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billn53

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Everything posted by billn53

  1. You’ve described exactly the approach I took, which with a little care and attention worked a-ok. The long canopy section is done, working on the sliding section and windscreen now.
  2. Sorry, my bad. I corrected it in my previous post. That Filmoplast is interesting stuff: very thin, takes paint nicely, easy to cut narrow strips. But it tends to curl up and stick to itself. It also isn’t very strong so if you pull on it too hard, it tears. But I’m getting the hang of it.
  3. Stevehnz, Ced, Grey Beema, & 825: Excellent suggestions, I think I’ll go with the GS Crystal (I have a tube on the shelf) and try Filmoplast for the framing. Thanks, Ced, for reminding me about Filmoplast. I have a bad habit of buying things I read about on these forums (thus, I’ve just ordered off some Araldite), then forgetting I have them. It may even have been one of your posts where I first heard of Filmoplast. So, I’ll paint up some per GB’s guidance and give it a try. Bill
  4. I've procrastinated long enough wisely waited until now to tackle the canopy issue. As you recall, I put a nasty crack in the kit canopy and it's now unusable (according to my standards, which are pretty low when it comes to canopy cracks). I have a nicely clear Falcon vacuform canopy, but it's made for the Frog kit and getting it to fit the SH fuselage will be difficult. Here's my plan, which I've already put into action. First, using the kit canopy as a master, I vacuformed a new canopy which (hopefully) should fit better than the Falcon one: The framing isn't as distinct on my copy, but I'll be using an aftermarket canopy mask so that should help. The stress of separating the vacuform from the kit canopy caused its crack to propagate -- the crack now extends nearly half the length of the canopy. (As a last resort, just in case all else fails, I've e-mailed Special Hobby asking for a replacement canopy. We'll see how that turns out.) My homegrown vacuform fits pretty well. The only problem area is at the shoulder over the forward wing. No surprise about that -- the original has the same problem. But I have a masterful strategy for getting around that (puffing up my chest with pride)! Here it is: (Now I wish I'd put more effort into detailing the instrument panel) For the forward windscreen, I could use my vacuform piece, but it's pretty flimsy, doesn't fit perfectly, and the framing edge looks a bit too thin. Alternatively, I can use the kit windscreen (which I've carefully cut out). Here is how they compare (vacuform on the left): Which do you think works better? Lastly, I have a couple of questions and am looking for advice. They are: 1. What is a good adhesive for gluing vacuform canopies in place? It should be clear, but strong. 2. Should I mask and paint the canopy framing before gluing in place, or afterward? My concern with the latter is the heightened possibility of pulling the canopy free when working on it. Thanks in advance for any help you can give!
  5. Brahahahahaha!!!! Look what arrived in the mail today: I wont' start on this right away (I have a couple other projects already in the queue), but I'd love to have this done in time for next year's show.
  6. As promised, here are pics after cleaning up the Flory wash. I tried to leave a bit more of the Flory in place than a full cleanup would have done, as my intent is for this to be a heavily weathered aircraft. The Flory wash is just my first step in the weathering process, stay tuned for more. Also, I finally added these items which help to give the Barracuda it's ugly duckling appeal. I had held off on installing these because they get in the way of just about everything involved in painting, and are asking to be broken off. Unfortunately, there's no good time to add these so I'll cross my fingers and hope they survive till the end. At least, I don't have to worry about adding the radar aerials on this particular aircraft!
  7. Barreling along... Got the Extra Dark Sea Gray on and removed a huge amount of masking tape. Here's how she looked just after the unveiling: Only one teeny place where any paint pulled off But I did find some touchup was needed -- there were places where the dark slate didn't extend entirely to the pattern edge, allowing the black undercoat to show: Easy enough to fix. I then sprayed a satin coat to even the surface in preparation for the next step: a Flory wash: Beautiful, isn't she? But, that didn't last long! Here she is all dirtied up: I'll let that dry overnight, then clean the worst of it off with a damp cotton cloth. In the meanwhile, I'm contemplating my options concerning the cracked canopy. Here's the Falcon canopy (top) compared with the kit item. I'd use the Falcon in a snap, except it's designed for the Frog kit and won't fit this one. Decisions, decisions....
  8. Got the first camo color on (dark slate gray). I'm using a marbling technique to add variation (same with the underside): Then (using an enlarged copy of the kit's painting instructions) I cut out the camo pattern for the second color (extra dark sea gray): There's a lot of slate gray peeking out around the edges, so I touched up my base coat with more black: When that's dry, I'll marble in the EDSG and remove the masking (hopefully, without taking any paint with it).
