Operation "X-mas tree"

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Dec 13, 2015 9:15 pm

Hi there!

I'm planning to speedbuild a couple of WW2 aircrafts in 1/72 scale to put in our Christmas tree :-D

It all started when I received a Revell P-47M Thunderbolt as a birthday gift a week ago. I was planning to make a small dio with it for my youngest son, when I got the idea to build the aircraft gear-up, closed canopy and put a wire loop in them to hang them in the X-mas tree.

My guidelines are
* Santa will take control of the cockpit
* No underwing ordnance, dangerous to have in a Christmas tree

* Must be ready on 23th of Dec at latest
* I might make this a Christmas tradition, to build a few new aircrafts each Christmas

So first out is the Airfix Messerschmitt Bf109 G-6.

New tooling, very easy kit to build since it has very few parts. Fit is OK but there are no interior details at all. Nada. Outside have very exaggerated panel lines, part from that its OK.

The Luftwaffe pilot had to leave the flightsuit at home and dress up as Santa Klaus.

Masking done, ready for primer.

Primed in black. This is a good subject to test the "new meta" with black primer instead of preshading on grey primer.

Next up is the P-47M Thunderbolt...

Cheers

Tommy

Post by **Coen** » Sun Dec 13, 2015 10:41 pm

Holy crow!! That's awesome Tommy!!!

Post by **Pacheco** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:35 pm

TommyKillander wrote:
The Luftwaffe pilot had to leave the flightsuit at home and dress up as Santa Klaus.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:18 pm

Thanks guys!

The P47M Thunderbolt is larger than the 109 but since it is a Revell it's definitely not easier to build.

I have started the build. I will not go crazy with detailing and weathering, since it will take a lot of time - it's a speedbuild remember

I will just add some drybrushing and decals (if any) from the kit so this will be 100% OOB. Building the aircraft gear up with no stuff under the wing will also make things easier (less builiding, less details to paint and less masking).

The kit didn't have any pilot but I found a redundant Spitfire pilot that where more than happy to get a job over the Christmas season.

The guy was quite tall so I had to get rid of the rudder pedals to fit him into the office.

...and we are back at the Bf109 again with some Yellow Insignia on the underside of the engine and tailfin rudder. It will be a Luftwaffe 109 with RLM74/75 top cammo and RLM 76 underside, I will start working on the top cammo tomorrow.
The kit was so easy to build that I might buy another one and paint it with Finnish cammo.

Cheers!

Tommy

Post by **RFeeney** » Mon Dec 14, 2015 11:45 pm

Great idea

Post by **TommyKillander** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 6:43 am

RFeeney wrote:Great idea

Thanks mate !

Cheers

Tommy

Post by **JudgeDredd** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 6:58 am

Love the Santas!!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Tue Dec 15, 2015 10:46 pm

JudgeDredd wrote:Love the Santas!!

Thanks!

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 7:24 am

Hey guys,

I didn't have time to build anything on the Thunderbolt yesterday, but I managed to get some paint on the 109:

I have mixed the RLM-colors from Tamiya paint. For being a total n00b in German WW2 aircraft I'm happy with the result sofar.

I will continue with the mottling and detail painting later today

Tommy

Post by **Goose** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 8:46 am

love this idea!!

nice job so far.

Congrats

Goose

Post by **TommyKillander** » Wed Dec 16, 2015 2:58 pm

Goose wrote:love this idea!!

nice job so far.

Congrats

Goose

Thanks Goose

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 10:15 pm

Hey guys,

Did my first attempt to do mottling today. After spending an hour looking at old photos and reveal photos of 1/32 and 1/48 scale models, I decided to give it a go and started up the spraybooth. I quickly realised why I couldn'y find many 1/72 models with mottling - it's almost impossible to get it right

I have applied a layer of Aqua Gloss preparing for decals, which I will do tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 1:56 pm

Hey guys!

I realise that I'm reallly bad at keep multiple builds going on at the same time, I seem to "zone in" on the object I'm building and loose interest in the other object(s). Well, the Bf109 is soon completed, so I can proceed with the Thunderbolt again.
I have also bought a 1/72 Airfix Yak-9D that I want to finish as well...

I have placed the decals now and glossed the aircraft preparing for wash.

