HK B-25J -double the fun

[Drifter]

How did I miss this. Mind blowing stuff. 

[BlrwestSiR]

On 12/27/2018 at 1:44 AM, Drifter said:

How did I miss this. Mind blowing stuff. 

Thanks! It's definitely been a bit of a challenge at times. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Onto Betty's Dream now. The light hurdle here was that I wasn't able to install both ammo belts for the tail gunner before closing up the fuselage. So the second one had to be done first. 

It was only three pieces but trying to align them all at the same time wasn't going to be fun.

After much finagling and a bit of frustration, everything got to where it needed to be.

Probably never to be seen again...

[GusMac]

But YOU know it's there....

[Martinnfb]

x2

[GazzaS]

Love seeing those ammo belts in there.

[BlrwestSiR]

Thanks guys! You're right, I'll know it's there and the work I put into it. 

So after messing around with the assembled nose for French Kiss, I noticed I was having issues getting the gun barrels to align. The problem was I couldn't tell what was giving me issues as I'd sealed it all up already. Not to mention packed it full of pennies. Rather than repeating this issue, I decided to test fit the barrels to the partial nose for Betty's Dream and see what ,if any issues there are. It turns out the .50 Cal gun bodies sit slightly high. So rather than try to tweak each one and make them all sit level, I installed a couple pieces of styrene instead. 

By passing the gun barrels through their openings, I was able to mark the end points on the styrene and drill holes accordingly.

With that done, I finally installed the nose onto the fuselage. I forgot to take some pics at that point as I was finally able to start painting. So here it is with a first coat olive drab on 

[harv]

That's what I did on my P38.......harv 

[Martinnfb]

Nice problem solving Carl. She's heading for the finish rather fast 

[Ryan]

Like that final shot Blr, Olive looks the part.

Ryan

[BlrwestSiR]

On 1/17/2019 at 8:14 PM, harv said:

That's what I did on my P38.......harv 

That was a nice P-38 Harv. I just have to figure out what to do with French Kiss since the nose is all closed up. 

On 1/17/2019 at 9:08 PM, Martinnfb said:

Nice problem solving Carl. She's heading for the finish rather fast 

Thanks Martin! I don't think it's that fast but definitely moving in the right direction.

On 1/20/2019 at 3:54 PM, Ryan said:

Like that final shot Blr, Olive looks the part.

Ryan

Thanks Ryan. It's Gunze Olive Drab.

[BlrwestSiR]

Speaking of French Kiss, I installed the gun nose onto the fuselage. 

There was some seam filling so I took car of that tonight. Tomorrow hopefully I'll get to the re-scribing of panel lines and rivets. 

In the meantime, I painted the Neutral Grey onto Betty's Dream.

Side by side:

[Ryan]

Thanks Blr, I have never used Gunze, does it behave like Tamiya?

Ryan

[BlrwestSiR]

Ryan, Gunze sprays very similarly to Tamiya. This is especially true if you're using their lacquer thinner for airbrushing. 

The big difference is the light satin finish Gunze has compared to Tamiya which usually has a dead flat finish. 

Carl

[Ryan]

Ugh don't get me started on flat/ matt coats....I have trouble more often than not with frosting.

Do you have similar problems?

[BlrwestSiR]

On 1/22/2019 at 10:35 AM, Ryan said:

Ugh don't get me started on flat/ matt coats....I have trouble more often than not with frosting.

Do you have similar problems?

Occasionally I get a bit of frosting if I'm spraying a flat clear so I usually stick to a satin finish. Try adding a drop or two of gloss to your flat and that might help with the frosting issue. 

[BlrwestSiR]

I'm back at it since the deadline is coming up. I'm not sure I'll make it but if I don't try, I won't know. 

I finally finished off the fuselage for French Kiss and got it ready for a black base coat. 

I used Tamiya X1 for this. After an initial light coat, I noticed a couple spots needed some quick sanding so I did that and then sprayed a full coat of paint. 

Now to let that dry for a bit. 

Carl

 

[harv]

Wow, that's slick.....harv  

[BlrwestSiR]

16 minutes ago, harv said:

Wow, that's slick.....harv  

Thanks Harv, it is isn't it? Almost makes you wish there was an all black B-25. 

[Ryan]

On ‎2‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 11:07 PM, BlrwestSiR said:

Occasionally I get a bit of frosting if I'm spraying a flat clear so I usually stick to a satin finish. Try adding a drop or two of gloss to your flat and that might help with the frosting issue. 

Thank for the tip, what products are you using for flats and clears?

Ryan

[BlrwestSiR]

On 2/10/2019 at 10:06 AM, Ryan said:

Thank for the tip, what products are you using for flats and clears?

Ryan

For clear coats, I use Tamiya. Usually their semigloss clear for a finish coat. I have their flat clear which looks a bit milky in the bottle but rarely use it. It does dry clear and almost dead flat though. 

I use their lacquer thinner when airbrushing but the regular X20A thinner works too. 

Hope that helps. 

[CrankyCrafstman]

WOW!  How did I miss this. Great work Carl.

[BlrwestSiR]

On 3/5/2019 at 4:03 PM, CrankyCrafstman said:

WOW!  How did I miss this. Great work Carl.

Thanks! I'm glad you found it. 

[BlrwestSiR]

Ok, finally an update. 

I painted the fuselage but had a hard time getting decent coverage with the Alcad. So I gave up on using it and switched to Mr Metal Color that I had. That worked out much better. 

The wings need a bit of seam filling so they're back on the bench and hopefully that won't too painful.

Carl

[CrankyCrafstman]

WOW! nice nmf finish.