Jump to content

The Merits of American Style (1/72 Arma Hobby P-51B Mustang)


Recommended Posts

Well, this is a beauty PC, makes me anxious to get back to the bench and build one of these Arma gems (I have four in the stash, and who can resist the box art on the upcoming F-6, so soon to be five I guess.)

 

The pyramid capstone comment has to be in the running for BM line of the year.

 

The neutral grey looks neutral grey to me!

  • Like 4
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must make a confession here (though Edward I hope already knows it) - as a father of three (a bit older than Edward's) I have not much time to write long comments here, but... I follow this thread carefully, enjoy it, and support Procopius both in challenges of parenting and modelling. Amen.

  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OD on!

 

52027702046_14ec37dc0a_k.jpgPXL_20220425_002446751 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

 

19 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Neutral Gray always seems darker to me than my memory of it, every time I use it I end up thinking "Wow that's really quite a dark grey*" :D 

 

 

 

Now that I think about it, I had exactly the same experience the last time I painted it, when I did a Liberator VI a few years ago, in the grim, pre-Colourcoats years. It is dark.

 

8 hours ago, opus999 said:

This is looking very nice.  I really like how the landing gear bays turned out.  I'm curious to see how your salt weathering turns out.  I've seen some seriously impressive paint chipping achieved with salt weathering, but my attempts were underwhelming, partially because the salt would blow off in some cases.

 

FWIW: I used a wet brush to fix the salt crystals to the model and let them dry overnight, which seemed to do the trick.

 

Regrettably, the salt weathering has not worked well for me:

 

52028214515_58ae0d4289_k.jpgPXL_20220425_002731830 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I ought to have known -- at this scale it's easier and makes more sense to use a sponge...https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/8814a263-d5f2-447a-83db-e5b05ad5e069

 

I classify the results as pretty disappointing, but they might look better after everything dries. We'll see. 

  • Like 13
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing with salt is that it reproduces chipping really well, but it doesn’t do a good job at representing abrasive wear such as at the wing roots. I reckon you might be able to blend it though, with silver pencil and/or dry brushing.

 

Looking good otherwise.

  • Like 4
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, mark.au said:

The thing with salt is that it reproduces chipping really well, but it doesn’t do a good job at representing abrasive wear such as at the wing roots. I reckon you might be able to blend it though, with silver pencil and/or dry brushing.

 

Good thinking on both fronts.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, sponge, pencil, whatever... a gentle application of a fibreglass scratch pen (other names available) to a top coat, exposing the ones underneath is what's needed. Indispensable weathering tool, great for adding a bit of 'grip' when painting photoetch and darn handy if you're into electronics or tiny machines. Even I can make mine work well enough that the results aren't terrible. 

 

Here's one I found earlier, get yours from somewhere closer to home. 

 

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/324506319514?

 

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Rob G said:

a gentle application of a fibreglass scratch pen

Another top tip, but for enamels only I think.

Used on acrylic may give the impression of peeling or heavily abraided paint rather than high use wear.

(I say may because I have not tried myself)

Box On

 

Strickers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, HAMP man said:

Another top tip, but for enamels only I think.

Used on acrylic may give the impression of peeling or heavily abraided paint rather than high use wear.

(I say may because I have not tried myself)

Box On

 

Strickers

 

It works on the Japanese acrylics (ie the 'acrylic lacquers' from Tamiya and GSI) but I don't use the water based poster paints from Vallejo, MIG and their ilk, so I can't comment there. However, Mr PC is a confirmed enamels user, so the tool may be of some use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ID stripes are on!

 

52030283221_9ccd0db9eb_k.jpgPXL_20220426_002204422 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I used Tamiya flat white, because I had some on hand, and unusually for me, it behaved quite well -- I generally find Tamiya extremely finicky. 

 

Unfortunately, in my haste to remove the masking tape, my eager, trembling fingers caused it to brush one of the freshly painted stripes:

 

52030531649_f79af3b496_k.jpgPXL_20220426_002102556 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Glargh. Haven't decided whether it'll become "weathering" or be fixed when I spray the spinner and the flaps.

 

52030315928_8d2089c6ce_k.jpgPXL_20220426_002050912 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

The landing gear doors fit perfectly in the bays, which made painting the stripes on them child's play.

 

52030315888_6878db8c43_k.jpgPXL_20220426_002037366 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

There is a slight irony in it being so easy to build the aircraft wheels up, but so difficult to get the flaps up. Oh well. 

 

Today was my first full working day back in the office since March of 2020, though mercifully it'll only be one day a week for now. It was very strange to be back in Chicago, a city I don't particularly like. On the plus side, I learned that we can now work 100% remote in any of the surrounding states. As virtually every non-coastal US state is cheaper to live in than Illinois, this is important information. I've asked Mrs P to look for teaching jobs in other states, but her main strategy to make our money go further seems to be that I should just find another, better-paying job. I've gotten promoted three times since we've gotten married, however, and she's doing the exact same thing she was then, so maybe it's someone else's turn to do something for our family aside from heedlessly expanding it.

  • Like 21
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I used Tamiya flat white, because I had some on hand, and unusually for me, it behaved quite well -- I generally find Tamiya extremely finicky. 

