Is this gonna turn in to an 'Old contest'?

As in "I'm so old that the plastic kits were made of wood when I was a kid"?

Mark, I hope not, but if it does, then I'm still leading the pack. I'm 66 and collecting Social Security.

Joel

Well, I'm not 66 and still paying into Social Security.

And that's super important, so that my checks which just started will continue to come for years on end.

Joel

If you're depending on me, you might want to start investing in cat food now. I'll be back on unemployment soon if I can't find a real gig to carry me to my retirement a few years from now. As it is, my mortgage company expects me to work till I'm 83 to pay off this abode.

Mark, In all seriousness. Sure hope that you find a good paying position ASAP.
Joel

Hi All and good luck Mark a lot of us are in your shoes!
I picked up my Lone Star parts from the post office today and will start the build over Christmas.
I will build the P-61/F-15 Reporter 559306 "The 8 Ball"

This photos shows the DML and Lone Star kits together for the first time

Love to hear about how the DML kit works out. I wanted to try one for this build. But there weren't any available off the shelf and I really didn't want to pay online prices and shipping.

I'm hopeful that I'll find another gig soon. Just hope the economy really starts to improve soon.

Been working on the R2800 double engines, engine nacelles, and cowl flaps. My plan was to semi detail one engine, open up one of the engine Nacelle panels to show off the detailed engine, and to add some additional interest to the engine boom assembly.

I started out by cutting out the top panel and framing it with .020 sheet with holes drilled for the fasteners.



The cowl flaps weren't just a simple set of open flaps, but had backing plates between each of the them, covering the opening. I used small pcs of sheet plastic cut and glued in place.


I then airbrushed the back of the cowl flaps and then inside of the Nacelles Yellow Zinc Chromate.





Now I test fitted the 2800 engine minus the exhaust headers.



So far I've only completed one engine, and one engine boom. But the other engine boom won't have any panels opened, so the work should go much faster.

Joel

Sweet. It's too cold here to pop out the air brush, so I've gotta get clever

Mark, Do you use your airbrush outside in a shed or garage where the air temps come into play?

Joel

Right now it's outside. In the past I could do it in an unheated garage. Prep everything inside, run out, set it all up in a large box, spray everything and drag it back inside as soon as possible. Had a moisture trap on the compressor just in case. Yesterday AM it was 13 deg here, way too cold for painting..

Guess, I'm really lucky. I have my own computer/modeling room. Central air, and temp control for the whole house.

Joel

So do you vent the room somehow when you're painting?

I've salvaged a sealed blower motor, from a broken Christmas decoration, and I'm working on using that to vent a booth so I can start spraying indoors...

Mark, I don't vent the room in any way when I'm airbrushing acrylics or enamel. When I shoot lacquers, I use my homemade, el cheapo, spray booth that fits in a regular window.

Joel

OK.. before I take this really do you do anything to contain the over spray and 'blow back'?

Mark,
When airbrushing with Acrylics I never worry about over spray going where I don't want it, computer monitor, etc. There is so little over spray it just doesn't really concern me. Now if I was using a rattle can, that's a whole different story. For that it's outside use only.

Sure there is a little odor, but no worse then when I use a brush.

Joel

I just had a go at the review for HGW's Seatbelt set for the HobbyBoss P-61B. Here is a look.

Click here.

Working on the last few detail items on the wings, I'm faced with what and how to handle the IFF lights. Each outer lower wing panel has the standard Allies set of three IFF lights. These are simply represented by recessed circles, as no clear plastic, no nothing is provided. Not exactly what I would have expected in a kit this well detailed, and at it's current price point.

At 1st I thought about following Jessica's led, and just drilling out the holes, then filling with clear stretched sprue, and painting the backs either silver or the appropriate color. Just not sure if this method will provide the look I'm after.

Right now I'm thinking that by drilling out each hole till I just start to break through the wing panel will give me the proper bottom shape. Then a dab of CCA glue to re-seal the concave cavity. Paint the bottom bright (Testors) Silver. When dry fill with Pledge/Future tinted with one of the three appropriate colors. The Pledge will dry flat to the surface, and be a translucent color.

Right now I'm planning on using Tamiya Acrylic transparent colors.

Outside of the drilling part, I'll leave this detailing to after the model if completely finished, including weathering.

Any other ideas on how to handle this?

Joel

There's always MV Products lenses.

Or you can make your own. Burnish a piece of tinfoil around the end of a paintbrush, superglue it into the hole and fill it with Krystal Kleer to make the glass.

I have a product called "Mod Podge Dimensional Magic" that I picked up at Walmart which I will try out for lenses.

Jessica,
I can see the tinfoil being a equal option to painting. Krystal Kleer is a product I've used ages ago, but keep on forgetting to buy again. Would still add a few drops of the appropriate color so that each lens is color correct.




Richard,
Let us know how it works out. Curious to hear if I dries as clear as Crystal Kleer does.


Joel

Finally a interior update.

Started working on the fuselage interior. I must say that the kit is very well detailed, and not a lot can be added, other then more wiring, better oxygen lines, a few floor levers, and small details here and there.

I started with the cockpit fuselage walls. on the right side wall I added a few more boxes, wiring, new oxygen lines, etc. The oxygen hoses are made from solid wire, then wrapped with a thinner diameter wire. When painted, I'm planning on applying a few heavy coats to help fill in the winds so that it looks like a flex hose with internal wire supports. There is a much larger line that runs along the floor, which runs to the front of the cockpit. I ended up using a piece wire sheathing. I removed the sheathing from the copper wire so that the bend would have a nice even radius to it.





On the left cockpit fuselage wall I started to detail the throttle assembly. Added a top plate, and 5 throttles. Additional holes were drilled for the throttle rods.



The knobs still need a few more coats of PVA glue to form the knobs. There is a panel just in front of the throttle that needs to be added, and two gauges that are mounted on the canopy sill.

Then rear fuselage compartment needed some details to bring it up to the level of detail as the rest of the fuselage.





In order to mold the wing mount surfaces on the exterior sides of the fuselage completely flat, the interior fuselage walls could no longer maintain the correct shape. A separate piece is glued into the cavity to correct this issue. I added additional Formers & Stringers so that the part blends in nicely. This is really a nice touch as most model companies just leave this area as an eye sore. I then added the rear compartment oxygen hose and mask. I also added a few electrical boxes and wiring to busy up the bulkhead.

The lower rear bulkhead was detailed with a few braces. I drilled out 3 lightening holes. the actual bulkhead should have 5 holes, but As I played with it, it just didn't look right, so I left out the bottom 2 holes.

Joel

Finally finished detailing, painting, and weathering the interior. Just one silly issue that still drives me nuts. After dry brushing with light gray rather then silver, as it looks more natural for some reason especially since all the surfaces are natural metal under the paint, the dry brushing looks like wear areas, yet when I take close up pictures of them, they always appear like paint spattering. Maybe I should try enamel paints rather then acrylics.

The cockpit front office is painted interior green. Tamiya XF-4 & XF-5 with a drop of XF-1, thinned 1:1 with X20-A. The lower portions of the fuselage are painted Yellow Zinc Chromate: Tamiya XF-4 thinned with X20-A 1:1.
As I said, I dry brushed the surfaces with Tamiya Sea Gray XF-19. Then a overall filter wash of Model Master Enamel Raw Sienna heavily diluted in plain Jane Mineral Spirits.

Joel

Getting ready to finally glue up the fuselage halves. I keep on looking at that huge cylinder that goes directly under the top turret gun assembly. The instructions call for it to be painted flat black. But for the life of me, I can't even see any reason to install it as it's completely hidden from view.
Joel