CANicoll

Mr Surfacer... to the RESCUE? Guys, thank you for the help! Here are three coats of Mr Surfacer 500 on the tail. Used a pointed brush, but still was not able to get it just on the panel lines (and did not want to use 10' of tape masking the individual lines.) In the end, decided to not worry about the panel lines and just go for a smooth tail. Going to let this dry for most of today and either this afternoon or evening will get out the sanding sticks. And the respirator. And the vacuum. Chris

Completely agree... Just had coffee and breakfast. Time to break out the Mr. Surfacer!

Beautiful Ernie! I think the first picture from Martin is of an aircraft at Udvar Hazy, about 20 min away from me. I completely forgot the aircraft is there. If you need photos, let me know and I'll take a run over there. Talk about shutting the barn door after the animals have left...

How about that!! Never occurred to me those lines would be out of whack, until I got the tail on. The black primer REALLY shows up the difference. Thanks for the hints on Mr Surfacer! Chris Carl and Hubert - Oh yeah!!! You know, I probably would have tried it, then after a while I hope to have had an 'Ah ha!" moment, but you both saved me from that. On to the Mr. Surfacer! Chris

Peter, Looking so good in primer and I'm amazed that those floats turned out to be the PITA that they were. Who knew? Happy the 'parts kit' turned out to be inexpensive - and actually was available! Nice recovery on the broken struts. Amazing the locator pins were in the wrong direction and you got the fix in. Seeing your canopies, oh yeah, you have a big job on your hands there, but you are well on your way. Looks good! Chris

So after the successful grafting of the Belcher tail onto the Cat, I see a huge (for my eyes anyway) issue: The panel lines on the resin tail are ginormous (and the join also needs some serious attention). The lines were on the unpainted tail, but for some reason that just didn't register on my addled brain. I think the next step is to spray them (brush them?) with some Mr. Surfacer 500 and try to fill them in as much as possible. There is such a huge contrast between those lines and the fine detail on the fuselage. Here is a picture of the Catalina based at Duxford, and the tail is very smooth. Zoom in and it is clearer - sorry for not posting the zoomed in picture. I guess I'm breaking out the Mr Surfacer, or maybe this is a time to see if the Sprue-Goo works? Maybe do one on one side, and the other on the other side? But off to dinner with friends first so will see if I get to this tonight, or tomorrow. Chris

Gary, Usually I intend for the paint to be splotchy - varying the undercoat and purposedly varying the topcoat as you do. I should have just not said anything and if asked just say "Yes! I planned it this way!"

Peter, we are of a like-mind! I was thinking the same thing. 🙂

I agree! Love the look of the Starfighter and always was drawn to the Voodoo. Hopefully we will get some good, updated kits on these subjects.

NOW you tell me after I go through hell and back taping!! I think you just wanted to see me do it.! Kidding, of course! I'm more likely to hand-paint the sealtape as anything. Can't be THAT hard, right? Chris Here are some pics of the camo painting sequence. I'm going to have to go back in and do some fill-work, but also the colors just do not look right to me. I used MRP's Dark Green SEA camo, Green SEA Camo, and SEA Tan. Thoughts are welcomed! Light colors first Then the Green (Work in progress picture! This is when I realized I needed to mask the tape areas of the windscreen and canopy) And the Dark Green The Green looks very splotchy in these pictures so will go back and take a look at that on the plane. I may do another spray to fill-in where needed. Just love that MRP paint, however! So smooth... Chris

Very cool!!

I'll look up the P-61 figures as I think that is exactly what I had in mind. Thanks for the suggestion! Rob - yeah, I was thinking of doubling up on the tape but it was really more of a visual guide. The cut, especially with that long razor saw, was very straight and straight forward so once it got going, it was very easy to change the angle of the saw and just keep cutting. This was really a VERY easy conversion. Mr Belcher is to be commended for his fine work! Perhaps a future build will be to put the Aerocraft resin filleted-tail onto the Revell early P-51D, in addition to their windscreen. Basically, the same thing as replacing the tail on the Cat. The result is a much easier and less expensive 1/32 P-51D. Now just have to get another set of the AMUR resin flaps!

A bit stalled at the moment on the Cat. Work, woodshop and the Voodoo took over some time, while I pondered painting the crewmen. The idea in my head will not pan out unless I look for other figure options: I wanted the waist gunners to be clad in more tropical wear, looking out the open blisters. Naturally, Monogram has all of the figures outfitted in full flight suits like they are flying bomber missions in Europe. Simplifies painting, but NOT what I had planned. Need to get into my spares and see what I can conjure up. I think I have a bunch of ground-crew figures (from Monogram's B-17 kits!) which I may repurpose. In the meantime - need to mask all of that glass (it makes the Seiran or Helldiver masking look simple) and hoping these masks fit up to Eduard's usual standards.

Well, I THINK I have it masked so we will see if not tonight, then tomorrow. I ended up using some of the 1mm Tamiya flexible white tape around the windscreen. Expecting that I would freehand any touch-up needed. The Canopy masks for the outline were short, but that was a super simple fix. I have pics of the latest paint work - got all of the camo sprayed but need to touch up some areas (as usual). What I need is a snow-day week to stay in and get a lot of this done!

That is the problem with his website - lots of goodies to ponder over!!

Yep! Click here. I think the best solution is to use the Aerocraft windscreen, and one of the Tamiya canopies which has all of the framing detail. Or graft the Aerocraft canopy top onto the Tamiya bottom, but I'm not talented enough to try that!

That definitely was a lot of fun! I also remember standing in line to get on the bus and turned around Radu was right behind me. As Tim said, we need to get the band back together and do it again. I'm not sure about Texas this year, but hopefully! Maru - are you coming back over the pond?

Ahh, that is what the strips are for, to spread the windscreen! Wish I had that idea when I built Lou IV (with the blue wings ) as it definitely would have helped. YEP, that was definitely a problem with the earlier kit. I have one last one so will definitely check out the fit on that build. Now that I think about it, I am pretty sure Passion Wagon (the green Mustang) uses the Aerocraft clear windscreen and canopy. Clear resin, polishes beautifully, highly recommended! Solves both problems - the fit of the windscreen and the clarity of the canopy. Chris

We really did have a good time because of the group we had. Good to meet people face to face! And Tim is as tall as he sounds! It definitely was HOT, and Tim, me and a few others had to sit and wait, in a cafe they closed to clean, for a bus to leave and bring us back to Phoenix. I think we FINALLY got one of the drivers to take a group of us back while the others were still out in the boneyard.

Thank you Martin! Sorry, missed hitting send on that. I did get to see the Catalina based at Duxford taxi and fly off - these are grand aircraft!

Really looking good!! Do love the shape...

So... Did you finish the C-17?

Thanks for keep on this, John. I had the narrow windscreen problem on a VERY early Revell build but not sure how your fix addresses that? Those early kits had problems with their canopies and windscreens. But I'm sure I'm missing something in your fix. My build of a later release (a year or so after the initial release) fixed the windscreen issue, but not the canopy clarity issue so I've always used AM or Tamiya canopies on my Revell builds. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge! Chris

Maru is one of the super nice people in the hobby and a terrific museum companion. She and a group of the SIG 32 folks all went out to Pima together a few years back. That was a lot of fun, running from under one aircraft's wings to another to get out of the sun. Smart and friendly, she's tops. AND we share a birthday (ok, Ok, hers was a few years after mine... FINE! MANY years!) so how could she NOT be a terrific person?!? Chris

Thanks Carl, much appreciated! It was a big cut.