decisions, decisions... set! NAA P51B Trumpeter 1/32

[Phantom2]

Great cockpit, master work!  

 

 

Stefan 

[mc65]

thank you!

 

actually I'm starting to think that the covid has made me dumber than i already was: I noticed I forgot the diagonal plate at the base of the seat. I had to remove the seat belts to be able to fix it, fortunately without damage, if not to my self-esteem.

now it's ok.

 

okay, I admit to being particularly dumb, but even Trumpeter doesn't helps. how many right (or left) undercarriages do you see here?

 

even this choice of realizing internal details that will remain invisible... I'm not saying that I condemn it, but I would prefer a model with fewer options and more correct parts, definetly.

for example, the coolant radiator is supplied complete, but does not fit well in its place, only one side will be seen, but on the other hand there are at least three points that remain with inexplicable chasms.

here I rebuilt the back wall with plasticard, plugging the gaps and installing only the PE face. also in the back (top in this photo) there would remain a big gap, here closed with a strip of plasticard.

 

on the sides there will still remain a significant gap along, I'll see how to close it with the fuselage glued.

 

nevertheless, I would say that I am close to assemble the fuselage.

 

and then I can start thinking about colors, I hope.

in the meantime I have given a coat of aluminum on the wing, and I am considering to do another pass with filler, rivets and panel lines still seem too obvious to me.

 

and finally the colors have arrived.

I took several to test these, I think I'll use the two in the middle (Mr.hobby H-52 and AK RC024) as a starting point and then lighten/tweak these a bit, while even the gray seems to be too dark at present.

 

well, we'll see, I guess.

sequitur, Paolo.

 

 

[Greif8]

Looking good Paolo, I hope the fuselage closes up for you like mine did. 

 

Ernest 

[mc65]

thank you, Maru and Ernest!

 

unfortunately my fuselage gave me some problems to close it. in the end I did it (sorry no photo) but I'm deciding not to install the engine, which would lead to the propeller and spinner out of position. 

 

but let's proceed in order: I was not convinced of the rivets on the wing, and I put my hand back on it, this time in a more rough way.

 

after a restful night I took out sandpaper and ultra-fine nail files, and planed it again.

 

now to understand what I've done it is necessary to give the primer again and then the aluminum, but I decided to carry on the fuselage, in the dead time of the works on the wing, so that if I can I would do a whole primer session.

the fuselage... as I said, not everything went smoothly.

apart from the radiators, which we have already talked about, also the air inlet duct to the engine creates alignment problems. 
to begin, the (beautiful, sinful) PE for the alternate air intakes collide with the underlying plastic detail.

 

and so far, easy to change the fit. what was a bit more complicated was to match and - once again - eliminate the chasms in these areas.

 

oh, now better, I guess.

 

but in this area, as said before, I have noticed that the engine does not sit well where it should, risking to take the propeller and spinner off axis. I therefore believe that I will eliminate the engine itself and install only exhausts and a metal shaft on which to glue the propeller.

 

having glued the fuselage and working with sandpaper on the seams, I found lines due to the "drawer" printing system but above all the evident deformations due to this printing system, and to the fact that the CAD design of the masters creates distortions by pouring in 3D plans drawn in 2. nothing that cannot be remedied with a little more work of abrasives. pity that some details go totally in the cow. for example the fuel tank cap on the fuselage: does it look like it is circular?

 

on closer inspection it turns out that the winged ones are circular, but oversized. oh my.... also considering that the shape of the real cap is this, it started on me an embolus of magnitude 7 and I turned on the drill.

 

result, three beautiful holes of equal size, and circular, finally.

 

which sure will have to be filled, but with the usual tube of anchovy paste and a little patience...

 

there. still have to pass the color test, but I'm confident about.

 

maybe they will not be perfect, but I find these far better of those proposed by the kit.

 

that's all for today, in the next session I have to decide what to do with that engine, and maybe give some primer to the wing and fuselage.

cheers, Paolo

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work, Paolo! I would love to know how you made those circular hatch covers.

 

Kev

[mc65]

thanks Kevin, nothing exotic, just a little ingenuity!

but since you ask me, I did another one by taking photos in progress, total time 15 '.

