lmagna

Nice looking Crate EG who's the kit from?

As kid, I remember very well the sonic booms over head.  We lived just south of Wright Pat AFB, in Dayton.   Part of the good about living there was in the 50's a lot of aircraft were being flown in for the museum.  They also had a lot of aircraft coming and going that were being tested.  The other part was the fighter squadron (long since gone) that seemed to everything as a group including loud flyovers while breaking the sound barrier.  

Maybe on the R/C. Yes for the strong smooth hull. The planking supplied in the kit is very soft so I guess it will just be there to hold up the epoxy till it sets. I may have to dig into my stash of balsa to get something tuff enough to hold up to the twisting and bending required. The shape of the stern is vague and I don't  have good drawings of the Mo.   Bill

Work continues with side skins and bow planking. Since the hull will be glassed over I'm not following traditional hull planking pattern.

Good start neighbor (Eastern Washington) . I will follow your build!
 
Regards, Dave

Work continues with framing,bottom planking and a shot of whats left of the kit and a plans sample. The instruction book is fairly complete but lots of fine print and takes some study. I'd say experience is required with this kit.

Mark, you are correct, it is a kit. The Sterling plans are not complete enough to build from.

Since this appears to be a kit and not a scratch build, I moved it.  If it's just the Sterling plans, let me know and I'll move it back.

after a bit of 'do this and do that',  I finally got to remove the masking.  I can say that covering over some of the imperfections with these colors is a bit on the hard side,  especially if they are darker than the paint covering them.  I need to wait anyway.......all this needs to fully dry before trying anything.  I did in a couple of areas and the paint became active........  if I can't touch it up with a brush,  I'll need to remask and spray.  where I masked over the gray on the fuselage,   there were a few spots that showed the base plastic.....I've already touched these areas up.

the main thought was how the stripes will run.........either differently on the fuselage and wings,  or all in the same direction.   I think the latter will look better.  when I was removing the rudder parts from the masking,  a tip on one of the rudders almost broke off........I patched it with cement and will let it dry.  I also painted the gray areas on the inner rudder parts.

....and here are the rest of the parts to complete the color scheme   

still a lot more painting to go  

thanks Phil for the kind comment and thanks to all for the likes     more has been done in the paint dept.  I had a though to paint the top surface in front of the cockpit.........I was going to do flat black for this,  but I decided to do it in the bomber green.

then I moved on to the rudders and stabilizer.  I was reminded that I only painted one side of the rudder flaps.....so I still gotta do that.  the stabilizer is now masked for painting.

this tape that I'm using is Testor's pin striping tape........comes in three different widths.  it is a trustworthy tape for me    the outside surfaces of the rudders will not be striped,  since they are now flat blue....just the inside surfaces.  the bottom sections under the stabilizer,  will be done in light gray,  like the underbelly of the fuselage and wings.  the fuselage halves were next to get the masking job.

 

the cowls will be done in flat white,  later to get their decoration,  yet to be see    ...and then it came to the paint  

by this time,  I had to leave to take the admiral to her doctor's appointment.  now that I'm back,  I can remove all the masking and see what it all looks like.   more on the process soon........reminds me of the scene where the doctor remove the bandages from Joker's face,  in the first Batman 

Looking good!

ohhhhh,  I dunno,  I'm just a wingman     something about those big birds.........
 
  hey.........whilst I'm here,  I may as well post a few update pictures.   I went a bit further on the paint work.   first I masked and painted the blue areas on the wings,  fuselage and rudders.  one thing I noticed is that the wings don't possess the same panel texture and rivet detail.   odd given the fact that the Atlantis and the other Revell kit are identical....then again,  they come from the same molds.  there are some minor flaws with the paint,  but I will go over them once all the colors are on.

after I gave the blue some time to dry,  I began masking the wings.  I just followed the panel lines as a guide.  the ailerons were taped in place,  so they could get their portion of the striping.

I did the other wing by eye,  keeping with the spacing of the above wing.  I didn't do too badly.......I think  

this is some pretty good tape.......comes in three different widths.   the tape I wanted to use.....I can't.   I used it on the Futura....and I guess the thinner is the culprit.......but it left the adhesive on the part I masked up.  it's been a task to remove it.....still more to go.  once I made sure that the tape was firmly pressed down,  it was off to the paint booth.

the admiral wanted to go to the store.........so I had to hold off on further work.   when we got back,  I removed the tape to see how much {if any} crept underneath {I get mixed results}.  I was happy to see that only a few visible imperfections occurred.  real tiny ones I'm not concerned with....but there are some I will touch up.  the rudders and stabilizer will be next.

more soon  

Denis I think we can officially name you Commander of Bomber Command!!!!!!!!!!

it would be easy to come up with a sheet of dot decals      the paint work would be enormous though.........not to say that what I have planned isn't.  I'm giving the white a chance to dry more,  before I go to the other colors.  there are quite a few to choose from,  but finding decal sets for some of them might be tough.   there is.....still the MPC kit,  cheap enough to toy around with.............I might still be able to get one
 
glad your looking in  

A small improvement at the juncture of Module #4 and Module #5. I noticed that the newly added deck is sagging and not joining perfectly.
I decided to build four small pieces to provide extra support for the deck: 
 

 
These are based on the ENGINE>ENGINE_ROOF_JOINER part provided in the kit and resized to 30 mm x 19 mm x 1.6 mm (thickness is unchanged.). The smaller parts are 19 mm x 10 mm x 1.6 mm. The small parts are glued to the end of the large parts, and the large parts are glued underneath the Module #4 deck.
 

