1/48 P-61 Black Widow Build feb 2011

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didn't have a chance to work on model last night.. i built up my 'brownie points' w/ the wife by taking her to a posh restaurant here in Downtown for Wine Wednesday's that followed to a fancy dinner.

i think I racked up enough points for a few nights of model building and at least one round of golf.
 
I had an opportunity to work on the model last night and so I started work on one of the motors.
After researching on the web, I found many pictures of what the actual motors looked like. So with that knowledge in hand I started working.

The motor is split into 3 pieces, 4 if you count the propeler crankshaft. The rear cylinder assembly has to be glued together.. I was dissapointed at how bad the fit was. Not only did I end up with gaps, but the cylinders did not match up.

*sorry for the dark pictures*



I smeared putty on the gaps to try and make it look better.

The front cylinder assembly has major casting flash around the cylinders



I sanded as much as I could, but my sanding pads and files are too large and I after a while I was sanding off the detail.
 
I painted the cylinders alluminum color. Steel was too dark and silver too light. I figured that alluminum would make it look dirty which is what I was hoping for. The front casing I painted a gunship grey, but I think it's too dark.. I saw some pictures that showed it almost light blue, so I will probably repaint this part.

It seemed to me that the motors are just too bare and so I decided to try to add mock metal lines to the cylinders. I am probably going to paint them a metal color once I have finished putting them on. I am also going to look for smaller gauge wire..



While I was getting those little wires in there the paint was messed up. so I will need to touch up the assembly.. I wish the pushrod housings where bettered detailed, but I decided not to mess with them.

 
I felt the motor was still too bare compared to the real thing. I noticed that the real motors had a ring assembly separating the front and back.



I decided to cut a plastic disc, made some holes so that it would fit between the motors and added it to the assembly.. (sorry. forgot to load picture of disc). Here is are pictures of the disc on and off.




 
Another thing I decided to do was add a secondary metal line to the rear cylinders. You can see it in the picture above, but here is a close up.





I think that I am going to cut holes out of the disc. It does not really fit in well as a solid piece so I think that by cutting it up it should fit in better.


I have always built models straight out of the box and painted them just as the instructions tell you to, but this time it has been fun to try and modify this model. I'm hoping that I don't ruin it in the process, but there still plenty of work left to be done and plenty of opportunity to screw up.. lol.

art
 
Considering what you had to work with, the motor is now looking 100 times better. Keep up the good work
 
Sorry I have not updated progress. My son is in the Texas Boys Choir and they were singing in the Saint Louis Basillica. My wife and I flew up to Saint Louis from Fort Worth and while there I visited the history museum. They had something cool to see.




I like this one.






I overpaid for a Revell model of the Spirit plane to build, but I figure that the museum can use the funds and I get to buy a new model. How is that bad.. right?

anyway, I will get back to work on Black widow tonight and will resume posting pictures.

PS: I have high resolution pictures of the Spirit in case anyone is interested in better pictures to use as reference.
 
So I did not get much done last night, but I did prep painted many parts for the next assembly steps and I finished one of the motors.. I will be painting and assembling the other (half) motor tonight.

Here is a picture of the finished motor. I painted it a lighter grey and sprinkled some black and rust color on it. You can see the cut-outs of the black disc behind the first row of cylinders and you can see the 2nd row of cylinders peeking.. Once the motors is in the boom I will brush it with black pastel chalk to mute down the silver in the motors (steel color was just too dark).



I always see all airplanes with straight rudders, so I figure I would make mine different, since it is going to be displayed as if on the ground being maintenanced. I cut off the rudders from the boom half.. LOL. It's crazy, but before I could double think about it I had cut off the first rudder.



I glued the half rudder pieces together last night and they needed to be filled in with putty. So I will take pictures of them tonight to show what I mean.


I test fitted one of booms and I was dissapointed at the fit. You can see in this picture how part of the front does not line up. I am hoping that once I get the motor in there and other pieces that it will not be visible or that I am able to repair it.



So. this is it so far. I hope to have more interesting stuff next time and more progress to completion.

happy building.
-art
 
well here is the latest update. (i finally figured how to resize jpgs. hurray!)

Not much progress, but good news is that there are less pieces left in the spruce trees. So I must be close to being in the home stretch.

I painted and modified the 2nd (half) motor. I was surprise that detail cast was better than full motor.. weird.



I painted the cylinders in silver this time, right from the start.. waaay too bright. but black chalk should take care of that later.



Here is the motor fully painted and 'weatherized'



they turned out okay..
 
I reworked the front landing assembly.. I figured I could change the pneumatic lines to real lines. I shaved off and sanded the molded lines. I then used wire to replace the molded lines.



I left them a little too long so I could just cut the excess once the glue was dry.. It was tricky, but It worked.

Here are the lines painted.



There is a bit of glossy reflection, but that should go away once I spray paint the whole paint with a mat, clear finish. Oh, it is difficult to see, but I also added putty to extend the landing support to the edges where it meets the inside of the fuselage. I thought it looked weird that they were short.
 
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