Darren Rhodes Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 Thanks Trojan, indeed it partly was the announcement of the MM/EE kit that also helped get me motivated to finished. Will be sad to see people dumping these in favour of the MM/EE kit. It's for that reason, that I have also started on my Welsh Models B777-300ER, despite Zvezda issuing an injection modelled kit. Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROBOT Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Darren, I am enjoying this build very much, thank you for sharing ! As for the intake front ring with a too small diameter, could you cut the ring in half or in 4 parts if needed and add small shims of plasticard ? Thats a lot of sanding, but you would get the diameter right without affecting the thickness of the main engine housing ? Sorry for my poor english, i tried does this make sense !? Either way, great build, i'd love to do a proper vacform kit someday, and your build is inspiring ! Olli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted January 13, 2017 Author Share Posted January 13, 2017 Thanks Olli much appreciated. I don't think the difference in intake ring diameter is so great that I need to take too drastic action. As the plastic is much thicker than an injection moulded kit, I should be able to just sand the centre engine (the white part) and blend into the ring. That's my hope. Darren 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 Hi all, Here are the results of my weekend with the masking tape. First up was Alclad Aluminium, followed by more masking and then light grey for the wings and wing/fuselage fairing. Not happy with my latest pot of XtraColour Boeing Grey, and seeing great reviews for folk using the Tamiya acrylics thinned with Mr Color Levelling Thinner, I eyeballed a shade of light grey using a 2:1 ratio of XF-19 Sky Grey and X-2 White. I also added some Tamiya X-22 to give the XF-19 a slightly more glossy finish, however, it's dried satin at best so will need polishing and a clear coat. But the drying time was quick and it covered well. I've still to do the coroguard, for which straight (unlighted) XF-19 should do. There's a couple of areas that needed retouching, one in the first image above at the fuselage fairing/fuselage demarcation line where the tape lifted some paint and this strange mark underneath, which is a little puzzling, but a straightforward fix: Both are now fixed, the paint still hardening up. I'm not completely happy with my masking for the aluminium on the lower front fuselage, but I may break with tradition and accept that it will do. Darren 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Very neat masking and paint work Darren, I have seen that 'orange peel' type effect where I have painted lacquer based paints over enamels. It is very annoying sanding and repainting areas like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bell209 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Looks great to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted January 22, 2017 Author Share Posted January 22, 2017 Thank you guys. Some more progress over the past week, but the usual three steps forward, one step backwards. The centre gear strut was cast solid, so I drilled that out to make it look more realistic - damn the white metal was hard work to drill out, so I gave up once I had some rough holes. Struts painted, gloss black enamel base to prepare for the Alclad Chrome oleos, and partly to smooth out the cast white metal texture. Then my 2:1 mix of Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey, X-2 White and X-22 Clear, thinned with Mr Colour Levelling thinner. Fiddly to mix, but I'm liking the finish that the Mr Color Thinner gives. And it dries quickly. Wheels were gloss black enamel base coated and then Tamiya XF-85 Tyre Black, hubs with the same XF-19/X-2 mix. It was then washed with Tamiya X-19 Smoke, I find the finish is too stark otherwise. Wing corroguard done, the masking of which pulled more of the light grey and Alclad off . I found plain Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey didn't give enough contrast so added XF-63 German Grey, about 3:2 ratio of XF-19/XF-63. Touch ups done and then gear installed. The centre gear was several mm's too short so I used slow-setting thick super glue and let the centre gear drop under gravity to get all the wheels on the ground: Meanwhile I went back to the centre engine. it took several more rounds of filling and sanding to get a good finish, then re-scribe, fill my scribing errors and then mask for the Alclad intake and engine exhaust. Not perfect, but most of it will be covered by decals in any case. And finally, I just couldn't resist a dry fit mock-up with the centre engine installed: The centre-engine is sitting a little high as the intake insert is now fouling the fuselage stub mount, but a bit of sanding will fix that in due course. Regards, Darren 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 Taking note Darren. I did not think that white metal parts were so 'hard'. I will have to drag my kit out and check my castings. You are making this multi-media kit look like and injection moulded one. Looking forward to the finish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 Thanks Trojan, regarding the white metal me neither and I attacked it full on with my Dremel and several grinding bits. I have used a few Scale Aircraft Conversions white metal gear and that is definitely