Wolfpack 1/144 B-58

[reserve]

After finishing the Jagdpanther I wanted to do something quick so as not to interfere with huntig season (and for quick gratification). This was the perfect thing







Very small, fit's pretty good, detail good enough for scale. Some say the panel lines are too big but it don't look that way to me. This will be a perfect addition to my teeny modern bomber fleet

[keavdog]

Cool project. Looking forward to the finish. Alclad, foil or ?

[buddho]

One of my all time fave bombers...gonna watch this one.

[406 Silverado]

I remember when I was a kid, I think I built the 1/72 scale Revell Hustler kit. It wasn't a glamorous build but if I remember correctly, even in 1/72 scale it was quite large.

Looking forward to seeing this one progressing Mark.

[reserve]

K it'll be Alcad II Polished Aluminum. Not sure what I'll use on the darker patches yet

B it's a nifty little uncomplicated kit. Ya may wanna give one a bash

Joe it was probably at least 55 years ago I did one, don't remember who made it but it was in some oddball scale like 1/96 or so. May have been Monogram. This one's quite small, what's left of the grid you can see on my cut mat is 1" squares.

What you see here is about an hour's work

[jeaton01]

I built a bunch of them in the late 50's, there was a cereal box promotion. Probably Lindberg kits, they had retracting landing gear as I remember.

[deafpanzer]

That's a great choice of your next build!!! I always thought it was one of most coolest looking bombers and they were stationed right here in Indiana back in the 60's in Kokomo only half hour north of my house. So I will be following your build with keen interest and I have been hoping that somebody makes new tooled kit of it in 1/48 someday.

You are off to a great start!

[handiabled]

Alclad on this will look awesome! I haven't seen one of these built in ages

[stikpusher]

Gotta love the B-58! Even today it still looks like an ultra modern design with those lines.

[reserve]

Got my Pronghorn a week ago today and deer/elk does not start 'till next Saturday so I had time to tinker









I used Alcad's gloss black undercoat and it went down rough which of course affected the final coats of polished aluminum. The pictures don't show it over well but it's sub par for sure.

This may have ruined the model...I'll try to polish it out but I'm not optimistic. One thing's for sure, I'll not be using the Alcad undercoat again as there are other acrylic gloss blacks available that spray much better.

At least it was not a $250 colossus of some sort that I'd spent months working on

[TJ]

From here its looks really good

[handiabled]

I have heard stories about Alcad's gloss black not drying forever but not any orange peel type issues. I've never used it. I hope you can get this looking like you want without a real ordeal. Good luck hunting! ( it's been forever since I've had an elk steak)

[reserve]

Not really sure what went wrong. Used directly from the bottle as instructed, sprayed @15 psi, kept the needle close. Perhaps it's my dry, dry basement where humidity averages about 20%.

Not really sure how I'm gonna go about fixing it either, probably try a fine a compound as I can find. Perhaps toothpaste on a spot on the underside and see how it goes...it'll smell nice anyway

[buddho]

It looks really good from what I can see as well. Hope it works out in the end.

[Steve Zuleski]

That's a great project, Mark. I'm looking at just how big my 1/48 Hustler box is, yikes! It's the Monogram reissue from a few yrs back.

[Medicman71]

It looks great! Hopefully you can fix it.

[Joe Rix]

Just caught your B-58 build here Mark. Very cool subject and scale. Bugger about the Alclad black base and Aluminum. Any thought on just stripping it and giving it another go?

[reserve]

Thanks gents

Z yeah that'll be a big 'un

JR I wish...but Alcad's lacquer based so anything that would strip it would turn the model into a puddle

[themongoose]

Well it sure caught my eye in the picture!! Sad it doesn’t meet you expectations up close tho.

[reserve]

Managed to fix it





A series of sandings with 600 and 1200 grit did the trick. Frankly, I'm amazed the plan worked

[tcoat]

NICE SAVE!

[handiabled]

Nice and shiny! A great save indeed!

[deafpanzer]

PURRRFECT!!!

[reserve]

Spoke too soon!

Masked off parts of the wings and fuselage to paint different shades of aluiminum, upon removal the tape lifted quite a bit of the first coat. This was after sealing it with Alcad acrylic clear coat and waiting 24 hours for cure.

I really did something wrong here and I'd guess it was the Alcad gloss black. On other models I've used Tammy X-1 as a gloss black base and have not encountered this probelm so, as they say, one and one still equals two. Given the poor performance along with lousy next coat adhesion the Alcad is something I'll not use again.

The model is a hopeless mess. I could probably recover it by sanding it down to plastic but I'm unwilling to spend the time this will require. Accordingly, it now rests in the garbage bucket alongside the evil bottle of paint.

Not a complete loss; I learned something here

[deafpanzer]

Oh no! Sorry to read about this. It won't be a total loss if you use it as a target in your backyard. I have read mixed reviews about Alcad but I never tried it so I won't buy one... thanks to you for the warning so you have been a big help for us who haven't used Alcad before.

Maybe it is time for you to build something sexy with tracks?

[tcoat]

Dec 1, 2023 14:52:12 GMT -5 reserve said:

Spoke too soon!

Masked off parts of the wings and fuselage to paint different shades of aluiminum, upon removal the tape lifted quite a bit of the first coat. This was after sealing it with Alcad acrylic clear coat and waiting 24 hours for cure.

I really did something wrong here and I'd guess it was the Alcad gloss black. On other models I've used Tammy X-1 as a gloss black base and have not encountered this probelm so, as they say, one and one still equals two. Given the poor performance along with lousy next coat adhesion the Alcad is something I'll not use again.

The model is a hopeless mess. I could probably recover it by sanding it down to plastic but I'm unwilling to spend the time this will require. Accordingly, it now rests in the garbage bucket alongside the evil bottle of paint.

Not a complete loss; I learned something here

Doesn't matter what is under it!

[406 Silverado]

Man I’m really sorry to hear of your trouble with the Alclad Mark. It would be neat if you could either give this another shot or get another one as this sure was a fun build to follow.

[jeaton01]

That Alclad black primer is the black sheep of the Alclad family. Awful stuff! I have had great luck putting Alclad on bare plastic, model master gloss colors and Tamiya acrylics. I did have trouble early on before I figured out never to put on a wet coat of Alclad. Perfection is when you can stick your finger on it right after you spay it. Thin dry coats rule.

[reserve]

I did give some thought to getting another one of these kits, they're pretty good I think. Can't find any now but I'll probably get another when they become available. I also gave some thought to the Italeri 1/72nd offering but after a fair amount of research I decided I ain't doin' that to meself.

Thanks for the commiseration blokes, right now I decide to take a break and give the work room a good purge and clean, something I've not done for a few years so you can imagine it's condition

[deafpanzer]

Gotcha! I had my work bench totally cleaned and upgraded and it took me about two weeks. Man, it really felt great when it was done so you will be happy and ready to build again.