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Everything posted by AdrianMF
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Sorry about that! There are plenty of post-war civilianised ones though. Regards, Adrian
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- Proctor in civil
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Scratch build Short S 38/HMS Africa
AdrianMF replied to pheonix's topic in Work in Progress - Aircraft
Great stuff - a free ship with every aeroplane! Looking good. Regards, Adrian -
Nice choice of subject. If you are aiming for a Vega Gull, does that mean you have to smallen the fuselage? Regards, Adrian
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Hudsons? Just next to the little model shop in the passage with the Historex Polish Lancer in the window? Looking very realistic! The cockpit also looks almost full size too. Regards, Adrian
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I'm sure you will be able to find something horrible! I won't add you to the list yet (which is really just to get into the Bunfight) but feel free to join when you find that "special" kit! Thanks, Adrian My Mil 4 parts fitted each other well, it's just they didn't fit the plan! Mind you, I think I only used about ten of the parts anyway! Even back in the day it had a bit of a reputation! Regards, Adrian
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Welcome to vacforming! A few observations... No concavities! I approached adding blisters to a canopy (Pink Spitfire PR 1G conversion) in a different way. I made the bubbles separately using a simple plunge mould. They were glued to the canopy by a liberal coat of Future. Not the most robust arrangement, but they haven't fallen off yet: Vacforming works best for pure convex shapes. If you think about it, once the plastic has made a cone over a raised feature and touched the glasswork all around the edges, the air is trapped and it so it will never bed down. To solve that you end up having to drill tiny holes in the hollows in the mould to make sure that all the air is sucked out. That's what the "pips" on professional vac forms are - the impressions of those tiny holes. Plastic choice I have never got "second time around" plastic to work, even though you'd think it should. I buy PETG on ebay. Go for the thinner stuff (20 thou/0.5mm) because it won't bubble up when you heat it. Steer clear of acetate as that goes yellow after a while - you're young enough to care! Other flexible plastics can work (eg: clear folder binders, the clear flimsy folded boxes that chocolate Easter bunny rabbits and salt and pepper shakers come in) but PETG is the gold standard. Clear polystyrene sheet doesn't work - opaque polystyrene sheet has additives that make it more pliable and it works well (but not for canopies). Bubbles PETG absorbs moisture from the air and when you heat the thicker stuff the moisture turns into bubbles. So PETG, especially the thicker stuff, needs to be warmed slowly to start with. I'd rather have a wobbly thin canopy than a thick bubbly one - after all, you don't pick your models up by their canopies, do you? If it's not hot it won't mould The plastic needs to be hot. It should be sagging before you try to mould it. Playing heat over the plastic when it's stuck on the mould is the quickest way to ruin the mould. Closer I use drawing pins rather than bulldog clips to pin my plastic to the supporting frame so it's as close to the vacuum bed as possible before any vacuuming happens. Tendrils "Tendrils", where the plastic folds up on itself radially away from the mould rather than sticking to it, are caused by the plastic being drawn together to other bits of plastic rather than the mould because of the local geometry. Sharp edges and sharply rising forms cause that. Adding a bit of blu-tak at the back of the canopy to make a gentle ridge instead of a cliff will avoid tendrils there, but do leave a step down from the canopy to the blu-tak to give you an edge. If you are getting tendrils at the front of the canopy, put a little wall of blu-tak ahead of it (but make sure there are some vacuum holes between it and the canopy). These will stop the plastic bunching. Ring: Plinth (with vent holes to suck the air away at the plint/mould border): In both cases, you can see the tendrils started to form but then got disrupted by the defences. Lift for sharper bottom edge Raise the canopy a couple of mm above the bed with a blob of blu-tak (smaller than the canopy ) to help it get sucked down tightly at the edges. Check that the air has an escape route all the way around so it won't form little pockets. That's all folks! Er, that's all I can think of for the mo. On a reasonable day. I get maybe one in three attempts to work well, and I like to produce a spare because accidents happen when trimming. On a bad day... well I just go and do something else instead! It's all a bit frustrating most of the time but when it works, it works! Regards, Adrian
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I'm interested to see how it goes! I think the Lansen is an under appreciated aircraft and it looks pretty good too! I've got a Heller Lansen A in the stash with the missiles from an Airfix Viggen so I will be making notes... Regards, Adrian
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1:72 Airfix Handley Page Victor B.Mk.2
AdrianMF replied to Navy Bird's topic in Work in Progress - Aircraft
Glad to hear your news Bill. Nice Victor, too. Regards, Adrian -
Nah. Build it, then just tell people it's further away... Adrian PS: Talking of the box art, it's a wonder they had any aircraft left at all after a day like this one:
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Eastern Express Sea Venom...1/72nd scale...OOB
AdrianMF replied to John Masters's topic in FROG Squad II GB
Those blue flashes got a bit out of hand! 🫣😱 Must be Karma evening up for the rest of the painting being so good... ⚖️ Hope they clean up OK. Maybe start with a bit of light sanding? Regards, Adrian- 48 replies
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Airfix MiG 17 in 1/72nd Scale.Finished.
