P-61Black Widow 1/48 Revell

[treyzx10r]

I've built this kit before long ago as a youngster back in the 70's . I'de forgotten how aweful the kits were but its coming back real fast! Poor fit ,yep plenty of that. Flash you want,yep a fair amout. Heat sinks? Ejector pin marks,Oh yea lots! In fact its got them a plenty and in some really bad places. Hideous rivets and raised panel lines ,oh you've opened the right box!

I've started just basically cleaning things up and straightening out the warps in the office floors. Also getting rid of the 'made in china' engraving on the bottom of the stab. The partial ejector pin marks on the fuselage seams are a nice touch,they are now filed smooth and the fit is decent now.

As a bonus I got one kit from a friend who cut all the parts off the sprues and reboxed them for me,gee thanks ! I just hope all the parts are present. I'm building one gear up so if I'm lacking parts there no biggie.

 

[Gern]

Were you born masochistic Trey, or have you developed a taste for it after years of making old kits? :lol

Surely it's bad enough tackling just one of these; why torture yourself with two?

Gern

PS I have absolutely no doubts that you'll do your usual superb job of both.

 

[Ian M]

OK then so a straight forward build then. :laughing:

Ian M

 

[Dave W]

I got a lot of pleasure out of building one of these last year.Hope you have as much fun Trey!.

 

[treyzx10r]

Dave yes I'm into pain and frustration so the old kits fill that need nicely and thanks for the vote of confidence!

Ian yes a straight up fall together build in the works lol

Dave thanks ,hope I can lean on your build experience a bit in some trouble spots!

I decided to trim out the inlets on the wings

doing it 4 times got a little old but I geuss I'de need to get used to that real fast with this build

Some screen added behind the inlet vanes

The set of wings ready for some finish sanding.

Test fit of the wings to the pods and it looks like some filling will be needed for sure

Big Booms are what this G/B is about and these are not looking too hateful,I've seen better Booms tho

I'm going to need a fix for the seam going right through the mesh area. I'm thinking of cutting them out and replacing the area with some metal mesh

This area is going to need some tweaking as well

 

[papa 695]

Some hard but great work there Trey watching this all the way

 

[Vaughan]

Looks like you've got your work cut there Trey, but I know you will come through this without any problems.

Vaughan

 

[treyzx10r]

Thanks Fellas,not much progress awaiting some a/m goodies to arrive.Did notch out the cowl flaps

cleaning up more flash and prepping sub asseblies in the meantime

 

[Dave W]

Nice to see some proper modelling Trey.Lots of filler and loads of sanding!.Dont think I would want to make two at the same time though.The Eduard etched set I used provides grills for that area at the front of the booms behind the engines.And I put 50g of lead in the nose to stop it sitting on its tail.

 

[treyzx10r]

Dave thanks,hope you do'nt mind but I went back and reviewed your build for some guidance and again it came out sweet! I've cut the areas on the booms out and will install some screen mesh to compensate.

 

[Dave W]

No problem Trey.Glad i can help.

 

[treyzx10r]

Thanks Dave!Some interior painting completed

Pilots seat detail scratched in support and release lever

Hate having to work around fixed gear early in the build process so I notched one side of the gear mounting point ,this will allow me to instal the gear after glueing the boom halves. Less chance of damage and easier to finish !

Since one build will be gear up fitted the doors closed on a set of booms,pretty nice fit actually,required very little sanding to get a snug fit. I also went ahead and removed the seams and blemishes,filled with some thinned Green putty and finished with 1000 wet .

 

[Vaughan]

looking good Trey, keep posting those photos.

Vaughan

 

[Dave W]

Some good progress Trey.Are you going to have the canopies open? (not the one in flight!).I should have opened mine so the cockpit detail was more visible.And i could have avoided the work necessary to make them fit properly.

 

[treyzx10r]

Vaughan, Dave thanks and yes I'm going to have the gear down version with open canopies and maybe a few of the cowlings as well. I'de given up waiting for my interior upgrade to arrive it was tracked to the local post office and then vanished. So right after glueing the fuse halves together it turns up today along with the decals that I ordered. To add insult to injury the decals are for some 1/32 scale jet! Oh well I perservere on and this is how far I've gotten.

The Pilot and crew are a mixed bag from different kits so they had to be tweaked a bit

Before

after

the rest of the Crew

 

[Ian M]

Looking mighty fine Trey. And green!

Ian M

 

[treyzx10r]

Thanks Ian! First dry fit of the sub assemblies on ship 1

Nose gear doors in place

I've put off the dreaded Canopy fit issues long enough so here goes. Strips of styrene added and more will be needed.

The very front port side also has a very nasty gap and to make it even more fun its not even across the join.

Cut and filed to shape

The rest can now be fixed with a small bead of Green putty

 

[stona]

Nice job Trey. That canopy fit really is horrible.

Cheers

Steve

 

[Polux]

Looking very nice!! Fantastic Job Trey!

Polux

 

[treyzx10r]

Steve thanks , I ca'nt remember it being this horrible when I built it as a kid. Amazing how we block out such things! Polux thank you for the kind words.I continue to battle the ill fitting canopy. I've made it worse by having one in flight as the pilots upper section has a gap all around. The part literally just falls through the opening,not even close to being a fit!

I've used foam safe ca to glue some styrene strips around the edges

The front strip wound up not being needed

The crew is now in place

Some serious tedious cleaning up is going to be needed,I need a break for a pint(or 2)

Ship 2 canopy is up next and as it will have the hatches in the open position it should go quicker(I hope)