CDW

That’s just beautiful. It’s my favorite of all you have done thus far. What a nice collection you’re building.

I’ll bet those breast plates were very uncomfortable to wear. Heavy, too. That treatment you applied to the metal looks splendid. What color did you use on the boots for leather?

In general, I find any form of scale modeling to be therapeutic as long as I don't get too carried away with it. Given the opportunity, it can become obsessive, and in my humble opinion, life should be as "rounded" as possible.

Every figure you do gets better and better. Great work, Alan.

I bought it for $680 from Spraygunner dot com. It was discounted due to a box that was scuffed up in shipping but contents perfect. Their regular price is $800. Most of their MFH kits are already sold out. Not a large selection of MFH kits in the USA and when they get new stock, it goes fast.

Seeing your beautiful work on this MFH kit convinced me to acquire one and give it a go. I bought the 1:12 1960 Corvette kit as my first MFH kit. It will be a while before I start it. Bought the magnetic tumbler, too. I can't see myself hand cleaning and polishing all those metal parts. You are doing their company a huge favor showing your build of their kit.

It must be the small amount of Spain in my DNA. I like the red as well.

Besides the beautiful job you did on your model, Mike, you built one that will rarely be seen on model show tables. It's a rare, unique, and beautiful piece of flight history. A pleasure to see.

Thanks, Ken. Would love to see your Civil War saddle.

Dry fit

The next order of business is the trunk area. The trunk is a heavy white metal casting, apparently designed to give the finished model a more heavy, realistic feel. Here, I have polished and then primed the metal casting with Mr Metal Primer, which is a clear primer. Once the metal primer kicked off, I primed the casting with Scale Finishes white primer, a lacquer-based primer. The 2 oz bottle comes prethinned, airbrush ready. It went down very smoothly and does not build up heavily in a couple of passes. This will probably be a very good base coat for my next steps, the finish coats. I'm working outside my comfort zone as this time I will be using a gloss enamel for the finish color of the model. Enamels dry slowly and will require several days or more curing time after painting before handling. Handling too soon is a sure way to leave fingerprints and a marred finish. The advantage of enamel is the extreme gloss finish without the need for polishing or clear coats. Again, I'll be using a Scale Finishes product for the final finish, Porsche Signal Yellow. I have read very good reports from other modelers about Scale Finishes gloss enamels and have seen some beautiful results from skilled modelers using the paint. Like their primer, the gloss enamel also comes ready for airbrush use and does not need to be thinned before spraying. This vendor can color match any year model color by request. His enamels are DuPont Axalta paints. Only the area around the perimeter of the trunk will be finished in the body color, yellow. Once the yellow paint has been applied and fully cured, I will mask it off then paint the inner, carpeted area of the trunk in dark gray.

Thanks for the kind words. They are encouraging.

Thanks for the nice comments guys. Yes, it's Ascot Brown. It's a custom Tamiya mix. 2 parts flat yellow, 1 part flat red, and 4 parts hull red. Last night I masked off the seats and steering wheel then finished the detailed painting of those. Maybe I will find the time over this long weekend to finish the interior and start painting the body panels. There are numerous panels, and I am concerned about getting all the panels to match shade. There's no practical way to paint it all assembled.

Sadly, Spraygunner quit carrying/restocking the Mr Color line. He was my go-to up until then. He's just 10 miles or less from my house.

Making a little more progress

I order all my Mr Color paints from scalehobbyist.com His inventory and reliability are second to none.

That looks great! You are keeping Tamiya tape production workers in business, but it's by far the best tape for our scale model work, at least the best I have found. I'm always open to lower cost alternatives but not at a cut in quality.

Looks magnificently precise, just like the real thing.

A dry fit mockup of the dash after laying down the initial colors. The seats will be similarly colored, a custom mix of Ascot Brown, titanium silver, and semi-gloss black. All that front suspension is about to be buried. A full metal (heavy) chassis pan will eventually extend from front to back before all is said and done, covering the detail from the bottom. Interior and cargo area will cover the top.

What an outstandingly great job you've done on this model, Dave. It looks superb. Arguably the best-looking aircraft of WW2. Your work does it justice!

Wow! Those photos are amazing.

I'll be sure to watch your video, it sounds very interesting to me. That's a great idea about servos to open and close doors, trunks, hoods, etc. There is micro-size linear servos used on ultra-small RC planes these days that would be perfect for that purpose.

Oh it’s a rabbit hole for sure. I wish I had known about those boards when I was building my fire engine pumper. It would have been a great addition having all the lights working.

What you see here of the front suspension will mostly be hidden from view when the model is completed. Photos are for posterity. It will be hidden but not forgotten. A small amount will possibly be seen through the wheel spokes perhaps but that’s about all. I can see why one might invest in a tumbler/polisher. There is a lot of time and effort required to clean up the cast metal parts just to prepare them for painting. While the castings are Tamiya quality, there are still mold lines to contend with. Right now I am considering whether or not to install LED head and tail lamps. If I’m going to do that, now is the time to figure out the wire routing. I’ve been studying Arduino boards by watching videos and reading up on them. Ever heard of Arduino boards? You can do some very interesting light programming with these little marvels of modern technology.

Thanks, Alan!