Successful Weekend

As the title of this post suggests, this weekend will be labled a true success. The airbrush has been running full throtle making prime headway. The major progress the past few days are the Me-262, Ar-234,    Mistel 5, and Su-27 builds. All painting has been completed on all four builds. The Mistel 5 and Ar-234 are even farther with their decals getting applied this afternoon. Obviously they will be the first to get shelved. I will let the decals dry overnight and give them a coat of clear matte tomorrow to prepare for weathering. The Su-27 and Me-262 will get their decals applied tomorrow and weathered the following day. 

The F-4 is slowly moving along with the tail getting masked off today. I might try to make it back out to the airbrush today to start final paint but more than likely I am punched out for the day. I have plenty of time now that four builds are soon to be off the workbench. 

The Sea Fury just can’t seem to build any momentum. Everything is masked and ready for paint. The new problem is the nose. All the sanding has been completed and I installed it this morning with disappointing results. The fit was brutal requiring a great deal of strategic cutting. It finally looked acceptable while leaving behind a few gaps. They aren’t necessarily awful but they aren’t well received either. They will get taken care of tomorrow and hopefully get to the airbrush in the next few days. 

    
   
I’m thinking that Friday will be a good day to end the poll so if you haven’t voted, there are five days left.

Feeling Accomplished

My feelings of being off-track in my production are beginning to disappear with another solid day of work.  It is just the spark I need to see the rest of the builds through to the end. 

Finally feeling satisfied with my efforts, I am happy to report that today was the first day that all six builds advanced all together. The most prominent victory today was transitioning the F-4 over to paint. I figured since I was already using the metalizer paints I would continue the trend by starting with the bare metal at the tail of the airplane. I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t have the same peeling issues as I experienced with the Su-27. And speaking of the Su-27, I sealed the burnt iron for the second time today. I gave it a heavy coat so if that doesn’t work, I will leave it and paint it last.

The Me-262, Ar-234, and He-162 were all painted as a team getting the same color. They will all need to be masked off tomorrow for their second colors. The E-377 sat idle today. I will finish it off tomorrow with the He-162. Last but not least, the Sea Fury received the flat black to finish off the invasion stripes. I will need to do a little masking before I can advance to final paint. The engine cowl still needs to be sanded so I need to get to that first. All in all a great day. 

Time is winding down on these six and now it’s time to focus my gaze on the next set. It’s a close competition going on and I am surprised at the aircraft that are leading the poll. If you haven’t put your two cents in yet, I encourage you to pick the three you would like to see built. 

    
   

Masking and Mistakes

You cannot fully expect to go through six simultaneous builds without some sort of misadventure to occur. In my case, I am lucky that it isn’t my normal catastrophe in a dropped kit or just a plain stubborn build. As usual, it is my own fault and I accept that 100%. I have learned from past experiences to expect these issues at any point within the build. 

Calamity #1 was with both the He-162 and E-377. It’s not that big of an issue but it sets me back a day. When I painted the bellies, I should have carried the RLM76 over to the top of each aircraft. Easy five minute fix at the airbrush. It’s a little reminder to slow down and double check the paint references.

Calamity #2 was with the Su-27. While masking the engine exterior, some of the paint came off with the mask. My guess is that I did not use a thick enough coat of sealer. That problem was fixed today as well with another quick session at the airbrush. The exhaust cans accepted the mask with no problem so I will spray a good thick coat of sealer on tomorrow and probably a good coat of Future after that.

Not all was a disaster today. The Ar-234 and Me-262 are masked and ready for step two of paint. The Sea Fury’s invasion stripes are masked and ready for the flat black. I will spend some more time at the airbrush tomorrow getting further along. My next few days looked pretty packed with all the masking and painting to be done. 

    
  

Sticking With It

The lazy day approach is still ongoing here at Amateur Airplanes and I am starting to see some good in it. While it isn’t ideal for me to take such a different approach, it’s teaching me that every set of builds doesn’t have to be efficient every day. It also isn’t like I haven’t done anything at all in the past few days. The Sea Fury has caught up and I started painting the invasion stripes. Flat white was used first and now I need to mask off the white to accept the flat black. The F-4 is the other build that has seen some progress. The wing roots look good after priming and I filled a few more gaps here and there to finish up. The rest of the wing assembly has been completed and I thiink I can call it ready for paint. So not my usual production but that’s okay.

As for the rest of the builds, painting has slowly been started. I will have my hands full the next day or so with lots of masking. The Me-262, Mistel 5, and Ar-234 have all had their bellies painted and I can begin on the camouflage as soon as all the masking is completed. The Su-27 is taking a little longer due to the detail on the engine exterior. I sprayed it with burnt iron yesterday and I need to seal it before I can mask it off. I will try to make that happen today or tomorrow. All in all I think the builds are going great. I’m thankful that none of them were huge projects.

  
  
  

Lazy Days

Procrastination is winning out in my quest to start painting the Su-27, Ar-234, and Me-262. It’s much easier to stay planted at my workbench tinkering with the remaining three builds. It’s a good thing too because the Mistel 5 is in the verge of being ready for paint as well. The three German kits have some of the same colors which will reduce my time at the airbrush. 

The F-4 and the Sea Fury are moving along well. They still have a little ways to go before I can start paint.  I finally filled the F-4’s wing roots last night and I will give it a good sanding tonight. There are a few more seams from the wing installation to sand and some minor construction to finish before I can get comfortable. 

