**** DONE: 1/48 P-61B Black Widow - Pacific Theatre of Operations II

[mikewint]

Well I guess I'd best get my hairy arse in gear and enter one of these Group Build thingies. So here goes:
User Name: mikewint
Name: Mike
Catagory: Intermediate (I guess)
Kit: Monogram
Scale: 1/48
Accessories: Decal sheet for "Lady in the Dark"

 

[Wurger]

 

[mikewint]

This will be my second Northrop P-61. The first was build a while ago. It's built as one of the first P-61s in service in the standard ODIE green scheme, also tried some weathering on the wings from the engine exhaust.
The new build will be (hopefully) a P-61B-2. The P-61 was the first US aircraft specifically designed for night interception and the first specifically designed to use radar.
Nicknamed the "Black Widow" for the North American spider, the P-61 carried 4 - 20mm cannons and 4 - .50cal Browning machine guns in it upper turret.
In the movie, The Great Raid, while US Army Rangers sneak up on a Japanese POW Camp in the Phillipines a lone US aircraft swoops and dives over the camp to distract the guards. In real life this was a P-61 (movie could not duplicate since no flying P-61s exist)
On 14 - 15th Aug 1945 a P-61B-2 from the 548th Night Fighter Squadron flown by Lt. Robert W. Clyde and R/O Lt. Bruce K. LeFord attacked a Nakajima Ki-44 "Tojo" The Japanese pilot dived to wave-top height and tried to evade the atacking P-61. The Ki-44 hit a wave and crashed into the sea. This was the last "kill" of the Pacific War, without a shot being fired.

 

[Catch22]

Welcome Mike!

 

[parsifal]

welcome and best of luck Mike

 

[Vic Balshaw]

G'don'ya Mike nice to see you joining in and judging from your former build, this should be a corker.

 

[mikewint]

Thanks Guys. There's no guarantee I'll actually finish anything. Going to try a bit of a different approach. Generally I paint all my mil-models FLAT colors, followed by Future to give a gloss finish for decals followed by another 50/50 flat clear/Future. Seems redundant soooo.. Going to paint GLOSS black to begin with then decals. We'll see how well it turns out

 

[Crimea_River]

Makes sense to me Mike. I always thought that getting some nice flat paints, then gloss coating, then flat coating was a big waste of effort. Plus it's twice the risk of dust contamination. If the paint guys were smart, they would duplicate a complete line of their flat colours in gloss. Bet they'd sell quite well.

 

[N4521U]

That should work Mike.
Good to see you join in.
Methinks the PTO will be another popular one.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Man that kit brings back the memories. Great choice Mike.

 

[Lucky13]

 

[woody]

Nice one Mike.

 

[fubar57]

Looking forward to the build Mr. Wint and welcome to the GBs.

Geo

 

[Wayne Little]

Welcome aboard Mike! Glad you decided to give it a go!

 

[T Bolt]

Good to have you in a GB Mike.

 

[Airframes]

Xtracolor (enamel) and Xtracrylic (acrylic) are produced in gloss, covering the ranges of WW1, WW2, 'Modern' and airliner colours, and have been around for over 30 years.
Those colours for internal use that are matt in real life, are produced in matt in both ranges, and shown as such in the paint listings.
I'm slowly changing back to the Xtracolor, as even the so-called 'new' Humbrol is still poor quality, compared to the original paints.
Far as I know, the North American agents are Squadron, and handled in the UK and Europe by Hannants.

 

[dneid]

Ah, this one brings back memories. Welcome to the forum and the GB. The guys here are so damned nice, if a little addled at times Very nice pick there.

 

[mikewint]

Wow, thanks, and thanks, and thanks... Now I may actually have to build the kit.
The B-29 was actually supposed to be for a group build but got side-tracked and sat for a bit. Then there's the He-111 sitting on the shelf 7/8 finished, another almost.

 

[Micdrow]

Couple of pictures for inspiration.

 

[vikingBerserker]

"Being forced into the water" - how embarrassing.