ScottsGT

Some of the frustrations. Looking at the rudder and vertical stabilizer the green goes down into the horizontal stabilizer. But the art drawings don’t match. Times like this is when I get frustrated and go kick my cat. I kid! I kid! I smack the dog instead. 🤣

I often wonder if I do everything the hard way. Spent yesterday’s bench time and probably half of today’s just taping up for the camo paint job. I took the decal sheet and blew up to pics 200% and 300% to cut out templates. laid out Tamiya 40mm tape and traced it. cut it out placed it on the model. Of course not all lines line up, so some fudge factor corrections are made. once I spray the brown, I’ll line them with ticky tack and cover with tape and spray the OD green. Im eating through my Tamiya 40mm tape like candy. Sprue has been out of stock for a while now. Amazon to the rescue. Three rolls are supposed to be here tomorrow, which means Saturday at the earliest or Monday.

Ah, I forgot that’s a resin body and not Diecast. Derp moment on my part. But my comment on epoxy primer, pardon the pun, really “sticks” here. LOL. I ran into the same issues building my Fisher Cutlass. The entire time all I could think was my next resin build will get a 1st coat of epoxy primer. Thankfully my son goes through gallons of this stuff with his 1:1 scale cars he builds. I’m going to get some bottles and have him pour me off some for my next resin build.

Rob, still looks great even with the setbacks. Concentrate on completion and ignore the boogers. Come back later and fix those. Don’t let them play a mind game with you. When I was an autobody tech/painter the hardest thing to learn during a paint job was if we hung a run in the paint was to ignore it and move on. There’s no fixing it in in the paint booth with wet paint. Focus on finishing the car as best as you can and address the little stuff later. If we let a run get into our head, the entire paint job could easily be ruined. Pro tip for your next metal model or anyone reading this that is planning on a metal project. DON’T USED PLASTIC MODEL PRIMERS AS YOUR FIRST COAT! Go get a self etching primer for metal. Even a cheap rattle can of automotive etching primer is 100X better for your base coat primer. If you cannot source it, we use to use etching fluid we would spray on bare metal and the wipe it dry with a clean cloth. I’m sure it’s probably a common chemical anyone can find. ( I think it’s copper sulphate) Another option, but not as effective is to completely sand the surface with a 220 grit sand paper (we used 80 grit on an DA sander on cars) and then prime it and build the primer up and sand smooth. The problem here though is primer can shrink over time and sand scratches will appear in the paint. Now the best option is an automotive etching epoxy primer. Highly toxic if you breathe it in, so a charcoal filter respirator is mandatory. And unfortunately it only comes in larger quantities than the modeler needs. If you have a bodyshop near by, stop in and see if they would be willing to sell you 2-3 oz of primer and the catalyst. It’s usually a 1:1 mix. Spray it on, let it sit 24 hours then spray on a primer on top to work out for paint. But being an epoxy, it’s just like glue. You’re gluing the primer to the metal with it as long as you stay within the recoat window.

What John said and the Hasegawa K is as rare as hens teeth. John, these things are like Lay’s Chips. Just can’t have one!

Just got back in country on a cruise. Still no movement. I got the phone number from another forum member on a different forum for Chicago Customs. Planning on calling them tomorrow.

Eduard masks for the B-25 J arrived from Australia. Packed safely with one packing peanut! And a set of decals I’ve been eyeing for a while now from Sprue. They went out of stock and I got notified back in stock and immediately ordered a set. I think I now officially have more F-16 decal options than kits.

Yea, I think I have 10 Phantoms and 6 F-16 kits. Of course I have all the AM and decals to option them out as well. And now it seems P-40’s are starting to build up. Thankfully at this time, most are in the display case built or almost there. I think in my stash all I have is the Trumpeter B. I do know at one time I still had a few of the old Revell kits. Built one and I swear I had an Aleutian Tiger kit, but for the life of me I cannot find it, nor do I remember selling it off. Irony is that years back I had two Hasegawa E kits in the stash. Someone was looking for one and I figured I’ll never need two of these and sold it. And last month I just bought one again and possibly another in the future. Go figure.

