Clunkmeister

Funny thing. We got baseball sized hail, and my neighbor’s car looks like a golf ball, but my old diesel 3/4 ton Ford work truck, tow vehicle, and drive around truck all look like new. It’s kind of unnerving. Ford sure knows how to build TOUGH trucks.

Yesterday was hot and humid, but generally decent. Until about 2100 when a single supercell formed west of us. Sirens going constantly, Joy, our nieces, and myself got into our storm cellar. But this killer storm dropped two funnels, one right towards us, and one about a half mile south. The southerly one chewed up several towns over 60 miles, the one coming at us had been on the ground 40 miles, then lifted about 3 miles before us, passed overhead, and set back down a mile after us. I’m stunned. Earlier yesterday I had a tingly feeling. I took the old cars to my shop 40 miles southwest, and put the O/100 in the gun safe…. A couple thousand pounds of steel bolted to the floor. All wasn’t good though. Our Church building took a glancing blow and it tore off the front of the building. We have lots of work head of us.

It’s a slow, slow process.

It’s on the list. The 45th pretty much not only invented, but perfected the tactic of low level B-25 operations, to devastating effect.

I just grabbed one from Sprue Brothers. A Quick Look tells me that it’s the best B-26 in any scale. It makes me hungry for one in the One True Scale. 1/32

On a PTO kick lately, and I expect it’ll continue…. I love the twin engined mayhem distributors. I’m thinking a J version with the 345th BG might be in the works. tons of amazing nose art for these. Almost as good as the B-24s

Thanks Carl! Now I just need to learn to attach, mask and fill canopy before painting. Less seam work that way…

I guess I should have opened this. maybe I still should.

And the wings now wait their turn to get tore up. Crazy how newly sprayed Non Spec Sea Blue looks compared to the top of the fuselage.

Rear fuselage is looking just great.

Cut out the sliding side glass. A bit of a job, but then I polished it and dipped it for that perfect clear look.

Carl, that second pic looks like the sun is flipping you off!

Cool to see. Had about 3 minutes of totality. Be quick on your camera as it comes and goes quick

No joke, I’ve had a couple oddball weirded out folks here already. Odd….. it’s started.

There is plenty of pastel in the gun opening which will simply blow away tomorrow

But fear not, a touch of water and alcohol washed away our sins… Starging afresh. Well now let this sit overnight and re-examine it tomorrow evening. If I like it, we’ll seal it, then round the edges and give it a bit of depth. Earlier today, I mixed up some ANA 606 semi gloss sea blue for leading edges and such using Sea Blue XF-17, Flat Blue XF-8, Neutral Grey XF-53, and Gloss clear in the Tamiya range…

Kinda looks like it had a fire onboard.

Hello again, folks! After peering at what I had done so far compared to what few pictures of Love Bog showed, I thought it needed a tiny bit of darkening around the big gun, so I grabbed my trust pastels and did a “minor” course correction, being unwilling to leave well enough alone. The result reminded me of that scene in one of the “Airplane!” Movies where the lady was applying lipstick in the lavatory right as the big bird hit turbulence. Thankfully, I do this sort of work in pastels, sealing with clear between steps, so the black and dark grey washed right off. LOL Here is your cringe worthy moment of my build….

Mike, this is absolutely mind blowing phenomenal work, man! Incredible job on a not so basic kit. I’m soaking it all up in droves. Crikey!

Weathering and trashing it according to the few pictures out there. My mind screams TOO MUCH! The available historical evidence says NOT ENOUGH! The front of these was BLACK from gun powder residue. It blew back in uneven waves.

Martin’s files arrived and we ran a quick spray on the numbers. The correct font, finally! And doing some work on the cowls. Now, weathering, exhaust stains, and major chipping on the wings and engine nacelles.

The camo works. Against the background clutter, it’s invisible on my bench

Paint but kit roundels. The big fuselage letters are purposely semi transparent. Some serious research here…

The quality of work is amazing, but I’ll do some more subtle weathering and try to take it to the next level. Being that I’m not constrained by having to abide by Wingnut demands, I’m going to change a few things. Like that I pinned the tail struts for extra strength, and will re rig the structural rigging on the tail with mono line. The center section seems quite solid.