Yellow nose P-51 Belly Lee III.
My first Hobby boss Kit. The parts look very clean and there is almost no flash. But it is also very simple. Almost no revit detail and many othere details are missing. But i'm looking forward to build this.
The easy assembly contruction makes the build easy I hope but I removed this location tab to clean up the air intake because this one was blocking the entry.
The easy assembly contruction makes the build easy I hope but I removed this location tab to clean up the air intake because this one was blocking the entry.
The light on the wing are molded solid so drilled them out to give them a more glass effect later.
The molded gun barrels look bad and this makes the cleanup of the leading edge very hard. So I will try to make new ones. I made new barrel with heated plastic tubes. Not the best result but also not too bad for a first try. I did sand them a but to make then straighter after this photo.
I primed the cockpit tub black and hand painted the details. The rubber floor is drybrush with wood colours to give the effect of wear.
the Intrument panal is painted black and thent the detail was added. The decals worked great but I didn't place it right so it's mis placed a bit. I also drilled out the holes in the bulkhead piece that is pcen behind the seat in the cockpit.
Whit pre shading to the cockpit and tail wheel area to make sure the colours arn't to dark.
Interior green and zinc chromate are added tot some interior parts
Seat is added. I did a wash and some chipping with silver paint
Light gray oil paint dry brush for the instrument panel. I but over the top but i still want to see it when the canopy is attached.
The fit of the cockpit is very easy due to the easy assembly. I also doesn't look to bad for a OOTB build and with al the simple details. The bulkhead behind the seat is not easy to fit and lining it up with the other fuselage half is not easy.
The tail wheel is also a construction ellement so it needs to be placed before you put the fuselage halfs together. I hand painted it silver and painted the tires black. after that the silver parst are given a ammo black night wash.
The fit looks good. The easy assembly gives a tight fit but you have to press the parts very hard sometimes to close all the gaps completely. I needed some clamps on the underside because of the removed pin form the air intake. And a clamp is needed behind the cockpit. All the other clamps are just to be sure.
The sanding of the seamline went great but i Realised that alot of very important panel lines are missing. Not all are easy to create.
I little but of filler is needed on the air intake seamline. Sanding that wont be easy so I used Acrylic putty and wiped most of it away.
This cooling outlet also needs some filling. I also restored all the panel lines that where lost during sanding.
The panel line highlighted in red is missen and is the end of the engine deck where you have a panel line right on top of the seamline. This wont be easy to make but I feel like its pretty much needed on a p-51. Is going to be good practise. You can also see that the panel line depth is really inconsistent. The detail quality is not the best when you look closer. I will see how far I will go with this kit.
The flexible tape from tamiya really helped but the centreline one isn'r really straight so thats unfortunate. But It's a big improvement.
After my rescribing session a got carried away a bit is I added many revit and other details to de fuselage. I also added some more panal lines that wheren't present on the mold. Some penal lines on the tip of the nose are filled because they shouldn't be there.
the wings are not completely rivited to differentiate with the silver painted parts and un painted parts on the real plane. This means that the flaps are rivited and some panels on the bottom of the plane. I also drilled a hole for the gun camara in the leading edge of the wing on one side( lower left picture).
The oil cooler intake was very tight fit because it's a bit to big. but I only realised that is cracked the plastic after I placed it. so putty is needed to fix it.
The shell ejection holes are completely missing. So I decided to try an drill them myself. Not the best job but it will do and it was good practise. I also made a Other mistake here by placing the drop take pilons. I cant use the decals for the invasion stripes anymore due to this. I won't know is I will swith to the other scheme without them or just leave the wing stripes off.
A small gap is also filled on the wing to fuselage connection.
this small detail is added with 0.2 mm styrine sheet.
The exhaust is very annoying to cleanup. This is not easy to do at all and doesn't fit the ''easy assembly'' idea of this kit.
The wheels are sanded down to give a sense of weight.
antenna's are added. Hopefully I don't break them off.
Masking these kind of canopy's is easy.
All parts are ready for paint.
The canopy is temporary fitted with pva glue. I will remove it later for detail painting and to finish the cockpit.
Ammo one shot black primer for the plane and all parts.
The wheels are finished with hand painting.
I clear coated all the bare metal panels of the plane to hopefully get a differance in finish between the wings a fuselage in the end.
The first layer of paint is added. Vallejo metal colour aluminium. I desided to paint the gear bay at this stage before masking it off before a paint more of the model. I will give it a wash alter but this isn't the moste detailed part of this model.
Silver paint to the wings.
White paint to all the parts that need to be yellow.
After what felt like 5 million layers the yellow I was happy with the coverage. I also painted the anti glare panel or what still can be seen from it.
