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Patryk S.
Following!

Neil
Welcome Patryk! 🙂

Stefan Fraundorfer
I'll take a close look at your model. I have the same one in my stash and would like to build it myself in the near future. Have fun Neil!

J35J
Taking a chair👍🏻

Mark Sherwood
Parked the 360, watching. You should have prolific as your middle name, the amount of builds dude. It would make me more confused than I am. Hurrichurchspitwell anyone. 🤟😵‍💫🤘😵‍💫🖖😵‍💫👍🤣🥸

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat of course!

Chris
Che bello aereo!

Neil
Wow! Welcome all. Really great to have interest from such a talented bunch of fellow modellers. @stephan, looking forward to your version very much also 👍👍 @mark, I know, I'm a bit nuts! I love having lots of the go, takes a while to complete and I'm useless at doing reveal photos. But it keeps it all fresh for me! My job is all about multiple projects, so similar state of mind! 😂

John
I do NOT envy you your masking job but it should look amazing when you finish (or run out of tape). 👍

Neil
Hi John, thanks for your interest mate. I should be ok tbh as the kit comes with a superdecal (cheat) sheet! So although there's some stressful masking on a metallic finish, it's hopefully all doable 👍 I've added some more images today. Thanks for your likes also to all who've dropped by too 🙂

J35J
Looking great! 👍🏻

Donald Dickson II
I did this one as well. Those decals are actually pretty good.

I tried acrylic metallics for the first and last time on this one. When I removed the masking for the red, it pulled EVERYTHING, primer included, right up. The finish was awesome until then. Alclad and Metalizer for me from there out.
Diavoli Rossi F-84 | Album by smokeriderdon (1:48)

Neil
Hi J35J - thanks very much 👍 🙂

Hi Donald, Yes, I agree, the kit decals are nice - though they are on the thicker side. On application they hide a lot of the kits surface detail in my opinion. However subsequent passes with more (and more!) softening and setting solution is doing them justice - more pictures to follow. Sorry to hear of your paint issues when building. Yes. My version is painted solely with Vallejo acrylics: Vallejo primer, Vallejo colour and Metal Colour 👍 You rescued your version well, looks good 🙂

Donald Dickson II
Thank you. In person you can see the areas that pulled fairly clearly.

I used Solvaset on the decals. That managed to get them to settle down fairly well. But yeah, it did hide a bit. BUT, i liked the thickness as those large ones required a good bit of fiddling to get where they needed to be and they stood up to the handling perfectly.

Francky
Metalisers require a certain sense of masochism 🙂 I always try to paint the metaliser last, although mskign the red in this case is challenging, I admit. In general, the sequence of paints is very important in all cases and is certainly important with pesky colors such as yellow

Neil
Agreed! 🙂 👍

Ben M
👀

Marcel
Good result! You managed to recreate the original really well.

TMM Garage
Thank you! I had to put a lot of effort into making this model in such a short period of time.

Tim
NIce

Villiers de Vos
Steady progress. Did you light the stern?

Thomas Wirsching
Great job so far! I would love to get an explanation about how to do these LED lighting in detail as I have no idea about this.

Hang Li
Thanks Tim, Villiers, and Thomas. I did put a led for the trolled sonar bay back at the stern. It is apparently not bright enough to be really visible. Probably not noticeable after finished.

I prefer to use Led tape light as it has build in resistors so I don't need do calculation to figure out the resistor value. Once that is sorted, what left is just connect the led unit with a battery and a switch. I think it is better to ask a trained electrician as the circiut I built don't last long and I don't really know why.

Michael Kohl
I expect modelling of the highest quality from your bench. So far I am not disappointed. 🙂
Keep it up.

Treehugger
Hm, how long did it take to make the nice looking ocean surface? It certainly looks like a fun project.
I wish I knew how to make such ocean surfaces, as it really seem to complete a model with such a diorama.

I am no expert on led's but my impression is that one has to be careful that the voltage to the led's is controlled to specs, so they don't burn out shortly after and end up being un-repairable inside the model. Also, something about connecting led's in parallel, pattern iirc, to avoid one dead led blacking out all the rest of the leds in a serial connection, iirc.

Thomas Wirsching
Your build is already mindblowing; 漂亮]!

Tim
Your sea base is looking really nice.

Robert Podkoński
Taking a seat, of course!

