Bruce_Crosby

Hi Guys.
 
This was my frst Mustang kit completed, the Trumpeter C posted here was actually completed two months later. But what a difference! The Revell kit is like their new 262 night fighter, well designed, perfect fit, excellent decal sheet and you can really go to town with add ons if you feel like it.
 
Hardly any filler used, a few smears of Mr Surfacer and actually not much of that. I used minimal after market, Fine Molds seat belts and E-Z Line for the aerial. Paint used was my favourite, Mission Models, my first try with their new metallic range and definitely worth the money.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Hope you like it!
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

In one of polish forums there is contest which theme is "Africa" so i changed my painting conception and will build Franco Lucchini early series III machine with parts from other plane/planes.



I started to correct Italeri obvious mistakes, Maurizio article is very helpfull. Additionaly i use Kagero Topdrawings. This book is focused on drawings and showing 
manufactring differences beetween series of Macchi.

https://archive.aeroscale.net/review/14521/index.htm

Panel lines which needs to be filled. Early series possibly didn't have gun panels, but I'm not sure.



Other thing is tail working surfaces. I corrected rudder. It has wrong number of ribs and looks very "tooyish". Tamiya thin tape and plastic profile used to fix its poor representation.







I had an idea to paint rivet lines instead of making holes. It was always tiring for me, correcting when line went in wrong direction or crushing plastic by force of pressure.  It is promising.

I've got the PCM C.200, C.202 and C.205 kits, as well as the Re 2005 and the G-55. Three Special Hobby G-50 kits too.  All of them buildable, except I can't find the colour sheet or decals for the G-55. However, there's a set of Montex masks in the box, plus I've got the Cameo 3 to make my own if needed.  Still be buying the Italeri kits though!  You all know my work pace, so you might see some movement about 2030.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

I've got the PCM C.200, C.202 and C.205 kits, as well as the Re 2005 and the G-55. Three Special Hobby G-50 kits too.  All of them buildable, except I can't find the colour sheet or decals for the G-55. However, there's a set of Montex masks in the box, plus I've got the Cameo 3 to make my own if needed.  Still be buying the Italeri kits though!  You all know my work pace, so you might see some movement about 2030.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

I've got the PCM C.200, C.202 and C.205 kits, as well as the Re 2005 and the G-55. Three Special Hobby G-50 kits too.  All of them buildable, except I can't find the colour sheet or decals for the G-55. However, there's a set of Montex masks in the box, plus I've got the Cameo 3 to make my own if needed.  Still be buying the Italeri kits though!  You all know my work pace, so you might see some movement about 2030.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Oh My God!!!  You mean I'm going to end up with two unbuilt 202's and two unbuilt 205's!  I feel an onset of a case of the vapors.  Where's my inhaler?!?!  

Just started tonight, whilst awaiting weapons from Sprue Brothers for the F-8E which parcel tracking indicates was incorrectly addressed and stuck in transit somewhere.
Hoping to build it OOB and enjoy a nice smooth build (we'll see how that works out)

 

And thats all for now

Hi Guys,
 
Two Mossie cannon sets nearly finished, just need to add the teeny weeny resin hoses.  This is out of sequence, the gun pod gets fitted after the wings and fuselage are combined.
 
Some paint applied.
 

 
Frames and ammo boxes assembled, first cannon ready to fit in place.
 

 
First cannon in place.
 

 
Two up!
 

 
 
 

 
Four cannons fitted. only the heater hoses to be painted and fitted now. 
 

 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
Two Mossie cannon sets nearly finished, just need to add the teeny weeny resin hoses.  This is out of sequence, the gun pod gets fitted after the wings and fuselage are combined.
 
Some paint applied.
 

 
Frames and ammo boxes assembled, first cannon ready to fit in place.
 

 
First cannon in place.
 

 
Two up!
 

 
 
 

 
Four cannons fitted. only the heater hoses to be painted and fitted now. 
 

 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
Two Mossie cannon sets nearly finished, just need to add the teeny weeny resin hoses.  This is out of sequence, the gun pod gets fitted after the wings and fuselage are combined.
 
Some paint applied.
 

