airscale Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 woof - mentioned in dispatches.. PM inbound chuck Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamj Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 (edited) Looking real good Chuck..especially the work on the front of the engines and spinners...This will be a stunner. Cheers Edited February 24, 2015 by williamj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) Thank you William! Now a quicky update because I'm really happy with how the Instrument Panel turned out- kit parts and all.To go over things again, the kit IP is better looking than the Cutting Edge resin offering, but it has 9 pin marks that need to be filled at the front.I then painted the IP with gloss black lacquer.Followed by the addition of a few IP decals from Barracuda Studios (Roy Sutherland) which are made for the P-51D. Roy doesn't make an IP stencil set for the P-38, but many of the decals are almost universal and besides, you really can't read most of them anyway. The red switches were a bit of this decal film cut to size and the red and green push buttons were painted with a toothpick, while the rest of the decals are similar to what I see in reference pics. If anybody is interested, Roy's site for these decals is here and they are HIGHLY recommenced!BarracudaCals P-51D SetAfter the decals were sealed with Future applied with a brush, I applied a VERY subtle dry brush coat of silver to make the bezels around the gauges pop a bit, followed by Testors Dull Coat Lacquer. The gauges, which were previously painted from behind with phosphorescence yellow/green paint, were then "glued" to the back of the IP with more Future. Each gauge was then filled with a drop of Future to give it glassy depth. Here's what it looks like from a usual viewing distance of maybe 6" away.And if you really want to see a closeup, here it is from about an inch and a half away, flaws and all. It's really hard to photograph the detail in the guages, which is much clearer to the naked eye. Here's another less flattering shot where I illuminated the gauges from the front to show the details within. I will be using a lot more of these decals on the rest of the cockpit side walls and other instruments. Stay tuned! Edited February 27, 2015 by chuck540z3 Iain, geedubelyer, allthumbs and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Man I am impressed Chuck! Based on what I've seen from your builds, I too have decided to go down the lacquer path as a base coat. Not sure if my results will be anywhere near as good as yours, but I guess I've got to start somewhere . I will also be stealing your idea of painting the back of the instruments with the green/yellow mix. I'm about to start work on my B-17 instrument panel so thank you for a very timely post! Cheers, Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 That's just ridiculously good. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Hi Chuck. Neat work. I like that you use the phosphorescent colour for the dials. They look extremely convincing. Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRutman Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 That is freekin spectacular man! J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zaxos345 Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 Simply....AWESOME!!! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted February 27, 2015 Author Share Posted February 27, 2015 (edited) Thanks a lot guys! I should mention a few other things, just in case you are wondering. 1) Painting the rear of the instruments is not my idea. I got this tip from Roy Sutherland when I bought his Barracuda IP set for my P-51D build, which suggests you do same. I have since used it on my A-10 build as well (see bottom pic) and I really like the look. 2) That white square decal in the upper left side- why? I have a few pics of P-38 survivors that have a fairly large white placard in this area with weak writing on it. I have no idea what it says or why it's there, but when I take these super close-up pics it looks kind of useless. From 6 inches or more away, however, the white decal draws your eye to the rest of the IP decals and other small details like the red switches, so it acts as sort of an eye-catcher to look for more. A bit of an artsy concept, I suppose, but it's the artistic part of modeling that I enjoy the most. 3) The Barracuda P-51D IP decals can be used on a LOT of other things, other than IP's. Here's a few more examples where I used them on my A-10 build. The refueling receptacle on the port side sponson has all sorts of switches with lots of writing under each switch. I scratch made a Data Transfer Unit which sits behind the seat, which is a sort of "black box". On the front is some writing, which the Barracuda stencils were perfect for. And of course these decals can be used all around any cockpit. Every decal you see, especially around the HUD, is from the P-51D stencil set. As mentioned earlier, I just ordered two more sets of these decals from Barracuda. I've gone through two sets of these decals already and I just know I'll be using a lot more. I also have some PE bezels and other bits coming from Airscale, which I will use on future builds. Peter at Airscale is kindly sending me some samples, so I'll be sure to show them off when I can. Cheers, Chuck Edited February 27, 2015 by chuck540z3 sandokan and Seversky 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 (edited) March 9/15 Man, you guys are so prolific that if you don't post something at least once a week, it's almost impossible to find your build thread as it gets buried on Page 10! Over at ARC it takes about a month to make it to Page 2, so this takes a little getting used to. Mind you, the work here is excellent, so I guess it's worth it. Below is a pic of the almost finished Cutting Edge cockpit. The resin detail is really good, but with most of the small instruments already attached to the side walls and rear deck, painting it was a bit of a bear. The pics you will see below are super close-ups, so remember you can't see a lot of the tiny