  9. Looks like I'm back in business! I did a mist coat with the adhesion enhancer and then an overall black base with the MRP paint. After that dried, I did a tape test and the base coat came through with flying colors. I can't say if it's because of the adhesion enhancer or not, and frankly I don't care at this point. I'm just happy to have paint that sticks. Next came the Sky lower surfaces: I just now did a clearcoat (thanks for that tip, Dennis) and this evening I'll begin work on the upper surface camo.
  10. All the old paint is off, and I'm nearly ready to paint again. I'm just waiting for the liquid masking on the wingtip lights to dry. The Dupli-Color website recommends cleaning with their Prep-Spray oil and grease remover before using the plastic adhesion stuff. The Prep-Spray says it is safe for automotive plastics -- I conclude from that, that polystyrene must not be an automotive plastic! The stuff consists of alcohol and aromatic hydrocarbons, and will dissolve styrene in a flash (ask how I know). It's kind of like when I accidently spilled Bondene on my YB-35's wing. I definitely won't be using my bottle of Alclad black primer again. Instead, after I spray a light mist of the adhesion promotor, I'll do a base coat of this: which is an acrylic lacquer and should do fine. (I've used it before and had no problems, knock on virtual wood).
  11. Could be. TheBaron used the same stuff and he didn’t report any problems. I remember I bought mine at my local hobby shop — they specialize in radio control not plastic models, so who knows how long it sat on the shelf.
  12. Looks like I definitely had a failure of the primer to bond to the plastic, although the root cause is a still a mystery. Using only low-tack masking tape, I was able to strip nearly all of the paint from my 'cuda. the rest I'll remove chemically: Interestingly, the Vallejo acrylic, by itself, adhered well. The stripe of paint you see here is my repair from yesterday: A fellow modeler has recommended I try this stuff. He's been using it of late on all his models, spraying a mist directly from the can after first cleaning the plastic. He then primes over it: I'll pick up a can this afternoon from my local auto shop. In the meantime, I've been working the various fiddly bits to be installed after the painting is done: Wing-mounted bomb racks on top, landing gear and arresting hook on the bottom. I'll also replace the kit's undersize main wheels with resin ones from Barracuda Cast: Wish me luck with my repaint, please!
  13. I sprayed a layer of Alclad black micro-filler primer last night, and early this morning did a fine micromesh before the first color coat. I intend to use Vallejo Air paints for the camo. I started with the underside in Sky Type S: I let that dry for a good six hours, then began masking for the upper surface colors. But as soon as I started masking, this happened: The paint came up, primer and all. Now, I had cleaned the surface before painting with IPA, and Alclad primer has never given me problems before. Don't really know what to think Anyway, I repainted the damaged area and have tucked the Barracuda away in a plastic box to let the paint set for a couple days, just to be sure. Then, I'll try again with the masking. There's really very little more I can do on this build until the painting is finished. I did assemble the propeller, but that didn't take long at all. Doing the propeller is nearly foolproof. SH has given each blade a flat section near the hub, to ensure proper pitch. Other than that, one only needs to take care the blades are all square with each other. Also, FYI, I had read where one builder thought the provided propeller was too small, and substituted the larger Frog item in its place. I found some drawings online and can confirm that SH's propeller is spot on, as far as one can trust drawings from the web.
  14. Got some more things done today and I'm just about ready to do the primer coat. With the wings in place, I went ahead and glued the horizontal stabilizers. A good dose of sprue gloop was filled the join: The next few items are taken directly from TheBaron's playbook, and I'm not claiming any originality. I used metal foil to simulate the rear gunner's sliding panel: Flap actuators were assembled from brass tubing (the actuators in the kit are much too large): To get the new actuators to fit, I had to carve a groove in the flap attachment strut: Details added to the landing gear parts: Oh yes, I almost forgot to add the little panels that fill the lower part of the fuselage exhaust recess: U As soon as I'm able to sand down the sprue gloop on the horizontal stabs (it's still a bit soft), I'll be ready for the primer coat. The particular aircraft I'm modeling is shown below (it's also on the SH box cover): I chose this one because it has lots of visually interesting details, like the replacement panels and the painted out roundel on the starboard wing. Also, I won't have to bother with the kit's fiddly little radar aerials LOL!
  15. Sorry to hear about your paint problem, but that is part of the territory in this hobby. I had to completely strip my Hustler two times when I was building it.
  16. Wings are on! As you can see below, there's no gap at all. I used Plastruct Bondene, which is perfect for this kind of join. It immediately dissolves the plastic and sets in seconds. Liquified plastic oozed out of the join, making putty superfluous. (I've re-purposed the old Frog kit canopy to mask and protect my interior.
