My Bossie!

(It's a 1:48 Boston with the Gunsight stolen from a Mosquito, so I figure it's a Bossie - and it always is a bit of a wannabe Mossie when we use it. )

Started making that Italeri 1:48 Boston III Kit I bought a while ago to celebrate that Bomber K:D I got a few campaigns ago (Prostituée de statistique!), thought I'd take some pics to show it off, not like anyone's actualy going to see the Cockpit after I put it together anyway is it!

You'll note the craptastical seatbelts - rather than go for the photo-etch job I decided to make some out of masking tape, hence why they look naff, better than nothing though (I hope!)







The Blu-Tack behind the Cockpit is to add some weight to the front end of the crate, to stop it dragging its tail (The Boston/Havoc having tricycle gear.)

Also you may note what seems to be a blood stain on the corner of the instrument panel, it was actualy meant to be that red circular dial in the Havoc cockpit, but nevermind eh (won't be able to see it when the Pit is in the Model anyway.)

I tried to match it to the colours of the in game Cockpit, hopefully externally as well, as much as I can manage.

And here's the Rear Gunner Station:



Should hopefully put the fuselage together tommorow and glue the wings and tail on, plus the Canopies (already masked the nose glass - only took three hours! )

Bit of an update.

Here are some pics of the Bomb Aimer seat, with another craptastical invention - that being an optical bombsight with stuff glued on to it so that it looks more like a Mk IX 'ironsight' Bombsight like the one we have in WW2OL:





Yeah, I know - it looks nothing like a Mk IX Bombsight, but it's the best I could manage with the Bombsight provided and two of the nose guns from the previously mentioned dead Mossie kit.

Here's a picture of the Cockpit inside the fuselage, with the Mossie Gyro sight attached (there's a bit of a mark on the sight itself due to there being an unfortunately placed sprue, but it's not too bad and I'm too much of a noob to be able to clear up a bit of clear plastic. )



The Cockpit doesn't seem to fit very well at the back (where the liferaft would be) but it doesn't matter as the roof will be over that anyway.

Last but not least, here are two pictures of the engines, one before I used a weathering wash and one after:

Before:



After:



I reckon the effect is pretty snazzy - granted you could probably get the same by just going over it in highly thinned dark paint, but I'm lazy like that.

Thats a nice job MJ the engines look great after that weathing wash thingy and how do you make those seatbelt straps they look really fiddly !

For some reason I assumed that it was a two seater up front DOH!

Thanks Dez.

For the seatbelts I just got two bits of masking tape, painted one part brown and another silver, then cut out thin brown strips and put silver triangles on the end of them - after which I stuck them to the seat using the normal masking tape adhesive.

Was a bit fiddly it must be said - although mine are crap compared to these ones I found on't internet!

Link

Next time I'll probably just get some photo-etch stuff.

Here are some pics of the current status, all glued together, filled, sanded, primed and pre-shaded:





I know the lines are realy crappy and wavy and all over the place - but aparantly pre-shading is meant to look like that, so I'm alright.

Primer came out a bit chalky though, probably didn't shake the can for long enough - will hopefully be alright in the end though (maybe it's meant to be chalky?)

You have to build the landing gear before you can put the engine nacelles on - hence the big towers of masking tape sticking out the bottom - also I probably over did it with the filling and sanding in some areas and under did it in other areas, but nevermind.

You'll also note that it has the 'square' right angle nose canopy design and flat sides like the in game Havoc, as opposed to the diagonal nose canopy and gun bulges like a Boston (you get both options in the kit) - and the gunner position is closed, but that's just because it's easier to paint it if I put the canopy on the back for now.

Plus a sneak peak at my super high tech spray painting booth, as well as my Airbrush and Compressor!

That does look a nice airbrush sir Im quite looking forward to the end product.

Still making it, don't worry.

I've done all the paint etc - onto the Transfers/Decals/Whatever, but having some issues with my home made ones.

First of all you can't print white (for the Aircraft Letters and Nose Art), which isn't that much of an issue realy as you can print light grey - however for some reason light grey is completely invisible on these Transfers when I take them off the backing paper (you can see the grey when it's on the paper - and it's grey in the water - but as soon as you take the film off the paper it goes invisible) - so I think now I'm going to have to print off the Aircraft Letters and Nose art, then put masking tape over them and cut out the outline of the letters and the white background of the nose art, then put the masking tape on the aircraft and just paint in the numbers / nose art with white paint - then for the nose art I'll have to stick the black outline and detail transfer over the top of the white paint.

Bit tricky but should hopefully work.

Think I've managed to sort out the Aircraft Code issue on account of being a jammy sod!

Decided my masking tape attempt would look rubbish, so I went to internet land to search for pre made decals - and found this:



Which are 1:48 Scale Markings for 4 Spitfire Mk I and IIs (I know I'm not making a Spit, but close enough. )

Spitfire Mk.I "KL-O", 54 Sqn, March 1940
Spitfire Mk.I "KL-T", 54 Sqn, March 1940
Spitfire Mk.II "QV-J", 19 Sqn, June 1941
Spitfire Mk.II "XR-D", 71 "Eagle" Sqn, August 1941

Of course now I'll have to get a 1:48 Scale Spit IIb seeing as they have my decals.

Incidentally, XR-D of 71 "Eagle" Squadron would be the same Squadron and Aircraft letter that Dundas flies - clearly it must be because we're both famous Spitfire Aces and the like, dunno who those other two chaps are though!

