B-2 "Blue Raider"

[Shasper]

Hiya Fellas,


 Back in March when my GF (at the time) and myself were discussing airshows, she said she found the B-2 to be awesome . . . That started this whole project! Her birthday is coming up in about a month, and among other things I'll do/get for her will be a 1/144 B-2 finished in her school colors.






Barely started, I did some testshots of the paint, which needed to be removed . . . When it came to getting the lacquer paint off, I found out how not to use lacquer thinner    The damage is fixable (Primer, Sand, Repeat), but it wasn't what I expected, so if any of y'all know a good way to get lacquer paint off w/o using lacquer thinner give me a shout
The hole for the pedestal lug has been cut, and all I've got to do is close up the underside bays before moving onto final assembly etc.

So far I've decided that the aircraft will be royal blue all over (haven't decided if I'll actually use the lacquer pearl rattlecans I bought by accident), with silver edging & trim. I'm gonna try to expand my artistic ability by make a template so I can trace/paint some Pegasus wings on the outer sections of the wings (White w/silver outlines).

 

[Steel Penguin]

have a try with Fairy power spray, or something like  caustic soda ( and make certain that you wear the correct PPE)

[Shasper]

Thanks for the tip dude!

I was able to get the glass dipped, painted and installed lastnight, and now I'm working on buttoning her up: 




Using some "poster putty" to hold the main gear doors while I CA em in place, then carefully pull the putty out with a toothpic. I had to use some masking tame to help center the nose gear door up. . . should be sanding everything tomorrow if not this weekend.

[Shasper]

All buttoned up, gaps filled and primed. Looks like the only place that'll need some sanding is the nosegear door:

[Hobbes]

The join between the upper and lower fuselage will need some filler. And make sure the ends of the wings are straight. On mine, they're warped, and I noticed too late. Doesn't look very good.

[Shasper]

Yeah, the joint's are a lil loose (It's a snap-tite kit, ugh),


It's been awhile since I said anything about this one. It didn't get finished in time for her Bday, but I did show here how far I got:



Rattle can primer gray, I did get some sort of design drawn & liquid-masked on the topside of the wings. The stand started as an unfinished pine base from the local Hobby Lobby, then after sanding & a few coats of Polyurethane I added a felt bottom and a arm from a Minicraft B-1A kit.


After priming I started spraying a few coats of rattle can true blue, followed by a coat of gloss clear. This morning I started shooting the first coat of rattle can true blue pearl:

[Shasper]

Here's the latest:






Got the silver leading edges going on, next up will be removing the liquid mask from the topside & brushing on the silver/white "wings" pattern.


I debated on what exactly to do with this bird after she dumped me a few weeks ago, but finally decided to finish it as planned. . . That True Blue pearl came out gorgeous! I couldn't imagine trying to strip all of it off, and doing something else with the blue theme would've been a PITA because of the pre-masked pattern on the topside :/ 

[Taiidantomcat]

Looking good! 

B-2? Your honey has expensive taste!

[Pablo1965]

Nice color and good work

[Shasper]

B-2? Your honey has expensive taste!

Had - past tense :-P but yeah on certain things she did.

[Shasper]

With Turkey day break came some free time, so I hit the bench again:





I'm surprised the liquid mask actually came off with little fuss after being on the model for about 3 months . . . Got the base coat of flat white brushed on, now to break-out my drawing pencil again for the silver outline.

[Taiidantomcat]

Looks sharp