 

first, the materials involved:

I used a metal tube of mayonnaise, obviously toothpaste or anchovy paste is fine too, the important thing is that these are ductile and thin.

to tell the truth, sanding it can be brought to its natural color, a perfect aluminum, but being a lazy donkey I skipped this step.

 

for the opening handle I used some leftover PE, looking for pieces that fit the need. these filters frames for Bf109 seemed right to me.

 

to make the circles (one of metal and one of plasticard on which to glue the metal) I used an old and dear Waldron set.

little OT: "modern modeling "is giving us things we dreamed of for years, but we have unfortunately lost some others, and these were superlative. one of these, for me, the Waldron products.

 

back on the caps.

on a card I drew a circumference and a reference cross, and -positioned the metal circle within- I marked the four marks along the circumference with a dentist's tool and the central pin with a punch.

 

then with a blade #10 I cut away a slice just outside the diameter angled 45° respect to the depressions.

I prefer to use this type of blade because it allows me to cut the metal by rotating the blade and therefore without pressing too much on the material, which would create an unwanted deformation.

 

deformation that can be easily remedied, since metal is very ductile, but why complicate one's life?

cut a suitable piece of PE, I place it near the largest half disc, marking with a point the position of the depressions where the hinges of the handle will rest.

then I make the depressions, smaller than the previous ones along the circumference, with the same tool.

 

almost finished.

now all that remains is to place the pieces on a plasticard disc of the same diameter, and glue on the parts.

I use black cyanacrylate, being slow drying and colored, so I can see what I do.

the function of the plasticard disc is to hold the pieces together, but also to use the circumference as a reference, and finally as a support to then glue the cap to the model.

 

that's all.

it takes longer to say than to do. I hope I was clear and helpful!

 

cheers, Paolo

[denders]

I was thinking of asking the same. Thank you!

 

[Greif8]

Superb work Paolo!  Your scratchbuilding skills are awesome.

 

Ernest

[dodgem37]

Great show.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[mc65]

thank you all,

I'm really happy to be able to share something of mine that could be of some help or inspiration!

 

I find forums to be of great help in exchanging information, and in this particular case I have to thank Kevin for a couple of things: his idea of inserting a thru axle for the engine seemed valid to me, and considering that my engine didn't want to seat at its properly place, I suspect that its reclaring behavior is due to the maneuvers I made on the alternate air openings,  I eliminated it leaving only the shaft!

for the exhausts I installed two simple plasticard false bulkheads, the rear pin of which I also need to dilate the fuselage of those 2-3 tenths of a mm that I needed to close the upper hood well at that point.

 

the general fit of the fuselage is excellent, having wanted to put in the cockpit Aires I think has messed things up a bit, having to narrow the a-little-fat fuselage at the sides. but it was enough to put it in shape using the two-component glue, and that's it.

 

so, pull here, push there, here we are.

 

but 1, prompted by Kevin's comment (thanks again) on his exhausts, I looked better at the photos I have of Don Gentile's plane, and I noticed that this too seems to have no fairings!

 

luckily I had taken the Quickboost ones a long time ago, but the halzeimer or the covid had made me completely forget it, disturbing.

these should be fine.

 

about. actually they should be angled down ... uuuUuuff.

 

but 2, we want to talk about the longitudinal line on the bonnet? it starts in negative on the right, and ends in positive on the left.

 

THAT IS FINE.

what it takes. nothing, except that I broke - for the second time - my favorite scriber.

and let's make do with what we have...

 

what else...

the hatches on the gun compartments are equipped with PE handles, but these should be flush with the hatches themselves. after a bit of a mess with my brains, I decided to risk it, and drown them by holding them in place with tweezers and barely touching them with the soldering iron on.

don't do it at home.

 

and finally I picked up the airbrush again.

after a coat of Alclad II black primer, I noticed that I hadn't completely eliminated the sandpaper marks.

 

no good. further session of various abrasives, and coat of Alclad II microfiller.

