GWH 1/48 P-61B Black Widow

[Rick]

Glad to see you moving forward again Bill.
Rick

[wbill76]

Thanks Rick! It's been at a stand-still as I get ready for the new school year to start on Monday but once things settle down a bit, I can hopefully get some more time in on the Widow.

[wbill76]

I certainly didn't expect to step away from this build for quite this long, but sometimes that's just the way it goes! Had a chance to get back to the bench for the first time since August and made some more progress. I finished up the PE work on the other side of the rear fuselage courtesy of the Eduard PE detail set. I was selective in what I used, making sure at each step along the way that what I added wouldn't interfere with the bulkhead and seat arrangement for the radar operator's station.



The steps in the instruction booklet aren't numbered, but I suppose the block that deals with the 20mm guns could be called #4. The guns required some slight clean-up and the barrels were drilled out better with a finger drill to enhance their detail. I don't intend to display the gun bays exposed, so there was no need to paint them prior to installing into position. The mount holes for the locking brackets at the gun breeches are a little loose, so I had to be patient and use finger pressure to hold them down until the glue had grabbed enough to secure the guns in place.



It felt good to get back to work a little on this project, hopefully with the holidays approaching I can get in a little more time on a somewhat more regular schedule as well.

[Leon]

Nice to see some progress being made Bill! PE and guns look good.

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon! I think the kit was starting to feel slightly neglected...it kept quietly calling out to me while I was at the computer!

[wing_nut]

Something seems familiar about this thread. The building? The name? Can't quite put my finger on it.

[armorguy]

I'm glad you're back in town Bill, this place needs its sheriff lol !

Any progress is progress so make us happy with your stunning updates, this one looks good !

[wbill76]

Thanks Marc and AG! Hopefully I can keep this one going over the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.

[deafpanzer]

Is it safe to say that the kids kept you very busy?!?!? Its always good to have you around... we need the law and order!

[wbill76]

Nov 14, 2016 17:05:01 GMT -5 deafpanzer said:

Is it safe to say that the kids kept you very busy?!?!? Its always good to have you around... we need the law and order!

That would be an understatement Andy! Between training sessions on the weekends, creating lessons as I go (that's normal for the 1st year), and grading and everything else, it's been an extremely busy 3 months. Definitely looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.

[wbill76]

Taking full advantage of the extended Thanksgiving Day holidays, I made some more progress on the Widow. The fundamental challenge at this stage of the build is deciding what to paint first given all the exposed areas in the crew areas, so I focused on getting as much together as possible in the areas that were going to need the interior green/zinc chromate treatment first.

Returning to the radar operator's area, I added the Eduard PE parts for the top step on the access ladder and the rest of the ladder to the access hatch using the GWH supplied PE and some 0.6mm styrene rod. I'll be posing the hatch in the closed position but it's a prominent detail still visible through all the greenhouse windows.



Since I'm using the Eduard detail set for the front of the cabin as well, I had to decide how much stuff to install first vs. keeping separate to make it possible to add the pre-painted detail stuff easily. I installed most of the detail parts to the cabin sides where appropriate that needed to be zinc chromate and will add the rest of the details after the airbrush work is done. There were some raised ejector marks where the cabin bulkhead mated up with the fuselage, so a micro chisel was put to use to remove those and avoid fit problems later on.



The real exercise in patience in this area has to be the crew seats. GWH decided to have all the supports and armrests as separate pieces to increase their detail level but that comes with the tradeoff of having to deal with tiny fragile pieces that all need to mate up with each other properly to create the three seats. The pilot's seat was the hardest to get to line up because the supports are spindly and have to support not only the seat pan but also the seat back. For the gunner and radar operator seats, I found it best to attach the seat backs to their supports first and let that set up solid first before attempting to attach them to the seat bottoms. Definitely an area you want to go slow in to get it all together! All of the seats, including the pilot's, are removable at this point to allow for easier painting and detailing.

I had considered posing the front access hatch with the ladder extended but that idea died quickly when I tried to remove the ladder parts from the sprue. They have several large attachment points and they are fragile to begin with and, as luck would have it, it was the last point that caused the bottom part of the latter to break right at the attachment points needed to extend the ladder properly. So, closed up instead! For good measure, I cleaned up the remote controls for the quad .50 turret but left them off for now to make it easier to add the crew harness belts after painting.



Next step will be to sling some Interior Green!

[deafpanzer]

You are going to make Radar a happy man...

[wbill76]

Thanks Andy, he's got plenty of room all to himself at the back!

[dierk]

Good steady progress Bill!
Shame that GWH seems to have placed more emphasis on detail than buildability. Having only just popped my wingy cherry, I'm glad I didn't opt for a kit like this as a first attempt...

