Rich's KUTA 2017 failures......? not quite there

[trickyrich]

I have yet to decide which of the sorry lot I failures I have will continued here, so I'm using this as a marker to help shame me into finishing some of them.

 

I only had 3 completed builds for the year, a truly piddle poor effort by me!

 

So likely candidates;

 

1/48 Mirage 2000 - from the Mirage GB, really just a complex paint job to do......simple really! 

 

1/72 Osa Missile boat - 70's NATO/Warsaw Pac GB, actually very close to finishing her - highly probable nope

 

1/48 X-15 - Record Breakers GB, there's a bit to do but very doable in the time. nope

 

1/48 F-16JK - a whiffy, I just have to finish off the decals - another highly probable

 

1/48 SM.79 - from 2016 MTO GB, gain just painting and tiding up - a possibility nope

 

plus I still have my 2 Nightfighter Whiffy projects, they have to be completed before the start of my next years GB's - lots to do here.

 

Lots to choose from and do, plus a few others I may decide to do as well, the good thing is the bench is completely free now..........

 

........ though..... I have a 1/35th Trumpy SAA Rooikat 8 Wheeled AFV on the way along with a 1/35th Trumpy Russian 4K51 Rubezh Coastal Defence ASM beast as well. Need to fight temptation there!

[Col.]

The Osa and Mirage 2000 get my vote Rich.

[trickyrich]

2 hours ago, Col. said:

The Osa and Mirage 2000 get my vote Rich.

bugga!!! does that mean I have to work on them now??  .....and just when I dragged my Su-24 out as well! 

 

I don't have too much to go with the OSA at all, the hardest part will be doing the hand rails! The Mirage is pretty much already for painting, I just have to put Fred in and close up the canopy.

 

Guess I can fit this in while playing with the Su! 

[Col.]

10 hours ago, trickyrich said:

bugga!!! does that mean I have to work on them now??  .....and just when I dragged my Su-24 out as well! 

 

I don't have too much to go with the OSA at all, the hardest part will be doing the hand rails! The Mirage is pretty much already for painting, I just have to put Fred in and close up the canopy.

 

Guess I can fit this in while playing with the Su! 

Oh you never mentioned Su-24! That's a game-changer 

Sure you can finish OSA and Fred's Mirage while the various stages of the Fencer dry off   Come on Rich, you da man, you can do it, I know you can  

[trickyrich]

I'll be close to finishing those 2 this coming break with luck, then hopefully I can get around to then completing the SM.79!. 

 

The Su-24 isn't really a KUTA build, just something I've been dying to build for ages. It's the Trumpy 1/48th version with the full ZAP Komplete correction kits and full Aires Cockpit & Wheel wells done up in Ukraine digital scheme . So I've basically bought a model and thrown away most of it!!  Plus there's more to go on her as well......

[Col.]

Sounds a damned fine project to me Rich and one I'll be following closely when you start.

[SleeperService]

I'm not spoilt for choice either Rich. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[trickyrich]

I may be spoilt for choice but that's because I've been a bit of a slack bottom this year! I really do need to get my finger out! Especially as these have just shown up!

 

Trumpeter 1/35th Rooikat 

 

Trumpeter 1/35th 4K51 Rubezh Coastal ASM with P-15

 

...and they're just too tasty to leave along for too long!

[trickyrich]

well I should be really hanging my head in shame as this is my first update and the build is almost over!!! 

 

I have been very distracted by Christmas, new projects and Assassin's Creed Origin, so important modelling hasn't been happening.......but I have been enjoying myself! 

 

Ok the Tiger Meet Mirage 2000 is the one I really want to finish so this is what I've been doing on it since mid December.

 

The cockpit was finished and finally closed up....and the fit was rubbish! The canopy doesn't fit at all and this wasn't helped by the new resin cockpit either! I think the forward section of the canopy is under quite a bit of stress as there are stress cracks starting to show in it!!  Oh well!

 

The rest of the airframe was finished, control surfaces fitted and everything given a coat of primer.

 

 

Once dry she was given a light rub down ready for the main coats.

 

This was the stage I had been putting off for ages, not because it was complex scheme but it was one that needed a lot of care to get it to look right.

 

First to go one was the gloss white on the spine and at the rear of the fuselage, once dry these were masked off. Next was the Orange, this is a custom mix which I was pleased to see matched the real colour nicely. It even went on nicely as well, the only issue being was I removed the masking too early, which resulted in the some of the orange paint marking the white paint!!

 

 

 

Plus there were a few dust spots on the top of the wings as well. Not big issues, I rubbed back the wings and fuselage lightly, I'll give the orange another light coat once the greys are done (I need to do the pylons in orange) then once that's done I'll touch up the while.

 

This was left for a week or so for the paint to cure.......... as well as doing other stuff.

 

Next up the greys, again both of these were custom mixes per the decal instructions. First masking for the light grey for the undersurfaces then when that was done the darker grey of the fuselage sides.

 

 

  

 

 

With the masks off she looks pretty nice, there's only a couple of spots I need to touch up, but these will be fixed up with the next coat of orange. The pylons need to be painted orange, I'll mask them and re-undercoat white before painting. The drop tanks are orange and grey, I've painted them orange but found I've made the demarcation line too high so need to give them another coat of orange to fix this before the grey is applied. The intake spikes need to be painted gloss black as well, The radome will be painted last as it's the only part thats not glossy.