The decals are insanely bad, btw. The decal film is so thick that it must have been made from some kind recycled PET plastic...

I drenched the poor decals in Micro Sol 6-7 times, but they did even start to conform to the panel-lines.

I also ripped the paint on the underside of the fuselage when I tried to make the decal conform better to the rounded shape of the airframe... I'll have to do some creative weathering to conceal that

Oh, I bought the Christmas tree today, so the race on now for sure...

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 9:49 pm

Hey guys,

Quick update before I put the kids to bed

I'm wating for the Aqua Gloss to cure before I start with the weathering, so I have completed the build part of the Thunderbolt:

I will close up the canopy and start painting it tomorrow.

Cheers

Tommy

Post by **RFeeney** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 12:35 am

Santy looks very comfortable in there

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 9:37 pm

RFeeney wrote:Santy looks very comfortable in there

He is... The P47M is not a bad replacement for the reindeers - a little short on stowage room though

Tommy

Post by **RFeeney** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 9:59 pm

I know that I would be tempted to paint the nose-cones(if thats what they are called) red.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 10:08 pm

Hi there!

Christmas day is closing in and Santa isn't the only one with a tight schedule right now

But the Bf109 is almost completed. I added som panelline wash today using an oilwash mix of black + burnt sienna. Oilwash looks great I think and is easy to work with, but the drying time can be a bit frustrating... Claybased washes like Ultimate are much better in that aspect.

And the Thunderbolt build is almost completed and is moving into the painting phase:

There are a lot of detail in this kit actually, so I decided to use ModelMaster Metalizer Flat Alu Panel spayed on the bare styrene. This is quite risky, since the MM is almost as strong stuff as Alclad2 - if it pools up on the surface it will eat down into the plastic. So you have to make a few swift passes over the model and never start or turn back your airbrush over the surface... The benefit is that you lose no detail whatsoever - the paint is so thin and gets in everywhere so it's basically like the plastic have been molded in aluminium.

The drawback, part from being risky, is that all details are exposed, including seams, gluemarks, sinkmarks, fit issues, tooling wear-and-tear etc.

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:11 pm

RFeeney wrote: I know that I would be tempted to paint the nose-cones(if thats what they are called) red.

I will paint the front of the cowling red, so I guess that the aircraft could be named Rudolph

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:05 pm

Hey guys,

The Bf109 is ready for the Christmas tree!

I glued a loop of fishing-line in the hole where the antenna post normally sits.

I promise more pictures after the P47M is finished.

Cheers

Tommy

Post by **RFeeney** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:14 pm

I`m really looking forward to seeing them on the tree

Post by **TommyKillander** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 6:14 pm

RFeeney wrote: I`m really looking forward to seeing them on the tree

The 109 will have air superiority in the Christmas tree this year, since I will not be able to finish the Thunderbolt today.

But I will ofcourse finish it during Christmas and New Year anyway

Cheers

Tommy

Post by **RFeeney** » Wed Dec 23, 2015 7:02 pm

Dominating the green sky's. Looking great

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 4:47 am

That is a great idea well executed

Post by **TommyKillander** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 9:26 am

Twokidsnosleep wrote:That is a great idea well executed

Thank you Scott

Cheers

Tommy

Post by **Lee** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 9:42 am

What a great idea and good job too

Post by **TommyKillander** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 10:47 am

Lee wrote:What a great idea and good job too

Thank you Lee!

Cheers!

Tommy

Post by **Avgas** » Thu Dec 24, 2015 11:40 am

Brilliant idea! Might have a go at that next year.

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 12:54 pm

Avgas wrote:Brilliant idea! Might have a go at that next year.

Thanks Avgas!

Cool, I will try to make atleast one model per year for the Christmas tree. The kids love it!

Ok... I have smeared some paint on the Thunderbolt this weekend

I had idea of making a light- and dark-blue "semi-hard" cammo pattern with some controlled overspray down towards the metal belly of the airframe.