Decal sheet arived this morning, not bad to say that I only ordered it at 2pm yesterday! Then again it did only have to come from the exotic far eastern province of North Yorkshire. (amazing what you can do with the Internet these days!)

Also got an information sheet about each Spitfire, here's mine (QV-J):

"This aircraft was one of 17 presented to the RAF by the Belfast Telegraph, paid for by readers' donations. It was transferred to the USAAF in November 1942."

Bloody Yanks! Coming over here and nicking all our Aeroplanes! I swear that's not how lend-lease is meant to work!

Although the readers of the Belfast Telegraph are clearly good and proper upstanding sorts!

here's the info on Dundas' Spitfire (XR-D):

"Bill Dunn became the first American ace of WWII on 27 August 1941, while flying with the RAF, He was badly injured during the mission and it was many months before he returned to flying. His aircraft was repainted sometime after 15 August 1941. Dunn survived the war with a total of 8.5 air to air kills."

Dundas... Dunn... Dundas... Dunn... hmmm.

Nice work MJ, keep the pics coming!

Final sheet of Decals still haven't arrived (production problem aparantly), but the Vickers K has arrived for the rear gun, so here's a little teaser:



The brown looks nothing like the proper brown it must be said, but nevermind.

And a painted string radio wire! Only the best of course.

In the end I probably painted the brown and green a bit too thick which made that whole pre-shading thing a bit pointless - although you can see it a bit underneath.

Swine MJ ! I was flipping down for the next photo and there arent any. Looks like a great job to me. Nice bits of weathering there I see. Whenever I made a model I could never hide the brushstrokes, an airgun is definately the way to go. Thats a lovely finish sir ! Looking forward to seeing the finished article.

It's the moment Dezey's been waiting for!

aye, turned out nice that has MJ! good work!

Thanks Skippper.

Although if I was going to do it again I'd probably change a few things, first of all I'd use a different Primer, as I can't say I'm much impressed by the one I used (Vallejo White) seemed a bit odd, as it ended up being rough and also seemed to form a skin over the model, which in some areas resulted in flakes of paint chipping off, revealing the clean plastic underneath (thankfully that only happened on the belly of the Aircraft) think it's probably just me not using it properly (although I've used it quite a few times with the same result) - where as with the Austin Utility I used a different primer (Citadel Chaos Black) which seems much better, as it goes on well and forms quite a nice base to paint on, although it could be that because it's black I put on less of it than I do with white (as obviously spraying white paint on grey plastic it's hard to tell if you've painted it enough.)

Other than that I'd probably have taken more time painting it, as in the end I'd finished painting it and still had to wait about 2 weeks for the Decals and the like, would have painted a bit thinner and also painted each colour seperately (as I painted it Green all over, then painted the brown camo over the top.)

That and spend more time actualy finding a brown that looks like the brown it's meant to be, of course.

Might try some Vallejo Acrylic paint (despite the issue with the primer) as I hear good things about it and they seem to have more accurate colours, where as Tamiya paint seems to be something to avoid on the smarty pants modelling websites, and also their paints and paint guides look nothing like the colours the models are meant to be.

And maybe find a way of cleaning up the paint on the canopies, looks a little rough around the edges if I do say so myself!

Nice work MJ.

What's next, Spit or Hurri 2c?

Taa!

I'll probably go for a Spitfire Mk. I next, might do a Skipper and try for a IIb though (better for escorting the Bossie. )

After that I'll go for the Hurricane IIc, although thus far I've been unable to find a Hurri IIc kit in 1:48 (lots of non-cannon ones, mind) but there'll probably be one on one of those random little model websites about the place.

I must say I have the urge to get a 109E-4 and make a Diorama of it in the middle of a field, full of holes, with a bent prop, a bloody cockpit and a British Soldier inspecting the wreckage, while some random bloke celebrates with a bottle of champgne.

Of course I'm leading up to that Tamiya 1:32 scale Spitfire Mk. IXc, with the Merlin engine and the 3mm thick removable magnetic cowlings and the like, but I need to build up some experience first!

Thats a lovely job MJ, I figured you'd be a man for detail and heres the proof. Did those tyres on the plane come with a tead pattern or have you put in on ? And how did you get the Nothern Whirlwind on there ? Is that MJs groundcrew by the utility truck btw ? (The young chap in the skirt) and how many times have I told you about the dog !

Do you put it under a cover of some sort now, to keep the dust off ? Nothing worse as you never really get it off without breaking something lol.


Any ideas on your next project ?

The Northern Whirlwind nose art was a home made decal that I printed off (basically it's just special A4 water decal paper, using a normal printer - then sprayed with gloss or what not to make sure the ink doesn't run - it's not as good as the proper stuff, mind - and also you can't print white on a normal inkjet printer (as white is essentially just a lack of anything) - so I had to put masking take over the nose art, then cut out the shape of the white part on the nose and the lettering, then move that masking tape on to the model and paint the gap in white, after which I put the detail decal over the top of the white part.

The tyres did have a tread on them to begin with, but I sanded it a bit and also sprayed the outsides of the wheels grey to make them look worn.

It's currently gathering dust at the moment unfortunately as I don't have a cover for it.

Hurribomber or Spit I next, but I can't find a Hurribomber!

That's a lovely model. Great job on the details MJ

Thanks Zenior, glad you like it!