 

I should actually finish this on my next break with luck as there's not to much left to do.........hopefully. 

 

 

 

 

[nimrod54]

Nice to see this come together Rich, I have this one tucked away too, so if you don't mind I'll take a few notes. 

[trickyrich]

On 21/01/2018 at 2:35 AM, nimrod54 said:

Nice to see this come together Rich, I have this one tucked away too, so if you don't mind I'll take a few notes. 

thanks.....as long as you don't note down the boo boo's!   

 

Ok I'm still progressing with this one though it's much slower that I had hoped. Nothing to do with being distracted on other builds, it's I just have to wait so long for the paint to cure! I'm using leveller solution which gives me a great finish but it takes forever to cure with gloss paints! I've a couple of close calls already!

 

Most of what I needed to do was touchup work, that ended up taking forever to mask up, then everything was re-touched up in reverse order! Note: in future don't add pylons until painting is complete! 

 

With the touch up almost completed and masks removed...

 

 

 

All that's left to do is fix up the orange/grey demarcation at the front, probably the simplest task so far.

 

 

The intake spikes are gloss black (well semi-gloss actually as I ran out of gloss black, a coat of clear will fix that!), plus I just noticed I need to touchup the tops of the two outer pylons as well, the orange is a bit this there. Hopefully this afternoon or tonight I can give her a gloss coat ready for decaling tomorrow. I'm not to sure when to paint the radome, before or after the gloss as it has a matt/semi-gloss finish....will think on it.

 

 

The tanks are ready for decals. The problem I had with these is I could tell if the demarcation line should be straight or slightly wavy, the photos didn't show this very well. I ended up going for Blu-Tac lined up with a ruler, they look good and I managed to match them up as well!

 

Of I don't finish this one in time it'll be due to the paint taking soooo long to dry...it'll be close!

[trickyrich]

well to keep up my 100% failure rate with this GB I've managed to do it again.......this time I blame the paint!

 

I came very close to finishing this one but was let down last Sunday by having no gloss clear!! I wanted to give her a coat before the decals, but I couldn't get any until Monday morning. Plus once coated it would need a good 24 hours to cure because of the levelling solution (plus the humidity was really slowing the curing time as will) before decaling.

 

So all the touchups had been completed and I actually had fairly good finish as well. So while I was waiting to get the clear gloss I decided to do the panel lines............it was a really bad idea! I normally I don't do this until a clear coat is on, but because it was glossy already I thought there would be no issues. Normally once the panel ink is dry all that is required is a light wipe over with paper towel dampened with enamel thinner, it comes off perfectly. Well not his time!!! It needed some serious rubbing/wiping to remove the excess, plus some of the paint as well!!  It was nearly a disaster, I won't do that again.

 

So with the gloss coat finally on and cured I could start the decals, with only one day left before heading off to work I knew I couldn't finish in time so I sort of took my time.....and I needed it with them!

 

 

Ok the decals are actually quite nice, really thin but quite strong, they go on quite easily and really hug the model. No decal solution was required or needed at all, even over the tail section.

 

There are however a few issues, mostly with their positions, I followed the diagrams and I had alignment issues which ended up requiring some "modifications" to a couple of decals!! Plus a couple of the smaller decals are actually a wee bit too small! There are 3 tail decals for each side and even though I managed to match their positions up there was an alignment issue, the only we to have fixed that would have been to misalign them which would have been wrong...strange (note; they are not mirror images, each side is slightly different on the real aircraft). And of course I managed to mis-position 2 others ones as well! 

 

 

But all that aside she does look good, there's a good 3 hours worth of decaling here and I still have all the smaller info once to go on as well!

 

 

 

 

It's nearly there, once the decals are done, about an hours work I need to touch up the black on the tail decal in a couple of spots to help hide the joins. Then I will give her her final coat/coats of gloss clear to seal everything up. This it's just adding the final small parts, paint the ECM antennas and fit the tail pipe and she's done!

 

I'll get this done next break before the Hawker GB starts.

 

Plus I did do a bit to the OSA-1 Missile boat as well but no photos.

 

[Col.]

Wow! A lot of work but well worth it 

[trickyrich]

49 minutes ago, Col. said:

Wow! A lot of work but well worth it 

tell me about it!!!  I should have most of it finished by the end of Thursday with luck ready for the final gloss coats. It'll be nice to finally have this one out of the way! 

[Col.]

20 minutes ago, trickyrich said:

tell me about it!!!  I should have most of it finished by the end of Thursday with luck ready for the final gloss coats. It'll be nice to finally have this one out of the way! 

It'll be a cracking splash of colour in your display Rich 

[JOCKNEY]

Is it too late to nominate the 1:48 SM79 ? 

 

cheers Pat

[trickyrich]

On 07/02/2018 at 6:33 PM, JOCKNEY said:

Is it too late to nominate the 1:48 SM79 ? 

 

cheers Pat

a wee bit, but that aid I did pull it out and do a little bit on it. Theres so little to do now on her, I may try and do the odd little bit now and then in-between bits on the Sea Fury.

[exdraken]

Incredible!

And I missed it!

[trickyrich]

2 hours ago, exdraken said:

Incredible!

And I missed it!

don't worry I'm a shocker with this build, missed to deadlines already!   But she's just sitting there at the moment waiting for her final coat of clear, then the last couple of parts to be fitted. May get to her today.