....now that turned out to be more difficult that I thought. I managed to get the wanted effect on some places, but I added too much thinner to the paint and didnt wait long enough between coats, so it pooled up around the edges of the white Tac in some places. I tried to correct it by hand, but it did not improve much

I had to mask the front edges of the wings again and try to freehand the edges with the airbrush. I'm not so good at airbrushing so it far from perfect, but it is good enought for this project.
Anyway, I have learnt some from this, so I hopefully know how to do it properly next time...

I have glossed the aircraft so next up is decals...
Cheers

Tommy

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 3:46 pm

Looking forward to this one!!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sat Dec 26, 2015 11:07 pm

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Looking forward to this one!!

Me too... hope it turns out OK

Decals are placed and soaked in Micro Sol and I will leave it over-night and check tomorrow morning if they look OK.

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Dec 27, 2015 2:40 pm

Hey guys!

Decals turned out OK so I have given the model two generous coats of Aqua Gloss.

I will leave it to dry and cure until tomorrow evening when I will put some panel line washes on.

I'm thinking of using dark wash for the light blue and metal panels and light wash for the dark blue panels to get more contrast.

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 10:00 pm

Hey guys!

The Thunderbolt (aka "Rudolph") is heading for homeplate.

I decided to use an oilwash instead and did a quick sludge-wash using oilpaint and turpentine (1:5 mix I think), left it for a couple of hours and wiped it off with a papertowel. I think that the panellines and rivets showed up quite good, especially on the underside.

...and finally a mug-shot of the T-bolt in the tree (sorry about the crappy picture quality):

This concludes this build for this year, but I will continue with one new aircraft each year I think - as a Christmas holiday tradition.

More than one build is too much since I what to build and paint the aircrafts properly - so I feel satisfied with the result. Work and family needs my attention during December as well so one 1/72 build is enough.

Cheers

Tommy

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Tue Dec 29, 2015 10:19 pm

Great build and awesome tradition for you to start
Hope it goes on for many years!!!

Post by **qeialto** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:09 am

LOL!!!

Post by **TommyKillander** » Wed Dec 30, 2015 6:00 pm

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Great build and awesome tradition for you to start
Hope it goes on for many years!!!

Thanks Scott!

qeialto wrote: LOL!!!

Cheers, mate!

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Dec 04, 2016 10:00 am

Hey Guys!

It's December and I realised a couple of days ago that I have a tradition to honour; The X-mas Tree build!

I haven't prepared myself by buing a kit, so I have use what I got in the stash in 1/72 scale: an Airfix Hawker Typhoon and a Yakolev Yak-9D. The "Tiffie" is a too good kit to put in the Christmas tree, so I will go for the russian fighter...

TBH; this kit is really awful... now I remember why I didn't build it last year

After some research on Scalemates I found out that this kit is older than I am

It has been reboxed 8 times and the tooling is from 1963.

Suspiciously bad fit and lack of details have been generously compensated by lots of burr, flash and a tooling workmanship that beats everything I have seen sofar.

...but who cares - let's build it anyway !

I have no experience whatsoever of russian WW2 aircraft so I started by doing some research of the Yak family of fighters and colour-schemes. After a while I ended up with the colours that Airfix has in the I/M callout; dark-grey/black (AMT-6), green (AMT-4) and light blue (AMT-7) on the underside.

Unfortunately I do not have any AKAN paints so I will use Tamiya instead, using XF-67, XF-63 and XF-23.
Since it's Christmas I will also add a worn out winter whitewash on top of that!

This is quite demotivating....

- But lets get started!

I think it's outrageous that Airfix still sells this kit packages in a nice red sealed box... It should be removed from market or sold in a polybag with a warning text on

One of the fuselage halves lacks details....

...but let's get started, eh ?

Santa looks a bit stiff, but I guess that is because there are no controls or instruments in cockpit, just a chair

I have tried to fix most of the details to get something that looks like air intake and radiator housing, atleast from distance, using plasticard and dissolved sprue. It's gonna take a lot of work to make this look acceptable, but it's 20 days to deadline

Tommy

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Sun Dec 04, 2016 3:00 pm

Awesome, I had forgotten about your traditional Christmas plane build

Good luck with all that flashski

Post by **privatepete** » Sun Dec 04, 2016 6:58 pm

What a brilliant idea Tommy, love it

well done.
Pete

Post by **TommyKillander** » Sun Dec 04, 2016 10:27 pm

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Awesome, I had forgotten about your traditional Christmas plane build

Good luck with all that flashski

Thanks, "the flash will be conquered"

privatepete wrote:What a brilliant idea Tommy, love it well done.
Pete

Thanks Pete!

