(DONE, pics pg 16/17) NATO Reporting name "Bull." Cuban Tu-4 Heavy Bomber

[TheChronicOne]

Done painting the glass work!! 





Not too shab! I can live with that. Could be better, could be much worse! The more I handle the stuff the more paint comes back off, too, so time to set them down and move on.

Next I want to glue on the last nacelle thing and then put putty where I can. Might do some sanding as well.  I might hit a second wind here but I'm getting close to calling it a day. Got some pretty decent work done today and with the nacelle glued on there's no more actual glueing aside from the final fiddly stuff like gear doors and exhausts... (and all the gun barrels I've broken off      )

[TheChronicOne]

Yay!!  She has legs!!

The port nacelle went on drastically better than the starboard side. All gear are on now.

Speaking of "legs," here's where I mention that I skipped adding ballast in this thing.... because... I looked at the instructions (imagine that.. ..)  and saw that there is a ladder that glues to the back and it says right in the instructions that it is to keep it from tail sitting. So, I'm going to go ahead and trust these folks and use the ladder and hopefully it will hold weight. And yeah even with the thing sitting on the ground, ladder attached, and all, the gunner is sitting in his position and etc etc and I done gave up any hopes for realism or accuracy or exquisite craftsmanship loooong ago...     

Going to slap some putty on this so I can sand tomorrow... I need to get on the ball.  I still have numerous little things to repair (gun barrels, broke bomb bay doors and other bomb bay doors that sit crooked, etc) and paint... touch ups and even the main over all scheme. Running out of time but ... I'm going to go for the gusto tomorrow. 

[TheChronicOne]

All done for the day.... wanted to make one last update.. about how I "hangar" this thing.   

It's so big I have to just put it over in the "catch all" corner.     Ain't no shelf around here that will hold 'er. 

[zenrat]

OMG IT'S SO BIG! <girly shrieks and giggles> 

Canopy framing looks great Brad C.
On mine, if I feel they are going to get more handling than usual I go over the paint with acrylic clear.  Depending on the paint finish on the rest of the plane I use Tamiya or Gunze Acrylic semi gloss or gloss clear.  Just along the paint lines though, not all over the glazing.  It's easier than painting the frames as wobbly edges are not as obvious.  But don't over brush it as being acrylic on acrylic that could lift the paint.

[TheChronicOne]

     ZOMG!!   


Thanks!!  I actually love how the framing turned out. From more than a foot away it looks really nice... I mean.. I won't be winning any awards but this stuff works for me for sure! 

I'm getting better slowly (at this free handing painting stuff) as I go along and also not dreading it near as much as I used to. It's funny because my handwriting is terrible, and I used to absolutely hate the idea of trying to paint something with a brush. Now, I enjoy it.

I have to admit, I'm not at all familiar with acrylic clear. I'm used to buying shithouse paints (to their credit have been mainly very good paints, though) but being what they are and with no variety... nothing like metallic finishes or clear.

Definitely sounds like the way to go on this stuff and your tips are choice, thanks.....  I'll have to pick one and go with it. Hit ebay and order a bottle or whatever it comes in. Probably whichever is cheapest. (lol) 

[NARSES2]

Yup canopy is looking good 

[TheChronicOne]

Thanks!! 

Chugging along now... got all the filling and sanding done with (wing roots aren't the best and if I have time later I might try to some more putty and sanding)... now time to paint! I've been looking forward to this part for sure!!   I want to stop after I get the base coat of blue down, temporarily stage the glass and engines and stuff, and take a picture or two so that I have a picture of a blue Superfortress.   

[DogfighterZen]

Coming along nicely, all those canopy frames look good. The thought of masking that scares the hell out of me... maybe one of the reasons why i'm not interested in building WWII bombers...
BTW, you'd better put them windows quick cause that rear gunner looks like he's freezing his bum off, doesn't he?

[TheChronicOne]

Coming along nicely, all those canopy frames look good. The thought of masking that scares the hell out of me... maybe one of the reasons why i'm not interested in building WWII bombers...
BTW, you'd better put them windows quick cause that rear gunner looks like he's freezing his bum off, doesn't he?

Yeah I'd never mask all that. No way in hell man!

Ol' boy will survive. He can light his cigars on fire for warmth if need be.   

Next update!  This is what a blue Superfortress could possibly look like.




I need to do another coat of blue then go back with the grey and fix where I strayed (no time to mask!). 

Viva la revolucion!

[DogfighterZen]

 

[TheChronicOne]

Why do I do this every time?!  I've done three GBs in my entire life and every single one I've been working on the last model right up to the last couple of hours. By Oklahoma time, I havr 4 hours and 10 minutes and I'm going to need ever bit of the next two hours at least.

Anyhow... all the paint touch up is done with aside from some stuff on the bottom.  I'm sure I'll have to do a little more later after I do the camo which... is next. Time to paint the green!

[TheChronicOne]

Less than three hours now and still quite a bit to do.      Oh well, I'm making slow progress and I won't stop until I run out of time. I should have SOMETHING to show for it that looks pretty reasonably like a finished model. I still have to meticulously cut out the transfers, paint and attach the gear doors, attach the exhausts, attach all the glass, attach the the little antenna thing and uhhh.....   attach the engines, glue all the gun barrels back on and do touch up paint on them with black..... uhm... what else....paint and attach the ladder... ..  uhhh.....  hopefully all these things will go in rapid fire succession.

As for now, I'm 80% done painting the camo. Thankfully, it's going down nice with one coat! Looking glorious and flat and no blue shining through on most... so doing touch up on that should be swift. 

[TheChronicOne]

Camo done, 50% of exhaust trimmed and attached, roundels cut out (turns out a lot of cuban stuff only used two on the whole craft, the ones on the fuselage!!  Got lucky there!)   Painting is all done aside from touch up.  Trying to wait until nearly dead last to do that because this acrylic isn't adhering well to this plastic. For one thing, I didn NOT wash it...   Should have seen all the paint that came off when I took the tape off where I masked for the de icers.  I had to go back and start from scratch and paint all those straight hard lines by hand.... not to mention puttng back all the paint that came off on the tape! NOT what I needed in the final hours.

Anyway..... less than 1.5 hours left now but I'm still rollin'. 

[TheChronicOne]

Minute by minute updates seem suddenly relevant with the final 1.25 hour remaining. 

All the exhaust are on now and the gear doors painted. Ladder is painted well enough. Antenna is painted.

Going to try to place the roundel transfers on next. After that, I do some touch up on the grey then glue on the glass pieces. After that, I glue on all the broken gun barrels and the gear doors... then...I need to touch up the black paint on the gun barrels/turrets.  Probably forgetting something but the last few things are approaching and I'm starting to think I'll make it! Hasty work but.. oh well, it's getting done. 

Dunno if it's the beers or if it's actually nice but looking over at this thing sitting here, the camo sure looks cool!!!   

[TheChronicOne]

Transfers on. Had a couple problems.... paint tried to bleed, it's not entirely dry, and some of the edges of the transfers themselves kind of melted away.. I'll try to grab my dark blue paint and tiny brush to touch that up after I'm sure the rest of this stuff is done.

Kinda wished I had test fitted all these clear pieces..