Painting: Step 3

Another somewhat short sit-down with the Betty and Beaufighter tonight. The Betty was real quick with the yellow leading edges of the wings and engine nacelles getting masked off for final paint. That will hopefully come tomorrow. 

The Beaufighter took a little more time to mask. I chose to mask the camouflage instead of free handing it like I normally do. After the overspray debacle on the Mustang, I’ve lost some trust in my airbrush. I want cleaner demarcation lines without the spatter. Maybe the airbrush just needs a good cleaning. So we’re all masked off now and ready for some Dark Earth. 

Painting: Step 2

Keeping up and not losing my footing is feeling great. By now I would have had multiple setbacks under the old regime. With my new approach, all is right and back to normal in the model building world. Now I know that eventually my luck will run out and I will have a catastrophe and that’s okay. It’s all part of the game we love so much.

So it was back out to the airbrush this morning to keep the flow going on the Beaufighter and Betty. I masked both builds off last night to prepare for today. The Betty was first at the airbrush with just the leading edges of the wings being painted yellow. I will easily get that masked off tomorrow to begin the final colors. The salt technique was ditched at the last minute because I want to see a slightly cleaner Betty. It won’t be factory fresh, but you certainly wouldn’t want to eat off of it.

The Beaufighter was straight forward with a coat of Middlestone. I will let it dry overnight and try to get the final color applied tomorrow afternoon. It won’t be much longer now.

 

Let The Painting Begin

Yesterday was back to business on the Betty and Beaufighter. I took them out to the garage to begin final paint. The feeling of having them this far along is great. Happenings around the workbench have been on the positive end lately and these two builds are now headlining it all. 

I don’t think I will have much time to get anything done today. Some unexpected overtime at work came up so I took advantage of that. This weekend I hope to do some damage. It’s all masking and painting for now so it’s not a strenuous bout. 

Mustang Mk. III

With a little anxious push, I was easily able to get final assembly wrapped up today. Academy always comes through and this build was no different. After months of mishaps guided by my own hand, the Mustang is finished. The end result is something that I am very happy with. The British colors and markings look fantastic on an aircraft that I just don’t get sick of building. I may have built more Mustangs than A-10’s. 

In the end, I think this was my “break out of the funk” build. It gave me problems, sure, but the end really seamed to bring on a better outlook to what I am doing here. It provided some greatly needed perspective in finding my new rhythm. It will eventually reside next to its brothers when I finally get around to organizing my shelves. Soon.

The Final Stretch

Not a whole lot to report today. A lot of grunt work has been completed on the Beaufighter and Betty with both builds being ready for some level of paint. The Beaufighter will be straight forward with flat black applied first. The Betty will need a few different colors layered on starting with the whole aircraft being painted with silver. It will take some careful time but I’ll get it all how I like. 

The Mustang received its weathering today. I’m getting anxious to start final assembly now. I will tackle that tomorrow and hopefully get it featured in the next few days. 

Let’s Build

Progression was the name of the game here at the Amateur Airplanes workbench yesterday. Really, the entire weekend turned out to be quite a big push in a positive direction. A very pleasant groove has been established over the past week that I will absolutely exploit to its fullest. Doing things the right way pays off tenfold.

Going back to my priorities post a few days ago, I am sticking with that same mantra by  putting the Mustang at the forefront. There really wasn’t a whole lot to be done making for a fast session. I fixed the gap in the port side window with a gentle, light sanding. One thousand grit sandpaper was as far as I would attempt and it thankfully solved my dilemma. Touching up the paint that was sanded away was addressed next and the aircraft was put aside to dry. Once the paint had dried, I took a trip out to the garage and applied a coat of clear matte to prepare for weathering today.

Next up was the Beaufighter. Like the Mustang, there wasn’t a whole lot to work on. Sanding was the main event with two seams on the engine nacelles and the observers canopy getting finalized. From there I painted the tires and shot a coat of primer on to check my work. My goal is to get the belly painted within the next day or so.

And now the Betty. Talk about a quick catch up. With a little more hard work, it will be ready to start final paint. The canopy, wing roots, and around the engine nacelles were sanded to, hopefully, perfection. I was encouraged by all that was being accomplished so I kept going by attaching the waist windows and tail canopy. I went ahead and put some primer on to see where we stand. I’m sure I have some more work to do but no doubt, I’m happy with what’s in front of me.

Perfecting The Mustang

The Mustang has been on a very long journey with multiple blunders throughout the months. I could have easily let this one slide but given the labor of love going on here, I just had to fix this minor issue. 

Looking over the aircraft after final paint, I noticed an ugly gap where the port side window popped out a little. The easiest and safest option was to gently fill the gap which I did. I will give it an extremely careful and light sanding, then hand paint the area. It shouldn’t be too hard of a fix. I wish I would have taken care of this before I applied the decals but here we are. 

Other than that, I think the build is going great. The wheel bays, gear doors, and wheel hubs were painted with silver this morning. The tail band was also correctly re-painted too. We’re shaping up nicely and I’m hoping for an early week finish. 

