Mustang JBB

I know it is supposed to be out in May, but any ideas as to what part of May? Is Airfix been good about releasing on schedule?

there was build here on LSP a few years ago where the guy simply tilted the whole wing. By cutting the spar slots on the fuselage so that the front spar was higher and the back lower(or the other way. Can' remember which way the nacelles need to be fixed). The flat side of the fuselage makes this fix ideal. Not 100% accurate fix, but gets the nacelle angle corrected.

Another picture of the left front fuselage. The decals I will be using.

A small update on my painting progress. Ben a few mistakes here and there, but nothing that can't be fixed. Some how I managed to paint a nice and even scallop effect into the upper camo on the right side of the fuselage. This will be eliminated.

Glad to see you starting a new build thread. I have enjoyed all the previous builds and learned many new things. Thank you for taking the time to post your work!

Yup. That's the one. It is interesting to note that the box art, kit instructions, and after market decal instructions all vary on how the mottling is represented. I am going with the pastern and density of the box art. Looks nice.

What I do... I make applicators out of very fine wire taken out of some scrap electrical device wire. Pull a single metal wire out about 5 or 6 inches long. Bend that wire around the shaft of a needle or pin. Try to make a loop about 1/16" or less. Then twist the wire to makes a shaft. What you end up with is a twisted wire shaft with a tiny loop at the end. The whole thing looks like a tiny lollipop. Since the wire shaft will bend easily. glue the shaft along a tooth pick to give it rigidity. Just don't block the loop. When I sit down to make these, I make a dozen or so at a time. How it works... You have to use this with extra thin CA(super glue). Put a drop or two in a bottle cap. Dip the loop only into the CA. then quickly touch the edge of the loop to the joint you are trying to fix. Capillary action will draw the thin CA out of the loop and into the joint/gap. Since you are using very small amounts of CA, it may take several application this way depending on you needs. The CA will build up in the loop so have a lighter handy to burn it out and clear the loop. It is important to use extra thin CA or it won't work. Also, don't try to use the drops in your bottle cap for too long. It starts to cure and thicken after a few minutes, and this defeats the capillary action. Just use a few drops at a time and be wiling to let the unused stuff go to waste. You can use the loop tool to apply accelerator as well without spraying the stuff everywhere. Just be quick to pull the loop away and not glue it to the model. Sometimes it is effective to cut a break in the loop and make it a small narrow "U", which gives a little more precision in some instances. Touch the open portion to the joint. I use this method and tools to glue down photo etch parts, wires etc all the time. It does apply only small amounts of CA at a time, so be patient. However, it give you very precise control over the glue and accelerator.

I haven't tried it, but you may look into heat shrink tubing. It is used in the electronics industry and is readily available in may diameters. Find the size closet to your gun barrel and shrink the tubing around it. Maybe two or three layers depending on what you need. Then carefully trim away the excess you don't need. The gun barrel tube will pass all the way through like the real one. Similarly, you could use a plastic based tape like clear tape. Wind it around the gun barrel until you achieve the desired diameter, then trim away the excess. When you mount it in the wheel well, just make sure the final edge/end of the tape is facing up/away from the viewer so it cannot be seen. Maybe even lock that edge down with a careful pass with extra thin CA. Prime, paint, and there you go.

For bending the wire into uniform curves, angles etc., look into wire mandrels used in jewelry making. https://www.amazon.com/Multi-Right-Mandrel-Looping-Shapes/dp/B003E7HKA4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1546734344&sr=8-3&keywords=jewelry+wire+mandrel https://www.amazon.com/WIRE-WRAPPING-MANDREL-WORKING-JEWELRY/dp/B00TN510DO/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1546734344&sr=8-16&keywords=jewelry+wire+mandrel For very small bends, look to tooth picks, needles etc. You can also look to the sprues in your kit box. Learn how to heat and stretch sprue, and you can make what ever diameter mandrel you need. Stretched sprue itself can be reheated and bent to shape. Once cooled, it will hold that shape. I am sure there are videos on YouTube on how to do this.

Thanks. It has been a learning(or re-learning process). I have made a few boo boos, and had to sand some mistakes out and/or repaint. Just a few things to fix on the motlling when I get home, then I will get after the wings, yellow nose and black wing roots. Looking forward to actually finishing a model. This will be the first one in over a year. Working away from home slows the process and is rough on the attention span. I probably have 6 or so in the works.

The kit box art... Hauptman Hans I think. I don't have the kit with me as I am on the road. I dug through my decals box for a cool scheme for and F-2 and found one I liked on a Eagle Strike set. Turns out it was the very same as the box art. Better decals of course.

I have decided to try out the MRP line of acrylic lacquer paints. I have mainly used Tamiya over the last few years, but they have always frustrated me by being delicate and easily damaged while handling the model. Maybe it is just me being overly abusive with my models, but a problem none the less. A buddy recommended lacquers, so I am giving this brand a try on the 109, and Gunze on the next model. These are premixed right out of the bottle and spray very well. However, adding some Mr. Leveling thinner makes it even better. To spray the RLM 75 and 76, I thinned it 50/50 and it sprays like a dream through my Grex with a 0.2 mm tip and needle installed. This is just the start. There has been some tweaking and fixing since this photo as it has been a long time since I have tried to spry mottling and camo free hand. Stiffness in my hands doesn't help either. I am working out of town right now so it will be another week or so before I can get home and make some progress on this bird. Once I get through the mottling, the rest of the paint job shoud go quickly. All remaining parts are prepped and cleaned up, some are painted as well. So the model should get wrapped up soon.

Since this plane will have some interesting mottling and camo, I decided to try a new approach (for me) to getting panel variation. Normally I will use pre-shading, fading, and post shading, but this time I thought I would see how this approach goes. The idea being to give each panel and underlying tone to make it look slightly diferent than the one next to it, once done with painting. A slight twist on the armor builders use of tonal variation techniques. The black and white are MRP paints over gray Mr. Surfacer 1000. All my pics are from an iPhone so I apologize for the poor quality. Here is the bottom after painting the MRP RLM 76 over the tonal panels. This is the first pass to get it close to what I want. It looks subtle in these pics, but was much more obvious to the naked eye. I have since several more very thinned out layers to make the effect even more subtle. Because of the number panels on the wings and the way the ones under the fuselage were laid out, I did have to do some pre shading. This has been toned down as well. The way it looks now does not show up in the pics well, so I decided to post these to show the effect. You can see that the rear of the fuselage still needs more paint at this point.

I started this build last year and tried to keep up with photos as I knew I would eventually start a build thread. Now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I think I am ready to post. She is being built OOB except for seat belts and a few decal placard in the cockpit. First pictures of the cockpit were taken before I realized Simple Green cleaner and Vallejo Aire clear flat don't like each other. The clear coat frosted in reaction to the Simple Green and the RLM Gray looks a bit lighter now. Generally, the cockpit still looks good, but I added some heavier washes and weathering to help the overall "look". Some of you with keen eyes will catch that I missed cutting out the wheel wells where needed for an F-2. The outer part of the round wheel hole should have corners. By the time I noticed this on the instructions, I had progressed on the build enough to not try to fix it, and risk making a big mess in the process. The Instrument panel was painted with white primer then Tamiya Gray and black. I very carefull scraped away the black from the raised instrument detail to reveal the underlying white primer

Yes... Yes... Oh... My... (wipes a tear away) There were several on my wish list. P-38 being the top prize, but this was second. I just hope Tamiya does not announce one in 1/32 right after I buy one. God bless you Airfix!