Z-M. P-51 D

[Rockin' Rob]

You're not wrong.

I sprayed this P-47 on Friday with gloss black primer (alclad) and let it dry for about 48 hours in my closet. Before leaving on a 2-day business trip I hit it with two thin coats of silver, and I think it is too shiny!

View attachment 167279

View attachment 167280

I'm not too worried (yet) I have other silvers that I'll try to tone it down with. Just supporting what you say about how smooth that stuff is.

Yeah that's looking great. And when you add other colors and tonal variations that's when it starts coming together. Have you found that that gloss black base primer does not dry quick? I sprayed on a medium coat and waited 30 minutes and sprayed another layer of paint until it looked really good and that was this morning. Right now it's 7:00 at night and I can still smell it gassing off. Maybe I put on too thick of a second coat but I figured that lacquer paint would have dried by now

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Now I did spray it on top of Tamia fine gray primer. I don't think that would matter would it?

 

[Edbert]

Have you found that that gloss black base primer does not dry quick?

The Alclad gloss black for sure! The first time I used it I added about 20% thinner, their brand, and I'm willing to say it never dried, or hardened. It felt dry to the touch, but when working with it and sanding, I found dust and fingerprints embedded into it.

Did a little reading up on the interwebs and some people claim it never fully hardens. So in the example above I did not thin it at all, then waited ~48 hours and sprayed the color, all while handling it with cotton gloves not my usual plastic ones.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Sprayed the polished aluminum. Wow? At least for me. Why didn't I have the stuff when I was 8 years old? It felt hard you know the gloss black? It still smelled a little but I went ahead and sprayed cuz I'm a rebel.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Do you see that panel in the middle of the body right behind the wing? That's where that hair floated down and landed on it. So yes I see that imperfection and I was going to wait for it all to dry sand it out and give it a different aluminum color.

 

[mustang1989]

Do you see that panel in the middle of the body right behind the wing? That's where that hair floated down and landed on it. So yes I see that imperfection and I was going to wait for it all to dry sand it out and give it a different aluminum color.

That's a great opportunity to paint a different colored panel. Gonna give it some depth in that overall paint job for sure. Coming along very well so far Rob.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

That's a great opportunity to paint a different colored panel. Gonna give it some depth in that overall paint job for sure. Coming along very well so far Rob.

Thanks

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Okay here's a couple teasers. I was worried when I was taking the masking tape off the wings but all is well. Threw a little bit more masking on the wings and painted the flaps and alaron's. I can't stand it. My phone is an idiot. Speak into the microphone and it doesn't even know how to spell pilot lingo. Annoying. You get the gist of it. I'll have to fix a couple panels one where that piece of hair landed and one where my stupid ass finger got on it. Sometimes you just want to take the Flack Hammer to yourself

 

[Edbert]

Okay here's a couple teasers. I

Dude, stop teasing us!

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Hahaha. I'm sorry. It's just that the next round of pictures is going to be when it's finished and it's going to be another day before I can touch it up. Have to paint the front air intake red, fix those two panels, decals. And then all the doors and the landing gear and all the little stuff and then a coat of clear and figure out how to do an antenna wire for the first time. Can you believe it? I don't know how many aircraft I built and none of them have an antenna wire until I got on this modeling site and figured out that I'm doing it all wrong

 

[BarleyBop]

all wrong

...not wrong, just how you used to do it.

 

[kevin]

Not the best pics, they are taken by my phone from a computer screen, but silver P51s have been some of my favorites at the airshows over the years.

I know the finishes aren't WWII correct, but just wanted to share some cool (I think ) pics for motivational purposes

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Cool pictures. And I see Red Dog. That's the one I'm depicting. Maybe it's the air scoop or could be the shape of the wing but it's just a cool looking warbird. Maybe not the greatest dog fighter but it made up for that in other areas.

 

[Edbert]

I know full well that high-res photography did not exist in 1944-1945, but if it did...

Does anyone think front line fighters would look this clean and polished?

In my opinion no, but I still want to build one to look like this. Is that wrong?

 

[kevin]

Cool pictures. And I see Red Dog. That's the one I'm depicting.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Great pictures. And thanks because it reminded me that I was going to paint Invasion stripes or whatever they call that black strip. I think it would look better than a decal. And it's amazing the more you get into this airbrush stuff? Now I want stencils for American and German insignia

 

[Edbert]

Now I want stencils for American and German insignia

Make your own?

I made all of these on my Cricut (not very expensive, less $$ than buying stencils over time), the bakenkreuz and the lettering.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Cricut? What the hell is that? No thanks. It sounds cool as hell but to tell you the truth I'm 64 and I'm old school. I'm going to stay that way too. I'm getting around on this phone just fine. Took me about 5 years to figure it out but that's the way I roll. Besides. If someone wants to invent something cool that makes my life easier, like a stencil or a super nice paintbrush? I'm all in I'll buy it. Give it here man I want all the cool stuff. It sure as hell won't make my model look any better but darn it all, I got it. It's right there hanging on the wall stuck up there with a piece of blue tack

 

[Edbert]

I get it, I'm 62, but I work on computers all day and can do a little bit of graphics and light CAD on a computer.

For the record, a Cricut is one brand of desktop vinyl cutters.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

I get it, I'm 62, but I work on computers all day and can do a little bit of graphics and light CAD on a computer.

For the record, a Cricut is one brand of desktop vinyl cutters.

View attachment 167634

Ah, I was just being sarcastic. That looks like a cool useful item but it's computerized and it just doesn't interest me. Put it this way. I like Super Nintendo.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

Ah crap. I'm all set up for decals to do Red Dog. Except there's no decals for Red Dog.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

It's almost finished. Waiting on easy line. And this is what happens when you don't go through and just read everything before you start building. I get in the instructions and boom there's Red Dog. I like that. That's pretty cool. Lots of aluminum showing. Sold. So I did not look in the packet of decals. I just preceded to build the airplane like it was going to be red dog. Except the instructions yes, we're for Red Dog, but that was the previous outlay by ZM. So in this kit they just took the instructions for Red Dog and added a couple things to make it a k model and a British model and an American model but it's painted. Mine's all aluminum. So I just went through all the decals and put on what I wanted. It doesn't match no known plane in the universe but it looks decent I think.

 

[kevin]

That's a good looking bird. I like your paint work.

 

[BarleyBop]

First time I see ammo belt feed opened up; nicely done! And that bubble canopy, beauty.

 

[Rockin' Rob]

That's a good looking bird. I like your paint work.

Thank you. First time working with those metallics. There's definitely a learning curve

 

[Rockin' Rob]

First time I see ammo belt feed opened up; nicely done! And that bubble canopy, beauty.

With a machine gun access doors? I might have taken liberties with the way they're positioned. I ran across the picture of a guy loading them and the two long doors he had taken off and laying on the wing where they are in the picture and the door at the top of the wing is like it is in the picture I saw but I did not see the bottom door anywhere so he must have taken it off and set it somewhere. I didn't want it to get lost so I just glued it in the open position. Cuz I'm pretty sure he had to take that bottom door off to slide in the machine gun itself, but would they take off that bottom door just to load up ammo? I'm afraid that is a question for my more learned fellow modelers

 

[Rockin' Rob]

The canopy? Ah, the canopy. I'm afraid I did not sand the seam line. That was such a nice canopy and I had to look real hard to see the line I mean it's there if you look but I felt it wasn't worth it to start sanding it.