DocRob

Thank you Kevin, Peter and Chris, I still think, I have to take some better outdoor pictures, but with the wind yesterday, it was impossible. The spinner masking with the circular template only worked, because these Quick Wheel masks have a thin flexible layer, which seals the circle completely. With metal or plastic mask, I think some paint would have seeped in. Maybe it's possible to use a very thin metal mask with liquid mask from behind. Cheers Rob

Some pics under bright sunlight. Unfortunately it is very windy, so no risky angles, the wicked woman would have gone airborne . Cheers Rob

Thanks again Peter, finally I got the spinners done. I used a mask for the return wheels of a STUG IV, made from soft plastic. Fixed from behind with a bit of force and adhesive tape: and then sprayed black and hooray, it worked: Cheers Rob

Thank you Chris, it was good to train the high shine finishes with my recent F1 Renault build as preparations. I feel much more confident now with NMF. Brass barrels are mostly a good addition, specially when patinaed, which gives the perfect look and you don't have color obscuring detail from the filigran barrels. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, in my eyes, the P-38 has the perfect shape for a polished aluminum surface, but I will do my earlier one in OD, but I think, I will rivet the -H as well. The decals made by Cartograph for Bombshell worked very well and luckily didn't need any strong solvents to lay down. The spinners are totally my fault. The parting lines would not be a real problem, but I have to paint the spinner front cone white (easy) and then paint the tip black (not so easy). I tried masking with flexible tape and masking fluid and failed, I tried to dip the peak into black color and failed again. I still have no solution to the problem, maybe I try a circular mask next. Cheers Rob

You put yourself into some situation with this build Peter. Who would have thought, a relatively recent release could be so bad in so many aspects. Looking at the last pictures, I think you mastered the worst and that should give you reason for satisfaction. The cockpit looks super bueno and I really like the old school effort, like Kevin mentioned. You can be proud about your achievements. Cheers Rob

Love it Carl, you should make a restauration project and start? smoking . Cheers Rob

After my vacations, finally an update. I tried to finish the P-38 and mainly did over the last days. The prop hubs with black and white parts gave me grieve and now I airbrushed them for the third time, very annoying. That's why they are not on the pics. I carefully applied the decals, which behaved very well and on the aluminum, you can barely see carrier film. The white pinstripes around the black nose panels, where a bit difficult to master, but thankfully the thin strips were robust enough not to tear. The stencils are not complete, but I don't know, if I apply the rest. There were quite a lot of differences, between the Tamiya decal plan for the stencils and the ones I used from Bombshell. I used only warm water with some drops of detergent, because I didn't want to spoil my surfaces with aggressive solvents. I painted the navigation and formation lights with clear colors, picked up some other details and then added the non weathered wheels only sprayed in one black shade, untypical for me. I used the kit wheels, flattened with a sanding stick, because my Ultracast wheels didn't look too good and the Eduard masks wouldn't have fitted. The barrels are made of brass by Master and got a treatment with a patinating liquid, which give a matte brown black look, which I find very convincing. Cheers Rob

Wow Martin, how terrible, we had something like that on my neighbor island for about a month. The fire destroyed 7% of the total area, luckily no houses or lives got wasted. Cheers Rob

Don't limit yourself Paul. It's not that hard and with some test mules and proper preparation, everything is possible. Cheers Rob

Some more speedy additions to m stash, direct from Japan and some decals from a Spanish vendor. First, a car, I don't like too much, a Fujimi BMW Z4 GT3 from Fujimi: ...but, when I saw these Michel Vailant reminescence decals from LB Productions, the deal was done. VROOAAW Again not my favorite motorcycle, but the extra decal sheet determined my choice: Some extras, Tamiya front fork set and Falcon Scale Models 3D-printed chain set. Spider man is coming, the famous Yamaha in Spidey livery driven by Marco Melandri. The decals are made by Renaissance Model and are printed in a glossy aluminum finish. Cheers Rob

I have another one in stash Carl, a 2017 Ford Fiesta WRC, but haven't built any of the Belkits. The plastic seems to be of good quality, as are the decals. The kits are very complete with PE and extra night light sets, but I don't like the look of the manuals too much. Time will tell, how they build up. The Ford Escort became rare over the years and right now, Belkits choose to do a re-pop. Cheers Rob

Some car related stuff arrived during my vacation. Belkit's Ford Escort, which fortunately got re-released. I love the bulky body of this small car and the kit is very complete, with RH or LH option, fabric seat belts, PE and Cartograph decals. There is no need for a lot of AM, except when you wish to have an engine. The Sauber Mercedes C9 is beginning to get a bit hard to find, at least with my possibilities. I found it in Japan and will add some details, when time comes. Last, a weird decal set for Tamiya's GT3 AMG Mercedes from Hobby Design. FOUR sheets of nicely printed decals, some in several layers. I have another crazy decal set for the same car, so maybe I make a duo build. I opted for the 2016 livery, because the more recent ones need a body transformation kit as well. Cheers Rob

Not only, PW. I was born and risen in West Berlin, so the typical cover art appealed to me. Can't remember the Ferret though, maybe because I lived in the American sector. Cheers Rob

