RAF Liberators
Airman 1st Class
Here's another 1/72 Offering.
This one is a 1/72 B-17G from Hasegawa, it's the really old one not the nice new one with new moulds.
I did nothing but struggle with this one from the word go, everything just kept going wrong with it.
The first thing I did was rescribe all the panel lines but as I went along I realised that the plastic of this kit was a bit softer than the normal kits. So the panel lines became fault lines. No worries, Mr Surfacer to the rescue, slapped some paint on the lines and rubbed it down to make them less prominent.
Fuselage fit was terrible, I've seen straighter lines on a dokey's back leg and the alignment pins were all over the place like a drunken camel on rollerskates.
After much supergluing, plastic weld, filler and Mr Surfacer, I got it all together and looking quite nice.
I thought I'd give the Alclad system a go, it's the first time I've ever used that stuff. The black went down and ended up with the texture of 100 grit glass paper, more rubbing down required. I finally sorted the problem with the rough coats, I think I had too much air pressure.
The Aluminium coats took a fair bit of getting used to, but after messing this one up I think I've got the hang of it now.
I didn't think the decals would look right yellow so after putting them in a glad bag antaping them to a window for 3 weeks, they finally went back to the proper colours. Once they hit the drink they started to disintegrate, I feared as much and used one from the set I wasn't going to use. I slapped some Klear on to them and tried again, this time they came off relatively well.
After putting the canopies on I realised that I hadn't painted the top of the fuselage where it enters the cockpit. Couldn't be bothered to remove the canopies so that gets to stay the primer grey.
Anyway here she is, not one of my best but more of an experiment in Alclad.
B-17 A Bit O'Lace - 8th Air Force, 447th Bombardment Group.
I hope you enjoy looking at it more than I did building it.
This one is a 1/72 B-17G from Hasegawa, it's the really old one not the nice new one with new moulds.
I did nothing but struggle with this one from the word go, everything just kept going wrong with it.
The first thing I did was rescribe all the panel lines but as I went along I realised that the plastic of this kit was a bit softer than the normal kits. So the panel lines became fault lines. No worries, Mr Surfacer to the rescue, slapped some paint on the lines and rubbed it down to make them less prominent.
Fuselage fit was terrible, I've seen straighter lines on a dokey's back leg and the alignment pins were all over the place like a drunken camel on rollerskates.
After much supergluing, plastic weld, filler and Mr Surfacer, I got it all together and looking quite nice.
I thought I'd give the Alclad system a go, it's the first time I've ever used that stuff. The black went down and ended up with the texture of 100 grit glass paper, more rubbing down required. I finally sorted the problem with the rough coats, I think I had too much air pressure.
The Aluminium coats took a fair bit of getting used to, but after messing this one up I think I've got the hang of it now.
I didn't think the decals would look right yellow so after putting them in a glad bag antaping them to a window for 3 weeks, they finally went back to the proper colours. Once they hit the drink they started to disintegrate, I feared as much and used one from the set I wasn't going to use. I slapped some Klear on to them and tried again, this time they came off relatively well.
After putting the canopies on I realised that I hadn't painted the top of the fuselage where it enters the cockpit. Couldn't be bothered to remove the canopies so that gets to stay the primer grey.
Anyway here she is, not one of my best but more of an experiment in Alclad.
B-17 A Bit O'Lace - 8th Air Force, 447th Bombardment Group.
I hope you enjoy looking at it more than I did building it.
