All the rest part 2?

[Agent G]

Completed.

G

[Danny Lectro]

That looks great, Wayne!

[Danny Lectro]

It's too bloody hot in NYC for painting, so I'm currently at an impasse.  I am planning to go to science-fiction/fantasy oriented model show in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to have both of my chosen kits ready to enter in their contest.  Now it looks like I'll be lucky to have one complete in time.

However, I do have some progress to show from the last couple weeks, mostly on the TIE Fighter's cockpit.

I decided to cheat a bit and use the kit's stick-on decals for the cockpit (it comes with both stick-on and waterslide).  I don't think it will be too noticeable once the fuselage has been fully assembled around it.  The parts were painted AMMO gray over Testors Super Fine primer.  I will probably apply a bit of panel line wash before adding the pilot and gunner figures.

The solar panels / radiators / whatever Disney calls them this week were painted with Testors magnesium Metallizer and buffed out with a cloth wheel on my Dremel at lowest speed.

[Agent G]

The wee beastie is quite detailed.

I like the way the cockpit  looks. 

G

[Agent G]

I wanted to take a break from complicated detailed builds. I have a vacation coming and won't be home for a couple of weeks. 

So, I pulled this off the shelf of doom where it has sat for nearly a year after a mishap with the aftermarket metal tracks. I bought a new set of Fruil Model metal tracks and went at it. 

G

 

 

[phil-east]

Man those tanks look fantastic ! I have completed a few kits recently and will post some photos soon. my next build is a 1:100 Zeta plus gundam and i am going to try and post some wip shots here. I have been meaning to start taking wip photos for ages but always forget about it once i start building.

i'm looking forwards to seeing the special forces tie, gouf and the astray gundam progress. I have recently discovered Bandai kits and absolutely love them.

[phil-east]

I've been quite busy in the past couple of months, the x-wing is a quick repaint of the revell kit and was used as a practice for using masking fluid for chipping, the others are all bandai kits and i have been hooked on building them since i did the first Gunpla kit.These kits have really sparked my building motivation as i am enjoying them so much. probably a bad thing as I am now sat looking at another order from Japan and planning what to do with them !

as always any questions, comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome.

[Agent G]

Good stuff Phil!

I like the desert camo on the Gundam.

G

[mustang1989]

How tha hell did I miss this one?????? I'm definitely in on this Wayne. Wow! I still can't believe I didn't see this.

How 'bout a Hasegawa Arado 234 B-2?

Edited August 22, 2016 by mustang1989

[Zarana-X]

I got the hip and shoulder joints on the Gundam figured out. Should post some pics soon. 

[Agent G]

Bring 'em on gents!

G

[MLMDesign]

That tank looks awesome great work Wayne. Awesome builds Phil great work. Everyone else is doing great work.

[mustang1989]

Ok I'll be catching up in here.

It's been a long while since I've done anything aviation related so it was really difficult to decide on what I'm going to do for an ice breaker for the last few months. I bounced back and forth from Ta-152 to an Fw190 D series to a 190 A series to finally .........this:

A Hase offering of the 234:


I bought two of these because every time I start hackin' on a build for detail add ons like cockpits or engine displays or anything like that I have inherent problem of messing something up along the way to the point of being unrepairable so I just head it off at the pass with a spare parts kit. I don't know when exactly I'll get started on this bad boy as I still have to finish up my '54 Chevy Panel Wagon that I'm building in the Auto section.

Here are the upgrades:



with a masking set:



and reference material:

[Ace-Garageguy]

Not too exciting, but I've been trying to get good tight landing and flying wires using nylon mono-filament with less-than-stellar results. Then had an "aha" moment, got some .010 wire in very straight sections that will give me a close-to-correct representation of 1/4 inch wires, and look like they'll be easy to install while keeping the appearance of being 'tight'.

Being able to install the wires at the end of the build and have them still appear 'tight' simplifies things somewhat, so I can get on with the rest of it. 

[Agent G]

We're on a roll now.

Love me them late war German jets. Get some Joe!

Bill that's one reason I never built a bi plane. Well I did but it sure didn't look like what it was supposed to.

G

 

[mustang1989]

  On 8/27/2016 at 8:48 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Not too exciting, but I've been trying to get good tight landing and flying wires using nylon mono-filament with less-than-stellar results. Then had an "aha" moment, got some .010 wire in very straight sections that will give me a close-to-correct representation of 1/4 inch wires, and look like they'll be easy to install while keeping the appearance of being 'tight'.