I have been working on fixing the fuselage today.

And it's time to assemble the wings and rudders

I got rid of most of the wingroot gaps on the top side...

...but they ended up on the bottom side instead

So we will try to use liquid sprue as a filler

I will leave that to cure for a couple of days.

Tommy

YouTube · Post by **NorthernModeller** » Sun Dec 04, 2016 10:56 pm

The YAK has some nostalgia for me. one of the first kits i built as a kid and really want to revisit it to see what I can do now

loving what you are doing

Post by **TommyKillander** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 11:14 am

NorthernModeller wrote:The YAK has some nostalgia for me. one of the first kits i built as a kid and really want to revisit it to see what I can do now loving what you are doing

Thank you, Ivan

The Yak is a really cool aircraft; a sort of generic design but still good looking. It's definately worth a trip down the memory lane...

I'm thinking of buing one of the 1/48 Accurate Miniatures/Eduard kits of the Yak-1, if I can get one at a decent price.

Tommy

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 4:19 pm

Liquid sprue??
Qu'est-ce que c'est???

Post by **TommyKillander** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 5:46 pm

Twokidsnosleep wrote:Liquid sprue??
Qu'est-ce que c'est???

That's what I call bits of styrene dissolved in Tamiya Extra Thin.

It's the best filler on the planet for plastic parts; it fuses with the plastic and will form a hard seam if you leave it to fully cure for a couple of days.
The seam won't sink like softer fillers (like putty) often do after a while and it's easy to work with a sandingstick, buffer or rescribe-tool

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 6:23 pm

I'm a bit impatient so I can't wait more that 24 hours....

I checked the seams today and they had cured enough. So I decided to hit it with a sanding stick

I used Ultimate buffer to polish the surface afterwards

Time to do something about the missing machine gun.

I was considering to use a Dremel for this, but I realised that smaller tools where needed, so I used a scalpel to carve out the cutout.

I'm happy with that. I added a small shard of plasticard for the muzzle before I "cleaned" the surfaces from burr and dust with one decisive stroke of Tamiya Extra Thin. That is a cool trick I saw on PLASMO's YT-channel a while ago...

Tommy

Post by **TommyKillander** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 9:40 pm

Awwraigght...

Lets continue with the build

Masking the canopy

Black Ultimate Primer on the aircraft and white on the spinner/prop

I think that the underside became a bit too blue...

...and the dark cammo tone got too light

But I'm pretty happy with the green - one out of three isn't that bad, right

Well.... this is not what I had in mind, but I'm too lazy to do it all over again

Tommy

Post by **privatepete** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 9:48 pm

Looking good Tommy, you will have to get a tree just for your plan-baubles

Pete

Post by **TommyKillander** » Thu Dec 08, 2016 9:05 am

privatepete wrote:Looking good Tommy, you will have to get a tree just for your plan-baubles
Pete

Thanks pete

Yeah, when the Santa air wing has enough planes I might get a separate tree for the aircrafts...

It's the time to conclude this years build:

After glosscoat it was time to put on the decals and I also painted the spinner and the blades.

I used Ultimate Winter wash that I applied using my airbrush (with a 0.4 mm needle). The surface looked quite rough at first, but it self-levelled and dryed after 20-30 minutes. I then started to brush using a soft flat brush.

r

The model have been sealed with flat coat and weathered lightly with some pigments. It was also time to unmask the canopy... I'm always nervous doing that

I also drilled a hole and glued in a loop of fishing wire.

...and there you go - this years X-mas tree aircraft ready for takeoff !

Tommy

Post by **privatepete** » Thu Dec 08, 2016 11:25 am

HI Tommy, love it, unmask that canopy I can see why you are nervous, and it's a great addition to your "Santa air wing"well done .Just a thought next year how about Tommy's "Santa air wing" SIG.

Pete

Post by **chops1sc** » Thu Dec 08, 2016 1:04 pm

I love this idea. The first thing that comes to mind is the Egg planes. They would make perfect ornaments!