1to1scale

Lol, yes staying at home has me doing crazy things...like fixing the screening door, cleaning the garage, vacuuming, laundry, gardening...crazy stuff. in reality, being cooped up with two defiant elderly in-laws and a 6 yo, makes for stress. Everyone gets cabin fever and tensions are high. Even the dog is getting cranky. My modeling time has decreased significantly, as my wife is now working from home, and took over my office, so I am considering moving my workbench to the garage. Damn, I really want things to go back to normal.

Scotch is not my choice, I prefer a quality Tequila...although I have a few nice bottles of Vodka hanging around, as any Polish man should, I do like the occasional Rum too. in reality, I probably only consume a few ounces of spirits a month.

I love it!

Maybe you can give us a rundown on what parts you think should be replaced? By the way, have you seen the whole mess of new resin parts that popped up on eBay for this plane?

Nice work! I love the subject you chose! I debated starting either my Tamiya VIII or IX recently, but started my Mustang instead, but your build is inspiring me, I may start my Spit as well...after all, no such thing as too many models in progress...

Not technically on my bench, but on my back porch, this is my first so far successful year (so far) of a raised bed garden. I could not plant in the ground because my dog is a digger and there are rabbits everywhere that even come onto our back porch, so it had to be elevated. We use a little indoor hydroponic grower to get the tomato plants to about 6” tall, then move them outside. I have a third set of plants ready to move to the garden, so far I have been getting things figured out, just hope they survive the frost this morning.

I have figured it out! you have a perfectly usable bench space on the left (outlined in red) for build projects, and on the right a space for either coffee or adult beverage (depending on time of day). Then you start by kicking the stuff on the floor away and access the chair (green arrow), pull out enough to squeeze in, and there you go...

What’s on my bench? The fleet of P-40's pissed me off last night, after another round of checks, I found shrinking filler and divots all over the seam lines, all of them. So I did what any mentally ill person does, I filled all the divots again. Then I put them away and started a new project.

Squirrels and nuts go together!

I have been ordering supplies fairly regularly here, while the one local hobby shop (mostly RC), chose to close when the shelter at home order was issued, the online hobby shops are all still on operation. I have been keeping SB and Scalehobbyist.com busy with orders. I am also taking a new approach that I am buying things I may need in the future, I now have 3 1/2 bottles of extra thin glue. And I am buying any paint I might need for anything I might build.

I stopped using the 40mm, I just get 2 rolls of 20mm now.

Very nice!

I just ordered on a few minutes ago. I am interested to see how you tackle the insignia on the corrugated wings. I am considering ordering the masks, but I’m not sure they would work on that surface.

It’s all about how you approach it. Different than the P-40’s I just took the approach that I didn’t care about 100% accuracy, and I didn’t care about damaging any surface detail, I also used parts I already had. I have purchased a few lots of 15/17 Mig kits and parts others never started. I think I had a total of maybe $40 into this kit, I had the cockpit, canopy, masks, resin tires, and brass barrels. So, to. Me this was a learning project, and while I failed to achieve what I wanted, I did learn that you should never use a water wash over chipping fluid, I also learned that you should never use oils for streaking, and I learned not to be afraid of trying. And, I am happy with my plastic work on this model, so I am most likely going to strip it down to plastic and repaint it, so I am not too disappointed. After all...I ruined the finish on my Corsair, stripped it, and won my category in a regional show, so maybe this will work out in the end.

here is great build article I came across https://modelartca.wordpress.com/2019/04/02/tamiya-132-f-4c-phantom/

Thanks, he is 6 and mostly prefers cars, but tanks also interest him because he can blow up his Lego men. Planes are sort of low on his list, and Star Wars is totally a no interest subject. I know, I wanted to get a paternity test, but the wife got mad. I make it a point to watch the series every year, he won’t watch 2 minutes of it. I might try a couple of Meng tanks and maybe a plane to see if he is interested, he does like the shark tooth P-40, so maybe we start there.

Unfortunately, this is where the story takes an ugly turn. I decided to seal the model with a lacquer clear, specifically Testors dullcoat sprayed through an airbrush. I for some reason forgot I used chipping fluid, and decided to use a water/clay wash. Yup, it reactivated the chipping fluid and left large patches without any weathering and dullcoat. I decided to try to reapply the XF-19 and carry on, using oils. Instead of using streaking ENAMELS, I used rust OILS, and tinted the model a nice shade of desert salmon. Because we all know the deserts in Poland are pink. this is the patch effect the clay wash gave, the dark areas are where the clay stained the paint, and the light patches are where the finish came off down to the first coat of paint. in the following photos, I decided to strip the model and and started by using Madea Airbrush cleaner, and the oils started wiping off! ultimately, it ended up like this, which is vastly better. Since it’s going to most likely require a reprint of at least the wings, I am going to try some other weathering techniques. I don’t have any pictures, but I was playing with snow effects, which after a couple different tries, I am not satisfied with. Next I may try some moss and leaves. Although if I’m not truly happy, it’s going to be a full strip and respray.

Here is where things get tricky. This whole build was an experiment in weathering, I knew what I wanted to do, but didnt know how to do it, so I figured if chipping worked for paint, why not aluminum. I covered it in chipping medium and sprayed XF-19 Tamiya paint all over in a splotchy pattern, the color is a close match to oxidized aluminum. Then I used stencils for a Polish plane. next came weather and brush chipping, so far, so good.

Favorite primer, Stinylrez Black, the only primer that fixes my f-ups. vallejo aluminum and dark aluminum.

Added Lone Star cockpit and Squardon Canopy. I originally intended this to be an abandoned aircraft with a cracked canopy and leaves in the cockpit, but liked it so much, I just left it as heavily weathered. fit of the resin cockpit was perfect, nothing cut or sanded off. Wish Lonestar still made these, I would buy a few more.

A lot of riveting happened. I did not add any new scribing.

It has been many moons since I technically finished this kit, and I did manage to make a nice kit out of a pig. Mostly I used good old modeling techniques. A lot of sanding and fitting took care of problem areas, and finally a little filler. A little sanding improved fit. Vastly improved fit with sanding sticks right wing sanded to fit left wing as trumpeter gave us. wing glued, a little acrylic filler to smooth it in.

The ladder and folded wings add a bunch of drag too...

I was looking for some help, my son is bored and I was hoping to get him a snap-tote model we can put together, however, the selection of snap-tite are significantly smaller than when I was a kid. So I was considering an egg plane, but found there are a few manufacturers, and some look more advanced. I am hoping to stay away from glue, but would be willing to help with paint and decals (stickers?). I know that a lot of guys build these and want to know which ones are the easiest and most durable (play). Any opinions?

Making progress, two are fully ready for paint, the other 3 need some scribing and rivet restoration. I think there are a few pinholes in filler that need to be dealt with.