Danstream

Dear all, I am starting a new model and I would like to share it here to get advices and comments. I momentarily put on hold my previous long standing model of the Mayflower by A.L. because I got a bit tired of it and I wanted to start a smaller model that I could build and progress quicker with and I chose the ‘Lady Nelson’ by Amati for that. I noticed that this is quite a popular model and I could find many several WIPs of this model here. Indeed, this is small a model and it should be rather quick to build. The kit is quite well known and documented here, so I am not reporting any unboxing picture. The initial assembling of the hull structure is relatively obvious, so I proceeded without taking pictures and I am directly posting some pictures of the assembled keel with the bulkheads. As others have noted, the various parts have a loose fit, hence I added balsa square strips to locate them better and provide some support. In addition, I added balsa gussets in addition to the MDF parts supplied by the kit to support the strakes at the bow and along the keel where the garboard will sit. I did that also in my previous build and it worked quite well. I also filled with balsa the last bay at the stern. I used balsa plates 5 mm thick for that because when filed they provide sort of ‘waterlines’ that might be used as reference to check the shape and the symmetry during the sanding process. At the stern, after some sanding, I ended up with this configuration where the last frame was mostly filed down and its fillets were mostly removed when I tried to fair it with the rest of the hull. It seems that other modelers have left some of the fillets instead. This is the complete hull after that most of fairing job was done. At this point, before finalizing the fairing, the instructions call for attaching the false deck. This part is made of very thin plywood and it complied with the double curved shape without problems. Finally, this is the hull completed with its false deck. Just to create a bit of a recess in correspondence of the deck hatches, I cut shallow notches into the false keel piece. Next, according to the instructions, the bulwarks pieces need to be formed and glued in place together with the keel extensions. In connection with that, I note that the instructions do not mention any need for implementing a rabbet and the details of how the strakes and the garboard strake join the keel are quite obscure. That is all for now, best regards, Dan

Thanks for your assessment, Mike. I am glad that you like it. I am thinking to the next build which will be a De Havilland Mosquito. Cheers, Dan

This can happen when Titanium alloy is cladded with aluminum. In my working experience, testing a titanium foil with aluminum deposited on it at high temperature (around 450 C) we got such a discoloration. The phenomenon is due to the aluminum getting migrated into the titanium and forming a intermetallic compound that had such a discoloration. A more familiar but similar phenomenon was visible with exhaust tubes of old style motorbikes that had tubes made of steel coated with chrome. Also in this case, under the effect of high temperature, the chromium went dissolved into steel making the typical, and much nicer in this case, bluish discoloration. I hope this help, Dan

Beautiful finish of all colors! Your Mustang looks fantastic. Cheers, Dan

Thank you Andrew! Glad that you liked also my pictures. Cheers, Dan

Thank you Dave! Thanks for your support. Dan

@ccoyle, @Canute, @king derelict, thank you so much for your kind feedback which I truly appreciate. Thanks also to the various 'like's. To the next build, Dan

It is anyway a good save! No kit left behind. Dan

One example might be in the following video: P-51 with puttied wings Said that, I should have puttied the wings of my Starfighter, but for laziness I didn't 😂 @CDW, sorry for having highjacked your post. Cheers, Dan

Sorry, I don't intend to contradict you, but I cannot see your point. Just fill the engraved details and then paint the wing with a paint that mimic the original one as, for example, shown in the following article: https://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/north-american-p-51d-mustang-in-detail-revisited-part-2-wings-and-tails/ Best regards, Dan

It is perfectly fine if you leave it as is. It will be a nice model anyway. However, as far as references, for your next build, you might find plenty on the web. Just an example: http://www.aviation-history.com/north-american/p51.html Cheers, Dan

Yes, even the metallic ones had the wing surfaces puttied and painted with aluminum paint (with the exception of removable panels). This was intended to get the maximum advantage from the newly introduced laminar wing sections. I don't know whether you might want to implement that at this stage. Very nice finish and I love the blue nose with its glossy finish. Cheers, Dan

LOCKHEED F-104 S STARFIGHTER Kit Hasegawa 1:48 scale These are some of the final pictures of my finished model which depicts a Starfighter in Italian service. My F-104 carries the insignias of one of the interceptors of the 51st Stormo, based at Istrana, North of Italy as it appeared in 1981. This version started to be built by Aeritalia in Turin (former FIAT) in the late '60. It was powered by a more powerful J79-GE-19 and was armed with the version B or L of the Sidewinder missiles and with Sparrow missiles (from which the letter 'S' in the designation). The kit is the old 1:48 Hasegawa of the F-104 S which is by now outdated by the newer 'state-of-the-art' Kinetic one. Nevertheless, I found that the plastic is still very nice with crisp and finely engraved surface details, thin and clear transparent parts and it well reproduces the distinctive forms of this aircraft. The build log can be found in the previous pages. To improve the model, I sourced the following after market items: - Aires resin jet exhaust; - Master brass pitot probe; - Eduard resin ejection seat MB Mk7 and harness; - Eduard resin Sidewinder; - Aires resin Sparrow; - Skymodels decals. The colors that I used for the Italian NATO camouflage were Gunze H-69 (dark sea grey), Gunze H-309 (dark green) and Vallejo Metallic 'white aluminum' for the underside. Beside the positive points, I am also listing what are, in my view, its few negative points: - Overstated rivets on the wings which shouldn't be there; - Incomplete range of details for the 'S' version; - Absence of external loads and pylons; - Decals with yellow/cream color in place of white for codes. I replaced them with after market decals. The grey paint of the camouflage was slightly post-shaded to reproduce the typical discoloration of this paint. The final finish was obtained by a coat of Tamiya flat clear XF-86 with some clear added to obtain a satin finish. Little rivet trails and discolorations on the undersurface were obtained by oil colors. I hope you like my model, thanks for the provided feedback and comments and suggestions are as always welcome. Best regards, Dan

