CANicoll

Masking underway! After my faux pas of glossing the wrong side of the wing, got that settled and working on my second attempt with the masks. A lesson learned here - maybe start on the UNDERSIDE of the wing where lessons learned are a bit less noticable. NOT the right side of the fuselage nose! Too late I remembered a tip from Maketar about marking lines on the mask before removing to the aircraft to line things up later. Too late I remembered to make the lines long enough that I don't paint over them, making the lines useless. Like I said, lessons learned! Lines on the masking sheet. These are for the wing markings and show the position of the star and the bars. What I SHOULD have done was extended the lines across the mask once on the aircraft. I've already covered up most of the lines here. Lines, what lines?? Sprayed this the same gray as the fuselage, but as they say in the Movies - Back to the Fuselage! (Or something like that). Applied the masks for the stars and bars and yes, the right side bar is a little off. The problem is the star. IT is a little off (you can see from the rivet line that it is just a bit higher than the other side) but tried as I may, pulling it up without damaging it was not in the works. So I just left it. I did better on the left side: There was some wrinkling of the masks on the sheet, but to be fair, these masks could easily be 10-12 years old. However, on the aircraft, they seemed to perform just fine. The tricky part was picking out a deep blue for the surround. However, in the immortal words of Hollywood, "He chose poorly". The blue is much brighter than it appeared when I tested it out. Crap. This side looks pretty dark and that is what I was going for. And under a different light, the other side. Same color paint. I thought maybe it would still be dark enough but the 'True Colors' (another movie reference - no clue where this is coming from this morning. I'm looking for a pill that will make it stop) came out after I pulled the masks. Maybe the out-of-place Hell's Angels on the nose will distract viewers from the incorrect colors. My story is this aircraft is paying homage to the AVG and that is my story and I'm sticking to it. After sealing with a clear coat, I may try and dirty the insignia up a bit to tone down that blue. Definitely will darken the blue for the wing markings. This blue annoys me. The stars and bars are super easy to mask. Once the decals dry and I finish the wing markings, then a gloss coat followed by a satin/matte coat will follow. Not a lot of weathering, but may try to vary the finish a bit with the flat over satin in places. Props are waiting for their yellow tips and decals, the exhausts need to be painted. The machine gun shields are painted and ready to place, along with the waist machine guns themselves. Then the waist crew looking out the blisters and finally all of those fragile antennas on the wings. The finish line is near, and it's not even towards the end of the GB!

Carl, VERY cool!! Always fun to look back and see what we used to build and how they look. Thanks for sharing. Chris

Ernie, A fabulous and amazing review - thanks! The photos and detailed descriptions really show off the kit well. Thanks for posting! Chris

Rob, Good time, thanks! Now if I only had frisket paper... 🙂

Peter, looking terrific and you may have made me an AK convert as you are right - it is kind of a constant battle with MRP to get the colors needed for a build. Sigh. Your masking and paint work is always great to see. The Spit is coming along nicely and you do have to admire those lines. I have an Eduard 1/48 MVI in the stash which I just got the camo masks for, as well as the Quinta cockpit set so that might be the next build. After I order some of the AK paints, I think! How did the doc appts go? When are the procedures scheduled? Chris

Today was going to be painting the masked insignias. WAS... Somehow or another, I can't remember left from right. I sprayed the gloss coat getting ready to use the masks for the markings. Got the nose and the wing done. The nose was easy, but I did the wrong side of the wing. So had to redo the wing tip. Arrgh. Went ahead and applied the masks. Also masked around the mask. (Is that a thing? LOL) Sprayed the base gray for the nose insignia, used Medium Sea Gray as the color, mixed with some gloss clear to give a nice smooth surface for the next mask. Will see what I'll be using for the Insignia Blue. This will be interesting. Will let this dry for a day and then will apply the blue and hopefully will have reasonable looking insignia!

Thanks Peter! Getting there. The fix is really seamless and painted over you can't tell anything was amiss. yay!

Scott, We get some fog here, but not a lot. I do a fair amount of night and country driving so I prefer driving lights with a bit more range. The big bonus was the expansion of light to both sides. Definitely a huge bonus to really see the side of the road up ahead. So far nobody had flashed me and looking at where the beams hit cars in front of me, they don't seem to come up high enough to get into glass. How long have you had yours? They do seem to be pretty well built.

Beautiful!! Nicely done! What scheme are you using for the Tamiya F-4 later? Chris

I have a few of Kev's books too. The folks doing the building follow a pretty good format and I've found the books helpful as well.

Slight upgrade which only took about 90 minutes to complete. Had to take the nose off however. Overall, it took longer to take the nose off and put it back on than to replace the fog lights and do the horn install. Replaced the stock fog lights with Diode Dynamics Elite fog lights. Also added Hella Supertone Horns, but you can't hear those! The Diode Dynamics Elite lights are in place. Used the two screws from the original fog lights and they sit perfectly. Yes, a Jeff Gordon blanket... Horns are basically invisible once the nose is back on. However, hit the horn button and everyone knows they are there. Not too bad for a six year old car! Pretty clean! Who knew the windshield washer reservoir would be under the headlight? Plus, its HUGE. Buttoned back up, and everything worked. Yes, they are bright!! Low beams Fog lights The hard line at the top of the fog lights is a blue line. These lights have a wider beam than the stock fog lights and are as bright as the headlights. I can actually see both ahead and aside very clearly. Super easy to install using the stock wiring harness. Chris

Mike, Can't wait to see you start on this beauty, especially the figures and the cutaway. I'm thinking of doing something similar with the ZM P-51D so VERY interested to see how you set it up. Those Japanese crew figures look amazing. Chris

Carl, Thanks!!! Good to know.

