Peterpools

John Looking so good and mighty smooth. Looking forward to seeing Miss Bardahl in her marks .. has the decals been shipped yet?

Enjoy!

Phil Looking mighty good. Alway a good feeling to reach the paint booth stage in a build, as for me, it's the mid point and you're now on the back stretch and time to start thinking about the next build possibilities.

Phil Looks mighty good and keep going❗

Phil That darn black cloud keeps following us were ever we are in our builds. I suffered through cracking decals on two of my last four builds and feel your pain. Seems older kits, decals have suffered way too many heat/cold cycles while on the shelves, taking its toll and the hardest yet; a double compound curves surface - a tough combination. A "patch' that might work is using a stronger setting and softner solution such as Mr Setter and Mr Setter and very warm soak water. Other then that, I would consider a paint mask set which would handle the situation a lot better and hopefully save you from stripping the Wildcat back to bare plastic.

Thanks Paul, much appreciated. Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.

Thanks John Fun part is over - painting and decaling and now it's back to the grind. The biggest plus, I can finally see the finish line.

Hi Rick Thanks for checking in. SH's Whirlwind sure has been a test of will and even considering it's a limited run kit, it's just so hard to understand why they seem to over complicate the things. I've been frustrating myself to no ends working on the landing gear (the last assembly hurdle) and after reading how much the Tempest gear was a mojo killer, seems the same set of designers/engineers figured out how to do the same with the Whirlwind. They just seem to have a knack over overly complicating assembly steps. After you finish the He100, would be a treat to see you tackle the Whirlwind ... I'll surely be on board for the journey.

Thanks Phil, very much appreciated. I'm not really a weathering guy but I am planning on doing a bit of bleaching and maybe some grime in the panel lines. Right now I'm struggling with the landing gear as I feared - just way to finicky and it could have been designed to be installed a lot easier. Hopefully by Friday I'll be adding all the small, end of build parts and ready to move on.

Thanks Mike, greatly appreciated. Finally in the home stretch and truthfully can't wait for the Whirlwind to cross the finish line as it's been a struggle from the start. Looking forward to my next build at this point; the GWH P-40B.

Thanks Gaz, finally something on the kit that was relaxing to do.

Thanks Kev Yup, a good looking crate, tough as nails and except for the decals has been a fight all the way. I've been working on the main gear and who ever deigned it kit wise, I'm convinced went out of their way to make this portion of the build as finicky and troublesome as possible.

Thanks Carl, finally something that was enjoyable and went without a hitch. Hoping to build. paint and install the gear over the next few days and then the home stretch. Can't wait to get going on the P-40.

Gus Nice start on the Jug and looking forward to following your progress. The front office looks mighty good.

Gaz Nice change of plans and the figures in this set look perfect for the 109 dio.

Thanks Dennis, much appreciated. At this point, I'm close to the home stretch and ready to tackle the landing gear which seems to be the most finicky part of the build. Once the gear assembly is and installed, all that should be left is finishing up the loose ends.

John terrific work on the front office. I've been wanting to try the Fine Mols Seatbelts and might just use them for the P-40. Can you point me in the right direction to order a few sets?

DECALING DONE Finally enough progress for an update with the decal application done, test fitting the props and hubs and the Alclad Kleer Kote Semi Matte top clear coat is done. It’s time to move onto the main gear – I’ve been putting this off as long as possible – as at this stage I don’t have that much confidence in them – hopefully I’m worrying about nothing. Finally trimmed out and flying straight and true. A rare day for sure in the saga of the Whirlwind build. Decals are by Cartograf, absolutely perfection in color and registration. Perfect! Prep work was two silky smooth coats of Tamiya LP-9 Lacquer Clear Gloss thinned out with Mr Color Self Leveling Thinners. First coat at 50/50 and the second coat was 60/40, thinner to paint. I did manage to scratch the left upper engine cowl with the air brush quick disconnect fitting and a bit of repaint was needed- done and finished. No issues at all as the decals went down perfectly using the Micro System. While the Whirlwinds skin was super smooth, the decals adhered perfectly and I didn’t encounter any slipping or sliding as I did with the Tamiya’s decals on the Spitfire. l careful removed all the clear carrier film around each of the six large fuselage letters, applying them individually – wanting to minimize any chances of the carrier film showing when viewing on an angle to the camera. Care needs to be followed on applying the roundels on the undersides of the wings, as the port and starboard are not the same. I am assuming that RAF practice of the day specified different roundels on black and Sky underwing wing surfaces. Lastly, one last clear gloss to seal the decals and then the final clear coat of Alclad Klear Kote Semi Matte ALC312. I tried something new for me – a bit of light weathering adding some light brown in the green and visa vera. Might try some oils at the end. I also notices a bit of the canopy framing peeled when I removed the masking, so that’s another fix plus painting the front office sill.

Kev Completely agree - so many kits we now build have incredible details included as an OOB build and after closing up the fuselage halves and no removable panels included, all that detail is lost forever. Just rubs me the wrong way when the justification is the well-worn out: well, the builder knows it's there - so what! No one else can see the details when the model is in display case.

Gaz I like the idea of the dio/vignette but the standing figure knowing the pilot is climbing out of his airplane, should be facing the cockpit and looking up at the exiting pilot. He might also have a little more friendly look. Just my two cents worth.

Kev Nice detail painting on the cockpit walls and floor. The kit details look quite good.

Chris Really like the effect of the Flory Light Weathering Wash as it toned down the cammo paint on the wing, replicating the effects of sun and weather so very well. Always nice to see techniques being tried that we can all use and added to our technique tool kit. .

Gaz Nice progress in adding the missing small details. I wonder why Revell included them and ZM chose not to. The front office weathering looks so good and very convincing.

Rob Sounds as the perfect mix of vacation and some family business. Just enjoy and enjoy.

Rob Same here and I'm chomping at the bit to get going on mine - maybe in a week as I just finished decaling the Whirlwind and I'm closing in on the finish line.