softer stuff. I guess it's just down to the mix of metals in the alloy. Hah, I can assure you it still feels like hard work! Then again my next model is an early F-RSIN injection kit that has already taken a lot of work just to get the fuselage and wings assembled and I've yet to even join wings to fuselage! - not giving away the type just yet, but the livery will have cheat lines! Darren 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted February 2, 2017 Author Share Posted February 2, 2017 Hi all, I've plugging away, but not quite made the progress I have been hoping for. Wing aluminium leading edges done, so now ready for fuselage decals: I decided to tackle the most challenging decals first. The decals are by 26decals, but laser decals on clear film. So the tail decals are printed blue with the 'white Delta' titles in clear. This means a large decal to wrap around the centre engine and it did not go well: OK, so I cocked up not getting the Delta titles straight and can live with that (i was concentrating on aligning the blue edges). However, I had to cut off part of the decal on the left side that refused to bed down without huge wrinkles. On the right hand side, I adapted my strategy and first cut the lower half of the decal off and added it separately. Fewer wrinkles, but it's resulted in a darker blue area where the decal overlaps - the decals are quite translucent (although printed to take account of this). You can also just make out areas where the blue ink bled a pink/red colour after repeated applications of MicroSol. Grrr... Options are 1. strip the decal and buy a replacement set, but the only option is the earlier widget livery, or 2. Paint/re-touch the problem areas. At the moment I'm minded to go with Option 2 as I'm set on this Delta livery and think I can match the blue without too much difficulty. For my Delta B777, I used Vallejo Dark Blue with a drop of white for the engines and got a good match. Darren 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conflats Posted February 3, 2017 Share Posted February 3, 2017 Hi Darren Great build, one quick question, how are you polishing the metal to get that shine? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted February 4, 2017 Author Share Posted February 4, 2017 10 hours ago, Conflats said: Hi Darren Great build, one quick question, how are you polishing the metal to get that shine? Thanks Conflats. There's no polishing after the Alclad has been applied - Alclad layer is so thin, it's near impossible to polish. The shine comes from applying Alclad to an already polished surface and this starts right at the primer coat with Micromesh. Primer coat was polished with 4000 and 6000 grit Micromesh, the top coat (white or grey wings) was then polished with 8000 and 12000 grit Micromesh and then the fuselage and wings were sealed with Alclad Aqua Gloss applied with a flat wide brush. Then the Alclad was applied. Laborious, yes, but it works for me. Darren 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graeme H Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Not sure how I missed this one, it is really coming together nicely though 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Agree, lovely paintwork, getting those decals round that nacelle looks fun.....not! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted February 4, 2017 Author Share Posted February 4, 2017 Thanks Woody, re: the decals, there were rather anxious moments, combined with bouts of swearing and cursing! However, great news, Ray at 26decals has kindly offered to reprint the tail decals, so I can have another go at getting them right. So guys, any recommendations for the best method for stripping the tail decals? Darren Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Try peeling them up with masking tape first. If that doesn't work, you'll have to strip, sand and repaint. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted February 4, 2017 Author Share Posted February 4, 2017 Thanks Jessica, didn't think of that, normally tape brings decal off exactly when I don't want it to! Fortunately the rest of the decals went on without any major dramas. Got do some touching in around the nose, but starting to look like an Delta MD-11: Decals still need to draw overnight before clear coating, then tomorrow's job will be to work on the wing-mounted engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Rhodes Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 Apologies for the delays on this. And a huge thanks to Ray at 26decals who provided a complete replacement decal set. But then the pressure regulator on my compressor failed. Compressor now fixed and armed with new decals, I started over. Using much hotter water and this the decals had no reaction to Micro Sol, I ended up with this, not perfect, but a whole lot better than my first attempt. However, my fears that this build had become cursed continued with painting the engines. I base coated for the Alclad with some Humbrol Black Gloss enamel, but it must have gone off as it didn't adhere well and every piece of masking pulled some paint off and required some touch up, so I'm calling the engines done at this (sorry forgot to photograph before installing): And finally it was done. A little bit of weathering will oils. Rest of the final photos in RFI. Thanks for watching. Regards, Darren 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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