YB-49 in 1/200

[Old Dog]

Assembled and almost ready for paint so the next question is how.

If it were a larger scale I would be tempted to mask a variety of panels and paint them in different shades of aluminum for variation but in this scale unless the shades were very close to one another I'm afraid it will end up looking like a patch work quilt. Except for some of the main control surfaces the prototype doesn't seem to show a lot of variation over the surface.

From a slightly different angle

Although these are B-35s two of them were modified to B-49s, surface looks pretty uniform except for the control surfaces.

Photos during construction don't show much in the way of texture or color differences.

Things look pretty uniform in this airborne shot, I think the darker color is just a reflection from the sky.

The color variation on this one doesn't make any sense unless it is again the light angle and sky reflection.

So at this point not sure what way to go, I may try to put a mottled under coat of black and white to see if that will give me some slight color variation and if that doesn't work make it a uniform color except for the control surfaces and consider it a factory roll out finish.

 

[SA Dave]

Just how big is it in 1/200 Garry?

 

[phantom II]

I'm thinking part of it is NMF and the rest that light gray Garry but it looks backwards from what I would have guessed .


Looking good from here . Cheers, Christian B)

 

[moon puppy]

If you want to play with the mottle base under a polish try various dark colors then a gloss coat, then top it with polished aluminum. I did that with a F86 (that I never finished) and the effect look pretty neat.

 

[Gator]

Very cool!

 

[Old Dog]

About this big Dave...

Christian as near as I have been able to determine all of the flying wings were in NMF, the only paint being a black antiglare section around the cockpit area.

I guess I could do a "what if" paint job

 

[phantom II]

I've been thinking it would look good in what if German colors :hmmm

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[ij001]

Or instead of a pure 'what if' scheme, how 'bout an 'if only' scheme - NMF and anti-flash white ??

Ian.

 

[Skinny_Mike]

Looking good!

 

[moon puppy]

Stealth black? How about SEA Camo like the BUFFS were, black underside?

 

[lupanzer]

...

Luiz

 

[SA Dave]

Thanks that is really BIG :woohoo:

Btw I like Bob's idea for Cammo

 

[Old Dog]

Well with only one day left, multiple coats of paint to do and my having some oral surgery done today this one is not going to make the deadline so I shall move it to Deja Vu and finish it there.

 

[SA Dave]

Yes youre very close really

 

[sharkman]

Sorry to hear you couldn't pull off the last minute save Gary!

Look forward to the finished product!!!

 

[phantom II]

Maybe a doctor's excuse will buy you more time with the Pup ?

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[moon puppy]

The forum is still up, if you can git'er done Gary bring her in.

 

[Old Dog]

I will make a best effort to finish it today, I have been out of the loop so to speak the past few days and have not been able to get any modeling work done.

 

[helios]

You got this! We'll have the response crew on standby in case of an emergency landing.

 

[Old Dog]

OK, calling this one done, came close to seeing if it would fly like a boomerang but was afraid it might come back. A few notes, I decided this was too small to be playing games with NMF. In the end it got a coat of primer followed by a single coat of Floquil bright silver. This produced a better finish than anything I've ever gotten from Alclad. Decals had a matte finish which made them way too obvious so I ended up gloss coating after they were set. The walkway decals didn't want to cooperate and scale wise were much too wide anyway. No tail numbers were supplied and would have been too small to make anyway. I didn't do a panel line wash because I felt they were a bit to noticeable as it was. Most every thing fit pretty well except the leading edge glass areas and I had some leakage under the tape when I painted which was a PITA to remove. For the scale it looks OK to me, you would need a magnifier to zoom in on the defects anyway...

And one for size comparison with last years B-70

Thanks for looking !