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

[Stew Dapple]

That's pretty resourceful  ... and I'm sure your efforts to ensure your children grow up into decent human beings will not be in vain mate, because it's important to you  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[HAMP man]

8 hours ago, Procopius said:

 

PXL_20220429_024501398 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

That is:

a) Some mean brush work on the stringers

b) Shiney shiney stuff on the actuator arms (what do you use?)

c) Rock steady, pin sharp, close up work (what do you use?

d) The most genius use of a cardboard box I have ever heard of, demonstrating an intellect for looking at life from a wholely unique position. They say acorns don't fall far from the tree.

 

Thread drift alert, just acquired a Dora Wings Lysander, so re read your missive, any thoughts on a re-start?

 

Box on

 

Strickers

            

[Killingholme]

I wouldn't worry. Part of growing up is finding that happy median between hiding in a box and exposing yourself to strangers.

[Procopius]

1 hour ago, HAMP man said:

 

That is:

a) Some mean brush work on the stringers

b) Shiney shiney stuff on the actuator arms (what do you use?)

c) Rock steady, pin sharp, close up work (what do you use?

d) The most genius use of a cardboard box I have ever heard of, demonstrating an intellect for looking at life from a wholely unique position. They say acorns don't fall far from the tree.

 

Thread drift alert, just acquired a Dora Wings Lysander, so re read your missive, any thoughts on a re-start?

            

 

a) I cheated and followed up with some Citadel silver paint to tidy up.

b) Alclad Aluminium.

c) I just used a  wash, but for close-in stuff, I have a cheap LED lamp/magnifier armature clipped to my bench.

d) He has moments of brilliance. He also whipped a toy at his brother (which is never a good idea, because Winston simply cannot throw accurately, unlike Grant, who excels at it) this morning and narrowly missed annihilating a television we very definitely cannot afford to replace.

 

I often think about restarting the Lysander. Part of what's holding me back is the fear that my skills have atrophied somewhat since then. It's easy to look good building only Arma kits and others of their ilk, but it's considerably harder to fashion something like the Dora Wings Lizzie into serviceable shape.  (I have a tiny bit of secret contempt for those infinitely superior modellers who only build the latest wonderkits; sure it looks nice, but it's like energy fighting in piston-engined aircraft: unworthy of a gentleman.) It was also a fairly traumatic experience for me to have gotten that far and then have it all ruined, and I kind of dread having to do all the gruntwork again. 

[HAMP man]

No cheat, as the result looks scale authentic even under extreme magnification. The Alclad aluminium looks different gravy, realy shiney, almost chrome.

 

I would consider following Winston,(not in a stalker way but on the twitter) he makes me hopeful and makes me laugh.

 

The re reading of The Night Believes It Is Endless, proves that you have a passion(a living flame) for your subject; skill levels whilst important are not the measure to judge a model in honour and remeberance of an act or deed, the object is a tool to inspire those thoughts. 

 

Box on

 

Strickers

 

 

[Procopius]

8 hours ago, HAMP man said:

I would consider following Winston,(not in a stalker way but on the twitter) he makes me hopeful and makes me laugh.

 

 

Having worked on Twitter for the last eight years, this comic perfectly sums up my feelings on it: https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2022/04/27/the-place-of-fire 

 

No son of mine will ever have an account on Twitter if they know what's good for them. The reputational risks simply aren't worth it 99% of the time.

 

8 hours ago, HAMP man said:

The re reading of The Night Believes It Is Endless, proves that you have a passion(a living flame) for your subject; skill levels whilst important are not the measure to judge a model in honour and remeberance of an act or deed, the object is a tool to inspire those thoughts. 

 

Thank you, and while I agree, I still want it to look nice, because I had a  special base made for it.

 

In any case, I managed to make it down to the grotto after falling asleep while lying in bed with Grant to try and get him to fall asleep, and promptly glossed the model. 

 

But as so often happens in my life, I got too excited, and did my business prematurely. Instead of waiting a seemly amount of time and applying decals, I decided I wanted to see if I could for once do a pin wash with oils and not totally mess it up.

 

I leave it to you to determine how badly I failed:

 

PXL_20220430_022117135~2 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220430_021850964 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220430_021900755 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220430_021843803 by Edward IX, on Flickr

[mark.au]

Erroneous comment removed.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2022 by mark.au
Misinterpretation of OP’s post

[Stew Dapple]

37 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I leave it to you to determine how badly I failed:

 

Er, is it my eyes, or is the answer not badly at all?

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, mark.au said:

How important is the model to you? If it is, respray.  If it isn't, repair.  I'm always puzzled as to why more of us don't use water based washes which cannot - providing sufficient care is taken - do the kind of damage seen above.

 

I was being somewhat tongue in cheek, as I thought it was serviceable, if not amazing. 

[mark.au]

44 minutes ago, Procopius said:

 

I was being somewhat tongue in cheek, as I thought it was serviceable, if not amazing. 

Oops.  It looked to my admitted tired eyes that the paint has bubbled and faded over the port wing root.  My apologies.

[Procopius]

43 minutes ago, mark.au said:

Oops.  It looked to my admitted tired eyes that the paint has bubbled and faded over the port wing root.  My apologies.

 

No worries! There was a little bit of salt still entombed there from earlier weathering efforts. It's since headed off to that great overseasoned volquetero in the sky.

