CANicoll

So the saga of the $%!@#!!! seatbelts is over. I love the way they look and 'act', especially compared to decal seatbelts but they really are a chore to put together. Here they are just attached to the seat. They looked way too big to me so I put the pilot on the seat to see if they were reasonably close. What do you think? Hard to see, but in general, they could be a bit shorter than I have them, but I think within the realm of adjustability. It would help if HGW would provide some sort of guide on length. And the final placement. I may still make a few adjustments but this is pretty close to where I think they will end up. I was going to finish masking the canopy and get the landing gear together, but this took a while to finish up. Finally!

If only it was that easy for me to lose MY extra circumference!

I'll second this! 🍺

Apparently, and I had no idea of this until I opened the box I bought (literally three or four years ago!) and found the Belcher Bit resin bits. Sounds like the tail and fuselage part leading up to the tail are too fat. Personally, I don't think a little extra girth around the middle is necessarily a bad thing (I represent that remark!), but this would be my first major resin conversion in a long time, so I'm leaning towards doing it. Have razor saw, will travel...

Hmmm, no way to shave down the proud part of the firewall on the left side to help close up the cover? A flat file? It would be ugly, but might allow the cover to close?

Thanks, Mike! I used the Grex Tritium, with the pistol grip trigger and about 14psi of pressure. I find it SOOO much easier to modulate the paint - especially with MRP and thinned Vallejo Model Air. I picked up two needles: .2mm and .3mm. I used my Iwata HP-CS for the priming and pre-shading, but the Grex for the rest. The nice thing is the Grex needle ends are marked so it's easy to see which one you have in your brush (if like me you simply don't remember!)

I have a few different stands, but I just can't see putting that much weight into the nose and having it stay on its legs. I'm sure that is why later versions of the tail were hollow (in two pieces). Plus, I like the way it looks buttoned up. If I was better at diorama's, I'd put it into the water!

Whew. Keeping the TV off (or at least away from the election coverage) helped enormously with focus on getting some paint sprayed. Put on a gloss coat for some weathering/panel washes and might start some of the decals. There is a bi-color band that goes in front of tail, hence the lack of color there. The German scheme is interesting - a mix of hard-line camo on the wings and top of the fuselage, and free-form mottling on the fuselage sides. Hard to distinguish but there are three colors to the spots on the fuselage - with a 'Dark Green' which turned out to be more of a brown added in. I think I over did the spots, in general. Zero progress on the lap belts so far... And the Benedictine is still intact...

Mike, I think you have one of the very early Belcher sets compared to mine - very cool! Your resin looks exactly like mine. Thanks for the offer of the PE but I'm going to try and keep this relatively simple - just work on the cockpit... The engine is tempting but they'd be mismatched but thanks. I'm going to build this in-flight so no undercarriage. I'm hoping to pull some pilots out of the extra's I have but I may change my mind once I get into the build. I have a set of the old Moskit exhausts, but I think they are for a 1/72 Spit or Mustang. I used them ages ago on a number of builds, esp the P-39s. Can't beat the look of them! See ya, neighbor! Chris

"Have Machine Gun, will travel"...

SOMEwhere I have pictures of the masking but who knows where they went off to. So here is the first coat of the 'light' green. I added a few drops of Insignia White (a bit of a faded white) to lessen the color a bit. Tomorrow is the masking for the dark green. Used the Grex with the Vallejo paints as it seems to give me a bit more control. I'm getting to like the Grex more and more. Also spent a bit more time with those blasted seatbelts... They do look pretty good (I opted for the green rather than the usual beige color) to my eye, but not likely to be easily seen once in the cockpit... Oh well, the things we do huh? The buckles are not black, must be the lighting. Lap belts will be started tomorrow along with the next bit of camo painting.

Slow going, and I'm not a fan of doing these in 1/48 scale!

