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mirageiv

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mirageiv last won the day on January 18 2019

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  1. Hi!! What do you think about the Reskit resin wheels? They seem to me a bit wider than it should. Amazing job on the Mirage IIIS!

  2. Are there any concrete hints to further F-4 variants as of yet? I ask because we are still waiting more than a decade for the F-16A/B/D which surely would also have solid sales figures, still don't understand that one.
  3. Ok I had a bash this morning. I found the Tamiya polish compounds 'rounded off' the orange peel opposed to truly removing it and flattening things out. So I went with 12000 micromesh first lightly, then polished it up with the fine/finish compounds. I did spray a slightly heavier tint than I wanted originally as I knew some material would be removed so the reduction in tint wasn't too bad. It isn't totally 100% removed however and I think if I keep polishing I'll take too much tint off, so for me I might call it as close enough. Even if I tried instead with acrylic clear tints I still will probs get some surface problems too, might try it on the spare canopy to see the difference though. Another option would be to apply a thicker, heavier initial lacquer tint in the knowledge that I'd polish it plenty to fully remove any orange peel and sacrifice tint density. Anyhow, thanks for the advice guys! David
  4. Not 100% but it looks like it in person. Before I sprayed the tint I polished up the canopy a heck of a lot with the Tamiya compounds and got it super clear with no distortions etc...I have heard what you mention with the lacquers and clear parts but then I've seen some builds online doing the same thing and working ok. I have in the past also sprayed a clear part with lacquer tints and got no orange peel, but this was just luck I think in humid/temp and thinning conditions, the exception and not the rule for sure. The levelling thinner doesn't seem in my experience to damage the clear part other than a slight surface fogging that is easily removed with a little polish, I use it the clean failed canopy tints off in fact. However if you use Tamiya lacquer thinners by comparison, they really wreak havoc on a clear part. Yep I need to watch out for that, I'm gonna try to polish it as evenly as possible and see. There will be another tint going on the inside of the canopy which may help even out any differences, or it could highlight them! I looked at the Alclad clears, they do a nice gold-yellow also, I think they are gloss enamel based, I might look into them if this fails. I have looked real close up and there are no tiny fractures on the clear part from what I can tell, I still do think it is a mini orange peel but could be wrong of course. So I guess what you are saying is don't add another clear layer on top to polish, sort out this smoke layer first. I'm going to have a crack at polishing it up with Tamiya fine compound, then finish and see what happens and not even bother with the initial micromesh. Thanks for the responses/help guys! David
  5. Hi guys I have a few questions about removing orange peel from a lacquer paint over a clear part, maybe the car guys out there can lend a hand with their finishing methods. I'm building an F-16 that needs an exterior tint to the canopy (gold tint will be on the interior), I used Tamiya lacquer clears instead of the usual clear acrylics as I knew I would need to do some polishing. Thinned with levelling thinner and then spraying a final pure levelling thinner coat helped get something really smooth as a basis. However, there is a real fine orange peel in places that can be seen when looking through the canopy in some lighting. The orange peel distorts the reflection a little so the canopy does not have absolute clarity. Even worse when you hold it up to the light at the right angle, Now my question is, should I just polish up this smoke clear paint to get a non distorted surface? Or, do I need to first apply another lacquer layer of transparent clear ( I have UV cut super gloss) before polishing that up. I'm not sure if applying another layer of paint on top of the smoke and polishing that would solve the orange peel already on the clear part if that makes sense. It would give a smoother outer surface but maybe still these irregularities would be visible? In the past I have sprayed tints with a slight orange peel like this one, then dipped the canopy in Johnson's klear and the distortion caused by the orange peel is still a little visible when looking through, despite the klear layer inside and out. I have mircromesh up to 12000 and the three Tamiya polishing compounds to work with. For the polishing, what grade should I start at? The painted layer of smoke clear already on the canopy is extremely thin so I'm cautious of using anything more than the polish. Any advice on how to sort this would be greatly appreciated Cheers, David
  6. Fantastic build Jon, I love the crisp finish with subtle weathering and the colour selection is just spot on. I'm pondering about getting the Kinetic kit also for the decals to do one of the blue F-16As, the Fightertown and Two Bobs sheets seem impossible to find! David
  7. I've been told F3's have chased down F-111s and B-1Bs low level over Alaska with missiles (IIRC 2 Skyflash, 2 Aim-9).....they got the kill, needed fuel pretty quick after however. The F3 was very slippery low level from what I know. High speed at low level is a nice defence, a Tornado IDS isn't gonna mix it with a Su-27 or MIg-29...best to just run in different directions. The B-1 can shift on the deck for a very long time IIRC, they can run anything out of fuel trying to chase if they can't catch quick enough to get a shot.