Unlike Hubert, I like the powerful looking -J better, than the early models, with one exception Peter and this is yours. Again you build and painted a perfectly finished model which is pure eye candy. The decals are blended in completely and you have the right touch for a very convincing finish, scale wise. Sometimes, it feels so good to have such a Über-kit, where you can fully concentrate on the appearance. Perfect for me, as building is the most boring part through a project. Cheers Rob

Muchas gracias señhores, I used the experiences gained with my recently finished 1/12 Renault RE20 for the polished aluminum. The main goal was no more masking after the aluminum application. Therefore, anti glare panels nose area and wing and tail strips were airbrushed on before using aluminum. Masking was a bit more work, specially around the curved nose area. I chose a scheme without invasion stripes and selected the hopefully best quality decals from Bombshell, printed by Cartograph, because I want to work with lukewarm soap water only. The purpose of the build was to get the maximum possible shiny NMF as a challenge and secondly adding the rivets, of course Which went better than expected. The idea of having complete area covering decals instead of single rivets, which you have in the end with HGW's products for example, seems to work out, being less delicate to handle. @CANicoll I would do the riveting again, without doubt, Chris. The process is time consuming, but with good surface preparation, there are less difficulties than thought. I think my -G/H model of the P-38 will be without riveting, as I'm not sure, how they look under a dull OD coat, but maybe... Most of the clear parts were not polished and I used no Future bath this time, as clarity was very good. The aft clear canopy had a scratch , hey it's Tamiya, but it was there and it disturbed me. I used the Tamiya polish system with it's three different grains to get rid of that. Cheers Rob

The OneManArmy masks are fantastic products. well cut and super sharp. I used them on two builds now, a Tamiya Corsair and a Fly Arado 234. The Corsair was easier, because the stencils have only one color. With the Arado, it was laborous, because some stencils are multi colored and you have to cut the extensive walkways to size I really like, that national markings are included, as well as individual markings for some planes. The manual is well made and shows placing and orientation, as well as colors. There are worthy tips mentioned, like using transparent adhesive film as an adjusting aid, specially recommended on curved surfaces. The only negative aspect, beside the enormous masking effort needed (I‘m an overdpray coward) is, that the OMA webpage doesn‘t give you informations about what‘s included on the sheets. Cheers Rob

I‘ve built the Eduard Hellcat a while ago, using some goodies. It‘s a good fitting kit with lots of potential for enhancement, when wanted. The base kit is decently detailed and can be build oob as well. Cheers Rob

Thank you amigos, imho the best appearance for a P-38J. The shiny aluminum fits the sleek and powerful design best and yes, I wear gloves and sunglasses . Cheers Rob

I added a lot of bits and pieces, like landing gear, landing bay doors, counterweights, air intakes and the turbo chargers, which were sprayed with Alclad's exhaust manifold beforehand. Now there are only missing guns, props and wheels and foremost decaling of course, but this is for after my vacations. The canopy masks were removed and there is only one slight spot, where the paint fumes stained the clear part from the inside. I decided to close the canopy, because I don't like the looks of the open one, totally disturbing the slender shapes of the P-38 Interestingly, my Iphone was able to capture the shining Lightning better than my camera. Cheers Rob

Thank you Peter, the NMF looks spectacular, but there are some tiny flaws as well. I managed to overspray the fingerprint, I found and polished over it, to blend the color. There are tiny imperfections here and there, but in all, I'm satisfied with the outcome. The Quinta sets are good, better than most of the Eduard IP's ,but I prefer Yahu IP's, at least, when they are correct (not always the case) The belts look a bit like what they are, plastic. To be fair, without a macro lens and through the canopy they look ok. Cheers Rob

Thanks Martin, the look is even better to the real eye, I tried to capture it under different light settings, but got meh. Unfortunately, I found a fingerprint, which was hidden onto the base layer. I tried to rub it away with some chrome pigments, but failed. I will try to overspray the area gently. Cheers Rob

Came out great Kevin, I like the unusual markings and the mottling looks good too. Cheers Rob

Thank you Phil, you should do yourself the favor and build one. Some are available as re-pops with fantastic Cartograph decals. It's an interesting project for a change. Cheers Rob

It's getting serios now, with the gloss black base cured, it was time for the polished Aluminum, but not before I airbrushed the anti glare panels. I went the hard way of double masking, first the outside, to not spoil the gloss surface and after spraying Tamiya LP flat black, again the flat black areas in preparation for the polished aluminum. The mask for the front area was particular delicate and I used the bordering white decal as a master and marked the contour with a pen onto transparent foil. This was transferred onto a sheet of Kabuki and traced with a scalpel blade. Now I had a positive and negative mask for both sides. Masking of the matte black anti glare panels. Finished anti glare panels Everything was masked again (anti glare panels, wing stripes and tailwing stripes) and then sprayed the whole airframe with Alclad's polished aluminum, which I liked a little better than AK's after some testing. Similar to chrome finish, I carefully misted the polished aluminum on with a pressure of about 1 bar. There is a point, where the blackness of the base disappeared and after that the look will get worse. I had minimal amounts of overspray from the anti glare panels, also black, but barely visible (black on black ) , but the Alclad finishes a tiny bit different. I can'd o anything about it, but to remember, to have a absolute equal shiny base layer for future projects. The high shine polished aluminum is hard to capture, I tried it in the booth, on the bench and outside, but none of the pics comes close. I will try to capture better pics soon, but here is where I am. Cheers Rob