t15dja

Excellent, Sheepie, many thanks! I'm really glad the Revell ones are the correct ones because I'm sure they will be much easier to work with. Onwards then.........!

As you know, I'm just working on the dacals and I have a 3 questions that I'm hoping someone may be able to answer.... As mentioned above I purchased some F_DCAL decals mainly because I decided to fill the kit windows and doors and use F-DCAL door & window decals. I'm finding the F-DCAL decals quite difficult to use - they take ages (I mean, like 15 minutes!) to begin to loosen from their backing paper and the carrier film (or "varnish" - see below) seems quite thick. They are "Laser printed" rather than "silk screen printed". I notice that on the F_DCAL website it says the following about Laser printed decals: "As the name implies, laser decals are printed with laser printers using toner and not ink as in silk screening. For this reason the colours white, silver or gold cannot be printed. They are the original F-decals but the pioneer era is over and these decals are now widely spread in many fields and forms. The whole decal set is printed on a blank decal page. The varnish covers all the sheet. Compared to silk screened decals you not only trim off the carrier paper but the varnish layer as well. Laser decals are very transluscent and must be applied over white surfaces. When you trim them off the sheet, colours look very light but, as you will find, this effect vanishes once the decal is applied." Q1: Are there any different techniques to applying laser printed decals, especially given how long they need to soak? Q2: Also, I notice that the walkway warnings are printed in silver on the original Revell decals but black on the F-DCAL sheet - see photo below - what colour should they actually be please? Revell: F-DCAL: Then there is the "do not walk" warning that goes on the upper wing surface above the main gear. Not only are the Revell / F-DCAL versions silver / black respectively, but they are also different shapes and, if placed correctly over the panel lines, the F-DCAL one does not reach the fuselage sides, which I would have thought it should. I've tried to look at some online pictures but can't make things out for certain. Again see photos below. So Q3 is, does anyone know which decal is correct for this particular walkway warning please, Revell or F-DCAL (I've cut the F-DCAL version out and placed it next to the Revell version)? Thanks again in anticipation.

Thanks chaps....much appreciated.

Well, I reckon most of the painting is done now that I've finished the engines and put the red flashes on the ends of the wings thus: To paint the engines I used Mr Metal Color "Dark Iron", which goes on black but can then be buffed to get a metallic lustre. However, with hindsight that was a mistake. Buffing the paint creates a microscopic paint dust that gets absolutely everywhere and seemed to become ingrained into the white paint of the model. It didn't wipe off either, even when using alcohol of airbrush cleaner. Handling the model only made it spread further. Eventually I ended up with dark smudges and finger prints all over the place. I found the only way of removing the marks was by using a very fine sander and polisher, after having first sealed the engine paint with Klear. It took absolutely ages to sand and polish away the dark marks and even now I can still see a few, however I'm going to call that weathering! I'll certainly think twice before using Mr Metal Color in such a way again. Anyway......decaling has now commenced! ...and yes, I did break the end off the pitot tube....I knew I would at some point!

Thanks, and yes, we're well down the final straight now! The main tasks left are: 1. Fix paint problem around front left windscreen 2. Mask, paint and weather the engines 3. Apply the rather nice looking F-DCAL decals That little lot should normally take me not much time at all.....if only I could get back to the modelling bench! Like many of us I've got many other calls on my spare time at the moment, so fitting in time to build my ever- growing stash is proving to be a real challenge at the moment....but I will get there. Concorde will (and must) be finished by the end of the May!

That made me laugh, Ed! Mind you, good job you're not in jolly olde England.......the Elf and Safety Police would've got you long before now!

I thought heating sprue gave off toxic fumes, to the extent that in a recent Tamiya armour build I did Tamiya issued a warning against doing it unless using a particular "safe"sprue?

Apologies for not posting any updates for quite a while......life got in the way yet again! However, in the last week or so I've finally managed to get some white top-coat on the Concorde and am enclosing some pictures of the result. This wasn't as problem-free as I would have hoped. The rattle can I used suddenly decided to splatter paint blobs all over the model, secondly the top coat reacted with the revell acrylic paint that I'd used in a couple of places, leaving a severe orange-peel effect. Both of these issues required me to wait several days for the top coat to dry before rubbing down and respraying. Anyway, here's some pics. The visor is not attached yet, only placed on the model for now. Engines are still masked at this stage. I had a problem unmasking the main windscreen, which you can see if you look closely in the final photo. The top coat of rattle can white didn't come off cleanly around the mask on the left hand screen, such that some of the paint surrounding the mask came off with it. What I should have done was to very carefully run a very sharp blade around the edges of the mask before removing it in order to cut the paint seal. I did that on the other windows and it worked fine. That leaves me with a little repair job on that one window, which I'm pondering about how to fix.

I agree. You may have spotted earlier in this build log that I said I'd emailed Braz models to see if the rumour was true that they were developing a new front end for this kit. Sadly I never got a response so not sure if that is true or not. My problems were compounded in that my kit's nose cone was damaged and the nose halves were mis-moulded. Filler and hot water respectively more or less sorted those two issues . I do agree, though, even though this kit has numerous problems it still has the graceful lines of the real thing and can build into an impressive addition to anyone's collection. I notice that, for some reason, there have been quite a few for sale on eBay recently, and most at reasonable prices

Right then, moving on.... Engine parts have been glued together, no issues to report with that, and left for a day or two for the glue (Tamiya white top) to set. Then it was a matter of sanding the edge of the engine that butts up against the underside of the wing in order to minimise the step between the top surface of the wing and the back end of the engines. This involved a lot of trial and error and repeated dry fitting. As a reminder, this is what the step was like on both sides before any sanding: There are some photos below of what things looked like after sanding and fitting. Once assembled the engines were individually glued and clamped to the wing and each left overnight to dry. Port: and starboard: There was a little bit of filling required to close a small gap with the starboard engine. I used perfect plastic putty, which is water soluble and therefore easy to smooth. And then it was back to the paint shop for more primer................. Maybe a tiny bit of seam work still required on the engines: This next shot shows that I have (mostly) been able to ensure that the starboard engine is level with the top of the wing. It also shows some of the riveting I've added. Other side looks similar. Here's a couple of shots with the visor just placed (not yet glued) in position: So that's where I'm up to. Next stage is the white top coat from a rattle can (typed with some considerable trepidation!). However that will need to be sprayed outside due to the smell and overspray, and that will probably have to wait a little while now due to the current atrocious weather.....however.....we are now entering the final furlong!

I'm going to try Mr Metalizer Burnt Iron to start off with. It can be buffed quite easily to various degrees of "shinyness" for want of a better word.

Can just see them on this photo....

Marvellous pics, Sheepie, many thanks. I've also added some thin plastic strip to replicate those "things" along the sides of the hot bits, whatever they are!

Its like the old game of spot the difference! I've spotted 9 so far!

Ah, right thanks. At least that's one difference within the fleet that I don't have to worry about.