I literally cannot think of anything I would want to add to the stash. Of course I said that before I added the A-20 J/K, Stuka, Me 262, another P-40 to build as a K, Ming’s Ajax War Rocket, the Flying Pancake after seeing John’s build, Gee Bee R1/2…… See where this is going? I suffer from whims. Oh, speaking of. I will be adding a P-40N one day. Be it a full kit or convert an E from Tim’s parts. Oh wait….Isn’t Trumpeter bringing a Viking to market by the years end? Naa, I don’t want that. Or do I? Yea, I need to sell off some of my stash as well. I’ve got too many 1/48 C-130 kits, 1/48 helicopter kits and probably way too many Phantoms still in the stash.

Done with the bottom gray. I really don’t like a heavy preshade appearance. I walked a fine line here of completely covering up all of it. I think one the wash goes on it will hide it some more.

I’ve gotta make a Doctors appointment to get tested for Parkinson’s Disease. I can’t spray a straight line to save my life.

Ready to start putting down some paint! Going to preshade all the panel lines first. But leaving town Thursday and gotta get packed. So not sure how far I’ll get.

Sprue order. 3 days late thanks to the USPS. Was supposed to be Friday. Stuck in Philly with no movement until Saturday evening. I started looking at Eduard masks and found a lot have been discontinued or just cannot be found. These are for the B-25H and the A-20 J/K. I found a set for the B-25J on eBay from Australia. Should be here tomorrow. Everyone speaks highly of the Tamiya TS-80 so I thought I’d give it a try.

I folded. Couldn’t resist it any longer. 😁 Oh man, was it ever great! Now to be honest, I only ate half today. But won’t be nearly as good because the toasted crunch of the grilled cheese will be gone. But Mayo, mustard and ketchup with a pickle slice added.

Day 11 now. No movement. 😐

Nope. Looks pretty bad from what I see. Might as well box it up and ship it across the pond to me for disposal. 😇

Martin, any info on this one? I noticed no “splitters” on the intake.

Anyone else catch the all black prop blades? No yellow tips.

Great pics!!

LOL! Hasegawa put it on the right wing. Thanks for the detail! Here’s where I’m at. Shutting it down for the night.

Ordered a kit from Super Hobby out of Poland. It’s been sitting in US Customs in the Chicago area for 6 days now. In the past everything I’ve ordered went through Customs in NYC. Took about a day or two. Anyone have any idea with Chicago Customs how long I’m going to be waiting? FWIW, kit was from CZ, so no China import fees are being calculated.

Plane 209 image stolen from “TOS”. LOL!

I’ll try in April. We’re taking a two week cruise around Ireland and Scotland. Will make it easier since I’ll only have to abstain for two weeks. 😁

👍 Exactly! I’ve got the wing built, rudder and stabs done and today I jumped on the landing gear and wheels while putty dried. I did sneak down earlier this evening and sanded the putty since it went on thin and dried fast. Laid down more primer in the sanded areas to find my faults. I’ve got more putty to apply at the tail joint. Honestly, I’m going down before bedtime so the putty is cured by morning. Once I get the tail joint level and hidden, the rest will go fast! Should be ready for paint by the time my Sprue Brothers paint order gets here Friday.

Thanks John! My patients is being tried because I like to give fragile glue joints and putty a rest overnight before proceeding. I worked on it today for about an hour and had to apply more putty and during landing gear assembly the braces you add into the slot on the legs were partially broken on the sprue. I got them installed, slipped the gear into the wing and glued the broken part into place. I’m waiting until the morning before sanding and removing the gear. I’m doing my best to stay focused and not crack open another “quick build” project to fill in wait times. 🤪