First, I just want to say thank you to everyone her at FS forums who’s given great, helpful, friendly advice. Especially since none of you all seem to be lacking a sense of humor!
So here’s the post of my first airplane. Be kind. I expect to improve.
Mer1122,
If that’s your first ever plane, that’s great! Just keep building!! That’s WAAAAAYYYYY better than my first attempt. The turbo-supercharger looks very good - nice job.
You did note on your web page you should stay away from superglue for attaching canopies - good idea and you can see why…use white glue instead.
Nice job, and keep building (don’t forget to have fun, too)
Cheers’
LeeTree
Hey mer1122, not bad for a first! [^]
I like your idea of posting so we all can see your skills develop. I really like the different color panels.
Regarding the seepage under the decal you can solve this by painting base color(s) then using a gloss clearcoat (Future etc.) then decaling then applying another gloss clearcoat. This process wil prevent “silvering” of the decals and seepage. After you do all that weather your model and hit it with another clearcoat, gloss (bare metal) or dull (camoflage).[:)]
As to the canopy: Keep practicing and don’t get discouraged, I still mess some upafter 20+ years![:p]
You picked a kit for your first model that I gave up on with about 18 years modeling experience under my belt when I tried taking it on.
That old P-38 is one of those kits that I think could put a beginer right off the hobby completely out of the sheer frustration it can cause.
Grab the Promodeler P-38 someday and post some pictures when you’re done, I’d love to see what you can do with the better Hasegawa derived moldings that kit provides, should be a knockout considering what you did with that old beast of a kit.
thank y’all so much for the positive support! i hope to see improvements in my latest endeavour, the Hawker Typhoon. It’s already going so much easier than the p-38 kit.
claymore thanks for the tip on decals…for this plane i clearcoated, decaled, decal-set, weathered…next time i’ll clearcoat again before weathering as you suggest.
did you use brushes to paint it? looks pretty darn good. I’m afraid to use brushes on mine because i don’t want to have the urge to throw them out whent he paint doesn’t look right. (right now, they’re all unpainted, and you can tell the putty from a mile away, plus all the sanded spots look awful)
stangfanatic i did a combination of spray testors metallic silver for the body, then brushed paint for the details, interior, props, replacement panels etc…i’m fixin to take the plunge into airbrushing with my current project…cross your fingers for me!
Drew, you’re not going to build a decent model for 12 years???[:p][;)][:p]
With all these forums I’m sure you could cut that down by at least half.[;)]
I’m thinking back to my first kit-the Aurora PBY-5a. I slapped it together with enough glue to build my next dozen and the rest is history! My first effort was less than admirable, but yours is very nice. I’ll be sure to check out your next two projects.
Hi Merideth. You know I will be kind, Yoou have done a great job with a bad kit, you should be patting yourself on the back. Keep it up and soon you will be teaching us a thing or two.