I've got the Privateer ready for decals - just need to give the gloss-coat a few days to harden. Meanwhile I've been working on the nose turret (pics soon) and some work on the inside of the canopy. I added some glare shields, using thin clear plastic from dental floss packaging painted with Tamiya clear green (I had an issue with the tape residue, so I'm not 100% pleased with how they turned out), and then an upper console with rib attachments - both cut from styrene - and some wiring using painted copper wire. From reference files, it looks like there were actually some manufacturer plates that faced upward through the plexiglass, so I used some Mike Grant instrument decals to mimic that. I may have made one mistake: I didn't paint the console stringers where they were glued to the inside of the canopy, thinking that once I paint the outside of the canopy frame it would cover it up. However, I didn't account for the thickness of the plastic (it is vac-form, so thinner than the kit-supplied canopy). It's possible a bit of that white may peek through! I'm hoping not, but if it does after I paint, I may have to pull the console out and paint that, then re-glue back in.

2 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Aircraft painted and decals are on - now begins the many-layered process of weathering and detailing. Got the engines painted and washed, started the chipping around the nacelles, wings and leading edges (to be finished once all panel lines are drawn), and now working on adding panel line detail. Tedious - using tape and chalk powders. I also used Tamiya Weathering masters to lighten the control surfaces, but in hindsight wish I'd done it differently - I won't do that again! But after oils I'm hoping to tone it down differently. What I'm learning here I plan to apply to a PBJ build in the near future.

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Ok - almost there - here's a quick snapshot of the panel line work done on the underside, just before I laid down an oil filter to knock back the brightness of the white. Panel lines were made with .02 pencil and pastel chalk powders. I've added some additional oil staining since these pics with Tensocrom, and darkened the exhaust staining, and some other detail work.

I was a bit disappoint how much the panel line work disappeared on the dark blue of the upper surfaces. I'm now going to need to work a bit more to bring some "life" to those huge slabs of dark area.

You can see that I unfortunately had a bad case of decal silvering. They looked like they were going down excellently, and I had really prepped the surface (I thought), but after everything dried - well, it speaks for itself. I'm still messing with them, trying all the tricks to make more of it disappear. They were all aftermarket, and sometimes you just never know...

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Greg, I love to see this type of modelling. You take a 40 year old hunk of plastic and work it into a little piece of history. The scratch building is superb and as you say, the challenges you've overcome here will set you up for the PBJ.

We are alway our own worse critics (I read that here recently, now that I think of it...). To me, she's full of life, and you can almost feel the hours you've put into the project.

Fantastic work and I'm hoping you will be doing a WiP log with the Mitchell?

That's the sort of boring we live for, Greg!

Fantastic work - I'm sad to see this one wind up. If you do the build thread for the PBJ - I'm definitely in.

Man oh man it sure looks good ! The "signature" stand is very neat too...

The details you captured in a 1/72 scale are some things I could only wish for in my typical 1/48 (or even 1/32) scale builds. You nailed it Greg...

Please keep us posted on how it does at the shows. I'm looking forward to seeing the reveal article...

Well done my friend.