Natural Metal Finish on an Academy B-50 using Alclad: an experiment.

Years back I got a couple of mostly complete, unbuilt kits from a friend, a B-29 and a B-50, both Academy 1/72. I recently pulled them out for a change of pace, from SOS to Stash Reduction. Initially I was planning on an X-1 mother ship, until I realized the amount of research and modification I'd need to do. Both the -29 and -50 were used to drop X planes, but I decided at this point, an OOB build would be suit me just fine. So I sorted the bits for the B-50 and got started.

Early on, I knew I wanted to use the build as a testbed for a natural metal finish. My old go-to, Modelmaster buffing metalizer is long gone my supply used up. Bare metal foil has left me frustrated. So based on some recommendations from other builders, I would experiment with Alclad. The build started like any other, with lots of interior detail that would never be seen again ;-)

Surface prep would be key, so fit issues would need to be addressed. The fuselage halves needed work at least 75% of the way from nose to tail, top and bottom. The nacelles slipped over the wing rather than bring cast as part of them. They were assembled separately and their fit issues addressed, installed, and those fit issues addressed. High spots were filed down, and then hit with successive grits of wet sandpaper. Gaps were filled with Vallejo acrylic Putty. This was my first experience with this product. The promise of water smoothing and cleanup was appealing; additionally it is applied from a tube through a very narrow applicator, enabling a far more precise application than the "trowel it on now, sand it down later" of my old reliable Squadron Putty. I discovered that with its benefits,  Vallejo also required some technique changes. Squadron, being solvent based, bonded to the plastic, dried ~ quickly (depending on thickness), shrank, and sanded down well. Vallejo acrylic showed little shrinkage, but does not dry as hard, so careful light sanding of a fully dry patch, with a less aggressive grit and some water is recommended. Go at it too aggressively and you can peel it from the plastic. Fortunately due to its thin consistency and pinpoint applicator, you shouldn't need to sand as much. You can use a fresh exacto to carve off any protruding bits before sanding as well.

I learned a few things that I would do differently to get the best NMF from this product. If you want a polished-looking finish:

Don't fully assemble your kit (yet). You need an exceptionally smooth gloss finish for best results. Leave off anything that protrudes and wet sand and base paint (more on that in a minute), dry, and wet sand again. Use gloss base paints. What do I mean by base paints? Alcad goes on Very Thin. It is translucent, and the shade used to prime underneath it will show through. To get a sense of this, I prepared a test styrene surface, and applied white, two grays, and black. I wet sanded across half of these.

Test bands

Alclad Polished Aluminum overspray

Light angle makes a huge difference 

I decided that the black was too dark: I would use white and two grays for this project. The sanded surface did give a superior finish, as predicted. 

The good news is that you needn't prime with an Alclad product.  It worked just as well over Tamiya acrylics.

The Alclad really is unforgiving. Any scratches, cross hatching, or irregularities won't just show, they will be highlighted. All the work is in prep - spraying it on is easy. No thinning required, it goes right from bottle to color cup and soray at a comparatively low pressure. Note: it is very thin. I used almost a full bottle (at nearly $10 a bottle) to cover 1 plane this size. I can't imagine what it will take to cover the 1/48 Liberator in my stash...

In order to get some natural variation in metal shades, I primed the entire plane light gray,  then used successive masks for white on the control surfaces and nacelles, and dark gray on selected body panels as shown below.

White applied,dark  gray masking begun

Underside, shades completed.

Just to reinforce,  I recommend leaving off all protruding bits until after this is completed, and prepping them separately or after attachment. It's not just going to complicate the multiple masks, you Will break things off...

Also, I went through a full roll of Tamiya tape in the process, along with sheets of newsprint and a few post-its. Be prepared.

The good news is that the finish looks great. Even with my lack of adequate surface prep it displays well.

Variation in shades looks natural 

Different light angles make the shade differences more apparent.

I was warned that using decal setting solutions can affect the finish, so I didn't use any. What you see is raw Alclad and decals, no finish coat.  That experiment will have to take place on another kit, another day.

