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Russmeister 101

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Everything posted by Russmeister 101

  1. Russmeister 101
    Superb Fin!! The forced perspective shots look JUST like the real thing!!
  2. Russmeister 101
    The Curse of the Hellcat continues with more loss and damages... I reached over to grab something from the back of my desk and caught my model stand with my arm, knocking the Helcat free for a forced landing. The resulting impact (from approximately 2 inches) was enough to dislodge one of the photoetched pieces... As I've sealed the canopy closed... it's staying out! It's "only" the map satchel... I'll live without it. In the same incident.. as I reflexively reached to catch the model, I caught the Cutting Edge prop, and pinged one of the prop blades off.... 😠 Mrs. Russmeister has been unable to locate the missing part, so I am relectantly using the kit part... it looks OK... it just doesn't look.... right, somehow? I did manage to get the wheels ready for Rubber Black though but even that is subject to opinion... do they look right in the last picture? Threre seems to be too much wheel around one part of the hub... If so I'll take a win where I can get it!! As the saying goes... if there are no pictures, it didn't happen....
  3. Russmeister 101
    Noice!
  4. Russmeister 101
    Utterly outstanding!!! Novel idea for finish, and in the absence of photos... who's to say you haven't absolutely nailed it!?! 🏆
  5. Russmeister 101
    Fantastic build, great update and one lucky person to be able to sit in the drivers seat!! I'm not jealous, nope, not one bit.. *mutters in green* . Keep it coming - I'm grabbing me popcorn
  6. Russmeister 101
    Great progress and fantastic paintwork!! Keep it coming!
  7. Russmeister 101
    Seeing as I killed the wingtip nav lights... a little scratch building is in order to replace them. I started with selecting a suitable diameter microdrill, and corresponding metal tube... These are blunt syringe needles, that the cool kids are using for something called "Vaping"... I recently purchased several diameters, as they are useful bits of metal, and got these 5 varying sizes as a freebie... not gonna complain Then the surgery began... Please excuse the dodgy photos - Apple have yet to make a decent macro setting for the iPhone.... And useful piece of metal has been embedded in the wingtip, to act as a mount for a bulb. (I've since filed it flat... honest) I'll let the superglue harden, then paint in a suitably shiny metal colour.... add another drop or two of superglue to the "tubes" to simulate bulbs, and colour appropriately. Once that's all done... I'll fill with some UV activated resin and sand to final shape.... or that's the plan at least.... Oh... and in other news.. the eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that the scissor mechanism on the port oleo has pinged into the ether once more.... I admit defeat 🏳️ and rather than pay the extortionate shipping fees that Eduard want to charge for even a small item like a Photoetch fret (total order would have come to £23 almost... with a whole £3.50 odd of that being etch... just to get a couple of "free" parts sent to me) I opted to order a Weekend Edition of the same kit from Jadlam and used my J-points to get a bargain........... Like I said - I'll drag this thing over the line eventually....
  8. Russmeister 101
    Right - Checklist time.... I sacrificed the wing-tip nav lights... guess who forgot to mask them.... 🤬 Landing gear disaster averted ✔️ Paintwork stripped ✔️ Plastic polished and minor scuffs resolved ✔️ Prime tomorrow, and hopefully my Friendly Neighbourhood Post Person will deliver some paints so I can have another bash at this thing... and avoid some of the mistakes I made previously.... There is something very cathartic about stripping off paintwork.... Maybe it's the kid in me, the one that used to love making mud-pies.... And after a couple of rounds of this, and wiping back with jay-cloths - we are left with.... I AM going to drag this bloody thing over the finish line, even if it kills me!
  9. Russmeister 101
    I recently found out about Bulldog Models and their offerings (this is not a sales pitch, I promise!!) They came very highly recommended by a friend in the U.S. (same friend that is the authority on WWII USN birds) So I thought I would give them a try.... So - Here is the Hellcat as it currently stands... Undercarriage being built thanks to Mrs. Russmeister and her exceptional finding skills!!! One of the little scissor thingies on the Port oleo was the victim of a sudden and localised shift in the gravity field about my desk, and was subsequently, successfully snatched from the jaws of the carpet monster by my heroic heroine Mrs. Russmeister. Starboard oleo setting up nicely too What was that song by ZZ Top.... At this point, I was rudely interrupted by our Friendly Neighbourhood Post Person delivering this wee beastie... I've since taken off the leg that would extend to the nose... doesn't really seem necessary at the moment. Its modular design allows for infinite (well, almost...) variations and is much more sturdy that my last jig, which was made out of plywood. Hats off to Bulldog Models - Ordered on Friday - delivered Tuesday. Great service!