 
It now offers a very solid base for the extension deck, discussed previously.
 
Yves

Your display has also been upgraded (and will be certainly more space consuming than the old "display on a dusty shelf"
Did you only clean the model, or did you completely rework the paint?
 
Jan

Next project was USS Independence CVL by Revell. The flyhawk kit of its time. Althouth there were some fitting issues, especially at the front, the overall details were  exeptional plus it had several sprues of spare parts which i still use today sometimes.
 

Time...
 Obviously depends in what are you want to achieve. Here's is an answer from a time expert along with his work
 
"Painting is essential for the 3D look. I highlight and shade them like I would with any figure at any scale, according to the light coming from above. This emphasises the 3D-look very much, and makes the figures appear more detailed and refined.

Only drawback to these techniques: it is time-consuming. When working in series, I spend 1,5 to 2 minutes on the tickening of each figure, while painting takes about 5 minutes per figure. Together with preparation and installing, this makes about 10 minutes per figure. Not too bad, but it adds up quickly. Morris has 59 on her now, and I estimate the diorama will take about 1000 more...
But hey, good results do take some effort, don't they?"
 
 

Its that age old problem, where to display everything we make   looking forward to following this task.

That's a fleet of built models! Do you have any plan on how much time you will spend doing restoration on each model? You could potentially sink a lot of time into restoration but it should be rewarding and fun. Looking forward to seeing your progress.

Before presenting my future project i will make a short review of some completed last year
 
USS San Diego by Matchbox. Rebuilt with some PE parts (AA guns ,rails and sme radar). Actually the whole model except hull sides need PE replacements but anyway
 
Alongside is DD 537 USS The Sullivans,  named by the 5 brothers killed  when their ship, USS Juneau, was sunk by a Japanese submarine
 
 

it's been a busy couple of weeks.........work has been a bear.........celebrated my birthday on the 31st.......replaced the right front axle and lower control arm in my son's car,  as well as all the lug studs on the left front.  he took it to a dealer to have the transmission replaced  {a month ago} and they over torqued the wheel lugs,  ruining the left front rim.  he bought a replacement rim the other day,  per my suggestion.  I went to take it off and two of them were loose again,  as well as one of them being seized.  I got the tire off by snapping the lug with a breaker bar and length of pipe,  for more leverage    it's bad when you can look at the lug holes and actually see the damage!  the right front was over torqued as well,  but he hasn't had to retighten them {he stopped by the house one day complaining of a noise in the left front........that is what we found}.  it's a long story.........sigh   all the rain we've had.......I also got to mow the lawns finally........the jungle had returned.
 
one issue I've run into with this project,  is that when I repainted the bottom pan,  I removed the masking,  only to find that the adhesive had stuck to the part and not on the tape .   true,  I left it on for a couple of days,  but the other masking tapes I have hasn't done this.  I'm not sure,  but I think this is Tamiya tape.

 

so now I want to remove the adhesive so I can repaint the undercarriage.  once I get it off,  the black can be touched up and I can move on with it.  I am in the process of testing the tape.  I stuck some on a wing and will leave it a couple of days,  to see if it is just a time thing.........but I think the introduction of paint and paint thinner may have caused it.  we'll see.

 

WOW!  you've made some really good progress !   very nice indeed !     a couple of comments I'd like to add is that the fuel tank is where it is for a good reason.   fuel systems relied on suction for mechanical fuel pumps.......pressure for today's cars.  the early systems likely relied on gravity feed for  fuel delivery.....putting the tank over the engine would certainly accomplish that.   ....and yes.....most batteries were located under the driver's seat of floor board.  the master cylinder is probably there as well.  my brother knew a guy that had an old American staff car,  and that was how it was set up.....except it had a mechanical fuel pump...the tank was located in the rear undercarriage.  
 
good you held off on some of the rust and dirt....now that the body is in place,  you can go mental    but it does matter though on how long it's been out in the 'wild'   ....could have been a new addition to the pool.   great job......looking spectacular!

Blue-gray interior color
 

Laid down some German gray paint tonight in four stages, modulation.
 
First stage
 

 
second stage
 

 
third stage
 

 
fourth stage
 

 
will finish it off with some grime and a little rust here and there. Next will work on the interior.