GazzaS

Coming along very nicely

That green looks great, Kai. I imagine you'll be looking forward to the last color and peeling off all of that tape.

Thank you, my friends! As promised, another update. This Revell kit and associated AM keep giving. Yes... giving me the 🖕. Anyway... here we go. The first thing I did today was glue in the cheek pieces. I then modified the front end of the Barracuda resin pieces that will hold the MG 151's using CA and a piece of white card. The ensuing problem was discovering that the cheek pieces were overly wide at the top: To combat this, I glued a piece of sprue to each side, just a little bit shorter than the distance of the gap. Tomorrow, once everything is dried, I will squeeze the the sides together, and then clamp the pieces of sprue with forceps.... then I will apply some Tamiya extra thin and let it dry. Next up was the Barracuda upper wing beulen... or bulges. After I glued in the glycol radiators, I dry fitted the parts. Sadly, the port wing profile was too different from the Revell fuselage. Even worse, three corners did not mate up with the wing or fuselage. So... those parts were wasted money. I had to tear off the radiators and glue them to the it part... whose bulges are facing the wrong way. My new task was to reshape the beulen using black CA and baking powder. After much sanding and shaping... thank goodness for the electric toothbrush sander. It really takes the tedium and time out of these tasks. ...the hard part about 'liquid detailing' is that you often end up with tiny irregularities. So, I used un-thinned Tamiya paint as both primer and overnight filler. n Finally... I gave the 109 her purposeful grin. It took a little internal fettling, but eventually the resin oil cooler slid over the kit parts. And the adjustable airflow gill/flap: There are some notable gaps with the cheek pieces. I will fill those spaces with acrylic filler and then wipe off the excess. This should render them less noticeable. C'mon Zoukie-Moura... bring out that accurate 109!

Hi everyone! Hopefully only the first update today... Anyway... Two of our pilots are being sent on leave. When you next see them...in a future build, hopefully they'll have nice, angular faces on new heads. Meanwhile... Herr Weiroster gets the second phase of oils... the red-brown phase. I'm going for subtle shading here. During the center pic, the camera didn't auto-flash. The out pics were taken when the auto-flash activated, though I put my free hand in front of the flash bulb. Tomorrow, I hope to do the blue phase.

Holy sheep dip... that is some awesome work!

Thank you, Peter. These self-imposed extras have really impeded my ability to complete kits. But what is a hobby without improvement? That would be ok if the were as old as Mr.Lindemann. But being young fellas who mostly grew up during the depression era... You are welcome, Kai. The translation was using Google translator. But I've put the phrase into my brain. The pilots are from this boxing: But honestly... the more I look at them, the more I hate the outer two.

Thanks, Rob. I'm laughing about 'potato'. The center guy is ok... just. but the other two... may have to get new heads.

Holy moley... that's some awesome roundel painting! Great lesson.

Nice masking! This will be an epic paint job!

Well Kai... I hope this isn't a let down. Thank you for the kind thoughts. Thank you, Peter. Meine Herren, treffen Sie meine Herren! Gentlemen, meet my Gentlemen. Did google get that right? Here are the three pilots in question after the first layer of oils. This is just burnt umber blended over Tamiya Flesh. These guys are all very broad faced. Not something I'm a fan of... I may have to start investing in other heads. Honestly, I think most sculptors have no idea how to make a narrow face with fine details. Remember WNW's Richthofen? He looked more like Robert Shaw than himself: Anyway... a while ago, a guy on FB posted a bit of a guide. I was just a picture of where to stick paint, and how it should appear once blended. What it didn't say was how long it should take to do it. I mean... how long can it take to paint something smaller than your pinkie finger nail? But it has finally dawned on me that you have to paint in stages, letting each layer/color dry so that you don't mess it up with the next layer. So... just one layer tonight. Here is the guide image: Anyway... come learn with me.

Rog, Happy you got good kits.

I started modelling today with the goal of finishing the exhausts and associated metal shields and applying the first layer of oil paints to the pilots face. But before I realized it, I was cementing both halves of the fuselage together. So I didn't get to apply any oils to the pilots.... I say "pilots" because I'm going to do three pilots at once so I can have them ready for future builds. Anyway... Adding the Brassin shields was a big hassle. The kit shields aren't overly thick, and might have been thinned by sanding. Anyway... I annealed them so that they wouldn't fight the CA and because I had to put a curve in the port upper. And then the resin exhaust stubs gave a bit of trouble. They just didn't want to stick without clamping for some reason. At the end, I wanted to test the fit of the clear parts. Fortunately they didn't show any bad gaps or overlaps. In any event... it was seven hours of work with only a small advancement in the build. The only real fly in the ointment is the filling that will be required behind the oil cooler where the Barracuda resin cowling piece meets... note the red arrows.

Ummm.... cars... yeah

Wow. Peter those breather areas are stunning! Really happy to see how well this is going together.

Totally awesome, Gus!

Excellent masking and painting, John. Flawless!

Perhaps I should find someone who makes masking tape in 74/75/76?

That's an impressive man cave.

I'm not afraid to pay more for a better kit. But I don't feel like I have to buy it now. After recalculating my build rate, I may have 7-10 years of kit there. I used to build a lot more 1/48 single engined fighters... but only have a handful left. So, I've slipped from a dozen kits a year to about 8.

Not much time for modelling this weekend. Though I am happy to have the stash room sorted. I removed all of the pouring blocks and trimmed the resin parts. Then I decided it might be prudent to dry fit all of the parts, excluding the heat shields and exhaust stubs. Hopefully you can make out the parts despite the bits of blue tape. The fit seems ok so far. Finally I glued the spar to the cockpit tub. Happy modelling!

Fabulous engine!

Definite improvement, Kai. A little variation goes a long way.

Thanks, Carl. Well... It's chock full of detail. I hope to use it during a build some day. I tried reading it, but it's really too technical for that. Some people consider it the panther 'bible'.

Yeah, I'll have to deal with it when I get there. Dragon's biggest mistake was using that stuff.