 

Anyway, overcome by an excess of zeal, I went back and glossed again and...well...

 

Decals are on.

 

PXL_20220430_045646261 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

"Edward, you moron," I hear you all say, "surely you know Ding Hao had a Malcom hood?" And you'd be right! But fortune favours fools, for in fact, Ding Hao in the form of this aircraft (there were two) had BOTH styles of canopy, though obviously not at the same time. 

 

 

It had the shrouded exhausts (vice the unshrouded for the Malcom hooded iteration) and the white ID band on the tail, but was otherwise the same aircraft. So I just have to break out my dwindling supply of XF-2 and my post-its tomorrow night and sort this out!

[Brandy]

Looking very good indeed, definitely no failure there!

 

Ian

[Terry1954]

39 minutes ago, Brandy said:

Looking very good indeed, definitely no failure there!

 

Ian

 

Seconded!

 

Terry

[Fritag]

Thirded.  And that even tho’ it’s old news now I’ll belatedly add that I think the wheel bays look mighty impressive.

[Hamden]

 

An outstanding looking Mustang looking forward to seeing it completed now

 

      Stay safe           Roger

[Brandy]

Might not have been a bad plan to have done the pin wash AFTER adding the decals though.....just to save doing it again!

 

Ian

[The Spadgent]

On 29/04/2022 at 04:05, Procopius said:

110% successful in this instance.

 

PXL_20220429_024501398 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Well THAT!!! Looks bloody impressive. I can’t stress how pleasing I find that picture. Bravo.👏👏 As for salt weathering I know kids are a pain and as I’ve mentioned before “wait until they’re teens” but kids are a walk in the park compared to ……. “Salt weathering” 😱🙀

I tried it once or twice and never really got it to do what I wanted. Can’t remember if you use acrylics but this is a good option and you can use a cocktail stick to get the chipping you want.

Also I have come across this of late. I usually hate masking fluid but I used this on my silent running model and it’s been a real epiphany.

give ‘em a try if you find time, maybe they’ll work for you.

 

The OD on the early shots was sublime too. Cracking along at a pace dear boy. 

70s Dr Who you say. Can’t go wrong there, patenting 101. 😀 (Whhhhooorp Whhhhoorp Wwwwhhhooorrrp. )

 

 Johnny.
 

[Procopius]

I done screwed up.

I went to mask off the tail and paint the ID band on the tailfin, but I completely forgot to lay down another gloss coat over it. This was a big mistake, because I was using Tamiya XF-2, and as I noted, I hate Tamiya paint because it's so god damned finicky.

 

PXL_20220430_193552958 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

As you can see, it did its old trick of cracking on contact with any other paint. 

 

I'm spitting mad right now. Two atomic bombs were not enough. 

[HAMP man]

Deep breath, old chap, deep breath.

 

Box on 

 

Strickers

[Procopius]

PXL_20220430_200619039 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

PXL_20220430_200608358 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

OK. I think I can come back from this.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

50 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I done screwed up.

I went to mask off the tail and paint the ID band on the tailfin, but I completely forgot to lay down another gloss coat over it. This was a big mistake, because I was using Tamiya XF-2, and as I noted, I hate Tamiya paint because it's so god damned finicky.

 

PXL_20220430_193552958 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

As you can see, it did its old trick of cracking on contact with any other paint. 

 

I'm spitting mad right now. Two atomic bombs were not enough. 

Ive only seen this once before when its too thin, and as it dries it cracks. With XF or X Tamiya I use a mixe of 2:1 paint to thinner. With the new LP Lacquer’s or when I use Gunze or Hataka Lacquer its 1:1 mix. 

[Johnson]

29 minutes ago, Procopius said:

OK. I think I can come back from this.

 

Sure of it!

[dogsbody]

Another " Oh  ! " moment.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Procopius]

After some deliberation, I realized preserving the  decals on the tail would strain the utmost limits of my skills, so they were removed -- always buy two kits, kids! I sanded back to primer, and then decided: won't get fooled again. I broke out my Colourcoats Anti-Flash White and applied it to the model. Once it dries, we'll mask it off and spray the OD, then gloss, then decals, then more gloss, then oil, then perhaps a flat coat. Phew! What an annoying digression.

 

 

[Procopius]

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, my dad finally got a copy of my grandfather and namesake's discharge papers from the US Navy in 1946. He enlisted at the end of 1942, previously working for United Airlines I imagine at what was then called Chicago Municipal Airport and what is now known as Midway. He was an Aerographer's Mate 3rd Class, or a weatherman, and his first duty station was Fleet Air Wing-14, with the headquarters squadron, before being sent to the general pool of meteorologists at Pearl and thence to Midway, where he served out the rest of the war in blissful uneventfulness. Another glorious chapter in my family's martial history. After the war, Grandpa Eddie became a meteorologist with United, but quit to become a plumber shortly before getting married in 1946 or 47, much to the consternation of my grandmother. He was, however, an excellent plumber.

 

EDIT: After perusing the rather sparse entries held by NARA for HEDRONs 1 and 2 of FAW-14, it seems possible that my grandfather may have accompanied the first PB4Y-2 Privateers of VPB-118 from FAW-14 in San Diego to Peal Harbor and thence to Midway.  It certainly lines up with his movements as listed in his discharge papers, but the squadron history doesn't list any meteorological rates in its enlisted men, and I can't quite seem to access the war diaries. But if so, that's kind of neat.