Here’s a couple more that I knocked out over the last few days.
First up is Academy’s 1/72 “B”, OOB, nothing fancy, simple relaxing fun!
Up next, we have AccuMini’s P-51A/F-6, again, built OOB (except for the antenna). Wanted to use this one as a testbed for the “hairspray technique”, on the upper stripes. Some refs said these were scrubbed off(ish) and some said they were painted over, I say, I wanted to try something new! I masked off everything, except for the stripes, sprayed some hairspray on it and let it dry for a few. I sprayed the white, masked, then the black. I figured the tape would pull some of the paint off, which it did, but only tiny bits. This actually helped get things started when I went at it with water and a stubby brush. Once that was done, it looked weird, solid chunks of paint with perfectly clean green underneath. I went back with a very fine, and thin, misting over the black and white. So so results I guess.
I the meantime, while cement was curing, I started on Academy/Minicrafts 1/48 P-38 Pathfinder. The forward section has no detail whatsoever, (there seems to be parts to a seat on the sprues, but no mention in the inst.). I whipped out my “Artistic License” and went to work on it! I did not do any research on it, just went for it!
Wow I am really liking how your stable is turning out!! I really like the over all finish and weathering on both your Stangs…!!
And yes, the hairspray deal rerally turned out great!! I truly like hoe the chipped invasion stripes look!! By chance, do you have any pix of the sequence?
Geez you are a building machine aren’t ya? lol What markings will the 38 be dressed in?
Other than wincing in pain everytime I hear the word “stang” in reference to my beloved P-51s ([:P]), those are outstanding litle models, Fermis… Especially the distressed invasion stripes on the F-6… Wow…
Great build. That Pony looks like it could take off any minute! I’ve never done a B model. I am thinking that I will have to do one someday. I love the P38 as well. great detail work there.
Actually, both were true… Either scrubbed off with gasoline or painted over. Here’s a really good picture of a 355th FG P-51B, “The Iowa Beaut” post D-Day, that shows the painted-over stripes… They were painted over with either an RAF green, or a green paint that was available locally, as it’s plainly not a match for the USAAF OD and quite glossy… The picture I have in my reference book of this bird is much larger, and it’s easy to see in it that this flight is a administrative one, or perhaps a post-maintenence or repair test flight, since the pilot is wearing headphones over his “Crusher” cap instead of a flight helmet.
Personally, I think this is the best version of the P-51, since the feed problem in high-G turns had been solved (by adding powered feed-pawls to the guns), the Malcom Hood gave as good or almost as good visibility to the rear as the blown canopy of the D and later variants (plus Dad told me that the B was his favorite as well)…
But Fermis… Please tell my you’re just doing decompression builds in Braille-scale… Your 1/48th “Blacksmith” work is too good to lose you to the 1/72 “Jewelers”…[H]
Yes Sir, just for decomp., nothing more! Although, I do have a 72nd in the stash that I plan on going ballsout on, someday in the future. It’s an old Matchbox kit that I built as a kid, couldn’t remember the name of it, never even saw a pic of it, until I saw one on a vendor table…5 bucks!!! I’ll take it!!! That’s all I’m gonna say about it!
I know some planes had the stripes painted over and some scrubbed, I had conflicting refs on this particular bird.
CRIPES A MIGHTY… your a damn machine. And now that you have checked out the hair spray technique you are going to want to use it all the time. Fun ain’t it? And that looks super.
My only critique if I may…the panel lines over the spine should be re-scribed. Sorry, I am brushing up on my judging observations. MosquitoCon is just 2 months away.
Fermis I like the way your hairspray trick worked on the strippes, I would think that if they were scrubbed off with thinner or maybe gasoline thats they way they would have looked.
So I take it you sprayed the model with hairspray before adding the stripes ?
Yeah, you caught me being lazy. I had em rescribed at one point, but had to keep going with the filling and sanding, and I just overlooked em. This is most definitely not one for the contest table. Every insignia decal ripped on me, had a fare amount of paint come off with the masking tape (that’s a first[bnghead], so there’s a lot of touch up paint. It looks good on the shelf though!
I highly recommend you grab a can of Testor’s Decal Bonder when you can, Fermis… I’ve been using the stuff for old decals for a couple years now, and haven’t had a single shredding/tearing incident yet, even on decals that were 20-25 years old and could still smell “basement” on 'em…
Ah, gotcha… A “Command Decision” (meaning flip a coin)… Well, “scrubbed” looks good, really good, and also added a much more accurate “time-stamp”…
These decals weren’t (IMO) old enough to be put under suspicion. I have used clear flat laquer in the past with good results. Maybe it was just one of THOSE days, nothing was working out right![bnghead]
“Maybe it was just one of THOSE days, nothing was working out right!”
Yeah, Mom told there’d be days like that… She just never said they’d be in groups of seven and called, “weeks”…
Anyway, I suspect ALL decals anymore, unless i got the kit from the LHS, where I can do something about it, rather than dealing with a “Customer Service” rep… THere’s always a "sacrificial decal or two on a sheet, lol…
As for the decal bonder, I prefer it over laquer or anything else like that since it actually dries as a real decal film, and has some flex to it… I use it mainy for the decals I make on my printer, but like I said, it works great for restoring old decals too…