 
Frames and ammo boxes assembled, first cannon ready to fit in place.
 

 
First cannon in place.
 

 
Two up!
 

 
 
 

 
Four cannons fitted. only the heater hoses to be painted and fitted now. 
 

 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
Two Mossie cannon sets nearly finished, just need to add the teeny weeny resin hoses.  This is out of sequence, the gun pod gets fitted after the wings and fuselage are combined.
 
Some paint applied.
 

 
Frames and ammo boxes assembled, first cannon ready to fit in place.
 

 
First cannon in place.
 

 
Two up!
 

 
 
 

 
Four cannons fitted. only the heater hoses to be painted and fitted now. 
 

 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
Two Mossie cannon sets nearly finished, just need to add the teeny weeny resin hoses.  This is out of sequence, the gun pod gets fitted after the wings and fuselage are combined.
 
Some paint applied.
 

 
Frames and ammo boxes assembled, first cannon ready to fit in place.
 

 
First cannon in place.
 

 
Two up!
 

 
 
 

 
Four cannons fitted. only the heater hoses to be painted and fitted now. 
 

 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
Here's the photos.  First is a bunch of resin bits after a lot of clean up.  The frames all had webs in the triangular spaces, everything else had pour blocks, air reduction wicks, etc.
 
,
 
The Breech mounts were moulded onto a pour block with lots of webs and legs.  My eyesight isn't what it used to be!
 

 
Frames with some black primer and paint.  I forgot to open up the little D shape holes and did them after painting. 
 

 
The task of clearning the web out between the breech and the little handle was fraught with anxiety.
 
The guns were primed with Mission Models Black Primer then a mix of their Gun Metal and Cold Rolled Steel. A few minutes to dry then dry brushed with Citadel Mithril Silver,
 

 
The rotary feed and belt stripper should have been Tamiya's titanium but it is awful to brush paint so I dragged out the Citadel Mithril Silver again, followed by a wash with Citadel Nuln Oil, similar colour to Tamiya's Smoke but flows much better and sits in recesses nicely. BUT still not the right colour!
 

 
The gun rotary feed should be anodized so I decided to use a yellow wash.  I went to the WarHammer shop in town and bought their Casandora Yellow Shade.  This looked Orange in the bottle but the young manager, Jan, assured me it would settle out as a warm yellow. Now look at the photo of the bottle and tell me that I wasn't right to worry just a teeny weeny bit!
 

 
A before and after of the gun feed mechanism. The shade is pretty much on the money for an  Anodized or Alocrom 1200 surface. 
 


The guns right now. 
 

 
The next job is to paint the ammo boxes and the ammo feed chutes. They're already primed, so a cup of coffee first then back to mix up paint, switch on the extract and the compressor and get on with it.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby
 

Hi Guys,
 
I've had a couple of weeks putting the Mossie engines together, a bit of paint and a fair amount of swearing.  I'm getting older, clumsier and blinder so mislaying parts is becoming a problem, especially if they decide to fly off into the blue yonder.  Frequently too!
 
So the first pic is one of the undercarriage retract jack and struts. Mission Models paints, their RAF High Speed Silver plus Chrome on the ram.
 

 
 
Four engine cradles almost ready for fitting the engines.  These actually took a while to put together, it's paint a bit of frame, add some pre-painted pipes, then add more pre-painted frame then touch up the mess. As I'm building two kits, do it all twice.
 

 
First engine test fit.  Still needs the generator fitting on the side of the crankcase.
 

 
I'll try and get more photos up to Flickr over the weekend as I've actually got a lot further than this.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce  Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
The cockpits for the two Mossies are starting to come together now.  Here's the results of fitting the First Aid box, the Gee box, then the Pilot's Seat, then the Trim Wheel, then the Nav seat.
 

 

 
Test Fit into the Fuselage.
 

 
As you can see, the cockpit side walls still need lots of work.  All in good time.
 
 
 
 
Then this morning disaster struck!  I noticed one of the etched steel triangles on the wing root radiators was missing!  it's small, I work in total chaos so no hope of finding it.
 

 
So I resorted to dragging out the Xuron etch metal shears and eyeballed a piece of Tamiya etch steel fret and hacked myself a new triangle!
 

