1/48 P-61 Black Widow Build feb 2011

[capoeta]

I just found this forum while looking for info on black window builds and I must say that I'm very impressed with all the activity and the quality of builds.

It has been about 20 years since I last build models of any sorts and I am finally getting back into it. My 12 year old son has developed an interest in building WW2 warships and so I thought I should get back into building models to get the old rusty skills back in action.

I've been looking at many pictures of builds and tecniques. I hope my build goes well.
Here we go.

cap

 

[capoeta]

The instructions booklet calls out for cockpit assembly as first step so that is were I started. I did not have the correct green paint called out so I used a flat army green and an olive wash over to tone down the color.

 

[capoeta]

I painted the cockpit panels and I did not have a small brush to paint the instrument panels in great detail. .

I had to put putty on the seams of the panels and cockpit.

 

[capoeta]

Here are pictures of the test fit of the cockpit assembly and test fit with the fuselage.

Rear of the plane.

pilot area

more of the pilot area.. sorry for the quality of photos. i was using my phone.

the other side of the cockpit

 

[woody]

great start keep the pics coming.

 

[capoeta]

next part of the build is the gun pod on top of the plane. This was my first time 'weathering' anything. My son and I think we want the plane to look beat up. As if it had seen plenty of use and action in the pacific. He thinks I should put some bullet holes on it.. lol. kids.

I painted a coat of steel paint on the pod. I don't like the silver color, I've always felt that silver paint looks tacky. anyway. I sprayed flat black over the steel color and used the tape tecnique to peel off. I dabbed some rust color also. too bad all you can see is the machine gun barrels.

(side story. this is actually a replacement gun pod assembly. I had completed an assembly and was upset that the guns were not visible. I cut a port hole on the pod cover and made a custom window using clear plastic. I could not wait for glue to dry and in my excitement I placed the asembly on top of a lightbulb so it would dry up faster.. LOL. I came back to get the part off from the lightbulb and It was melted. LOL. it look like a fried pork skin. lucky for me Revell, sent me free replacement after sending them an email. so from now on.. I will wait for parts to dry.)

 

[capoeta]

when I glued the fuselage together I realized that there are huge gaps. So out came the putty and my years of bed and tapping sheet rock paid off! I used a combination of excessive glue and putty to fill in the gaps.

I am going to have to paint the whole plane so I covered the pod with liquid mask. It works really well. I thinks it's just like elmers glue.. once it dries up you just peel it off.

 

[T Bolt]

That's looking really nice, keep up the work and pictures!

 

[capoeta]

The wings were in half pieces. so I glued them together and once dried I had to putty gaps on the wings also. i sanded the fuselage assembly and sanded the putty on the wings.
I attached the wings to the fuselage and the gaps needed putty filler.

I used a square sanding sponge to clean up the fuselage.

 

[capoeta]

***I started using my DSLR, so I think pictures will look better***

It was time to work on the radar assembly in the front of the plane. Here is where I finally started getting brave.

first. the radar assembly is held together by an insert panel that is glued into the nose. The panel comes with molded wire cables on the panel. I first painted them the wires, but I did not like it. It did not look good and it was not possible to glue the decal that goes on the panel.

I decided to scrape off the molded wires and sand it flat. I'm afraid that I did not take a picture of the molded wires.

I used a strand of CAT5 cable to use as cables. I left a bit of the ends exposed so you can see that it is copper. You can see the decal behind the wires. This looked better right away.

I did not paint the radar "cannisters" and the cage assembly exactly as instructions required.

I painted the canister half black and half white so the decals were visible on the canisters and I attached the wires to the canisters. this was a little difficult. one of the wires popped out.

the wire strands are not a good color, but I painted them once the super glue dried.

 

[capoeta]

I also changed the actual nose cover.
The nose will be off most of the time so that the radar assembly can be seen and I did not like how the assembly looked exposed. I cut a sliver of the cover and glued it to the fuselage. The nose did not line up with the fuselage and the surfaces were not flushed. I put some putty after the glue dried and sanded the surfaces flat.

I added another set of wires and weaved them through the cage to the firewall. I painted the wires to the canisters white and red. The new wires that I added I painted black and yellow. I ran these wires to the base of the radar.

I also added a small cylindrical piece to the tip of the radar. I've seen many pictures that showed a small tube at the end, but the molded radar was just a small tip. unfortunately I glued it the wrong orientation.. lol.

Here is a better picture of the yellow/black wires.

I think it turned out okay.

 

[capoeta]

This were I am at so far. Next step is the construction of the motors. I was not too sure on how to paint them and that is actually how I ended up here.

so. I will be working on painting the motors and following up with updates.

I welcome any suggestions regarding paint schemes and notes on the build. I hope to contribute to this forum and if nothing else provide a good laugh or two with my model build.

regards,

arthur

 

[Wayne Little]

Nice work so far Arthur....

 

[Crimea_River]

Looks great!

 

[hawkeye2an]

Looking good, keep the pics coming.

 

[javlin]

It does look nice Sir! I do ships from time to time so if your son feels like posting he could drop them in "whats on the workbench" or "completed models" BB is doing the new Arizona AND WE ARE WAITING FOR PICS Cheers

 

[magnu]

Some very nice detail work there

 

[capoeta]

my son has completed two ships so far. the missouri and arizona, I helped him some on them, but he finished them each in 2 days. so you can imagine how 'great' they look .. lol. after he was done I went through and cleaned them up for him. I would post pictures of them, but he gave them to his grandfather, my dad. My dad builds WW2 tanks.

I am hoping that my detailed work will inspire him to take his time also, but I am sure he gets bored when he sees that I take 3 days to glue, putty, sand and paint just the tires.. lol.

I hope to post tonight with some updates of the engines. I'm still debating how much work to put into them, since they may not be visible once inside the 'pods'.
thanks for the kind comments.

*ps: let me know if there are any specific pictures of areas of the model that you would like to see. now that I'm using my good camera I should be able to get good shots.

 

[Wurger]

With all here.

 

[woody]

Arthur there is nothing to laugh at, your build and attention to detail is looking great so keep the plastic and glue flying.