 

then again polishing abrasives, and finally an aluminum coat, again Alclad II. I would say that we are there: in the front part of the wing you can hardly see more rivets or seams, while in the back you can still see something, depending on the points (I followed the logic of having the most trampled parts with more visible rivets).

 

now the contrast with the fuselage, where the rivets have remained from the kit, is really strong... I hope to play right with the colors!

 

the wing-fuselage and tailplane fit is excellent, even glue is not needed.

 

this could allow to continue the painting separately, but considering the possible complications then, and above all the problem of the front part of the landing gear bay, which must be solved before painting, made me decide to definitively join the parts. a series of brutalizations of the aforementioned critical area, together with a copper tourniquet, should have remedied the matter.

 

maybe, we'll find out tomorrow.

 

and that's all for today, to be continued.

 

cheers, Paolo

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by mc65

[LSP_Kevin]

Very nice work, Paolo. Glad to be of service!

 

Kev

[mozart]

Makes great reading Paolo, and your modelling skills are pretty damn good too! Definitely one to follow. 

[Greif8]

Top shelf work Paolo, both scratch building and plain old modelling.  Fit issues on my build are coming up in a couple of different places than your's.  The engine fit fine with almost zero problems, as did the upper cowling.  Wing fit to the fuselage has not been as good though; and I am thinking through how to get everything to fit flush (or very nearly flush) with the correct wing dihedral as well.   Should be interesting to say the least.  I am not sure how to fix the issue with getting the ammo hatch handles to fot flush; I don't own a soldering gun.  I may just have to live with it.

 

Ernest    

[mc65]

thank you all, but don't be too generous with me, otherwise the goddess of bad luck gets jealous and comes to visit me... usually the stage ahead is the one where I make the biggest mistakes!

 

so, little big advance, today.

but let's go in order: the Torquemada method has paid off. I had not highlighted how much it was necessary to intervene with an iron fist... here you can see the extent of the step that afflicted the wing-fuselage connection.

I suspect that this is due to the replacement of the whole landing gear compartment with the Aires resin one.

 

and here after the night under torture. satisfactory, I would say.

oh, finally the zinc chrome yellow has arrived. it stays a little on the psychedelic side, but then I'll tone it down, I promise.

 

the rest of the junction wing-fuselage is close to perfection, luckily for me.

the Karman lacked the screws at the bottom and the vertical junction lines between the various segments. unfortunately the difference between the screws in the kit and mine is quite evident, but I didn't feel like digging wells to bring them to the same depth.

 

since I was with airbrush at hand, I uncovered the gun compartments and gave these a yellow coat too.

 

it's not a perfect job, and the yellow makes it stand out, but I hope to disguise it when I install the Brownings with ejectors, ammo belts and various cables.

 

in parallel, as usual, I started working on other parts, in this case the landing gear.

I must say that the particular engineering of its legs facilitates the process of adjusting the compression of the shock absorbers, even if it seems that there is no need to intervene in this sense.

Note that there are two pairs of main doors for the LG compartment: the ones at the top are Quickboost, and frankly they don't seem indispensable to me. I think with a few modifications I will use those of the kit.

 

yes, oh well, you will say, but these advances? here is all crap! alright then...

 

the true is that, as said, this is the phase of the models where I usually make epochal mistakes, so I'm always a bit uncertain.

well, here it is.

neutral gray.

it seemed too dark to me, so I lightened it with white. result: now it seems identical to the test with the original color done on the side.

 

and so far it was easy, almost fool-proof.

now, wanting to reproduce some scratches taking into account the characteristics of the original, see vintage photos in which you can see any emerging from the olive drab,

 

I had to divide the wing into two sections, and give two different primers: gray for the front, and yellow for the rear. so it was and so I did.

 

then I started with the chosen base color, the Mr. hobby H-52, highlighting the panels and riveting lines with a sort of preshading. 

 

to then veil all over the same color, and on the areas most exposed to light (back of the fuselage, line of the wing spar) begin to intervene with a lighter color tending to khaki, the AK RC 024.

 

now would be the time to leave with magical effects and tricks, and instead I have to suspend operations!

to be continued...

 

cheers, Paolo

[Ayovan]

Really Looking good Paolo. Impressive build so far.