Halberd AM-1 Mauler Finished

[scvrobeson]

Great to see it get its suit of blue!  Really like how it's coming along.

 

 

Matt 

[csavaglio]

Got a little shine on it.  It's difficult to get a wet coat with an airbrush on something this big and not get overspray misting especially around the wing and tail roots.  It's a little orange peely, but good enough for the stencil decals.  I might way a couple days to let it cure and then polish it a bit.  I kind of like the high shine look and it's not like these things were run ragged and I'm a bit partial from being around the local museum's pair of F7F Tigercats.

 

 

[csavaglio]

Very minor update... It's been a really rough and busy week, so I haven't worked much on it. I did finally cut the pour blocks off the canopy. Excuse the bit of putty on the windscreen frame... Slip of the razor saw. At least it wasn't on the glass. I ended up polishing it a bit. It was fine, just some hazing around the edges of the glass where it meets the frame. I got it better and I think it'll be fine with paint.   Came out good, I think, tho.  They're masked up, just haven't had a chance paint yet. 

 

[csavaglio]

More progress.  I swear, painting all the random bits feels like admin work or something.  Trying to get a decent gloss.  The Real Color 2k gloss worked ok, but I've never been able to get a great wet coat with an airbrush.  I tried polishing it out but I came back to it and the paint looked sort of cracked. Tamiya spray gloss seemed to have made that disappear tho.  Not totally happy with the gloss, but I know I can polish tamiya lacquer once it's cured and it's hard to tell if it looks like it does cause of the rivets.  We'll see... 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 8 by csavaglio

[D.B. Andrus]

Chris

 

This guy works great for primer and gloss finishes. It has a fan spray that covers big models well. Price around $120.

 

GSI Creos Mr. Hobby Procon Boy PS-290 airbrush

 

 

HTH,

Damian

[csavaglio]

Damian, something more akin to a paint gun would work better for glosses for sure. I'll take a look

[Aptivaboy]

I like the glossy look. Grumman glossed and waxed their latewar F6Fs, so why not Martin? 

[Out2gtcha]

I think it looks great as is! Although maybe a tiny bit too glossy for active service

[csavaglio]

11 hours ago, Aptivaboy said:

I like the glossy look. Grumman glossed and waxed their latewar F6Fs, so why not Martin? 

Gloss sea blue, not flat sea blue or non-specular sea blue

 

I figure these planes weren't in service very long, just a few years, and never had wartime ops tempo, so it prob wouldn't be too beat up. 

 

I'll check the reference book and see how they looked. I prob need something better high gloss and semi gloss. 

 

[csavaglio]

Gradually getting the ordinance done.  As cool as is to be loaded up, doing everything x12 is a bit tedious.  The rockets are Eduard and the bombs are ZM.  I added the PE bits to the straps of one and that was a big nope from me, so I left them off in the interest of sanity.  Bombs were weathered a little with various colors of weathering pencils, but the camera washes most of the subtle stuff out.

 

Got the plane on it's main legs and the pylons on.  All the ordinance is pinned with some brass.

 

Gonna be super light on the weathering on the plane. 

 

[reconspit]

Absolutely beautiful…, what a great looking model…! Awesome work, thanks for sharing 😃

[csavaglio]

Well that's a wrap.  The gloss blue gave me absolute fits the whole time and I got to the point where I just wanted it done.  The AK real color super gloss reacted poorly over the AK 3g blue and checked, so the finish isn't great and it didn't take polishing.  Next time I'll stick to the safer Tamiya gloss.  The kit was generally great with the only exception being the outer wing thickness mismatch to the center wing., but the resin sands easily.  Most of the issues I ran into are my own fault.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 22 by csavaglio

[D.B. Andrus]

Beautiful, Chris!

[Dpgsbody55]

Nice work.  This is not a plane I've ever heard of, so interesting to follow your build.

 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[BradG]

Looks pretty sweet to me, nice work.