A pair of Airfix Hawks in 1/72. Finished.

[Fritag]

Evening all.  Well another week has slipped by and I'm just beginning to suspect that the Hawks won't be finished in time for Telford....... 

 

Taken some small steps forward tho'.  Altho’ still etch related I'm sorry to say

 

On 19/10/2017 at 12:28 AM, hendie said:

The micro-mark sheet certainly seems to produce a sharper image - Could it be down to the quality of the OHP sheet?

I've returned to this question again because with googling I found a silk screen supplier offering A4 transparent sheets called Clear Daylight Inkjet Transparency.  In the photo below the Clear Daylight sheets are on the right and an OHP transparency is on the left.  Don't be fooled by the apparent opaqueness of the Clear Daylight sheet, they are excellent - and I suspect its the same stuff as the micro-mark sheets.  These films take inkjet printing so much better than the OHP sheets and the colour goes on more opaque and I've been able to ditch there need to sandwich 2 OHP sheets together to get adequate opaqueness.  They were pretty cheap at £5.25 for 10 sheets from here http://www.art2silkscreen.co.uk But a whopping £7.00 postage! so I'll try and find a different supplier.......

 

 

On 28/10/2017 at 2:52 PM, Navy Bird said:

I have a quick question on the ink-jet printing part of your process - did you print the artwork with 100% black as the colour? I found out when making homemade decals that this resulted in a black that wasn't opaque enough. I switched to printing four-colour black which was much better. I think I used 60% Cyan 60% Magenta, 40% Yellow, and 100% Black.

I don't have that degree of control over my HP printer Bill.  A get to select B/W or colour and that's it.  That said, I don't select B/W and I know that the cyan, magenta and yellow cartridges do gradually deplete even when I'm printing black and white documents so I guess there is some sort of four colour black mix being used.

 

Another thing I thought you might be interested in is how I've ended up doing the developing stage.

 

You may remember I had some difficult to begin with.  What I do now is drop the brass into the developer and after leaving it for several seconds I gently brush the surface of the resist where it should be removed by the developer (i.e. the non purple areas).  Then as soon as it begins to come away with gentle brushing I remove there brass from the developer and drop it into water and continue gently brushing the unwanted resist away.  I've found that I get consistent and neat results this way and don't lose any of the UV exposed resist that I want to keep.

 

In the developer.

 

 

In the water.  In this photo you can see that the shiny brass is showing through and most of the unwanted resist has been removed without damaging the fine lines of there MDC.

 

 

Finally this is my amateur chemical set up.

 

 

I hope that some of you chaps have a bash at home-brew etch - it's fun.  And if you do as I did and just follow @Cheshiretaurus invaluable tutorial you'll have no major problems (save if like me  you have muppet like tendencies....)

 

I hopefully now have enough decent copies of the MDC to be going on with 

 

 

And I finished off with a 'celebration' () edition made all neat and tidy like and with a bit of etched in text for good measure 

 

 

Then the thought of a little grill, either side on the fuselage spine the Hawks -  that had defeated my attempts to copy it earlier on the build -  floated dangerously back into my head....

 

This is the offending grill as seen in the BM Walkaround - just in front of the white ring.

 

 

And this plain oval was my measly effort 

 

 

There was a replacement on a PE fret I had - but it was the wrong shape and too large.

 

So - I had a play with some art work etc and:

 

 

This is on 0.002” brass.  And a dry fit.....

 

 

I had to simply it by reducing the number of slits in the grill - otherwise the fineness of the slits exceeded my printers definition.....but  I'm quite pleased...

 

Close up.

 

 

 

Must stop playing......

 

Steve

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2017 by Fritag

[Hamden]

 

Absolutely stunning etch work

 

  Roger

[giemme]

Gorgeous stuff, Steve

I see you set up your brand name - where do I place my orders, please?

 

I'm in need of two grid covers for the oil radiators of my current C205 build...

