was only around 20 bottles, hardly worth the shipping it would cost from Italy. So they said to look at their charts, see what else I might need. Wow, they have A LOT of FS paint colors. After just picking out FS colors, I was already over 100 paints. I sent the list, but have not heard back from them yet, which is probably a good thing, until I get my sitrep back then par. Sorry, venting, been a bad two days. Weird this article was in one of the magazines I bought, the odds can't be that good. Thought that was the luck changing for us, too soon I guess. The kit is coming along looking really nice, love the interior. Can't wait to see the two models side by side, I know it will go on properly this time around. Cheers, Anthony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 26, 2019 Author Share Posted May 26, 2019 Does anyone know if the nose gear bay has silver (or another color) tubing in it? I have a lot of detail in the nose bay part, but couldn't find any pictures up inside the nose bay. I saw a B-57 at Ellsworth AFB's museum and didn't take a picture there either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker6Recon Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 18 hours ago, opus999 said: Does anyone know if the nose gear bay has silver This is probably a stupid question, but did you try primeportal? I can imagine that they don't have sufficient color pics of the nose wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 (edited) This may help you for some detailed looks at the cockpits. Scroll down and take the cockpit tour. Its a 360* camera scan of both cockpits. Im still looking for a nose gear bay. https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196067/martin-b-57b-canberra/ About the 7th or 8th photo down ⬇️ in this link might work for you let me know ? https://www.cybermodeler.com/aircraft/b-57/eb-57_walk.shtml Dennis Edited May 27, 2019 by Corsairfoxfouruncle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 51 minutes ago, Stalker6Recon said: did you try primeportal? Well... I'm embarrassed to say I didn't know about that! Well, I do now. Thanks for that tip! Unfortunately, no shots up inside the gear well in the 3 B-57 walkarounds they had. One tease though. 19 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: About the 7th or 8th photo down ⬇️ in this link might work for you let me know ? Hey thanks for this Dennis! Cybermodeler is the first place I went, actually. The photo you refer to is the best of all the ones I found, but still doesn't quite get me there. After conferring with my Dad (ex-pilot and avid modeler) I think I have a plan of attack. Besides, it will be on the bottom. I appreciate the help though, guys! 22 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: This may help you for some detailed looks at the cockpits. I had some good pictures, and this helps too. The black paint on the control column is nearly gone on this one! I wonder how common that was. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 22 hours ago, mike romeo said: Is there a reasonable amount of space in the nose for weight? The Canberra's a notorious tailsitter. Glad you asked! The instructions have a little symbol for "add weight", but don't tell you how much to add! Mighty nice of them. The Testors instructions said 3/4 ounce, so I figured if I could add an ounce that would be good. So I got out the pinewood derby car weights and packed them where ever I could. So to answer your question: yes, there is enough space! See the photos in my next post. The kit was kind enough to come with a stand that attaches to the bottom of the tail area, but I'd like to avoid that altogether. Funny how I saw the weight callout in the Testors instructions right away, but my 16 year-old self clearly paid no attention to such details because that Testors Canberra has been a tail sitter since day one! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 Didn't get as much done yesterday as I'd hoped. Mostly on account of helping my Dad with his (circa 1970) 1/32 Revell P-47D. He hasn't used Alclad before, so I'm giving him some pointers about prepping the surface for polished aluminum. Given its unforgiving nature, I'm helping calibrate his eye to notice all those little imperfections that we flat camouflage painters totally ignore, but which Alclad helps expose like a neon pointer sign. Back on topic... I finished the cockpit and got it put in the fuselage. The instrument panel decals were just as dodgy as the rest, but I had nothing remotely close in the spares box, so I had to go with it. Oh, well.... It looks just OK in the cockpit. I drybrushed some silver along the tops of the ejection seats and on the armrests to simulate wear. Paint chipped the floor a bit and paint chipped the control column (although maybe not enough after looking at @Corsairfoxfouruncle's helpful cockpit photos. ). I'm pretty happy with this cockpit. I've had a couple of overdone cockpits recently, I kind of feel like I got the cockpit mojo back. I set out to paint the Zinc Chromate parts, and discovered the main gear doors were quite a mess. Two have some of the worst sink marks I've ever seen and the other have (I'm guessing) bad ejector pin marks. So that slowed me up as I set out to fill those in with CA. Which took longer than I thought -- I'm still not