Slow progress to report on my 3 current planes:

RAAF BOSTON
As discussed, on this build I backed up a little to fix the nose greenhouse replacement:


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FULL RESAt top, the inserts (white) are simple plasticard, slightly curved (rolled under a tool handle), to follow the fuselage contours - and then the top edges got tiny sills, on which the clear part edges butt, as shown dry-fitted, at bottom. Permanent attachment - after installing the nose 30cal MG - will be with a complete seal of clear glue (inside), topped with superglue-putty (outside) - the latter to make for a very strong and sandable-flush joint, with the outside completely masked of course, to keep the CA-vapors from fogging it - while the former will lock out those same vapors from fogging the insides.

Note she now looks a lot more like an A-20 - and I really can't get enough of these shiny, ultra-clear parts, sometimes wishing I could even leave off the greenhouse strapping ! The above progress really broke through an inexplicable flagging of my inspiration to complete this 110%-improvement refit.

I had also been dinking around with the cockpit canopy joint - and the canopy suddenly popped off - so, note I took the opportunity to replace the grossly-undersized pilot with this 72-scale PT boat figure - which actually looks slightly oversized, but I liked his officer's cap for the ozzie pilot, there in the tropics. Ironically, the kit canopy (lower quality) plastic distorts his image so badly that no improvement may even be noticeable! (Of course, a much better-quality replacement could be easily added, later...)

Before the above, a pretty good shot-in-the-arm had already been delivered by progress on another build:

SVG (Chinese) SB-3

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FULL RESMy earlier theorizing about mottled green-on-bare aluminum on these planes - or at least, that this would look good - have both been validated, after the above paint job, with clear parts both temporarily attached and protected by latex maskoid. Verification of this camo - for some early-WWII Ilyushin Il-4s - was found in the Squadron booklet (shown at that link - Thanks Again, Gus!), which described the application as "very crude".

Above, a typical, synthetic carwash sponge - made more irregular by nipping/tearing with needle-nosed pliers - delivers,with each impression, scores of exactly the tiny speckles/blotches desired. The sponge must have just the right load of paint - determined by thickness/wetness of the latter - after which the trick is to apply truly perpendicular, both pushing down and pulling back off - or all those spots over a large area will become smears, all of exactly the same direction, and length, quickly ruining the "random" look. Despite practicing first, I managed to smear (only) the patch behind and inboard of the port engine. And then the third trick is not to overdo it - hard to avoid, on raised contours - and the tops of both engine nacelles, as well as the dorsal spine, really got too much. (A smaller piece of sponge, mounted on the end of a dowel would probably have done a lot better there...) I'm currently looking at this and letting myself have time to consider what, if any, correction(s) might be applied - or if it's basically about as good as it's going to get.

Meantime, the real "delicioso" results (so far - they're going to get better yet) - just came in, on another camo paint job:

KG100 Do217k2

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Probably not much explanation needed here. On the darker green, I decided to go very dark - with some beautiful Tamiya (IJN) Dark Green 2 (AS-21) which I found at the LHS. Also - and you probably can't tell, from this pic - I abandoned the "high-sided" camo in favor of the more traditional pattern, extending the top-colors down the fuselage- and engine sides. The realization was that I really liked the effect of the "wave-mirror" camo on some of the black-sided (night-camo) bombers - their whole fuselages starting to look (in the B&W pictures) like cross-sections of water: waves on top, and darker below. I figure that in color, with darker greens extending down the fuselage sides, the effect will be even stronger - while still avoiding the "evil" look of the (almost) all-black, especially with the nazi insignia. Maybe that sounds kind of ridiculous: building a Luftwaffe plane - in particular, the one that wrecked HMS Warspite - yet not wanting it to look too nasty!

In any case, one thing appears sure: this build is going to be a beaut, when finished!

Cheers,

-Matty