ghodges Posted April 29, 2021 Report Share Posted April 29, 2021 (edited) Finished my 1/48 Monogram B-24J "Dragon and His Tail" this evening. I used Kit Worlds decals, and unfortunately, they caused me several headaches! The first, and worst problem was they tended to curl under the edges as you removed the backing paper. Luckily, they are a little thick and I was able to use a knife tip to save the big ones. However, the thin wavy tail curled up into a tube and "died"! So, I had to paint the flowing tail part, from just forward of the waist window on back. That said, once the decals were on they did suck down on the surfaces pretty well. Thankfully, I'd decided to paint the rudder and fin stripes, and only had to use the plane numbers from the decal sheet, which also gave me the same problems. The 2nd problem is that the decal is at least 10% TOO BIG. Even compared to the image on the directions you can see it's too tall when applied, and way too long. If the tail decal hadn't become useless, I'd have had to trim at least an inch at the back and it would've been running into the horizontal tails, which it shouldn't. The kit itself is OOTB, except for using a Squadron vac main canopy. The NMF is a combination of Tamiya spray can for most of the model with Alclad Aluminum for the dissimilar panels, all of it over Alclad Gloss Black Primer. This was a tribute build to an artist friend of mine, Warren Kirbo, who built and PAINTED this scheme on his Monogram B-24J back in the mid 70s. This pic shows where the Dragon lost its tail.... And this one shows the completed artwork after painting the flowing tail section.... Questions, comments, and critiques welcome, as always! Gil Edited April 29, 2021 by ghodges 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stikpusher Posted April 29, 2021 Report Share Posted April 29, 2021 Beautiful finish Gil! That is some outstanding work that you did painting the dragon’s tail to replace the ruined decal. Bravo!!!! The NMF came out beautifully as well! I’d sure be happy with that one in my collection! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty White Posted April 29, 2021 Report Share Posted April 29, 2021 Well done fixing that decal problem! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Deliduka Posted April 29, 2021 Report Share Posted April 29, 2021 Wow Gil! What a stunning job! Man, I wish I could get my bare metal finishes to look like that! I commend you on the tail painting; I truly cannot see where the decal ends and your painting begins. THAT is masterful work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thevid Posted May 18, 2021 Report Share Posted May 18, 2021 Gil, That really turned out beautiful. The metal finish is wonderful. Well done sir. I have one on the back burner. I assembled the wings and polished the cowling gaps, but I forgot to include the engines! I trimmed the back plate to be able to insert them. David 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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