  17. Been working the underside of the wings prior to joining wings to fuselage. The attachment for the flaps is a challenge and requires careful preparation for success. Taking a cue from TheBaron, I thinned the flap strut attachment point in order to increase its contact area, for better adhesion when I glue them together: The instructions give almost no guidance on where to glue the struts. There's a 'nub' on edge of the strut where it joins, but no corresponding hole on the wing. After deciding where the inboard strut should be, I carefully drilled a hole for the nub: Using the flap as my measuring device, I added the outboard strut (again drilling a hole for the outboard strut's nub). It is critical that the two struts be precisely positioned, so that the flap can be installed later without any issues. (My plan is to paint the flaps separately and install them during final assembly.) There is still an actuator to install, but for now the flap situation has been sorted out. Next, I installed the underside wing fence. I used Tamaya Extra Thin to position the fence, followed with gap-filling CA for added strength. There were also a couple of items on the nose that needed to be done. I added the two "cheek" air scoops -- be advised that the instructions have apparently mixed up the part numbers, and would have you put the left scoop on the right side of the fuselage, etc. Again, the instructions give little guidance on where, exactly, the scoops go, and in any case the fit leaves a lot to be desired. I also assembled & painted the nose piece, and glued it in place. I highlighted the interior mesh using a bronze-colored weathering pencil from AK Interactive. That's all for the Saturday afternoon report.
  18. Not a kit, actually. Just a multi-sided sander/buffer. They come in a variety of shapes & sizes:
  19. Sprue gloop is closely related to stretched sprue in its uses as a gap filler, and they are often used together. Take a mostly-empty bottle of liquid cement (such as Tamiya Extra Thin) and add snips of sprue to it. The cement, over a period of hours, will melt the sprue. Keep adding sprue until you achieve a thick, almost honey-like consistency. For filling gaps, if the gap is small you can fill the gap just using the gloop. For wider gaps, fill with stretched sprue and cover with gloop. There are also other uses for sprue gloop: Ridgerunner built a new nose for one of his mods, covering the entire nose with gloop! Just be aware that gloop takes a lot of time to thoroughly harden (depending on thickness). It also doesn’t adhere well on painted surfaces. Plus side is, it’s plastic just like the model, takes scribing well, and doesn’t chip or flake like most putties.
  20. Since my last update I've been focusing on the canopy and other clear parts. These are molded quite thin, being very clear and with little distortion. I've gotten into the habit of polishing and clear-dipping my canopies, and although I probably could have skipped this for the Barracuda, I went ahead and did it anyway. Here is the canopy post-dipping: As you can see, it is very clear and the interior details should show through a-ok, even after the copious canopy framing is painted: Fit is not perfect, there being a significant gap over the shoulder just above the forward wing. To mitigate this, I had to move the canopy slightly to the rear and down. I trimmed the rear of the fuselage opening to move the canopy back, and sanded the front bottom of the canopy to achieve the downward shift. These actions were an improvement, although the fit is still not perfect: Once again (for the fourth time this year), I managed to crack the canopy while manhandling it with my big, fat fingers: The crack pretty much follows the canopy framing, and I'm hoping it will be less obvious after the framing is painted. For my backup plan, somewhere in my stash I have a Falcon vacuform set which I believe includes a Barracuda canopy. I might even go so far as to open up the canopy, as TheBaron did in his build. Moving on to the wings, Special Hobby gives the option of adding the wingtip position lights. A set of clear lights is included on the sprue, and the instructions detail where to cut the wingtip. I drilled out the bottom of the clear parts and filled in the holes with red and green paint to simulate light bulbs: The clear lights do not fit well, and are larger than the opening cut out of the wingtip. I'll describe how I attacked this problem. First, I glued the lights into the wingtip cutouts using UV-activated clear acrylic gel: Next, I used a medium grit sanding stick to shape the lights and blend them in to the wingtip. A multi-grade nail buffing stick, procured from my pharmacy's cosmetics aisle, was employed to fine sand and polish the lights: I followed this up with Tamiya plastic polish (medium and finish grades). Voila! Lights are done, easy as pie. Finally, I detailed the landing light on the port wing leading edge. First thing I did was to over the kit's incorrect aft bulkhead with thin plasticard: Using the photo below as a guide, I painted black dots to simulate lightening holes, and added a 2.7mm diameter, stick-on lens to model the Barracuda's landing light. Next, I glued on the kit's clear cover, again using clear, UV-activated gel. I found that the kit cover stands a bit proud of the wing surface, so I carefully sanded it flush with a sanding stick: Looks bad, doesn't it? Just like with the wingtip lights, a few minutes work with the nail buffing stick and Tamiya polishing compound brought everything back into clarity: Pretty slick! Next up: Finish up the fuselage assembly, add the wings and horizontal stabs, and get a primer coat on.
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