  8. Same. I find pure levelling thinner with Aqueous satin/gloss paints doesn't dry properly even after a week or so. It seems dry to the touch quick but it softens and fingerprints/marks if you tape or hold onto it for a bit even ages after spraying. Instead I mix normal Mr Color thinner with the levelling and it mostly sorts this problem. Learn't the hard way too!
  9. Thank you Serge for the post. I am no Mirage expert whatsoever and initially I did not suspect anything wrong with the wing sweep, but began to suspect something due the the overly extended appearance of the air intake. I still cannot be 100% certain but it is in my opinion only that the wing sweep angle was not quite enough for the first edition, I show my case towards the end of post 25 of my Britmodeller WIP thread here . The drawings used come from reputedly accurate drawings, I don't believe drawings are gospel truth at all but I assume the wing angle to be correct. The wing angle on the drawings when scaled to 1/48 matched the Heller and Kinetic 1/48 Mirage III kits perfectly, both reportedly to be accurate (especially Heller). Scaling the wing to 1/72 and the Modelsvit kit showed a little lack of sweep. So either the drawings, Heller and Kinetic are wrong, or Modelsvit's initial first Mirage IIIE is. It isn't major at all and I think most wouldn't think twice about it. I mainly model by eye, if it looks good, it is good IMO, but the wing sweep did just seem a little 'off' enough to notice it. The kit I think is great overall though, can be hardwork in a few places for a NMF but the detail is unreal, on par with my 1/72 Tamiya F-16. The new kit looks much improved however, especially the new flaps/alierons. I am looking forward to the IIIB! Cheers, David edit...My photo of the problem Compare the dimensions of panels and the cannon etc...with the photo from airfighters.net: https://www.airfighters.com/photo/71537/M/Switzerland-Air-Force/Dassault-Mirage-IIIS/J-2331/
  10. Yep I did think it was odd with a live weapon! Thanks for the pic, that is the definitive answer there. Cheers guys, David
  11. Fantastic work Anirudh, beautiful finish to the paintwork! Replicating those canopies is very difficult. I prefer the darker tinted one from your options but any combo is right as it can look like any option depending on the light, nothing is wrong here imho and it is down to personal preference. Does the metallic gold reflect under direct light? I've experimented with Alclads (very fine pigment) mixed into clears with this and it works ok but sometimes you still see the tiny metal flakes even when using very small amounts, still not 'the answer'. Also I found in order to reduce the cloudiness of the tint you can thin and spray with Mr Color levelling thinner with a final wet layer (you don't even need to dip the canopy tbh for clarity), the problem is when using the acrylic clears you have to let it cure for a week or so to stop any cracking under the future/klear which got me in the past with only 1-2 days drying. Since then I switched to tinting with Mr.Color clear lacquers which give crystal clear canopy tints and cure within a day or so before dipping them, also you can polish out any little bits of dust or lint that managed to get on there easily. Anyways, really great work! David
  12. Andy stop injecting these complex construction techniques in this thread, at this rate if this kit can't do Mach 2 and shoot something down I'll be wee weed.
  13. Cheers guys, glad you are enjoying the thread. I agree, I think that will be the best method, matt/satin clear + very thin grey to tint. Cheers Werner, yep they are getting the full complement of the most up to date kit. I'd like to load some Meteor missiles so I might hold off on the weapons load until I get them, or maybe even add Scalp + Meteor later on, not sure yet. I do like the look of simple load on the Rafale. On the canopy, I ended up redoing it as the future/klear I dipped it in refused to dry and just left fingerprints even after several weeks. So I got a new bottle which works well but I left off the Alclad copper tint this time. I changed my mind and think maybe it is too much for the Rafale sometimes...mostly it just looks normally tinted, for the F-22 and F-16 however I will use this technique though certainly. So the new tint with 4 parts smoke:1 part clear orange, this time I made it more subtle also. The black seals and interior were masked and sprayed nato black. The det cord on the front canopy here, This was replicated with a very thin bit of light grey stretched sprue. It's so thin, it seems almost slightly translucent so I didn't paint it which looks like the real thing a bit more imho. This had to be bent to conform to the canopy shape and was trapped and glued by the mirror frame insert and central canopy divider (or whatever it is called). I didn't want to get glue anywhere near the actual clear part of the the canopy. Finally I replaced the HUD projector with a bit of purple-ish film which toned this area down a bit and dry brushed the avionics bay a bit more, the cockpit is glued and finished now so I can put the canopy on and get on with the painting. Thanks for looking, David.
  14. Thank you Markus, because I will not weather the jet much at all, maybe the finer surface details will help balance out the realism...IDK, we will see. Yep anti-skid, the Syhart decals come with some nice masks to replicate these pretty easily fortunately, I wouldn't have looked forward to making those! I found a Getty image of this exact area of the Qatari Rafale, the actual colours and sheen (matt or satin?) are a little confusing though when comparing the left and right sides, Getty image here. I'm not sure if the anti-skid material is actually a clear type paint/varnish they apply that subtly changes the underlying colour, not sure but it seems to change with the differing colours on the Qatari grey scheme opposed to the standard French grey Rafale. Thank you SAT69! Cheers, David
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