Languishing on the “Shelf of Doom!” - 06/01 smallish update

[trickyrich]

Well this is a pretty unintended GB to join but it gives me a chance to finish off some old projects from the shelf of doom!

 

As I've sort off put the SM.79 on a wee bit of a hold I needed to do something to keep me out of trouble and strangely enough I’m really inspired to finish some of these project!

 

There’s not a lot of before shots but I’ll do the best I can. Ok these are the beasties I’m trying to finish or at least do some substantial work on;

 

• “Gold Member” – from the A-4 Skyhawk STGB a TA-4K in 50th Ann. RNZAF colours

 

• 1/48th Kitty Hawk Mirage F1 – horrible model I really don’t like it at all...don't even know why I bought it!

 

• 1/48th Best Choice JAS-38D – old Italeri model with MPM extras

 

• 1/48th Dragon Ju-88G-6 modified with custom made SN-2 Morgenstein nose

 

First up “Gold Member” as I like to call it, it was a build I never really got time to work on due to a change in work patterns.

 

original build thread

 

But every so often I’d do a wee bit here and there, over the last week and a bit I’ve made huge progress, the cockpit was finally finished and closed up. The body was tidied up ready for painting then given a coat of flat white as the primer for the gold top coat. Everything looks good so I hope to start painting the topcoat in the next couple of days.

 

 

Plus the undercarriage is almost completed as well and the refuelling probe has been reshaped to the bent type fitted to the RNZAF Skyhawk’s.

 

 

The Mirage F1 I started a couple of years ago…and it’s a horrible model in my opinion! The fit is quite poor and the instructions while they look thorough are actually quite vague! I got as far as building up the rear section then gave up and since then it’s just been taking up space. So putting aside everything I don’t like about it I’ve made an effort to finish her. The cockpit was built and fitted to the front fuselage section, and then this joined to the rear. The wings then fitted, the fit of these was really bad. Next the cockpit was closed up, it turns out the canopy is quite a bit wider than the model! I had to glue it in two stages, glue one side in place first and leave to cure, then use CA cement to hold the other side in place when pressed together! It was a bit scary but it worked. She sort of looks like an F1 now.

 

 

The scheme will be for one of the French aircraft used in Kosovo with the Pin-up girl on the side, should look nice!

 

 

Ok another side project started but I sort of lost interest! I have two of these JAS-39 Gripens, a single seater C model and a duel D, both are made by Best Choice. These are the old Italeri models with lots of HPH extras thrown in. The resurgence of interest came via some new decals, these plus a set of 2010 Czech Air Force Tiger Meet ones for the C model.

 

 

There’s quite a bit of mod work required to fit the new bits, removal of the moulded in air breaks and main wheel wells, plus opening up of the cockpit area for the new resin one.

 

 

The floor of the cockpit and the roof of the nose wheel well are paper-thin as it’s the only way they’d fit. I’ve started to basic painting of these parts, it should be quick progress from here to close this area up.

 

 

And finally a project that I started 6 years ago! A long time ago I build a 1/72nd version of this aircraft and always wanted to build a bigger version, a Ju-88C-6 with SN-2 Morgenstein radar with nose cone. The nose is custom made as nobody (as far as I know) does a mod kit for it, so I had to custom make this.

 

 

 ………….(I don’t remember why) and decided to start this project, lots of other things distracted me from the build…Britmodeller was one, and so it just sat there with tiny bit done here and there! Here she is during WhatIf II, I hadn’t fitted the nose yet.

 

plus I can see a couple of other space hoggers from the shelf of doom here as well!! (P-61 Blackwidow and Ta-154, it's painted now but still unfinished!)

 

So I figured I’d better get her out of the way and clear some space. She was pretty much by this stage ready for painting, so a quick tidy up and on with some paint, first up my wiggly pre-shading panel lines….

 

 

…….than a coat of RLM76. She’s looking good here.

 

 

Next up the mottle of RLM75 & 74. This scheme is based on an actual aircraft found that belonged to NJG 4, Wk Nr 622311 and she had a quite unusual colour scheme!

 

Think the mottles may be a wee bit small!

 

Next up is a wiggly RLM82, the dark version. This is the first time I’ve ever tried this freehand with the airbrush…actually the first time full stop!! It’s not perfect and the wiggles could be quite a bit thinner, but I actually don’t care! I do love the look of it plus it was a bit of a test scheme with the airbrush. I’ve learnt a lot doing this so next time will be much better.

 

 

Next up the nose cover, this was originally made of plywood and had a coat of rubberised paint over it, when found this coating was very patchy and was starting to come off.