I use it almost exclusively now, if you need tips or help with them in the future let me know ? 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Stew Dapple said:

That's beautiful mate, and, well, I hate to bring it up, but couldn't you have saved yourself a job by doing the tail stripes at the same time? :) 

 

GOD DAMMIT

  • Haha 19
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel your pain, Edward.  Back in the dim, half-forgotten days of Iast year, I finished a P-51B bashed from Academy and Hasegawa parts.  The scheme eventually chosen called for invasion stripes; I figured that since the prototype had markings applied before the stripes it made sense to do it that way myself.  This was incorrect.  Oaths most foul were sworn, composure was regained, decals were replaced.  Then I discovered I got the stripes on the flaps (conversely to your struggle I'd cut off and dropped them) canted outboard, and that's when the screeching tard-rage began in earnest.

 

My point, stupid though it may be, is that I never get the paint right in one go and usually it takes three or four back-and-forth rounds to be satisfactory enough to invoke the FIDO rule.  I've even won bloody awards with such crudely cobbled assemblages!  

 

I so rarely get it right the first time I've learnt to strive for "right enough, eventually."  Endeavour to persevere.

  • Like 6
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Procopius said:

Glargh. Haven't decided whether it'll become "weathering" or be fixed when I spray the spinner and the flaps.

Looks very much like a boot mark of an armourer or rigger that has slid down the wing, leave it, adds character.

 

Box On

 

Strickers

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, Grant has spent all day vomiting -- retching, really -- at thirty minute intervals with such consistency that you could set your watch by him. No modelling tonight, I'm packing my things to abandon my family and start a new life elsewhere.

 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 5
  • Sad 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Killingholme said:

 

Is that a representation of "oil canning" effect in the area around the radiator intake?!

 

Will

 

Yes. It's really amazing the level of surface detail they've managed.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Killingholme said:

Wow. I'd consider buying this kit, but I'm worried it would sit in the stash for years until I felt myself worthy of building it!

 

Will

It honestly goes together very nicely. I'm certainly not letting my limited skills stop me, and the kit doesn't seem bothered by them either.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Procopius said:

It honestly goes together very nicely. I'm certainly not letting my limited skills stop me, and the kit doesn't seem bothered by them either.

Basically this is my approach to both modelling and parenting.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Win dropped trou at school yesterday in front of all of his classmates, and the school administrator sent a nastygram to Mrs P about it. She doesn't send them to me, ever, even though I'm two minutes away and can actually come get him, possibly because she can detect my simmering, near-pathological hatred for petty bureaucrats in positions of power over small children and my natural crypto-authoritarian's aversion to anyone else getting to tell people what to do. However, in this case she would have been on safer ground, because the only thing I hate more than her is public nudity. When Win got home, he knew he was in trouble, and in for experiencing the greatest punishment of all: my undivided, undiluted attention. Like many children who know they done fouled up, he does not like to be looked at when being talked to, and so we had to use The Talking Box.

 

52034929054_c84f31d490_k.jpgPXL_20220427_200143538 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I explained to Winston that punishment was only a tool: the goal was that he understood what he did wrong, and didn't do it again. If I can get that without the punishment [he so richly deserved], then that works for me just as well. BUT if I need to punish him to get that result, well: so be it. Hopefully nobody else is exposed to his block and tackle for another twenty or thirty years. I've begun showing him 1970s episodes of Doctor Who in order to ensure this is so.

 

Today I had a second interview for a social media manager position at a medical startup, which I think I totally bombed, but oh well. I was only ever planning on using any potential offer they made to leverage a raise out of my tight-fisted employer, maybe even -- dare to dream -- getting my pay to keep up with inflation. At least tonight I finally made it down to the grotto. 

 

I masked and airbrushed the tail recognition stripes and the flaps, as well as getting the spinner at the same time:

 

52036004912_6bd88d46ca_k.jpgPXL_20220429_012334515 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

52036004917_f8cdace090_k.jpgPXL_20220429_014151822 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

At this juncture I realized I'd forgot the little actuators for the inner undercarriage doors, which is a single U-shaped part. No problem! Buoyed by a confidence borne of ignorance, I ugga-duggaed it into position using simple tools (a pocket knife nail file) and boundless ignorance, a winning combination that was 110% successful in this instance.

 

52037563980_ac79f30c8b_k.jpgPXL_20220429_024501398 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Hopefully tomorrow night we'll have time for a gloss coat and to start thinking about (ulp) weathering.

  • Like 18
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm intrigued by the Talking Box thing,.. is that a real thing or just something you made up for your own amusement and thought you might try to see if you could get away with posting it without any of us suspecting a damn thing? It's not that it's a bad idea - I may well insist upon one next time I have to have a one-to-one meeting with my manager - just that it's something I'd never heard of, and you dropped it in to your post so casually as if everybody would have already known what it was and... well look, forgive me Edward, I'm 10 minutes awake and not even halfway into my first coffee so would be a pretty good candidate for fooling but... at least one enquiring mind needs to know :D 

 

Oh and that Mustang is looking soooo sweet B) 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

I'm intrigued by the Talking Box thing,.. is that a real thing or just something you made up for your own amusement and thought you might try to see if you could get away with posting it without any of us suspecting a damn thing? It's not that it's a bad idea - I may well insist upon one next time I have to have a one-to-one meeting with my manager - just that it's something I'd never heard of, and you dropped it in to your post so casually as if everybody would have already known what it was and... well look, forgive me Edward, I'm 10 minutes awake and not even halfway into my first coffee so would be a pretty good candidate for fooling but... at least one enquiring mind needs to know :D 

 

It was entirely of Winston's own invention. His shame was so great that he couldn't bear to be looked at, or to look upon me in return. As I've said before, there is unfortunately nothing wrong with him that wasn't wrong with me, and the impulse is not unfamiliar to me. I'm hoping on his way to the top of the university bell tower, he remembers my boundless love for him as a child and heads back down the steps.

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...