To sum up, this was a great learning experience leading to a good result which could have been great.  I can recommend both the Vallejo Putty and Alclad for your next NMF project. Take your time and you can create something great!

Lockeed Ventura - 1/72 by Minicraft - Sept/Oct 2023

This build was both fun and frustrating.  I don't think it is my best work, but I share blame with the kit.  You get what you pay for (generally).  The thing is that I knew what to expect since I had reviewed  the instruction sheet on Scalemates!  I have taken more photos of this build than many others so I am going to post this project in sections.

POST NO, 1 COCKPIT

The 3 pieces supplied; floor, instrument backboard and bulkhead.  I went online as I always do to research other build and historical cockpit photos.  What I tried to achieve was a typical PV-1 setup.

First was to saw out the bulkhead door as it had no detail whatsoever - I love my xacto saw blades!

With that done I could move to working some interior detail (bye, bye door).

The nail file comes in handy.  The difference between the molded kit seat and with the edges filed down.

A piece of sprue is used for an extinguisher and wine foil for straps and bulkhead (its in the interior photos😉)

The tricky part was building up a console with various shaped pieces of sprue (a few squares piled up and then round ones on to of that). Zinc Chromate is applied and the supplied decal sheet instrument panel glued on.

I drilled impressions into the console to add as many pieces of wire as I could for control levers. Note that the instrument panel decal actually shows dials etc. remarkably accurate based on photos of the real thing - not that you will be able to see too well once she is closed up.

I did my best to paint the console at least as similar to photos as I could.

Next are the seats, painted and strips of foil cut and glued for seat belts - no figures included in this kit.

Eh - not bad!

Finally the bulkhead is attached and control yokes (painted on the sprue) glued to the floor.

Photos show a bank of switches on the port side, so I tried to paint up a bit of sprue.

This is the end of POST NO. 1

Lindberg 2 Pack - 1/48 Fairey Flycatcher/Hawker Fury MK1 - Sept. 2023

 

I found this online for a very nice price.  Lindberg plastic is rather soft and I knew going in of the lack of certain details, but the kit went together quite well and the molding positions of connecting points is quite good making for easy assembly and rigging.

Let's begin with the Flucatcher!!

The sprues as they came out of the single parts bag.

I chose first to work on the 14 cylinder Armstrong radial.  I painted the prop right off as it needs to be installed in order to close up the two 7 cylinder parts.  The kit is supplied with molded push rods that add to the engine detail, but exhaust pipes are not, so if you want that extra detail it is DIY and I used bits of sprue and evergreen rod as you will see.  Just cut the bits to preferred lengths, bend them a little and glue to the nubs on the cylinders.  Photos of different models and historical pics show all sorts of arrangements so I followed my instincts.

The push rods.

Starting to add exhaust.

For ease of construction, this assembly is painted and set aside and installed at the very last.

To close up the fuselage we must always detail cockpit parts to the extent possible. The pilot is a four part construction and painted in inter-war flight colors.  Some evergreen rod has been added and the instrument panel is a separate installed piece.

With the fuselage closed up it was time for some paint.  Silver is always tricky (for me at least).  This build was more suitable for spray and not hand painting, but what to use??  I chose to experiment with a Testors rattle can lacquer - It's called Diamond Mist and I like the way it turned out.

After attachment of the bottom wing (caution as this is one fit that needs putty and sanding) the tail and gear legs are installed in order that spray painting can continue.

The axel was painted separately after the wheels were installed. The hubs are painted silver and decals applied. Finish paint is done on the funky gear legs and now some decal work is needed.

Under side of the wing is first (note that tail supports have been added and painted).  Also, wire rigging has been added to the gear legs. I will note here that decals are supplied for Flight 401 of the HMS Eagle circa 1930 as seen below.

The pilots loved the Flycatcher.  She was easy to fly and built specifically for the carrier.  The forerunner of the Fairey Swordfish!

Cabane struts are one piece which facilitates rigging before attachment to the fuselage - which is NICE.

The rigging for this 1/48 build is from my stash of gauge 26 silver wire which looked appropriate based on historical and model photos.  The wire is easy to bend and straighten as needed and Loctite gel (cyano) is great for mating metal to plastic.  Keep snipping until the length is correct.