Jennifer Franklin
Me too

gorby
Good luck with this. It looks like you'll need it. 😉

Neil
Welcome Robert, Jennifer and Gorby, very pleased to have your interest 🙂 your definitely right there @gorby. I mean I'm used to building 'duff' old kits, but this kit is duffer than the duffest thing ever made by the worlds duffest person! If that makes sense! Hahaha 🤣🤣

Nathan Dempsey
With all the faith within me I summon blessings upon you in this build Neil. This one makes AA Models look like Hasegawa. With that said I felt a great sense of accomplishment upon finishing mine ( something I rarely feel).

Spanjaard
it takes courage to even start such a great quality model.... but you are certainly getting good result out of it, looking forward the end result

bughunter
Two beauties connected 👍

Neil
Welcome! Thanks very much for all your encouraging words mates. You talented bunch are all very kind to show interest in my efforts with such a humble kit. It's definitely fighting me! I've got it a bit further along now, will add some imagery soon - we're at the primer, sand, prime, sand stage. Hahaha!

Nathan Dempsey
Coming together quite nicely. Bringing back the memories 🙂

Neil
Cheers Nathan 😎

John
Thanks for wrestling with this beast of a kit so I don't have to. 👍 Looking good so far with lots of your elbow grease.

Neil
Cheers mate! 🙂 Thanks for your encouragement. I'll continue the battle on this one 👍

Neil
I'm used to building old kits that need 'help'. But this one needs a bit more than usual. After a lot of pre-paint priming filling/scraping/hacking/filing/sanding work and then more post primer fiddling, it's beginning to take shape somewhat. I couldn't resist giving it a blast of aluminium lightly on the wings last night! 😉 👍

gorby
Remarkable perseverance and patience Neil. Most people would have given up on it by now.

Neil
Hi Gorby 👍 Thanks mate! Yeah, I'll get it into some kind of Mustang shape hopefully.

Thomas Bischoff
I for sure would have given up!
a lot of work but the result is convincing 👍

Mike Montgomery
Is it weird that I could feel your pain, just by looking at the photos of your build?

Neil
Hi Thomas 🙂 yeah, it's tried my patience that's for sure. Thanks for your words of encouragement though mate, really appreciated 👍 I'll get there. At the end of the day, if it looks (a bit) like a Mustang then it is a Mustang!! Obviously it's no Hasegawa! @mike, hehehe. Yeah I've kept my language polite, but not surprised my pain was still apparent! 🤣 Thanks for dropping by 👍

Nathan Dempsey
Lovely work Neil. Can't wait to see the next steps.

Neil
Thanks Nathan - I know you 'appreciate' this kit journey also! I'm really not sure that a stars and stripes aluminium scheme is gonna be the easiest finish to help hide imperfections of this kit either. But I'll do my best 👍

Patryk S.
Following! Watching your builds of those older kits is something I can never get enough of because of the quality of your builds and the nostalgia factor. Big Respect from my side. Greetings, Patryk.

Neil
Hi Patryk 🙂 Thanks mate! That means a lot. It's true that more often than not, it's a bit of a slog to get these oldies into shape. It's often tempting to bin one, hahaha 🤣 Especially when I look on the feed and see all these wonderful new kits which seem to (nearly always) fit in such an accomplished manner. But I rather masochisticaly choose to continue! Who knows why!? You're very kind, especially as I'm aware of your own skills. Greetings back atcha matey 😎👍

gorby
Looks like you're winning the battle Neil. Remarkable work!

Nathan Dempsey
Holy moly Neil, that's looking great!

Neil
Hi mates. Thanks very much for checking in again and your encouraging words, hope you're both well 🙂 👍 Your feedback is most gratefully received and buoys me up to continue attacking this dastardly duo! POW! BANG! KAPOW! 👍 😉

J35J
Great progress, keep up the good work!👍🏻

Neil
Cheers mate 👍

Guy Rump
Looking good, following. 👍

Neil
Cheers Guy 👍🙂

CaptGPF
It'a always a joy seeing someone transform an older, ill-fitting kit into a work of art. following!

Mr D
It's a good metal finish 👍👌

Neil
Hiya CaptGPF 👍 you're extremely kind to me, I'm trying to drag this kit into something respectable, it's not the best kit (understatement!) But it is a stunningly beautiful airframe and surprisingly large too! Thanks for your compliment 🙏

@Mr D thanks very much for your message also, I've built a few metallic finish aircraft of late, with each build my ability to add shade and depth to a metal finish is improving, though a long way from great! 👍

Thanks also for the likes to all who've dropped by too 🙂 I've parked it for a few days again to let everything cure. But more pics again soon 👍

Mr D
See what you mean, the canopy is 1:46 scale 🤣, lve often had to re-make parts from old spru's n use super glue-gel to build up poorly moulded parts. It's not good but part of modeling l think.
Looking good 👌

Neil
Thanks Mr D 👍