Clunkmeister

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.

I’d like to get it to Madison, time allowing. But I can’t compete with it as I’m not the sole builder.

The tail was in multiple parts, but they fit together well enough. The tail is extremely wobbly, and I’m thinking of re rigging with mono line to add strength.

A started unreleased O/100. Being that this officially doesn’t exist, after the PBJ is finished, this will be immediately put on the bench.

Several months ago, a very good friend of mine, Mike Swinburne, broached the subject of me taking over the finishing of an incredibly rare model, one with the possibility of only three or four complete sets of sprues in extant. Back in 2018, Mike had been asked to do a pre production build of the big O/100, and he undertook that task with gusto. His work was well documented on several modeling sites, and he was asked to build the kit “out of the box”, to serve as Wingnuts website build demonstrator. After Wingnuts ceased operations, the build languished, and eventually, it got packed away and forgotten. I have been actively pursuing a set of the unstarted Sprue sets with little success, but several months ago, Mike broke it to me that this model was mine if I would do two things: 1. Finish it 2. Show it at the IPMS USA Nats. I also made it known that after it was finished on the show circuit, I’d find a suitable aviation museum to display the model. Locally, we have the Confederate Air Force B-29 and B-24 Squadron, the Frontiers of Flight Museum, and the Cavanaugh Air Museum. The Cavanaugh has a family connection. I have the honor of finishing this, so I’ll oblige. First observations are that Mike’s quality of work is second to none, and that this is so big, it makes the Felixstowe look like a 48 scale model. Right now, I’m going to simply repair the shipping damage to the biplane tail and the undercarriage. Then, I shall set it aside and continue with my PBJ.

Out of the big styrofoam sarcophagus

He’s pulled through. Apparently talking up a storm

Harv went in for a routine gall bladder surgery yesterday, and he coded. They brought him back, but he then had a seizure. He’s now unresponsive. I pray that his way forward is easy.

The fear is real. A #11 to the tender tootsies is no laughing matter

I received a big styrofoam box today…. Must check to see what box contains. It’s not ticking….

I used rubber black there, Peter. I’m thinking 66 would be a better choice. 66 has always been my “go to” black, and maybe there’s a reason. LOL

Gus, this is looking amazing! Just catching up on your build. I’m glad your micro chisel wasn’t a macro chisel…. I bled all over my hobby room floor after my a #11 blad and handle rolled off my bench and went straight down into the top of my foot. It ruined a good pair of socks, and Joy was unimpressed with the level of copious arterial bleeding. She told me to suck it up, be a man, and mop up the mess before it strainers her wood flooring.

Using styrene strips is the only durable way to attack that permanently. Shape it before you glue it.

Everybody builds 8-Ball when building this kit as a Marine gunship, but Love Bug, to me, is the quintessential USMC crate. Two brothers were the Commanders of the two crews, and this airplane was operating every day, each crew alternating duty. When she went in, it was due to faulty execution by leadership, not due to the lack of bravery of her crew. The decals given by Profimodeler are 100% completely useless. The kit is necessary to get the resin parts, though, so yes, you still need to grab the conversion if you aren’t into scratchbuilding.

Not much has been happening here. Fuselage stars freshly painted, they need toning down. The nose has about 10 coats of slightly different shades I’m hoping a few very light passes with 15000 grit will give some interesting effects. I might be hoping for too much. Guys, I’m still really undecided on the hard edges. I believe they were hard edge demarcation lines, but field painting probably changed much of that, especially on the lower edges. Plus, the black backgrounds on the fins are much too stark. Tomorrow, out comes the RLM 66 Thoughts? Still at it, but car show season is upon us…..

Update: nose art WAY out of scale. Wrong size, wrong font, wrong everything. So they’re off