done. I got to painting the Zinc Chromate in the wheel wells though, and followed that up with a layer of Tamiya X-22 clear, and then an oil wash. Didn't get to dull coating them yet, but will do that today. Finally, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to shoe-horn weight into the nose area. I got some pinewood derby weights from my kids' pinewood derby box. These are great because they are Tungsten and are designed to be easily snapped with pliers so that you can get different sizes that you can fit into various nooks and crannies. I've heard of some other weights that people use that may work even better, but I've got these and they work pretty well. So to answer @mike romeo's question -- there is enough room! Obviously, I haven't glued the weight in yet, but will mix up some 5 minute epoxy and do so. I dry fit the whole model together and balanced it on a paint brush located right where the main gears will connect and it looked like it was enough weight. I'd hoped to getting the fuselage buttoned up yesterday, but that didn't happen. I hope to get there today at a minimum, but between grocery shopping and an afternoon barbeque with friends, I'm not sure if that will happen or not. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 21 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said: They also had a total collection of paint colors by Tamiya of at best, 20 colors. Two bottles of panel line washes and some mark setter, that was it. Oh, man... that sucks! Kind of reminds me of my home town in the '80's. Well, it might be good for an emergency. I can't find any decal solvent on a regular basis in my town still. 21 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said: Oh well, such is life if you rescue cats. Sorry to hear about that too. We had an experience with some feral kittens in our yard a couple of years ago. We didn't want them to be out in the cold since winter was coming on (late October) and we didn't want them to be wild making more kittens. So we had to capture them. You're right, even when they are healthy, rescuing cats can become spendy. We had four and we had to get them fixed, vaccinated, and then had to try to socialize them on top of it all. They were completely wild. It was nuts. In the end we found good homes for them (namely, my cousin's home and my home). But at least they behave like mostly normal cats now. 21 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said: hoping to buy straight from them, which they have offered to do for me. Wow, that was nice. I haven't checked out lifecolor yet, but have seen their name quite a bit around here. I should look into them since you mention they have a wide supply of colors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 27, 2019 Author Share Posted May 27, 2019 Dull coated the wheel bays (and did a little detail painting on the nose gear bay) Had to put a little spacer on the nose gear bay piece so that it would fit snug against the bottom of the cockpit like it's supposed to A little 5 minute epoxy and the weights were in It is certainly very nose heavy now! Finally, got the wings glued together. I'm happy to say that there is only minimal cleanup on the edges of the wings needed. If I get home early enough tonight, I'll try to glue the fuselage together. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker6Recon Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 10 minutes ago, opus999 said: minimal cleanup on the edges Was wondering, have you ever used scraping tools before? I was turned on to some different scraping tools made by Alexen, which claim to clean up seams and done properly, no filling or even sanding is required. After being told about their uses, I did some research regarding these tools, and others also swear by them. Saving lots of time and avoiding the lost detail common with filling and sanding. Anyway, the kit is coming together nicely, like the interior and agree that the decal for the IP leaves a lot to be desired. But once buttoned up, with the right amount of detail elsewhere, nobody will notice the IP anyway. Cheers, Anthony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker6Recon Posted May 27, 2019 Share Posted May 27, 2019 4 hours ago, opus999 said: 3 B-57 walkarounds To be honest, I expected more. This is my main "go to" for walk around, but I also use scalemates for all kind of info on kits, build reviews, walk around, upgrades etc. My favorite site for starting research. Found some wheel well pics. There are lots more via google images. HTH's Anthony 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 29, 2019 Author Share Posted May 29, 2019 Got the fuselage halves together tonight. No real steps between the two halves, thankfully, but there were some gaps that needed filling. Will probably be working on that for a couple of days. So I'm going to throw this one out for opinions: What do people do about raised panel lines? I know it's an age old question. I've seen some folks just scribe the model to get rid of the raised detail, but I've found that at 1/72, all the scribing tools I've tried make unrealistically wide lines and my scribing skills are not the best. Plus it's tedious! As expected, along the seam, the lines that are perpendicular fade away as they get close to the seam. Do people just ignore it? Scribe their own? or some other sort of magical fix that can only be talked about in hushed tone after a secret handshake? I'd like some opinions. I'm leaning towards just letting it go since it will be a black aircraft and probably not that noticeable. But on the other hand, it will be glossy, so it might be quite noticeable in the right light. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 29, 2019 Author Share Posted May 29, 2019 On 5/27/2019 at 2:17 PM, Stalker6Recon said: have you ever used scraping tools before? No, I haven't. I usually just go at it with x-actos and sandpaper. I'll have to look at the the ones you mention. I also just noticed your comment about avoiding lost detail, which is coincidental to my post above. A day late and a dollar short... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 Well i only scribe to replace any lost detail. On monogram and older style kits that come with raised lines. I find if you go over the whole plane with 1000-1500 wet dry or buffing pads, it reduces the height very well. Its still there but your decals will settle better and no rescribing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 I have seen here on bm a thread that describes carefully masking round the lost panel lines and then rebuilding them with repeated sprays of aerosol or airbrush primer. Suspect it needs a bit of practice and I haven't tried it myself! Regards Martin 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey-1980 Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 Looking great so far! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker6Recon Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 11 hours ago, opus999 said: I usually just go at it with x-actos and sandpaper. I mentioned these tools on another thread, some of the old school guys didn't reflect kindly on the idea of a tool for joint lines, they swear by their techniques. Maybe for those with loads of experience, they can smooth out a bad seam without leaving flat spots of destroying detail. For guys like me, new tools are all I have, so one more for a few dollars is worth the risk. If the tool works as designed, it will be a great addition to my arsenal. If not, a five dollar lesson learned is not the end of the world. I never knew about them until someone recommended them to me, and they swear by their time saving ability. I guess I will find out soon enough, I have three of them already. Anthony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikolay Polyakov Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 16 hours ago, opus999 said: So I'm going to throw this one out for opinions: What do people do about raised panel lines? The reasonable solution is here: 14 hours ago, mike romeo said: I have seen here on bm a thread that describes carefully masking round the lost panel lines and then rebuilding them with repeated sprays of aerosol or airbrush primer. Suspect it needs a bit of practice and I haven't tried it myself! And I haven’t tried it, too - just because I don’t build a model with a raised panel lines after hiatus. Sounds nice, but I can suggest that using the stretched sprue is another good solution. And fast... And easy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalker6Recon Posted May 29, 2019 Share Posted May 29, 2019 16 hours ago, opus999 said: I'd like some opinions. If not already covered, there is a method to build up raised panel lines via taping off the line, then slowly building up the line via primer sprayed on lightly with successive coats. I am pretty sure I read this here, if I find the link, I will post it for you. Slow, but very effective. The other option is stretched sprue of course. Since it sounds like you only need a tiny section, this might be the fastest method. You will however, have to remove a bit of the raised line before it begins to fade. That way, you can make a more uniform line from square edge to square edge. Finally, since it is the bottom, you need to decide how it will be displayed. If parked and not on top of a mirror, then let is be. If hanging or on a mirror, then try to straighten out the line before painting. Cheers, Anthony 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 30, 2019 Author Share Posted May 30, 2019 Thanks for the feedback everyone! I was daydreaming about it on the way to work and came up with similar ideas, so I'm glad I'm on the right track. I also remember reading something years ago about using an x-acto to pry up a little plastic to make a raised line, but that seems like it wouldn't work so well. Had an open house at one of my kids' schools so I won't be able to do any searching or experimenting, but maybe tomorrow! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 30, 2019 Author Share Posted May 30, 2019 11 hours ago, Stalker6Recon said: Maybe for those with loads of experience, they can smooth out a bad seam without leaving flat spots of destroying detail. Yeah... that wouldn't be me! I made a heck of a mess out of the top of the B-57 last night. I can patch it, but it will take time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted May 30, 2019 Author Share Posted May 30, 2019 well what do you know? This looks very promising for replacing the raised detail! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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