Hi there, the last bits being assembled. The angle of attack sensor vanes glued in place with white glue; The huge tip tanks that ruin the sleek shape of the plane: The stabilizer/elevator surface of the 'T' tail: And finally the nose cone with the long pitot which I managed to knock off only a couple of times: Next installment will be the last one and will contain the final pictures. Being the plane very long, it won't be trivial to take good pictures with all of it in focus. Best regards, Dan

Thanks Andrew 😃! The Eduard kit was of top quality. Beside the photoetched things that are always a bit tedious to me, it was enjoyable to finish it. Cheers, Dan

Hi there, this time I concentrated on finishing the cockpit. I sourced the Eduard ejection seat M.B. mk7 to replace the one of the kit, which was overall correct, but very simplified. The Eduard resin is very nice (I wonder how they produce these things) and broken down in few pieces. As usual, to drape the photoetched harness made of steel was a serious test of my mental sanity. The finished product, painted and coated with a flat clear was nevertheless quite nice: This is the seat tested inside the cockpit: Finally, this is how it appears under the finished canopy: That is all for today, best regards, Dan

Thanks for your explanations. Probably the kit design is flawed and the best action was what you did, i.e. lowering the LG bay. My comment about the position of the wing was aimed at trying to gain some fraction of mm by shifting the lower wing piece aft where the cut out of the fuselage offer more space (I had the impression from the pictures that this was possible). I am not assuming that the wing sits obviously too forward. Good luck again, Dan

Following, also for me, the P-51 is one of the coolest of WWII. It seems that the LG bay is too high, isn't the wing a tad too forward? Good luck, Dan

Hi there, few progress and a small problem. The problem first: some of the chemicals of the coatings seeped below the masking tapes and crazed the transparent plastic. There is also a mysterious whitish halo close to the yellow spine which probably was caused by the flat agent of the clear coating. I addressed the transparent by wet sanding with fine grits followed by polishing with Tamiya polishing compound. The halo was cured by spraying over it another bit of clear paint. The underside was completed with the landing gear doors. Finally, the Starfighter got its stings, the Sidewinder on the port side: And a Sparrow on the starboard side: This asymmetric configuration was commonly used by the Italian interceptors. Finally, two overall views taken under natural light to show how the real colors of the camouflage turned out: Here the blemishes reported before were already cured: That is all for now, best regards, Dan

Yes, they were from Cartograf.

Dear all, I went on and put in place the landing gears previously prepared. I committed the final finish coat opting, as anticipated, for a satin finish obtained by Tamiya clear XF-86 plus some X-22, everything heavily thinned with Gunze levelling thinner, obtaining this result: I am quite happy with the smoothness and reflectivity of this that should resemble an almost new aircraft. Finally, after many months, I can remove the masking from the clear parts: Here, I removed the canopy hood to check the interior. Clearly, the cockpit sills need still to be painted. Only two small blemishes on the transparent parts need to be addressed. The jet nozzle can now go into its place: Next, the seat needs to be done, best regards, Dan

Hi @Egilman, the paints of the Italian NATO camouflage aged along their lifetime, but one problem is that the grey aged much more than the green becoming matt and clearer. I didn't plan for that, and now it would be quite inconvenient to mask everything for depicting a grey finish which is much faded than the green one. At the beginning, I just post shaded the grey to show a slight discoloration in few areas. Therefore I will keep the aircraft as it was almost new, and I am going to finish everything with a satin clear coat. Saluti, Dan

I built a wingnut kit in the past and I also found its decals of extremely good quality and fit. At that time, strangely, I found that the blue Micro set was slow, but more effective than the red in setting down the large decal foils when left acting overnight. Great build Rob, Dan

Thanks Mike. The decals went down very nicely and reacted well to setting liquids, the only negative bit, as I wrote, was that they look a tad too large. This is something that I noticed more than once with decals. The aircraft completely glossy has its appeal and when these aircraft were new they had a kind of glossy finish. Best regards, Dan

Hi, just finished to apply the decals. I omitted a number of service stencils because they seem a tad too large and disrupt the appearance of the aircraft. In pictures, they are not that noticeable. In addition, they vary according to the epoch of the picture. In general, the quality of the decals is very good, but I have the impression that they are all slightly oversized. At any rate, this is where I am now, after a coat of diluted clear gloss on the airframe and main parts which should seal the decals and uniform the finish. The gloss coat was the Tamiya X-22 (20%) diluted with the good Gunze levelling thinner. The underside too got the same treatment. With the sealed decals, the model is ready for the last oil color paneling. It is really a pity that I didn't putty the rivets/divots of the wings. Afterwards, a matt/satin coat will follow. Best regards, Dan