longmc

Long time listener, first time caller to armor modeling... I've been building aircraft for over 30 years, but just recently became interested in armor and vehicles. I want to build a late model tiger and have two options I'm interested in. Academy's new kit or tamiya 49504 w/ figures. I can get both for about the same price. I've built a couple of tamiyas older kits and like that their easy to build, but are more toy like. The academy seem more detailed and come with PE. Both lack zimmerit, but I can get slide decal version for tamiya and it comes with figures. that's about as far as my knowledge gets me on the differences. TIA! Mike the Noob!

Just a quick update - I got the wings on the vallejo mustang as well as the airfix build. http://Dual mustangs by Mike Long, on Flickr Both wings have been puttied and sanded. I puttied the tamiya just to see how it looks. The Airfix build had such bad fit around the gun ports I figured I might as well putty the rest of the wing. Hopefully I can get the wing joins cleaned up and polished before I head back out of town for a week. thanks for watching!

Of course, once Airfix releases the early fillet-less tailed D-5 I'll buy a case load of them!!

Hey Cookie! How have you been? I hope all is well with you guys! You really can't beat the tamiya for ease of build and looks great when finished. The Meng kit is a true beauty, just costs a lot more. If you can paint the NMF parts before putting it all together would definitely make it worth it. Yea, I'm not completely sold on the airfix yet. Very soft plastic and lots of sink marks in the plastic. I painted all the control surfaces with Alclad and the flaps plastic is very "wavy ". My local hobby lobby now carries them and the P-40 for about $18, so that may change my mind!! I'm on the road for work the next 3 weeks, so nothing to post for a while.

Thanks Peter! They are definitely a good to for small paint items.

AK's YZC paint arrived so I was able to finish up the Xtreme metal Mustangs gear bay as well. For this one, I only painted the main spar YZC and left the rest of the bay aluminum. http://fullsizeoutput_15d by Mike Long, on Flickr http://fullsizeoutput_15c by Mike Long, on Flickr The Xtreme metal paint works very well. I did the plastic spoon test on the colors I have so far, and they all turned out extremely (Xtremely ?!?) well. I'm really looking forward to using these on the kit. In addition, I've decided to expand the build comparison a little further, and want to also compare the various front-runner mustang kits that are currently available in 1/48. My son watches a youtube show called Worth It, where they compare 3 like items at different price points. In the end, they decide which is the best bang for the buck. I thought this would be a good thing to do with the various Mustangs. The Airfix is probably the cheapest for me to get (about $24 shipped). The Tamiya is very close at around $25-35 shipped depending on the boxing. The Meng is about $35-$45 shipped. My main concerns are cost and availability, detail, and ease of build. So, stay tuned for those to come. thanks for watching! Mike

I got some more work done on them this weekend. Here is the gear bay of the Vallejo Mustang all painted and glued together. It may not be completely accurate for a late war P-51D-20, but I do like the contrast in color. http://fullsizeoutput_15a by Mike Long, on Flickr http://fullsizeoutput_159 by Mike Long, on Flickr I also got the cockpit and seat painted and installed. I added a true details seat to both. http://fullsizeoutput_15f by Mike Long, on Flickr http://fullsizeoutput_160 by Mike Long, on Flickr

Copy all! I can't find anything definitive one when it changed. The best I've found was a couple of restorations where they took detailed notes of the underlying paint of every part as they removed it, and then put it back together the same. Here's what I've got so far. Still needs a wash. http://gear well vallejo by Mike Long, on Flickr I base coated it in YZC, then hand painted the duraluminum. The beauty of the vallejo metals are they hand paint wonderfully!

I second that! Very nicely done!!

Here is the line up. http://Line up by Mike Long, on Flickr I'll try to use all vallejo inside and out on one and all AK interactive on the other to include Vallejo metal varnish and I just ordered their Gauzy agent shine enhancer as a sealer as well. All the main interior painting on the vallejo is complete, but I had to order a bottle of AK interior yellow to do the wheel wells. http://Vallejo base by Mike Long, on Flickr I sprayed the intake scoops and exhausts with their respective metals and am pleasantly surprised by both. I sprayed them both over primed plastic and bare, and they both held up very well. I am leaning more towards the AK extreme as it looks like actual metal! http://AK base by Mike Long, on Flickr

Peter, I've used Alclad in the past, but not a fan. Too thin (takes too many coats), too expensive, and too fragile. I used to use SNJ and loved it, so of course they stopped making it. As for rivets and panel lines - undecided. I started building an Airfix mustang, but it's fighting me the whole way so will most likely NOT be a NMF. The gun inserts were such a bad fit, and needing lots of putty and sanding so I decided to go ahead and try filling the panel lines. I'll see how it turns out and decide from there. I'm going to use tamiya rattle can aluminum for one of the wings and probably vallejo dull aluminum for the other. Mike

I have many NMF projects on my To Do list and with all the new paints coming out it seems like a good time to get started! But, which paints to use? After a stop at my LHS, I picked up both AK Interactive's new Extreme Metal as well as Vallejos Metal Color sets to try out. The plan is two identical mustangs. Both are the standard issue tamiya kits, both primed and base coated with tamiya x-1 gloss black using their lacquer thinner. I plan to build both as 362nd Fighter Squadron subjects so the only real difference will be the paint. Both kits have been cleaned up and washed and are now drying. I'll post pics once they dry and I get started. cheers, Mike

John, Sorry, no this is from an old post that got missed. Mike

Looking to trade for a couple 1/48 Revell B-17F kits. It's the old revell, not the newer revell/monogram B-17G If you've got one and willing to trade it, I've got lots of other 1/48 kits, aftermarket and decals I can offer. If there's something specific you're after, please send a list. contact me directly, as I don't always have access to the forums. thanks! Mike