themongoose

Lots more painting happening today. All the major parts are done. The markings are all airbrushed. Just the red 8 and squadron markings will be decals. That Model Master paint must last forever. I truly wonder how old these are they spray nice and that’s what matters. Later tonight I’ll dullcoat the whole thing and get ready for decaling. now lunch and some outdoor projects on this beautiful day in southern Ohio!

Ahhh you’re too modest sir!

I've got one coming up with a B conversion planned. Will follow along with great interest as you go through this!

Let's add some color! I have located some RLM65 & 71 now so this can continue into the weekend. Without a local hobby shop being open that was harder than expected.

I’d look to the JASDF for design ideas that fit the Japanese style. Here’s some cool themes

They’re stupendous of course so hate that you are missing out. Looks like they’re visible now so hopefully you can recover This is gonna be another epic build kent!

Ok paint has started! This is a totally new experience for me. I picked up a ton of MM enamels at an estate sale recently for about 10 cents ea. This gave me all except RLM71 for this build and I need to keep the cost down. Already had enamel thinner so one of my club friends is giving me advice on how to paint with them. I’ve thinned this down to the consistency of milk. It sprayed pretty well i think given no details have been lost in the application A little hard to see it given the satin primer but hopefully it’s good enough for you guys to see how it looks. Any advice or tips is highly appreciated...

Oh yeah, I hope they didn’t make it just for this plane as it would never be seen if you didn’t do a maintenance scene. Nearly all the major assembly done so far. Got somewhat ahead of myself and threw on the primer before I realized I forgot to add the horizontal stabilizers...I’ve come to believe the value of a WIP is to discover what you left off after looking at a picture of your work These are out of the box seems

Man those clamps were sooooo weak!

Oh you’re gonna love the build. So much of it has gone together so easily. Almost now extra work on the fuselage seams. Spend some extra time on the wing fuselage alignment and you get a very minimal seam there. Cowl and nose are nearly perfect out of the box. Can you tell I’m excited about the fit and quality of this kit!

I kinda held off on any updates till this round of dry fitting was thru. This set of shots shows the detail and fine engraved lines in the PCM kit. first off the wing profile seemed to benefit from some support on the back half of the cord. This brought the profile up to match the fuselage and if you grab it by the wings won’t stress the glue joint in the future. This is the wing with no weathering in the wells followed by some weathering. Could it benefit from a dark wash to tie it all together? Under a satin black primer the thin panel lines seem to POP. Before primer it seemed you could hardly see them. Something tells me to really go easy on the coats of paint to keep these strong. Fuselage is an easy assembly Now the engine is nice, unfortunately it is almost completely hidden on this model behind the fan blades and props. For that reason it’s simple dry brushing and some grease stains. So that brings this week’s session to a close. Off for a poker weekend with my buddies. Back again next week!

That antislip coating is the bees knees!

Wow one of the best forced perspective displays I’ve seen! Simple but different. Cool idea

Super cool

Hey I’ve been there and know what you mean. I have yet to get one that looked the way i think or hoped it should. No consolation I’m sure though We do learn something though from all our attempts. Sorry it didn’t go like you hoped. I thought it sounding promising though!

Looking great - makes me want to build one too!

Moving right along [ap] Today started with alignment of the fuselage halves. After reading a couple build logs I decided to glue in the cockpit before putting the fuselage together. Yes, it would go in afterward but the struggles i had getting it to fit made me wary, plus i figured I'd break something. Lord knows I've done that a couple times already on this build. Here's what I learned. Always work 2 steps ahead on this one. With no alignment pins, by nature of being a multimedia resin kit, there's alot of alignment that impacts other parts. Sometimes it's not what it seems. For instance the glazing putty in the below pic. I was going to close that gap...and some of the cockpit fit work i did was to get it to close as the instructions show...BUT if it's closed the front upper cowling doesn't fit haha what a discovery. I was 2 steps ahead though so nothing lost here. check out that wing root. Very tight i think and it's only taped together in 1 spot. All the build logs said this was a problem. I think it has to do with multiple parts going together too soon if you follow the instructions to the letter. Overall this is a well designed kit! It really looks sharp. Almost no cleanup on the fuselage seams. I just started from the tail and worked forward an inch at a time. Then i put a dark wash on it to check out the seam and fill anything remaining with CA. The more I can clean up before primer the smoother the paint is going to look. Doing some traveling this week so there will probably be an extended absence before more progress can be made [:(]

Mark man that looks like some serious filling! Gotta love these classic kits

Beautiful. I took notes on how you sequenced the painting. Going to try that on my FW190 to see if i can get a better blend of color and less touch ups myself. How did the streaking come out? I’m interested to know if blending the longer lines together did what you hoped.

It’s finally time to get started on this. I’m really looking forward to it based on all the reviews I’ve read, here on LSP as well as other sites. This is going to be out of the box. I’ve spent too many months on single builds lately. This seems the perfect candidate as there really isn’t too much on the tweak list for the A3 and given it’s mixed media has PE and resin parts to really make it look sharp. Here’s the only Eastern Front option in the kit I did just the IP the other night...then found a build review that said the PE and panel is too wide and needs trimmed. Boy they were right, I spent 30-40 minutes trying to make it fit! Heres the kit for you guys that haven’t seen these Last night and Tonight I got started in earnest. Primed some parts, built the cockpit and added some alignment tabs to the fuselage. The IP has a purple tinge to it but it’s all supposed to be RLM66 which is a deep grey. Since this is OOB I mixed my 66 with PRU blue and got a decent match yet still maintaining the grey base color. I have not build a prop plane, let alone a German fighter in a long time (1 Corsair in the last 20 yrs) so I know nothing about these planes except that there seems to be a really strong following of these German fighters. Please don’t judge me on my ability to replicate these aircraft Ive left the seat out. I’m going to build it toward the end so it’s easier to cover up the cockpit for painting. I also noted the gun sight should be kept off till putting the halves together. I’d have broken it off a half dozen times already if it was on there.

Wow it really does look good! Nice job on the repairs. I was shocked to see that pic after all the parts on the floor-well done.

Wow thanks guys! I’m really hooked on this foil now. Will never do metal paint again. Taking it out in the light really made it pop. Kinda makes up for the standard iphone camera, which isn’t bad but it has trouble focussing on black, white, and shiny metal surfaces :-)

My latest Thunderbird in the series comes to you loaded down with aftermarket goodies. I had picked up quite a bit over time for it so decided I would have to do it wheels down. yes I know, an oddity for me. Then as I was building it and looking at reference pictures I only saw 2 with drop tanks on it. Hey there's an idea, if I am going to break up the Thunderbird graphic on the bottom let's load it up. The perfect theme came to mind, HEADING HOME. Trumpeter shows this smoke system on the box art but there's nothing in the box haha. So I made it up with piano wire and shrink tubing...just suttle heat affects on the exhaust. Most pics of the Thunderbirds show this area very shiny. The museum birds have been polished to death, I avoided doing those :-) Super fun build with lots of help from the forum. Check out my WIP for details. Thanks so much everyone!

The crazy thing about this plane is that once you have the fuselage halves together you’re practically done with the build itself! Looking really clean so far. Appreciate the layout logic as well showing how you progress thru a build.

I have hi res scans if you need something before you find the decals. They’re at least good to do layout work on your model. PM me your email if interested.