Egilman

The wind shear has to be out of this world!!! your already getting hammered and the hurricane hasn't even landed yet... Damn...

I just read a report that 180 mph is the current average windspeed... If true this one is going to be a real disaster...

Again it depends brother on what you want to depict with your model... If a wartime bird, fill them in smooth and paint... If an airshow warbird, all polished up then don't and use the panel lines for what they were intended for on the model... (creating shaded panels) It's really a simple question of what you want it to look like, then build it to suit... But if your going for scale realism, then fill them and forget them... Like your pic clearly shows, they are not to be seen on a real combat aircraft...The wings were epoxy painted with aluminized paint and made ultra smooth... And aside from a few experimental aircraft, it was the only one that NA did that made it into production... It's really not worth it in my opinion... Only two ways to go for a detail that no one will ever see whichever way you decide to do it... AS far as the details on the Laminar Flow Wings I'll have to dig around for my Dash-1's on it, and they are currently in the attic... But if you really want the info brother, I see what I can find...

I had this discussion with a kind soul a few months ago... it's a question of scale as in what your eye can see on a model... Yes the wings of all P-51's were painted aluminum, aluminum colored lacquer paint, they would never shine like a mirror, not in real life, they would reflect light and other images near to them but no mirror finish... The panel joints, we are talking about the riveted panel joints now were so close together that they didn't need filling and you wouldn't see them on the real aircraft even if the paint was stripped off and the wings polished to mirror finish like the airshow warbirds... So we need to know why the wing joints were filled and wings painted if the panel joints as built were so close.... Laminar Flow.... To get the maximum smooth airflow over the wings while maneuvering they incorporated Laminar Flow into the wings, what it was was tiny ports that release bleed air from the supercharger over the wing panel surface, this would cause the airflow to align with the wing surface reducing air turbulence over the wing and thence reducing inherent surface drag... So to get the smoothest surface possible the wings were epoxied with aluminized epoxy paint and not painted after that... This necessitated that the paper thin panel joints be filled which the epoxy paint did quite admirably.... How big were these joints in real life? a few thousandths of an inch, tolerance was 5-10 thousandths of an inch... There is no model at any scale under half scale that is going to represent the panel joints in any visible way... Yes the grain of the panel surface did come thru the epoxy paint and from that aspect you can have light reflectance variance in the individual panels from a distance but up close they look identical... In scale, they look good with different shaded panels but in real life that was seldom seen on an operational bird... It was also only used on a few of the NA produced aircraft and the P-51 was the only aircraft produced in WWII that became operational with it... By the time Korea came around even North American did away with it as it just added production costs.. Besides the jet aircraft had more than enough thrust to push the airframe to almost supersonic speeds without it, the F-86 is a prime example as a transonic aircraft... (the Bell X1 is officially known as the first supersonic aircraft, but amongst the test pilots flying out of Muroc Field in the day, it's the F-86F that is recognized, unofficially of course, as the first aircraft to go supersonic without disintegrating) And it had no laminar flow... On a scale model, there is nothing to fill and besides, who's going to see it under the aluminized paint? Of course there are those that will argue, but when actually discussing it they soon realize that the grooves created to represent the panel edges then filled on a model aircraft is a pure waste of time... This of course is my sole opinion, but I've had this discussion numerous times and no one has been able to refute the facts yet... think about it for a minute before doing all that work, your creating a detail so you can paint over it and hide it like on the real aircraft? We are smarter than that...

Yep, they always do, but I like his presentation, he covers the probabilities without sugarcoating it... I hope it stays south so it weaken as much as it can.... (good link Thanks, I'll hang on to that one) The equatorial easterlies are trying to push it north, but that westerly jetstream is predicted to strengthen over the next 24 hours which will help greatly in holding it to the south.... But all the models are showing a solid central Florida hit here the only question is how strong a hit... Whatever you do my friend, STAY SAFE....

Well the Jetstream as predicted for midnight tonight.... Heading straight for the northern gulf coast of Florida... It may shift in the next few days, but that is dictating the track at the present... It's acting like a huge vacuum pulling at and intensifying the low pressure system... If it's not a cat 5, it will be... EVERYONE STAY SAFE... PLEASE...

Yeah, I ran into that doing my research... Everyone's got an opinion, and theirs IS the way... {chuckle} And, because they posted in on the internet it is the "Best" way.... But, we have experienced veteran modelers here on MSW, and we know that there are many "Best" ways of doing things, find the one that works for you brother... I know you will...

Well, if you want the old oxidized aluminum finish, you can try it by hand.... (I know airbrushes are the "in" thing)... I know old school, over a rattlecan flat black primer.... Depends upon the look you want, new and freshly issued or well used flightline trooper, combat vet... The possibilities are endless brother...

Yeah it does, and the gloss provides the reflectivity... they both look good but that 1/32 bird has the look of a brand new bird just off the assembly line.... simply beautiful.... Well done..

You too my friend, stay safe.... I went thru one of those early fall hurricanes way back as a younker, inside the house the wind was whistling like it was a train whistle roaring by, lost a lot of trees, those big willows, tipped out of the ground like they were growing out of mud.... Thankfully the one in the back yard didn't go over... Scary stuff....

