One thing to keep in mind is that many IL-4s were partially constructed of wood. Not to say it couldn’t have been NMF with aluminum lacquer or something over the wood components, but worth knowing going in…
Ooh, good point. Is there a good place I could find out what parts were wood? Oddly enough, there doesn’t seem to be much info on this aircraft.
Thanks
V-man: Ripped open the plastic bags and washed the kit this afternoon, I may be a little slow since I want to get my other jug finished first though.
Sub: That would look awesome in NM!
Interesting kits sofar! Gonna be fun to watch[:D]. I just took a moment to take a pic or two of my intended kit: the Academy F8F-1 Bearcat. It does have parts not used and two cowlings so i assume it does have the parts to make an F8F-2…
The NMF boxart really caught my attention and i never built a bearcat so it should be fun to do. Not too many parts and the pit could use some aftermarket to spice it up but the sprues are free of flash and i generally like the ease of construction of the academy kits, not to mention gentle pricetags…[;)]
Richard
That does look nice! Are those South Vietnam markings? Sweet! And I agree with you about Academy. Their kits are kind of hit and miss on superdetailing, but the ones I have done are well constructed and overall very nice. And yes, they are certainly an excellent kit for the modest price!
Sorry about that. The kit is a 1/48 Tamiya. My wife is having a knee replaced on Thursday, but I’ll try to get some pictures up after she comes home from hospital. Even after 34 years of marriage she is still smoken hot and the love of my life. A fun wife and group build—I’m a lucky man.
Hope her stay in the hospital goes well, PNGbrat
I finally got an internet connection back [H]
going to pull my WIP pics off of my old phone (replaced that too) and post them up all soon-like
PNGbrat got the front page updated now Sorry to hear about your wife needing a new knee man. Hope all goes well ans she has a speedy recovery. Yes yes you are a lucky man [t$t]
Man I cant believe all the great kits being started for this round !!! [::DD0][::DD0][<:o)]
Kermit got ya on the roster buddy, have been eyeballin that same kit [:P]
Vetteman,
Nice kit sofar but the pit is kinda sparse… i like the wheel wells though…
Got started the other night. Sorry about the bad quality pics, i was too lazy to take out the stuff into the photobooth:
To spice things up a tiny bit i used some PE spares i had to fashion some kind of seat belts…:
(woops forgot to rotate sorry…)
Richard
So…I’ve been mostly out of pocket for the last week or so. Haven’t been at the bench at all. Haven’t been posting much.
Well, the stuff keeping me away finally reached its conclusion yesterday, so I finally got to play with the big B-25 some more, and have the cockpit mostly wrapped up. Some of the IP gauges are cloudy because the Krystal Klear was still curing when I took these…but it’s enough to give the idea.
I’m thinking about scratching some headsets to put in the cockpit, perhaps draped over the control yokes or up on the IP combing. And a Life magazine or something left in the nose section.
You think yours is sparse? I just realized my kit doesn’t even HAVE a cockpit! Insane for a plane that has a giant greenhouse for a nose!
Still not sure what I want to do about that… Unless somebody has a spare 1/72 cockpit laying around that i could have…
Kermit looks a heck of a lot better than my only P-47 build, the treasured 1/48 Testers kit [:P] Been wanting to do another for a while now. Course I have been wanting to build for a while.
Doogs lookin good man [Y] I think adding the headsets will be a great touch especially in that scale. You gonna dirty it up some too ?
dang i wish io could finish my P-80 but no dice on the windscreen yet [:@]
Richard & Doogs: Great work there guys! Doogs, I think the headphones and magazine would look great. Maybe toss in a map too.
Col Grey: Good luck on your canopy, had the same thing happen to me with an Academy F-15 years ago. Kit was 95% done and since I couldn’t finish it ended up going straight to the parts bin [:@]
So I was slightly wrong. The kit does have a few pieces for the interior. Still pretty sparse, but at least it’s something I can work with.
The other good news is, as I was randomly browsing the LHS last night, I came across this:
Which I immediately flipped open to the profiles page and found…
So they did do some in NMF afterall! I’m kind of excited now.
Thanks, -Budd
Budd- That looks awesome! [Y]
So…one nasty necessity with the way B-25 landing gear works is that it has to be installed during the build process. Since I’m getting near to the point where I need to pay attention to the nose gear, I decided the time was right for a test-fit.
First…the interior’s coming along…
It’s dirtier than it looks in the picture…for some reason the light obliterates a lot of it.
The fuselage goes together quite well, but likes to bounce apart in places, so needs lots of tape until I’m ready to commit to glue.
A very pleasant surprise of the test fit was that, this time, the wings did the whole slide-lock thing! Looks like I’ll be able to assemble them and then install them after all, instead of literally having to build them up after attaching the lowers to the fuselage. Yay!
Okay…so here’s the monster all done up:
The nose gear takes the weight quite well, too!
And a view through the glass:
Greetings,
Doogs, that B-25 is going to be a beautiful beast!
My last post described my setback with the MM acrylic anti-glare panel pulling up after masking. After that, I sanded, primed with enamel, resprayed the OD, then hit it with some Dullcote for good measure. Now masked and ready for the paint shop:
Along the way, I had decided one night to drill out the plastic blast tubes. Well, I made a hash of that, so I cut 'em off, drilled bigger holes and added barrels from some .042 stainless tubing I had left from my P-47.
Turned out OK, though I obviously need to fill that leading edge seam.
Next stop, my first experience with MM Metalizer.
Doogs: Nice work on THE MONSTER!!! Size and detail, wish I had room for one.
SF: Nice work there too, the guns look pretty good to me.
Yeah, nice to see this GB moving right along - some great stuff so far.
Kermit, I’m diggin’ the added detail in your 'cat. Looks great so far!
Stout, the 'stang is progressing nicely. Noticed where you stated you plan on using MM metalizer. Have you considered Alclad II instead? I find it a lot more forgiving and a breeze to apply.
Bud, cool that you found a NMF for the IL-4. Looking forward to seeing that one take shape!
Doogs, man, what can I say - the ‘pit looks flippin’ amazing, and dang, that thing is an animal! What’s the span on that beast?
Got a few progress pics of the Virago. All the chrome has been stripped - a 2 day bath in Simple Green works a treat! All the metal painted so far is Alclad II, aluminum and dark aluminum). The chrome and stainless steel stuff for the shiney bits is on order and should be arriving in a few days. I’ll need those for all the trim, the exhausts, the front fork & suspension, and the lights The rims were also painted aluminum Alclad II and a heavy overcoat of Tamiya clear yellow. The frame is MM Acryl semi-gloss black. Anyhow, here’s where she stands so far.