 

 

By chance I have managed to replicate this almost perfect….and it wasn’t planned! The nose was painted tan with different colour browns streaked to make it look a bit like ply. Then a couple of spots of masking fluid on it to help replicate to bits of rubber that have come off. It was then painted NATO Black to look like rubber, however the paint underneath hadn’t quite cured so the black top coat started to crack. This actually gives me the look I was after but not really trying to get!

 

 

I’ll clear coat her tomorrow and start the weathering, it'll be quite heavy, and decaling, it should be a very quick process to finish her…..finally!

[Arniec]

Great work on the Ju-88. A pitty you didn't make a  mold for it  that I could use.

 

I would like to see the jets finished as well. I like to see the A-4 finished as well.

 

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

3 hours ago, Arniec said:

Great work on the Ju-88. A pitty you didn't make a  mold for it  that I could use.

 

I would like to see the jets finished as well. I like to see the A-4 finished as well.

 

Cheers,

 

hmmm you know I still probably could! Not sure how old my mould stuff is, same goes for the resin!  If it's still good I'll do a nose plus the master for the clear nose!

 

I may actually get the A-4 painted tomorrow...may be.

[Blitz23]

I like it, looks good. Nothing better than shifting one that's been on hold a while.

[trickyrich]

Ok I've been quite busy today on multiple build doing mostly painting, though first up I did something that I know will make someone very happy!

 

Ok first up I finally got to paint “Gold Member”!!  I used Tamiya’s X-12 Gold as from what I’ve heard it’s one of the closest match’s straight form the bottle, I didn’t want to spend hours trying to colour match something when I don’t have a good sample to go by! At the end of the day it’s going to look completely different in everyone’s monitors!!! It went of really nicely with only a minor issue on the lower part of the rudder, a wee bit too heavy, but but nothing to get too worried about.

 

 

She looks great! Tomorrow I’ll give her a coat of clear gloss (probably the first of many. The only post–paint work I’ll do is the panel lines. I still need to done the gear doors and leading edge slats, interestingly enough the internal surfaces are painted black on this aircraft instead of the normal red commonly seen of A-4s!

 

She should be a pretty quick build to complete from here!

 

Ok the F1 and Gripen have to wait for now….

 

The 88, well she has had a coat of clear plus the panel lines done, decals are next.

 

Ok I’m now going to make someone very happy! Before I got too carried away with finishing her I decided to drag out my mould making stuff and cast the nose of here! Two things, one I’m completely surprised the mould solution hadn’t gone off and still work (as do the resin mix I have), and secondly why hasn’t someone produced one of these noses before? If they have I couldn’t find a reference to it!

 

 

It’s in two parts, the smaller dome to smash some clear acetate over for the clear nose dome and the resin nose is to represent the wooden cover that was fitted over a single dipole antenna on a few Ju-88’s fitted with a late version of the FuG220 Lichtenstein SN-2 radar.  

 

 

The raised band is just a guide to where it needs to be cut……unfortunately it’s a wee bit crooked! 

[CliffB]

A golden finish is a rare treat on model aircraft - it's looking good

[Silver Fox]

The Scooter looks fabulous, I used Tamiya Gold on mine for the same reason.

[JOCKNEY]

Love the Ju88 nose, did you copy a picture of Barry Manilow to get the shape right ? 

 

cheers Pat

[trickyrich]

8 hours ago, Silver Fox said:

The Scooter looks fabulous, I used Tamiya Gold on mine for the same reason.

 

I ended up using the same paint, seems to be the closest rather than spending hours trying to mix the correct tint, and in the right light it looks spot. Though I have had a wee unfortunate issues with the paint and the clear coat, both paints are Tamiya, but the clear tried to "melt" the gold colour even after curing for 24 hours!!

 

3 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Love the Ju88 nose, did you copy a picture of Barry Manilow to get the shape right ? 

 

cheers Pat

 

If I start humming one of those tunes now you're in trouble!!!!  

[Silver Fox]

Not just me then, I had the same issue.

 

IIRC the colour was mixed locally and called Benson and Hedges Gold as it was supposed to match the cigarette package.

[JOCKNEY]

23 minutes ago, trickyrich said:

 

If I start humming one of those tunes now you're in trouble!!!!  

 

All together now " At the copa Copacabana, music and laughter was all they were after.......... " 

 

 

[trickyrich]

9 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

 

All together now " At the copa Copacabana, music and laughter was all they were after.......... " 

 

 

 

There's a special place in hell reserved for you!!! They play show tunes all day long!!! 