Gary, It only really works when you have a really nice fit of the elevators (in this case) to the fuselage. For these elevators I use tube cement on the tabs that go inside the tail. Then I'll flow some Tamiya Extra Thin from the underside which seems to help blend the two pieces together. It only works if the fit is pretty tight, like on many of the Tamiya kits. Saves some masking tape!

Does this qualify for the upcoming Group Build? She builds pretty big... I picked this up a while ago, and upon opening the box remembered a few goodies were added in: This one I will see about doing as I seem to remember the kit cockpit is not very detailed. Not sure if I will do the surgery needed to add in a resin tail but may give the PBY-5 Corrected Tail a shot. I don't know enough about the aircraft to know if the kit tail is correct or not. I build one before and it LOOKS like a Catalina to me! Anyone interested in the PBY-6A conversion set? I have never heard of Belcher Bits before this, to be honest. Does this qualify for the GB? Thanks, Chris

Yeah, you have to watch getting it when you are out. Some Kimchi is incredibly spicy, some wonderfully sweet. Enjoy!

When does this GB start/end?

Four! 🍕

Damnn!!!!! 🕺

Put away the belts for a little while. Sprayed the primer, and as usual when I'm using Vallejo paints, I can put an overcoat on them fairly soon afterwards, with no problems handling the aircraft. Masking is in place. I've had success leaving the elevators off since on the German aircraft they have their own camo pattern that does not extend onto the tail. Since I'm leaving the gun bay doors open, I am using the closed option as a mask: Some initial panel line shading, but after all is said and done, not sure how much will still be visible. The wings and the top of the fuselage get their own camo so didn't need to cover with the light blue from the undersides. Doing Initial coat of the light blue. It usually takes me two to three paint sessions to get the effect to the point where I am happy with it. I was amazing erratic with the airbrush this time so will probably have to be a bit heavier with the overcoats. Ini Don't think I mentioned I am using the CMK resin tyre set. VERY hard to see, but they even have the sidewall lettering readable! Color is actually the Gloss Black Vallejo primer - I'll hit the tyres with the Vallejo Black-Grey which is my usual go-to for rubber coloring. Maybe I'll do some work on the belts tomorrow. Maybe...

Well, am TRYING to put the HGW seatbelts together. In 2 hours, I have one shoulder belt about 80% together (among doing other things, too). Next time I try and put 1/48 seatbelts together - forget that, I'm NOT going to do this again. Ugh. Partly my own fault - I need to flatten out the belt to make threading easier (especially the end buckles) as the ends are very curled. But did get the engines put together and attached to the wings, attached the windscreen and masked the canopy and engine openings. Got another primer coat of the new bits and pre-shaded the panel lines. Pics later!

That Revell kit came out beautifully with your work. Such an interesting subject, and you really did a nice job with it. How did you find the Big Ed kit and how much of it did you use? Did you find it worth it in the end? Great photographs! Chris

Can't wait to see how your paint turns out. The cockpit is really super, and the IP is terrific. I have two Eduard 109s in the closet so watching carefully.

Whoa, and WOW... I'm not a big armor fan, but this is really impressive!

Mr. Mayhew, I don't disagree with you. The fuselage looks better to me than the effect on the wings. I need to work with it more. The main difference I think are the underlying colors - the fuselage is mostly light, while the wings are dark - the effect shows up more on the darker panels. But I do like the effect on the fuselage. Thanks for your thoughts! Chris

Excellent! Thanks for the pics and the commentary - I had exactly the same problem with the Barracuda set fouling the canopy on my Mustang builds (the Tamiya ones anyway). I always thought I had mucked something up a bit. I did not have the problem of the canopy sitting proud, however. For the exhausts, I like a bit of chalk on them to flatten out the finish - kind of like burnt metal. Yours looks terrific however. Nice job polishing the canopy. I've tried both - dipping in Future (I have two bottles of the original stuff!) just seems to be easier - if I'm careful. And agreed - a wooden cocktail stick is the way to go to remove the masks, although I admit to using a very sharp #3 blade many times. Can't wait to see how the oils do.