Say it isnt so Mark, airbrushing on a Sunday and on a 1/72 a/c

I like the screen material, gives me some ideas for my P-40. How did the cockpit turn out, I could not see it on my computer? If you did, I did not catch what scheme you had planned.

Bob

Well, actually I was painting last night ~8.

Cockpit is Testors Interior green. The back of the control panel is the yellow blob on the right side of the photo. Need to do a wash in the cockpit to bring out the stringers and bulkheads.

Working on gun sight and throttle quadrant today.

Made good progress yesterday. Was also reminded of some things Don't use an enamel wash on unprotected enamel. It started to clean off the paint I had already sprayed on…Recovered from that and went to an ink based wash. 1 drop of ink, 60 drops of water and it was still too rich, so I washed it on and wiped it off with a wet Q-tip. Worked pretty good, just didn’t take any photos of the cockpit. Here’s how the wing came out:
It's in better focus in real life.

Added some .010” solder to the cockpit walls for wiring and a couple in the wheel wells for hydraulic lines. Got really excited about being so close to done on the interior, that I glued it up, before I added the throttle quadrant. Hope fully I can do that from the outside.
Well, maybe it's me that out of focus.

Don't think I'll be done with this before I start the P-51. And I have to re think how to finish it. Col. Scott or another 23FG with British camo. Decisions decisions.

Got both of the wings glued up. Found and installed the throttle quadrant. Got some Mr Surfacer spread along the fuselage seams, managed to get them close, had to cut off the guide pins, s0 I won't lose too much detail when I sand it out.

Starting to lean towards the Col. Scott markings since that's a simpler paint job and I want to get this one done, P-51 build starts next week.

AFTER I glued up the fuel tank I figured out a better way to do it. Their plan was a set of "U" shaped braces that the top and bottom halves of the tank trap. Then there's a set of 4 shallow depressions (troughs) on the bottom of the fuselage when the ends of the "U's" would end up. I think it would be better to cut the "U's" in half, glue and clean up the tank seperately. Then drill 4 holes in the fuselage and fill up the troughs. After painting, glue the half "U's" to the tank and then into the 4 holes in the fuselage. Might be easier to do than to describe.

Mark, are you really using the excuse that a P-51 is more important than the P-40 just kidding. I really did feel an earth quake when your ripped the kit bag.

Bob

Ah.. that wasn't me making "the earth shake under your feet", yet.

The P-51 is still nestled safely in its bag.

But, at this moment somewhere in the stash I have:
AMT 1/48 B-26 (MIA)
Matchbox 1/72 F-86A
Heller 1/72 A-1J
Airfix 1/72 A4D-1
Kitech 1/72 F-16C
Academy 1/72 F-84E
Hasegawa 1/32 F-16A
Tamiya 1/700 HMS Nelson
Tamiya 1/700 USS Johnston
Revell 1/187(?) USS Drum
Tamiya 1/35 Ford GPA
Airfix 1/72 M4 Sherman
Tamiya 1/35 M41
Academy 1/35 M48A5K
At some level of started and stalled.

I clearly need to FINISH something! This P-40 will be it even if it kills me........

OMG this is my 900th post and finally the depth of my addiction (or is it ADD) is apparent....

Well Mark, you have plenty to choose from. I think the dust has plenty of area to settle on my stash. This is called no time to play: Here is my waiting room.

1/32
Academy Fokker Dr.I

1/72
BEPKYT I-4 (ANT-5, N-4Z)
Heller Somua
RPM FT 17
UM M4A2 (76) HVSS
PST KV-8S Heavy Flamethrower Tank (2)

1/48
Testors Mr. Mulligan
The Eagle Talon, INC. LA-7 (vac)
Airfix Bf109F (Bf109 campaign)
Otaki P-40E (working on now)
Revell P-51B/C
Revell Spitfire Mk II
Hobbycraft Hawker Hurricane Mk II
Tamiya F4F-4
Hasegawa P-47D Razorback
Roden Sopwith 1 ½ Strutter
Eduard Fokker E.V
AMTECH P-40F
Academy P-40
Revell Bf 110G-2 ZG1 ICM Sptifire Mk VIII
AMT P-36A
AMT P-47D Razorback
Monogram P-38
AeroMaster (conversion set) P-40F/L (2)
AeroMaster (upgrade set) Bf-109G/6-14 (2)

1/35
ZVEZDA M13/40
ZVEZDA T-34 (Steal Beasts of the East)
ZVEZDA M-3 Scout Car
ZVEZDA BA-3 (parts for my scratch M-1 armored car)
Testors Marder III
Tamiya M-3 Lee
Tamiya M-3 Stuart (Campaign in the Pacific)
Tamiya M3 Grant
Tamiya M13/40
Tamiya M41 (Korean Campaign)
Tamiya kampwagen IV ausfD
Tamiya KV-II
Eastern Express KV-I
Bronco H39
DML Sd. Kfz. 138/2 Hetzer
AFV M10
Italeri M109 A6 Paladin
Italeri M4A3 Calliope
Italeri Sd. Kfz. 234/2 Puma
Italeri M4A1
Maquette Pz.Kpfw 38(t)
Maquette Ballentine Mk. IV
Mirage 7TP



Bob

Bob, is that the whole stash or just what you've started to some level?

I pulled together a database of my model stuff. Without all the decals it's running about 250 pieces. I'm thinking it's like 180 kits, 50 detail sets and 20-30 decals.

Nope! all kits gathering dust until I complete college for the VA chapter 31. I get to play for just a few minutes at a time. It seems you have the dicese also only on a grander scale.

Bob

yea, I've got it bad. Looks like it's over 200, a few go back to high school (too long ago) but the biggest slug is probably from '98-'03. I really need to finish some.