Being able to install the wires at the end of the build and have them still appear 'tight' simplifies things somewhat, so I can get on with the rest of it. 

That sounds like a good idea. Next time youre up against that dilemma try some EZ Line Bill. That stuff works wonders.

Edited August 29, 2016 by mustang1989

[phil-east]

I am just putting the finishing touches on another gundam model, I fully intended to do some WIP photos but once again completely forgot when i got sat down to build. I have a few bits of touching up and another clearcoat to go and then i will see what happens when i try to transform it into vehicle form !

[Ace-Garageguy]

Finally got some movement. My contribution will be the later Lindberg edition of this kit. Though it's marked 1/32 and has a tiny little pilot figure, the wingspan actually scales out to 1/26 or so. I'll be modifying as I go to make the cockpit more scale-correct, but it won't be a completely correct model by any means...just something that gives a good impression of this crazy airplane with a few detail enhancements.

The real Gee Bee had very smooth plywood-covered wings, sanded and slicked up. The Pyro version of the kit has very obvious wing ribs...right for fabric-covered wings, but not for this bird. I WAS going to sand all the ribbing off the old Pyro wings, but I found a started Lindberg model cheap.

An oven-cleaner bath is getting all the old brush-paint off quite nicely.

The control surfaces should be smooth too. The Lindberg kit has them just a little smoother than the older Pyro version, but they'll still take a fair bit of work. The cockpit parts in the background will have to be replaced.

The kit tires are kinda blobular, but I found some straight-treaded rubber Dunlops that will look better at first glance.

The engine is just a flat plank, and it needs the center brought forward somewhat, as I'll be setting it back deeper inside the cowl. The 'engine case' I'll be using, to the right, is a part from an old AMT drag-strip accessories kit.

Machining a somewhat better curve on the 'engine case'.

The engine plank shot flat black, with 3 of the cylinders treated to a silver dry wash to make them pop just a little. I'll do 'em all, then go back with a black wash between the fins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Agent G]

Looking good everybody.

I returned from my roadtrip and am back at it. It was real difficult to log in during my travels. 

Keep it coming gentlemen.

G

[Ace-Garageguy]

This is the scale issue. The little guy on the left came with the kit (labeled 1/32). The guy on the right is 1/24 (Lefty keeps my builds real by test fitting everything so it would work in the 1:1 world). The Gee Bee model scales in at right about 1/26 if you measure the wingspan, so Lefty would be a pretty big guy and would be a really tight squeeze in the cockpit, but he's a lot closer to scale than the kit-supplied joke thing.

Lefty will actually fit in the cockpit pretty much like you do in the real thing, though he's kinda on the big side. If you've ever seen the movie The Rocketeer, you'll notice that the guy flying a full-scale replica of the earlier and just slightly smaller Gee Bee Z fits exactly the same way. The cockpit internals will be built to accommodate ol' Lefty, at least enough to see through the canopy and the side door (not included on the model, but we'll be getting one).

EDIT: Here's a shot of the real GeeBee Z, showing very clearly how tiny the airplane is relative to the pilot. The plane was simply as small as the builders could make it, to just barely fit in a pilot and have absolutely minimum drag, with the largest possible engine. That's why it flew 267 MPH in 1931. Its slightly bigger brother, the GeeBee R-1 I'm building here, did 296 MPH in 1932, with an 800 HP, 1344 cu.in. Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp radial.

 

 

Edited September 19, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[cobraman]

I love the flying barrel !

[mustang1989]

That Gee Bee looks good so far Bill!

Thought I'd catch up in here. Been all over the place with life and now building. I'm building an aircraft and VW bus at the same time and I've about got the system down to organization.

Here's about 47 pieces of resin, plastic and PE and about 1-1/2 months of building.....

I managed to finish the cockpit tub and am now working on the side panels. After that I'll be working on the glass enclosure, which is a real PIA on this kit. Any ways, here's the completed tub:

[Zarana-X]

I got the torso articulation sorted, and am about to seal it up.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Kinda thought maybe I'd build the GeeBee looking like it was just getting ready for paint. Shot a spare cowl with Testors buffing metalizer and like the outcome. The upper fuselage panel was shot with the same stuff and is going to need a rework as soon as it's fully hard though. Many of the glue lines on the parts don't line up well, so a "simple" build is becoming much more time-consuming as bodywork needs to be done to correct the seams.

[cobraman]

Coming along nicely Bill. That's my favorite non war bird plane. Tried to do one several years ago but I really messed up the paint job.