Grey Ghost 531

The cold just let up down here in Vermont. We had -30°C a couple of nights ago with a high the next day of about -20 but now we're going to have three days of just around freezing with some rain at the end of it. That should be fun.

I'd try to avoid petroleum based products on vinyl tires. Over time they may break the material down and then it will be too late. I sprayed some car tires with Dull Coat once and they stayed sticky for ever. Others may know the particulars of Trumpy tire material.

Proper DDG looks too dark for my taste. I used Model Master Euro Dark Green FS34092. Once you put a wash on it I think it looks the part and doesn't hide detail.

I'd like to thank Sean very much for administering this group build. I had fun with it and built a couple of things that would have languished in the stash otherwise. The Firefly especially. That was a fun build.

Wow!

I'm using imgur. It seems to work well.

Don't rush it and ruin it. She'll get done in her own time. I knew the collectors were stainless steel (Copperish is one of the tones they'll stain to) but I've never heard about painting them black. I'll have to file that in my data heap. Maybe a little chipping of the black showing through stained stainless would look cool...

I started this about a month ago. The Autocar tractor and T2 gasoline tanker trailer are painted but I have to get pictures of them. Here's the M6 Bomb Truck and M5 Bomb Trailer. Only extra work is I thinned the headlight guards from the back to open them up, drilled out the lugs on the bombs and whittled the fuse vanes into some sort of vane-like form.

Build number THREE finished, WOOHOO! Airfix Fairey Firefly Mk5, original 1966 boxing. Details in the build log thread.

The model is complete. The finishing touches are decals from the same IPMS Canada sheet I used on the Sea Fury, panel line wash using "War Pigs" pastel wash, an antenna using Uschi "Rig that thing" fine elastic and a final varnish of a 50/50 mix of Testors Dull Coat and Gloss Coat.

Very nice builds on two very underrated kits.

Two weeks to go in the group build, I should be able to bring the Firefly in on time. It's all painted and the stickers are next. Here's a shot with some extra light to show the rivets. How I masked the tail demarcations Paint done and airframe futured. Also painted the coaming under the windscreen and the exhaust area. Tamiya Nato black for the coaming and the recess and MM jet exhaust for the stacks. The leading edge of the wing took quite a while to mask with the tanks and masking the 20mm shrouds. one more shot to show the -18°C winter sky.

we're supposed to get 6 to 10 inches over the next couple of days.

I'll have to get this sheet to commemorate almost freezing to death waiting to watch them at Gatineau. Note to self: Chuck Taylors are not proper footwear for standing on a concrete ramp for several hours while it's sleeting...

But some aircraft did use silver lacquer over the metal structure of the aircraft. Any "aluminum" paint would work to replicate this. It's tougher to make aluminum paint look like bare metal than it is to make aluminum paint look like aluminum paint. If you can find some Floquil "Old Silver", that's the best I think, Too bad they don't make it any more, but you still may be able to find some in out of the way corners.

The F-35s can probably fill the gap pretty well. They certainly don't need EW support themselves and I bet they can provide a modicum of support for their non-stealthy friends.

spray oven cleaner works pretty fast. Put the parts in a zip lock and spray the inside. Let it sit for a half hour, rinse, scrub with a tooth brush.

It will probably be January, I don't want to bring it to pizza night...

I just finished the Airfix B-17G, well, maybe a little detail painting to go, I noticed I didn't paint the canvas zipper boots on the chin turret... It went together pretty well, just make sure to scrape any paint or seam lines off joining surfaces or it won't fit together. Highly recommended.

The big parts are glued together and there's some paint on the little parts. There's also a coat of Tamiya gray primer on the airframe. The rivets look pretty good. Now that the B-17 and Sea Fury are done I can shift to "make it so" gear on this.

It's done. Finishing touches are the whip antennae donated by the cats, and the pitot tube made using micro brass tubing from Albion Alloys.

Novo (Frog) Hawker Sea Fury - more pics in build log

Plain old paint thinner from the hardware store is fine for cleaning enamel. Or white spirits as it's called in old Blighty. To actually thin the paint it might be better to use the enamel manufacturer's brand of thinner/reducer. I also use a lot of Mr Color Leveling Thinner. It seems to work well with most brands. It's usually a good idea to thin paint a little even for brush painting. It will help reduce brush marks in the final finish. Several layers of thinned paint allowed to dry thoroughly between coats is much better than one thick gloopy coat. How much to thin you ask? It's

Masking directly on decals is very risky. I put a piece of paper over the decal image and tape over that to keep the tape from directly touching it. Depending on the circumstance, you may be able do mask with some damp paper and not risk lifting the decal.

This is a nice gallery, Thank you for posting it!