One step forward, two steps back.

Spent a little time on the P-40 after the car show. Thought I was finished with the 2nd fill step, so I hit it with silver paint stick to check my work. Scrap, I hurried a spot w/ Mr. Surfacer, but it shrank. Then I noticed the intake housing now had a seam line where one wasn't before. Turns out the glue joint had cracked, so I had to open it up and re-glue it...

I did get the fuel tank trough filled in with some strip stock and some more Mr. Surfacer. Slim chance of photos tonight.

Mark, a report on the Gator Glue results. Used it on some plasic to resin and it works good so far, it has been about an hour and seems to have a pretty good bond. The application is the kicker, so much more easier than cynoacrilite. Will give you another updat tomorrow re: its hold onto the parts installed.

Bob

Glad to hear it's good stuff.

Actually made some progress in the last 24 hrs. Mostly of the 2 steps forward and 1 step back type. After I got the fuselage cleaned up, I decided that I needed to file out a slot for the new control panel in place -- cracked the fuselage open again.

Glued it back together and got some details painted so progress is being made.

You guys are amateurs in this addiction stuff! Try over 600 kits in the stash, mostly 1/32 aircraft and 1/35 vehicles, and about 100 detail sets for them. I KNOW I have been addcited for 30 years or so.

You have picked an interesting kit to build that no one else would probably build due to later releases, and it isn't shake and bake..

Keep up the good work Mark.

@ Warren, I knew that you were sick but I did not the degree. And for being an ametaure,several bad marraiges will thin the collection down somewhat. . Just starting again on my stash.

@ Mark: DITTO, what Warren said.

Bob

I may be old, but I'm slow.

Seems like about 1/2 of my kits are dogs that I intended to practice on before I tackled those really good Tamigawa kits. Probably work better if I worked faster.

Stash is at 205 kits + at least 40 detail sets and 20-40 decal sets. I think I've had at least 5 of them since Christmas of '68. That's not a typo, 42 years ago, I think I have a problem. Most of my teenage builds didn't survive a house cleaning about 5 years after I got married. Now the stash is hidden away in ~9 boxes or under the desk,

Some one once asked Lee Trevino what the difference between a good golfer and a great golfer was. Lee said that good golfers know how to recover from their mistakes, great golfers know how not to make mistakes. I'm still learning how to make mistakes. This P-40 is the perfect subject to learn on. hopefully some of it will transfer over to the P-40 (Academy B or Hasegawa E) for the work horse build next year.

42 years! That's pretty good!

I have had one marriage that did not work, but I made sure that there was no access to my kits or diecast cars..

I dragged about 500 kits all over the country while I was in the RAAF, then when I realised thta braille scale was not for me I sold 99% of the 1/72 stuff.

One advantage of the stash is that I have a subject for every group build and campaign that comes up..

Well I have moved 14 times in the last 42 years, that's about once every 3 years, all without benefit of military service. Been married 32 years and while she bought me my airbrush and a couple of kits, she still considers it a kid's hobby, not appropriate for a 'grown' man.

I was actually trying to cull out the 1/48 and keep the 1/72 since they take up less space. Still have a large no of 1/32 a/c. 1/35 armor, 1/48 a/c, a rash of ships and lots of 1/72 a/c. Maybe I should just build some of them.

Been using campaigns to motivate me to get something done. Hasn't worked too well in the past, but things are getting better.

Progress.

The wings are ON!



Lots of clean up to do. There are huge gaps on the bottom (hope I didn't get too much dihedral in there) that I'll have to fill with dome plastic before I try any fillers. There's a bui of stepping at the aft end but the front looks OK.

Also got a lot of little bits worked on.



Cleaned and painted the LG struts and wheels. Finished the drop tank and started working on the electric gun sight.

Mark, I see a P-40 taking shape. It is looking good and those tires were hard to paint, I bet


Bob

Bob, the wheels weren't so bad. Had to sand and fill since they had one half was slightly larger than the other. It was the struts that irked me. I tried something a bit different, I painted the main strut Tamiya flat aluminum and the oleo Testors steel. You can almost see the difference. But then I noticed that I hadn't gotten all of the flash off and managed to miss about half of one strut, so all the paints came out again.

I also drilled out the prop hole and super glued in a piece of brass that fits the prop shaft. Now the prop can be installed for show or removed for travel.

MURPHY'S LAW, happens everytime .

Bob

More progress, just no photos. Gravity didn't beat me on the wings, they held what looks like the right dihedral. But there were gaps (actually G-A-P-S) you could see clear thru the joint in a couple of places. I cut up some .005 sheet stock and wedged it into the larger cracks and glued them in.
Then I tried something I’ve never really done before. Since .005 was the smallest stock I had, I stretched some sprue to get thin stuff to cram into the smaller cracks. Using the stuff I picked up here and on a YouTube I got a decent stretch (and no burned fingers) that I used to fill the remaining gaps.
There are still some steps between the wing root and the wing, but I did manage to drive those to the bottom, so I should be good there.

Getting the dihedral correct has always been a problem for me, nice to hear you are doing well in having yours comeout fine.

Bob

Re-learned a lesson on this one this last week. Spend more time test fitting the wings to the fuselage. Adding a shim at the inboard edge might have eliminated a step along the bottom of the fuselage and a terrible fit just aft of the leading edge. It might have left a thick trailing edge to the wing, but filling a gap at the trailing edged of a wing just won’t be as destructive as sanding off all of the detail on the wing root.
As it is, I’ve slathered on way too much Mr. Surfacer trying to smooth out the steps and now I’m having trouble getting it all smoothed out.