[wbill76]

Nov 26, 2016 6:56:34 GMT -5 dierk said:

Good steady progress Bill!
Shame that GWH seems to have placed more emphasis on detail than buildability. Having only just popped my wingy cherry, I'm glad I didn't opt for a kit like this as a first attempt...

Definitely not a beginner kit Dierk! Still, it doesn't seem to have any major issues so far, just takes more time than say the Hobby Boss kit would. But then I knew that going into it.

[wbill76]

More progress today after I convinced the airbrush that it really did need to get back to work after a longer than planned hiatus! I airbrushed some Flat Black as a primer and then applied MM enamel Interior green over that for the crew areas and various details.



Time to tackle those cockpit details, so I began with the instrument panel. The GWH kit's IP has a lot of nicely molded detail but it all had to go to be able to use the Eduard detail set. That was a little trickier than I thought it would be as the rudder pedals are a little fragile, so it didn't leave a lot of places to hang onto it while removing all that detail. I did manage to slice up my thumb nicely though, so the model gods were appeased with an appropriate dose of blood sacrifice along the way! It's worth noting that the kit also had a PE (unpainted) upgrade for the IP that involved the same amount of surgery but would've achieved its detail for the instrument faces through individual decals for each one, so the Eduard approach was a big time-saver in that area for sure. I'll be adding the clear part gunsight after the cockpit is installed and the IP secured in place as the fit tolerances are pretty tight and it needs to line up just right to work properly.



I'm building this kit for my dad and he decided he wanted the canopies all closed on the finished build, so that's influencing some of my decisions on the interior detailing. With that in mind, I did add the cockpit side details courtesy of the Eduard PE set as well and installed the cluster on the right side after I'd attached the self-adhesive PE parts with it separate from the fuselage wall.





I still need to do some detailing on the crew seats including the harness belts, so that will probably be the next item on the to-do list.

[Leon]

Nice days progress Bill! The IP and side wall detailing great.

[TRM]

Some top notch work there Bill! Love the looks of that dash Nice to see you stealing some time away to get to the bench!

[wbill76]

Thanks Leon and T! I was impressed with the Eduard pre-painted PE, first time using it and it definitely adds a lot of nice detail to the interior areas.

[wbill76]

Last round of the Turkey Day efforts today! Managed to get the rest of the details done on the front and rear crew areas. I had picked up the Eduard rear interior detail set not realizing that it was designed to totally replace the bulkhead and equipment racks with different stuff but it wasn't a total loss...I used several pieces of the pre-painted instrument faces in different spots with some modifications to help dress up the RO's panel. Some of the unused decals intended for the pilot's instrument panel also got drafted to fill in some of the molded-on gauge faces. The Eduard set provided the harnesses for the seat and then the remote control sight was added to the seat to complete its assembly before it was installed in place.



For the front area, I added the Eduard PE harnesses to the gunner and pilot seats before they were installed in place in the pit floor. The control yoke was added as well along with the oxygen cylinder and fire extinguisher.



Just to make sure everything is continuing to play nice, I did a test fit of the front and rear elements into the fuselage. So far, so good! I've deliberately left off the two instrument panel parts as they fit a little loose will get permanently installed only when I'm ready to join up the fuselage halves.



I still need to do some work with the nose wheel gear bay before the interior will be all set for the halves to come together but that won't take long. Almost there!

[thug626]

Good morning Bill. Your build is coming along splendidly.

[Wes]

Wow. What fantastic work. Going back to have another look.

[wbill76]

Thanks Dave and Wes, hopefully I can keep this one moving along at a decent pace between now and the end of the year!

[dierk]

Coming along nicely Bill, or in one word: pittastic!

[Leon]

WOW... That looks fantastic Bill!

[joelsmith]

Looking really fine Bill! Can't wait to see how you do the overall black finish, Joel.

[wbill76]

Thanks Dierk and Leon!

Joel, it's going to be interesting on two fronts. The first being that the Widows were painted gloss black to make it harder for searchlights to outline them and the second being that they had a tendency to fade particularly in the Pacific. Will have to give it some thought and also consult with the client (aka my father!) on what type of finish it will receive.

[wing_nut]

WASSUP? All this work? Did you get the sack or something.

[wbill76]

Nov 29, 2016 10:20:02 GMT -5 wing_nut said:

WASSUP? All this work? Did you get the sack or something.

Powered by Tryptophan! Was pretty hard going back to work on Monday...1 week of vacation is just long enough to get back into the 'not working' mode vs. just having a break. Just wait until Christmas!

[dupes]

Bill's back!

That interior looks niiiiiiiiiiice.