AdrianMF replied to Alex Gordon's topic in Baby Boomers GB 1946-1964
Looks terrific Alex. Nice work on the spare Fw 190 decals! Regards, Adrian -
If it's the inner side undercarriage spat that's missing, you are probably better off getting some Milliput and just making the part in place after adding the wheel and covering the exposed segment with masking tape. You will get pretty close with shaping and then you will be able to sand the rest down when it's dry. Or you could build it up from layers of plastic card and sand it to shape. Why not plastic sheet moulding? Because it's a saddle shape. So if you try to vac form or plunge it it will be tricky to make it work. And moulding over a kit part might well not work for a number of reasons (heat and thickness). Why not resin casting? Because you will need to make a mould which will take materials and time and techniques that you may not have time or inclination for, and mould material and resin are both pricey. Why Milliput? Because it is easy to work with, allows lots of working time, sets consistently and reliably, and is easy to sand down when set. Most fillers are solvent based and are prone to shrinking, crumbling or turning gooey if used to build parts. I apologise if this sounds a bit preachy but for me, Milliput (or equivalent) would be the way to go every time for something like this. I just hope you've got the canopy Regards, Adrian
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Azur Fleet 16 Finch, now with added Northrop Nomad
AdrianMF replied to bigbadbadge's topic in Work in Progress - Aircraft
Both looking splendid in yellow! Lovely framing too. I must say I'm a bit confused for several reasons. The Northrop Nomad looks almost exactly like the Vought Chesapeake; and the Northrop Nomad name is also used for a float plane. Add to this my unease about biplanes with enclosed canopies* and I'm all at sea! Regards, Adrian * It's just wrong! (though obviously not for the Gladiator or Albacore - they're OK) -
Thanks for the span check. I didn't appreciate that the parts breakdown is different between the two kits; the 1/72 kit wings extend into the fuselage, whereas the 1/79 kit wings join on to stubs outboard. So that's why the smaller kit wing looks so much shorter. It all makes sense now! And it's nice to see them both getting there. Regards, Adrian
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The V1 looks amazing and the Spitfires are all well on the way too. Paint isn't too far away! Regards, Adrian
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That's looking very smooth. Regards, Adrian
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What a treat! It looks gorgeous. Regards, Adrian
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F167 - Westland Wallace - conversion to Wapiti
AdrianMF replied to AdrianMF's topic in FROG Squad II GB
Thanks James! The decal requirements were quite challenging: four long and thin ones that needed to be perfectly aligned with roundels and each other; and two whole rudder ones that had to fit over cutouts and round the edges and align with the other side. I had the same issues with "new style" Academy decals for the chequered cowling on their bubble-top Thunderbolt, so it's a me problem not a decal problem! Regards, Adrian- 143 replies
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Looking good! Regards, Adrian
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F167 - Westland Wallace - conversion to Wapiti
AdrianMF replied to AdrianMF's topic in FROG Squad II GB
Well, I've never used the word "terrifying" for decals before, but they were terrifying! My usual decal paper is quite thick , so I asked James @81-er what he was using for his He 177 in the Twins GB and got some of that from EBay. This stuff is thin! If left unsupported for a split second or moved more than a fraction of a centimetre, it will crease up and bite you! Anyhow, third time lucky (I'd only printed out two sets), here it is: I ended up sliding the paper out from under the decal after getting it as close to exactly in place as possible. I've simply gotten used to thick decals that you can wave around and maltreat with gay abandon! On the positive side, the film is pretty much invisible. I had to do some touching up on the port side but the other side went down without much fuss. I will leave them overnight and give them a coat of future before I dare handle them or do more touching up. I'm not sure whether I won't go back to my regular decal paper TBH. Anyhow, stickers are on- 143 replies
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F167 - Westland Wallace - conversion to Wapiti
AdrianMF replied to AdrianMF's topic in FROG Squad II GB
Four rooms, three sets of three, and french windows with large side panels in the fourth room. The last ones were too big to fit through the door and we don't have side access, so they had to go back to the workshop to get chopped up into smaller pieces. Two rooms done in a week, two to go next week, assuming they can fit the pieces back together! Thanks for asking. It's actually been surprisingly quiet, clean and non-disruptive so far. But I was glad I was already sitting down when I got the quote... Regards, Adrian- 143 replies
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