The Sea Fury is stabilizing and I’m liking how the progress is going. The seams are finally finished and I started on the cowl last night. Like the F-4, there are the little aspects that need to be taken care of. I’ll focus on those tonight and hopefully it will be ready by the weekend. 

    
 

Weekend Success

The weekend treated me well with droves of progress. The Su-27, Me-262, and Ar-234 have pulled ahead and are prepared for paint. It’s been very humid here the past few days so I will wait until it cools down a little bit to start painting. It will give me a chance to get the Mistel 5 ready so I can cut down my time at the airbrush by combining the three German builds. Speaking of the Mistel 5, the He-162 has come far getting sanded and primed. There are a few tiny areas along the engine nacelle to fill and sand. The wings will be the next step to address. The dry fit shows a good fit so I’m encouraged by that. 

The F-4 is coming along nicely. The cockpit and nose cone have been installed along with part of the wng section. There are tiny gaps at the wing roots that need filled and just a bit of basic sanding to be taken care of. This one should be ready to paint by the end of the week.

The Sea Fury hasn’t moved since my last update. With all the activity on the other five, it became the odd man out. I will spend some time tomorrow getting the final sanding completed on the cowl. Once that is behind me, the rest of the build should go quick. I still have my research to conduct on the folded wings. There is still time to do that but I want to be prepared when the time comes. 

    
    
 

Keeping the Pace

With the Me 262 and Su-27 leading the charge, I felt it feasible to take a small break on them to focus on the other four builds. These six kits have been treating me well with hardly any troubles. My first real hiccup came today with the He-162. Construction on the E-377 is finished so I began building the He-162 this afternoon. The engine nacelle has a crazy fit to it, leading to adjusting and trimming the parts to get a decent fit. I did the best I could and filled all the gaps. The rest of the airplane is going well. 

Another huge gain today was in the Ar-234. The cockpit moved forward getting attached to the rest of the fuselage. I will affix the canopy pieces tomorrow and fill any gaps as needed. The wings and horizontal stabilizers were also a point of interest today. This one should move up to paint status real soon.

The Sea Fury doesn’t look like much has been achieved but it’s the little strides that count with this kit. The gaps have mostly been taken care of. There was one remaining small spot on the nose that was filled today. The main wing section was installed and sanded today with success. I’m not out of the woods with sanding and filling yet but I feel like I’m in a good spot. 

The F-4 also experienced a good day of progress. The cockpit section was attached to the fuselage with a good fit.  I piggybacked that victory by building and installing the air intakes. Minor sanding and maybe a little filler will be needed in some minuscule areas. The cockpit itself remains uninstalled. I will start that project tomorrow along with beginning on the wings. I’m very happy with my work so far on the F-4. 

Tomorrow looks like another busy day at the workbench. I’ll continue taking my time and work one them one by one. 

    
   

Productivity

With the poll going great, the worbench has been busy preparing to welcome the winners. First things first though. The current builds need to be finished before I can start thinking about entering a new set. Today kind of mirrored the last few days with more filling and sanding but with more progress. 

I will start off with the Me-262. As you can see, it has made the biggest gain with the wings and engines getting affixed. There was one tiny gap to fill after I primed the airplane. The wing roots and engine nacelles passed inspection so this should move on to final paint soon. I will work on the gap and horizontal stabilizers tomorrow afternoon.

The Su-27 is a close second after today. The air intakes and ordinance were the main accomplishment of the day. I need to sand the seams just behind the wings before I can attach the horizontal stabilizers. I filled the gaps today and tomorrow will see it get taken care of. As for the rest of the builds, the sanding and filling is almost complete. The encouraging part is that they went from having big gaps to small gaps. They were all primed last night to reveal tiny gaps here and there. I put one last bit of filler on and that should do it. Tomorrow should be another busy day of sanding and priming. I will also try to get the little aspects wrapped up as well. 

   
If you haven’t voted for my next builds, I encourage you to put your picks in.

Poll Time Again

It’s been about nine months or so since my last poll to choose my fiftieth build of 2014. This poll is basically the same principle with more kits to select from. My next set of builds will be scaled back to four with three of them to be chosen by you guys. The lone “executive” pick will be Hasegawa’s 1/72 B-24J Liberator. It’s about time I pay attention to the heavy bombers of WWII.

So the poll will go as it normally would. Choose three kits that you would like to see built and I will take the top three. There is no set time limit as of now. When I am getting close to closing out my current builds, I will close the poll and present the winners. A preemptive thank you goes out to all the voters. Happy voting!

The Dirty Work

Finding my flow has been difficult as of late and I am happy to say that the clouds parted to make way for sunshine on the workbench. All six kits received some time devoted to them today. The F-4 being my main progression of them all. The cockpit is complete and waiting on the fuselage seams to be sanded before I install it. There was a little bit of filler needed in front of the windscreen that I will get sanded tomorrow. The rest of the airplane was sanded and primed this afternoon. The wings and air intakes will be my focus for tomorrow.

The Sea Fury kind of disappointed me for being a Trumpeter kit. Maybe the cockpit shifted during the fuselage assembly but there are gaps all along the seams. I filled them and they’ll get sanded with the F-4. The wings are another sanding project that I will need to tackle soon.

The Me-262, E-377, Ar-234, and Su-27 were all sanded and primed today as well. The engine nacelles for the Me-262 and E-377 were in that mix too. Lots of sanding performed today. We’ll see what the primer shows. I think I will need a little filler here and there but nothing serious. it feels great to have this step well underway.