Egilman

When the Tigers were formed in China, the situation was that the Japanese had complete control of the air, what few aircraft the chinese had were quickly eliminated. the units of the Japanese army air corp were flying the planes they had been sent there with mostly Claudes which still had fixed landing gear with wheel pants.... The P-40's were a rude awakening for them, as the Claude was no match..... The tigers mission was to stop the wanton bombing of chinese positions so to give the Chinese forces a chance to recover, in the process they pretty much devastated the Sentai flying Claudes so badly that they were recalled/retired and the Japanese were forced to replace them with A6M units. The Tigers quickly learned how not to fight the Zero and which tactics worked.... It's a damned shame at what the REMF's did with that very valuable intelligence, but they also thought that the Japanese would not be as ambitious and they proved to be... Yes we had to relearn the lessons.... but the aircraft engineers who were privy to the information had a very good understanding what they were facing and were working on it even if the staff types at the pentagon were not putting a lot of emphasis in forwarding the info... They were more concerned with the capabilities of German aircraft, rather than what the Japanese were doing in China...... They just plain couldn't believe that the Japanese were capable of fighting on the level they were actually capable of or that their equipment was any good...

Mixing bleach with ammonia generates toxic chloramine vapor.... (chlorine gas) yummy.....

Yep, I would give a light sand down of the affected areas and repaint.... Like I said, the decals will take care of themselves..... It's too damned pretty not to finish it....

I'm sorry brother, I didn't catch that, no acryls ever get applied over true lacquers... period why cause lacquers, the real lacquers can take up to two months to completely degass (dry/cure) once you have applied a true lacquer you have to stay on that road.... Lacquers are lacquers whether or not it be applied to a model or a car or a piece of furniture.... they don't mix with anything well at all..... (and they can take forever to cure)

Excellent rundown Lou.... There was one plane in the military services worldwide that could out turn a Zero, believe it or not, it was the F4F wildcat..... the problem with the early Wildcats was that it was seriously underpowered.... (and as we know pilot inexperience) once they upgraded the F4F to a 1500 hp engine (early war planes only had 925 hp) it became the bane of anyone coming up against one.... the German pilots flying 109's in the Med were known to avoid tangling with them if they had a choice........ There were several dozen Aces in one mission navy pilots early in the war.... I think the top one was Joe Foss with seven confirmed kills in one mission..... (he had five in one mission on two other occasions) The early Wildcat could handle the Zero as long as you flew it within it's flight envelope. And when they finally fixed it's power problem it was absolutely superior to the Zero in every respect... Another very good point.... Before Pearl Harbor, the USAAC knew all about the Zero and it's capabilities the Flying tigers were sending all information they had back to the US intelligence services... and aircraft were in the pipeline to resolve those issues like the P-38, P-47 & P-51. but we had to make due with what we had and the P-40 was our top line fighter plane. but there is no way to get experience in A2A combat unless you are actually in it so to speak..... yes we had a deficiency in experienced combat pilots, which was quickly remedied when they initiated ACM training before going overseas......

Well that confirms what caused it, too much heat catalyzed the acrylic before it could cure.... I'm sorry brother.... she was beautiful...... she will be again this is only a setback....

Ok, so since the paint is damaged at this point it becomes a strip and repaint... but before you go further, try what I suggested, that will at least confirm my theory and the way to fix it. either way in the future we will know what not to do, and if we do anyway, how to fix it.... Don't worry about the decals, they have a way of fixing themselves....

I don't think it was a reaction.... My thinking was to the heat of the hair dryer. I have a suggestion..... I don't think it will hurt it at this point.... Say on the rudder where it is discolored the worst? Try coating it again, only this time allow it to dry on it's own.... My mind says it cured too fast not allowing the material to cure from the inside out. the heat created a skin over the top which didn't allow the insides to completely degass.. That causes the skin formed to cloud up.... My hope is that the clouding is only surface and a reapplication will smooth out the problem.... Try it on a small area and see if it works.... I'm just making a suggestion based upon educated guess at this point I don't know if it will work, but it's worth a try.... the only other option is a strip and repaint....

My flying parts usually wind up down in the heater register on the floor, seems like it is positioned perfectly to catch such things as model parts.... It's gotten so when it happens it's the first place I look....

Pretty beefy suspension there, it wasn't fast, but it would pull just about anything.... (the Germans used it to recover tiger tanks amongst other things) It had such a high reputation that all sides used them when they could get their hands on one....

Me, I've always stood by Micro-set/sol, call it the old standby.... seldom have had a bad result using them with the proper surface prep...

I think it's coming out beautiful brother, but then I'm kinda partial to camo on great planes...

You had to get the one that came in the wheaties box, the one that came in the crackerjack boxes was a cheap knock off....

Thank you OC, gonna try and fit some time in tonight to do more work on her....

I usually paint a section that will be under the decals with future to create the glossy surface for the decals to adhere, then overcoat them with Testors flat rattle can lacquer for the final finish...... Most important is the smooth surface under the decal to prevent silvering, doesn't have to be glossy, but it does have to be smooth. (flat paint doesn't create a smooth surface) The reason most use a gloss coat for decaling is the perfectly smooth surface gloss lacquer produces and it's easy application.... I prefer Future floor wax because it dries thinner than most lacquer overcoats..... It coming out beautiful my friend......

And the master car builder opens up shop again... I'm going to have to put an engine and wheels on my chair to keep up.... I'm in...

But the Baron shot him down--'CURSES, foiled again!'......

They look perfectly fine to me Carl..... to both my Mk1 eyeball and through my pocket microscope.... Nice work on a difficult color combination....

Not on a B-25, the curved plexiglass waist gun cover was introduced on some mid war models and was permanent, on the aircraft models that carried waist guns, the gun was on a pintle with a rubberized canvas cover in the lower left corner of the window.... This cause the waist guns to be staggered when mounted on both sides..... The B-25's never had an open waist gunner position.

I would say they would pass for the top of the line detroit production.... Color corrected image..... The camera didn't read the light conditions properly, caused them to be too dark and muted.... The chrome looks perfect the paint is stunning. It's a beautiful lady in waiting....

I"m here, still hunting around for my pocket microscope though....... ;-0

Now that is a good sized airplane model..... (I see some of what looks like fishin' line, you gonna hang her up?) Gorgeous paint job!

Definitely pullin up a big comfy lounger for this one....

Now ya TALKIN' I hope you don't mind me taking the liberty of color correcting the image.... I'm sure she will get her dance..... She really can strut it.... Beautiful girl my friend Impressive.....

That the reason I don't do them either, can't build a display cabinet big enough.....