It depends on the final look you want, most of the sprays give a flavor of new metallic with varying grades of shine, although I've been impressed with a few of the sprays that have been coming out... For shiny aluminum, gloss black undercoat with a thinned aluminum overcoat, for an oxidized aluminum finish dark grey gloss with a bit heavier coat of aluminum... Me I will still do it in RnB... But that's the old school way... I'll be following brother...

Yeah the best laid plans and all that, Just stay safe my friend....

There is something going on in that real life photo that is making the grey underside of the wing virtually glow with light causing the turbosuperchargers exhaust to be a lot darker than it usually is, On your model you can take it a bit darker but not much, looks pretty good from where I sit....

I've always said, daylight tells the tale... The sun never lies... I think you've nailed the faded OD finish, gonna look the part that's for sure... US OD Green is the chameleon paint, it can be any number of shades depending on light and angle... Well done, I wouldn't change a thing....

WnW 1/32nd Scale I have the Late F2A and will be raiding two WnW DH9a "Ninaks" for the Liberty engines, the DH9a's have a fuselage fairing over the engines so they can be built without the engine inside, they just show the exhausts on the side... Will have to find some appropriate exhaust manifolds to install on the Ninak's... Right and Left handed 6 cylinder manifolds should work, two each... {chuckle}

Well I've got the Liberty engines coming and the F2A, and yes when serving with the fleet assigned to Utility Squadron 1 attached to the USS Wright in 1922 they had Chrome yellow upper wing and Hor. stab surfaces with star with red dot insignias.... YEA TEAM!!!! She can be built as a yellow wing... Chrome Yellow photographs dark in the early film days... Overall navy grey with a black hull bottom, Silver doped lower wing + underside of the H stab, Chrome Yellow top of the upper wing and H stab... Should be pretty....

Will do brother, When I start getting my head back into modeling I'll give you a shout.... And I will have the Catapult files sorted by then as well... (Unless you want them now) There is another thing I leaned about the Felixtowne F2A's... The chief designer of the F.2A, John Porte, had co-operated with Glenn Curtiss for many years and Curtiss had great experience in designing and building flying boats. He was the guy that worked with Curtis on designing the H-12 earlier... His company Felixtowne gave a license to build the F2A in the US as the Curtis H-16, in fact the RN flew more Curtis's than they did Felixtowne's but this allowed Curtis to sell the H-16 to the US navy... In British service the Felixtowne's only lasted into 1919 until they were retired for good, but they served in the US Navy well into the late 20's... They were anericanized though using Liberty engines... So it's enitrely possible to have a yellowing Felixtown F2A disguised as a Curtis H-16, all we would have to do is substitute to a pair of Liberty engines for the conversion... During the war the US Navy flown versions pretty much only flew in the US and didn't arrive in England until the war was over, but the RN flew more of them than they did the F2A.... I haven't found a pic of a Yellowing version yet which is my new research mission... (and to find a Liberty engine in 1/32 scale)

Yeah I have the Kittyhawk Kingfisher and the Big Ed for it...The Catapult is the P-6 Standard US Navy catapult... It is a 3D print model, a bit basic but can be printed in any scale you want it in... It was a free download from the net but I don't remember where, I've had it for a while... I've combined the DOCX build log files into a single PDF so you can see what it is.... I remember it as free and there is no attribution in the file so I'm pretty sure it's public domain... I've uploaded it below for whomever wants it... I haven't checked the STL files for errors yet, but I will if anyone likes what they see and wants it... US Navy Standard P-6 Catapult 1933-52.pdf

I have the WWII catapult (3D print files) for my kingfisher, I was thinking of doing mine as a bird off the Arizona when she was a yellowing or off the Washington when she was three color blue.... The Catapult is the same whether the center deck one on the old battleships or the newer deck edge ones on the fast battleships... That's quite the collection of flying boats.... a biplane yellowing? {chuckle} just kidding... (there were no yellowing Felixtowns) the Felixtown was a British built derivative/development of the Curtis H-12 flying boat... (cause the Curtis company could not fill the RN's orders fast enough besides the guy that helped Curtis build the H-12 was an Englishman and when the war broke out he served in the RN and developed the Felixtown line of FB's directly off his experience and knowledge of Curtis's designs......) They look almost identical, you would have to do your research to figure out where they were different... (the hull, the F2A hull design became the standard for all flying boats built anywhere)

AS will I be watching, I have about a dozen WnW and others to eventually build...

Kool pic, nice shot as well... But I was wondering, how you gonna model that flat tire? {chuckle} I'm down for this one brother....

There is just something about Silver & Black with Yellow, Red and Green details that just work.... They combine to make beautiful looking aircraft... Well done Mike, and another yellow wing for the collection...

The buckboard is probably the easiest and it's mechanicals cross over to each of the others so in the end there will be fewer questions, The Conestoga is probably the simplest of the bunch but is heavier and larger... in a scale of simplest to most complex, Conestoga, Chuck, Medicine, Buckboard, Buggy, Concord & Pumper... When you get done with all seven you will be a master at the craft...

Nice looking spit there brother... the spit was my first large scale plane way back in the day, it holds a special place...

You metal finish is in scale and look good, at a bigger scale you would have to get finer with it but it's a nice result for getting your feet wet in BMF's... The presentation isn't bad either, not too many do in flight displays anymore.... Well done...