wimbledon99 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 They look great!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 22, 2017 Share Posted February 22, 2017 flipping Hasegawa decals Glad to see you're making progress with the Jags as well while waiting for the A-10 goodies. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 23, 2017 Author Share Posted February 23, 2017 3 hours ago, Col. said: flipping Hasegawa decals Glad to see you're making progress with the Jags as well while waiting for the A-10 goodies. Showing their age I guess, but the photo really does make them look worse than they are in the flesh/further away. Its all missiles and trolley stuff of late here, although the poor old Lightning got its legs stuck back on and is standing as it should again. Thats the good thing about a Shelf Of Doom - they sit on there staring at you accusingly. Had my first ever issue with Eduard resin missiles - AIM-9 lenses didnt fit as they should which surprised me. Some very delicate trimming and drilling happened and almost broke my eyes. AIM-9Js for the record, the lenses dont fit into the missile body recesses... bit like my own fault issues with the Mavericks and they say things come in threes, so Im armed and ready for the next fight! I might have also picked up some more jaguar decals, bloomin hard to find ones at that, but that can wait for their builds in their yet to come threads. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 23, 2017 Author Share Posted February 23, 2017 Would anyone happen to know if A-10s were cleared for AIM-9 Sidewinder carriage in the 70s? And if so - single or dual rail jobbies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 (edited) Well, I cant find any 70s photos with Sidewinders fitted, at least not in the early grey scheme that Im looking at doing so thats the AIM-9s off the cards I reckon. While rummaging for photos I starting looking at tail numbers... this was a Very Bad Thing... I dont bother much with US aircraft as a rule, so never paid such things much attention, but as I kept noticing similar numbers, I checked it all out. A Woodbridge/Bentwaters aircraft would have been with the 81st TFW, so that gives it the WR on the tail, the small numbers below that are the year of ordering the aircraft and the larger ones the last three digits of the serial number - thats what I read anyway and makes sense to me. WR early grey aircraft having things like 77 & 236, 77 & 248 etc. Then I looked at the Tamiya decals... Ive got the WR (the only European base option, hence the choice there) and no real problem sorting a "77" with some careful knifework, but the only serial I can make from them that might be about right is 259 (due, annoyingly, to slight differences in sizes of each serial # decal), but I cant find a photo of this 259 aircraft while searching Bentwaters/Woodbridge stuff, nor a site listing serials against delivery dates to "WR". However.... 77-259 is apparently now on display at Duxford... with an Alconbury "AR" tailcode... which I dont have!! ARRRRGGHH! Then I notice that the 259 would be repeated on the nose in black, albeit just once on the tip of the nose rather than on each side as per the later Lizard scheme, and I have white decals for the nose serial on this sheet, which Im not sure would be correct for any scheme. You know when you just wished youd not bothered looking into something? Could have ignored it all, said nothing and it would have been just fine? Yea, thats what I should have done! What I did find out is that the following are serials from A-10s ordered/produced in the late 70s, but which ones were at Bentwaters before 1980...? 77-0177 - 77-0276 78-0582 - 78-0725 79-0082 - 79-0225 So far Ive nailed down (all 77 prefixes and in the early grey scheme) 229, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 248, 251, 264. Now for some decal scraps rummaging. Wish me luck! Tempted to delete this post and pretend it never happened. Edited February 24, 2017 by RMP2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 24, 2017 Author Share Posted February 24, 2017 Aha! Ejection history puts some more serials at "WR" before 1980 - http://www.ejection-history.org.uk/Aircraft_by_Type/A-10_Thunderbolt_II.htm Im getting there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 Woohoo! Its a love/hate thing.... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wimbledon99 Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 Love it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 That'll take it up a couple more notches. Glynn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) 14 minutes ago, Hewy said: That'll take it up a couple more notches. Glynn I think the cockpit rather needs it! Now, this is the first set of non-pre-painted cockpit etch I will have used, so, any advice as to how to go about painting the fiddly belt bits and the relief areas of the IP and side panels? Do I paint the straps before stickin em in or after? Does anyone try to flow paint around details in the relief areas (bit like the trick of using thinners to flow tyre paint around wheel rims) or just do the more obvious background and then detail on top? Silly questions, maybe, but the accuracy of some of such painting I see on here does make me wonder at times what the magic tricks are... So far theyve just been lightly sprayed with primer (forgot to get some nice new sharp blades, doh). Edited February 25, 2017 by RMP2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 Personally I'd prime it at least after being bent to somewhere near shape and before fitting and then use very thinned paints, any over painting wont really be seen you'll just have to apply 4 or 5 thin coats ,plastix is a super brush painter ,quiz him rm, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) 4 or 5 coats??? Hells teeth! Im working with enamels remember, so thats around 6 weeks total drying time there!! Seriously - thin sounds good, yea. The primer has been good to me re bendy bits in the past, but I hear you, so fingers crossed. (Its Halfords Grey Enamel Primer, for the record). Plaaaaassssstiiiiiiiixxxxxxxxxx!!! (Is he a Gaul?) Edited February 25, 2017 by RMP2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 Oooh more detail I tend to paint once it's in place with tiny brushes but preshaping and painting the belts prior to fitting sounds a good option. I also go at the photo-etch sheet with good scissors and cut through the external fret to get at the parts rather than trashing good knife blades and distorting or launching the delicate bits. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 11 minutes ago, Col. said: Oooh more detail I tend to paint once it's in place with tiny brushes but preshaping and painting the belts prior to fitting sounds a good option. I also go at the photo-etch sheet with good scissors and cut through the external fret to get at the parts rather than trashing good knife blades and distorting or launching the delicate bits. Its more a case of "Oooh SOME detail" Im always in two minds whether to try pre-shaping or get it vaguely somewhere near and then glue an edge, shape a bit, glue a bit more etc. Guess it depends on the situation though. But, yea, what you say does make sense, the belts are a bit tiny and suggested to sit flat in the destructions... will see what my fat fingers make of it. Cutting wise I tend to cut them off the main sprue away from the part edge first with an older blade and trim against the part edge with a fresher blade (I actually mark/rate my used blades with dots from a marker pen - 3 strikes/dots and they go in the bin). Scissors have scarred me by twisting the PE fret in the past and in doing so distorted the more fragile parts... perhaps some scissor sharpening is in order! Thanks, Col. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) Heres some close ups of the PE for painting thoughts - Difficult to get a good shot of the film instrument faces in place. Theyre not amazing, but they could be an awful lot worse too Im sure. What do you guys think from that? Worth trying a gloss coat and flow the background colour around the detail bits? A-10 cockpit for reference: Oh - I have a suitable grey in acrylic, but no black, got both the black and grey in enamel. Edited February 25, 2017 by RMP2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) Well that's a lot larger and more complicated PE than anything I've done so I'm not sure I'm going to be much help. First thoughts are that the side panels are reversed - the black panels should be raised - not the lines between. As it is, if I we're doing it I would use a small flat brush to apply several thinned, with water, coats of acrylic black (or similar) paint. Once dry I would dry-brush the raised detail with a suitable light grey paint. I would then use a fine pointed brush to pick out some of the raised buttons/lamps. The main IP looks to be more or less the right way round. Not sure about this at all but I would probably paint the whole IP with several layers of the thinned light grey paint before dry-brushing over the raised buttons(?) (not sure what they represent!) detail. I would then use a fine pointed brush to paint thinned black paint over the panels before dry-brushing a dark grey over the panels to pick out the edges. Again you could pick out details with a fine pointed brush. To be fair your idea would probably work just as well. Good luck! Kind regards, Stix Edited February 25, 2017 by PlaStix 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 I saw the reversed detail stuff too and pretty much came to the same conclusions as your initial thoughts, but figured Id ask as its one of those New Things to me. Thanks very much, will see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 Lol, man up rm , 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 25, 2017 Author Share Posted February 25, 2017 (edited) Ha! Its not a case of fear really, just how the hell do I approach it!? Looking for cheats n tricks. Watch this space! Its either gonna be epic or an epic fail! And remeber this is all going in after the cockpit is assembled and bunged in. [excuse #27a of the Cockpit Detailers Handbook] Edited February 25, 2017 by RMP2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wimbledon99 Posted February 25, 2017 Share Posted February 25, 2017 I have a set ot Tamiya 'etch scissors' for the bigger parts but I favour a curved blade and a diamond file for the smaller parts. I cut on old CDs / DVDs to avoid bending parts. As for the painting................... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 Some photos are better taken further away from the subject... Still, its a bit batter than the kit decals and looks not as bad in the flesh, unmagnified. I went with the thinned paint touched into the recessed areas on the side panels and sort of dry brushing on the raised IP along with a little thinned paint as per the side bits. Not finished with it yet, but thats what Ive got so far (along with funny eyeballs). Shame theres not much colour in an A-10 cockpit to liven it up a bit, seems to be mostly grey switches. Ah well, less to do then! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mirageiv Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 Nailed it! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 2 minutes ago, mirageiv said: Nailed it! Not too sure about that, but its a start. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewy Posted February 26, 2017 Share Posted February 26, 2017 No you've nailed it, good stuff when its all together it'll look a treat,its gonna be good this ..rm you've stirred a yearning for one of these a10s but i dont know about the kits, or the types of airframe,not researched yet ,any pointers? Glynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMP2 Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 48 minutes ago, Hewy said: No you've nailed it, good stuff when its all together it'll look a treat,its gonna be good this ..rm you've stirred a yearning for one of these a10s but i dont know about the kits, or the types of airframe,not researched yet ,any pointers? Glynn Well, we shall see, but thank you. The Hobby Boss A-10 seemed to get rave reviews. I went with the Tamiya as it was cheap and I dont mind the kit for all its flaws. I have the HB 2 seater in the stash, might get around to it one day, maybe... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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