  10. Russmeister 101
    You're welcome - I don't really see the point of not showing the warts... as you rightly say - this stuff doesn't magically happen overnight (unlike the Calories Fairey-folk that keep stitching up my trousers each night... the little miscreants!) As you rightly allude to, high contrast isn't the way forward with the spatter masks... a lighter and darker shade of the base colour will be ample, and much more thinned (I made the rod for my back using gloss coats... never liked gloss coats... they scare me.. ) The issue with the drying times was my own doing as well... MLT in the mix... makes drying a little longer than it would otherwise be.... As for what I will be building next.... I think I'll spend some time on my shattered psyche and mojo... perhaps a few Roden biplanes to relax....? In an interesting aside - Mrs. Russmeister (aka - SWMBO) found my errant part - so the U/C is being built as we speak... That said - Eduard did get back to me and kindly offered to replace the part missing for free, along with my next order... Gotta love a good sales pitch eh?
  11. Russmeister 101
    Great thinking, but I've been using MLT with Tamiya and Gunze acrylics since my return to the hobby back in 2012 and never once have I had an issue with the paints reacting. I'm afraid that all my issues are down to the Ugly bag of mostly water sat at the end of the scalpel / airbrush - delete as appropos
  12. Russmeister 101
    Damned thing is gonna fight me all the way... The carpet monster just snagged himself (or herself... or itself... whatever....) parts from my undercarriage. Seeing as I don't do "in flight" poses.... (Personal preference, as I don't do figures) this is being boxed indefinitely... I'll contact Eduard and see if I can grab an overtree, if they've any left. PPO'd
  13. Russmeister 101
    Astonishing!!
  14. Russmeister 101
    lol!! I am certain that I will whip her into shape..
  15. Russmeister 101
    Nope.... Didn't work... But I did scratch build the representation of catapult hooks at least.... so that's a win? Scratch built catapult hooks... (Don't tell Mrs Russmeister... I stole one of her jewellery hook pins, for.... experimentation purposes... SOOOOOOO - It's been sanded back to plastic and resprayed.... again.... But, now I've scratched the bloody plastic to the point of being obvious.... So I'm going to strip the whole airframe, polish the plastic properly... re-prime and repaint. Am I going to use the spatter masks... possibly, as I know now where I erred... I do know one thing.... All this is going to be a week or so in the future.... as I'm really REALLY close to seeing how aerodynamically accurate this Eduard kit is..... Here is where she is, pending paint strip and complete body overhaul..... I resprayed with a fairly heavy coat of navy Blue... not realising that the underlying problem hadn't been cured. Realising the underlying issue was still present - I had to resort to using my scalpel to pry off the little pimples of dried paint that the airbrush spattering had caused... Had I realised this before hand... I would have sanded the bloody things sooner!!!! Ah well... lesson learned... AND I remember why I don't like spraying gloss coats... lol. Because you get lots of little pimples to pop off with my scalpel... Do you think TLC UK will give me my own TV show?.... Following a respray.. the scratched plastic is obvious.... So... see you in a week or so... assuming I've both calmed myself down AND got past the crushing embarrassment I'm feeling presently.... TTYNW
  16. Russmeister 101
    Bit of a long update this one.... please bear with me. I'll start with lessons learned.... @dnl42 Hope this help you in some way TAKE YOUR TIME with spatter masks. Make sure you keep consistent distances (where possible) to avoid changes in definition (see port wing with dark lowlight about the mid section for example) DONT USE GLOSS COATS for your high/lowlights... a world of pain can be avoided... especially in paint drying times... ENSURE YOUR AIR PRESSURE IS SUFFICIENT. You'll notice that the highlights colour has spattered in several places... leading to lumps of paint that have had to be sanded back to plastic to remove... Joy! BE SELECTIVE with the areas you use the templates on... Wing leading edges, upper and the same for the tail. (Ventral surfaces receive no where near as much sun bleaching as the dorsal surfaces for instance) IF using multiple colours for creating effects, maybe not the best idea to go for opposite ends of the spectrum... I feel I would have been much better served with a light and medium grey... Here we are at the moment... I'll start with the pictures that show a top-coat over the high/lowlights.... In this picture in particular, you can see the result of holding the mask too close to the surface.... looks awful!!! Now this is what it looks like having let the top coat cure for a day... (I used MLT neat to try to get the paintwork to level off... didn't work! This left the paint very soft so I didn't want to create more work by sanding soft paint) The spatters are clearly visible... THIN YOUR PAINT AND ENSURE SUFFICIENT PSI!!! In other news - I'll now need to scratch build the catapult hooks for the underwings, as my vigorous sanding resulting in blunt force trauma to the parts.... I'll give this a fairly heavy coat of Navy Blue and see where we stand....
