Hobby Boss Easy Assembly 1/48 P-47D - What If

[Nikola]

Well gents,

My NMF adventure which brought me much joy and many tears (and occasional bursts of anger, frustration and despair) has come to an end. She's finally RFI!

This is my first finished NMF model where I experimented and learned A LOT, mostly about what not to do! I hope that the next one will be better since I should now know what I am doing... to some extent.

I call this adventure Zen And The Art Of NMF, as I needed a lot of patience, inner peace and tolerance for all the f'ups I made.

It turned out OK in the end, although I should have taken care of details better (I didn't even paint the navigation lights), but I just wanted to get it done in this lifetime and move on to the next build. The Vallejo satin coat definitely killed the sheen more than I intended, but now I know better about the order of painting and how to potentially avoid clear coating over metalizers... At least I hope.

For those interested, all my agony and ecstasy can be seen in the WIP thread below:

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=29538

I am not much of a photographer and will have to improve on that.

Thanks for looking. Any comments and criticism are more than welcome.


Best,
Nikola

[digger303]

It looks great and the weathering has come through just right imho.

[Garion77]

All the hard work and problems paid in the end in my opinion. It looks great

I remember reading a few of your problems...not sure I remember the clear coating problem with NMF you encountered...what was it ? Because I started also my first NMF plane with Tamiya's ki-61

[Parker]

Holy S..., Nikola. That looks brilliant! Model Goals.

[Nikola]

It looks great and the weathering has come through just right imho.

Thanks Digger! Appreciated!

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

Holy S..., Nikola. That looks brilliant! Model Goals.

Thank you Parker! I am very glad that you like the final result.

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

All the hard work and problems paid in the end in my opinion. It looks great

I remember reading a few of your problems...not sure I remember the clear coating problem with NMF you encountered...what was it ? Because I started also my first NMF plane with Tamiya's ki-61

Thank you very much Garion! Glad you like her.

The main problem with clear coating, both Aquagloss and GX100, was that Mr. Metal Color could not hold anything over it which would then be masked. The tape, however weakened, just lifted everything off, except Mr. Metal Color. I found Mr. Metal Color to be very good and tough after buffing, but since it has that "powderness" to it, from my experience I learned that it is better left for last, just before decals and clear coats. However, masking directly over well buffed Mr. Metal Color was no problem. That's how the red on the cowling was done.

On the side note, the clear coat lifting made by the masking tape gave some very interesting random variation in the nature of the reflection but it is unpredictable and a little risky.

Best,
Nikola

[BigWall]

I know it fought you a lot but man it came out awesome looking! Great work!

[Nikola]

Hi guys,

The updated photos are at the beginning of the thread.

Thanks for looking.

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

I know it fought you a lot but man it came out awesome looking! Great work!

Thank you Joe! Appreciated!

Best,
Nikola

[Nikola]

Hm, just found this while throwing away the box - Could this be THE Hobby Boss?

[Garion77]