 

Ciao

[keefr22]

3 hours ago, Fritag said:

Must stop playing......

 

 

That's not playing, that's proper good work! Mine will be getting a scribed oval...!! 

 

Keith

[TheBaron]

Ah lovely. You've really found your rhythm with that process a treat now Steve. 

[Martian]

Seems to me that you are wasted on the law and should devote the rest of your life to producing wonderful etchings. Indeed, then you really could invite Mrs Fritag to "come up and see my etchings"!

 

Martian

[CedB]

Great stuff Steve... a production line in the making.

I assume you've registered 'Fritag Etchings' with the appropriate society and drafted the articles?

Great MDC and lovely grills.

Another technique to go on the 'try this' list.

[perdu]

Isn't that just lovely 

And here is your new career all laid out nicely for you

 

Those grilles are amazing 

 

You could teach Airwaves a thing or ten

 

Well developed stuff, can I put in an order for some Bucc thingies please? 

 

Score?

 

20/10

 

 

[hendie]

You don't update as often as some of us (  )- but when you do... WoW !

 

Very nice work indeed. I can see that you are going to make good use of this newly acquired skill in future builds.

I have almost everything in house now  just waiting on the photoresist to arrive and I'm all set

 

[Leonl]

There’s no stopping you.... the man’s on a roll.....

 

[nimrod54]

Steve,

I try to keep updated on these builds but, being a shy chap, I only tend to drop by and comment occasionally. On this occasion I just have to say that I am amazed at how quickly you hone your skills to whatever new process you happen be trying out for the first time.

I do hope that these make it to Telford, it would be nice to see them close up, but if not I look forward to watching more progress here. Awesome model making.

 

[Fritag]

On 04/11/2017 at 12:39 PM, hendie said:

I have almost everything in house now  just waiting on the photoresist to arrive and I'm all set

Looking forward to the hendie metal mastery being transferred to etch 

 

On 04/11/2017 at 11:19 PM, nimrod54 said:

how quickly you hone your skills to whatever new process you happen be trying out for the first time.

Ta John.  Not sure about quickly tho'   - think rather a certain obstinate persistence born of desperation to avoid the embarrassment of utter failure..... 

 

On 04/11/2017 at 11:19 PM, nimrod54 said:

I do hope that these make it to Telford

These won't - but I'm hopeful I will.  We're off to Berlin for a few days next week (never been before) so have been busy with work this week - but I'm hopeful of having cleared the decks enough to get to Telford on Saturday.

 

The Hawks have a stopwatch holder on the left of the front and rear comings.  The it's a curved housing that lays flat with the coaming and hinges upwards for use.

 

Its a nice point of detail on an otherwise visually prominent but bland bit of the cockpit and so it'd be nice to represent it in some way and add a bit of eye candy.

 

There's a representation of it in an Eduard etched fret I have - but it's very simplified and I thought I could do better.

 

So I produced a quick bit of artwork and a fret.  Here's my efforts on a fret with a set of grills.  I forgot to take a photo before I removed some of the grills and a stopwatch holder for use.....

 

 

Here's my effort compared wth the Eduard one.  It was just a bit of fun really.

 

 

And here's a couple cyano'd in place on the rear cockpit coamings

 

To get a neat fix I drilled a 0.5mm hole in the coaming and put a drop of medium cyano on the hole and then popped the etch on top.  I'm hoping that this will give a bit more purchase/hold for the cyano.  I'll find out if it works depending on whether the etch pings off into the maws of the carpet monster any time soon........

 

I hope they'll stand out nicely and look suitably interesting once gently dry brushed.

 

 

Note to self.  Stop faffing about with unimportant details and do some proper modelling..........hey ho...

 

 

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

Proper modelling already well in evidence! I am trying to resist being drawn into the world of home-baked PE - with my detailing tendencies and track record I doubt I’d EVER finish a build 

[giemme]

4 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Note to self.  Stop faffing about with unimportant details and do some proper modelling..........hey ho...