The Ammo panels are tinted with a mix between white aluminium and a very small amount of dark alluminium. Very happy with the variation.
Some panels on the underside are also picked for some more colour variation.
I desided to not use the the decals for the black stripes and blue bars on the tail. I used flat back tamiya and Blue angels gloss blue for the vertical stabilizer. This colour matches closely with the decal and I need this paint also on the canopy.
Gave a gloss coat to the model and removed the canopy to make painting the blue much easier.
First decal session got me this far. The decals preform decently. The are easy to apply and react well to mark fit strong.
The only problem was getting the roundels over this raised detail. But a bit of paint should fix this.
All decals are applied. Unfortunately the invasion stripe decals doesn't line up at all so this will be a fictional build from now forward. I still like the look of the blue tail and canopy frame.
All parts are ready for weathering.
wash added to upper and lower side.
happy with the wash result.
chipping added with a bruch to the painted areas.
I added exhaust smoke with the air brush and some more weathering with oil paints. I also added a matte coat to all the decals and painted areas. Hope I hope this helps to retain some shine on the finished model.
finished droptanks. fuel streaks are made with oil paints and these are completely coated in matte. I heared that these tanks are made from some kind of paper and painted silver. so I wanted a different finish on these.
some more weathering on the bottom.
Finished spinner.
I removerd the canopy to finish the cockpit area. I added a gun sight glass form some clear plastic. and gave it a dry brush with aluminium paint.
landing lights are painted with tamiya clear paints.
All parts are glued to the underside. Very easy on this kit but the detail is very low especially the landing gear.
Canopy masking did his job.
Finished model. I'm happy with the result. This is a strange kit but I had fun. It's easy to build but you need some modifications to make it better. I hope you guys enjoyed this build!!!
Comments
31 1 May 2023, 09:59
JohnThis is looking good. I have wondered how good these HB "easy assembly" kits are and seems like they're not bad. 👍
1 May 2023, 10:49
VincentThanks John, Indeed I was seeing these kits everywhere and it doesn't look bad. We will see what result I can get.
1 May 2023, 11:47
Mark SherwoodI built the HB P-47 Thunderbolt. It was quite a nice build, the engine was moulded into the cowling, but otherwise okay. Your build is looking good 👍🥸🤟
2 May 2023, 09:28
VincentThanks Mark!!! I looks like a decent model when I look up other results on this side. The constructions seems really easy until now so thats always nice.
2 May 2023, 09:54
NeilFinished result looks absolutely fantastic Vincent! 🙂
I'm building their (Hobbyboss) P-47D currently (minor hi-jack!)...
HobbyBoss | No. 85804 | 1:48 | P-47D Thunderbolt Fighter (WIP) | Album by djferrisbueller (1:48)
I agree. For the price these kits are well detailed, great value and fit together well. Though I too had same issue with the included invasion stripe decals - so decided to paint rather than use. I believe you've subsequently inspired me to buy this one too! 😉 You should be rightly proud... Love the metallic finish! 🙂 👍
22 May 2023, 11:07
VincentThanks Neil. The P-47d kit is recommened to me many times and your build looks indeed very good. I'm keeping that one in mind for sure. I'm also happy with the metallic finish but I can still improve on that aspect. painting the invasion stripes I something I need to try again. I had a really hard time the first time I tried that on my spitfire mk-9 build.
22 May 2023, 11:14
Mr JamesVery, very well done Vincent. Your metallic work looks very realistic. And a great looking muddy field.
22 May 2023, 11:48
VincentThanks James and Roland. Nice to see the metallic finish is getting praise. I was not completely happy but seeing the comments gives me more convidence.
22 May 2023, 11:50
Mark SherwoodA great build Vincent. The contrast on the metalwork is A+ mate. Those Hobbyboss kits are good and I agree with a few mods makes a nice finished model. As evinced by your P51.
22 May 2023, 13:03
VincentThanks Mark for the kind words. I will surely try more of these hobbyBoss kits.
22 May 2023, 19:52
JohnLooks top Vincent. Metallic finish is not easy to pull off at all but yours is really good. Nice result from that kit too. 👍
23 May 2023, 01:09
Album info
I wanted to try a hobby boss kit to see what you can do with it and to see how easy they are to build.
I also want to practise some metallic effects and I also want to practise with yellow paint.
I'm not plannig to do many modifications But i did try something with the gun barrels.
Mods:
- Scratch build gun barrels
- added panel lines and rivits
Problems:
- Invation stripe decals don't line up so I can't use them for this build.
The decals where good until this moment so I will try to do the harder scheme with the invation stripes. Well that didn't last long. The invation stripe decals don't line up on the centre fuselage. And I added the pylons for the drop tanks to soon. So I Decided to leave them of but i Will still use the decals for the Belly Lee III.
