Call me crazy! 1/72 Northrop YB-35 Flying Wing

[LorenSharp]

Holey moley ! That's an excellent job on the shading.! I like how you have your workbench set up. nice and efficient.

 

[Thom216]

That's a great looking bench. My envy has spiked - again!🤩

 

Your paint work looks great, shading and all.

[billn53]

It's Saturday evening, August 17, and that means there are only six more build days before our show. I've been working hard today to make up for the lost time my trip caused me.

 

Painting, painting, painting! I'm done with that chore and only have a couple of minor touchups to take care of. Here's at look at where I am:

 

 

 

Wing turrets are in place (no guns, yet) and the anti-glare panel has been painted, but the most obvious items are the insignia red Arctic markings on the outer wings. As this is a hypothetical in-service production aircraft, "why not?" I said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I painted the gear bays zinc chromate yellow, mainly because I have a bottle and this is my first opportunity to use it.

 

 

 

The bomb bay doors are done using Xtreme Metal's duraluminum. This is just a guess on my part, although I do know that the doors appear a darker shade than the surrounding aluminum. As an aside, the B-35's bomb bay doors were not hinged. Instead, they consisted of multiple panels in a pair of tracks on either side of the bay. The panels attached to a motorized roller at the forward end of the bay. Thus, the doors opened similar to the way my garage door opens.

 

 

 

And, here are those pesky exhausts for the turbosuperchargers I kept forgetting to install:

 

 

 

Doing the exhaust stains is going to be an interesting affair! The B-35's turbosuperchargers generated a lot of very dirty smoke, notice the heavy staining in these photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More tomorrow!

 

 

 

[billn53]

I spent quite a few hours working on the Wing today, but it seems that I don't have much to show for it.

 

First, I spent some time getting the landing gear ready to put this girl on her legs. For the main gear, I followed Jeff Groves' example and added a brass rod for strengthening. I'm worried that the nose gear may not be strong enough, given all the weight I added to keep this from being a tail sitter. If worse comes to worst, I have a set of metal landing gear, but those are not my first choice for various reasons.

 

 

 

Most of my time today was spent with the propellers, which I had previously started. I needed to paint the tips of the blades (32 of them) and add the Hamilton Standard logo and data decals (64 decals). To help mask the tips, I built a simple jig:

 

 

 

And, after a few hours work, here's the result:

 

 

Some of the tips need touchup, but otherwise the jig worked like a champ. As an aside, the instructions would have you put the logo and data decals on the back side of each blade, but every photo I've seen where the logo is visible has them on the forward-facing side.

 

Having just finished putting a bunch of tiny decals on little blades, I felt a need for something more substantial, so I added the big Stars & Bars and "USAF" decals to the Wing's wings. They sure do look purty!

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow's plan is to mask and paint the framing for the nose glazing, install the four driveshaft/gearbox fairings on the rear of the wing, finish decaling, and give everything a good protective gloss coat.

[LorenSharp]

billn53 I'll have to say that is the best lookin wing I've seen in many a day.I agree, it's purdier than a new set of snow tires😉

 

[Retired Bob]

Hi Bill, that is looking superb.  My work not so great, I've been chopping back the hedgerow in my front garden, 70% humidity has given it a growing spurt so it was threatening to block out any chance of seeing the sun. ☹️

Edited August 19, 2019 by Retired Bob
missing word

[mdauben]

The "wing" is definitely looking good!  I like the choice of adding the "Arctic" markings, they really add to the visual interest of the model.  

[billn53]

I was up at the crack of dawn this morning to get some build time in before heading into the office.

 

First up was masking and painting the nose glazing frames. I used Parafilm M and a new #11 scalpel blade to do the masking, which did a great job. I really should use this stuff more, considering I have a 125-ft roll of it!

 

 

 

Next on the to-do list was installing the four fairings at the rear of the wing. Decals for the small Stars & Bars, and the aircraft S/N, were applied to the two outboard fairings. Note that the markings do not run parallel to the fairings' panel lines. This is because the top of the fairings, when installed, are not horizontal but instead slope upward toward the aircraft's rear.

 

 

 

BTW, I'm using Italeri's decals (made by Cartograph). Despite their age, they are excellent!

 

I got the fairings installed a-ok….

 

 

 

 

 

… but not without a series of minor disasters. First, while cleaning out paint and sanding dust from the recesses in the wings, my chisel slipped and scratched the wing. Not once, but twice! I sanded out the scratches and did some touch up painting. Next, while gluing the fairings into the recesses, a drop of glue fell on the wing, eating through the NMF. More touch-up work there. Finally, when everything was looking great, I accidently touched some of the still-wet paint, leaving an enormous thumb print. Arrrggghhh!!!

 

 

 

Easy enough to fix, but I could really do without these time-consuming mistakes.

[Thom216]

I feel you about the time-consuming mistakes. A good percentage of my builds have that worked in.😉

 

She is looking great though. Love the contrast of the NMF with the red.

[billn53]

72-Hours until show time and I think I'm going to make it, barring some major catastrophe.

 

Here's the Wednesday morning progress report. I got rid of that ugly thumbprint, did some other minor paint touch up, and finished decaling. I then gave the Wing a couple coats of Alclad Aqua Clear, both to protect the NMF and to unify the various shades & colors on the plane.