2016: Year In Review

Well, I am certainly a little late here with this post but I kind of wanted to go over last years builds and changes here at Amateur Airplanes. I also want to go over what we can hopefully expect out of 2017. Given the fact that this post comes as January is almost concluding, it’s safe to say that this year has started off slow for me. Nevertheless, I have some pretty different ideas for some future builds. Now I won’t reveal them just yet but I am truly giddy to get them started.

So 2016…Not my best year in terms of builds. On the plus side, it wasn’t my worst either. Twenty-five completed builds is what I was able to achieve here in 2016. A lot went on here that swayed that number last year. The new house sucked plenty of time away. The move and getting settled in really took a toll and forced me into a hiatus of sorts. Those things aren’t terrible in my opinion, just life happpening. Coming back was slow going and I am just now starting to find my way again. 

This is such a great hobby and I think I make it come off as a chore in my writing. That couldn’t be any further from the truth. Aviation in general is a passion of mine that I truly enjoy. Any frustration is from me wanting to have more time to devote to building aircraft. I think a lot of my posts came off that way last year and I am really trying to change that by explaining myself in a more positive light for the hobby. Parts break, paint gets ruined, and decals fail. They ALWAYS will. That is part of the fun right? Maybe not fun but it’s what we do and I love it. 

When I am not at my workbench attending to whatever current airplane that I am working on, I am preparing for the future of my workbench and Amateur Airplanes. My inventory is forever changing and I really try to pick builds that will appeal to all of you and obviously me. That’s not as easy as it sounds when you have hundreds of kits that you want to get to. There is no easy way to choose what’s next. 

The selection aspect is something that I want to take a look at and tinker with this year. I want to step out of the box at times and travel some different angles. The Helicopter Project is a prime example of what we can expect this year. I think I may have gone a little over the top with the amount to work on but why not? Baptism by fire, right? But seriously, putting out the same build over and over is great, but I want to be greater this year with my ideas. Whether it’s a boarding ladder added or an aircraft carrier built, I want to see some variation in how and what I build. There are a few ideas that I am very excited about. One involves my beloved A-10 that I almost shut the workbench down so I could get started. That’s how excited I am to get going. It’s something that I have never seen before and I will be forced to drastically change up my methods and techniques. Good stuff. 

2017 started off slow but I have cleared my thoughts and now I know what I want from this year. The numbers don’t matter much. I want to stay involved in this wonderful hobby and I invite everyone to give it a try. They take time and I need to start understanding that more clearly. This will be a very interesting year. Let’s build!

2016 Builds

1. MiG-29 UB Fulcrum
2. RF-101C Voodoo
3. A-1H Skyraider
4. Ov-10D Bronco
5. B-26B Marauder
6. Lancaster Mk.I
7. Blohm & Voss Bv141B
8. BAe Sea Harrier FRS Mk.I
9. Focke Wulf Fw-190A8
10. Polikarpov I-153
11. Macchi MC.205 Veltro
12. F4F-4 Wildcat
13. B-25B Mitchell
14. Canberra PR.9
15. Mitsubishi F-2A
16. F9F-8 Cougar
17. B-57G Canberra
18. Spitfire Mk.III
19. TBF-1 Avenger
20. Mitsubishi Ki-15-I Babs
21. Ju-87 G-2 Stuka
22. Bf-109E-3
23. Hs-129 B-3
24. P-40N Warhawk
25. Ju-86 D-1

✅ Decals

Today didn’t offer much of a progressive standpoint as a whole, but what it did give me was well accepted. The morning was a little fuller than expected with the Mustang receiving top priority. 

The decals were started and finished in about thirty five minutes with ease. I’ll let them set up tonight and seal them in tomorrow morning. Weathering and some touching up will be the next steps to address. The tail band needs to be repainted at some point as well. Somewhere along the way I mistook the directions and thought it called for a white tail band. Just as well on this build given all the paint mishaps that I’ve had. 

Priorities

As much as I would like to dive into The Helicopter Project, I’m finding it much wiser to clear my plate a bit first. Even with some free time opening up here and there I am fighting the urge to delve a little deeper. I’m sticking to my guns here and not allowing myself to get out of hand. The Mustang, Betty, and Beaufighter are first priority.

Proof that my approach is working for me, the Mustang has been put through the paces with paint being completed this morning. The past two mornings have been spent at the airbrush finalizing the longest paint job ever! All looks well and I applied a coat of clear gloss tonight to be prepared for decals tomorrow morning.

Next on the progress report is the Beaufighter. There hasn’t been a huge amount of work done but we’re getting there. Engine components were the main attraction today with basics getting attached to the aircraft. Preliminary paint of gear doors and such was accomplished today as well. I need to do some dry fitting on a few parts and some minor assembly on others before we can graduate to paint. This build is treating me quite well.

The Betty is flowing now with its wings attached. The wing roots look pretty good with minimal filler needed. I will give it a good sanding tomorrow and shoot some primer on after that. If all looks perfect, I will get an application of silver applied so I can use the salt technique during final paint.