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P-51D-5NA, 339th FG, Fowlmere FINISHED


MikeC

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On 2/7/2022 at 4:05 PM, GeneK said:

Mike,

 

I can't view your pictures from earlier in this thread (2021) -- have you changed servers? Any chance of getting the pictures back?

 

Gene K

I've not changed anything Gene, all the pics are in the same sub-folder on Postimages.   Have you tried using an alternative browser?

 

 

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Some more progress: slow but steady, and occasionally some negative progress.  The learning point from this is that when masking with lots of tape, make sure the boundaries between pieces of tape are complete, the tape is overlapped and fully stuck down.

20220205-102906.jpg

 

Next learning point: the bomb/tank racks remained natural metal so I should've left them off until after painting.  And I thought that after 50+ years I was starting to get the hang of this modelling lark!

 

20220205-102934.jpg

 

A few scratches on the "6" to sort out!

 

20220205-103347.jpg

 

So I sorted that lot out, and painted the bits of the flap that hide under the wing skin when they're up, and after letting it all cure, masked up for the insignia blue.

 

20220208_145551.jpg

 

Then painted that, and did the first part of the nose art.

 

20220211_164333.jpg

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This is a great thread Mike! It’s so easy to get the impression with a finished model that all went supremely, faultlessly well. I’ve never achieved it, and I applaud you for showing the common “whoopsies” that can occur during the masking/painting process. 
Max 

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6 hours ago, Mozart said:

This is a great thread Mike! It’s so easy to get the impression with a finished model that all went supremely, faultlessly well. I’ve never achieved it, and I applaud you for showing the common “whoopsies” that can occur during the masking/painting process. 
Max 

Thanks Max.  You're so right, there are so many masterpieces on the fora and at shows, and very few people seem to admit they've had a problem or two.  I suspect that's not mere vanity, but a natural feeling that one's probably the only person who has had such problems (that way lies discouragement), and a hope that no-one notices; or perhaps not wanting to bore people with "rookie" mistakes. 

 

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Anyway, no problems with the wording on the nose art.

 

20220213_132352.jpg

 

Though I say it myself, that doesn't look far out.

http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/wp-content/groupimages/gallery/339g/6n-j1.jpg

 

The last major painting job is the chequered nose band, and I'm going to rest it a day of three before tackling that.

 

Thanks for all the kind words and encouragement so far.

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On 2/14/2022 at 7:14 AM, Mozart said:

Ah, chequers! Good luck with that Mike, I’ll be interested to see how you tackle that. 

Thanks Max.

 

The first job was to unmask the white I painted earlier, and mask behind it, then do a topcoat of white.  Don't worry, there is a band of Artool Ultramask in front of the Tamiya tape.

 

20220216_161759.jpg

 

The next job will be masking out the checks to be left white.  I'm not sure how I'm going to tackle that other than one check at a time, but perhaps I'll think of something: any suggestions welcome.  I have two masks for the checks, each one for half the nose.  I'm dubious about trying to pick up a whole set in one go, I tried it earlier and it didn't go well as the transfer tape didn't pick up a complete set.

 

Incidentally, for once I'm a little disappointed I did a good job on the upper nose seam: I'll need to identify the centreline of the fuselage, and even a trace of a seam would have been helpful.

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On 2/17/2022 at 9:09 AM, Mozart said:

One square at a time is the only way that’s worked for me Mike! 

Indeed, that seems to be the only way Max.  But it's slow.

 

However, I'm afraid there comes a time when a model can turn into a bit of a chore rather than a pleasure, and that time has been reached with this: I  never thought I'd get there with a Mustang, but here I am.  So I'm shelving this for a little while, and switching to something else for the moment.  But the Comet will be back eventually.

Edited by MikeC
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Always a good idea Mike when you lose the will on one model, you’ll get back to it later.  I’m hoping the Lancaster when it arrives will re-kindle my enthusiasm for bench time, but painting and website updates have kept me occupied in the meantime! 

Edited by Mozart
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14 hours ago, Mozart said:

Always a good idea Mike when you lose the will on one model, you’ll get back to it later.  I’m hoping the Lancaster when it arrives will re-kindle my enthusiasm for bench time, but painting and website updates have kept me occupied in the meantime! 

Thanks Max, I'm hoping so.  It's so very nearly at the end, but to achieve a finish (taking into account the probability of at least one more setback) would have meant rushing it.  I had enough of deadlines when I was at work, I try to avoid them these days.

 

I've been following your Lanc painting on FB, looks really great.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm back.  Funny thing, I failed to get this over the line in the GB on LSP, so a lot of pressure was off and I felt I wanted to get back to it.

 

I've been doing the nose masking and painting.  In the end I applied all the checks individually, one by one, then removed the pieces where the red was going to go.  It was a slow process, but in the end I felt it was the best way to align them correctly.  I was quite gratified by the way they fitted: all those endless test cuts/fittings with paper paid off.

 

20220302_140301_(2).jpg

 

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Btw, that purple stuff is liquid mask.

 

And although I picked up a pot of Tamiya gloss red by mistake (the gloss and matt are X7 and XF7 respectively), I was reasonably happy with the result - nothing a coat of matt varnish won't fix.  There were several areas where the small masks were not quite tacked down properly, so a bit of delicate brush-work was needed on some squares.

 

20220303_141238_(2).jpg

 

20220303_141300_(2).jpg

 

20220303_141313_(2).jpg

 

Still by no means perfect, but as always the camera magnifies any errors: it looks a lot better in real life than it does here (honest!).  So in the interests of finishing this bird (and the interests of my sanity) I'm going to accept it as is.

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Suddenly it's coming together and starting to look as it should.  Today I matted down the nose checks and redid the anti-glare panel which had suffered some overspray at some point.  Then I added Capt Johnson's scoreboard using a Kits World set of generic kill markings; mended the tailwheel which broke earlier in the build (but nothing superglue and a pin couldn't fix); removed the windscreen masks plus the kit canopy which was being used to mask the cockpit (so it wasn't completely useless after all :)); and added the Quickboost exhausts.

 

20220304-162047.jpg

 

Sometimes you just get one of those kits that fight you all the way, but (touch wood) it's very nearly the last lap!

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FINISHED!!

 

This one seems to have fought me most of the way: perhaps that's my fault, perhaps the kit, perhaps a bit of both.  But here it is, warts'n'all, and I'm now rather pleased with it: it's been a useful learning experience from the masking point of view, not least the checks.  I'll do some proper RFI shots in due course, but meanwhile, here's some "taster" pics:

 

20220306-135000.jpg

 

20220306-134842.jpg

 

A small touch of artistic licence: I'm not one of those who insist that all invasion stripes painted in the days before D-Day were scruffy ("hobby-horse" alert!!), but the black straying up the aerial was deliberate on my part.  The other stray black on the stripe behind wasn't, but I decided to leave it anyway.

 

20220306-134914.jpg

 

20220306-135026.jpg

 

20220306-135046.jpg

 

Did you wonder "Will it ever be finished"?  I know I did.  Thanks for staying with me, and for all the encouraging remarks along the way. 

 

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