  17. Russmeister 101
    Sigh for a Spitfire... Lovely Splendid AMAZING quality build. As others have alluded to... I would not think this was 72nd scale from the photos alone!!! OUTSTANDING! 🏆👏
  18. Russmeister 101
    Thank you. I must admit to being curious myself. My usual technique is to black-base... then use a light grey or tan to colour each panel (I'm certain you're familiar with the technique... there are loads of YT modellers that do this) then mist over the "final colour".... Just looking at it now... looks like it's been salt-weathered to within an inch of being airworthy..... I kinda like it as-is..... 😲 Of course - it WILL get the Navy Blue top-coat.... so I'm itching for this Gunze gloss paint to cure.... it takes forever!!!! 🤬 Thanks for following the build
  19. Russmeister 101
    Right... sulk over Repaired the paint damage, re-primed and re-painted.... happy camper... I've selected Mr. Hobby Colour Aqueous H55 Midnight Blue and H57 Aircraft Grey to be my specular lowlight and highlight respectively. Of course, I'll need to give a top coat of H54 Navy Blue after the fact, but, for now... here where my current project is... I've used Ushi van der Rosten spatter templates in anger for the first time. I selected pattern C - as I felt it most closely represented the scale for tonal variations in the paintwork.
  20. Russmeister 101
    Great start!
  21. Russmeister 101
    I've a very good friend that, like me - loses things... Only he is prepared and a replacement CC is on the way to me as we speak. Gotta love friends, eh? In other news - a swift sanding with p800 then p1800 yields the following results....
  22. Russmeister 101
    The modelling gods are laughing at my folly... I've been meaning to order a replacement colour-cup cap for my H&S Evolution... But with several builds under my belt, and many successful paint jobs... complacency set in.... Surely, I could continue to cheat the gods.... and fate... Today, my A$$ has been royally chomped on.... Still nothing that can't be fixed..... Sigh...... It was all going so well, too..... Spot of Molotow Liquid Chrome for the nav light reflectors Ready for paint.... Shame about the ugly bag of mostly water wielding the airbrush loaded with lacquer paints..... I wafted a little too enthusiastically.... "Pardon me Boy, is this the splatteroony choo-choo?".... It doesn't look too bad on first glance.... then you remember that gravity is a thing..... I'll give it a couple of days to cure, then strip it off and start again.... Ho hum....
  23. Russmeister 101
    Greetings and salutations... I've a question for the hive mind, if you would be so kind as to indulge me... Do you sand paint between coats? It's something that I have started to do, starting with the 2nd primer coat. Would I be right in thinking that "tack cloths" are a thing? I'm not convinced that microfibre cloths are the way to go with removal of the dust left behind following a sanding with a P1500 or greater grit. I look forward to hearing your collective wisdom
  24. Russmeister 101
    Hey @bapowell I'd try this one too as @Dads203 said... In a pinch, you can always de-tack Tamiya tape on the back of your hand (or forearm, as I do) Just so that it's sticky enough to hold in place... Good luck with whatever method yo go with
  25. Russmeister 101
    I stand corrected - Please accept my humble apologies and assurance that I'm not a total misogynist!
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