Both the cabanes and the Vickers guns, previously painted in Gun Metal, are installed.

Fuselage and tail decals are applied now - easier before the top wing is installed.  Speaking of which...

The top wing is first glued to the cabane struts in the molded holes.  The N struts have been painted on the sprue waiting to be inserted into the molded holes in the bottom wing, then pushed toward the molded holes in the underside of the top wing.  Everything popped into place - amazing!  Well done Lindberg!!!

Wing rigging begins with the double wire for which holes are provided.  This is followed with the single wire always working from the inside to outside. Per the instruction for rigging I have drilled through the wings for the full aileron control wires.  It allowed me to thread wire through and then bend to the control arms.  Small pieces of wire are cut to fit from the control arms to the front of the wing.  Note that top wing decals are previously applied. This was a delicate operation due to having to punch through for the control arms.  I suppose I could have added the arms after the decals but hey, that's hindsight.

This just shows the measurement of the rigging wire.

With the rigging completed  the engine is mounted - not bad!

I did dullcoat the decals on the wings and had to carefully mask to do it as dullcoat is not good on the of the Diamond Mist.

Put her on the deck.

Onward to Kit 2 of 2

This is the real thing and the only air worthy Fury there is.  Since the kit includes the decals for this airplane, that is what we build!

Strangely enough I began with the huge propeller. With a 600HP engine it is no wonder that the Fury was the first 200MPH+ biplane fighter.

Since I decided to emulate the existing Fury, my decision was to forego a pilot (it was the same figure as in the Flycatcher) and do more interior DIY.  Wine foil to the rescue once again!

Extra instrument panel and fiddly bits in my stash help out.

Visibility is not too bad.  Note the opening in front of the cockpit - this is for the twin Vickers guns.

Let's jump ahead.  This is an easy assembly kit so the wings, tail and guns(panel) are installed and I once again gave her a Diamond Dust spray - same as the Flycatcher.  More on that later.  I used my fine ink pen to highlight  the guns.  Also notice the molded depressions for the strut connections.  This is one of the strong points of the Lindberg kits.

The afore mentioned depressions/holes allow for ease of gear leg installation.

In keeping with my static display I sanded a flat spot on the "tires" as the wheels will not be rotational, unlike my work on the Flycatcher.

We jump forward once again as the 3 piece upper wing has been glued together and sprayed with the Diamond Mist lacquer and attached to the cabane struts that had been glued to the fuselage.  The gear wire has been added along with install of the prop - the only moving part of the aircraft.

Time to show the silver wire (gauge 26) from my stash used for rigging on the Flycatcher and now on the Fury.  Lindberg supplied wire in the kit(s) but it was slightly heavier and therefore not used.  Monofilament thread is too thin for use as rigging but will be adequate as radio wire!

I flipped her over to add the tail strut supports and the bottom decals.  You can see that the N struts have been glued in place.  Above you saw the molded holes for the struts (same as on the Flycatcher) so popping the struts in place was an easy task.

This shows the port side rigging in place.  Cutting the wire to to proper length from hole to hole was a tedious trial and error effort and once they were to proper length it was awkward getting the wires in place.  I don't know exactly why but the distance between wings and the angle between them made wire placement much more frustrating than when rigging the Flycatcher.

Only single holes were molded into the wing and fuselage for the forward most support wires even though photos show a dbl rigging same as the Flycatcher (which had two holes) so I made the inside wire just a bit shorter and then glued the two wire together. This made the install a cinch!

All decals when down just fine, with no tears, using Microsol, of course.

Rigging is completed and then painted a light gray to dull down the wire against the paint.  My only disappointment was that the nose of plane does not "shine" they way I wanted. My technique of simply using the Diamond Dust Lacquer and trying to overspray a gloss clear coat was a failure.

Tail skid and painting of control wire.

I pulled out some acrylic red to finish the spinner and wheel covers but the paint is flat, so I will have to repaint with gloss, but that is the only remaining task.

Here is the update with gloss red applied!

With everything complete I shine some light on the cockpit!

and now a couple of final pics.

Wow that is a BIG Prop!