Hi Louis:
Glad you stopped by. I really like the Looks Like Glass (made by Deluxe Materials). I get mine online from Megahobby.com. A fairly large bottle is about $10. I have noticed that my local hobby store has started to carry it. It is a clear acrylic that is very similar to Future, but seems to be more shiny. You can dip your canopies or you can brush it on without streaks. I have also used it to glue the clear film for Eduard PT sets. For the speedometer, I put the decal in the speedometer housing, then I set the clear plastic cover over the decal in the housing, then I simply brushed on the LLG. It glued the glass into the housing, and gave it a real shine. It seems to reflect light just like glass. For instrument panels, I have put a drop of this stuff inside the bezel for each instrument to make it look like it had a glass cover. It does seem to be slightly less able to withstand abuse than Future would be. I have had a couple of times that I had dipped a canopy, then added the canopy masks after it was dry. Later, when I removed the masking using a wooden toothpick, the tip pried up a bit of the LLG. The cool thing is that I fixed it by simply brushing LLG over the problem pane and it was fixed. I really like the stuff from Deluxe Materials. All of their stuff is acrylic-based. They have a couple of putties that you can put on, then shape with water on a finger or Q-tip. I have also let it dry completely and then smoothed and shaped it with alcohol. I also use their model glues, which are also acrylic-based. They also have some stuff called Liquid Gravity, that is basically like adding lead to the nose of your model, but you can pour it into awkward spaces and let it dry. I haven't tried it yet, but I have seen several articles in the English magazines where they use this stuff instead of other types of nose weights.
Next model? So many models, so little time. I want to build the Airfix 1/48 Hawker Sea Fury for the Hawker Group. I have also found some photos of some two-seat Hurricane conversions that the Russians did. One was a radar-carrier that had the operator in the back seat in an open cockpit. They also had a sort of recon version that had an observer with a pintle-mounted machine gun in the back, also in an open cockpit. The third is the version I want to do. It was a trainer version with both cockpits open. Russian sources say it had "dual command", which I think means there was a control stick in both cockpits. The last thing I want to do is sort of a personal challenge that is basically your fault. I want to do a natural metal plane, which I have religiously avoided. Your P-51s inspired me to do an all-metal P-51. I ordered a 1/32 Revell late model P-51 that I want to find a good all-metal paint scheme for. I also want to make my own masks for the markings. I am looking at either one of the Swiss paint schemes or one of the cool paints schemes that was floating around Latin America after the war. I won't post a P-51 while you are working on yours, so I figure I will save the NMF P-51 for later in the queue. The 1/48 Beaufort is also calling me, but it can wait for a while.
Anyway, I will make a game-time decision on the next build after I finish this current monster. I'm getting close. We have several days when we will be picking up my granddaughter this week from daycare, so I will be getting some quality Evelyn Rose time at the expense of modeling time, but its a good trade. Cheers.