[Davek72]

I haven't even woken up yet and I've got *^**^**+ Barry Manilow going round in my head....grrr

 

Nice work on both the Ju88 and the A4 Rich.

 

Dave

[Arniec]

Nice work on the A-4's paintjob. A metal coloured coat is never easy to do.

 

The nose for the Ju-88 looks great!!! 

I read that you do the panel lines first before you do the decals?! How do you do the ones that are on the decals?!

 

Cheers,

[trickyrich]

On 29/12/2016 at 7:58 PM, Arniec said:

Nice work on the A-4's paintjob. A metal coloured coat is never easy to do.

 

The nose for the Ju-88 looks great!!! 

I read that you do the panel lines first before you do the decals?! How do you do the ones that are on the decals?!

 

Cheers,

 

arrr yes I got that back to front.......I'll redo them once the decals are on.

 

[trickyrich]

Happy New Year everyone!!!

 

Well the start of a new year of modelling and I soooo hope it goes better than the events of this update!!!!

 

Ok first up the 88, get the good stuff over with first!

 

In between forgetting to take photos I’ve made some good progress on her. The undercarriage is painted, I just need to detail it.

 

I’ve done the panel lines which has made a huge difference to how she looks.

 

 

Plus I have started to decal her, unfortunately because I’ve chosen a particular aircraft I need the correct decals….which I don’t have! So I’ll need to have a look on eBay for the correct letters I need.

 

 

One really cool thing I found was a web page on this exact aircraft. There is only one photo of her and it’s while she was being test frown by the RAF and the rubber coating on the nose is mostly gone by now!

 

NJG4 3C+DA

 

Ok the good update is over………. Now Gold Member!!

 

Well the clear coat didn’t go on well at all! In any patch that was slightly a bit heavy the clear coat softened the gold paint and tried to make it run! I’ve never seen this happen before and I’ve used Tamiya’s Clear Gloss from the rattle can……well forever! She tried to do the same thing on the SM.79 that has me wondering if there was something wrong with this batch!

 

Anyway it resulted in a couple of smears to the paint, I had even worn gloves just to protect the paint as well. Luckily it is/was easy to fix, some careful sanding and masking, then on with some more paint.

 

 

I was even more careful with the gloss coat this time! All the other bits were painted and given a clear coat as well.

 

 

So now the decaling ……and this is where it all fell apart big time!!!!

 

Luckily there were a few bits of decals left over for repair work.

 

 

Ok the decals are from Model Alliance and look really nice, which the only nice thing I’m going to say about them from here on! Basically if you want to build one of these Skyhawk’s then mask-up the stripes up, it’ll be so my easier!

 

The stripes colour is nice and solid because they are so thick! They refuse to conform to almost any curve and if you do get them to flex too much they just split. Which is a nightmare because they have to go over a scoop on each side. It would have been easier to fit the scoops later or try to cut a hole out for them. Plus the main stripes on the fuselage/tail are slightly to short height wise!

 

 

Ok I made one booboo with aligning one of these but that’s the only blame I’ll take for these decals. I had to chop up those extra decals to patch up all the splits and missing areas around those fuselage scoops.

 

 

Ok in the end it looks passible until you get to the nose……

 

 

Someone didn’t really bother to check how the nose stripe ended! The three lines should merge down to the bottom of the blue line and not continue straight ahead. I didn’t realize this until I’d finished and was comparing my work to photos of the aircraft! There’s really nothing I can do about it now short of redoing them myself…….and no!

 

The other set of decals seen and from the US, down on someone home printer, the colours wrong and the lines are really scratchy and poorly done, so they’re no use other than reference guides.

 

I’m now a bit upset over this are she was starting to look amazing, I know unless you saw photo’s of the real thing you’d never notice…but!

 

I’ll still finish her as she’ll look nice in the collection, but no photos of her will be posted anywhere else!

[trickyrich]

Ok I bit of an update to these builds and a real mixed bag of results as well! Ok starting form good and going to disaster! Oh I'll add some photos later as I forgot to upload them before I left!

 

J-88G6;

 

Well I've come to a bit of a halt on this as I don't have the right decals to finish her off, so I'll have to spent some time on evilBay and other places trying to track down some. Plus with the "issues" I've had on the other builds it's probably best I didn't touch it!

 

Grippen;

 

Lots of stuff done, the cockpit is fitted and the fuselage has been closed up. Not the easiest of tasks either, the fit between the resin cockpit/nose wheel bay and the fuselage is actually quite poor. Plus the opening for the nose wheel well in the fuselage is too long, I'll have to add some plastic sheet there.