flaws with your bare eyes. For those who might be interested, here's how I tackled it. As shown earlier, all cockpit parts were first painted with Krylon gloss black lacquer. This paint is much finer and smoother than using flat black on instruments, it acts a great base for subsequent coats of Alclad and you can add “shadows†by directing the final coat of interior green from the top. In one of my reference books, the floor of the cockpit has aluminum plating with holes and a few slots in it. I think most P-38 floors are just painted interior green, but as a restored bird I'm just going with what I like the look of. For the holes and slots I used masking tape to retain the under coat of black, while instruments that should remain black were masked off as well. Same for the side walls. For the small instruments, I used thin Tamiya tape at the base and covered the top with Micromask. The trick to using Micromask is to use lots of it, because it shrinks so much and can be really difficult to remove later from small parts, so you want enough of it to grab onto when it dries. The rest of the side wall was sanded down to rough it up a bit for the interior green enamel. The floor and forward radio instruments were then painted with Alclad Aluminum, while the real instruments were sprayed with Alclad Steel. The floor was then masked off and the rest of the cockpit was painted with interior green. After removing the masks, I used a small micro-brush with Varsol to remove the green paint from the wiring. The Alclad and Krylon black lacquer are almost immune to the Varsol, so the vast majority of the aluminum or black paint underneath remained. I then sprayed the parts with Future to prepare them for several tiny cockpit decals and to provide an acrylic base, so that enamel painting errors could be easily removed. This is especially important around the thin cables and wiring which are very difficult to paint without making a mess. It also helped me remove some steel paint I used to slightly dry brush the various black instruments to pick out subtle detail. There is a “Z†shaped part in the Cutting Edge kit which is meant to be the brace behind the seat. Mine was broken and I found the diameter to be too thick, so I made another out of styrene rod. I wound up drilling shallow holes in the floor, because the small circular masks I used left a fuzzy demarcation line. In order to get the seat to sit up high enough and provide an anchor point for gluing, I made one out of styrene and then painted it interior green. After the application of several Barracuda P-51D IP decals (that were close to those used on the P-38) and the wiring was touched up with paint, I sprayed everything with Testors dull coat lacquer. What I really like about this dull coat is that it never leaves a whitish finish like some of the acrylic dull coats often do and you can really lay it on thick without it crazing the paint underneath with the Future coat barrier. A close-up of the right side wall. That lever next to the seat is the emergency hydraulic pump, which I made from styrene rod and tipped with CA glue before painting the red knob on the end. I tipped the control handles with CA glue as well, but I'll be leaving these off the cockpit controls until the very end of the build so that I don't break or lose them. Note the dark "shadows" that remain around the various instruments. With the left wall, IP and steering yoke installed, things are starting to come together. Edited March 9, 2015 by chuck540z3 zak, Zero77, sandokan and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuck540z3 Posted March 9, 2015 Author Share Posted March 9, 2015 The Webgarden cloth seat belts are also made for the P-51D, but they look close enough to me and maybe they are identical anyway? This set came with the rear cushion life preserver which I painted up and decaled, but I don't think I'll be using it because the seat detail is quite good and maybe “less is more� If I keep it, the shoulder harnesses will have to be re-bent to accommodate the thicker back. The front radio is painted aluminum, while the rear instrument was painted with Alclad steel, then buffed slightly to reveal a little bit of the black underneath to make it look more realistic. I then used a thin wash of “The Detailer†to make the various recessed details stand out. You will note that I didn't use the rear armour plate behind the seat, because it seems to be absent from most restored P-38's and it would have hidden much of this fine detail. The IP gauges look pretty good from this angle. Top view Right side wall now glued on. The front gear well did not get any detailing love, mostly because you can't see hardly any of it due to how narrow and deep it is, especially when the gear door is installed. All I did was add a bit of wash to pick out the hydraulic lines and called it a day. Hopefully this little gem will keep eyes away from where it gets parked. I'm sure glad I switched background colors to blue! With control handles and the gun sight attached later, this cockpit should look pretty good when finished, but for now I'm calling this stage of the build DONE! I think I've got the hardest part of this build behind me now. Thanks for checking in. Chuck Seversky, Hubert Boillot, sandokan and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Looks great!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Awesome cockpit, Chuck! Great work all round, and it's really looking terrific. Just a tip about finding your build again: bookmark it! Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Chuck Awesome front office .... looking mighty good Keep 'em coming peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brahman104 Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 That's some very impressive masking skills you've got there chuck. It's a good reminder that if you're prepared to take your time and mask everything up properly, then such amazing results can be achieved because spraying is some much better than the brush. I've never heard of Varsol before. What is it? Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now