CANicoll

Peter - Thanks for your terrific shots and it reminds me I really should just keep a photo booth set up. The office looks terrific and the fuselage is well along. Definitely agree, these 1996/1997 kits are really surprising us on their fit and detail!

Ernie, Just beautiful! Looks amazing and you can definitely see the time and effort you put into this build. The scheme is one of my favorites. Oh, and all that work to drill out those dive flaps really pays off - especially in this scale. The wings in general look terrific. Still watching! Chris

Nice!!!! Your paint is always sooo smoooth.... How did you mask the spinnner? Always my bugaboo...

Amazing what you can find in a 'beauty' store. The make-up applicators (little sponges on the end of a small plastic stick) are dirt cheap there, as well as the three-grit fingernail polishers.

Thanks Peter and Scott. I have a little bottle of it sitting on my bench now. I think it is a pretty good consistency - we will see. Hopefully will get to use it today. I didn't realize that Tamiya Extra Thin cement is mostly acetone. If my old sprues don't work, I'll pull some newer stuff and try that.

Same as Tim. When does the hotel reservations open up?

Thanks Peter and Gary! I was hoping to make more progress and maybe actually close up the fuselage last night, but it was not to be. Maybe tonight! Still trying to get a bit more color into the cockpit but also not really sure how much of this will actually be visible anyway. Chris

Well, already had to fix a problem I created. I'm blaming really vague instructions, but also, I should have done some dry fitting before gluing the sidewalls in place. Fortunately, the fix was not that hard. This sidewall ended up too far aft, meaning it blocked the bulkhead behind the cockpit from sitting flush against the fuselage. The other side, fortunately, was already far enough forward - from trying to match the cockpit window outline. The fix was pretty easy, just remove back of the resin sidewall with a razor knife. And the next step is to get the Dremel tool out and shave down those huge ejector pin marks. Took the opportunity to hand paint around the gauges with a flat black and put a drop of clear on the gauges. That is the highlight of the evening!

Hey Scott - I've never masked the national insignia so maybe now is the time. And what better aircraft to do it? All black!!! The insignia should be a medium gray if I remember correctly. If I screw it up, I just paint over it and try again.

Coming along and can't wait to see how the hull turns out. Honestly, you lost me at '.030'. How do you cut brass (or anything for that matter!) .030?!?

Whoo hoo! Now THAT is a stash! Has anyone else noticed that ZM seems to like displaying US bombers with the right inside engine on fire? That is some mighty fine shooting!

And NO sprue!!

Gap? How do you apply it? Since you can make it somewhat as thick or thin as you want, do you just kind of brush it on/in? Mine is mixing in an Tamiya Extra Thin bottle, with the brush in the cap. @nmayhew: Interesting the point you make about clear vs color sprue. I've always found clear styrene to be very brittle and easy to snap. Some gray styrene (Tamiya I think?) bends significantly before it snaps. I just used the gray sprues from my Catalina build as there is literally feet of it extra. I wonder if aged styrene works very well (from 1996!)? If I had thought about it I would have pulled some Eduard and/or Tamiya sprue...

Despite being very distracted with the Catalina, and a lot of woodshop stuff (we have an amazing workshop here) did make some much needed progress on the Voodoo. Got the fuselage together and the wings attached. The wing tops have a tab that goes into the side of the fuselage. The fit isn't perfect and needed some putty to close up. My 'Sprue glue' wasn't ready yet so had to settle for some putty. Already painted the camo color behind the intakes before attaching the wings. Have masked the gray underside where it comes up on the side of the nose. The bummer are the seams and the raised panel lines. Very hard to clean up the seams and not obliterate the lines. Like on the engines/exhaust. Painted with Metalizer Exhaust and banded with Burnt Iron as a start. Ordered some MRP Tan so when that arrives (later this week? with the Catalina masks!) will start on the camo.

Here is the late update... So, yeah. That IP decal. It slid off the paper just fine. And that is the end of the happiness. So for your viewing pleasure, this gives you an idea of what happened next: Under the dictionary definition of 'decal fracturing' this image appears: So this MIGHT be a good time for me to try out masking the national insignia. There are not many markings on a Black Cat anyway. Back to the IP - trying to remember the tried and true skill of dry-brushing... I spent way too much time trying to find my AirScale instrument decals (which somehow have gone missing(!) and then decided at 1/48 scale it would drive me nutty putting over 20 decals on this panel... Plus, I'm not really sure what a bunch of them are anyway. For a Mustang, you can find anything. Catalina? Not so much... Worked on the cockpit trying to pull a bit more detail into the sea of green. I'm really lacking much in the way of color references other than current planes and restoration efforts - some of which contradict each other in terms of colors used. The idea is that the seated pilots will obscure the seatbelts, but I'll add tape belts to go from the seat to the figures. That's it for tonight!

Yep, those were the ones I meant not the radar antenna on the tail. Sorry for not being clear. Thay last picture must have quite a story with it!

Hey John, Changing over to a Pacific theater P-51D will be fun to watch. I found a couple of pictures of your 'new' bird, showing off the twin antenna. Good luck! Chris

Making progress on two fronts - the Catalina and also the Voodoo. Have masks ordered for all of the clear parts on the Cat, as well as another bottle of Black primer which will also likely be the main coat for the bird. SB was kind enough to let me know that they expected the masks in the coming week (and they came in yesterday!) so got my order in. Been working with the IP, trying to highlight the gauges and, this is really embarrassing, just realized there is a DECAL to use. Will get to that shortly here! The Cat references seem to show a pretty blah cockpit - not a lot of color other than green. Hoping to come up with some placards or SOMETHING to brighten up the front office a bit. Seems like the plane was assembled, then the paint folks came in (was going to say guys, but more than likely it was women doing the work!) and sprayed everything. Definitely will work on some washes and some other detailing. Yes, the ejector pin marks are an embarrassment. Will see about those and what will be visible. Starting work on the waist gun section- with the black non-slip applied to the walkways. This area will be pretty visible so hoping to really get some nice detail in there. Lots of clean-up to do yet. The piece at the bottom is the seat for the nose gunner. Dry fitted the seats after doing a bit more painting. REALLY hate the idea of covering up all that great detail - after starting to paint the seatbelts. Ha ha! But, there is more bulkhead painting to do here to liven things up a bit. If only a bi. More later!

Never tried it but ironically enough, I also have a bottle of Tamiya Extra Thin that is just about finished, and a separate bottle of sprue bits for god-knows-why I've kept. I agree with you about the CA Gap filling - ALWAYS seems to dry too hard and then doesn't sand right. We ALWAYS have a lot of extra sprue to use! Ok, going to go create the mixture. Thanks for the suggestion!

Oh yeah, MUCH better! Perfect re-fit and looks like it was always that way. nice job!

Great start on an awesome kit! Welcome aboard! Chris

And working with you and the other administrators as well!! You all set the (right) tone!

It could be a SHINY build!

Agreed, Spent a lot of time with Maru at SMW in Telford and also in Phoenix at the US Nats. We sat next to each other on the (long) bus ride out to Pima and back. Wonderful person. Just can't imagine what that other site is doing...

Love the weathering, perfect!!