 

After the clear coat had dried, I focused on the underside of the Wing. I added the brass tube exhausts for the turbosuperchargers that I had made up earlier:

 

 

 

And then spent about an hour doing the exhaust staining. First, I built an underlayer for the heavy staining using Tamiya's Smoke (X-19). I then sprayed Xtreme Metal "Jet Exhaust", starting at the turbosupercharger exhausts and becoming fainter and broader further aft. Next, I applied black pigment powder to soot-up the exhausts and the area immediately around and behind them. Finally, I sprayed the exhausts and stained areas with Humbrol matte acrylic (to fix the pigment powder and remove the glossiness of the Smoke and Jet Exhaust paints).

 

 

 

 

 

After the exhaust staining had thoroughly dried, I installed the landing gear legs. I want these to be firmly attached when I turn the Wing right-side-up, so I let them set overnight...

 

 

 

And this morning I added the wheels. My Wing is now standing on her own feet, and nothing has collapsed or bent in spite of all the weight I've installed!

 

 

I had also noticed that the canopies had developed a few minor scratches in the parts bin, so I gave them both a fresh dip in clear acrylic to freshen them up:

 

 

 

I added the pilot's yoke (which had broken off earlier), rear gunner's armor plate, and the gunsight periscopes, then glued the canopies in place with watch cement:

 

   

 

The watch cement takes hours to dry, so no more work until this evening. But, I couldn't resist temporarily installing the props, just to see how the Wing is going to look when finished:

 

 

 

 

 

There's not much left to do... I still need to:

 

Install the landing gear doors

Add flaps and propellers

Build and attach the crew access hatch

Add gun barrels

 

And, if I have the time, I may do some light weathering.

 

And that should do it!

[LorenSharp]

Excellent Job!

 

[Thom216]

Dude, she looks beautiful! Awesome looking wing.  With that nose gear a little up, she looks like she's ready to take off!

[Serkan Sen]

She looks great!... You are very close to happy end 😁

Serkan

 

[Brandy]

Fantastic job!

I'm never likely to build nmf as I mainly build WWI aircraft, but getting the variation on the panels so it doesn't look bland is, I imagine, not an easy task!

 

Ian

[billn53]

27 minutes ago, limeypilot said:

... getting the variation on the panels so it doesn't look bland is, I imagine, not an easy task!

 

It’s not too difficult technically, but deciding what shades to use, and where, takes some thought and research. 

 

Some of my shading is “real world” wear & tear from handling the model. Where it looked good, I kept it. Elsewhere paint touch up was needed. 

[f111guru]

Outstanding work on the paint and finish. I would hope to do half as good as this. Thanks Billn53 for the udates on your wing.

 

Ron VanDerwarker

[opus999]

On 8/11/2019 at 7:27 PM, billn53 said:

Instead of painting squiggles (which under the NMF looked too much like squiggles for my liking), I broke out a Hannants Luftwaffe mottling mask and went to town.

Brilliant!  I experimented with squiggling and just wasn't satisfied with the results.  But, this looks very promising.  What color/brand gray did you use?

 

Also, I've run into trouble with my F-80 and the colors of AK interactive metal -- the Aluminum looks too light colored against the Polished Aluminum.  Do you think the Dark Aluminum reflects as well as the plain aluminum?  I read someone complaining that it was "dull" or "flat", but your wheels don't look very flat to me...

[billn53]

The gray I ended up using is Model Master Navy Gloss Gray. It comes in both acrylic and enamel — I used the enamel. 

If I were doing this again, I might try painting black mottles over a gray base, instead of the other way around. 

The AK dark aluminum looks very similar to their aluminum, just a tad darker. You might also try using AK’s steel, which is darker still. 

- Bill

[billn53]

She's done!

 

 

 

RFI is posted here, with lots of new pics!

 

 

 

[Bronzemeister]

Sweet!

[SafetyDad]

That is just lovely! I've enjoyed following this thread so much Bill. Great work, excellent painting and an inspired choice of markings. Take a well-earned bow to the audience!

 

SD

[Space Ranger]

19 hours ago, opus999 said:

Also, I've run into trouble with my F-80 and the colors of AK interactive metal -- the Aluminum looks too light colored against the Polished Aluminum.  Do you think the Dark Aluminum reflects as well as the plain aluminum?  I read someone complaining that it was "dull" or "flat", but your wheels don't look very flat to me...

You can always try mixing the various shades until you get something you like. Being enamels, I would think they would blend quite well.

[opus999]

1 hour ago, Space Ranger said:

You can always try mixing the various shades until you get something you like. Being enamels, I would think they would blend quite well.

That's a great idea! I was daydreaming at work today about the issue and started to think down those lines.

[Space Ranger]

7 hours ago, SafetyDad said:

That is just lovely! I've enjoyed following this thread so much Bill. Great work, excellent painting and an inspired choice of markings. Take a well-earned bow to the audience!

 

SD

I concur 100%!

[opus999]

20 hours ago, billn53 said:

The gray I ended up using is Model Master Navy Gloss Gray. It comes in both acrylic and enamel — I used the enamel. 

If I were doing this again, I might try painting black mottles over a gray base, instead of the other way around. 

The AK dark aluminum looks very similar to their aluminum, just a tad darker. You might also try using AK’s steel, which is darker still. 

- Bill

Thanks Bill, that helps a lot!  

 

Were you pleased with the mottling after it was done?