Yeah, seeing some (proper) primer going on would be good ...      

 

Amazing attention to detail as always, Steve    

 

Ciao

 

[perdu]

Blimey

 

Do try to be around on Saturday Steve, your fan club is convening Hall3 row D Birmingham table, blocking the room from seeing our fabulous display

 

Wot I am kinda responsible for

 

😕

 

If you don't like it kids, blame somebody else

 

I was over there with them!

 

😂 😇

[keefr22]

2 hours ago, Fritag said:

Stop faffing about with unimportant details

 

But they are what makes the difference in a Fritag master model & a run of the mill dust gatherer like mine! 

 

Love to see these 'unimportant details' happening Steve, for one thing it's great modelling, & for another an education, as I never knew half of them existed!

 

Hope to see you Saturday

 

Keith

[CedB]

Great watch holders Steve. Doing this sort of thing 'for fun' is now on my list of aspirations.

14:00 Saturday at Bill's table is 'the plan' and I think there's a visit planned from one of our female colleagues too.

It'll be great to meet up

[nimrod54]

Incredible attention to detail.

 

5 hours ago, Fritag said:

These won't - but I'm hopeful I will.  We're off to Berlin for a few days next week (never been before) so have been busy with work this week - but I'm hopeful of having cleared the decks enough to get to Telford on Saturday.

I'm at Telford along with Mrs N on Sunday, she likes to act as my financial advisor on these occasions, just to keep me solvent you understand.

 

You should enjoy Berlin it is a lovely city and the main station is a site to behold. We have had a couple of trips, the first was a brief overnight stop on the way to Dresden to visit our son when he worked there. The second was a whistle stop tour with said offspring as the guide, who had decided that after our first visit we couldn't be left to our own devices having spent 1^1/₂  hours walking up and down Kurfurstendamm looking for our hotel. 

[Massimo]

I was wondering where you had gone!!!

I had a feeling your absence meant you were pleasing yourself with your new etching experience, but I couldn't imagine you had started a new business!!!

Are you working on 2018's catalogue?

Now I'm sure the number of friends of yours will increase dramatically!!!

You might need a bigger car park!!!

Anyway , as somebody else has already pointed out, You seem to get to the point the best possible way, whatever you decide to do.

I'm very impressed by the result you reached so quickly and I congratulate you!!!

I don't recall to have seen those rivets on the tail cone in your previous updates.

Am I missing something?

Ciao

Massimo

[Tomoshenko]

Jaw-dropping-proper-bostin' stuff Steve. I'm out of superlatives, but a true joy to read, watch, learn and enjoy

 

 

Note to self.  Stop faffing about Keep scratch building and experimenting with unimportant details and do some continue with this proper modelling..........hey ho...

 

There you go mate, the pedantic civil servant in me noticed a couple of typos in your post so I corrected them.

7 hours ago, perdu said:

 

Do try to be around on Saturday Steve, your fan club is convening Hall3 row D Birmingham table, blocking the room from seeing our fabulous display

 

As Bill says Steve, we've got our autograph books ready, T-shirts washed and ironed, groupies on stand by...erm erm I mean well wishers....and a long long shopping list of etch bits 

[matteo44]

[HOUSTON]

Very inspiring .

 

 

VERY detailed work and tutorial on etching.

 

[feifeitim]

I never cease to be amazed by the detail you go to Steve!  I'd forgotten about the stop watch and the way it popped up from the coaming - my brain must be addled with too many noodles now!  Can't be the red wine!

[perdu]

Or could it?

 

 

I wonder if we will get an update or three before Christmas

[Cookenbacher]

I believe our man Friday is busy building an exact 1/72 replica of a portion of the Hawker/BAe factory floor, as it is the only way to get the Hawk's rudder trim tab spacing exactly right.* In other words, we miss you terribly Steve.

 

 

*only 30% kidding