 

I've also fitted the main wheel wells the the wings. 

 

The washes have been done to the cockpit/nose and main wheel wells, so I can start the detailing process. With them fitted there's still heaps of room to do that work plus I think it's a bit easier to handle as well.

 

I've had to add some more filler around the new air brake units as there are still some gaps.

 

Generally I'm happy with progress.

 

Mirage F1:

 

Well she's painted! It's the first time I've done a complete wrap-around scheme and what a pain to mask, it took forever! I did it a bit different to how I would have normally have done it, I used Blu-Tac for the outlines but I didn't apply liquid masking fluid on the parts not to be painted. I decided to airbrush really fine. It sort of worked, I got a nice patchy worn look to the paint but a bit more then usual over spray. That's would have been easy to fix and I would have done it but for some stupid reason I decided the acrylic paint needed a tad more thinning......except I used enamel thinners!!!  That brought a swift end to that task! I've got more paint on the way. 

 

I may do a wee bit more to this next break.

 

"Gold Member";

 

well I'd like to she's done and ready for inspection rather than she has been permanently retired to the shelf of doom!

 

Well the decaling had been completed  and she'd had a good day and a half for everything to settle before a final lite coat of gloss clear. but as soon as the clear touched the decals it just wrinkled them up! I've never had this happen before, just the smallest drop of clear on them and they'd start to wrinkle. I used the same clear (Tamiya Clear Gloss from a rattle can) on the 88 and SM.79 without any dramas to the decals. I don't know what caused this, my only suspicion is there was an issue with the clear gloss as I had an earlier unusual reaction with the gloss paint.

 

Anyway the up shot is the decals are ruined with no way to recover short of stripping her completely back and starting again! With that thought and the fact the decals are wrong anyway I'm not too sure what I'm going to do with her. I'll either strip her back and do her in normal colours, partial strip back and hand do the line work (won't that be fun!), or just abandon her completely!

 

I sort of add most of the final bits to her and she sitting with the rest of my builds, from a distance she doesn't look too bad but close up!

 

Hmmm I have to sort of wonder for this GB was really worth the effort on my part,  slightly more failures than success!

[CliffB]

Sorry to hear your catalogue of woes Rich and I'm especially disappointed that Gold Member probably won't be touching down anytime soon.  Hope things pick up pdq .

 

Cliff

[trickyrich]

thanks, it is a bit disappointing as she was starting to look amazing! Even now from a distance she really stands out!

 

I may end up doing those strips myself as I have the other correct shape set to use as a guide (that actual quality and colour of them is really poor!). I'll just need to do some careful sanding back of the affected areas, worse case I just strip in completely back.....that may give me a better working surface!

 

I'll probably plod along with it in between builds, may even drag it out for KUTA X! 

[JOCKNEY]

Hi Rich

 

Sorry mate, I couldn't write what I wanted due to the no swearing policy on the site. However I am sure you more than made up for me when it happened 

 

I find a large dram of malt at least 10 years old puts things in prospective, all be it a bit blurry after a few more. 

 

take care mate 

[trickyrich]

3 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Hi Rich

 

Sorry mate, I couldn't write what I wanted due to the no swearing policy on the site. However I am sure you more than made up for me when it happened 

 

I find a large dram of malt at least 10 years old puts things in prospective, all be it a bit blurry after a few more. 

 

take care mate 

 

actually a nice Central American Rum I've found works for me quite well, though on those really bad days....frighteningly expensive tequila!!

 

Don't worry "Gold Member" will be back...........................it's hard to keep a good member down!!! 

[Arniec]

8 hours ago, trickyrich said:

 

Don't worry "Gold Member" will be back...........................it's hard to keep a good member down!!! 

Well you still have some left over decals from you what if F-16 to play with.

 

Cheers

 

P.S. Rummmmmmmmmm hmmmmmm

[JOCKNEY]

8 hours ago, trickyrich said:

 

Don't worry "Gold Member" will be back...........................it's hard to keep a good member down!!! 

 

Are you using viagra as a mixer for the Rum ? 

[Arniec]

3 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

 

Are you using viagra as a mixer for the Rum ? 

Thanxs Jockney for the picture in my head now. I am picture minded. 

[JOCKNEY]

3 hours ago, Arniec said:

Thanxs Jockney for the picture in my head now. I am picture minded. 

 

Lets just be thankful he's on the other side of our planet. So he isn't tempted to pop round to the house and show us in person !