Placed my largest Hannants order ever over a month ago and it finally arrived! It was a little bit like Christmas, especially since I look at a few of the things I ordered, and I can't remember why I ordered them. First up are masks for the Tamiya Spitfire Mk VIII and an old P-51C that I started maybe four years ago, and the canopy is all that is left. I THINK I can still find the canopy... Also are the Quinta sets for a few builds: a 1/48 Spitfire, 1/48 Hobby Bossy Me 262 and a 1/48 Eduard Bf-109F. Oh yeah, trying out the ASK masks on an Eduard P-51 (I have three possible candidates!). Some Quickboost bits for the 1/32 Tamiya Spitfire Mk. VIII and resin barrels for the Tamiya P-38H. I figure the nose is so noticeable I'd give these a try. I could have gone brass... More masks to help with camo and painting markings - the Mustangs are pretty simple, but I think the masks also help with the nose checkers. Mustang camo is pretty much monochrome, not like the English and German aircraft. I am bound and determined to build some SEA-Camo Vietnam F-4 Phantoms and this set is for a 1/32 Tamiya F-4 I bought at the first Nationals I attended. Not sure if the Tamiya will be the first build, or the ZM 1/48 F-4 I have: And last, but not least, the Spitfire camo. It is for an IXc, but hoping it will work on the VIII as well. I guess I will also be testing out a lot of different brands of masks!

So you've seen me sanding wings before!

Working on the Black Cat Catalina and realized I do not have a decent reference for the gray US Insignia markings they used. I'm hoping @Martinnfb or someone has an idea. Thanks gents! Chris

Peter, I had visions of your earlier problems and what it took to stop the crack. I think mine was just me pressing too hard. Oh well! At least it didn't fracture completely. Can you imagine putting the Styrene tail BACK on in that case?!? Chris

Averting Disaster? There are some sounds you just don't want to hear when you are working on your model. CRACK! is one of them... When trying to gently pry the elevators from the resin tail, seems like the CA bond was strong than the resin tail. A line appeared about here: I was unhappy with myself for not scribing into the seam first to clear out as much of the CA as possible, so immediately hit the crack with Ultra-Thin CA which wicked into the crack pretty thoroughly. That did fix the weakness but at that point decided to just let the elevators have a bit of dihedral and live with it. Was so frustrated that I went ahead and filled the (existing) gap/seam between the tail and the elevator with some Vallejo putty. The right side was pretty tight, the left side is the one with the problem. That did smooth out the gap pretty well and it looks much better. Also took the opportunity to hit the markings area with clear gloss to get ready for the masks, and do a bit of touch up with the black paint. Going to put this down for the day to let everything set. "Patience, grasshopper, patience..."

Definitely waiting to see how that Lancaster goes, too! There is so much detail available for the kits now, it really is something.

Gary and Rob, thanks! I used a TON of CA on that resin tail, but now you got me thinking about gravity over time. Hmmm.. Oh, well - I should live that long! Rob, I also can't wait to peel off the masks, just hope not to be too disappointed. The windshield wipers have me a bit worried tho. The waist will be interesting to see and I get to do some detail work on the machine guns. Still to come is masking and painting the markings. I've seen where national insignia is painted with a light/medium gray instead of white. Will be my first-time using masks for those markings. I have some Maketar insignia masks which I originally bought for a 1/32 Mustang build but the sizing is pretty close here. And figuring out the weathering. The pictures perfectly capture the heavy weathering on the top of the wing. Usually if I'm going that way, I start with weathered paint colors so this build may be of a newer aircraft.

Peter, How is it that I've missed this build until now?? It is a treat following your builds as your discussion and descriptions are informative and educational, and the photography is always fantastic. Good to see the old Spit coming together and you are right, the Quinta cockpit is fantastic. I balked at using them for a while, but I did on the SU-29 and especially for the jet consoles, wow. As with everything we do - it really isn't shake and bake - still fitting and building that has to be done. Looking forward to paint and primer.

Martin, The tail planes are probably a bit flatter than they appear in the pictures but are not as perfectly flat as they should be. I'll see what I can do about that. VERY interesting that the wing float is perfectly black, while the rest of the aircraft is weathered. A new float maybe? Here she sits: The elevators do have a bit of a dihedral. 😞 Main wing is just sitting on its fuselage pylon. That is quite the wingspan...

I definitely feel for you. The lady I was with for two years decided to call it quits late last year, with no explanation other than 'it's not you, it's me'. We still haven't fully sorted everything out. Life is like that. Try to focus on the good stuff, and what makes you happy. Sometimes it is all we can do.

Harv, Sorry, completely missed this. Seems like you are hanging in pretty well - new house, car, carpet! Your own place. I was married 28 years before it came to an abrupt end. Life moves on and glad to see you are keeping up with the rest of us crazy lot. Don't get isolated. And no more arguments about leaving the toilet seat up or down, or which side the TP unrolls from. Bonus!! Chris

That would be awesome, thanks! I've never seen this modification on a Cat before so this is very interesting. SIX machine guns in the nose? Wow, a water-borne P-38 basically! Never mind your pics, they are great! Thanks for posting! I wonder what putting all that weight on the nose of the plane did for the balance of the aircraft.