 
And here's the result so far.  needs some clean up and a drop of paint.
 

 
And that it for now.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby
 

Hi Guys,
 
Slow work on the mossies but here is just a bit more.
 
Control Colum in place.
 

 
Another look-see with control Column and IP.
 

 
Seems OK so far!
 

 
 
Test fit with the Drift Sight unit in place.
 

 
That's it for now, folks!  Tune in for the next thrilling instalment!
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
A bit more on the Mossies.  I got the seat and belts fitted for the NAV and here's the seat assemblies  and Gee box test fitted to the cockpit floor.
 

 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
Here's some work from yesterday.
 
I matted down the Yahu IP's with AK Ultra Matt Varnish then painted the dials with Createx UVLS Gloss Varnish
 

 
MMP Grey Primer then MMP-079 RAF Interior Green on the IP base structure.
 

 
My eyesight isn't what it used to be so I put away the HGW seatbelts and opted for Eduard's etched coloured steel set.  Here's the first one.
 

 
And a short while later, I have two of them.
 

 
Now to sort out the two Nav seats
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Right, here goes nothing!
 
This is the Gee Receiver box as painted 2 years ago!
 

 
 
This week I masked it up so I could airbrush some MMP-079 RAF Interior Green on it.  3 hours to mask the first one, 2 hours to do the second one!
 

 
So here we are with some green paint, it only took a couple of minutes to do 2 passes with hair dryer help.
 

 
 
Here are the radio boxes mounted on the wing centre section.
 

 
 
Finally here are the instrument panels so far. It's a toss up between Yahu and Eduard.  The Yahu parts are incredibly beautiful but don't have the raised bezels, the Eduard colour etch parts need to be "Flattened" as they have a raised line effect.  It's a residual from Eduard's printing process, means I'll have to gloss the dials later.
 

 
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby
.
 
 

Hi Guys,
 
Painting the cockpit floor.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Test fit of the bomb bay rear section.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Another test fit, somewhat short of hands!
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
More bits painted.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
That's all, folks!
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby
 
 

Hi Guys,
 
Still with the Mossies!
 
Radiator fronts in place.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Lower wing parts in place.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Screwed and glued.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
It's a big beastie!
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
And the wing tops on!
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby
 

Hi Guys,
 
Some photos of yesterday's work on the two Mosquito builds.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Quote:  "How did you get such neatly painted plumbing lines in the wheel wells?"
 
I cheated!  In fact, all painting is a cheat, manipulating light to fool the viewer.  99% of the paint used is Mission Models.
 
I painted the Interior Green with an airbrush then let it go off hard for a couple of days.  Acrylics need time to cure, surface dry is no use at all for weathering, you want it rock hard.  Then I used a fine brush to paint the silver lines and yes, the paint did go everywhere.  It's a given with brush painting metallics so you just do the best you can!  Once the silver had dried I applied more green to hide the bits of silver splodged all over the place, getting as close to the edge of the "pipes" as possible. Then it's just a matter of using black washes to delineate the pipes. No masking at all, all done free hand.  The majority of the washes were Mission Models MMP-047 Black cut with water and their Thinners so I could fade it out easily, then at the very end I used a bit of Tamiya's Black Panel Line Accent right in the corner formed between the base and the bottom of the "pipe" to make it pop out.
 
It sounds like it took forever but it was actually quite quick.  I used a hair dryer to fix the acrylics, put on Bonnie Raitt on the Echo and hummed along as I painted.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby

Hi Guys,
 
A quick update, this is from last night when it took forever to get photos to upload.  All paint is Mission Models, it's rapidly become my favourite paint.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby
 

Hi Guys,
 
Finally got the photos uploaded from my iPhone to Flickr, so here goes:
 
Wheel well
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Getting the colour right on the bomb bay fuel tanks: left is the second attempt.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Bomb bay and gear bays.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Masking up the tanks, a mix of Aizu Micron and MT.
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Getting there!
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
Test fitting:
 
Untitled by Bruce Crosby, on Flickr
 
More to come.
 
Regards,
 
Bruce Crosby